Morgenstern's finest ice cream

Morgenstern, the owner and founder of the eponymous ice cream shop in Manhattan, shares his wisdom to help home cooks recreate professional-level scoops in his impassioned debut. He presumes an audience ready to take ice cream seriously: a detailed overview of ingredients and equipment recommends investing in a hand-crank rock salt and ice machine for churning and advises readers on what temperature to keep their freezers. In addition to standard flavors like chocolate and vanilla, Morgenstern serves up dozens of his own creative twists, such as blueberry milk chocolate, coconut espresso, salted caramel pretzel, and honey lavender peach. While a majority of these recipes are eggless ("Their flavor gets in the way of the flavor of my ice cream," Morgenstern explains), eggs do make an appearance in French vanilla, chunky strawberry, and a few other custard-based offerings. Rounding out the collection are frozen desserts including bananas Foster, hot fudge sundaes, and a bubble gum ice cream cake. Morgenstern's tone can be brusque as he provides no-frills instructions (to avoid burns while making caramel, "the best way to be safe is to pay attention to what the fuck you are doing"). While not the most accessible to novices, this is sure to be a hit with true ice cream enthusiasts. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (June)