Half Pint Kitchen is a locally-owned and run small-batch ice cream shop inside the Stockton Farmers Market open every Saturday and Sunday, started in 2010 (the year co-owners Robin & Jim got married!). You can also find our pre-packed ice cream & sorbet pints at Brick Farm Market in Hopewell, NJ on Tuesdays through Sundays! At Half Pint Kitchen we make truly small-batch, hand-crafted ice creams &
sorbets, which means that I (Robin) the co-owner and cook, run my kitchen like a restaurant – cooking the ice cream & sorbets in pots on stovetops, using recipes I wrote with inspiration from French sauce-cookery – each one unique, tailored for the flavor in mind. I "age" our ice cream sauces (we call them "bases") in a very cold refrigerator for 2-5 days, depending on the recipe, to let the flavors meld – so some flavors will pop on the tongue as soon as you take a bite, while others present in the nose as aroma, and still more might linger in the background for a pleasant aftertaste. During our (forever ongoing) research, we found that many ice cream shops, even small-batch boutique shops, run their kitchens more like factories – creating gallons and gallons of "plain base" in pasturizing vats, then "hand-crafting" individual flavors by adding in bits of chocolate, or fruit, or other flavoring, before transferring the now "small-batch" base to ice cream machines and freezing. No doubt, you can still get good ice cream this way – far better than the ice cream that is made by simply pouring a bag or box of "pre-made mix" into an ice cream machine and freezing, like nearly all big ice cream factories (and lots of chain restaurants) do – but there isn't enough oppurtunity for creating different textures, deeper flavors, or really unique ice creams. I've worked at numerous ice cream shops since the age of 14, some great, good, some bad, and worse, so I was dead-set on having these qualities in my products when I started Half Pint Kitchen, and quickly learned that cooking the "base" the way I would make it at home (and then using a super high quality ice cream machine to freeze it better than any home ice cream machine) was the best method to use. I make everything (like waffle cones, old-fashioned hot fudge, mix-ins & toppings) from scratch, with very few exceptions (I have yet to master homemade sprinkles). But, in the end, taste is king, so I hope you'll decide your favorite flavors and ice cream shops for yourself... just make sure to give us a try! Now, here's some technical stuff about our ice creams and sorbets:
All of our dairy is rBHG and rBST Hormone-Free & Antibiotic-Free, pastured, & humanely raised; from Tanner Brother's Dairy in Richboro, PA. When there are egg yolks in our ice creams (which is most of the time), they are from hens that are uncaged and free-nesting, as well as Hormone & Antibiotic-Free, from Rick's Eggs in Kitnersville, PA. Most of our seasonal, local fruits and herbs come from Solebury Orchards, Milk House Farm, Blue Moon Acres, or Gravity Hill Farm. Our sorbets are always 100% Dairy-Free (including the ingredients in ingredients) & Vegan (with the rare exception of honey-sweetened sorbets), because we use a natural stabilizer, the guar bean (referred to usually as guar gum) instead of gelatin or egg whites. Our guar bean powder is grown and ground at a small farm in North Carolina. Our ice creams and sorbets are Gluten-Free, unless they contain a mix-in such as streusel topping (for our Buttermilk Peach Pie ice cream) or cookies. When this is the case, the gluten-containing product will be written in the ice cream's name. When nuts are used, they are written in the ice cream's name as well. While I try to keep nuts from contact with other foods and things in my kitchen, and they aren't an ingredients I work with constantly, they are stocked in my pantry, so if you or a loved one has an allergy that is very, very bad, please take that into account. Also, if you have a truly severe dairy allergy, please understand that while my sorbets are dairy-free, dairy is a staple in my kitchen and, for all I know, it's in the air while I work. That said, I am careful to keep milk and cream from getting into my sorbet bases, and my ice cream machine is cleaned out and sanitized before the sorbets are frozen. If you would like to talk to me about your allergies and how we can work around them, please email anytime. And, finally, if you know of a local, amazing ingredient or artisanal product that you think would go great in, with, or alongside our ice creams and sorbets, email me at [email protected]
P.S. If you read this whole passage, I'd like to reward you with a free cup of ice cream. But don't fib for a freebie – there will be a quiz. ;)
P.P.S. If you read this whole passage, and found a type for me to correct, I'd like to reward you with a pint!
