"The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz on ice cream

**FrogPrincesse** · September 28, 2012

My photo does not do it justice, but David Lebovitz's Tiramisu ice cream is amazing. Mascarpone + Kahlua + rum ice cream base drizzled with a "Mocha ripple" (cocoa powder + espresso). It's eggless so the base is just made in a blender.

Darienne · September 28, 2012

Looks lovely FP. I've never tried that flavor. I'll look it up today.

stuartlikesstrudel · September 28, 2012

Mmmmm tiramisu. That's one of the few flavours of ice cream I've made, and it's probably one of the best icecreams I've ever eaten... so good!

RWood · September 28, 2012

Flavor wise I liked this, but texture wise, not so much. I made it to go on our ice cream sampler at work, and we all axed it for texture. I felt it was too grainy from the mascarpone. I've made mascarpone ice cream before that had a much better mouth feel. I'm going to go back and try it again, only using my recipe for the base. But, it does taste just like Tiramisu.

My photo does not do it justice, but David Lebovitz's Tiramisu ice cream is amazing. Mascarpone + Kahlua + rum ice cream base drizzled with a "Mocha ripple" (cocoa powder + espresso). It's eggless so the base is just made in a blender.

Darienne · September 28, 2012

And please, RWood, what is it in your base which makes the mouth feel better?

RWood · September 29, 2012

And please, RWood, what is it in your base which makes the mouth feel better?

Well, I still make a custard base, then add the mascarpone after. I think the problem was that mascarpone is so fatty, and this recipe just purees it with either cream or half and half. (sorry, don't have book in front of me). I have a heavy duty ice cream maker at work, and maybe it churned it so fast it caused a problem. It churns 3 quarts in about 7 minutes. I like the idea, but need to experiment more.

**FrogPrincesse** · September 29, 2012

Flavor wise I liked this, but texture wise, not so much. I made it to go on our ice cream sampler at work, and we all axed it for texture. I felt it was too grainy from the mascarpone. I've made mascarpone ice cream before that had a much better mouth feel. I'm going to go back and try it again, only using my recipe for the base. But, it does taste just like Tiramisu.

Texture-wise, my experience was that the tiramisu ice cream was fantastic a few hours after churning. A few days later it was not as creamy, which partially explains my difficulting in making nice scoops. I agree that the texture could be improved, but the flavor was outstanding.

mache · September 29, 2012

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen has a set of weight ratios for perfect ice cream.

Fat Water MSNF Solids Sugar

Premium Ice Cream 16-20% 55-64% 7-8% 0.2 -0.5% 13-16%

Standard Ice Cream 12-14% 67-60% 8- 11% 0.3% 13-15%

Economy 10% 64% 11% 0.3% 15%

French Commercial 10-14% 67-58% 8-11% 2% 13-15%

French Handmade 3-10% 69-54% 7-8% 6-8% 15-20%

Gelato 18% 55-50% 7-8% 4-8% 16%

MSNF = Milk Solids Not Fat

I would use the premium ice cream ratios. A quick look on the Internet states that mascarpone cheese is 50% fat, 3% protein, 5% carbohydrate, and 42% water by weight. Using this information you should be able to balance out a tiramisu ice cream using mascarpone without any problem. To adjust the ratios either add water or add cream as needed.

-- Mache

mache · September 30, 2012

Sorry, marscapone is more like 75% fat, 23% water, and 2% MSNF. I would suggest the ice cream base recipe for a marscapone ice cream to be:

500g Fat Free Milk

225g Marscapone Cheese

225g Granulated Sugar

8 large egg yolks

By my calculations you should get the following ratio by weight

20% Fat, 53% Water, 5% MSNF, 2% Solids, 21% Sugar

Compare that the Alton Brown's vanilla ice cream recipe (my personal favorite)

235g Heavy Cream

725g Half and Half

225 Granulated Sugar

8 Large Egg Yolks

Which comes to the follow weight ratios:

17% Fat, 59% Water, 5% MSNF, 2% Solids, 17% Sugar

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

-- Mache

RWood · September 30, 2012

Sorry, marscapone is more like 75% fat, 23% water, and 2% MSNF. I would suggest the ice cream base recipe for a marscapone ice cream to be:
500g Fat Free Milk
225g Marscapone Cheese
225g Granulated Sugar
8 large egg yolks
By my calculations you should get the following ratio by weight
20% Fat, 53% Water, 5% MSNF, 2% Solids, 21% Sugar
Compare that the Alton Brown's vanilla ice cream recipe (my personal favorite)
235g Heavy Cream
725g Half and Half
225 Granulated Sugar
8 Large Egg Yolks
Which comes to the follow weight ratios:
17% Fat, 59% Water, 5% MSNF, 2% Solids, 17% Sugar
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
-- Mache

I have to stock up the ice creams at work next week, so I'll give this one a shot and see what happens.

Edited September 30, 2012 by RWood (log)

AlenChris · October 2, 2012

Some really delicious recipes on this thread. Really mouth watering. Loving them.

RWood · October 10, 2012

OK, so I messed around with the tiramisu ice cream today. I ended up winging it for the most part. The texture was perfect, flavor wise, very close to the original.

This is what I can remember I did (I hope ).

4 cups 2% milk

pinch salt

8 yolks

1 1/2 c sugar + 1/3 cup sugar

3 cups mascarpone

1/2 c kahlua

1/4 cup rum

1 T ice cream stabilizer

Mocha Ripple (from book)

I made an anglaise with the 2% milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, yolks and stabilizer.

I whisked together the mascarpone, 1/3 c sugar, rum, kahlua. Whisked into the anglaise base.

Layered it out of the machine with the mocha ripple.

I think I will still work on it, I want the mascarpone to come through a little more, so I may decrease the yolks still and increase the mascarpone. I also felt I should get some marsala in there. Texture wise though it's very nice.

**FrogPrincesse** · October 10, 2012

OK, so I messed around with the tiramisu ice cream today. I ended up winging it for the most part. The texture was perfect, flavor wise, very close to the original.
This is what I can remember I did (I hope ).
4 cups 2% milk
pinch salt
8 yolks
1 1/2 c sugar + 1/3 cup sugar
3 cups mascarpone
1/2 c kahlua
1/4 cup rum
1 T ice cream stabilizer
Mocha Ripple (from book)
I made an anglaise with the 2% milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, yolks and stabilizer.
I whisked together the mascarpone, 1/3 c sugar, rum, kahlua. Whisked into the anglaise base.
Layered it out of the machine with the mocha ripple.
I think I will still work on it, I want the mascarpone to come through a little more, so I may decrease the yolks still and increase the mascarpone. I also felt I should get some marsala in there. Texture wise though it's very nice.

I will be following your experiments closely as I already love this recipe.

One question (or two)- what is the "ice cream stabilizer" and how critical is it to the recipe?

Darienne · October 10, 2012

Sounds wonderful, RWood.

RWood · October 10, 2012

OK, so I messed around with the tiramisu ice cream today. I ended up winging it for the most part. The texture was perfect, flavor wise, very close to the original.
This is what I can remember I did (I hope ).
4 cups 2% milk
pinch salt
8 yolks
1 1/2 c sugar + 1/3 cup sugar
3 cups mascarpone
1/2 c kahlua
1/4 cup rum
1 T ice cream stabilizer
Mocha Ripple (from book)
I made an anglaise with the 2% milk, 1 1/2 c sugar, yolks and stabilizer.
I whisked together the mascarpone, 1/3 c sugar, rum, kahlua. Whisked into the anglaise base.
Layered it out of the machine with the mocha ripple.
I think I will still work on it, I want the mascarpone to come through a little more, so I may decrease the yolks still and increase the mascarpone. I also felt I should get some marsala in there. Texture wise though it's very nice.
I will be following your experiments closely as I already love this recipe.
One question (or two)- what is the "ice cream stabilizer" and how critical is it to the recipe?

I don't think the stabilizer is necessary. I just use it because I have to make a lot of ice creams, and it does help prevent crystallization and makes the texture smoother. The one I'm using now is from Albert Uster and has different "gums" and sodium alginate. I checked the tiramisu this morning, and the texture straight out of the freezer was still very good, but all the alcohol may contribute to it not freezing too hard either.

Once this batch runs out, I'll give it another shot. Our shipping guy got carried away on ordering mascarpone, so I have some to get through

**FrogPrincesse** · March 19, 2013

I made this ice cream a while ago but forgot to post about it: the Chartreuse ice cream. I've had good luck with ice creams containing spirits in general, they help a lot with the texture. The Chartreuse ice cream has a super funky/herbal flavor as expected. It goes well with chocolate, or more precisely in this case dark chocolate-covered speculoos.

teapot · March 19, 2014

Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream -- What went wrong? I followed David's recipe and the flavor was lovely -- but the texture was crazy bad. The butter congealed into little frozen globules that stuck to the back of the spoon. The 1.5 cups of chopped buttered pecans (an excessive amount I thought) didn't really incorporate with the ice cream -- which was unscoopable.

I have a refrigerated gelato machine and have never had problems with texture before. I should note that I processed this batch about 5 minutes longer than I typically do (based on a Lebovitz suggestion to maximize the churning). Would that have made the difference? Anyone have experience with this recipe?

Darienne · March 19, 2014

Hi Teapot,

Wish I could be of some help with your Butterscotch problems. I've made this recipe and my penciled in notation was to cut down on the sugar. I had no problem with the ice cream...but then I didn't make the recipe in its given form. I never use heavy cream and eggs and sub instead half&half and cornstarch...so basically it's of no use for comparison purposes.

Oh, just went to the Buttered Pecans recipe and found notes: too much salt and also the butter is not absorbed. Also I wrote chop nuts first? with a question mark. Sorry, that's all I wrote.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Darienne (log)

teapot · March 20, 2014

Thanks for your reply Darienne. Your notes on the nuts are consistent with mine. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be interested in knowing your basic formula for ice cream using half-half and cornstarch. Can I assume you don't use eggs when you're using cornstarch? I have little experience with cornstarch based ice creams but I did convert a chocolate pudding I'd made into gelato recently and loved it -- tasted just like a fudgsicle and had a creamy texture.

Darienne · March 20, 2014

I've sent you the recipe by PM as I've posted it online before in another thread.

Darienne · March 20, 2014

Forgot to add that I should really make my own invert sugar and use it instead of commercial corn syrup. I've just been too 'lazy' in the past. And it's such an easy thing to do. No accounting for what we will and won't do...

Darienne · March 23, 2014

Friends who love Chocolate and Peanut Butter pies of all kinds came to lunch this week and in their honor I made DL's Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream. DH and the guests loved it. Me, not so much. I think I don't like flavors quite so mixed together and would have liked it better as...Peanut Butter Ice cream (for which I have found a recipe) and Chocolate sauce of some kind. Maybe homemade Magic Shell. But hthis is all a matter of taste...

I just looked up the Peanut butter ice cream recipe to see if it had a provenance and it was on eGullet. amccomb 2005.

RWood · March 24, 2014

Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream -- What went wrong? I followed David's recipe and the flavor was lovely -- but the texture was crazy bad. The butter congealed into little frozen globules that stuck to the back of the spoon. The 1.5 cups of chopped buttered pecans (an excessive amount I thought) didn't really incorporate with the ice cream -- which was unscoopable.

I have a refrigerated gelato machine and have never had problems with texture before. I should note that I processed this batch about 5 minutes longer than I typically do (based on a Lebovitz suggestion to maximize the churning). Would that have made the difference? Anyone have experience with this recipe?

I made a large batch of butterscotch ice cream a couple of weeks ago. I don't have the book with me, but in looking up the recipe online (if that one is accurate), I made mine a little differently.

I made the butterscotch sauce first, cooking the butter and brown sugar, then adding cream, salt and some Jack Daniels. Then I made the ice cream base and added the sauce to it. The texture came out great.

I will say thought that I have had problems with ice cream made with butter in them. I have a commercial machine at work that spins a batch in about 5-7 mins, so I had to learn to watch it or it can over churn. Ice cream with butter I tend to under churn, just so I don't have the butter blobs form. That has helped quiet a bit.

teapot · March 24, 2014

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think it probably was the combination of butter plus overchurning that created the problem.

What is the best way to determine if optimal churning has been reached? Is there an ideal temperature?

RWood · March 24, 2014

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think it probably was the combination of butter plus overchurning that created the problem.

What is the best way to determine if optimal churning has been reached? Is there an ideal temperature?

I just go by appearance. I open the door where the ice cream extrudes, and check the texture.

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