"The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz on ice cream

[Darienne]

Super Lemon Ice Cream.

Made my way through the entire thread and found four instances of someone making this ice cream. It was called 'creamy', 'tart', 'texture nice and soft', etc.

For a change I followed the instructions carefully. (Well, except for adding a dollop of corn syrup which didn't affect the following results.)

Boy. Was it tart! And I love lemons. It called for the zest of two lemons and I found there was zest in the ice cream to the hilt. I would have preferred WAY less zest...I'm talking texture, not taste here. I added some chopped toasted pistachios and that alleviated the zest factor to a great extent.

The other thing was...and no surprise...DH found it way too 'sorbety' in richness and mouthfeel. Made of only half-and-half, one couldn't really expect anything else. But then I had to try it as printed.

If and when I make lemon ice cream again, I'll a) look for another recipe to compare it, b) use more heavy cream for a richer mouthfeel, c) or use a cornstarch base again for the mouthfeel and richness, d) strain out some of the zest...about half.

Still we'll eat it without complaint. Ed added some Dulce de Leche to his and pronounced himself happier. I'll pass on that one.

[ElsieD]

I took a look in my books to see if I had another Lemon Ice Cream recipe and found one so here it is:

4 egg yolks

zest and juice of two lemons

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

2/3 cup granulated sugar

You mix the zest in with the eggs and then make the custard as you normally would. After the cooked custard is strained, you add the lemon juice.

I haven't made this so I can't vouch for it. It is in the book "125 Best Ice Cream Recipes".

[Darienne]

Thanks Elsie,

There's no doubt that an ice cream with 4 egg yolks and 2 cups of heavy cream plus one of milk will be richer than one made with 2 cups of half-and-half and no eggs.

Still have to deal with the mouthfuls of zest...

[ElsieD]

Darienne, as mentioned in my post, the custard is strained so the lemon zest would be strained out, no?

[Darienne]

Darienne, as mentioned in my post, the custard is strained so the lemon zest would be strained out, no?

Sorry, my mistake completely. Didn't read the recipe carefully enough. (One of my ever present faults in my old age .)

[ElsieD]

So, I just ran 1 cup of custard through my ice cream maker and it worked just fine. It's in the freezer hardening up a bit and now I have the other three cups going. So from here on in, I'll know that I can make one pint at a time rather than a quart which will work out much better for us. The strawberry taste comes though quite nicely as well.

[DudeImHungry]

Made the roasted banana brown sugar ice cream this weekend and it turned out great! I was a bit liberal on adding the dark rum but i think it actually produced a gelato like texture so it worked out

[FrogPrincesse]

I am new to this thread. I just bought the book last week and made the French vanilla ice cream. It was quite a change for me as my standard go-to method, which essentially uses the same ingredients, does not require any cooking (yes, the eggs are raw) and only takes 5 minutes before it's poured into the machine (it's the ice cream base recipe #1 from Ben and Jerry). But it was worth the time. The texture was considerably better. It was very creamy, rich and smooth even without the addition of alcohol, which is my standard trick for a smooth ice cream. I used Bourbon vanilla beans and extract, Strauss Creamery organic whole milk and cream. My machine is a standard Cuisinart ICE-20 with freezer bowl that I bought at Costco a few years ago. I think it also helped to keep the custard in the fridge overnight before pouring into the machine - thanks for the tip paulraphael.

I have a craving for Gelato Di Crema but did not see a recipe in the book. Maybe I could adapt one of the gelato recipes from the book? I am wondering if it would be too bland. I had an exceptional Gelato Di Crema in Italy two years ago at Grom that I still dream about and would love to replicate.

I am very intrigued by the Chartreuse ice cream in the book so will make sure to try it soon. And of course I plan on making ice cream with all the local seasonal fruit - strawberries, peaches, and cantaloupe.

[Emily_R]

Made the mocha sherbet again -- I think this is one of my absolute favorites from the book. So rich and full-flavored, yet light and easy to eat after a heavy meal... Anyone out there who hasn't tried it -- its a must!

[Darienne]

Super Lemon Ice Cream.

It called for the zest of two lemons and I found there was zest in the ice cream to the hilt. I would have preferred WAY less zest...I'm talking texture, not taste here. I added some chopped toasted pistachios and that alleviated the zest factor to a great extent.

The other thing was...and no surprise...DH found it way too 'sorbety' in richness and mouthfeel. Made of only half-and-half, one couldn't really expect anything else. But then I had to try it as printed.

If and when I make lemon ice cream again, I'll a) look for another recipe to compare it, b) use more heavy cream for a richer mouthfeel, c) or use a cornstarch base again for the mouthfeel and richness, d) strain out some of the zest...about half.

DH decided that he was not going to eat the Super Lemon Ice Cream, and frankly neither was I. The zest thing was too much. What to do...

I dumped the ice cream into a pot, heated it to a liquid state, strained all the zest and nuts out of it. Then I added 1 cup of half&half (I had nothing else anyway except 2% milk), and 1/4 cup of sugar, 3 tblsp of cornstarch and 2 tblsp of lemon juice and remade the ice cream with a cornstarch base.

DH likes it much better and we ate it for supper with some three-week old DL 'Classic Hot Fudge' sauce which I found at the back of the fridge. Not the best ice cream ever, but what the hey!

[ElsieD]

Icr Cream for supper! You're my kinda people!

[Darienne]

Just made DL's delicious Classic Hot Fudge sauce again...which reminded me...that last week I found the first batch I made hiding at the back of the fridge, weeks and weeks after it was made, and it was still excellent upon reheating.

Edited July 2, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[Amy D.]

I made some of the vanilla frozen yoghurt the other day using the greek-style yoghurt I had to hand, it was supper quick and super tasty (though I may try cutting the sugar quantity next time)

[curls]

Tried the Mint Ice Cream with bittersweet chocolate stracciatella. Wonderful!

Since I did not have the 2 cups of mint that were called for in the recipe, I went with an overnight cold mint infusion with the mint that I did have and added mint oil to taste (needed five drops of mint oil for this batch). Planning to make this again! Hopefully next time I will be able to try it with all mint leaves (want to compare the two).

[Sartain]

This book stayed on the shelf for a while after last year fresh fig ice cream came out icy. This past weekend I decided to pull it out again and made the basil ice cream and blueberry frozen yogurt. Both came out wonderfully!

I did tinker a bit with the basil ice cream - I intentionally added more basil (almost 2 cups to the 1 cup called for - I had an abundance of basil) and unintentionally omitted the lemon zest. The resulting ice cream really packed a basil flavor. I didn't miss the lemon zest, but it could be because I didn't know what I was missing.

I didn't have kirsch for the blueberry frozen yogurt and substituted vodka instead. Worked just fine.

[DudeImHungry]

did the vietnamese coffee ice cream again and added cacao nibs to it which gave it a nice bite.

just did the green tea yogurt however, I froze it last night to harden up and checked it, it was quite hard. Any thoughts of softening it up a bit for future making? i didnt use greek yogurt i used regular yogurt. I heard adding a stabilizer like gelatin will soften/smooth it up, again thoughts?

[Darienne]

did the vietnamese coffee ice cream again and added cacao nibs to it which gave it a nice bite.

just did the green tea yogurt however, I froze it last night to harden up and checked it, it was quite hard. Any thoughts of softening it up a bit for future making? i didnt use greek yogurt i used regular yogurt. I heard adding a stabilizer like gelatin will soften/smooth it up, again thoughts?

I'll try the cacao nibs next time. Sounds good.

To keep the ice cream from hardening too much you can add some alcohol of your choice or substitute a dollop of corn syrup for some of the sugar .

[Darienne]

Just found this article on making home made ice cream softer by David Lebovitz. DudeI'mHungry might find this useful.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[Rodi]

Just ordered a compressor Gelato Maker (Whynter Sno 2 liter machine) and am very excited to make some frozen desserts. My first will be a lambic italian ice, but I am going to get TPS as a standard of measure.

This thread has been great for me, I have learned so much.

I'm getting excited about making a good base.

[curls]

Congratulations on the new ice cream maker! Please let us know how you like it once you get a chance to put it through its paces.

[Darienne]

Just ordered a compressor Gelato Maker (Whynter Sno 2 liter machine) and am very excited to make some frozen desserts. My first will be a lambic italian ice, but I am going to get TPS as a standard of measure.

This thread has been great for me, I have learned so much.

I'm getting excited about making a good base.

OK. Looked up lambic and found that one. But I can't figure out TPS. I know it's not Toyata Production System or the Toronto Police Service...

Thanks.

[DudeImHungry]

thanks for the link Darienne!

Make a strawberry yogurt and used some gelatin in it and it mos def smoothed it out and produced a good result.

Made the Mexican Chocolate from Perfect Scoop, all I can say is WOW, amazingly rich and tasty! Instead of just adding in regular almonds I pralined them first to make it even more awesome.

[ElsieD]

The Perfect Scoop?

[Rodi]

ElsieD got it!

http://www.chow.com/recipes/14099-frozen-lambic-ice

Lindemans is really nice, super fruity and sweet and sour and just a little bit of simple syrup (invert sugar).

I feel like Jerry Lee Lewis "breathless" waiting on the machine.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Rodi (log)

[Rodi]

I sure will.

My goals are great base for choc and vanila, custards and ices, will be making gelato for the most part because my waist line is on the increase!