The Ice Cream Fellow

Cool Ice Cream Art

2011-08-04T08:05:00.001-07:00

Graphic artist Travis Cain sent me a picture of some ice cream art he made. It is for sale at 1xRun..

Here is a picture of it. Pretty cool. And it looks a lot like me!

Check it out, you can buy one at 1xRun. YOu have to act fast because it goes off the market in a few hours!

Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream

2011-06-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus I return. More often than not, you are likely to find me using Twitter. You can see my tweets here or follow me.

The 5th Annual Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social was last weekend, and as you can guess, yours truly was a competitor. This was the toughest year yet. Nationally recognized restaurants like Miller Union and Top Chef Master Hugh Atchinson's 5 & 10were there. Of course, both of them won with virtually identical recipes for corn ice cream with blueberry compote. They both were really good. Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak Atlanta also won for their rhubarb and strawberry ice cream (more rhubarb than strawberry and so refreshing). One amateur also got an award. She won for Lemon Basil Chocolate Chip.

Apparently, I decided not to make all the winning flavors this year. My original ice cream flavor was corn. I was inspired by 5 & 10's corn soup. I couldn't get it right. I also tried to do a caramel corn flavor that didn't work either. The corn flavor was too intense. From talking to both Miller Union and 5 & 10, I picked up some pointers on how to incorporate corn into the ice cream. I will try it again soon and post the recipe.

The other flavor I was considering was lemon verbena chocolate chip. Not quite lemon basil, but close. I happen to have a huge lemon verbena plant in my garden that has yet to be used.

The flavor I chose was Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream. If you have ever had Thai iced tea, then you know why this would make a great ice cream. It tastes like tea, but is served with cream and is sweetened. There is an earthy flavor that cannot compare to traditional tea. It also has some star anise in it. Bonnie Heath took photos of the event for Slow Food Atlanta. She is the owner of that awesome picture of my ice cream at the top of this post. Click this link to find all of the Ice Cream Social pictures as well as Bonnie's other work on her Flickr site.

My recipe is very easy and you will love the flavor. It really is very good, but you have to be able find loose Thai iced tea. You can find Thai tea at an Asian supermarket or online.

I paired this ice cream with salted caramel sauce. This caramel is slightly unusual because of the addition of sour cream. I won't post the recipe because it is poached directly out of the Baked cookbook. It is the recipe for the Chocolate Caramel cake.

Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream:

60 grams of Thai Iced Tea (roughly 10 tablespoons)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 cup of sugar
pinch of salt

Put the cream, milk, and 3/4 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan and heat to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the heat add tea and steep for 10 minutes.

Beat the remaining sugar in a bowl with the egg yolks and whole egg and salt.

Return the tea to the heat and temper the eggs. Then add the eggs into the milk/cream mixture. Stir constantly until the temperature reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. You will not get all of the tea out, but that is okay.

Cool over a water bath to room temperature.

Set aside in the refrigerator overnight.

Freeze in your ice cream machine. Serve with caramel sauce.

I am flavorless

2011-04-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone have an idea for me for this year's ice cream social? My first idea did not fare so well and I do not think it will be usable even if I adjust it.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream, Take 2

2010-07-01T16:10:00.001-07:00

Last time this I made peanut butter and jelly ice cream I used a peanut butter ice cream base and added small jelly sandwiches. As we found out, the peanut butter makes the ice cream very hard. After researching and consulting with some ice cream experts, no one has a good solution for this problem. So how do we capture the flavor PB&J without the excessive hardness?

The answer is quite simple and comes via a suggestion by Mrs. Fellow; namely to make a reverse version of the ice cream - jelly ice cream with peanut butter sandwiches. Our refrigerator was filled with strawberries and raspberries on the verge of being too old. They made the perfect base flavoring for the ice cream.

This recipe is almost identical to my basic strawberry ice cream, but with increased egg content. The eggs may take something away from the fruit, but the debate over Philly style vs. custard will have to wait for another day. Although it is called "jelly" ice cream, it is nothing more than a simple fruit base. When combined with peanut butter, it tastes like jelly. You may choose a different fruit or fruit combination. As with all fruit ice creams, the amount of sugar has to be adjusted for the ripeness of the fruit. You may even want to adjust the quantity of fruit puree based on your tastes and the type of fruit used.

The tasters who have had both versions were unanimous that the peanut butter ice cream based version was better, but everyone who ate this one loved it.

Don't forget, you can now follow me on Twitter! Click here!

For the berry puree:

This recipe probably makes more puree than you will need, but with all living things, the quality depends on the grower, the season, etc. You may need extra puree to get the right taste. The 1.5 cups that I used worked for me, but you may want more (or less) fruit flavor. Mix it any way you want, that is part of the fun of making ice cream, but remember to start with less than you actually need. You can always add more, but you can't take any out.

12 oz fresh raspberries
12 oz fresh strawberries
1/3 cup of sugar

If you are using fresh berries, hull them and halve them (quarter the big ones). Toss them with 1/3 cup of sugar and let them sit for a while. The sugar will bring out the natural sweetness in the berries.

Cook the berries with the lemon juice and a pinch of salt over medium heat stirring frequently. You can do this over lower heat, you have to wait longer, but the berries will not require as much attention. When they reach the consistency of loose preserves they are done.

Puree the berries in a blender then strain to remove the seeds.

Set aside.

For the peanut butter sandwiches

Peanut butter
6 slices of bread

Spread the peanut butter on the bread and create sandwiches.

Using a heavy-bottomed saucepan, frying pan, or baking sheet press firmly to flatten the sandwiches.

Wrap the sandwiches in aluminum foil and freeze for at least one hour.

For the jelly ice cream:

6 Egg yolks
½ cup (or more as needed)
1 1/3 cup of cream
2/3 cup of milk
1/8 tsp. Salt
1 ½ cups of strawberry-raspberry puree
1 tsp. lemon juice

Pour the milk and cream and half of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.

As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the sugar (and salt if using) and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.

Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.

Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the pot from the heat. Strain into a bowl and combine with the fruit puree.

Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.

Freeze in your ice cream machine.

During the freezing process, remove the sandwiches from the freezer, cut into squares no bigger than 0.5 inches by 0.5 inches. You may want to remove the crusts. Add the peanut butter sandwiches during the last minute of freezing.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

2010-07-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

I was really excited when you picked this to be the next recipe. Peanut butter is a very versatile flavor that is easy to make into a bunch of different tasty teats. Chocolate, bananas, marshmallow, granola, honey, and jelly are some of the best add-ins. I was originally going to make a peanut butter ice cream sandwich. Fortunately for you, a dessert I was supposed to make last weekend that never materialized left me with 4 pints of strawberries. So my plan was to make some sort of peanut butter and jelly flavor. Yesterday morning in the shower I was lamenting that I if made the PB&J flavor I wouldn’t be able to make ice cream sandwiches. Then it hit me, why not put the sandwich inside of the ice cream? Mrs. Fellow loved the flavor idea and immediately began directing my effort. So today’s flavor is peanut butter ice cream with jam sandwich pieces. Ben and Jerry would be proud. I am happy to report that this flavor will knock your socks off. You won’t believe that something so mundane as a PB&J can be transformed into this masterpiece.

I made my own strawberry jam for this recipe. Make your own jam with your favorite fruit flavor. Store bought jam will also work, but you do have to thicken it more. Simmer it on the stove to reduce its volume. It should be so thick that you have trouble removing the cooled jam from the container. This helps concentrate the flavors. More importantly, it allows you to really pile on the jam in the sandwiches without it oozing out of the sides during pressing.

As for the bread, plain supermarket white bread is what is best to use. Sunbeam, Pepperidge Farm, and Sara Lee brands are good choices. Avoid bread that is too crusty because it makes it more difficult to press the sandwiches. I recommend leaving a small gap between the jam and the edge of the bread. This will help avoid the sticky mess if the jam oozes out when the sandwich is pressed. I also recommend removing the crusts when cutting the sandwiches into bite sized pieces because jam coverage is not uniform at the edges. Besides, isn’t it mandatory to remove the crusts from your PB&J?

Lastly, I tested this recipe three ways – untoasted bread, toasted bread, no bread. All three were outstanding, but none of the tasters could differentiate between the toasted and untoasted bread versions. The thick jam made a difference. It is nearly chewy when frozen and was a nice textural compliment to the ice cream.

May 1, 2008 UPDATE: After being in my freezer for a few days, this ice cream has become very hard. I don't think I have ever made one that is this difficult to scoop. You may want to thaw it for a few minutes on the counter before serving it.

Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Sandwich Ice Cream:

For the Jam:
4 pints of strawberries
3 cups sugar
1 generous tablespoon lemon juice

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. If any berries are too large, cut them into smaller pieces.
2. Put the berries, sugar, and lemon juice into a saucepan. Stir frequently until the sugar becomes liquid.
3. Simmer this stuff for about 30 minutes. The temperature should eventually get to more than 24o F.
4. Remove from the heat and cool.

This makes about 2.5 cups of super concentrated jam. Extra jam can be frozen or canned.

The sandwiches:
6 slices white bread
Jam

1. If the jam has totally cooled, briefly warm it in the microwave to loosen it a bit; it should be still be thick, but easier to spread.
2. Make sandwiches using generous amounts of jam. Be sure to leave ¼ inch border on the bread.
3. Put the sandwiches in aluminum foil and cover loosely. Using a heavy bottomed skillet or saucepan press the sandwiches to reduce their thickness.
4. Cover tightly and place the sandwiches in the freezer for at least 4 hours.
5. Remove the sandwiches from the freezer and cut off the discard the crusts. Cut the remaining sandwiches into ¼ - ½ inch squares. Return the pieces to the freezer for another hour or two.

For the ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
2 cups cream
6 egg yolks
¾ cup of sugar
½ teaspoon of vanilla
¾ cup peanut butter
1/8 teaspoon of salt (optional)

1. Pour the milk and cream and half of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
2. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the sugar (and salt if using) and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
3. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove them from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. 4. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175F.
6. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla and peanut butter.
7. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
8. Freeze in your ice cream machine. Add sandwich pieces in the last minute of the freezing process. If you opt to skip the bread and instead use just the jam, than create small blobs of jam and put them into the ice cream after it comes out of the ice cream machine. This is when the ice cream is still in its soft serve stage. If it gets too hard, do not worry, you can put some ice cream in a freezer container, put down a layer of jam, then more ice cream, then more jam, then more ice cream. This will create a ripple effect when the ice cream is scooped.

Ice Cream Social 2010

2010-06-17T13:23:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, June 18th is the Fourth Annual Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social. Last year, my Maple Bacon ice cream secured second place. This year, my flavor is even better and more of a crowd pleaser.

Some of the best pastry chefs in Atlanta will be there including the ones from three of best restaurants in Georgia - 5&10, Restaurant Eugene, and Miller Union. Chef Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene has performed on Iron Chef! Here is a list of the competitors I know will be there:

5&10
Buckhead Bottle Bar
Burge Organice Farm
Cacao Atlanta
Canoe
Fresco Pops
Jonathan Hosseini
Leon's Full Service
Lotta Frutta
Miller Union
Murphy's
Restaurant Eugene
Rob McDonald
Rosebud
Shaun's
Watershed

The Social is in the same location as last year - St. Philip's Cathedral Garden at 2744 Peachtree Road in Atlanta, GA from 12:30 to 2:00pm. I think there still may be a few tickets left. Go to this link to buy them, come out and support me in my quest to be the best ice cream maker in Atlanta.

The competition is certainly going to be tough but this fellow is up for the task.

Ice Cream T-shirts

2010-05-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Check out my new friend Matt over at RIPT - http://riptapparel.com. He makes a new t-shirt everyday. Today's shirt is an Eskimo trekking through and ice cream cone village.

Many of you know I am also an MBA student. From a business standpoint, Matt has a great idea for driving traffic to his site and for keeping his customers coming back. Not only through the ever-changing designs, but because of his strategy to reach out to bloggers like me who talk about subjects close to the shirt designs. This is innovation, and as you can tell from my recipes, this fellow loves it!

BTW, I read a couple of Matt's readers' comments. Some of his readers don't like the idea of grape ice cream. I know you rarely see it anywhere. I have been playing with a recipe for it lately. It works, but only when you have the right add-ins. I'll post something on this later. The recipe is super secret for the moment as I am a contestant in the Ice Cream Social again this year. Last year I finished second. This year, I am prepared to win so I can't disclose the recipe in advance.

Follow me on Twitter my user name is IceCreamFellow. I spend a lot more time making comments there than here on the blog.

Update

2010-03-25T17:40:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted anything of significance. I really have not had a lot of time to make ice cream. Nonetheless, I have found a few minutes to make a couple of outstanding desserts.

I entered the Domino's Sugar Baking Contest in Atlanta that benefited the charity Share our Strength. I did not win, the judges were not fans of my Maple Cheesecake. However, I was voted "Crowd Pleaser." Winning the overall amateur competition prize would have been nice, but I am very happy with the results. The attendees picked my cheesecake as the best dessert over every other contestant, including the professionals. I am glad I could make people happy and even happier that I can help out a good cause.

The other baking I did was for a party at a friend's house. The last time I was there, I made the frozen chocolate cherry torte so the bar was set pretty high. I am happy to report I was able to deliver another great dessert. I made the Sweet and Salty cake from Baked One of my friends dubbed it the PMS cake. I won't post the recipe, but I will suggest you buy the book if you like to bake.

The next Slow Food Atlanta ice cream social is around the corner. Anyone who has a good idea please drop me a line at ice.cream.fellow@gmail.com.

Last, but not least, please enjoy these pictures of puppies eating ice cream.

Another Vanilla Caramel Ice Cream

2010-01-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

So, for reasons I won't get into right now, I made two cheesecakes, four caramel sauces, two fruit purees, and two flavored whipped creams last week. After eating six pieces of cheesecake with every possible combination of sauces I settled on what I liked. The problem was what to do with the remaining sauces and fruit purees. Of course I had to turn to ice cream.

This isn't a hard one to make, but it does take a lot of steps. Mix caramel, reduced balsamic vinegar, strawberry puree, and vanilla ice cream and bing bang boom you have a truly great result. Mrs. Fellow's one spoonful turned into a bowl's worth. It perfectly balances the flavors of every component. You can taste each flavor and yet they combine to create something entirely new.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberry-Balsamic-Caramel

Caramel Sauce

13 EGG

CLASSIC

Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Don't bother with white or expensive balsamic vinegars. This is a frozen dessert, the taste will be masked by your tongue. Any supermarket brand will do. I used the one sold at Costco. If you insist putting an expensive balsamic vinegar in the ice cream, go ahead, just skip this step. Real $100+ balsamic vinegars are superior products and do not need the be reduced very much, if at all.

Put the balsamic in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the reduction is so thick that you can run a spoon over the bottom and leave a temporary trail. When it cools it should be like syrup. If it isn’t, heat it again and keep going. You should have less than half a cup.

BE SURE TO DO THIS IN A WELL-VENTILATED AREA. Otherwise, your house may smell like vinegar for a while.

Strawberry Puree:

You may need to adjust the sweetness of the berries, but be careful to minimize the amount of sugar you use. Remember that you will be adding caramel to the puree so the sweetness can get overpowering if you aren't careful. If I were pureeing strawberries for other reasons, I would probably add a bit of lemon juice for acid. This is not necessary here because the reduced vinegar will take care of the acid component.

Put all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until boiling. Simmer until berries are soft (about five minutes).

Put the ingredients of the sauce in a blender and puree. Be careful and hold the lid on tight when blending hot things.

Pour the contents of the blender through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds.

To make the Strawberry-Balsamic Caramel:

Two things will jump out at you about this sauce. First, is that it won't be as thick as caramel, even when refrigerated. Don't worry, it works in the final product. Second, the color is dark. Balsamic does that. Don't worry, it makes a dramatic contrast to the vanilla ice cream.

Mix one cup of the strawberry puree with 3/4 cup of the caramel and 2 tablespoons of the balsamic reduction. You may find this easier to do if the caramel is warm.

Cool (if necessary), then refrigerate until cold.

Putting it all together:

After you make the ice cream, place about 1/3 of the finished product in the container. Spread out a layer of the caramel.

Repeat for the next 2/3 of the ice cream alternating with layers of the caramel.

Put the full container in the freezer for an hour or so to firm everything.

13 Egg Vanilla

2010-01-04T13:49:00.000-08:00

Unlucky thirteen. Actually, thirteen is very lucky for your mouth in this ice cream.

Before we get too far into this let me address one important issue - use of vanilla beans. This fellow is not abandoning his philosophy that vanilla extract is all that is necessary for great vanilla ice cream. If you recall from one of my earliest posts, I talked about the value of vanilla extract and how it is the real flavoring behind nearly every vanilla ice cream you will ever eat. I stand by that statement. There really isn't a need to ever use vanilla beans when making ice cream; however, I had some sitting around, so I put them to work.

This recipe is an adaptation from Ann Amernick's "The Art of Dessert." With the exception of the eggs and flavorings, Ms. Amernick's recipe uses the base that I favor the most - 2 cups of milk and cream and 3/4 cup of sugar. When it comes to eggs, she asks for 225 grams of egg yolks, which she says is 11 - 12 eggs. In order to get there, I needed 13 yolks. I suggest you use the same amount and forget about the scale. There is no reason to really measure to the gram. She is pastry chef and is used to working in metric volumes because baking is science and requires a degree of precision that is not necessary in ice cream. So please use your baker's dozen of egg yolks and enjoy the most unctuous of vanilla ice cream.

Her book is fantastic, Ms. Amernick is certainly an artisan to be admired. I made the complete recipe for the Apple Marmalade Sandwiches with Cranberry Coulis and Vanilla Caramel Ice Cream. The results were well received, although Mrs. Fellow thought it too orangey for her taste. I would make it again in a second. Unfortunately, something about her methodology for making ice cream prevented me from completely following her recipe.

Her recipe calls for the cream and milk to be brought to a boil, then removed from the heat. The eggs are tempered and whisked into the milk and cream. From what I have read and my own experiences, when the milk and cream comes to a boil, the fat separates from the liquid and cannot be reincorporated. The result is bad. So I opted to follow my usual method of heating.

I won't go into the details of this recipe too much. the ingredient list is as follows:

2 cups whole milk
2 cups cream
13 egg yolks
3/4 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

If you read my blog regularly, than you know how to make custard. If not, refer to my vanilla ice cream post. The main difference in the methodology is that the vanilla bean is split and scraped, then added to the milk and cream. Leave the bean in the ice cream until it is strained through the sieve.

Fixing cinnamon ice cream woes

2009-12-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

I want to tell you about a great trick I discovered to resolve the problem with using ground cinnamon in ice cream. I have always had problems with the cinnamon clumping when I added the milk and cream. Previously, I had suggested making a slurry with just enough milk before adding the it to the base. Although it worked, it was not a great solution. This time, I mixed the cinnamon with the sugar that is mixed with the eggs. You do this step before adding the eggs. When the eggs go in, the cinnamon is well distributed and does not clump at all.

Butternut Squash with Cranberry Swirl

2009-12-20T22:31:00.001-08:00

Admittedly, this recipe might be slightly inspired by the Top Chef finale. Still the squash is different and the swirl is all me.

Cranberry and squash are two classic fall flavors and make this recipe taste like it belongs as part of Thanksgiving dinner.

I cheated a bit. Usually, I prefer to do as much from scratch as possible, but I used frozen squash puree. Shame on me, but the result is more than adequate. The butter and brown sugar bring out the sweetness of the squash nicely and adds a bit of a foil for the cranberry sauce which can be quite tart, even frozen.

If you want, sterilize some jars and preserve the cranberry sauce. This recipe makes a lot more than you need and it is delicious on its own.

One more note, I am guessing a bit at the ice cream proportions. I made my usual base using 2 cups milk, 2 cups cream, 3/4c of sugar and 5 eggs. Unfortunately, I did not buy enough squash for this so I only used about 2 1/2 cups of the base with the squash. Everything should work out fine, but be forewarned you may need to adjust this a bit to your taste.

Butternut Squash Ice Cream with Cranberry-Clementine Swirl

Cranberry-Clementine Swirl

16 oz cranberries
1 cup water
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of slat
zest of 1.5 clementines
1 tsp clementine juice

Put the water, sugar, cinnamon, salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

Add the cranberries, zest, juice. Cook for ten minutes until the berries have popped and become very soft.

Cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Butternut Squash Ice Cream:

12oz frozen, pureed butternut squash
1 TBL brown sugar
1/4 ounce unsalted butter
1.25 cups whole milk
1.25 cups cream
3/4 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
Salt to taste

Microwave the squash until hot. Add the butter, brown sugar and salt. Set aside.

Mix the egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Put the cream, milk, and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a saucepan. Heat until bubbles just begin to form around the edges of the liquid.

Add about 1/3 cup of the heated liquid to the eggs slowly while stirring the eggs the entire time.

Add the egg mixture into the liquid. Stir constantly until the temperature exceeds 175 degrees F.

Remove the liquid from the heat, strain into a bowl. Add the squash, stir to incorporate.

At this point, taste and correct the seasoning. When you are satisfied with the flavor, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight to let the flavors mature.

Freeze in your ice cream maker. Swirl in the cranberry-clementine mixture at the very end of the freezing process.

Here is a picture of me

2009-10-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me taking the first bite of a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream at Disney World from earlier this month. It was a great treat considering the abnormally hot and sticky weather.

I am still stumped by the chocolate curry ice cream. I am still soliciting opinions. Truthfully, I have been a little too busy to work on anything too. I will be revisiting my pumpkin ice cream today. Check it out for a fun fall treat.

Blueberry Fig Sauce

2009-09-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

I had a house full of extra fruit on the verge of going bad so I thought it wise to use it up in a sauce. In general, this is a great way to use up old fruit. Cooking it down into a sauce to spoon over or add into a basic sweet cream or vanilla ice cream base is a great way to not waste food. It would certainly make your mother and all those starving kids in Africa very happy to know you didn't waste your fruit.

I always find it difficult to specify the amount of sugar you should use. Your fruit may be more or less sweet than mine. In my case, I used a little more than 1/4 cup of sugar. The figs were ripe, but the blueberries were a bit tart. My only comment is that between the maple syrup and the sweetness of the fruit, you should be careful not to over sweeten the sauce with sugar. You can always taste and add more sugar in after a while if it is not sweet enough. Use extra fine sugar and stir it into the still warm sauce, or rewarm the sauce to incorporate the sugar.

I think this will be great either swirled into or served warm over vanilla ice cream. If you cook it a little longer you can cook down into fresh jam.

Blueberry Fig Sauce:

1 pint fresh blueberries
16 ounces fresh figs (I used both green and mission varieties)
8 ounces maple syrup
Sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt

Depending on their size, halve or quarter the figs.

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until the blueberries are practically melted into nothing.

Remove from the heat, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream Torte

2009-08-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

My almond and cherry mood continues with this extremely time consuming recipe. Trust me this one is worth it. I brought it to a friend's dinner party for six people and five guests had seconds. I am guilty of this overindulgence. Please don't tell my doctor, she would renounce her Hippocratic oath and attempt to kill me because I am on a special diet to lower my cholesterol.

This recipe is derived from my own ice cream recipe, the ice cream torte from Dorrie Greenspan's "Baking," and Very Cherry Sauce from "A Passion for Ice Cream" by Emily Luchetti. So as you can imagine there are a few parts to this. None of them are complicated or difficult to perform, but it takes a lot of time to freeze. Each layer must set before the next one is added. This means at least 30 minutes for each chocolate ganache layer and another 20 (or so) minutes for each ice cream layer. My total freeze time took about 4 hours this does not include the time to make the ice cream mix or the cherries.

The cherries are amazing. You will use them all, but will have left over syrup which should keep for a few weeks. Use this syrup as a drink flavoring, or a dessert sauce.

The ganache has eggs in it. These eggs don't really cook. If you are worried about eating undercooked eggs, than please try to find pasteurized ones.

The recipe below is a good example of the necessary progression you need. I will do my best to show you simultaneous steps.

For the Candied Cherries:

2 pounds of fresh sweet cherries
2.5 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of water
1.5 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp kosher salt

Stem the cherries, but don't pit them.

Put cherries, sugar, and water into a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil.

When the water turns clear, all the sugar has been absorbed. Set a timer for 5 minutes, reduce the heat and simmer the cherries.

Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Spread the cherries out on some foil in a single layer to cool

Put the liquid back into the saucepan with the lemon juice and salt and reduce to 2 cups. It will be very dark and syrupy. Cool the liquid to room temperature. Use an ice bath if you want, but note it will make clean up harder.

When the cherries have cooled, pit them by squeezing out the pits. Then place them in the completely cooled syrup and refrigerate.

For the Cherry Ice Cream:

3/4 of the Candied Cherries
1/4 cup of of the Cherry Syrup
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream

Place the cherries and the syrup in the blender and puree. When you do this, the cherries will retain a lot of the syrup. Don't count that extra syrup as part of the 1/4 cup of required syrup.

Put the milk and cream in a saucepan and heat over medium heat to about 150F, where the milk/cream is hot but not boiling.

While the milk and cream heats, put the yolks in a bowl with the sugar and beat until the sugar is fully incorporated.

When the milk is at temperature, take about 1/3 cup out and temper the eggs. Add the eggs to the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until the temperature is 175F.

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Incorporate the cherry puree, being sure to mix thoroughly. Strain the custard then cool to room temperature. if you are not going to use an ice bath and stir the mixture during cooling, be sure to cover the custard with plastic wrap directly on the surface to avoid forming a skin on the surface. Refrigerate overnight or at least a few hours until cold.

DO NOT FREEZE YET.

For the Ganache:

9 oz 70% bittersweet chocolate
1 3/4 sticks of butter
1/2 cup sugar
8 eggs

To facilitate easier melting cut the butter into chunks and the chocolate into small pieces. Put the pieces in a double boiler and completely melt, stirring occasionally to ensure the ingredients become incorporated. Set the mixture aside to cool for five minutes. PLEASE NOTE: Dorrie Greenspan warns that overheating will cause the chocolate and butter to separate and not be able to reincorporate. So please be careful.

Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture one at a time, ensuring each one is fully incorporated before adding the next one. This mixture will get thick.

Lightly grease an 8 or 8.5 inch springform pan. I used cooking spray. You could use butter, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you use too much, the butter will freeze and attach itself to the torte. No one really likes to eat frozen butter.

Pour one third of the ganache (about 1 1/3 cups) into the bottom of the spring form. Bang the pan on your work surface to remove any bubbles. You may need to use a toothpick to pop some them. Set the pan in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to allow the ganache to set. Place plastic wrap on the surface of the remaining ganache to avoid creating a skin.

Final Assembly:

2 cups slivered or sliced almonds

As the ganache is setting, freeze half of the ice cream according to your ice cream machine's directions.

Toast the nuts and cool them to room temperature. Chop them into small bits.

At this point, wait for the ice cream to finish freezing if the 30 minutes for the ganache has expired. If the ice cream finishes before the 30 minutes for the ganache, put it in the freezer. The ice cream should be the consistency of soft serve so it is easy to spread. If it is too frozen, leave it out to loosen up.

Remove the ganache from the freezer, put down a layer of the nuts. Add the ice cream, smoothing it so the top is as flat as possible. Place this back into the freezer for at least 20 minutes until the ice cream is set.

Remove the pan from the freezer, pour half of the remaining ganache (1 1/3 cups) over the ice cream. Bang on the table again to remove air bubbles. Again you may need a toothpick, but you have to work fast so the ice cream doesn't melt. Put this back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes until set. Put the plastic back over the remaining ganache.

Freeze the remaining custard. Again minding the texture.

While the ice cream is freezing, remove the remaining cherries from the syrup and chop them.

Remove the ganache from the freezer once it has set and the ice cream is at the right texture. Spoon the cherries over the ganache. Include some of the syrup Put the ice cream on top of the cherries. Smooth the surface of the ice cream. Put this into the freezer for at least 20 minutes until it sets.

Feel free to start cleaning up you have a few minutes to spare. If you want, toast some more nuts to put on the top as decoration.

Once the ice cream is set, remove the pan from the freezer, pour over the remaining ganache. Bang out the bubbles then place the pan back into the freezer for at least 30 minutes before serving.

At serving time, unmold the torte, slice and serve. I had no problems removing the pan sides because my friend's freezer was a bit too warm. If you have problems, Dorrie Greenspan suggests using either a warm towel or a brief application of a hair dryer to the sides of the mold.

Fig Almond Ice Cream

2009-08-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

This was a last minute recipe I developed for a dessert for my friends who are babysitting tomorrow night. The honey and almonds are classic flavor affinities to figs.

This recipe is a little different than the base I usually use. There is no milk. Also, the ratio of eggs to cream is very high. When you take it out of the refrigerator before freezing this will be the consistency of a tight pudding. This means you will have the most outstanding texture when frozen.

I want to warn you that the recipe I made is slightly different than the one posted below. I included almond extract, which was a bit overpowering. You would be better off using 1/2 cup of chopped toasted almonds.

Pick the ripest figs you can find because once picked, figs do not continue to ripen.

Fig Almond Ice Cream

1.25 pounds fresh figs
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup honey
6 egg yolks
scant teaspoon orange zest
2 cups cream
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rough chopped toasted almonds

Clean the figs, slice them into quarters.

Place the figs and water in a sauce pan (the larger, the better so the figs are in one layer). Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, cover and cook the figs for 10 minutes. By this time, the figs should be very soft.

Add the orange zest and honey to the figs. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors incorporate.

Transfer the figs and their liquid to a blender. Puree until smooth. Leave it in the blender.

Heat the cream in a small sauce pan until tiny bubbles form at the edges (about 150 degrees F). You may have to give it a stir or two to make sure that a skin doesn't develop on the surface. Whatever you do, DO NOT let the cream boil. If it does, you will have to throw it out and start over again. The fat will separate and not reincorporate no matter how hard you might try.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the sugar.

When the cream comes to temperature, use a large cooking spoon to take a few spoonfuls to temper the eggs. Then, add the eggs to the cream. Stir until your thermometer reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the custard from the heat, and add it to the blender with the figs. Add the lemon juice and blend until everything is incorporated. Be careful here - you are blending hot ingredients. If you try to blend too quickly, the blender will lose its top and the contents will spill out all over the room. I suggest holding the top firmly and pulsing on low for about 10 pulses before trying to gradually increase the blender speed.

Put pour the contents into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard. Cool to room temperature, chill overnight, then freeze according to your ice cream machine's instructions.

Like chocolate candy?

2009-08-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

Please go check out my new friend Anne at Chamberlain's Chocolate Factory in Norcross, GA. Today I sampled the dark chocolate with Marcona Almonds. It was great.

Cherry Sorbet

2009-08-13T20:17:00.000-07:00

My two year old is almost three. She is now able to make requests for food that need to be taken seriously. For the past four days she has been on my case to make cherry sorbet. The poor girl is allergic to milk and nuts so she can't have ice cream. It's just plain cruel.

Here is a very basic cherry sorbet recipe. I would think you could gussy it up in a ton of ways. For example - add 1/2 teaspoon of almond or vanilla extract. Maybe mixing in some kirsch or chocolate liqueur. You can also try spices like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. I found some pomegranate molasses in the fridge, it might be a good substitute for some of the sugar or the corn syrup. Play around and have some fun.

I am in a cherry mood. I will be making a cherry ice cream soon to incorporate into an ice cream cake. The recipe will hopefully be up by the end of the weekend, but no promises.

Cherry Sorbet

About 3/8 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 pound cherries
Juice of 1/2 small lime

Combine the water, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. remove from the heat.

Pit the cherries and put them in a blender

Put the fruit, lime juice, sugar water into a blender and blend for 30 seconds or so, until everything is liquid.

Chill over night then freeze in your ice cream machine the next day.

Some great Ice Cream Links

2009-08-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have updated my links including a real newbie to the scene - The Ice Cream Geek. He has just started but it looks like a promising new site.

BTW, I have a couple of weeks break between semesters ahead of me and I think there is at least one recipe in me, plus the one I still owe you for the ice cream cake.

Happy Ice Cream Month

2009-07-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Ice Cream Month.

Slate has a brief, yet great article about commercial ice creams that use terms like "slow-churned." You can check it out here.

Hopefully next week I will have enough time to work on an ice cream idea for my friend Ivey's birthday. She has approved my idea of red velvet ice cream cake with butter pecan and cream cheese ice cream. I have a great red velvet cake recipe that I am dying to try. Of course I will share the recipe with you.

Ice Cream Social

2009-06-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

We had a great time competing at the third annual Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social last weekend. I made some new friends and got to eat some wonderful ice creams. If there is one thing that really struck me about the event it is that ice cream is a blank canvas. It really is a great medium to experiment and be creative.

There were some amazing ice creams there, some were great, some were good ideas who needed some help with execution, and some suffered from the 95 degree temperatures. It may have been hot, but can you think of a more perfect time to eat 20+ different ice creams?

My Maple Ice Cream with Candied Bacon came in second place. The winner made strawberry ice cream with white balsamic and pepper. It was good. I tried to get the winner to guest blog the recipe, but she balked. She is launching a company making ice cream and ice cream cakes and understandably doesn't want to share. I'm going to try and work on her for something else.

Other than mine, my favorite was from Jake's Ice Cream. It is easy to understand why he is the reigning king of ice cream in Atlanta. He made Peach Cobbler Buttermilk Ice Cream. It tasted like summer. Unfortunately he fell victim to the heat and the ice cream didn't hold up well, otherwise I would have expected him to win.

Here is a highlight of some of the other flavors:

Mulatto chili chocolate - This was great. I had experimented with spicy ice creams before. My problem was that they really confuse the brain. As Dan??? the ice cream maker told me, spicy ice cream works, but only in a small quantity as a component of a bigger dessert. You would never think about sitting down to watch TV and eat a big bowl of the stuff. He is absolutely right.

Honeysuckle - one bite and I was 6 year old kid again, picking apart flowers to get to the nectar. Unfortunately, the texture didn't hold up. I would think this one would be better as a sorbet. Still, I applaud the time and effort needed to make this one. Each flower has only a tiny drop of liquid. This was a herculean effort to get enough flavor for two gallons of finished product.

Low fat lemon ice cream - made with nonfat milk and olive oil. Light, clean and refreshing. This stuff was so creamy you would never know it was low fat. They did it through molecular gastronomy. It was the biggest surprise. I am trying to get these guys to share the recipe.

Malted banana - really great. Banana ice cream is tricky if you use fresh bananas because they turn brown. They did a great job keeping the color right and it was very tasty.

Basil ice cream with roasted peaches - this one had a great flavor, unfortunately the chef did not bring any dry ice. As a result, it was roasted peaches in a cold cream of basil soup. Tasty for sure, but heat was her enemy. I may make a variation on this one.

I will repost the Maple bacon recipe in a few days.

Now is the time for me to start planning for next year. I have some ideas, but I want to hear from you. Please drop me a note here in the comments section, or at ice.cream.fellow@gmail.com.

Richard Blais just tweeted this recipe

2009-06-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Cole Slaw Sorbet:

1 quart cabbage juice
2 cups mayo
2 oz glucose
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon jalapeño (diced or minced I presume)
1 tablespoon black pepper

If I have translated and extrapolated this properly from Twitter, put everything into a blender and mix throughly.
Freeze in your ice cream machine, or if you are chef Blais, hit it with some pellet sized dry ice in your stand mixer.

Maple and Bacon Ice Cream

2009-06-20T15:14:00.001-07:00

I took this one down before the Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social in case any of my competition pays attention to my blog. In case you haven't heard, this recipe won second place. The winning entry was strawberry ice cream with white balsamic and pepper. It was good. I asked the winner to share her recipe with us and she said balked. Not surprising. She is in the process of launching a company selling ice cream and ice cream cakes.

Including my recipe, there were four bacon ice creams at the contest. The other three suffered from varying degrees of two problems. First, the bacon pieces were too big. As one of the other contestants mentioned to me, cold fat is horrible to eat. Bacon pieces need to be really small or else you end up with this chewy piece of frozen bacon flavored gum. Blech. The second problem was the saltiness. Sure, the sweet salty combination is a classic in desserts. Who doesn't love salted caramel or a chocolate covered pretzel? But still, ice cream is really a sweet treat first. It is possible for ice cream to take on a more savory approach, such as my Cilantro Lime Ice Cream, but this is really the exception rather than the rule. The other bacon ice creams at the contest were desserts but much too salty. You should end with a pleasant, sweet flavor on your tongue, not one of overpowering saltiness. And this is why my ice cream was so successful.

In my recipe, the bacon's smokiness comes through with just a hint of the saltiness. I do this in two ways. First, candy the bacon to make it sweeter. Baking in the oven with the brown sugar lacquers the bacon with a dark, sweet coating that makes it more complimentary to the ice cream by masking the saltiness without affecting the smoky flavor. Second, cutting the bacon into tiny, bacon bit sized pieces. As I mentioned earlier, frozen fat is not crowd pleaser. The small pieces make it much more palatable.

I really feel that this maple bacon ice cream is the best flavor I have made. If you are a bacon lover, than you are already on board with this. If you are not, than you don't know what you are missing, but this flavor is still worth eating. Everyone who ate this one raved about it. It really tastes like frozen breakfast.

Mrs. Fellow thought the reason I came in second and not first was the meat. Some people are squeamish about bacon in ice cream. If that is the case, or if you are a vegetarian, omit the bacon and you will still have the best maple ice cream you have ever tasted.

The key to success is the maple syrup which must be pure. You don't want anything with added corn syrup or artificial flavors because it has to be reduced until it is practically sugar. I reduced the maple syrup to remove almost all of the liquid. What you are left with is a difficult to handle slag of maple sugar. This very important step concentrates the maple flavor so don't cheat by not cooking it down all the way. The less water, the more concentrated the flavor. In fact, the cooking process can even caramelize the maple syrup a bit and give it almost a coffee-like flavor accent. Maple syrup is tricky to work with, it wants to boil up and bubble over. I used a 5 quart stock pot to reduce this recipe. If it cools too much before you add it to the milk and cream, you two options push through it with a strong spoon because it will reincorporate into the milk when it gets warm again, or microwave it VERY BRIEFLY to make it mostly a liquid again.

Making the bacon is easy, I used Dave Lebovitz's recipe. I won't post it, so follow the link if you need it (don't worry, it has new window poppy goodness so you won't lose your page here). The important thing is that you use regular cut bacon and not thick cut. This helps keep it crispy. I used the center cut stuff with more meat and lower fat. Also, make sure the bacon is cut and completely cool before adding it to the ice cream.

So, without further ado, here is one of the best ice creams you will ever make and eat. This stuff rocks. You owe it to yourself to work through weirdness and try it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Maple Ice Cream with Bacon

1.5 cups of the best maple syrup you can afford
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
2.5 cups of cream
1.75 cups of milk
At least six strips of caramelized bacon, cut into bacon bit sized pieces.

Cook the maple syrup down to 1/2 its volume about 3/4 of a cup. This stuff tends to boil over so take it slow and low. Check it frequently and do your best to keep it away from a full boil.

In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cream, and syrup reduction. Stir to dissolve the maple syrup reduction. Bring to a bare simmer. Depending on the temperature when it is added, you may find that the syrup reduction solidifies. Do not fear. When you get above 160 degrees F, it will easily mix into the liquid.

While the milk and cream are heating, mix the yolks with the salt. Beat well.

Temper the eggs with the dairy mixture by slowly adding about 1/3 of the liquid(in two or three additions). Remember to whisk constantly during the tempering process. Add the eggs mixture to the remaining milk mixture. Stir constantly until the the temperature reaches 175F.

Cool to room temperature overnight. Freeze in your ice cream machine and add the caramelized bacon at the last minute or so of freezing.

Follow me on Twitter!

2009-05-28T10:29:00.001-07:00

Click here for my profile. I will tweet when new recipes are posted and when ice cream is in the news. Occasionally I will tweet interesting food articles.

For those of us who use Twitter regularly, it is annoying when someone you follow tweets too much. So I promise not to overdo it.

http://twitter.com/IceCreamFellow

Mascarpone Ice Cream

2009-05-28T10:25:00.001-07:00

If you recall my recipe for goat cheese ice cream, the result was very good and very strong. I liked that sharp flavor but it didn't pair well with anything. That problem is solved with this recipe. Mascarpone is milder, but has pronounced flavor that merges well into many desserts.

When I made the Salad du Printemps from the French Laundry Cookbook it called for mascarpone sorbet. I reinvented it as ice cream with fantastic results. This is a bit richer than the mascarpone sorbet, because of the eggs. What can I say? I really like custard bases.

If you recall from the goat cheese ice cream, you should whisk in the cheese when the custard is still warm. It helps to better infuse the cheese into the base. Mascarpone, on the other hand is much softer so you can do it when the base is room temperature. Nevertheless, this fellow suggests doing it while the ice cream base is warm because it definitely makes it easier.

If you don't have time to make the French Laundry recipe (which I will not provide), you will do just great by pairing it with chocolate almond cookies.

Mascarpone Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
3/4 cup of sugar
2 cups milk
1.5 cups cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mascarpone
pinch of salt

If you follow my recipes you should really know the drill by now, but for you newbies:

Heat the cream and milk with half of the sugar.

While the liquid is heating, beat the yolks with the remaining sugar and salt.

When the milk.cream mixture is at a very bare simmer, remove about 1/3 cup of it and take the pan off the heat. Slowly add the 1/3 cup liquid to the eggs to temper them. I like to do this in 3 small additions of the liquid. The slower the eggs heat, the better the final product (I don't know the science behind this, but try scrambling an egg over high heat and over low and compare the results. The low heat egg is much more appealing).

Pour the tempered eggs into the saucepan with the milk.cream, put the pan back on the heat. Cook stirring constantly until a thermometer reaches 175 F.

Pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve. Cool to room temperature then chill over night.

Freeze in your ice cream maker.

Strawberry-Tarragon Sorbet

2009-05-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

We had a dinner party last weekend and Mrs. Fellow went all out. The menu was huge:

Shrimp and corn chowder
Watermelon and feta salad with Serrano Chile dressing
STRAWBERRY AND TARRAGON SORBET
Roasted leg of lamb, lyonaise pommes anna, roasted asparagus
Salad du Printemps (from the French Laundry Cookbook) - Candied fennel, rhubarb confit, mascarpone ice cream, and oranges.

I made this sorbet for the palate cleanser between the salad and main courses. It is adapted from The Sweet Life, by Kate Zuckerman. People frequently refer to sorbets as refreshing. If that is what you want, than this one won't disappoint. My daughter loves this stuff she is eating her way through the leftovers with enthusiasm.

The texture and look are very creamy despite the lack of dairy. I think you will like this one. Strong berry flavor matched with a perceptible licorice taste.

Some tips:

You can use less than perfect berries because they macerate for a while. Just increase the maceration time if they are too tart.

If you still find the final product to be too tart, feel free to add more sugar. However, because the mixture will be cooler and not easily rewarmed, you may want to try superfine sugar. Its smaller crystal size makes it easier for the sorbet to absorb without extra heat.

Strawberry - Tarragon Sorbet

2.5 pounds of ripe strawberries
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
2 TBL corn syrup
1 ounce fresh tarragon (left whole on the stem)

Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut them in half. If the berries are not perfectly ripe, macerate them with the sugar for 10 - 15 minutes to get them nicely juicy.

Put the water, berries, and corn syrup into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer until the berries get very soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the tarragon, simmer for one more minute. Then turn off the heat and steep for 5 minutes.

Remove the tarragon. Puree the berries (I used a stick blender, but you can transfer to a regular blender).

Pass the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

Cool to room temperature then chill overnight.

Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Coming soon

2009-05-20T06:45:00.001-07:00

Three recipes will be posted soon - Mascarpone ice cream, strawberry-tarragon sorbet, and something using bacon!

Goat Cheese Ice Cream

2009-04-17T08:05:00.001-07:00

Once again, the recipes are getting fewer and farther between. This blog is the victim of my busy schedule. Graduate school is kicking my behind and I am barely able to manage my regular day to day life.

A few weeks ago, I made some goat cheese ice cream. Mrs. Fellow loves the goat cheese. She loves the ice cream. So why not put them together? I did, and what I got was delicious. 20 people tasted it, and all 20 loved it.

The ice cream was tangier than expected. I thought the cold would dull the flavor more. Although it works for dessert, it isn't very sweet. This causes a problem when trying to match it with other flavors.

When I made this a couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Fellow had purchased a box of clementines that were sitting idle. I think she likes the idea of clementines more than the application. Anyway, I decided to make a clementine gelee, which was delicious. But it didn't work with the goat cheese flavor. Likewise for my strawberry gelee. I liked the combination with chocolate, but Mrs. Fellow did not.

Anyway, here is the recipe. Let me know if you find a good food pairing for it.

Goat Cheese Ice Cream:

1.5 cups of goat milk
2/3 cup sugar
8 ounces goat cheese (the soft one sold in logs)
6 egg yolks
1 whole egg

Break up the goat cheese in a bowl big enough to accommodate it and the goat's milk. This is messy business, but will make the incorporation of the cheese easier.

Mix the egg yolks, whole egg with 1/3 cup of sugar. Beat thoroughly.

Heat the milk and the 1/3 cup of the sugar to a bare simmer.

Temper the egg yolks with the warm goats milk. Do this by slowly adding about 1/3 of a cup of the milk while stirring the eggs.

Add the egg mixture into the goat milk pot. Cook, stirring constantly until the thermometer reaches a temperature of 175 degrees F.

Strain the mixture into the bowl with the goat cheese. Mix thoroughly until all the goat cheese is incorporated.

Cool to room temperature (you can use an ice bath to speed up the process).

Coffee Ice Cream

2009-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

I know it has taken a very long time for me to get my next recipe out. I have had more than a few complaints. My idea for a recipe failed miserably. That means its back to the drawing board. The flavor was based on coffee ice cream. It didn't work but I made enough ice cream to experiment with a couple of ideas. Luckily this one came out better than I could have imagined.

The coffee ice cream recipe is directly lifted from Dave Lebovitz's book called "The Perfect Scoop," so I will not post it. Buy his book, he has some great recipes. My addition is this "cookie." Use Nabisco Famous Wafers for this. There is no subsititution. One box should make just enough crumbs. You won't find them in the cookie aisle because they are almost always with the chocolate syrup and hot fudge in the ice cream aisle.

Chocolate Almond Cookie:

1.5 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
1 cup of blanched almonds, toasted
1/3 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of butter, melted

Crush the cookies, sugar, and almonds in a food processor until they are a finely chopped. Put the contents in a mixing bowl.

Add the melted butter mix together with the crumbs until it is fully incorporated.

Spread the mixture into a single 1/4 inch layer on a a baking sheet.

Using a ramikin or small prep bowl, press on the cookie to pack it tight. This will allow it to bake and form into a hard solid mass.

Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Remove and let completely cool.

Break the cookie into bite sized pieces and incorporate into the ice cream during the last minuted of freezing time.

National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

2009-01-19T07:02:00.000-08:00

Again, I am not a very good blogger. I am the process of moving and I have not yet set up my kitchen and one of my computers died. Shame on me. In the meantime I have had to subside on Ben and Jerry's. Although I will share with you that the Fellows had one of the best frozen dessert experiences in a long time at a restaurant in Atlanta called Aja. The dessert consisted of coconut sorbet, lemongrass sorbet and strawberry gelee was served to us in a young coconut. Absolutely outstanding. I want to track down the creator of this masterpiece and have him or her guest blog for us.

The first Saturday in February is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. This year, it will be on Feb. 7th. Mark your calendars and plan for it. I am going to have a bowl of banana ice cream in my cereal to honor the late Mr. Robbins (of Baskin-Robins). It was his breakfast of choice.

Life gets in the way again

2009-01-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

There seems to be no good time for me post. I was really hoping to catch up over the holidays while school was out. Instead, I bought a house and simultaneously got pneumonia. New recipes are forthcoming.

The National Ice Cream Retailers had their annual convention and gave out the following accolades:

Vanilla Ice Cream: Blue Ribbons
Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, Shelby Township, MI (Vanilla, Vanilla Bean & French Vanilla)
Capannari Ice Cream, Mt. Prospect, IL
Diamond Star Ventures, Inc. dba Classics Frozen Custard (Frozen Custard), Ruidoso, NM
Gifford’s Dairy Inc., Skowhegan, ME
Karen’s Kreamery, Surprise, AZ
MaggieMoo’s International, Norcross, GA
Smith Dairy, Orrville, OH
Sno Top Ltd., Manlius, NY

Vanilla Ice Cream: Red Ribbons
Anderson’s Frozen Custard, Williamsville, NY
Corn Hill Creamery, Rochester, NY
Chocolate Shopppe Ice Cream (Old Fashioned Vanilla), Madison, WI

Vanilla Ice Cream: White Ribbons
Avondale Dairy Bar, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Smith Dairy Products Co., Orrville, OH (Organic Vanilla Bean), Orrville, OH

Strawberry Ice Cream: Blue Ribbons
Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, Madison, WI
Gifford’s Dairy Inc., Skowhegan, ME
Karen’s Kreamery, Surprise, AZ
Smith Dairy Products Co., Orrville, OH

Strawberry Ice Cream: Red Ribbons
Anderson’s Frozen Custard, Williamsville, NY
Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, Shelby Township, MI
Avondale Dairy Bar, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Double Dip, Lebanon, OH
MaggieMoo’s International, Norcross, GA

Strawberry Ice Cream: White Ribbon
Corn Hill Creamery, Rochester, NY

If you happen to live near any of these shops please check them out. If you get a chance drop me line and let me know if they really are as good as the judges said they were.

Acai Blueberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Granola

2008-12-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, acai berry is not my favorite flavor. Unlike most other berries it is far from sweet. In fact to me it tastes a lot like liquid cardboard. So when my Brazilian friend gave me a bunch of frozen acai berry juice I was less than thrilled. If you don't know much about acai, here is the link to the wiki.

After talking to her and doing some research I found that there is an incredible lack of acai berry ice cream. You can find sorbet and sherbet easily, but no ice cream. So I set out to mimic the famous Rio Bowl -- vanilla yogurt, acai berry and granola. Adding the blueberry and chocolate was to help my poor palate.

The end result had a slight textural problem. It was a bit gritty, but not especially so. Maybe it would do better as frozen yogurt. My only guess is that this comes from the fruit itself. Perhaps if I had reduced the juice more the problem would go away. Of course, it could be the nature of the fruit. Like pineapple, it is possible that it contains something that doesn't react well with dairy when cooked. I am going to have to do more experimentation. This may be why we don't see it on the market in ice cream form very often.

Another problem was the color. Acai berry is a very deep purple. When added to dairy it turns the mixture an extremely unappetizing shade of grey. I had to break down and add red food coloring to make it purple again. The Fellow likes to be as natural as possible and hates using artificial ingredients. I implore you to find a natural food coloring as opposed to the artificial one available in most supermarkets.

As for the taste, this fellow found it to be as good as acai berry can be. I liked it just fine. It is easy to taste all the components in this ice cream and the acai berry isn't too strong. Although, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend also liked it, none of the tasters thought this was one my best efforts. Mrs. Fellow downright hated it. She said it tasted like "frozen nursing home." Ouch!

So I warn you now, acai berry can be a polarizing taste. Not everyone will love it. If you are into it already or want to try one of the most interesting new foods with potentially huge healing powers than give this one a go.

Acai and Blueberry Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Granola

200 GRAMS of acai juice (sorry about the grams it seems strange to measure liquid in grams but that was what was on the package because it was frozen. Shame on me for not converting to to volume.)
1 cup blueberries
1.5 cups milk
1.5 cups cream
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Red food coloring
4.5 ounces semisweet chocolate
4 ounces granola

Put the blueberries and acai berry juice into a small sauce pan and cook until the berries are really soft. Puree. You will need a half of a cup of puree.

You should know this next part pretty well by now. Mix the yolks and whole egg with about 1/2 of the sugar, set aside. Heat the milk and cream until it is slightly steaming. Temper the eggs with the dairy, than add the eggs back into the dairy pot. Stir constantly until the mixture reaches 175 degrees F. Strain through a fine sieve.

Add the vanilla and half of a cup of the acai/blueberry puree. Stir in thoroughly. Taste and adjust to your liking. The color will be grey. Add the red food coloring until you find a color you like. Cool, and then chill in your refrigerator for at least four hours or overnight.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Once melted, remove the chocolate from the heat and ass the granola. Mix thoroughly, then spread onto a piece of parchment or silpat to cool. Break up and large chunks into smaller pieces.

Freeze in your ice cream machine. Add the granola during the last minute.

Where have you been?

2008-12-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

Life can be so inconvenient sometimes. Between finals, working, and buying a house I have not had the time I would like to spend with you. Very shortly I will hopefully have a new ice cream flavor to post -- acai berry with chocolate covered granola. In the meantime, the best thing I have to share to with you is my mini-review of Chef Richard Blaise's new restaurant FLIP.

FLIP is a burger boutique. The burgers are inventive. It had only been open four days when we went for lunch. The usual opening week glitches were present but none were insurmountable and don't warrant mentioning in detail.

The real star for ice cream lovers are the shakes. At $7 each they aren't cheap. When my sister-in-law's boyfriend saw the prices he was shocked. I was instantly reminded of the dinner scene in Pulp Fiction between Uma Thurman and John Travolta where they discuss the $5 shake. And oh yes, these bad boys are worth the price!

We had two shakes -- nutella with burnt marshmallows and Krispy Kreme. Although the Nutella one could have used a bit more Nutella flavor it was quite possibly the best chocolate shake this fellow has ever had. The marshmallows were a great addition. By far, the Krispy Kreme one was table's favorite . It tasted exactly like Krispy Kreme donuts. Words can't even begin to describe how good it was. If you like shakes and you like donuts, you will love this one.

We had a minute to talk to Chef Blais and he gave us the best news. His foie gras milkshake does make occasional appearances on the menu. This is the best shake ever. If you have the chance to try it, get one because you will never look at shakes the same way again.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

2008-11-06T22:44:00.001-08:00

Happy fall! Here is a recipe for pumpkin-ginger ice cream with spiced pumpkin seeds. I developed this recipe with some help from my new friend Michelle at whatscookingblog.com. She runs a company dedicated to teaching kids how to cook. The above picture was taken by Michelle. She used trader Joe's brand canned pumpkin. My version was the traditional orange color. Michelle made some modifications to my recipe. Check it out at her blog.

As an ice cream ingredient, pumpkin can be tricky. It contains a high amount of water. The secret is to extract some of it before adding it to the ice cream. I used a method from Cooks Illustrated recipe for pumpkin pie. Line a rimmed baking sheet with three layers of paper towels. Then spread the pumpkin across the towels in a thin layer. Place another three layers of paper towels on top of the pumpkin then press down with your hand. You will see the paper towels turn orange as the water is absorbed. When you are finished, remove the top layers of towels. Scrape the pumpkin off of the bottom layers.

Due to my hectic schedule I cheated this recipe a bit by using Libby's brand canned pumpkin and raw pepitos from Trader Joe's, but you really should do this from scratch. Be sure to buy pie pumpkins as opposed to the really large jack-o-lantern pumpkins found in most supermarkets. Cut the pumpkin, clean out the seeds and bake it or microwave it (with some water so it steams) until it is cooked. Scrape it out, then press out the excess water and you are good to go. Treat the raw pumpkin seeds the same as the peptios.

Pumpkin-Ginger Ice Cream with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds:

For the seeds:

1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds or pepitos
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon dark brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 2 minutes, turn the sheet 180 degrees and bake for 2 more minutes. The seeds should begin to pop. Remove the seeds and cool them to room temperature.

Mix the white sugar, cinnamon, cloves and allspice in a bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the water, brown sugar, and butter. Heat over medium heat until all ingredients are incorporated. Add the cooled seeds. Stir so that the seeds are completely covered, there should be almost no liquid left in the saucepan after the seeds are mixed in.

Mix the wet seeds in the bowl with the sugar mixture. Toss so everything is well coated.

Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet to cool until room temperature. Wrap the seeds in an airtight container once cool.

For the ice cream:

1.5 cups milk
1.5 cups heavy cream
7 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
15 oz canned or fresh pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line a rimmed baking sheet with three layers of paper towels. Spread the pumpkin across the towels in a thin layer. Place another three layers of paper towels on top of the pumpkin and press down with your hands. You will see the paper towels turn orange as the water is absorbed. When you are finished, remove the top layers of towels. Scrape the pumpkin off of the bottom layers. You won't get all of the water, but the towels should be completely orange and wet.

Put the milk and cream and 1/2 cup of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.

As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks and whole egg into a bowl with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, powdered ginger, and salt and beat until the ingredients are incorporated.

Once the milk/cream mixture is slightly simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.

Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove the cooked custard pot from the heat. Strain through a sieve into a large bowl.

Stir in the pumpkin and the vanilla. A whisk works well for this.

Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill overnight or at least 4 hours.

Freeze in your ice cream machine. Add the seeds during the last minute of freezing.

Roselani Ice Cream

2008-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

My new friend Cathy Nobriga Kim at Roselani Ice Cream on the island of Maui has a great story. Her company has been in the business of making ice cream for 76 years. They are available in only in Hawaii and have developed loyal customers that demand their product throughout the USA. Unfortunately, shipping ice cream from Hawaii is very expensive, but it doesn’t stop people from as far away as Wisconsin and New York from calling and pleading to get her ice cream. As Cathy described it for me, “people look for my ice cream because it brings back wonderful memories from their time on the Islands.”

Cathy is also a breast cancer survivor. She created a flavor, Aloha Cherry Truffle, specifically to raise money for breast cancer. Seeing as how this is breast cancer month, I thought it is a perfect time to share her story.

What makes this so great is that her flavor development and usage was a community event. In making it a reality, she worked with the Maui Medical Center Foundation and the Maui Community College Culinary Program. In fact, the latter now produces the truffle for her ice cream.

17 food service establishments used her ice cream as the main ingredient for a creative dessert event called the “A.C.T. Sweet Now to Beat Breast Cancer” campaign. The restaurants created imaginative dessert preparations and donated portions of or all the proceeds to a fund specifically created through the foundation to raise community awareness about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. The program was so successful that Cathy is now offering the flavor in cartons for retail. Here is a picture of the carton, as designed by award winning designer Sadene Ota:

One of the hot trends found in big business today is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It is about understanding that corporations are also forces with the power to positively affect change for the better in their local communities. All companies engage in charity because it makes good business sense and it feels good, but this is just step one of the process. In the future companies will probably have to align themselves with communities in which they do business. Some of this is happening now. One example is what Nestle did when it opened a plant in India. Another example is Starbucks, who pioneered fair trade for coffee growers. Donating funds to a museum and the local soup kitchen are worthy causes, but citizens of the world are demanding more active roles for corporations on larger scales.

It is great to know that this is trickling down to smaller companies. Roselani is ahead of the curve. Not only is Cathy helping to fund breast cancer research; she is providing an excellent educational experience too!

An entire community joined together to use ice cream to do good for the world. Is there anything ice cream can’t do?

I did the TV Show!

2008-10-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

It went well. The whole thing took a couple of hours. I really like the host, Gary Unger. His idea is great. I can't wait to see the final result. I'll let you know when it is going to air.

The show is about creativity and I had to show some at the last second. Gary had asked for me to bring some samples of my ice cream. I chose the Peanut Butter with Jam Sandwiches and the Chocolate with Blueberry Port Wine Swirl. Unfortunately, I took my eye off the blueberry reduction and it got too hot. The result was the sugar went to the hard crack phase and I was left with a pan full of blueberry port wine lollipop. So I improvised at the last minute. Below is the recipe for tequila chipotle raisins which I used as an add-in to the chocolate ice cream. Spicy ice cream is confusing to the brain so it is important not to overdue the heat. Between bites you feel the chipotle at the back of your throat, but it isn't overpowering.

2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons of tequila
1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup of raisins (I measured 80 grams, which is about 1/4 cup)

1. Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for two minutes until a syrup is formed.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit until it reaches room temperature.
Add to chocolate ice cream after mixing.

One more thing to note. I had leftover bases for both the chocolate and the peanut butter. I was going to layer them in a terrine and show you a really pretty picture. Instead, I remembered I had a lot of dry ice left over from my transport to the TV shoot so I decided to try Chef Blaise's dry ice freezing method in my Kitchen Aid mixer. I mixed the two bases together in the mixing bowl and threw in about a pound of the dry ice which I had crushed to small pieces. The ice cream froze in less than a minute. Its texture was perfect. Give it a try some time, just be careful not to eat the dry ice. It is very cold.

I am going to be on TV

2008-10-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

On Monday I record a segment for TV about creativity. I am very excited, but they do not provide a make up artist. The Fellow desperately needs someone to help powder his shaved head.

I am going to bring a couple of samples of my work. The flavors I am picking are Mango-Lime with Gingered Carrots and Peanut Butter and Jelly.

In the spirit of Halloween a pumpkin recipe will be coming soon.

I just made a new friend, Cathy Nobriga Kim at Roselani Ice Cream in Hawaii. She has a great story that I will share with you soon...

Apple Cider Caramel Ice Cream

2008-10-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

I have made some great recipes from the book The Sweet Life, by Kate Zuckerman, the pastry chef at Chanterelle in NYC. Her recipes are usually a bit complicated, but they don’t seem especially difficult for me. The flavors are always amazing. The next recipe is an adaptation of her Apple Cider and Caramel Ice Cream. I added bourbon because I thought it would be a great complimentary flavor, and I was right. Sorry, but the digital camera is still not replaced. Pictures will return soon.

I have to note a few things about this recipe.

• You might notice a bit of similarity to Chef Blais’s recipe – Reduced liquid, lots of eggs. I am beginning to think that I have to revisit my basic ratio of eggs to dairy. The texture is much better than my way.

• I didn’t like it out of the machine. It was sour and lacked sweetness which is odd considering that ¾ cup of sugar was used to make the caramel. After it sat for a couple of days, I retasted it and it was much better.

• The texture is out of this world great. The finished product is so soft and creamy because she uses 8 egg yolks and one whole egg.

• You can’t really taste the bourbon in the final product, but it helps mellow the sourness of the cider.

Apple Cider and Caramel Ice Cream:

5 cups of fresh apple cider, reduced to about 1.5 cups
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar
1/3 cup water
1.5 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
8 egg yolks
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 tbl of bourbon

1. Use my caramel technique from this post. This time, use the 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of water, and the pinch of cream of tartar. DO NOT ADD THE CREAM YET!!!!

2. When the caramel is finished, return the pan to medium high heat add the cider until smooth. Then add the cream and milk. Heat the whole mixture up until it is at a bare simmer.

3. Whisk together the egg, egg yolks, and salt.

4. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cider mixture, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of cider mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cider pot.

5. Heat to 175 degrees F.

6. Remove from the heat, strain, add the bourbon, cool, and chill. Then freeze.

Guest Blogger -- Richard Blais on Sweet Tea Ice Cream

2008-09-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

This week's recipe for Sweet Tea Ice Cream comes courtesy of fellow Atlantan and guest blogger, Richard Blais. I have been a huge fan of Chef Blais's food from the first bite of the first meal I ever had from him. It was an amuse bouche on Valentine's Day, 2004 of caramel, asparagus and Parmesan cheese. It may sound strange, but trust me it was delicious and began my mouth's love affair with his food. Chef Blais now has his own company called Trail-Blais which does everything from creative development to public speaking.

A couple of comments about his recipe:
1. If you saw Chef Blais on Top Chef, then you know that he known for his integration of molecular gastronomy and traditional techniques. Locust bean gum is one of those industrial ingredients that can be hard to locate. You can find it at Tierra Spice Company.

2. Because the ice cream is frozen with dry ice, you should not use a ice cream machine. Instead, use a electric stand mixer (like the ones available from Kitchen Aid) with a whisk attachment. The point is to stir the ice cream as it freezes to help control ice crystal formation and let the dry ice do the freezing. I have not made this recipe, but I will try it and report back.

But enough from the Fellow, without further ado, here is Chef Blais's recipe and discussion:

SWEET TEA ICE CREAM from Richard Blais

I’d have to say that sweet tea ice cream has been one of those things we take with us from project to project. Especially being based in the South, we just really love what this recipe brings to the table. It’s mildly creative, I mean, I haven’t seen it anywhere else. It respects tradition, and finally, well, it just makes so much sense.

The birth of sweet tea ice cream, and maybe that sounds a little too serious, is a bit grey in clarity. It was definitely brought to the table by Jeff Sigler who was my pastry chef at Element, as an accompaniment to a lemon based dessert. I’d say it was the thought of lemon, what works well with it, the fact that featuring tea and regional items was something we did frequently ( at BLAIS, we often served a sweet tea amuse in 2 temperatures, and with capsules filled with dehydrated honey ), and Jeff’s spark that brought it to the original menu.

I love that it respects traditional refreshment, but shows it in a new way. And flavorwise I love that it isn’t too sweet at all, an issue I have with sweet tea in general. I also love, that as you look at the simple ingredients, you realize that certainly milk and tea are commonly combined.

The added show piece of freezing the ice cream with dry ice makes the dish even that more snarky, and well, Blaisian. I mean, dry-iced-tea?

SWEET TEA ICE CREAM
Ingredients
3 quarts reduced to 1 pint -- sweet tea right from the fridge
Heavy cream -- 1 quart
Egg yolks -- 7 each
Locust bean gum -- 1 % of the weight of the cream base
Dry ice -- a pound or 2

Method:
1. Reduce the tea to thick syrup and cool
2. Warm the cream and tea syrup, then temper in the whipped egg yolks
3. Hydrate the gum in a touch of water, then mix in the cream egg mixture
4. Test for sweetness, and if necessary melt some more sugar into the base
5. Pour cooled ice cream base in the mixer with a whisk attachment
6. Gently drop in crushed small pellets of dry ice into the mixer as it spins on half speed
7. When the base is frozen to your likeness, serve freeze for later.

NOTE: Dry ice is not meant to be eaten on its own. And it’s important that the ice is crushed small enough to dissolve as it’s cooling the fridge. Having the ice cream sit over night will dissolve the dry ice. However, eating it straight from the mixture may leave it carbonated!!!

Come for the ice cream, stay for the revolution!

2008-09-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Check this out. These guys drive around New York City luring people with free ice cream and literature of their extreme left ideas.

The ICF maintains no political affiliations and likes to think that good comes from having many different schools of thought, but he wonders about the need for ice cream to disseminate their information. Is their message so radical that without the hook of free ice cream no one would listen? If that is the case, then perhaps they should take a close look at their beliefs. Ice cream is a perk, not a tool for societal change.

It has been too long

2008-09-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of recipes as of late. My latest concoction, although tasty, did not work out as well as I would have liked. I have mentioned before that Baby Fellow is allergic to milk. In my quest to make a treat that she could enjoy, I spent the last couple of weeks working on popsicles with limited success. The closest I came was the last batch of plum-orange. First off, it tasted exactly like apricots. Second, my proportion of fruit to water and sugar was off. Rather than end up with a hard, icy fruit pop, I got soft sorbet-like texture. It is still good enough to share, it just isn't what I had hoped. Maybe you can make something out of it.

Baby Fellow enjoyed them very much. I think her exact words were "yummy yummy!" Here is a picture of her and her popsicle:

Plum-Orange Popsicles

10 - 12 ounces of plums, peeled and pitted
One medium to large navel orange, zested and sectioned, membranes removed
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar

1. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Add the plums, orange, and zest into a saucepan. Return to a boil then reduce the temperature to simmer the fruit. Cook, stirring frequently, until the plums become very soft.
3. Puree the mixture.
4. Cool to room temp, then chill for four hours or until everything is cold.
5. Pour the mixture into popsicle molds or Dixie cups (if you do this, you need to add sticks during the freezing process.
6. Freeze until frozen solid.

Frozen Cherry Cokes

2008-09-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

This is a dessert consisting of layers of cherry ice cream and coca-cola sorbet. And yes, it tastes just like a cherry coke, only better because it is ice cream. I apologize for the lack of a picture. My digital camera is behaving badly. I have half a mind to take a hammer to it.

Originally, I tried to adapt a recipe for root beer sorbet that I found on the Internet. It was a strange recipe using gelatin and corn syrup. The end result was a granita. It was too hard and therefore wouldn't work when combined with the ice cream. After some experimentation, I determined that the trick to making the sorbet is to cook the coke down to nothing. The end result has the right texture. When tasted alone, you may not think the sorbet has enough coke flavor, but do not fear it works perfectly in the final product.

The cherry ice cream is a variant of the previous recipe I posted a while back. In the original recipe, it annoyed me to no end that I had to supplement the cherry flavor with concentrated cherry juice. So I changed the recipe a bit. By reducing the amounts of milk and cream and using more in-season cherries the flavor worked out. My measurement by weight for the cherries is taken post-pitting. So be sure to have plenty on hand.

Lastly, I am not including the recipe for the brownies I made, but I had made some cinnamon-chipotle brownies earlier in the week that were very spicy. Surprisingly, the ice cream and the brownies worked pretty well together. This fellow suggests you make a batch of your favorite brownies and serve them alongside or make ice cream sandwiches.

Here is the sheet:

Coca-Cola Sorbet:

2 cans of coca-cola
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1. Pour the coke saucepan. Turn the heat on high, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

2. Simmer the coke until it reduces to 1/3 of its volume.

3. Stir in the corn syrup

4. Chill in the refrigerator until cold. Then freeze in your ice cream machine.

Cherry Ice Cream:

1 lb. pitted cherries
1 tsp lemon juice
1 ¼ cups cream
1 ¼ cups whole milk
½ cup sugar + 35g to sweeten the fruit
3 egg yolks

1. Place cherries in a sauce pan, turn heat to medium low and slowly cook them for about 15 minutes. The cherries will get hot and break down a little. Puree them. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Use some extra sugar to make the fruit a bit sweeter if necessary. Set aside.

2. Combine, milk, cream, ¼ cup of the sugar in another saucepan and bring to a bare simmer.

3. While the cream/milk is heating, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until it is incorporated.

4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.

5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Add the cherry puree.

7. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

9. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.

10. Freeze in your ice cream.

11. Layer the ice cream with the sorbet, starting and ending with the ice cream, making a total of 5 layers. Freeze the container overnight to ripen it. When you scoop it the next day, you will have cherry ice cream with a coke ripple.
An alternative presentation is to make a terrine by lining a bread pan with plastic wrap. Layer the ice cream and sorbet then cover and freeze. The next day, use the plastic wrap to unmold the terrine and cut it into slices.

Chocolate Ice Cream with Caramel and Spiced Peanuts

2008-08-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

By now all of the voters must be anxious to see the recipe and hear all about my adventures with making it. And by adventures, I do mean it was a crazy ride. Four batches of caramel, three batches of nuts, and two different chocolate bases later I finally achieved a fantastic result.

This is the best chocolate base I have ever made. It is so chocolaty and creamy you won't believe you could make something this decadent at home. I used Callebaut bittersweet as the chocolate. I wanted a strong flavor to offset the nuts. Here is the worksheet:

Caramel... well... is caramel. As I mentioned I have had a bit of a problem with it. The final version I made was a too dark, but the flavor was good so I decided to use it. You may not be able to see it in the ice cream very well, but it is there and it is a great addition. Although, I did not do it this time, I like to swirl in some butter as the caramel is half-way cooled to room temperature. It really adds a great dimension to the flavor. If you want to use this option, make the caramel as I prescribe below, then add four tablespoons of butter one at a time once the caramel has cooled about half-way to room-temperature. Make sure that each tablespoon is fully incorporated before adding the next. This works best when the butter has warmed to room temperature. Do not add melted butter or add the butter when the caramel is too hot. You want to emulsify the butter as opposed to melting it into the caramel.

The nuts were the worst part for me. Whatever I might have told you in the past about skinning peanuts being easy, well I take it back. It isn't hard, but it is time consuming and I actually had to blanch the peanuts a second time because not all the skins were coming off easily. Please, I implore you to find raw, skinned nuts. You will thank me for it later.
If you have never had Chinese five spice powder before, you are in for a treat. This ubiquitous Chinese seasoning consists of star anise, anise seed, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. Five spice powder is usually a savory ingredient, but it does show up occasionally in dessert.

Tips for success:

1. Make the caramel and the nuts first. They must be no warmer than room temperature before adding them to the final product. Obviously you do not want to melt your freshly made ice cream.
2. Careful with the caramel. It can be tricky. Remember to pull it off when you get to a medium amber color. Keep a close eye on the pan because if it gets too dark, you'll have to start over. Also, the cream tends to sputter and can flare up when it is added. Do yourself a favor and wear protective clothing. Long sleeves or good mid-arm length oven mitts will work well.
3. I suggest you line the baking sheet with foil when making the nuts. Because the pan contents are added with the water some of the spice mixture will inevitably stick to the pan. Using foil makes cleanup a breeze.

For the Caramel:

The method for this is from Alton Brown. You can always trust that he has done a great job researching how to make things successfully. Unfortunately, only you can judge the color. Be careful to pull it off the heat and swiftly add the cream. You want to cool the sugar quickly or else it will keep cooking.

2 cups sugar
½ cup water
1 ½ cups cream, warmed to at least room temperature, but never boiled.

1. Put the sugar and the water in a sauce pan. Combine over medium heat until the sugar has incorporated into the water. You may stir a little during this phase to make sure the sugar and water are evenly combined. But don't go overboard with the stirring.
2. Turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil.
3. Cover for 2 minutes.
4. Remove the cover and watch closely for the next three minutes. When the sugar becomes medium amber in color remove from the heat.
5. Add the cream carefully so as not to burn yourself. See the tips for success above for recommendations.

For the Nuts:

When you taste the finished nuts before they go into the ice cream, you may think I am crazy. You won't necessarily like them. Younger Sister-in-law Fellow said "at first they taste bad, but then the flavor becomes delicious." This is hardly a good quality. I think food should taste good from the start. In fact, I was so disappointed with them, that I considered scrapping the recipe and apologizing to you for a failure. Only once they are in the final product with the chocolate and the caramel do they really shine. This recipe makes too many nuts. In fact, I have so many left over and so much caramel, I am contemplating making some homemade candy bars. The finished nuts have only the slightest hint of heat. If you like them spicier, increase the amount of cayenne pepper.

1 pound raw peanuts, blanched and skinned.
2 teaspoons 5 spice powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon of salt (I actually used three turns of my salt grinder)

1. Preheat the oven to 275 F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Place the water in a saucepan big enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the salt and spices; bring to a boil for 15 - 20 seconds.
3. Turn off the heat, add the peanuts, and mix well.
4. Dump in the pan contents (water included) onto the baking sheet. Spread the nuts into a single layer.
5. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Periodically check on the peanuts. Move them around so they brown evenly. Depending on your oven, you may want to rotate the baking sheet too.
6. Remove the nuts from the oven when they are roasted to your satisfaction. Remember they will not necessarily be hard when you remove them, but they will be when they are cooled. The golden rule for nuts is that when you can smell them, they are done. Be careful here because you will smell the spices before the peanuts are finished.

For the Chocolate Ice Cream:

1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz bittersweet chocolate cut into chunks (for the base)

1. Combine the cream, milk, and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a saucepan and heat to a bare simmer stirring occasionally.
2. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture turns pale yellow.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat.
5. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
6. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Remove the pot from the heat. And add the chocolate. Stir until the contents are completely melted. If you are having problems getting the chocolate to melt, you may return the pot to the heat very briefly.
8. Stir in the vanilla extract
9. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
10. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
11. The next day, freeze the custard in your ice cream machine. During the last minute of the freezing process add the peanuts.
12. Put about one third of the ice cream in a container. Spread a layer of caramel on top of it. Put down another third of the ice cream, then another layer of caramel. Finally finish with the ice cream. When you scoop the finished product you will see the swirls or caramel.

Where Caramel Goes to Die

2008-08-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Sadly, I have ruined two more batches of caramel. This experience has taught me something very valuable that was not given in any of the 10 caramel recipes I consulted. The cream must be room temperature before you incorporate it into the boiling sugar. Otherwise, the cream will cool the liquid too quickly and you'll get a lumpy and still wet mess.

The other thing I learned was that there is an easy way to clean the pan when this happens. Fill it with water and bring it to a boil. Then pour the contents out and all the sugar stuck to the pan will be gone.

I blame this all on Baby Fellow. She may be very cute, but she is also very dangerous. She gave Mrs. Fellow and I a nasty case of the Ebola. It has me off my "A-game". Please forgive the lack of recipe this week. I'll have something for you soon after I recover. In the meantime, if you crave ice cream recipes, check out the Food Network. It is brain freeze week or something like that. It is also a good time to check out a couple of my friends like Ice Cream Ireland and Dessert First.

Update

2008-08-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

I burned my caramel. Usually this is not a big deal because but I used up all of my sugar. I feel awful for making such a rookie mistake. Caramel should be easy, but I second guessed myself and let it stay on the heat for a couple of seconds too long. The color went from the medium-amber it should have been to dark amber. It tasted bitter and was too close in color to the chocolate ice cream.

Hang tight the recipe is coming soon.

Poll Runoff

2008-08-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

The poll was a tie between Cherry Coke Ice Cream and Chocolate Caramal with Spiced Peanuts. So I changed the poll to remove the less popular choices. You have until sunday to break the tie. I have great ideas for both.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

2008-07-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 2 is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, this week’s recipe is cinnamon ice cream sandwiches with oatmeal chocolate raisin cookies. Sorry I am not much of a photographer. I do okay with most things, but ice cream melts so quickly it can be hard to get the shot right before too much damage is done.

You already know the cinnamon ice cream recipe, so I won’t bother to repeat it. You can find it here. The original recipe was posted prior to the worksheet implementation so I feel obligated to provide it for you now.

As for the cookies, they are an adaptation of the Oatmeal Cookies with Golden Raisins and Milk Chocolate Chips from The Sweet Life, by Kate Zuckerman. I added a hint of cinnamon to the cookie to accent the ice cream and changed the process for sizing them to make making ice cream sandwiches easier. Her hint, which holds true for my version is to not use quick cooking oats. I wouldn’t go so far as to use the steel cut McCann’s brand either. It won’t cook fast enough and there isn’t enough liquid to soften that style of oats either. Your best bet is the Quaker Oats can.

Some notes on assembly of the sandwiches -- You are best making the cookie far enough ahead and cooling it completely before freezing the ice cream. You don't want a warm cookie melting your ice cream during assembly. Also, you are best to apply the ice cream right out of your ice cream machine when it is still soft. Be careful not go too far to the edge because once the second cookie is put on top, it will push the soft ice cream down and out the sides some.

Oatmeal Cookies with Golden Raisins and Milk Chocolate Chips:

1 ½ cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 ounces butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 whole eggs, room temperature
1 egg white, room temperature
3 cups uncooked oatmeal
8 ounces milk chocolate, chips, or chopped bar
1 cup golden raisins (about 5 ½ ounces)

1. Heat an oven to 350F
2. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to incorporate. Set aside.
3. Cut the butter into rough chunks. Cream in a stand mixer (use the paddle attachment) on medium speed for a minute or so.
4. Add the sugar; beat on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl at least once.
5. Add the dark brown sugar. Beat for 4 more minutes. Scrape down the bowl as necessary.
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, at low speed. Beat until batter looks glossy and smooth.
7. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and oats then roughly incorporate by hand. It will take about 10 + turns. Return the bowl to the mixer and mix on low for 60 – 90 seconds until everything is well combined and nothing looks dry.
8. Add the chocolate and raisins. Beat for a minute or two on low speed to fully incorporate.
9. Line two baking pans with greased (I use butter) aluminum foil, parchment paper, or silicon mats. Spread half of the batter onto each sheet. Make sure that batter stays about 2 inches away from every edge of the baking pan. The cookies will spread you want to make sure they have somewhere to go. Don’t worry this batter is very stiff and holds its shape well when you spreading it into the pan.
10. Bake for 12-15 minutes. The cookies are done when the edges are crisp and brown and a cake tester comes out clean from the middle.
Let the cookies cool completely before removing them from their pans.
11. To make the ice cream sandwiches:
12. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place the first cookie on the foil, top side down.
13. Spread the ice cream on the cookie in an even layer about 1 inch thick. Place the next cookie on top of the ice cream, top side up. Place the assembly in the freezer to harden for a few hours.
14. If you want, trim the edges to get everything even and remove the hardest parts of the cookies. Cut into shapes or bars.

The Poll is Back

2008-07-27T14:00:00.001-07:00

I know what I want to do this week and maybe next, but I have too many flavors to think about again. Please help me prioritize them by voting on my poll.

Dean and Deluca is offering 9 pints of Jeni's Ice Cream for $100. If you order from Jeni's website it is cheaper. They definitely have some interesting flavors. Has anyone tried it?

Gazpacho with Cilantro Lime Ice Cream

2008-07-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned the other day, at least one wholesaler of avocados (Grande Produce) has voluntarily recalled their products due to salmonella. When I called Grande today to inquire about the scope of the recall, I was told that there were (or will be) other recalls of avocados that were farmed in the same area. Apparently, there are 15 or so importers/growers in that region with potentially unsafe products. So I had to scramble to find a new recipe for you. I strongly urge you to take great care when selecting avocados from the market.

I had been looking forward to the combination of gazpacho and ice cream. Bruce Weinstein has a recipe for gazpacho with avocado ice cream in his book The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. I really liked the idea of a more savory ice cream as component of a main meal. Who made the rule that ice cream is only a sweet treat?

For those of you who don’t know, Mrs. Fellow is a trained chef with two culinary degrees. Although she is now a Wall Street tycoon, I still get the benefit of having a well trained chef cook my dinner every night. This is great for my mouth and horrible for my belt line. So naturally, upon receiving a great recipe from Mrs. Fellow-in-law, my wife instantly rewrote it to suit her needs. I was given very little direction about how to approach this ice cream other than the instruction that I must be able to compliment cilantro and that it should be savory. Well, as savory as ice cream can get.

Lime and cilantro are great combination. Don’t let the amount of sugar in this recipe fool you. 1/3 of a cup is plenty to keep things in balance and provide a light sweetness. When it is warm, the custard is very sweet and taste of the lime is overwhelming. Once frozen the cilantro flavor is fully exposed and although you can taste the sweetness, it is not even close to the center of attention.

Here is the worksheet for this ice cream:

The soup is rather spicy. It is excellent on its own, but the ice cream tempers the heat nicely and gives a soothing creaminess to the dish. This gazpacho is left fairly chunky. It certainly isn’t as glamorous to look at, but the texture is more satisfying. Serve this with a salad and a nice piece of fish for a great and easy weeknight meal. What do you do with the leftover ice cream? Eat it. Although it works its magic with the soup, it is good on its own. The flavor is surprisingly light and refreshing.

Cilantro – Lime Ice Cream

1 cup packed cilantro (leaves and stems are ok)
¾ cup whole milk
Grated zest from two limes
1/3 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks
¾ cup cream
Up to 2 grams of salt

1. Put 4 cups of water on the stove and bring to a boil. In the meantime, wash the cilantro well (it is a very dirty vegetable). Once the water is at a full boil, toss in the cilantro. After 10 seconds remove the cilantro and soak it in cold water. This will help to preserve the color. Squeeze out as much of the excess water as possible.
2. Put the cilantro, lime zest, and milk in a blender. Blend on high for about 45 seconds to really break down the cilantro. The milk should turn bright green.
3. In a small saucepan, put the cream, cilantro infused milk, and about half of the sugar and heat to a bare simmer.
4. As the saucepan heats, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and salt.
5. Once the saucepan contents come to temperature, remove the pan from the heat and slowly temper the eggs by adding in small quantities of the hot milk/cream to the eggs. Put all the contents back into the saucepan and return the pan to the heat.
6. Cook, stirring constantly until a candy thermometer reads 175 degrees F.
7. Remove the pan from the stove, strain through a fine mesh sieve (optional). Cool, chill, than freeze.

Gazpacho
About 2 pounds fresh tomatoes, rough chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
½ small sweet onion, rough chopped
2 red bell peppers, rough chopped
1 pound cucumbers
3 ½ ounces of lime juice
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 cup corn kernels
3 tablespoons, chopped cilantro

1. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, 1 pepper, ½ pound of cucumber in a food processor and puree until smooth
2. Stir in the lime juice and cayenne pepper
3. Add the remaining vegetables, season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with a scoop of Cilantro-Lime Ice Cream.

Update July 22, 2008

2008-07-22T12:39:00.001-07:00

I am a bit annoyed. I had an idea for ice cream to share with you for this week, but the FDA has escalated its war against salsa by striking out at avocados. I had purchased four beautiful Mexican avocados from the local ethnic grocer. The salmonella tainted products are peppers and avocados from Mexico. Hence, it is back to the drawing board. Hopefully, I will be able to find ripe avocados from California (I don't care for the Floridian ones). If not, something will come to me soon.

The next door neighbor fellow is 7 months pregnant and miserable in the heat. To help her out, I am in the process of making her the Roasted Banana Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. I won't post the recipe because it is the same as his. At the moment it is in the refrigerator cooling. My initial taste indicated that it is very sweet and may be better mixed with a bit of cinnamon and/or maple syrup. I'll tell you more about the final product soon.

Incidentally, July 23 is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day. Please check out my earlier post on the subject and enjoy a bowlful to celebrate the amazing versatility of the world's most popular flavor.

Lemongrass Ice Cream

2008-07-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

I guess I have been on a bit of an Asian theme lately. This will be my second recipe in a row using Far East ingredients. I still have a few more in store for you eventually. Reader Lauren asked for an Olympic themed ice cream. So I have been bouncing around ideas. I am also strangely attracted to another David Lebovitz recipe for orange and Szechwan pepper corn ice cream. Lastly, I found this great blog dedicated to Japanese ice cream flavors. There aren’t very many recipes, but if you look through the posts, there are some opportunities for interesting flavor profiles. The wasabi ice cream has caught my attention.

Lemongrass is a great ingredient. It tastes like lemons, but more subtle and without the tartness. The outer layers are very tough. I suggest peeling off just a few layers to get past the really dirty stuff. You have to trim it to lengths of less than 8 inches for use. Be sure to remove enough of the bottom that you see all the layers and not just one or two. Be sure your knife is sharp. This stuff can be tough to cut and dull knives can easily lead to injuries.

This recipe is based on the one in Frozen Desserts by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, but I borrowed some of the technique from Pichet Ong’s book, The Sweet Spot. He has a recipe for Lemongrass Frozen Yogurt that looks really good. I found it as I was looking for a dessert for our Asian dinner on Friday night.

Why use the technique from Chef Ong? The finer the mince on the lemongrass, the more it will impart its flavor into the milk. This happens for two reasons. First, during processing, the oils are released into the milk during the mincing process. Second, the remaining flavor is picked up during steeping. The smaller the pieces, the more surface area of the lemon grass is exposed to the milk.

I like the blueberries in the ice cream. Lemongrass flavor by itself gets a bit dull after a few bites. The blueberries work well and keep my tongue from getting bored. Of course, that is just me. You may be different. Also, I like the dried wild blueberries from Trader Joe's. They are always sweet and have more flavor than any other dried blueberry I have ever tasted. They are very small, but their flavor can easily overwhelm. I suggest using them judiciously.

Here is the worksheet:

Lemongrass Ice Cream:

1 cup whole milk
1 cup cream
½ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cup of chopped fresh lemongrass (100 grams by weight)
Dried blueberries (optional)

1. Peel the outer two or three leaves of the lemongrass. Chop off and discard the ends so the remaining stalks are around 8 inches in length. Bruise the stalks by crushing them with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. You can also use the flat side of a chef’s knife and your hand to do this (just as if you were crushing a garlic clove).
2. Place the milk and the lemongrass in a blender and blend to finely chop the lemongrass.
3. Place the milk, lemongrass, and cream into a saucepan. Bring to a bare simmer. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to steep for 30 minutes so the lemongrass can infuse its flavor with the dairy products.
4. Return the saucepan to the heat after 30 minutes steeping time and as it reheats, quickly mix the eggs and sugar.
5. You know the drill from here. Once the dairy is warm again, slowly add some of it to the eggs. Once the eggs are tempered, add them to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly until the thermometer reads 175 degrees F.
6. Remove the custard from the heat, strain it into a bowl. Be sure to press the excess dairy out of the lemongrass in the strainer. Cool the mix to room temperature then chill it overnight. The next day, freeze it in your ice cream machine. If you are adding the blueberries, do so in the last minute of the freezing process.

Green Tea Ice Cream with Chocolate Rice Crisps

2008-07-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

This recipe is from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. I have had very limited success with making green tea ice cream prior to using this recipe. The big reason is brewing the tea. In the past I would stick tea bags into the hot milk and cream and let them steep for a good while. I could never get enough tea flavor into the ice cream which probably was due t the nature of the fat in the liquid clogging the tea bag. Mr. Lebovitz's recipe uses matcha, Japanese green tea powder that eliminates this problem.

The advantage of matcha is that it is powdered. This means you are not steeping anything. Just dump it in and stir it up. The other big deal with matcha is that you are actually eating the tea. This means you get more health benefits from the good stuff within the tea.

The disadvantage of matcha is it is very expensive. How expensive? It can run you anywhere from $18 to $40 USD per ounce. Luckily a little goes a long way. There are cheaper alternatives. Some Korean green teas are powdered and less costly, but I have yet to try them.

Mr. Lebovitz's recipe is great, but I really wanted to make it my own. To that end I added the chocolate rice crisps. If you have ever had genmai-cha, green tea with roasted brown rice, than you know that adding crispy rice cereal to the ice cream will enhance the flavor. I couldn't help but add the chocolate too. Think of this as green tea ice cream with dark chocolate Krackle Bars. I incorporated pieces of the crisps into the ice cream. It works well, but I think that the chocolate becomes the star as opposed to the green tea (Mrs. Fellow likes it this way). Next time I make this, I will serve big pieces of the chocolate rice crisps on the side as garnish. When it comes to the final product, either way will work well, it just depends on your taste.

This is the work sheet for the ice cream:

Green Tea ice Cream:

1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups heavy cream
4 tsp matcha
6 egg yolks

1. Put the milk, sugar, and salt into a small saucepan and heat until a bare simmer.
2. Meanwhile, beat the eggs
3. Put the cream in a large bowl and stir in the matcha. Be careful with this step. Matcha tends to clump and if you beat the cream to much it becomes whipped cream. Your best option is to use a small fine sieve to dust some of the tea into the cream, then mix it in and repeat until all the tea is incoporated. NOTE - it will not be very green at this stage.
4. Add some of the heated milk to the eggs and mix gently. Do this a couple more times to ensure that the eggs are properly warmed.
5. Put the eggs into the saucepan with the milk and heat until 175 degrees F. Stir continuously.
6. Strain the custard into the cream.
7. Beat the custard with a wire wisk until frothy, you should notice that it gets a lot greener.
8. Let custard go to room temperature, chill overnight, then freeze in you ice cream machine. Add in the chocolate rice crisp pieces towards the last minunte of freezing in your ice cream machine.

Chocolate Rice Crisps:

8 ounces semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate (I used a combination of both)
½ cup crispy rice cereal (like Rice Crsipies)

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler
2. Add the cereal, stir to fully incoporate
3. Spread in a thin layer on a tray and place in the freezer to harden into a solid block of candy.
4. Once frozen, break the block into small pieces.
5. You can also leave them as big pieces and garnish the ice cream as I did in the photograph.

Ice Cream in the News

2008-07-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

In case you are in Europe, particularly the UK, Anne Shooter has written a story about how expensive organic ice cream can be and her experiments with making ice cream at home. She also rates some of the more popular brands available across the pond. You find the article in the UK Daily Mail Online.

I have one comment about her article. She implies that the stabilizers and thickeners added to her store bought organic ice cream are not natural. They probably are natural, but not organic. I can't speak for the UK, but in the USA, if a product is made from at least 95% organic ingredients, then it can claim to be "Organic" on the label with qualifying itself by saying, "made with organic ingredients." It would be different story if the label said 100% Organic. In this case, every ingredient must be organic.

For those of us that believe organic is healthier, 95% organic is better than no organic ingredients. Keep in mind that this is a commercial ice cream product. Unlike homemade ice cream, the commercial stuff has to sit in a couple of different warehouse freezers and freezer trucks before getting to the store. Then it has to ride to your home (frequently in the heat of the summer). If you want 100% organic, you are going to have to make it yourself. Personally, I'll take 5% non-organic for the convenience.

Speaking of convenience, the August issue of Bon Appetit magazine has a story on ways to use store bought ice cream to create some original desserts. The recipes look like a great way to save some time in the kitchen and still get a dessert far more interesting than ice cream sundaes.

The Evils of HFCS

2008-06-30T06:01:00.001-07:00

Sorry to report that my idea for an ice cream float has not worked out. I hate that it has been so long without posting a recipe, but this failure gives me a great opportunity to discuss the why you shouldn't use high fructose corn syrup when making ice cream. My recipe idea was for a reverse ice cream float -- cola flavored ice cream in a vanilla cream soda. I did some research and could not find a cola flavored ice cream anywhere. Now I know why.

I've said most of this before, but it always bears repeating. Inexpensive ice cream is filled with short cuts. The cheap stuff in the value tubs at your local supermarket is full of chemicals and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I won't get into the danger of HFCS, there are plenty of experts who can tell you about why you should never eat it, but when it comes to ice cream, HFCS is a menace.

HFCS is much cheaper than sugar. It is sweeter and goes a long way. The problem is that since it is not sugar, it does not behave the same way. It bonds to the other molecules differently and will almost always result in an icy texture. Yet the cheap ice cream that uses HFCS does not feel icy. That is due to their use of emulsifiers and the amount of air that is pumped into the mix to change the texture. Whatever you do, avoid HFCS like the plague. Regular corn syrup is different, it has a lot of home uses, but HFCS is a menace.

It should be business as usual by the end of the week. I will resume my weekly recipes. The next one will be my take on green tea ice cream.

Tuesday Update

2008-06-24T05:51:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, June 20, was National Ice Cream Soda Day in the USA. I have not forgotten about it. I am actively seeking an ingredient to make my very interesting ice cream float.

I have to apologize about the lack of new posts. I have been out of town on vacation. The family went to Chicago to visit friends and enjoy some time away from the grind. I have to share one of our meals with you. I am not fortunate enough to be Jennifer Zyman or Cliff Bostock when it comes to describing restaurants, but I hope to do this one justice.

One of the best things that we did in Chicago was have the honor of being the first customers at Marcus Samuelson's new restaurant, the C House. For those of you who don't know, Chef Samuelson is the owner of Aquavit in New York City and appeared on Iron Chef a couple of weeks ago.

Our meal was fantastic. As is his style, Chef Samuelson offers a menu filled with seafood, including an extensive raw bar. His flavors were clean, fresh, and inventive. I had the fluke, which was served in a clear sweet and sour broth that was light and had the most unexpected, yet delicious flavor. Mrs. Fellow enjoyed the lobster club sandwich, which may be one of the best reasons to go to Chicago. Lobster with avocado on a bacon brioche served with some outstanding fries and house made spicy ketchup (if memory serves they use half beef fat and half vegetable oil for frying). One last super delicious thing to note, Chef Samuelson offers a version of macaroni and cheese using goat cheese and chorizo.

Our desserts featured ice cream (no surprise there). I had the warm black forest cake with brandied cherry ice cream. Warm chocolate cake is almost always good and this one was no exception. I really enjoyed the cherries on the top. The accompanying brandied cherry ice cream was very tasty, but really did not have a lot of brandy flavor, which is just fine because I don't really like a lot of alcohol in my ice cream. The pastry chef stopped by our table and gave us a taste of her blueberry sour cream ice cream. It was delicious, but suffered from the same problem as my recipe -- a slight icy texture. Our friends loved it and did not notice the iciness. Maybe I'm just too critical. Mrs. Fellow ordered a trio of house made confections consisting of chocolate covered spiced marshmallows, blueberry biscotti, and the best vanilla cupcake ever. Words cannot describe the softness of the cake or intensity of the vanilla flavor. You have to eat one to believe it.

We also found the staff to be exactly what you want in this caliber of restaurant. They were friendly and knowledgeable. The wait staff did not know the menu inside and out, but that is easy to forgive on opening night. I appreciated that they were not afraid to tell you when they were unsure of ingredients and preparations especially where the Baby Fellow's order was concerned (because of her allergies). Chef Samuelson visited us several times. We found him to be a wonderfully warm and gracious host. Especially surprising was his great rapport with the three kids at our table. The wine steward left Napa Valley to come to Chicago for this job. He has put together a great wine list that definitely leaned towards whites which is a perfect compliment to the seafood heavy menu. He had great technical knowledge and was extremely helpful in aiding our wine selection.

With all the good food in Chicago, it is hard to go wrong, but you would be doing yourself a disservice if you skipped the C House.

Want to do a guest column?

2008-06-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

This coming Saturday is the Second Annual Ice Cream Social at the Peachtree Farmer's Market in Atlanta. I was looking forward to competing, but I have another commitment that prohibits my involvement.

Is there a volunteer who wants to do a guest column about it?

If you live in Atlanta and like ice cream, you should go. The social will feature flavors by chefs and amateurs. I think it costs $10 to attend. Click this link to visit the Peachtree Farmer's Market website.

Sorbet Trio

2008-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Anita Chu who runs the Dessert First blog inspires today’s recipe. She made a strawberry and mango dessert for her parents’ visit. Mrs. Fellow had bought a lot of gorgeous strawberries from the local farmer’s market. I had a few mangos lying around the house for Baby Fellow who was not interested in eating them. After tasting the two together, I though that a third would better round out the flavor so I whipped a batch of lime-mint sorbet. I made the strawberry sorbet sweeter than I would have liked if it were being served on its own. The mango sorbet was left more tart to provide an interesting contrast. The lime-mint sorbet is subtly flavored with the mint to provide a clean flavor that refreshed the mouth after the sweet tart flavors of the other two.

These recipes are very straight forward so just jump right in. You’ll love them.

Strawberry Sorbet:

I am a bit vague with the amount of lemon juice in this recipe. Depending on the ripeness of your berries, you find that you need more (or less) lemon juice to balance the sweetness. In my version, I used the juice of one lemon, which was just a hair more than 2 tablespoons. Still, I left this a little sweeter than I would like if I was serving it on its own.

1 pound fresh strawberries
1 cup of water
1 ¼ cup of sugar
Lemon juice

1. Put the water and sugar in a small pot. Bring to a rapid boil and hold it there for 60 seconds. Turn off the burner and remove the pot from the heat.
2. As the water is coming to temperature wash, stem, and hull the strawberries, place them in a blender.
3. Juice the lemon. You do not have to strain it.
4. Add the liquid to the strawberries in the blender and puree until smooth.
5. Taste the puree and add a tablespoon of the lemon juice, stir, then taste. If it tastes too sweet add another tablespoon of lemon juice. Keep going until the you like the balance. Remember, you are freezing this so leave it a little sweeter than you think it should be because the cold will numb your tongue and make it taste less sweet.
6. Cool to room temperature and chill for at least 4 hours.
7. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Mango Sorbet:

It doesn’t really matter how many mangos you have or how much they weigh. The general guideline is to add half as much simple syrup as the amount of mango puree. Be sure to make enough syrup to cover the recipe and then some to compensate for less than ripe mangos.

Mangos (I used 1 ½ pounds)
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (I used the juice of 2 limes)
1 cup of water
1 ¼ cup of sugar
1. Put the water and sugar in a small pot. Bring to a rapid boil and hold it there for 60 seconds. Turn off the burner and remove the pot from the heat.
2. As the water is coming to temperature, peel the mangos, cut the flesh into chunks and place in a blender. Be sure to squeeze as much flesh as possible off of the remaining pit. Puree the mangos and place them in a measuring cup noting the amount of puree.
3. Once the simple syrup is completed, measure half as much as you have of the mango puree. In my case I had 2 cups of mango puree, so measured one cup of syrup.
4. Pu the puree and the syrup back into the blender, add the lime juice. Blend for 10 – 15 seconds to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed.
5. Taste the puree and correct the sweetness if necessary. You may need to add a pinch of salt if the mixture is too sweet.
6. Cool to room temperature and chill for at least 4 hours.
7. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Lime-Mint Sorbet:

In this recipe lime juice is the star. Using fresh juice as opposed to the bottled stuff will make a tremendous difference. You need the zest of one of the limes, so don’t bother washing all of them. I use a zester that leaves stripes in the rind. It is easy, but only removes half of the zest from the fruit. So I zest two limes to make sure I have enough. Increase the amount of mint and the steeping time if you like yours more minty.

½ cup fresh lime juice (at least 5 limes)
Zest of one lime
15 sprigs of mint
1 cup water
1 ¼ cup sugar

1. Rough chop 5 sprigs of mint.
2. Put the water, sugar, and chopped mint in a small pot. Bring to a rapid boil and hold it there for 60 seconds. Turn off the burner and remove the pot from the heat. Allow the mint to steep for 10 minutes.
3. Juice the limes and place in a bowl big enough to accommodate all of the ingredients.
4. Wash one lime and remove the zest. Mince the zest and add it to the lime juice.
5. Mince the remaining mint and add it to the lime juice.
6. Once the syrup has steeped for 10 minutes, strain out the mint and add the syrup to the lime juice. Stir well to blend.
7. Taste the mixture and correct the flavor if necessary.
8. Cool to room temperature and chill for at least 4 hours.
7. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Happy Chocolate Ice Cream Day

2008-06-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Do they make a card for this?

In honor of today I have included a recipe for milk chocolate ice cream with mini marshmallows. Chocolate and marshmallow is one of this fellow's favorite combinations. Whether it is pinwheel cookies, chocolate snowballs with marshmallow fluff, or today's ice cream recipe I will eat it.

When I was kid, my parents used to take me to the mall to the local Friendly's for ice cream. I always ordered chocolate marshmallow. When Friendly's stopped carrying it, I was disappointed. That Friendly's location went out of business soon after. Let that be a lesson to you. Don't mess with chocolate marshmallow.

Milk chocolate is a wonderful ingredient that creates the most fantastic finished product. It has a creaminess and softness to it that you don't find in the darker varieties. That means that there you can use less sugar to overcome chocolate's bitterness.

It also means that you had better pick a great milk chocolate. Anything less will leave a washed out flavor in the finished product. There are a lot of expensive milk chocolates. Try to find the one that has the boldest chocolate flavor. It may not be the best for eating at room temperature, but it will fare better when frozen. I tasted four milk chocolates at the local Whole Foods on Thursday before making my decision -- Caro, Valrhona, Callebaut, and El Rey.

1. Caro is an interesting one because they caramelize the milk. It makes the chocolate sweeter and although tasty, the chocolate flavor was more washed out.
2. El Rey 41% - As with the Caro, this was good, but is a better candidate for candy making and baking than ice cream.
3. Callebaut 34% - This was the runner up. This was the best tasting bar to eat at room temperature. Consistently ranking high on most taste tests, Callebaut had a great flavor. It was decisively chocolaty and not overly sweet.
4. Valrhona Jivara 40% - The one I chose. As intense as possible in a 40% chocolate bar and it had the best mouth feel -- incredibly silky and smooth. If it weren't for the texture, I would not eat this bar plain. It was not the best tasting one, but it was the most intensely flavored.

I apologize for not having a chart for this one. There is no information about the breakdown of the content of this chocolate readily available. I am in touch with a Valrhona importer to get the specific information. When I get it, I will share it with you.

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows

6 ¼ oz of milk chocolate
2 cups cream
2 ¼ cups of milk
5 egg yolks
mini marshmallows

1. Combine the cream, milk, and ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan and heat to a bare simmer stirring occasionally.
2. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Beat until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture turns pale yellow.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat.
5. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
6. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Remove the pot from the heat. And add the chocolate. Stir until the contents are completely melted. If you are having problems getting the chocolate to melt, you may return the pot to the heat very briefly.
8. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
9. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
10. The next day, freeze the custard in your ice cream machine. During the last minute of the freezing process, add the marshmallows.

What is your Ice Cream Personality?

2008-06-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Forget about the Myers-Brigs test, five questions about ice cream can define your personality.

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You are a bit of a bragger. Your personality is larger than life - and you really enjoy showing off.

You are the type of person who likes to throw caution to the wind. You only live once, so you're going to live as large as possible. You are definitely a wild one!

You are a very open minded, liberal, and flexible person. You love many things. You tend to have tastes that range from down home to cosmopolitan.

You tend to have a one track mind. You prefer not to multitask.

You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way.

The Ice Cream Personality Test

Saturday June 7 is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

2008-06-04T07:43:00.001-07:00

Someone needs to start lobbying Congress to get this day listed as a Federal Holiday so we can have the day off of work.

I have a special recipe planned -- milk chocolate ice cream with marshmallows.

It is difficult to find truly great milk chocolate. What is your favorite brand?

June 2 - Happy Rocky Road Day!

2008-06-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize for taking so long between posts recently. This week, life has been a bit more inconvenient than normal. Baby Fellow is very ill. As a result, my schedule has been chaotic. Things should be smoothed out soon.

In honor of National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day, I present you with my version of this classic. I did not have time to actually make it, but I know this recipe will work because it is the same ice cream as the Chocolate-Blueberry. The only difference is the add-ins, marshmallows and toasted almonds. Rocky Road does not require changing methods or fancy modern twists. This is a classic flavor that is best left untouched. Below is a copy of the worksheet for this ice cream. While it may appear that the MSNF is a bit low, do not fear. This ice cream base is not icy or lacking in flavor.

Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, known to some as Edy’s Grand, was the company that invented Rocky Road. One of the original partners, Joseph Edy, owned a candy shop that made Rocky Road bars. These confections were a combination of chocolate, marshmallows, and toasted almonds. William Dreyer, the other partner in the ice cream company, got the idea to replace the chocolate candy with chocolate ice cream. An American classic was born. This flavor continues to survive the test of time and be one of the most popular flavors in the USA. Some Rocky Road ice creams have chocolate chips in them. The original recipe does not use chips and I adhere to that policy. I would be inclined to add them, but my chocolate is so rich, that their flavor would be lost.

Incidentally, mini marshmallows were invented for Rocky Road ice cream. Prior to that, large marshmallows were cut with scissors into smaller pieces. This is very time consuming and sticky.

Keeping with my philosophy, I did not define the amount of marshmallows and almonds. Add-in quantities are totally within your control.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

2 cups cream
2 cups milk
¾ cup sugar
6 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
7 oz bittersweet chocolate cut into chunks
Mini-marshmallows
Toasted almonds

1. Combine the cream, milk, and ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan and heat to a bare simmer stirring occasionally.
2. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Beat until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture turns pale yellow.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat.
5. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
6. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Remove the pot from the heat. And add the chocolate. Stir until the contents are completely melted. If you are having problems getting the chocolate to melt, you may return the pot to the heat very briefly.
8. Stir in the vanilla extract
9. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
10. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
11. The next day, freeze the custard in your ice cream machine. During the last minute of the freezing process, add the marshmallows and almonds.

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

2008-05-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has been to a real barbecue joint knows about banana pudding. It is perhaps the most ubiquitous dessert in the South. One taste of the fresh bananas, pudding, and vanilla wafers with a topping of whipped cream and you will understand why it is so popular. Mrs. Fellow has been in a banana mood for a while so I thought it best to indulge her with some ice cream. This is a very basic recipe. It is easy to make and straightforward to follow which is why it is the perfect recipe to introduce my new worksheet.

I will still list ingredients the way I always have, but the work sheet requires switching to grams. So everything you see on the worksheet is the equivalent weight of the amount in the recipe. For example, 2 cups of cream weighs 475 grams. While this may sound like it is about to get very complicated, fear not this is easy to follow.

Successful ice cream is all about balance between fats and sugar and solids and water. Fats and sugar combine to give not only taste, but texture. The right proportions also contribute to stability. Before we look at the chart, I must admit to you that I fudged the sugar content a bit. The final product was not sweet enough so I added in some sugar after cooking and I upped the sugar content (from 19% to 25%) of the bananas because they were extremely ripe. PLease forgive the awful chart. This was imported as a .jpg file and it didn't turn out as pretty as I would have liked. Click the picture to view a bigger version of the sheet in a new window.

My ice cream is 13.69% fat and 15.95% sugar, which is close enough to what it should be for things to work. At 13% milkfat, the ice cream should have 15.5% sugar. At 14% milkfat, the ice cream should have 16% sugar. Where this falls down a bit is in the milk solids (MSNF). A correct homemade ice cream should have between nine and ten percent MSNF. Mine is obviously too low. What does MNSF do and what does this mean?

MSNF absorbs water. Too much MSNF and the lactose will crystallize. Too little, as in my case, and the finished product may be icy. My recipe came out just a tiny bit icy. Without trying it I can’t be absolutely certain, but I think if you increase the whole milk to 575 grams (about 2 1/3 cups) and remove 80 grams of banana the MSNF will increase to 4.72% and the problem should go away without drastically changing the taste. I listed the changes in red.

I did not define the amount of vanilla wafers. In general add-ins like these are should be left to your discretion. Overall, this ice cream is really good. Mrs. Fellow recanted her complaint about the iciness when I threatened to dispose of the batch. She is much more sensitive to texture than most people. So if she can live with it, I know you will like it.

Banana Pudding Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk (2 1/3 cups)
2 cups cream
4 egg yolks
2/3 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla flavor
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 bananas (4 to 4 ½ bananas)
Vanilla wafers

1. Pour the milk and cream and half of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
2. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the remaining sugar and salt. Beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
3. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. 4. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Remove the pot from the heat. Strain into a bowl.
7. Mash the bananas. I used a potato masher, but you can do this in a blender, food processor, or food mill. Add the puree to the custard and stir well to incorporate. Also add the vanilla.
8. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight. Be sure to cover by putting plastic wrap directly on the ice cream. It is the air that oxidizes the bananas, turning them brown.
9. Freeze in your ice cream machine. During the freezing process, break up the vanilla wafers into bite sized pieces and incorporate them into the ice cream during the last minute of the freeze process.

Lets get technical

2008-05-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

If you didn't catch the comment from James you should read it. He asks about incorporating air into the ice cream. I won't reiterate my response, you can read his question and my response here.

After my response, we went back and forth for a while through e-mail. I learned that he is using 10% milkfat and 12% sugar. This really better defines why he is having problems. Here in the USA, 10% milkfat is the minimum amount allowed in a frozen product to have it called ice cream. It is at this level of fat content that manufacturers pump air into their product to improve texture. Also, 12% sugar is too low for 10% milkfat. He should have 14% sugar. That will help some, but will really help him is increasing the fat content to 14 or 15%.

From these conversations, I realized that this fellow is doing it wrong. I do not show you the breakdowns of contents of my ice cream for fat, MSNF (milk solids non-fat), sugar, and other solids. So I have developed a spreadsheet based on the format given by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir in Frozen Desserts.

The banana ice cream recipe will be posted tomorrow. Starting with it, I will include a copy of this worksheet and a discussion of contributions of the various components to the overall flavor and texture of the finished product.

Update: The Next Flavor in Development

2008-05-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Lauren, Phil, and Christoph for coming out to taste my ice cream today. Their comments were insightful. As an engineer I am a very technical person. I really appreciate when someone can point to specific details within my work that need improvement. I want meet with all interested ice cream eaters again, but it may not happen before the end of June.

In the meantime, I am not going to put up another poll for the next flavor. Mrs. Fellow wants a banana based ice cream. It will be either banana pudding or banana cream pie. After that, I'll probably put one up again. This one may take a bit of time to post because I am beholden to the banana ripening process, but I will get it our as fast as I can.

Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips and Blueberry-Port Wine Swirl

2008-05-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

When I added this as a flavor for the survey I had no idea it would win. I honestly thought that some of the other flavors were more interesting. So I was taken by surprise when it won the poll. I didn’t have a clue on what to make. All I knew is that if I pureed the blueberries and mixed them into the chocolate, the resulting color would be less than appetizing.

Since this is chocolate blueberry and not the other way around, the base had to be chocolate. So I went dark. It seems that the anti-oxidant craze has caused enough of a stir that consumers demand darker chocolate. M&M Mars and Hershey have both introduced new versions of some of their best sellers using dark chocolate. So I thought I would too.

If you make a lot of ice cream, you know that most recipes for chocolate ask for Dutch processed cocoa powder. I have never had success using the powder. It requires a longer cook time in order to truly remove the powdery taste and texture. So I prefer to rough chop chocolate bars and melt them in the milk. Having made the jam first, it became obvious that the chocolate should be very rich. For the ice cream base I used a combination of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet and Theo 84% bittersweet because I had them on hand. Truthfully I find the Ghirardelli to be semi-sweet even though it is labeled as bittersweet, but the Theo bar more than makes up for this. The chocolate chunks are El Rey Apatame 73.5% (purchased at Whole Foods as a bar cut from a larger slab) which I chopped myself. You can use chocolate chips or chunks interchangeably. Whatever you decide, make sure that the chunks are at least as bittersweet as the base to avoid losing the flavor.

The swirl was made by the same method as the jam for the peanut butter ice cream except I added some port wine. The recipe below works really well if you intend to make a jam for more than just the ice cream. Unfortunately, once incorporated into the ice cream, the port flavor is pretty much lost. Next time I make the jam, I will make it “ice cream friendly” as opposed to “eat by itself friendly” and increase the port to at least one cup. Incidentally, I underestimated the berry ripeness. The original recipe was for the juice of half of a lemon and did not call for salt, but after tasting the finished product I need to add some ingredients to balance the sweetness of the jam. You may or may not need to add as much sugar, lemon juice, and/or salt. Also, as you can see from the picture I used Costco's house brand 10 year aged Tawny Port. You will do better with a less generic port. I felt that it was thin, too tannic, and lacked concentration.

For the Swirl:

18 oz blueberries
2 c sugar (adjust for berry sweetness)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt (optional)
½ cup tawny port

1. Rinse the berries.
2. Put the berries, sugar, port, and lemon juice and lemon zest into a saucepan. Stir frequently until the sugar becomes liquid.
3. Simmer this stuff for about 30 minutes. The temperature should eventually get to more than 224o F.
4. Remove from the heat and cool.

For the Chocolate Ice Cream:

2 cups cream
2 cups milk
¾ cup sugar
6 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
7 oz bittersweet chocolate cut into chunks (for the base)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate cut into small chunks to add during freezing.

1. Combine the cream, milk, and ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan and heat to a bare simmer stirring occasionally.
2. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Beat until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture turns pale yellow.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat.
5. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
6. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Remove the pot from the heat. And add the chocolate. Stir until the contents are completely melted. If you are having problems getting the chocolate to melt, you may return the pot to the heat very briefly.
8. Stir in the vanilla extract
9. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
10. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
11. The next day, freeze the custard in your ice cream machine. During the last minute of the freezing process, drop in spoonfuls of the jam and the chocolate chunks.

Update

2008-05-12T21:02:00.001-07:00

Chocolate Blueberry won hands down. Look for the recipe later this week. As for those of you who have generously agreed to sacrifice your taste buds for the good of the team, an e-mail will be going out soon to discuss how we can meet.

If you haven't clicked over to Ice Cream Ireland, you really should. Here is a link to his recipe for Blue Cheese and Caramelized Shallot Ice Cream. I know sounds strange, but I would like to taste it. It makes me want to try out my recipe for Camembert Ice Cream.

A quick review -- Mrs. Fellow's favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor is Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, but she thinks they have changed the flavor. The cookies have a brighter citrus flavor than in the past. She still likes it, but may demote it from the number one spot. I wonder if there have been changes to other B&J flavors. Does anyone know?

Sad News

2008-05-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

The ice cream world has lost one of its 20th century pioneers. Irvine Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins passed away on Monday at the age of 90. His obituary appears in the LA Times.

It was reported that he started each day with a bowl of cereal topped with a scoop of banana ice cream. I would like to think that was his secret to living to 90.

Update

2008-05-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is a very busy week for me. I probably will not be able to post a new recipe until next week. So I extended the voting until 11:59pm on Saturday.

Some changes are coming. I plan to start taking pictures. Also in the works is a contest. It may be a while before it starts, but keep your eyes out for something fun.

I have collected a list of Ice Cream holidays from around the Internet. I'll do my best to present a recipe that matches each holiday. First up is National Rocky Road Day on June 2 which is followed closely by National Chocolate Ice Cream Day on June 7.

Lastly, a couple of brave souls have come forward to taste my ice cream, but I am still seeking a few more volunteers. It won't cost you a thing except for a littl ebit of time. All I ask is that you give me your honest opinion. Contact me at ice.cream.fellow@gmail.com.

Jack and Ginger Ice Cream

2008-05-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

The inspiration for this ice cream comes from Bluepoint Restaurant in Atlanta. I was excited to see it on the menu because I used to drink Jack Daniels and ginger ale when I lived in Greensboro, NC. Who doesn’t love to find a happy piece of their past in an unexpected place? I thought the pastry chef did a decent job, but it lacked true Jack and Ginger flavor. In fairness, the flavor was probably subdued because it just one component of an apple dessert.

In doing the research for this recipe I found a lot of conflicting information about how to make a ginger flavored base. One book, Frozen Desserts, insisted that ginger would curdle milk because it is too acidic. The author's recommendation was to make a 5:4 simple syrup and steep it with ginger. Pichet Ong echoed that sentiment in his book, The Sweet Spot, where he cooks the ginger in the simple syrup until it reduces and becomes sticky. In The Perfect Scoop, Dave Lebovitz suggests blanching the ginger before steeping it in the milk. And Emily Luchetti (A Passion for Ice Cream) and Bruce Weinstein (The Ultimate Ice Cream Book) simply put the ginger in the milk/cream. So many choices, what is a fellow to do?

I chose to make the simple syrup for a couple of reasons. First, this ice cream is modeled off of Jack Daniels and Ginger Ale. Ginger ale is basically flavored carbonated simple syrup. I didn’t want to have to mess with the carbonation so making the syrup myself seemed like the way to go. Also, by using the syrup, I can control how much ginger flavor I add to the ice cream. If I steep the ginger in the base, I could lose that control. I used a 1:1 water to sugar syrup because Ginger ale is sweet. The 5:4 water to sugar mentioned in Frozen Desserts is less sweet and what I would try if I wanted accent the ginger’s sharpness.

I ended up using all the syrup and still finding that it needed more ginger flavor. A pinch of salt didn’t help so that is why there is the addition of the powdered ginger. Now that I have the recipe figured out, it would be easier to incorporate the powdered ginger when you mix the eggs in step 4. Powdered ginger is similar to cinnamon and tends to clump (although not as badly). By mixing it with the eggs you won’t have that problem. The reason I did not write the recipe that way is to give you more control over the flavor. You may use a stronger powdered ginger or have different fresh ginger, which would affect the syrup’s taste. Adding the ginger components after the custard is heated allows you to adjust the taste to your palate.

You will notice that this recipe is different than most of my ice cream recipes. I increased the ratio of eggs to cow products but only made about half as much. As with all ice cream recipes, you can double this one without issue.

I really made this out of season. To serve I would suggest pairing it with apple, pecan, or pumpkin pie. All of which lend themselves to Thanksgiving more than the springtime. You may also want to think about caramel sauce. Incidentally, this recipe is very close to being a good eggnog ice cream. Simply replace the ginger with the spices you like in your eggnog.

Jack and Ginger Ice Cream:

1 cup water
1 ¼ cup + 2 TBL sugar
3 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and rough chopped
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
½ tsp powdered ginger
2 TBL + 1 TSP Jack Daniels

1. Place the water, 1 cup of sugar, and the ginger in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let steep for 20 minutes.
2. Pour the milk and cream and ¼ cup of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
3. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the remaining 2 TBL of sugar and salt and beat until the ingredients are incorporated.
4. Once the milk/cream mixture is slightly simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Remove the cooked custard pot from the heat.
7. Strain the simple syrup to remove the ginger pieces
8. Stir the syrup, powdered ginger, and Jack Daniels into the custard.
9. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
10. Freeze in your ice cream machine. Warning -- the alcohol and the fairly high concentration of sugar slows the freezing process. After 30 minutes or so in your ice cream machine you may find that it is still very soft. Ripen this one the freezer for at least 24 hours to get a better texture before serving.

Updates

2008-05-01T19:51:00.001-07:00

You voted and it was a three-way tie. Mrs. Fellow broke the tie by choosing Jack and Ginger. I have mixed it, and am now letting the flavors meld. I'll report on the final product late tomorrow.

I updated the peanut butter ice cream recipe. The large quantity of peanut butter makes the ice cream very hard when it has been in the freezer for a couple of days. You must take it out and let it warm up a bit so it is softer before serving.

Speaking of the peanut butter ice cream, I had extra jam left over from the recipe. Mrs. Fellow asked me to bake a couple of pies for a birthday party at her work. I made two, 2.5 pound strawberry-rhubarb pies with walnut streusel. To accompany it, I whipped up a batch of strawberry ice cream and incorporated the remaining jam during the freezing process. It may seem like strawberry overload, but the pies were intentionally left less sweet. The combination of the pies' tartness with the sweet ice cream and the even sweeter jam was sensational.

I am still looking for local people who want to eat some free ice cream. If you live in the Atlanta area e-mail me at ice.cream.fellow@gmail.com.

Now for two recommendations:
If you have not checked out PastryGirl's blog, Dessert First, you really should. She has great recipes for all things sweet.

If you watch Top Chef on Bravo, then you are familiar with Chef Richard Blais. Mrs. Fellow and I have been big fans of his from the time of his first restaurant, the self-titled Blais. His new home is Home Restaurant and Bar which has been open for about a week and a half as of this writing. We missed him at the now defunct Element, which closed while he was recording Top Chef. The Fellow Family had moved out of state for a few years. Prior to last weekend it had been a while since we had enjoyed his food. It was great see how Chef Blais has matured. The main courses and appetizers were incredible. The crab cake that won him immunity on an early episode of Top Chef is on the menu and delicious. I have one criticism -- the desserts seem like an afterthought. I confess to really enjoying the sweet tea ice cream, but the pecan cake that accompanied it tasted like run-of-the-mill coffee cake. Still, I highly recommend checking it out if you are in Atlanta. You won't be disappointed.

Chef Blais, should you read my blog, I am available to consult on your desserts. Although I may seem like a simple ice cream man, I am actually an accomplished amateur baker too.

Update: The Next Flavor in Development

2008-04-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Peanut butter wins. This is exciting! My mind is swimming with recipes. The next poll will be up shortly. Expect to see the all the losers plus one more.

BTW, The Ice Cream Fellow lives in the Atlanta, GA area and is always looking for tasters. Any locals want to help the fellow out? Drop me a line.

Cumin Sorbet

2008-04-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Before the Ice Cream Fellow was the Ice Cream Fellow, he was the Sorbet Fellow. Ten years ago, I began my love affair with making frozen desserts. It all started with sorbets. Well actually they were granitas. I did not have an ice cream maker so I froze blocks of ice and scraped them into small cordial glasses.

Cumin was my first flavor. Bobby Flay on the Food Network originally inspired me. His flavors are Southwestern, big and bold loaded with chilies and spices. Great stuff, but the meal can leave ones palate overwhelmed before dessert. So I thought it would be great to have a palate cleanser that mimicked the flavors of the meal. This palate cleanser would also be just a little sweet to help transition you from that boldness of the spices to a sweet dessert.

This sorbet is adapted from that granita. It is a great palate cleanser, but it can work as an element of a dessert. For me a little of this goes a long way so I wouldn’t recommend eating a lot of it by its lonesome. Partner cumin sorbet with Latin or Asian flavors such as coconut, pineapple, limes, and mangos.

For this recipe I made 2:1 simple syrup – 2 cups water to 1 cup sugar. The recipe only calls for 1-½ cups of syrup.

Cumin Sorbet:

Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 3 limes
Juice of 1 lemon
1-½ cups of 2:1 simple syrup
¾ tsp cumin

1. Strain the fruit juices to remove the pulp
2. Mix with the warm simple syrup.
3. Add the cumin and stir thoroughly to incorporate all the flavors.
4. Chill overnight, and then freeze.

Ben and Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream

2008-04-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream

A couple of weeks ago, Jules from Tamara’s Sweet Treats Yahoo Group asked me for a copy cat recipe for Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Pistachio Ice Cream. Having never really tried it before I bought some to determine if it was worth the challenge.

When Mrs. Fellow saw my purchase, I had to endure a 10 minute diatribe about why Pistachio Pistachio was not the flavor to pick and how I would have been better off with any of her other favorite flavors. Much to her chagrin, she really liked it. I must admit it was very tasty. I enjoyed the pistachio pieces and the flavor was reasonably pistachio.

This is surprising because the Fellow is not a fan of pistachio ice cream. I always find it to be too sweet and lacking in pistachio flavor. I am not alone in this view. Caroline Liddell & Robin Weir, the authors of Frozen Desserts, also find it to be insipid, describing the various ice creams they tried as “so bad they beggar description.”

The big reason for this is that pistachio ice cream rarely contains 100 percent pistachios. These little nuts are expensive and hard to skin making it fairly cost prohibitive to manufacture and painful and time consuming for the home cook. Most commercially available pistachio ice creams that are made with almonds as opposed to their namesakes. In fact, when researching recipes most of the ones I found called for either some quantity of almonds mixed with the pistachios or almond extract. Upon reading the B&J ingredients I noticed that they use pistachios and of course the mysterious “natural flavors” listed on the container. Not a good sign for sure. Anything can be hidden in the “natural flavorings.”

In my recipe, I do not skin the pistachios because it is a very difficult chore. The nuts have to be blanched to loosen the skins. Because of their irregular shapes this can lead to raw fingers. When I inspected the B&J’s ice cream it occurred to me that they did not skin the pistachio pieces. So if unskinned nuts are good enough for them, they are good enough for me.

Now for the bad news. The Fellow could not entirely replicate the flavor, but do not fret because the good news is that my recipe is far superior. If you really want ice cream that tastes like pistachios you will love my recipe. When we tasted my version against the Ben and Jerry’s it became apparent that they use some sort of almond flavoring. Not very much, but in comparison to my straight up pistachio version, the flavors were different.

I have two alternatives for you to try if you like B&J’s flavor more than my recipe. First, replace ¼ cup of the pistachios with almonds for steeping in the base. Second, add ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to the base. If those ideas do not work, then try adding a very small quantity of coconut oil. It is one of B&J’s ingredients.

Pistachio Ice Cream

1 ¼ cup of raw pistachios
1 cup sugar
2 cups cream
2 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
c teaspoon salt

1. Spread the pistachios in one layer on a tray and put in a preheated 350F oven until they are slightly toasted. This should take about 8 minutes depending on your oven. The best way to tell that they are toasted is that you should be able to smell them. Remove the nuts from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. Then put 1 cup of the pistachios in a food processor and chop to medium coarseness. Reserve the remaining whole nuts as add-ins to the custard once it is frozen.
2. Put the milk, cream, ¾ cup of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
3. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the other ¼ cup of sugar and salt and beat until all ingredients are well combined.
4. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about a of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Put the chopped pistachios in a bowl. Pour the custard over the nuts. It is not necessary to strain the custard because it will be done before freezing. Stir in the vanilla. Cool, then cover and chill for 24 hours.
7. Strain the custard to remove the pistachios. Discard the nuts. Freeze and add the reserved pistachio nuts in the last minute of freezing.

The Next Flavor

2008-04-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

You voted, and cumin sorbet will be the next flavor after I post my recipe for pistachio. I am excited about every flavor on the list, but in my limited capacity I can't develop them all simultaneously. It is up to you to prioritize them for me.

Ice Cream. Is there anything it can't do?

2008-04-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

American stuntman, Robert McDonald has used 15 million recycled ice cream sticks to build a replica of a Viking ship. He has just set sail from the Netherlands to England. He hopes to sail all the way to the United States. Check out the full story here

Curried Pineapple Sauce

2008-04-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

So my first failed attempt at pineapple ice cream has yielded this recipe. I had tried to make a curried base and add the pineapple. As I mentioned in a previous post, this was a colossal failure, but it did give me the idea for this sauce.

As Mrs. Fellow pointed out curry is a savory ingredient. It makes this dessert hard to imagine. From perspective this is a natural extension of Asian flavors. Pineapple holds up well to curry and is also a dessert. Why not create an ice cream topping that uses both flavors?

Curry without accompaniment is probably too savory. That is why I added ginger and cinnamon -- two common dessert spices that also pair well with both pineapple and curry. The end result is something that is very yin and yang. It is simultaneously sweet and savory. When you taste it you get three very contradictory sensations - sweet from the sugar and the pineapple, tartness from the lemon juice, and the spices with just a twinge of heat. My serving suggestion is with vanilla or coconut chip ice cream.

To further work on this recipe I think there is real possibility to create a curried caramel or to add coconut (shredded, toasted, milk, or cream). I also would suggest you play with lime and fresh ginger as opposed to powdered.

Curried Pineapple Sauce for Ice Cream

20 oz can of pineapple chunks in unsweetened pineapple juice
Juice of half a lemon
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger

Drain the pineapple and reserve the juice.
Put the pineapple juice and lemon juice into a saucepan with the sugar, curry, ginger, and cinnamon. Bring to boil.
Add the pineapple to the saucepan, return to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes until a light syrup forms with the liquids.
Serve warm or cold.

Flavors in the Works

2008-04-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

I have two flavors in the works right now. One is a copycat recipe for Jules from Tamara's Sweet Treats Yahoo Group. She is requested a recipe for Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio. The other was for pineapple ice cream.

Do you ever wonder why you rarely see pineapple ice cream? I did, until I tried to make it. This recipe is killing me. There is a whole science to this about some enzyme in the pineapple that curdles milk. My first attempt was great out of the machine, but very icy after ripening in the freezer. It may take a while to figure it out. Luckily, it has given me an idea for a sauce.

With some luck, both the Pistachio recipe and the sauce will come out next week.

Ben & Jerry's Photoshop and Bacon Ice Cream

2008-03-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

If you have never been to Fark.com you are missing something great. The website has a ton of different tabs each containing user submitted news items with snappy headlines. The users on the site also hold Adobe Photoshop competitions. On Saturday March 29th, they held a Photoshop competition for new Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream flavors. Before you click the link, I must warn you that some of the flavors are adult themed. Fark Photoshop Contest.

This picture for bacon ice cream may seem amusing, but those of you who read David Lebovitz’s blog will know he recently posted a recipe for candied bacon ice cream.

Basil Blueberry Anise Cinnamon Sorbet

2008-03-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

So this one is a real mouthful to say. After the Blueberry Crema Ice Cream recipe I had leftover blueberries. I have wanted to do a sorbet for a while. My daughter is allergic to soy, milk, and eggs. She cannot enjoy almost everything I make for this blog. This is not as tragic as it sounds because she is not quite 17 months old. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to make something she can eat. I wasn’t sure that this flavor combination would be pleasing to her because it is very complex, but she loved it.

This was a fascinating recipe to develop. As I layered in the flavors the profile changed drastically. I made a 1:1 simple syrup and it was too sweet and needed lemon juice to even it out. 1 tablespoon of basil was not enough, but two made it the dominant flavor. 3 teaspoons of Sambuca added almost no perceptible licorice flavor. Adding the cinnamon made it taste too acidic. A fourth teaspoon of Sambuca brought everything into balance. After chilling and freezing, the basil flavor was still dominant and the anise flavor showed up nicely. If I didn’t tell my wife that there was cinnamon in it she never would have noticed. Once I told her, she could taste it. I like when this happens. The cinnamon melds perfectly into the background. Having tasted both with and without the cinnamon I can tell you that it would be missed if it were omitted.

How would I serve this? Perhaps as a standalone dessert after an Asian meal or as a foil to a richly flavored lemon ice cream. There is potential for sandwiches using ginger snaps for the cookies. I don’t think it would work as a palate cleanser, but it might work as part of a cocktail with lemon infused vodka.

Basil Blueberry Anise Cinnamon Sorbet:

1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons rough chopped Thai basil
2 star anise
Scant ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
4 teaspoons Sambuca
12 ounces blueberries

Bring the water, sugar, basil, star anise, lemon zest, salt and cinnamon to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and steep for 10 minutes.

Add the blueberries, and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes to allow the blueberries to give off their juice and really get soft.

Remove saucepan from the heat and pick out the star anise. Stir in the lemon juice and Sambuca. Puree the fruit. This is the time to adjust the taste if you desire. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Let cool to room temperature the refrigerate over night. Freeze.

New Books

2008-03-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday this weekend and I got a number of ice cream related gifts. My in-laws gave me some paper quart containers and some cookie/ice cream molds were making ice cream sandwiches in different shapes. Sandwiches are coming soon.

Mrs. Fellow gave me two new frozen dessert books. They are Frozen Desserts by Caroline Liddel and Robin Weir and The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Both are filled with exciting recipes and great new ideas. The Frozen Desserts book contains all sorts of technical details on ice cream making. I look forward to making recipes from both and will give them more thorough reviews in time.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

2008-03-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all time favorites. I go to this recipe about 10 times a year, which is a lot considering how much I try to vary what I make. This recipe may seem a little tamer considering some of my other offerings, but there is no substitute for great cinnamon ice cream. You don’t need to use the bay leaf, but imparts a nice depth of flavor. It really isn’t perceptible on its own, but you know if it is missing.

Why do I mix the cinnamon into a paste before adding it to the base? The answer is that when cinnamon is added to the milk/cream it tends to clump into little balls that are wet on the outside, but dry inside. This makes for very bad ice cream because the cinnamon does not get distributed evenly throughout the base and leaves little depth charges of powder that ruin the taste and texture. By creating the paste you avoid this pitfall.

Although it is great by itself, there are a number of additives you use to vary the flavor. My wife likes it when I imitate the Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie ice cream by adding oatmeal cookies and chocolate chips. Toasted almonds also work well as do chocolate chunks and/or raisins. It is a wonderful accompaniment to apple or pecan pie served with calvados caramel from Emily Luchetti’s A Passion for Ice Cream.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 cups milk
2 cups cream
4 egg yolks

1. Put 2 TBS of milk into a bowl with the cinnamon and mix until it is a paste. If you think it is still too thick, add a little more until it thins some.
2. Put the milk, cream, bay leaf, and half of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
3. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the sugar (and salt if using) and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
4. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove them from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cinnamon paste.
7. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
8. Freeze in your ice cream machine. Don't forget to remove the bay leaf before freezing.

I Made It Work!! Well Almost…

2008-03-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

After a bunch of batches I have come as close as I can to a successful alternative base. Rather than use cream and whole milk, this ice cream relies on skim milk and Crema Mexicana.

Crema Mexicana is the Mexican version of sour cream. Similar in consistency to crème fraiche, Crema Mexicana is more flavorful than regular sour cream. You can find versions of it in any Hispanic food store.

The inspiration for this recipe has come from a recipe I once found for sour cream ice cream. The recipe was awful – nothing more than sour cream, milk, cream, and sugar. It was not meant to be a stand-alone dessert. In order to make it cravable on its own, I decided to add blueberries to the base. Anyone who has had a traditional blintz knows that blueberries and sour cream are a great combination.

The fat content had to be adjusted in the base. Ice cream lives and dies based on fat content. Usually the rule is the more the better. Unfortunately, when I made this recipe using cream, there was too much fat in the finished product. A 16 oz can of Crema Mexicana has more fat than a traditional ice cream base. When mixed with the cream and frozen, the mouth feel was smooth and silky, but coated the tongue and was not easily wash away. This created a bad mouth feel.

The solution was to switch to skim milk. This returned the texture to normal, but I have two problems that I can’t work out. Both are rather minor. Perhaps some one has a remedy? First, although the residue is no longer on the tongue after swallowing, it remains on the spoon. I think this is the nature of the Crema Mexicana and probably cannot be avoided. It really is a very minor point, but I consider it a flaw.

Second, there is a bit of iciness. It is very fine grained. I doubt that most tasters would even notice. The usual solutions for iciness are to cook down the fruit before freezing (as I did) and to splash some water on the inside of the pan where the base is being made prior to adding the cream. I couldn't do this because there is no cream and the Crema Mexicana never gets heat. Maybe it should.

Both of these flaws are very minor. Most people won’t even notice them, but the ice Cream Fellow did. I was tempted not to post the recipe until it was perfect, but I would rather rely on you, the reader to tell me what I am doing wrong so I can work on new ideas.

Speaking of new ideas, I froze 12 oz blueberries that I had left over. I am thinking about a sorbet. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Blueberry-Crema Mexicana Ice Cream

16 oz blueberries
Juice and zest of one lemon
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups skim milk
16 oz. Crema Mexicana

1. Place blueberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and ½ cup of sugar into a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 20 – 30 minutes stirring occasionally. You will know when this is ready when the berries have given up most of their juice and the pan looks like a big sloppy liquid mess with some blueberries floating around in it. Puree the blueberries until to a smooth texture.
2. Put the milk and ¾ cup of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
3. As the milk is heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and salt and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
4. Once the milk is simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of milk in total. Then pour the egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Strain the warm custard through a sieve into a bowl. Strain the blueberry puree into the custard. Pour in the Crema Mexicana. Stir with a whisk until thoroughly blended.
7. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
8. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Welcome All Newcomers

2008-02-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. I have been working slowly on this blog for a while now perfecting its content. I have just begun to advertise it to other bloggers, cooking groups, and list servers.

With all this new traffic, I feel obligated to mention a bit about my vision for this blog. Feel free to take any recipe from here and try it out. I want to hear about your results. If you think it can be better, please offer your suggestions. I take criticism well and look on it as an opportunity to improve my skills. A lot of my recipes are not mainstream so I appreciate responses that will help me develop flavors with more mass appeal.

If you decide to take my recipes and share them with others, please give me credit and point them to my blog. I would also appreciate you dropping me a private note letting me know you gave my recipe to someone.

Mango-Lime Ice Cream with Gingered Carrots

2008-02-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

I know I promised you a recipe for an alternative ice cream base, but circumstances required that I make this one instead to compliment an Asian themed meal.

I happened to go through Daniel Boulud’s Braise. Inside was a recipe for Mangos and Carrots with Honey and Ginger-Lime Whipped Cream. Carrots and Mangos make strange bedfellows, but who is this fellow to question Daniel Boulud? Intrigued by the flavor profile, I set about translating his recipe into an ice cream.

I have made mango-lime ice cream successfully in the past to rave reviews. Mangos have an affinity for lime. Achieving the right balance of the two ingredients leads to a more intense mango flavor than without the lime. The stumbling block was how to handle the carrots. Originally, I thought about making and Indian halwa and serving it as a sauce over the ice cream, but the meal was Chinese Fusion. So I decided to candy the carrots in simple syrup and ginger. After test freezing a few pieces of carrot overnight and finding that they remained soft I opted to incorporate them into the ice cream. The contrast between the yellow base and the orange carrots was striking and made for a more dramatic composition on the plate.

The results were favorable for the dessert, but I will revisit this ice cream again and probably change some of it. For instance, I left out some of Boulud's ingredients such as the star anise and honey. Also, instead of adding almonds to the ice cream I chose to make almond financiers. Perhaps almond extract or some toasted almonds would work well inside the ice cream. Since this blog is about ice cream, I will not post the financiers recipe. You can find it in Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine. The financiers were easy to make and yielded a light cake with a subtle almond flavor. I thought they did better after being refrigerated for 24 hours before being reheated and served.

For the base:

2 cups whole milk
2 cups cream
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
3-4 ripe mangos
pinch of salt
Zest of 3 limes
1 tablespoon lime juice (about 1 lime)

1. Put the milk, cream, ½ cup of the sugar, and the lime zest into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
2. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the other ½ cup of sugar and salt and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
3. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering, remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
4. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Remove the pot from the heat let sit for 10 minutes or so to steep the lime zest.
6. Cut up the mangos, add the lime juice and puree until smooth.
7. Strain the warm custard through a sieve and add it to the mango puree. Stir with a whisk until thoroughly blended.
8. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.

For the carrots:
8 oz carrots
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 2” piece of ginger

1. Put the water and sugar into a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. While waiting for the pan to boil, cut the carrots into small dice. Peel the ginger and cut it into 8 pieces.
3. Once the water is boiling, add the carrots and ginger. Bring everything back to a boil then put the temperature to low and let simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Finishing the ice cream:
1. Before freezing in your ice cream maker, stir the custard to ensure that the contents are well blended.
2. Freeze in your ice cream machine.
3. About 2 minutes before freezing is complete, pick out the ginger, then using a slotted spoon to avoid adding too much liquid, add the carrots to the ice cream.

Do You Like My New Header Photograph?

2008-02-21T18:56:00.001-08:00

This picture comes courtesy of Marjie who goes by the screen name of ArtsySF. She has a great eye, especially when it comes to color. Please check out her Flickr account and let her know if you like what you see. You won't quite find this photo on her site, I had to edit it to fit comfortably on the screen. The original photo is even more tasty.

I know it has been a while since I posted anything new. Life is really getting the way right now. Plus, I made a new recipe and it didn't work out. The flavor was great, but it had too much fat (yes it is possible). I won't give away too much now, other than to say that it is a departure from my standard base. Hopefully I'll be able to try again this weekend and give you a great recipe next week.

Vanilla Ice Cream - The Complicated Classic

2008-01-31T20:53:00.001-08:00

Ice cream aficionados insist that you can tell the quality of a person’s ice cream by the taste of their vanilla. It is such a simple and pure flavor that making it incorrectly is very noticeable.

The well kept secret to good vanilla ice cream is knowing the right vanilla to use. I have been told by a couple of professional small batch ice cream makers that there is a relationship between vanilla extract and butterfat content. There was a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science in 1997 that proved that as fat increased, vanilla flavor decreased in ice cream (you can find the study here). This means that when you make high fat ice cream at home you have to either increase the quantity of vanilla or find a stronger vanilla extract.

Another little secret of the ice cream manufacturing world is that they all use vanilla extract to flavor their ice cream. It is rare to find a manufacturer who uses beans for flavor. Those little flecks in your commercial ice cream are from vanilla beans, but they are added for appearance. Those specks do not add any perceptible vanilla flavor.

Through my experimentation, I found that Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract works the best for my formulation. It gives a deeper vanilla flavor when compared to using an equal amount of the ubiquitous McCormick brand. If you don't know any better, McCormick tastes fine, but in a side by side comparison its flavor is sweeter and lighter in the finished product.

My vanilla ice cream is “French Vanilla” because of its eggs. Cook’s Illustrated performed a blind taste test on commercially available ice creams and French Vanilla was not the winner. The taste testers preferred the Philadelphia style ice cream that does not contain eggs. You can find the article here. Of course, they were testing store bought brands which have other additives to help control texture and improve shelf life. Homemade ice cream is missing those ingredients so the use of eggs helps yield a better texture. Personally, I prefer the flavor and texture of the eggs because they add a bit of decadence that elevates vanilla beyond the ordinary.

Vanilla Ice cream

2 cups whole milk
2 cups cream
1/2 cup Sugar
6 egg yolks
1 TBL vanilla extract
pinch of salt (optional)

1. Pour the milk and cream and half of the sugar into a pot and bring to a slight simmer stirring occasionally.
2. As the milk and cream are heating, place the egg yolks into a bowl with the sugar (and salt if using) and beat until it is a pale, frothy liquid.
3. Once the milk/cream mixture is simmering remove it from the heat and temper the egg mixture by adding a small amount of the hot milk/cream and stirring thoroughly. Repeat this process a couple of more times to ensure that the eggs have warmed up. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
4. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
6. Cool the custard to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
7. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Cherry Ice Cream

2008-01-20T20:34:00.001-08:00

My in-laws visited this past weekend and because of our baby and their potentially late arrival time, my wife thought it better for us to cook dinner on Friday night. After a long day of working, there is limited time to do much in the way cooking so my wife made a simple and rustic French meal of roasted chicken and vegetables from the Bouchon cookbook. For dessert I reached into Dorrie Greenspan's Baking cookbook again for her 15 minute Chocolate Amoretti cake. I picked the dessert because I had to make it on a weekday and it was simple. While reading the recipe she made a note that she uses Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream with this cake.

Amoretti means almonds in Italian and cherry and almonds are a wonderful flavor pairing. So I thought why not add some homemade cherry ice cream? It is the middle of winter so getting good fresh cherries is not easy, but I found some great ones produced in South America. I prefer to be a locavore and eat in season, but cherry ice cream is what was needed so I had no choice. Although these cherries were very good, I felt that more cherry flavor was necessary so I bought some concentrated cherry juice to compensate. The dried tart cherries add an incredible dimension to the ice cream. The kirsch helped the dried cherries stay softer when frozen and lend a great little alcoholic bite which reduces the tartness on the palate. This ice cream was delicious right out of the freezer, but became even more spectacular after the second day in the freezer.

Cherry Ice Cream:

2 cups cream
2 cups milk
4 egg yolks
¾ cup of sugar
1 lb. fresh cherries - pitted
4 oz. concentrated cherry juice
2 oz. water
1 cup dried cherries
Kirsch

1. Combine cherry extract, water, ¼ cup of the sugar in a small saucepan and reduce to about ½ cup of liquid. Add the cherries boil for 30 seconds, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Puree the cherries and set aside to cool.
2. Combine, milk, cream, ¼ cup of the sugar in another saucepan and bring to a bare simmer.
3. While the cream/milk is heating, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until it is incorporated.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Add the cherry puree.
7. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
9. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
10. About 45 minutes prior to freezing, place the dried cherries into a small bowl and pour in enough kirsch to cover them. Some of the cherries may get discolored spots on them but do not worry they will not be noticeable once mixed into the ice cream.
11. Freeze the ice cream. Drain the cherry pieces and add them in the last couple of minutes and allow the ice cream machine to mix them throughout the custard.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

2008-01-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

My first post was going to be a recipe for vanilla ice cream because vanilla is the best judge of an ice cream maker’s skills, but I had a change of heart. My sister-in-law wanted my Mexican Chocolate ice cream for her birthday party. Not having made it in a while, I forgot how good it was. Once I made it, I decided to bump vanilla to another post.
This recipe is simple. Actually, it’s a no brainer since I use store bought Mexican chocolate. There were no trial and error measurements of cinnamon and almond extract. I use Abuelita from Nestle, but Ibarra works just as well.
To jazz it up for her birthday, I adapted a brownie recipe from Dorrie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook to include cinnamon and chipotle peppers and served it together. Everyone loved it, but thought it was a bit of chocolate overload. Since this is a blog about ice cream, I will be happy to provide you with the brownie recipe if you ask, but I won't post it.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream:

2 cups cream
2 cups milk
4 egg yolks
¾ cup of sugar
Pinch of salt
2 bars Mexican chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine the cream, milk, and ½ cup of the sugar in a saucepan and heat to a bare simmer stirring occasionally.
2. Combine the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and the salt. Beat until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture turns pale yellow.
3. Coarsely chop the chocolate.
4. Once the cream mixture is at ready, remove it from the heat. Temper the eggs by mixing in a small amount of the cream, stir thoroughly, and repeat three times. You should use about 1/3 of a cup of hot cream mixture in total. Then pour the complete egg mixture into the cream pot.
5. Return the pot to the heat and stir constantly until the custard reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
6. Remove the pot from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until the contents are completely melted. If you are having problems getting the chocolate to melt, you may return the pot to the heat briefly.
7. Stir in the vanilla extract
8. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.
9. Cover the bowl and chill overnight.
10. The next day, mix the custard in your ice cream machine.

Welcome to the Ice Cream Fellow

2008-01-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

Ice cream is supposed to be fun. Some of my flavors may seem a bit gourmet or strange, but don’t let that intimidate you. The Ice Cream Fellow promises that he does not stand on pretensions. The point is to enjoy yourself both making and eating ice cream. I encourage you to try my recipes and let me know how they turned out. If you have suggestions for improvement, this fellow is all ears.