Barchette gelato

Meeta's Monthly Mingle Event this month was 'Scream for ice cream'!
What a nice theme. :) So, last Sunday I made a good amount of my favorite ice cream flavor, strawberry, and I tried to make something I never made before, i.e. pistachio ice cream. In the pistachio ice cream, I also added some rum, to give it a different twist. The recipes for the strawberry ice cream and pistachio ice cream are posted in the 'Read more' section.
What I really wanted to do with my ice cream was to assemble some cute and good presentation. So, here is what I did:


Barchette gelato / Ice cream small boats
I was inspired by the traditional 'banana split', but instead of using full size bananas, I took the small bananas from Ecuador. I cut them in half, and then put two (small) scoops of ice cream on them (pistachio and strawberry). Then decorated with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries (in season here now!!! So good!), butter toffee peanuts, and a cookie that I baked for the occasion. The cookie is a traditional 'cialda', which would be on every Italian ice cream, but it's a bit thicker and softer than what you would find in Italy. The recipe for it is similar to the one I used for these previous 'barchette', but instead of shaping the dough as a cup, I rolled it like a cigar right after it came out from the oven. The beauty of this dough is that you can work it while warm, and then it hardens and becomes crisp (it'll become less crisp if you spread it thicker on the baking pan). More details will be given below.
Here is a close up of a barchetta gelato that I decorated also with a touch of Nutella!
Check back on this post for a link to the Monthly Mingle Event roundup!

Gelato alla fragola / Strawberry ice cream
Blend 1 lb strawberries, add 1 cup sugar, 1/2 quart milk, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 2 eggwhites, and put in the ice cream maker. It should be ready in ~20 minutes. Freeze for at least 2 hours and remove from the freezer ~10 min before serving.

Gelato al pistacchio / Pistachio ice cream
Blend 1 cup shelled, roasted pistachios. Add 4 tbsp rum to it. Warm up one liter (~1/2 gallon) milk, add 1/2 cup (to 1 cup, depending on how sweet you like your ice cream) of sugar, 4 egg yolks. Mix till the sugar is dissolved and the egg yolks are well mixed with the milk. Keep on the stove until you see that if you dip a wooden spoon in it, it comes out covered by a thin layer of liquid mixture. At this point, remove from the stove, add the pistachios and 1/2 pint of heavy cream. Let it cool down to room temperature, add 1 eggwhite, stir well, and put in the ice cream maker. It should take ~20 min for it to become ice cream. Keep in the freezer, and take out ~10 min before serving. De-li-cious!

Cialde / Ice cream cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
~1 cup sugar (a bit less)
6 eggwhites
~1 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla powder
Procedure
Whip the butter with the sugar till creamy. Add the eggwhites, the flour and the vanilla. Mix well. Spread this dough on a buttered/floured baking pan, in rectangles (the size depends on which size you want your cookies to be), as thin as you can.
Cook for 5 minutes at 400F, till the edges start to brown. While still warm, roll up like cigars. When cold, the cookies will be crispy.