This is how to properly store your ice cream according to Ben and Jerry's

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: this is how to properly store your ice cream according to Ben and Jerry's

Just when you plan to dig your spoon or ice cream scoop deep into that pint Ben & Jerry’s , you stumble upon a nasty layer of large ice crystals. Bummer! How that happens and, more importantly: how to prevent it, the ice cream gurus of the company tell us themselves.

Gurus? Yes, following the example of the founders, this company still breathes a cozy hippie atmosphere. They sell 150 million pints a year just in America, so they know what they're talking about. This is how the ice crystals (their nice term: freezer burn) form and these are, according to them, the crucial tips that everyone needs to lead their best ice cream life:

What is freezer burn well again
Ice cream evaporates over time. When moisture pulls out of the ice cream and encounters a humid environment in the freezer, it freezes again on top of the ice cream. The ice cream doesn't have to be spoiled; you're just left with a frosty, crunchy, unappetizing layer. You can eat that layer, but you probably don't want to.

Store your ice cream upside down
Especially if you've taken your pint out well in advance and the ice cream has softened, when putting it back in the freezer, melted ice can run down and ruin the consistency (and flavor) of the still hard ice cream. Not okay. Make sure the lid is really tight and place the pint upside down back in the freezer. This way, the lid can catch any liquid ice cream.

Hide it well
It's also important to really hide your ice cream far back in the freezer. All the way at the back, where it might also be safer from grabbing hands of housemates. This way, less warm air gets to your ice cream every time you open the door to grab something else from the freezer. You know: your frozen green beans or something.

Away with the scooper
Not forever, of course, because when your ice cream is soft enough, it's super fun to form nice scoops. But if you want to tackle your ice cream straight from the freezer, you can also carefully cut the whole pack with the ice cream in half with a sharp knife. Then you can easily pull off the cardboard and divide the ice cream into pieces before putting it in a bowl. You can also perfectly cut off that top layer of crystals this way.

Put a lid on it
Whatever you like about your ice cream: being extra well protected from contact with air. With a piece or circle of baking paper or plastic wrap over the ice cream and under the lid, even less air can get in.

Nom nom nom
And the best solution? EAT IT ALL. Don't save and put it back, just hop, finish that whole pint. You can do it. Or you can be nice and share...

Source: Ben & Jerry's