Ice Cream, Gelato, Sherbet--Cook-Off 11

[ulterior epicure]

I just got The Babbo Cookbook in the mail... and I've been DYING to make the olive oil gelato that I had at Otto Pizzeria.

Reading through the recipe, I realized that there is no tempering or cooking of the raw egg yolks in the method... while I'm a pretty chavelier eater, I just a little afraid that my number's up if I'm not careful. Has anyone made ice cream/gelato without cooking the custard?

u.e.

Edited May 20, 2006 by ulterior epicure (log)

[pounce]

If you are worried about Salmonella know that the bacteria is normally only present on/in some .03% of all eggs produced in the states per year. The shell is normally a hermetic seal to the egg inside. The bacteria may get into the egg through small cracks in the shell. Just look at your eggs shell before cracking it. If it shows some hairline cracks or whatever keep it for cooking. Don't separate your eggs in the shell. This can contaminate the egg. Crack eggs into a bowl and remove the yolks with a clean hand (washed with soap after cracking the eggs).

Salmonella is only deadly in a small number of cases. 95% of people recover without even visting a doctor. 0.05% of all cases result in death.

Driving is far more risky than eating olive oil gelato you make in your own kitchen in my opinion.

Ok, lets see some pictures

[ulterior epicure]

pounce.

thanks for the reassurance. when i saw your post, i "pounced" on it - the new batch of olive oil gelato is now in the freezer. of course, i couldn't resist a "sneak taste" - it was YUMMY. fresh fruity olive oil is definitely key... hope to survive to tell how the rest of the batch is!

thanks!

u.e.

[Morfudd]

Cannot get hold of the cook book - could some lovely person give me the olive oil gelato recipe please???xxxx

[FoodMan]

pounce.

thanks for the reassurance.  when i saw your post, i "pounced" on it - the new batch of olive oil gelato is now in the freezer.  of course, i couldn't resist a "sneak taste" - it was YUMMY.  fresh fruity olive oil is definitely key...  hope to survive to tell how the rest of the batch is!

thanks!

u.e.

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Sure u will, I made it several times and am still here and it is delicious. Raw egg phobia is really just that, a phobia. I use raw eggs or egg whites all the time in mousses, ice creams or sauces.

[ulterior epicure]

... and you're right - I'm still alive - and even better now that I've got some yummy gelato!!

The olive oil gelato was *divine* - one good reason not to skimp on buying really fruity and fresh olive oil!! OHYGOSH... it's even better sprinkled with crunchy Maldon or sel gris!!

I'm making a batch of peppermint chocolate-chip ice cream right now - and stirring the custard carefully over low heat to prevent scrambling ain't fun... fresh eggs with cream is MUCH easier!

u.e.

[Saara]

I've been making ice cream for a few years since I purchased a cheap Deni ice cream maker and have had to justify its existence. I've tried everything from heavy whipping cream to skim milk and myriad flavors. I've just recently begun using liquor to help with the hard freezing problem. It's effective and the minor amount of alcohol makes the other flavors really pop.

I've settled on a base custard recipe of:

3/4 cup sugar (or less, depending on flavor) beaten with 2 eggs that I stir into 1 cup half 'n half and a pinch of salt that has been heated in a double boiler. I return the mixture to the double boiler and cook until it thickens. I then dump this into a batter bowl and add in 2 cups of half 'n half and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Chill overnight. I feel it's important to always use a bit of salt and add the vanilla to the cool mix. Caution: This will overflow the container if too much of whatever flavor component is added, use discretion and supervise with a spoon.

For vanilla I add in another teaspoon of vanilla and a generous glug of vanilla liqueur. Other favorites have been Nutella, chocolate peanut butter, peanut butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso, honey lemon cardamom, red huckleberry, salmonberry, blackberry, rhubarb, strawberry rhubarb, cherry, peach and all the other usual suspects. Around the holidays I make at least one batch of eggnog which consists of dumping eggnog into the bowl and letting it go. Now that I've learned the booze trick, I'll be adding some bourbon to that, of course!

My absolute favoritest so far has been what I dubbed PomPom. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes at the time as I was just playing around and actually dubious about the final outcome. The flavorings were pomegranate molasses and a naturally-flavored Grenadine liqueur. It's a lurid Pepto-pink, but quite delicious if one is prone to eating pomegranate molasses with a spoon.

I dished it on hazelnut creme fraiche with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses on top.

I've loved this thread and read all 9 pages at one go only stopping to get a bowl of vanilla out of the freezer. I can't wait to try some of your great concoctions!

[ulterior epicure]

Thanks Saara for the post!

My batch of peppermint-chocolate chip was a hit. I also wanted to add another interesting flavor that I concocted: honey-pinenut frozen yogurt. I actually didn't measure out the quantities or take notes when I made it, but here's my best estimate:

2 cups of yogurt

1 cup of milk

1 cup of honey (3/4 is enough if you like a milder honey flavor)

About 1/2 cup of toasted pinenuts, chopped.

Thoroughly mix up the first three ingredients - making sure the honey is well incorporated. Refrigerate for a few hours and chuck it in the ice cream maker. Add the toasted pinenuts as close to the end as possible or else they'll got a bit soggy. It freezes hard, like most frozen yogurts... however, the honey does help keep in a tad softer.

u.e.

[chicagowench]

What kind of yogurt, u.e?

[ulterior epicure]

wench:

I've tried two different kinds of yogurt when making frozen yogurt. While I've used goat's milk yogurt for some recipes, I thought goat's milk yogurt would be a little too strong for the honey-pinenut, and full-fat goat's would be too thick.

For the honey-pinenut, I just used plain non-fat yogurt, more out of laziness - as the full-fat requires you to cheese-cloth it and let the liquid strain out. I wanted a bit of clean-tangy-ness to the flavor.

u.e.

[Morfudd]

Would still love the olive oil gelato recipe if anybody has it....

[binkyboots]

Would still love the olive oil gelato recipe if anybody has it....

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me too, sounds really good

ahha! I think I may post this link williams sonoma babbo olive oil gelato recipe

Edited May 30, 2006 by binkyboots (log)

[ulterior epicure]

i just served the evoo gelato with a recipe from the tru cookbook (the roasted pineapple carpaccio - sub'ed out the key lime sorbet for the gelato). if you give me a few days, i'll post about it and include the gelato recipe.

u.e.

[joaquin]

This thread is as good a reason as any to make some sorbet.  I picked up some last-of-the-season meyer lemons at the farmers market Saturday, sorbet seems like good use for them.

Make some simple syrup (1c sugar, 2c water, bring to a boil and chill)

Juice the lemons (1c juice)

Mix the juice and the syrup together and pour into the machine.

Half an hour later this is what it looks like.

I had to have a scoop before putting the rest of it in the freezer.

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Your Meyer Lemon sorbet would probably taste better if you ate it right after its cycle in the ice cream maker. It loses the beautiful fluffy texture you have in the picture once you freeze it and serve it later. If it is too soft to serve right from the machine. just put it in the freezer for ten minutes.

[jbehmoaras]

Hey guys I was wondering about using milk powder or evaporated milk in a recipe. What is the benefit of using this ingredient, different texture or different taste.

I would really also love to hear more about getting a chewy texture in ice cream. I know that may sound weird here but some middle eastern countries such as turkey have a great tasting variety of ice creams with a great chewy texture.

Its also kid of interesting that none of you have spoken much about frozen yogurt. Its not necessarily my favority but I would love to hear some playful recipes on frozing yorgurt.

I would also like to know if anyone has tried to use stabalizers or emulsifiers in their ice creams. I know what youre thinking, I'm all for farm fresh fruit sorbets from scratch with no additives but i was interested in trying some ice creams that Adria, Dufresne, or Achatz would make.

And at risk of making this reply too long, have any of you others tried making fig gelato ... someone mentioned making it eariler on and also had the same problem I did, the gelato with figs comes out kind of bitter or has this dry fibrous fig aftertaste that isnt very pleasant. Can anyone recommend a solution, I was thinking of carmelizing the figs

Edited July 8, 2006 by jbehmoaras (log)

[miladyinsanity]

I would really also love to hear more about getting a chewy texture in ice cream. I know that may sound weird here but some middle eastern countries such as turkey have a great tasting variety of ice creams with a great chewy texture.

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Not strange. I love the stuff, but it's hard to find here.

I think the ingredient you need is Sahleb.

If you search eG, maybe even just this topic, I think FoodMan experimented with it, though I might be wrong.

[artisan02]

I would really also love to hear more about getting a chewy texture in ice cream. I know that may sound weird here but some middle eastern countries such as turkey have a great tasting variety of ice creams with a great chewy texture.

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Not strange. I love the stuff, but it's hard to find here.

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My memory may be faulty, but it seems as if the ice creams of my youth had more of a chewy texture. I grew up in Virginia in the 50's and 60's, and I am pretty sure that they didn't use exotic ingredients to achieve this. I would love to know how to achieve that texture.

[jbehmoaras]

I would really also love to hear more about getting a chewy texture in ice cream. I know that may sound weird here but some middle eastern countries such as turkey have a great tasting variety of ice creams with a great chewy texture.

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Not strange. I love the stuff, but it's hard to find here.

I think the ingredient you need is Sahleb.

If you search eG, maybe even just this topic, I think FoodMan experimented with it, though I might be wrong.

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Well I am turkish and we have Sahlep which is pretty much the same thing as Sahleb I believe (throughout middle eastern countries, the same ingridients are translated slightly differently because of different languages and dialects) and I do not think that is what gives this kind of ice cream its chewy texture. Sahlep would be the flavor of the middle eastern ice cream, not the agent that makes the chewy texture. But I have skipped over this somewhere in the forums as well so I can see why you thought that Sahlep might be that ingredient

On another note, I just bought the Cuisinart ICE-50 today and of course I had to break it in right away. I made a raspberry sorbet, with a little lime to cut the sweetness and it turned out great ... the recipe was so simple and took only minutes to make ... pm me or ask for me to post it if anyone is interested.

Edited July 9, 2006 by jbehmoaras (log)

[Lee Ratliff]

Hey guys I was wondering about using milk powder or evaporated milk in a recipe. What is the benefit of using this ingredient, different texture or different taste.

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Ideally, ice cream needs about 40% dissolved solids for good texture. This is normally achieved with milk protein, milk sugar, and fat from liquid milk and cream; and added sugar. If the % fat is high enough (about 18%), you'll get enough solids from the milk, cream, and sugar. At lower % of fat, the ice cream texture starts to lose body and get icy due to lack of dissolved solids. Milk powder and evaporated milk are concentrated with milk solids, so they are great at improving the texture in ice creams.

I would really also love to hear more about getting a chewy texture in ice cream. I know that may sound weird here but some middle eastern countries such as turkey have a great tasting variety of ice creams with a great chewy texture.

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The Turkish ice cream is dondurma. Wikipedia says: "It is much tougher and chewier than that of sundae-like or other commercially produced ice cream; the unusual texture is produced by the use of salep and mastic resin as thickening agents, together with other flavorings."

I would also like to know if anyone has tried to use stabalizers or emulsifiers in their ice creams. I know what youre thinking, I'm all for farm fresh fruit sorbets from scratch with no additives but i was interested in trying some ice creams that Adria, Dufresne, or Achatz would make.

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Stabilizers are necessary for ice creams that will be stored for months or are expected to survive distribution channels in which they will suffer 'heat shock' - numerous cycles of sub-freezing temperature change. Stabilizers help prevent ice crystals from getting larger and larger with each temp cycle. Some people also put stabilizers in ice creams that are eaten fresh and not distributed. This is often done to improve the melting characteristics, i.e. the stabilizer binds the melting ice crystals and results in a thick liquid as the products melts. Because most people are only familiar with commercial ice cream (which almost always uses stabilizers), they expect all ice cream to have the same gooey melting characteristic. Without stabilizer, ice cream often melts into a more watery state (well, like a milk/cream mixture) which turns off some people.

Sorbets need stabilizers for the same reasons, but it is more important because sorbets sometimes suffer from 'bleeding' - puddling of sugar water separated from the sorbet - after even very short storage periods. Stabilizers also prevent the crumbly texture common in many sorbets.

[jbehmoaras]

My parents being turkish have shed some light into Turkish ice cream.

Sahlep is in fact used as a thickener in ice cream, however, it is limited to cream/vanilla etc. type flavors because sahlep is in fact an ingredient with a flavor that would not mesh with fruit flavors or flavors such as chocolate.

It does not surprise me that mastic is used as it can be found abundantly in turkey and on the greek islands. My parents confirmed that using mastic is why turkish ice cream has the characteristic texture it has.

Also, dondurma just means ice cream in turkish, it doesnt mean turkish ice cream or other mastic ice cream necessarily. A proprietary turkish ice cream that is very strech and is served on the street after stretching and kneading almost the serving of ice cream to be served is called maras (pronounced marash) dondurma.

Considering the fact that it is dense and stretchy, I believe it is closest to gelato in that there isnt any cream (difficult to get in turkey) and has little air folded in but has mastic in it. I guess you could call it chewing gum gelato!

Edited July 13, 2006 by jbehmoaras (log)

[MelissaH]

I made some ice cream last week. I followed the recipe for caramel ice cream in the July issue of Gourmet magazine. You can also see the recipe on line here.

In short, you cook a cup of sugar with a pinch of salt to make a caramel. Then you add a cup of cream, then a cup of whole milk, and heat up to a boil so the caramel melts and the whole thing turns homogeneous.

In the meantime, you whisk 6 egg yolks with a couple teaspoons of corn syrup. You temper the yolks with some of the hot caramel-cream-milk, then add the yolks to the pot, and cook into a custard. The custard gets strained, chilled, and frozen in an ice cream maker. When it was frozen, I transferred it to a container, covered the top with plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface and then the container lid, and sent it to the deep freeze for about 6 hours.

The flavor was terrific. I got the caramel just this side of burned, so it had the flavor of my MIL's peanut brittle. Then, to gild the lily, I candied some peanuts and served the ice cream with the candied peanuts and a sprinking of fleur de sel. Marvelous.

However, there were two issues with the ice cream. One issue is that this stuff was just too rich to eat much more than a tablespoonful. The fat just completely coated my mouth, and a very small serving was more than enough. Some of this, I can probably work around by altering the proportion of cream to milk. The more puzzling one to me, though: the ice cream did not feel very cold in my mouth. You know how you lick a popsicle and it definitely feels cold? Or store-bought ice cream makes the inside of your mouth cold? This stuff didn't. And it came out of a freezer cold enough that you don't dare reach inside with wet hands. I'm wondering if maybe the high fat content had something to do with the un-coolness of the ice cream. I'm sure that also added to its non-refreshingness.

Has anyone else had this experience with ice cream or another frozen dessert? Any suggestions? I liked the flavor, and the texture's stayed silky-smooth for 3 days now, but I'd like something that's a bit more refreshing and that it's possible to eat two whole spoonfuls of.

MelissaH

[ulterior epicure]

The more puzzling one to me, though: the ice cream did not feel very cold in my mouth. You know how you lick a popsicle and it definitely feels cold? Or store-bought ice cream makes the inside of your mouth cold? This stuff didn't. And it came out of a freezer cold enough that you don't dare reach inside with wet hands. I'm wondering if maybe the high fat content had something to do with the un-coolness of the ice cream. I'm sure that also added to its non-refreshingness.

Has anyone else had this experience with ice cream or another frozen dessert? Any suggestions? I liked the flavor, and the texture's stayed silky-smooth for 3 days now, but I'd like something that's a bit more refreshing and that it's possible to eat two whole spoonfuls of.

MelissaH

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Ahhhh yes... this is a very familiar phenomenon to me. Unlike many, I actually prefer lighter - more crystallized ice creams - one having a higher proportion of milk. This is why I don't care for super premium ice creams (like Cold Stone Creamery) - they end up having the mouthfeel of frozen butter. I've played around a little with ice creams in my kitchen. By no means are my methods "exact science" - so proceed with caution.

Next time, try this: Keep the one cup of cream, but instead of six eggs, use three and sub in a 1 1/2 cup of regular milk. Or, you may want to dispense with the whole custard idea altogether and make a gelato-like ice cream by subbing in 2 or 3 cups of milk instead of the eggs. The only problem with this is that you're going to inevitably end up with a harder ice cream. It'll be less creamy and harder to scoop. But, it won't have that greasy mouthfeel.

Good luck!

u.e.

[s_sevilla]

I'll have to say, the most interesting flavor I've concocted was a red beet and white pepper flavor.

The pepper had a sharpness that came slowly on the finish, while the beet had a light earthy flavor....still needed a little work to balance the sweetness with the beets and reducing the musk from the beets (I think I just needed fresher beets), but it was fairly good.

When I was in japan I had a very good red wine ice-cream; I also saw some whale flavor and trout flavor ice cream. Interesting, but my morals were more likely to make me go and throw paint on the creators of that whale flavor than anything else.

[jbehmoaras]

Anyone have a recipe for good, smooth, and creamy, red bean ice cream ... I know to some of you it may soud weird but at my local restaurant they tricked me into tasting it not knowing it was made from beans and it is now one of my favorite ice creams.

Oh and if anyone has a recipe using salep, I'm going to attempt that this weekend to see if i can make a dense and chewy middle easter ice cream.

[s_sevilla]

red bean ice cream.....sounds almost like the filipino Halo Halo....that country's version of "ice cream", usually an assortment of different beans that have been sweetened and then jackfruit, palm fruit gelee, young coconut and some other stuff, topped with shaved ice and sometimes cream (taro ice cream on top is good) Really good stuff if you've never had it......as far as red bean ice cream, I would just take some creme anglaise base, and then add some red beans that have been pureed and pressed though a food mill and sieve a few times to refine the texture and get rid of the endosperm....might want to add a little extra sugar to the base first, but that should get you experimenting a little bit.