Nothingcan make a girl feel the way ice cream does – after a bad breakup, during a catch-up sesh with your BFF, when you’re spending some ‘me-time’ watching series on the couch, ice cream never lets us down. We are SO excited to tell you that we have discovered our new favourite – Kristen’s Kick-Ass Ice Cream! After eating about 8 tubs of the delicious dessert, we sat down with Kristen Batzer: owner, artisan and a kick-ass creative.
GLAMOUR: So judging by your accent, you’re not from South Africa right?
Kristen: [Laughs] No, I am actually a recent transplant from New York who moved to Cape Town for love. I visited Cape Town on an around the world adventure and met my husband when I lost my passport and needed to extend my time in South Africa. It was fate. We’re now happily tucked away in sleepy Noordhoek.
GLAMOUR: Have you always had a love for creating yummy treats?
Kristen: Definitely! I’ve always had a passion for home-cooking. Back in the states I worked as a nurse. I spent twelve hour days at the hospital and was exhausted when I got home. Any chance I had, though, I’d be searching for new recipes and scouring my cookbook collection for something exciting and new to create. I’d spend my days off cooking and baking and dreaming up dinner party menus.
GLAMOUR: How did you get into the ‘ice cream business’?
Kristen: Moving to the Cape has been like a windfall for me. The produce is unlike anything I could find in New York – fresh, flavourful, and abundantly inspiring! And what came to mind immediately was ice cream. I could make flavours I’d always wanted and couldn’t find! I started out churning ice cream for my husband and friends as a passion project. This kitchen adventure escalated to an artisanal small batch churnery.
GLAMOUR: Tell us a bit about your unique ice cream?
Kristen: I have a really wide range of flavours – from sophisticated and simple, to playful flavours with homemade mix-ins, to the more exotic and unconventional. I make everything from all natural ingredients, and sparingly use organic extracts when texture demands them. I strongly believe in supporting and utilizing locally sourced, organically sustainable foods and farming. While I feel that sourcing locally is morally responsible, my main motivation is that these ingredients simply taste better, and I make things that I want to eat… And then eat some more… And then think about eating when I’m not eating them!
GLAMOUR: What makes your traditional flavours so much more magical than the kinds we get in stores?
Kristen: I do have a few mainstay flavours like chocolate, caramel and strawberry; but I like to think of them as traditional, with a grownup twist. The strawberry is tinged with buttermilk, the chocolate is made with 70% cocoa nuanced with freshly roasted local coffee beans, and the caramel is dry roasted and infused with Maldon smoked sea salt…
GLAMOUR: And what about the more adventurous flavours?
Kristen: The rest of the menu is ever changing and expanding. Ice cream provides a blank canvas for my inner artist. I draw inspiration from fresh produce plucked straight from the farm, locally produced oils and liquors, and fragrant teas and spices. Years of backpacking to far flung places have curated my palate to be adventurous with my flavour pairings. White truffle ice cream infused with black peppercorn and shaved white chocolate? Why not! Cabernet Sauvignon ice cream with roasted cherries and dark chocolate straccaleto? Sure! Roasted pineapple with paprika? Grapefruit and Campari? Guava with star anise and cinnamon? Figs with burnt caramel and honeycomb? Dark chocolate covered bacon in maple cream? Yes please!
GLAMOUR: We’ve heard you also offer ‘personalised’ orders?
Kristen: I love entertaining and I know how important dessert is! Kristen’s Kick-Ass Ice Cream offers several services for clients who desire a more personalized ice cream order. There is a delivery menu comprised of 14 flavours, with each order churned specifically per client with a 24 hour “churn to scoop” time frame. There is the option of creating your own unique flavour for parties, weddings or birthdays. You can also join the Club of Dreams, where with a 3 month commitment, you are automatically delivered 6 pints of ice cream per month. The monthly delivery includes two pints of traditional flavours, two seasonal produce flavours, and two where I get creative license to go absolutely mad and deliver something out of a Willy Wonka factory. Think bacon… Think cilantro… Think unconventional… Think delicious.
Kristen’s Kick Ass Ice Cream is on offer at the Food Barn Deli in Noordhoek, with a Kick Ass Ice Cream Scoop Shop opening in Noordhoek this summer. Visit kristenskickass.co.za for more info.
Want to learn how to make your own tasty treats? Check out these 4 low-carb desserts, or the easiest chocolate pudding ever!
