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Beyond Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry


edemuth

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Just in time for summer, I've received a Krups La Glaciere ice-cream maker as a gift (thanks to Malawry) and was wondering if there were any eGulleteers fond of making their own ice creams/sorbets/granitas who would have some unusual flavor combinations and recipes to share.  I figured I'd get some interesting ones from this bunch!   :biggrin:  I haven't made ice cream since before the electric makers came out, so I'd appreciate any tips as well.

I guess the electric way is more efficient, but I fondly remember sitting in the backyard as a kid and feeling the hot sun on the back of my neck while cranking away on our wooden-barrelled maker.  I would always put some rock salt on my tongue and feel it melt away--what an intense sensation!  Experiencing that and the ice cream itself, with its simple, pure ingredients, may well have been the beginning of my food geekdom...

Erin
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Sounds like fun! The best info I've found on making up ice cream recipes is from the classic On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. He explains how the crystals form and how much sugar or alcohol you need to keep the result from getting too hard. He goes into great detail.

I can't give you any favorite recipes, but a housemate of mine once made a smoked tomato gazpatcho served with a dip of avocado ice sour cream that was in-f*cking-credible.

The possiblities are limitless. If you need a taste-tester, I'm there for you!

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the only ice have tried making outside of the ordinary was rose water and lycee sorbet. chucked some rose petals in as well.

couldn't quite get it to work... the rose water adds too much bitterness and the petals were a bit stringy (can we candy them?)... but am sure there is mileage in the idea... rose and lycee are very complementary (ok, similar) flavours

also chocolate sorbet (as opposed to ice-cream) is also lovely, if you use top-quality bitter chocolate... there should be recipes around (used one from gordon ramsays passion for flavour)... basically its sugar syrup is dark chocolate dropped in

otherwise savoury ice-cream? try dropping some gazpacho into the machine and see what comes out (you may want to put it through a blender first). let me know if its edible...

cheerio

j

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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I used to make a lot of ice creams until the lining of my machine cracked and I had to throw it out. I haven't replaced it as yet. The most adventerous I got was Boddingtons ice cream which was ok. I usually stuck to the classics though. Liquid glucose in the mix is very useful for preventing the development of large crystals and so improving texture. You can get it in chemists (at least in the UK).

Heston Blumenthal is king of the bizarre ice cream flavours in the UK and is developing a sardines on toast flavour apparently. Here is a link to a recent Guardian column of his which you may find useful : http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/...4410118,00.html.

John Campbell has a recipe for onion ice cream in his book Formula for Flavour which is served with beef.

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For creamier ice cream, consider replacing about 10% of the milk with powdered milk.

A favourite flavour of mine is plombière, which is Kirsch ice cream with bits of candied fruit in it. Grand-Marnier ice cream is also pretty wicked.

For a different granité, try grapefruit with Suze (gentiane liqueur). Amazing. I'll try to track down an exact recipe.

Andy, you won't need a machine for this one.

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Our currant ice cream is Coffee served in a coffee cup with choc chip cookies , chocolate coffee beans, and clotted cream on the top as the froth.Made with 2 pts double cream, 9 eggs yolks, 10 oz sugar and a slash of Tia Maria.Alcohol in ice cream helps the texture as it acts as an anti freeze. :smile:

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OK, I know you're not interested in vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry, but our experience making strawberry ice cream could be extrapolated to other fruit ice cream.  I carefully cut up the strawberries, in quarters, I think.  We have a White Mountain electric ice cream freezer.  Anyway, it did it's thing, and eventually we had wonderful ice cream with strawberry bullets in it.  Too late I realized I should have pureed the strawberries.  Honestly, they were too hard to eat at all.

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andy... noticed the heston blumenthal apple ice cream recipe has no custard - just mix fruit puree and whipping cream and chuck it into the machine - have you tried this method for ice cream? what is the different? does this count as a "parfait" or "sundae"

and on a related note, does anyone know the difference between an ice cream and a sundae? (i think parfait has beaten egg white or beaten cream or something. although as ever i could be wrong)

and the hb recipe also reminds me: soaking/heating smoked salmon trimmings in milk gives a lovely quick and dirty smoked salmon soup (cf the haddocky milk you get when you use it to poach smoked haddock). if you substituted whipping cream for the milk and dumped it into an ice cream machine, you might get a half-decent ice-cream.

(then again you may just get frozen fish gunk)

cheerio

j

More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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Wow, what delicious ideas!  Thanks, all.

Lesley, I'm definitely going to do a grapefruit/Campari combination soon, as I am a huge Campari fan (see related thread).  The kirsch and grand-marnier options sound yummy as well.  I have not heard of gentiane liqueur but I am intrigued.  Can you describe the flavor?  Powdered milk is a great idea, BTW.

Basildog, your coffee ice cream sounds wonderful, especially the presentation.  Coffee is one of my weaknesses!

B Edulis, you're welcome to come down to DC anytime for an ice-cream party!  I will have to try to invent a recipe for the gazpacho-avocado cream thing.  It does sound amazing.  I will be sure and snag malawry's copy of McGee for perusal as well.

JSD, your experience is interesting because in all the recipe books I've read, they say to quarter the strawberries before adding to the ice cream when it's almost done.  You give them just enough time to be mixed in... maybe if you put them in in the beginning, that's why you ended up with strawberry "bullets?"

Andy, it seems you can get all kinds of wonderful things at the chemists' in the UK that you can't in the States, including Red Turkey Oil and such for aromatherapy purposes.  I think I will stop off at the drugstore tonight and ask if they have liquid glucose, though, just to see their reaction!

Jon, may I direct you to the food dictionary on Epicurious.com?  I'd have posted the definitions here, but didn't want to violate any copyright rules.  

Definition of ice cream

Definition of parfait

Definition of sundae

Here's a recipe for candied rose petals--let us know if you try it!

Candied Rose Petals

Tomorrow, my first ice-cream-making venture is going to be mint chocolate chip, per a friend's birthday request.  I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Erin
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For really good mint ice cream,try to find fresh black mint or peppermint.Steep a bunch in your hot milk/cream,and be careful to keep it submerged,so the leaves don't turn brown and give the ice cream an 'off flavor.By the way,one of the best simple desserts in Italy is affogato[drowned].Pour a fresh cup of espresso around some ice cream,top with whipped cream.It's usually made with vanilla or crema gelato.

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I have had good luck using dried cherries in ice creams, especially the less sweet ones you can sometimes find.  I've simmered the cherries in a bit of warm water until they are slightly softened; then the "cherry fumet" gets added to the standard custard/double cream mixture.  The cherries get roughly chopped and added at the start of the churning.  The product is a rose colour with the dark cherries in contrast, and very deeply flavoured.

Occasionally I find that double cream, if not cooked in advance, churns into lumps of butter in my machine.  Have others experienced this?

Finally, Andy mentioned liquid glucose, which is enormously helpful in improving the texture of ice creams and sorbets.  I've struggled to find this in suitable quantities at chemists or supermarkets.  Most catering suppliers, on the other hand, want to sell it 25kg at a time.  I finally found a French internet site, Meilleur du Chef, that supplies it in 1kg packages -- and all sorts of other good things as well, including very good couverture chocolate.

Jonathan Day

"La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le go�t de ce qu'elles sont."

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If you soak your strawberries--or peaches or other fruits--in the sugar for several hours or even refrigerated overnight, they will not form hard lumps.  Before combining with other ingredients, mash slightly with a potato masher.

I haven't tried this in the small ice cream freezers, but it would probably work:

Strawberries Romanoff Ice Cream

1 pound ripe strawberries

1 T. lemon juice

1 cup sugar

2 T. Grand Marnier or other liqueur

3/4 cup sour cream

1 cup heavy cream

Combine strawberries, lemon juice and sugar and let stand for two or more hours.  Mash slightly.  Stir in liqueur, sour cream and cream.  Chill and freeze as directed.  Should make one quart or a little more.  

If you have no freezer, pour mixture (without heavy cream) into a shallow pan and freeze.  Let stand at room temperature about 20 minutes, then add chunks to your electri mixer bowl while beating, until mixture is smooth and berries are broken up--no need to mash beforehand.  Whip cream and fold in.  Freeze in covered container.  With this method, you can double the mixture and make a half gallon or a little more.

Even better--in fresh peach season, substitute ripe, sliced peaches and Amaretto liqueur.  I made up this recipe after having too much Strawberries Romanoff left over.  It was so good I duplicated it many time and applied to other fruits.

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edemuth--i love your reminiscences about ice-cream making

i too have the fondest memories of summers at the grandparents' in delaware,  waiting with sisters and cousins like ravenous dogs for the paddle to be laid out on the counter--what i could never figure out was why they made so little ice-cream for so many people?

last night i was served lemon and basil sorbet that hadn't quite set--but we spooned it up with relish nonetheless--it got me and my friend moll wild with anticipation, thinking about what's growing in the yard right now:  lavendar, mint, combinations of thyme and oregano?  i am going to try to make a lavendar sorbet for husband on our anniversary this week--i am searching for recipes and will report back to you on what happens.

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Well, the mint chocolate chip ice cream was a big success!  Everyone liked it, although I think I will prefer egg/milk/cream bases instead of just cream, which was what my recipe called for.  Next time, when I'm not rushed, I will also get fresh mint.  The ice cream was minty enough, but the mint tasted a little prefab due to the extract.

The ice cream was REALLY soft, even after a short stint in the freezer.  We couldn't freeze it overnight as there were anxious guests awaiting!  I seem to remember the hand-crank machines got it much more frozen... maybe technology is not so good in this case.  The fact that it was so soft made biting down on the hard mini chocolate chips annoying.  If the ice cream had stood up to the chips it would have been a more pleasant combination.  I will substitute chocolate shavings next time, more like what you find in bittersweet ice cream, almost crunchy.  How to make these, I wonder?

Stella, Malawry and I are hosting a barbecue in late June and in the invitation I'm soliciting ice cream makers.  I said that if we had enough for a crowd, we'll make ice cream... I totally related to your comment about there never being enough homemade stuff to go around as a kid!  Hopefully we'll be able to do it.  Good luck on your lavender sorbet!

ChefRuth, thanks for the recipe--I can see how it can translate into many other fruit/liqueur combinations.  I also love the addition of sour cream, as I'm a sour/bitter/tart fiend.

I am definitely going to make a coffee/ice cream combo soon.  And the dried cherry method sounds great too... you all are unconsciously hitting on some of my favorite flavors!

Erin
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I occasionally browse through these sites for inspiration or ideas:

Click Me!

And ME!

I have really been anxious to try the Apricot Earl Gray recipe from the first link, but just have never gotten up quite enough motivation. Maybe now that summer is here...

...I thought I had an appetite for destruction but all I wanted was a club sandwich.

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My current favorite to make is Iced Almond Milk, adapted from the recipe on a tetrapak of Italian almond milk:

1 liter almond milk

200 grams granulated sugar that's all that was in the original

grated zest of 1/4 lemon

small splash of almond extract

smaller splash of pure vanilla extract

larger splash of orange flower water

Stir all until sugar dissolves.  Process in ice cream machine until frozen.  Let ripen in freezer.  (If you don't use it all at once, melt and respin before serving again.)

When I was a pastry chef, I had to make Sour Cream I.C..  Pretty good.  PM me if you want the recipe (it's for a huge amount, but I can cut it down).

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Suzanne, you could put the sour cream recipe here even if it is from a collection or part of a longer article or source.  It would almost certainly be ok under our fair use policy.  If you have a concern, e-mail or message me and I'll help you figure out how to post it.

My question for you is: have you ever compared this with almond milk that you infused from almond powder or finely ground almonds?

How creamy or soft is the texture?

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Steve:I've been using a mix of almonds and apricot kernels to infuse custards for a real strong amaretti like flavor.I've recently gotten green almonds,bitter almonds,pastes,extracts from various places-in search of  better flavor.I think that Italian manufacturers make much more use of bitter almond to flavor their almond products.Someone sent me a small packet of bitter almonds from California,and the flavor blew me away.A Sicilian almond paste recently given to me was miles ahead of most Amereican product in flavor.The bitter almonds are nearly impossible to obtain,but I'm looking into sourcing Italian products,including almond milk.

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Wing--have you tried the organic marzipan and almond paste from Sicily by BIA Stramondo in your taste tests?  Imported by Purely Organic--I found it in foil-wrapped 250g packages at Whole Foods Market.

Also, how about almond flour from The California Press?

I haven't yet come across a packaged almond milk that could rival one made by boiling or infusing your own.

Are you familiar with "mandorle da bere?"

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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ChefRuth, I just wanted to let you know that I tried your recipe last Friday and the ice cream was wonderful! I made approximately a little more than half the recipe (just enough for my ice cream maker), and it was so good that it was hardly enough - and there were only two eaters… next time, I'll try the version with peaches!

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OHHHHHHHH Dear!. My ice cream machine has broken :sad:

It broke in 1/2 ..currently at my mates garage , while he scratches his head and thinks how to fix it.In the mean time we have moved on to Iced Raspberry Parfait with Baked Plums

Un churned mixture of Meringue and Cream and Raspberry Sauce.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM :biggrin:

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OK - I didn't have time to read this entire thread, because I got to go home & walk the dogs, but here's some ice cream making advice for you to learn from my experience.

- Cooked custard French Vanilla is better than uncooked (Philadelphia).

- Someone said something about getting butter clumps in their ice cream. It is very important to thoroughly chill your ice cream batter before attempting to freeze it. The longer the better, too, to develop the flavors as well. If you attempt to churn room temp (or warm!) cream, it will be in the machine churning for a much longer time before developing the small ice crystals. Churn too long and the fat crystals will start to clump together before they get buffered by the ice crystals, hence the butter clumps.

- If you are going to eat your strawberry ice cream right away (without getting hard in the freezer), then you can use quartered fruit added at the end. If you want to make a batch and freeze it firm before serving you are better off using mashed and mascerated fruit, or homemade or good quality jam instead.

- Shave your chocolate for chips off a really good bar of chocolate (Valrona?) with a vegetable peeler rather than using chips. Baking chips freeze way too hard.

- King Arther makes some really neat chips to add to ice cream. They are like these buttons filled with various flavors. Here's a link to their online catalog. Wait, now I can't find those things. But, they have a lot of other interesting things so I'm leaving the link.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My Ice Cream Machine has now been fixed by the garage and is in full working order !! :biggrin:  :biggrin:

To celebrate we made Pear and Saffron Sorbet, served with a Poached Peach and Baked Plums.

We also have had on the menu  Carmelised Walnut Parfait which worked very well i,f i do say so myself :wink:

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