Brown butter ice cream

[TheSwede]

I think the existing topic dissapeared?

Regardless, on Michael Laiskonis' (exec pastry chef at Le Bernadin) excellent blog there is a recipe for a brown butter cream that uses milk solids from double cream:

http://michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/main/2...-is-flavor.html

(recipe in PFD at the bottom)

This cream could probably be used as an ice cream base. Someone more knowledgeable than me can hopfully point out if there should be any modifications to make it a good ice cream base.

He also has a recipe for brown butter ice cream that uses ordinary browned butter:

http://michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/main/2...e-road-low.html

(As a component part of the dessert recipe at the bottom)

His blog is an excellent read for anyone interested in high level pastry.

[paulraphael]

I've had my eye on that recipe. Would definitely like to try it. Smart idea browning the cream; it has a higher concentration of milk proteins than butter.

[adey73]

the content of Michael's blog is better than many expensive books I've got.

[TheSwede]

If you were to use the brown butter cream as an ice cream base, would you use the whipped cream or just leave it out? My inclination would be to leave it out, it is added to give a fluffy texture to the cream but probably not needed in a churned ice cream.

[chiantiglace]

I actually do this a lot, and I believe many other chefs do this as well. The first time I saw it was from Stephane Weber in his brown butter ice cream. We didn't get enough of that nutty flavor so we through together a mixture with 50% milk solids in the butter to brown. Ever since then I have always added extra milk solids to my brown butter may it be ice cream, cookies, financies, cake, whatever.

[paulraphael]

Does anyone have experience making this?

I've been working on getting brown butter flavor into a cognac/vanilla ice cream, and am having a couple of issues. The first is a very slight graininess, which could either be butterfat or clumps of browned milk solids themselves (I strain the mix through a chinois, but it's not the finest chinois in the world). The other is that butterfat seems to congeal on the spoon when you eat it, leaving a gummy coating.

Flavor and everything else are excellent.

My method now is to replace 2/3 or the cream with milk and melted browned butter. I add some dried milk solids to the butter to boost the browned flavors.

The ice cream is emulsified and stabilized with egg yolks (2 per quart) and a bit of gelatin and cornstarch.

I suppose another option is to skip the butter and try to reduce and brown a bunch of cream.

Thoughts?

[pastrygirl]

You can try toasting the milk powder to get more 'brown' flavors. A friend raves about the toasted milk ice cream at Charlie Trotters, but I haven't experimented in that direction yet.

I think Michel Bras has a recipe for brown butter ice cream, but I don't have that book here. the few ice cream experiments I did with adding butter to a milk custard base worked fine. Maybe you have a little too much fat overall?

Edited November 24, 2008 by pastrygirl (log)

[paulraphael]

Yeah, I actually do brown some of the dry milk. I put it in with the butter as it browns. I didn't realize other people figured this out too!

The only brown butter ice cream recipe I've looked at is from Michael Laiskonis, who adapted his from Michel Bras. It's not too far off from what I do, but with a major exception: he uses 6 yolks per quart, and I use 2. It's possible that that overdose of emulsifying protein helps keep the butter smooth. But I'm trying to do it without all the yolks.

Laiskonis says the cornstarch helps with the extra fat from the butter, so my first experiment may be to use more of it.

[alanamoana]

Yeah, I actually do brown some of the dry milk. I put it in with the butter as it browns. I didn't realize other people figured this out too!

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This was discussed on another thread somewhere here in eG. Either adding milk solids (dry milk powder) to butter while browning or adding heavy cream to butter while browning to get added solids and more browning...thus more flavor!

I'm pretty sure people have been doing this for quite some time. I think it's a great idea for the ice cream.

I'm eager to hear how yours comes out as I know what you mean about the granular bits and coating on the spoon. Some over fatty ice creams have that as well. Not the best mouthfeel.

[paulraphael]

Yeah, I'm trying to keep the milkfat down around 15%. The problem might just be that butter fat makes for a much less stable emulsion. I'll see if the cornstarch or anything else helps stabilize it, but I may be barking up the wrong tree.

[Stephanie Wallace]

You can escape the textural problems by infusing the milk with the browned butter. Blend the browned butter into the milk, refrigerate overnight then remove the layer of fat that has formed. Strain through a gold coffee filter.

Re reducing cream vs. adding milk solids, stick with adding milk solids. The process is far less time consuming and the results are nearly identical.

[formula400]

Beurre noisette ice cream

Ingredients

500g milk

500g whipping cream

100g trimoline

150g sugar (light caramel)

120g yolks

Sabayon

50g sugar

250g beurre noisette

Make beurre noisette and leave to cool

Make a light caramel and add boiled milk, cream and trimoline.

Make an anglaise

Mix together and pass.

try that and see how u go

[paulraphael]

try that and see how u go

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thanks for the recipe. i'm sure it works although it's not what i'm going for ... i try to make my ice creams with no more than 2 eggs per quart, since I don't like the custard flavors. This makes textures more challenging, because eggs add so much viscosity and emulsifying power. also, that recipe looks like it tops the charts in fat content!

I had really good luck with my most recent variation. I cut the butter in half, but still got decent brown butter flavor with 1.5g added milk solids which i browned with the butter. I'll post to recipe gullet if anyone's interested.