Folks, are you like me and you love your ice cream, but really hate digging into the frozen solid block, when it has been too long in the freezer?
Yes, putting in the microwave for about 7 seconds loosens it up a bit, but still not enough to scoop easily. Plus you have to be careful not to go over that as you may just turn the whole tub to mush. Eeeeew.
Even worse is when you have a midnight craving for some ice cream and you just have to satisfy it. You tiptoe to the freezer, careful not to wake other people in the house, but when you get your favorite tub out, getting the ice cream out of the bowl feels like you are trying dig into concrete with your bare hands. Sigh, so much for a quick midnight fix.
Digging in with spoons and other cutlery (carving knife, anyone?) usually ends up with the spoon breaking or bending. Bending spoons and straining wrists are no fun, even if its for delicious dessert. Thank Gawd for the boffins who dreamt up the electric ice cream scoop or heated ice cream scoop.
These are mostly spoon-shaped kitchen tools that you use to scoop out ice cream, no matter how solidly frozen it is. They do this by having one or more unique features that help to properly scoop dessert.
These features range from a spring loaded lever as in the Norpro Stainless Steel Scoop, a conductive liquid in the handle like the Zeroll Original Ice Cream Scoop has, a warming element in the handle like the Deni Electric Ice-Cream Scoop or the uniquely shaped scoop of the OXO Good Grips Ice Cream Scoop which allows for really digging into all corners of the ice cream tub.
These all work in their own ways and are liked by people for different reasons, but in this post, we are gonna talk about the best heated ice cream scoop (in my opinion); the Zeroll Original 2-Ounce Zeroll Aluminum Scoop.
You know how older folks say ‘they don’t make them like they used to’, implying that stuff made years ago has much better quality than many of the products today. Well, in this case they are absolutely right. The Zeroll was patented in 1933 and has had very little change to the design since then. Till date, it still ranks top among ice cream scoops, regardless of their more expensive and newer designs. In fact, the Zeroll is so cool that there is one in an art gallery, mind you, that is the Museum of Modern Art.
The Zeroll is basically a scoop with a hollow handle filled with a Freon-type liquid. When you hold the handle, the heat from your hand warms up the liquid and when you tilt the scoop to take some ice cream, the heat is transferred to the bowl of the scoop and warms it enough for you to carve a perfect ball of ice cream every time.
Simple yet really effective. Newer models are available in nonstick Teflon and high-grade aluminum. The Zeroll is available in 6 different scoop sizes.
One thing to note is that it is NOT dishwasher safe and should never be put in one. You should also never run this scoop under hot water of about 140 oC. This causes the liquid in the handle to expand and possibly leak. After rinsing under cold or lukewarm water, dry thoroughly and it is ready to go again.
Save someone the hassle of breaking spoons and straining wrists this Christmas with an ice cream scoop that is really cool, looks very professional yet stylish, it has incredible pedigree and it is available on Amazon for a steal.
Enjoy!!
Photo Credit: plum ice cream
