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

[Busboy]

I found this article in Slate emphatically annoying; there's a whole yuppie "you can't make good ice cream without a delicate technique and expensive equipment" attitude that I find self-aggrandizing. Nonetheless, it does have some good tips and reviews of a couple of machines.

It was in this thread, comparing ice cream makers.

[Luckylies]

I personally prefer to put fruit into sorbets, or to serve a good ice cream with fresh fruit (Cinnamon Ice Cream and fresh peaches...mmmmmmm), rather than make fruit ice creams, partially for the reason you describe and partly because I don't like biting into little frozen chunks of fruit.  Other disagree.

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To avoid the icyness, macerate your fruit before adding it. It draws out a lot of the moisture.

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Good tip. Thanks.

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also, you can soak the fruit in flavor-appropriate booze for a bit to avoid any frosties too.

[Eden]

I personally prefer to put fruit into sorbets, or to serve a good ice cream with fresh fruit (Cinnamon Ice Cream and fresh peaches...mmmmmmm), rather than make fruit ice creams, partially for the reason you describe and partly because I don't like biting into little frozen chunks of fruit.  Other disagree.

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Were you able to strain significant pulp and seed out of the berries (without losing too much volume and juice)? I fond that this helps concentrate the flavor. Also, I wouldn't be afraid to dissolve a little sugar and the tiniest pinch of salt into the puree/juice before adding it to the mix.

To avoid the icyness, macerate your fruit before adding it.  It draws out a lot of the moisture.

also, you can soak the fruit in flavor-appropriate booze for a bit to avoid any frosties too.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I did not strain significant pulp/seeds out because i usually like a bit of seed/pulp to let me feel like there's real fruit in there, but if it will concentrate the flavor I'll try it. likewise a pinch of salt.

we usually add a splash of some kind of alcohol to enhance flavor, but have not generally soaked our fruit in the booze for fear of it overwhelming the fruit flavor...

[misstenacity]

I just posted this tip to chowhound, actually, but it might help here, as well. :-)

I've found that in making ice cream that has ANY kind of protein in it, including:

milk

half & half

eggs

powdered milk

cream cheese (?)

yogurt

....that the final texture of the ice cream is only acceptable if you denature the proteins. And that means heat. Either scalding the dairy to 180 degrees (even if no eggs are going to be used), or making your custard base with the eggs. THEN chill overnight.

The next day.... a non full-fat ice cream that doesn't taste like crap!

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[lexy]

also, you can soak the fruit in flavor-appropriate booze for a bit to avoid any frosties too.

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Yes, this reminds me that Rose Levy Beranbaum swears by a touch of alcohol in home made ice cream to make a smoother, less icy product (you can use vodka if you don't want additional flavourings)

[CaliPoutine]

If you're near a Pottery Barn, BTW, they had Cuisinart Ice Cream makers for sale earlier this summer, and were throwing in an extra cooling thing-y for free, which is nice.  I actually thing the ice/rocksalt makers give a slightly better product, but the ones I see around are brutally expensive, in the $150 range, versus $50 for the Cuisinart.

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You can also get a Cuisinart at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Ask for a 20% coupon and the price comes down to 40.00. I have about 10 of those coupons, if anyone wants one. PM me your address and I'll mail it out.

[eje]

Cool! What a perfect 4th of July Cook-Off!

I've made a couple pretty successful sorbets this spring using the freezer pan/pure method and have been looking for an excuse to buy an ice cream maker so I can give Gelato a try.

I've had my eye on one of those Lello Gelato Juniors for some time now...

[FoodMan]

I found this article in Slate emphatically annoying; there's a whole yuppie "you can't make good ice cream without a delicate technique and expensive equipment" attitude that I find self-aggrandizing.  Nonetheless, it does have some good tips and reviews of a couple of machines.

It was in this thread, comparing ice cream makers.

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I have to say that this ("you can't make good ice cream without a delicate technique and expensive equipment") is bull crap! I've been making amazing ice cream in my very in expensive Krups for almost three years with mostly great results.

On a good note, awsome cookoff! I am planning on making some chocolate ice cream tonight based on Pierre Herme's recipe. I have made it before, but this timke I want to add something to it. I am thinking some lightly -very lightly- salted crushed nut brittle. We'll see...

Other recent ice creams I made were an outstanding olive oil gelato and a mediocre grilled peach one. The problem I think with the grilled peach one is that the creme englaise overcooked and had an odd taste. Oh well! you live you learn.

Elie

[TheFoodTutor]

A few days ago, I made some cardamom creme fraiche ice cream, and I'd planned on doing something slightly silly or creative with it, by using it to garnish a bowl of chilled carrot and ginger soup. The ice cream is delicious, and the texture is great, but I hate the soup, because I find it a little too sweet for my tastes.

Anyone have ideas for what else I could pair this with?

[ludja]

A few days ago, I made some cardamom creme fraiche ice cream, and I'd planned on doing something slightly silly or creative with it, by using it to garnish a bowl of chilled carrot and ginger soup. The ice cream is delicious, and the texture is great, but I hate the soup, because I find it a little too sweet for my tastes.

Anyone have ideas for what else I could pair this with?

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It would be very nice to make a Viennese Iced Coffee with it--fill a parfait glass with scoops of well-frozen ice cream, fill with strong, iced coffee and top with whipped cream. Or you could make an espresso affogato in a dish-- ice cream w/an espresso poured over.

For something fruity it might go nicely with a plum and nectarine compote or with a peach cobbler.

And I wonder how a bittersweet chocolate sauce would taste with it?

[TheFoodTutor]

It would be very nice to make a Viennese Iced Coffee with it--fill a parfait glass with scoops of well-frozen ice cream, fill with strong, iced coffee and top with whipped cream.  Or you could make an espresso affogato in a dish-- ice cream w/an espresso poured over.

For something fruity it might go nicely with a plum and nectarine compote or with a peach cobbler. 

And I wonder how a bittersweet chocolate sauce would taste with it?

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Those all sound really delicious. I tried it with some strawberry jam I made, but I didn't like that pairing as much as the strawberries with tarragon ice cream I did before. I really like the coffee idea, or perhaps even the strong sort of Vietnamese iced coffee with chicory - no sweetening in the coffee, but just the ice cream.

Very good ideas, thanks.

[Smithy]

Ok, TheFoodTutor - HOW did you make the cardamom creme fraiche ice cream? I'm used to making fruit ice creams (recipe up this weekend, I hope) but I'd be at a loss for something like you're talking about. Spill, please! Also, how do you go about doing an herb ice cream like tarragon ice cream?

[TheFoodTutor]

Ok, TheFoodTutor - HOW did you make the cardamom creme fraiche ice cream?  I'm used to making fruit ice creams (recipe up this weekend, I hope) but I'd be at a loss for something like you're talking about.  Spill, please!  Also, how do you go about doing an herb ice cream like tarragon ice cream?

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Ooops. I should have thought to post recipes.

First, I'll start with my very simple ice cream base, which I got from my boyfriend, actually:

1 quart half and half

10 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

Everything else is a matter of how you flavor that base. If you want vanilla, you scrape a vanilla bean and steep the bean and seeds in the half and half. For tarragon, it's the same. I used about a handful of tarragon stalks with leaves attached to get a nice tarragon flavor. I strained the tarragon out before finishing the base.

For cardamom creme fraiche, first I made the creme fraiche. I took about a pint of heavy cream, added a couple tablespoons of buttermilk, and left it out overnight, letting it "clabber." During this process, I added a small handful of crushed cardamom seeds, ground in my mortar, and letting the cardamom flavor the cream while it was souring was really effective. I strained the larger bits of seed out, but it's still got a couple of black flecks in the finished product.

Then I just subbed the creme fraiche for the half and half in the recipe, just using a pint for a half recipe of ice cream. I always chill the mixture completely before putting it in the ice cream maker, so it will be more dense and not get so much air whipped into it, as I just have the Cuisinart freezer bowl model.

I promise I'll take pictures next time. I'd show you both ice creams, but they really look just like vanilla. They taste a lot different from vanilla, though.

Edit to add that of course I cook the custard base in a double boiler, but I'm sure you already knew that.

Edited July 1, 2005 by TheFoodTutor (log)

[snowangel]

Remember to post your recipes in RecipeGullet and link them back to this topic! Sure easier two years from now to find them there than search a bazillion topics.

[eje]

I'm thinking about a "mojito sorbet" for 4th of July. It's based on a successful herb lemon sorbet I made earlier last month. Do you think this will work?

Erik

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Here's my idea for prepartion.

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

A bunch of Mint

2 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice

1/8 cup rum

chiffonade of mint

lime zest

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water until the sugar dissolves. Add the mint; stir until mixture comes to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand approximately 10 minutes.

Place a fine strainer over a large bowl and pour syrup mixture through (straining out the mint). Add lime juice, rum, mint and lime zest to the strained syrup mixture; stir until thoroughly blended.

Chill and run through your favorite ice cream or gelato maker procedure.

[Eden]

I'm thinking about a "mojito sorbet" for 4th of July.  It's based on a successful herb lemon sorbet I made earlier last month.  Do you think this will work?

Erik

One of our local gelaterie makes mojito sorbet fairly regularly & it's divine - go for it!

[NulloModo]

A few days ago, I made some cardamom creme fraiche ice cream, and I'd planned on doing something slightly silly or creative with it, by using it to garnish a bowl of chilled carrot and ginger soup. The ice cream is delicious, and the texture is great, but I hate the soup, because I find it a little too sweet for my tastes.

Anyone have ideas for what else I could pair this with?

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Why not serve it alone with a cilanto based sauce? Sure, cilantro is normally used as a savory ingredient, but it matches so perfectly with cardamom... I'm sure you could come up with something.

[bloviatrix]

I made apricot-basil sorbet. The apricots were just so ripe and fragrant, I couldn't resist. Plus I had some basil infused sugar syrup in the fridge that I wanted to get rid of. Therefore, I don't really have a recipe to share.

[nan]

Inspired by this thread, I made some Strawberry Buttermilk Gelato this morning. I apologize for the blurriness of the photo, but at least it gives you an idea. I also found a recipe for an Earl Grey Gelato that I intend to try this week, just because it sounds interesting.

I have a tiny Panasonic ice-cream maker, so it took a couple of rounds to make the whole batch. Both mr. nan and I thought it was pretty good.

nan

[Patrick S]

nan, that looks fabulous! I'll have to try that.

I made vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet for a party we had yesterday. Turned out pretty good. The splash of vodka kept it soft and creamy. Here's what the sorbet looked like:

Edited July 3, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[Eden]

Thanks to Fwed we just got a wonderful book called 'IceCream! The whole Scoop' by Gail Damerow from the library, and my wonderful husband has embarked on experimenting with ice-cream for a while - my life is tragic

Since we usually do custard based ice-creams, Bill wanted to break away & try a more traditional non-custard recipe. Experimenting with how low he could go in the fat department he made this first batch with a mix of 2:1 half&half and whole-milk. For flavoring he used only fresh vanilla bean. The resulting flavor was outstanding, pure vanilla & milky goodness. The texture however was very ice-milky (no surprise) and in spite of this left a slight greasy feeling in my mouth afterwards (bill didn't get this). I'd go straight back to the custard method myself, but I believe that higher fat variations of this are yet to come since he's clearly in mad scientist mode...

Here it is almost done when I made Bill stop & pull me out a milkshake because I couldn't wait

interestingly this stuff wants to melt faster than any ice-cream product I've ever seen. Even when it had hardened it was trying to liquefy more quickly than usual. (and it was NOT hot inside at the time)

It was really tasty in spite of the texture issues, especially when he mushed some of the final product up with fresh blackberries later in the evening.

And speaking of Blackberries, I read in the same book that you can make frozen yoghurt just by whizzing fresh frozen fruit up with chilled yoghurt in the food processor with a bit of sugar. I tried it this afternoon & Yumm! I used 0% fat greek yoghurt and fructose instead of sugar, (I'm saving myself for later in the month when Bill goes back to custard ice-creams ) with about equal volumes of fresh frozen blackberries to yoghurt. The result is that the berries defrost while freezing the yogurt & while it probably wouldn't freeze well, it makes an excellent in-the-moment treat with just a bit of yoghurt tang, and a nicely smooth texture. (Sorry, no photo)

[Smithy]

I made nectarine-plum ice cream this weekend in an attempt to adapt my old standby recipe to my newer, smaller ice cream maker. I've posted the original recipe, in all its volumetric quirkiness, with my mother's consent, on RecipeGullet: Ruth Smith's Peach Ice Cream, the original recipe.

The old ice cream maker is a Rival electric ice-and-salt freezer. Here's what I like about it:

1. It cost $20, or was it $40? several years ago;

2. So far, I think ice and salt make for a better freezing mixture than the frozen gel-filled canisters;

3. It makes a lot of ice cream.

What I don't like about it:

1. The ice cream canister must sit exactly upright for the arm with the cranking motor to fit down over the top and latch in place. You have to get everything right, put the cranking arm down, then start adding ice and salt. This means that you can't add anything later (for instance, nuts after the ice cream has started to thicken) without taking everything apart and dumping out the ice and starting over again. I'll post a photo if anyone's curious about what I mean.

2. Unless I get a really good ice cream salt that doesn't have black and grey flecks of insoluble salts in it, I have a mess to dump out when the process is finished.

My new Cuisinart Ice-50 ice cream maker has a freezable canister that lives in the freezer (empty) so I can always use it at a moment's notice. Despite that readiness, I haven't used it all that much, and I'm still learning its ways.

What I like about it:

1. It has an opening in the lid so ingredients like nuts can be easily added at the proper time;

2. That canister, provided it stays cold long enough, eliminates the salt-and-water disposal problem;

3. It's a lot quieter than a canister churning around in a bunch of ice and salt.

I'm still trying to adapt the above-linked original recipe to this smaller ice cream maker. I finally asked Mom the other day what she does now, and I'll post that later after I have a chance to try it. I tried a half-sized recipe of the original ice cream in this maker, and still overwhelmed the container. The upshot was that a bunch of ice cream pooched up through the open hole in the lid, and none of it froze properly until I stuck it in the freezer for a while. Still, it's good. The texture was great, and I love being able to use summer fruit this way.

[JAZ]

I've had a Krups ice cream maker for 10 years or so (it's the model with the motor in the base, not the one on the lid) but until pretty recently, I made sorbets almost exclusively. Lately, though, I've been experimenting with some ice cream recipes. First, I tried a very rich lemon ice cream. Despite my overcooking the custard just a bit, it turned out great, I thought.

Then, the past couple of weeks at work, we've been doing demonstrations of the Cuisinart canister-style machine, so we've been making ice cream there too. I tried a different lemon recipe, which essentially called for making lemon curd and then adding cream. The flavor wasn't quite as intense as the first recipe, but the texture was exquisite. I added extra zest to the first batch, so that might account for the difference in flavor.

Another flavor we made at work was coffee -- we used a French coffee extract for the flavoring (it's called Trablit) and simply added it to the vanilla recipe we were using. The flavor was great, but I wasn't thrilled with the texture of the vanilla we were making, so I got some of the extract to use at home.

I made a pretty standard rich vanilla ice cream base (cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla) and added a tablespoon of the coffee extract. As it was freezing, I added very finely ground dark roast coffee. It was by far the best ice cream I've made, and one of the best I've ever tasted.

My original plan was to add toasted nuts and chocolate chips to the ice cream, but the texture was so ethereal I couldn't bear to interfere with it. As it was, the crunchiness of the coffee specks was just the right foil for the rich mouthfeel.

I don't have a camera, so I'm sorry that I don't have pictures.

[bilrus]

No pictures here either, but for a cookout at a friend's house on the 4th I made a White Chocolate ice cream (was supposed to be White Chocolate Mint but the one store I went to didn't have fresh mint) and Blackberry sorbet.

It was nice to break the machine out again.

[katbert]

Remember the lychee thread? I had about a pound of lychees from the Italian Market (weird, huh.) that were ok but not terrific to eat out of hand (some were sweet, others not quite sweet enough) sitting around in the fridge. I blended up the peeled seeded lychees and mashed it through a sieve to get most of the fibrous bits out, added a 1:1 sugar:water for about 3 cups total and froze it in a Donvier that I just picked up from a friend (who had discovered that she had 3 icecream makers in her house). End result: good texture, good flavor, a tad too sweet, and it looks like a white sorbet, ummm see: PatrickS's photo, and photoshop out in your head the lemon flecks. Mmm, clone stamp tool.