SIZZLING-hot ice cream from an award-winning Anglesey producer is set to make a spicy debut at next month’s Llangollen Food Festival.
Helen Holland of Mon ar Lwy, based in Bodorgan, will trial her new “Hellish Relish” ice cream with festival visitors before adding it to her range of exotic handmade desserts.
A new dairy is being constructed to allow Helen to expand her business and create new, innovative ice cream flavours and luxury desserts on request for weddings and special occasions.
She said: “I was asked for a wedding if I could make chilli jelly ice cream. I needed several goes to get it just right – not too hot, but with a subtle chilli flavour.
“Savoury ice cream flavours tend to be more popular in cities and down in London, but are catching on through chefs like Heston Blumenthal.”
It was while grieving the death of her father that Helen decided to set up her own business making luxury dairy ice cream.
“I wanted to do something positive,” she says. “I’ve always been a bit of a foodie and I love desserts especially.
“I remembered from my childhood an Italian who sold lovely ice cream in Caernarfon and it got me thinking about making my own.”
Mon ar Lwy has had a successful summer, winning three Great Taste Awards for its Devilish Chocolate, Heavenly Hazelnut, and Apple and Rhubarb Crumble ice creams, and a Royal Welsh Gold Award for Perfect Pistachio.
Also among the 100 producers at Hamper Llangollen 2011 – the 14th annual Llangollen Food Festival – is a local brewery selling shampoo and soap made from one of its beers!
Cookery demonstrations come from S4C chef Dudley Newbery, and Graham Tinsley from ITV’s Taste the Nation and chef director of The Castle Hotel in Conwy.
Entry to the festival is £5 but free for 16s. Ale Trail tickets are also £5 and include five halves of real ale from participating hostelries.
