Ladies Choice

While in Philadelphia, we found the greatest ice cream shop - Franklin Fountains. It is full of old fashioned soda fountain charm and Ben Franklin wisdom. The cash register rings up famous Franklin quotes. They make their own ice cream and a multitude, that's right, a multitude of soda flavors. They make egg creams (think ice cream soda without ice cream) and put a salty pretzel in it! We visited the shop twice and one of my favorite treats was an ice cream soda called a Ladies Choice - raspberry soda with peach ice cream.

I decided to recreate the Ladies Choice at home.

Ladies' Choice Ice Cream Soda

1 recipe raspberry syrup
1 quart of peach ice cream
seltzer water
milk

Raspberry Syrup
2 cups raspberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water

In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until berries begin to break down and release their juices.
Then add:
1 1/2 cups cold water

1 tsp lemon juice.

Bring to a boil, then immediately turn down to a simmer . Cook for 15 minutes. Strain into bowl through cheesecloth-lined strainer, pressing on fruit to squeeze out juices.
Then  return the liquid to the pan and add:
1 1/2 cups sugar.
Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
I made David Leibovitz's peach ice cream. The flavor was nice and peachy but it was an ice block.  It believe it was the juice content was too high.

Assemble the Ice Cream Soda:

In a large glass, add a 2 to 3 tablespoons of raspberry syrup to bottom of glass

Fill glass to seltzer or mineral water (I used Pelligrino) half way up, then stir

Add a 2 to 3 scoops of peach ice cream.

Be sure to stir gently once the ice cream is in the seltzer to get that delicious frothy foam.

Franklin's Ladies Choice