I've tried making chocolate chunk ice creams this way (notably, I keep working on the Graeter's black raspberry chocolate chunk flavor and will take another whack this year) and it is kind of hit-or-miss. I've used a chocolate ganache, a thicker one (like you use for truffles) is better, and I've found you need it to be fairly cool but still melted and to add it at the very end of the ice-cream process and let it sit on the ice cream for a minute before you mix it.

Mhays wrote:I've tried making chocolate chunk ice creams this way (notably, I keep working on the Graeter's black raspberry chocolate chunk flavor and will take another whack this year) and it is kind of hit-or-miss. I've used a chocolate ganache, a thicker one (like you use for truffles) is better, and I've found you need it to be fairly cool but still melted and to add it at the very end of the ice-cream process and let it sit on the ice cream for a minute before you mix it.

That's my experience, too. Have it be cool but still liquid, and add it at the very end.

I've made ice cream at home in an electric Cuisinart probably 30 times. I use no stabilizers: just a custard base with good ingredients. As one might expect, my ice cream has always frozen quite hard. It's not scoopable unless I wait 20 minutes or so, which is just fine with me. However, something happened last night. All of a sudden, after years of making vanilla ice cream pretty much the same way, this last batch came out of the freezer at nearly the perfect, very scoopable consistency. 2-3 minutes on the counter made it even better, but that's it. I thought I had made it the same way as always, but that seemed impossible, as this batch had such a different hardness from all the rest. So I racked my brain to try and recall what I might have done differently. I came up with 2 things.

1) In the past, I had steeped the vanilla, all of the sugar, milk and cream together before tempering egg yolks and adding them in. This time, I steeped the vanilla with only half of the sugar, and beat the rest of the sugar in with egg yolks before tempering.

2) In the past, I made my custard with all of the ingredients in the pot. This time, I used only about 1/2 of the dairy to make the custard, then I strained that custard into a waiting bowl of plain old cold heavy cream.

I don't know if one of these alterations to my routine, or just plain luck, was the reason for the improved consistency. Thoughts?


Here it is, by the way, scooped right out of the freezer:

Kenny, my guess is that #2 is the main culprit, but I'm not really sure. Cooking the dairy does affect it, but I don't know the specifics.

Sometimes the simplest ice creams are the best. Beth tweaked Alton Brown's vanilla frozen custard recipe and then made some fleur de sel caramel sauce (out of David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop") to go with it:

vanilla ice cream with fleur de sel caramel sauce


Later, she made a chunky tayberry sauce. That'll top the ice cream for dessert tonight.

gleam,

Lovely picture!

What tweaks did Beth may to the vanilla ice cream recipe?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:gleam,

Lovely picture!

What tweaks did Beth may to the vanilla ice cream recipe?

Regards,

Thanks!

She used one less egg than usual, and used vanilla sugar instead of regular sugar.

This was the egg-based vanilla ice cream recipe from good eats, not the eggless one: Vanilla Ice Cream

So this weekend I'll be attempting some form of banana ice cream using old frozen bananas (it's clean-out-the-freezer-time!). Is it possible to roast them? If so, what's the best method? Maybe I'll add a chocolate swirl. Will any old chocolate sauce do? I have an Alton Brown recipe for syrup, and was thinking of just using part of that.

Also, I might make this roasted banana browned butter walnut. I was going to just throw in some melted browned butter, but should I adjust anything else?

Thanks for the help. I'll post my results.

pie lady: i think you'll be disappointed when you remove the bananas from the freezer. in my experience, they'll be mush, releasing a lot of water. i doubt very much if they'll be 'roastable' in this state. i've used frozen bananas in banana breads and muffins, after draining in a sieve for some time. the color also won't be so pretty. since bananas are cheap, if i were you i'd start with new bananas and let them ripen until the skin is nicely speckled with brown dots, not blackened, and then they'd be suitable for roasting. justjoan

Does anyone have the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment? I have noticed that it starts to click (signaling that the ice cream is done) in as little as 5-10 min sometimes. I stopped it b/c it was getting annoying. However, this is not whipping enough air into my ice cream. As a result, my ice cream is not as creamy as I would like, and rather hard despite adding alcohol to it. Anyone else have this experience? Perhaps I am not putting it together correctly?

Are those ice cream recipes with uncooked egg pretty safe?

shorty wrote:Are those ice cream recipes with uncooked egg pretty safe?

As safe as anything with uncooked egg. I might do it for myself, but wouldn't ever serve it to others. You can buy pasteurized eggs, those would probably be OK (but don't take my word for it). Certainly anyone with a compromised immune system, the elderly and the very young should not be eating uncooked egg.

shorty wrote:Are those ice cream recipes with uncooked egg pretty safe?

There are ice cream recipes in this thread that call for raw egg? I think most of these recipes call for bringing the egg mixture up to about 170-175 (which is where you get that proper custardy texture), which certainly counts as cooked to me.

I don't think there's much reason to use uncooked egg in an ice cream -- just make a custard.

gleam wrote:

shorty wrote:Are those ice cream recipes with uncooked egg pretty safe?

There are ice cream recipes in this thread that call for raw egg? I think most of these recipes call for bringing the egg mixture up to about 170-175 (which is where you get that proper custardy texture), which certainly counts as cooked to me.

I don't think there's much reason to use uncooked egg in an ice cream -- just make a custard.

I was looking at a Peach Ice Cream recipe from allrecipes. It contains raw eggs. See http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peach-Ice- ... etail.aspx. I was also looking at the recipes in "Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book". I think that the recipes using Sweet Cream Base 1 all contain raw eggs.

Very odd. I'd suggest finding a good custard base that you like and then going from there. We're partial to Alton Brown's from Churn Baby Churn 2, but you might find one you prefer.

Basically, start there and then add flavor as you desire... fruits, mix-ins, extracts. In general, unless you're adding a lot of something very sweet or very thin, you won't need to really adjust the base at all. Just take a good vanilla base, dial down the vanilla a little, and add in your flavoring.

gleam wrote:Very odd. I'd suggest finding a good custard base that you like and then going from there. We're partial to Alton Brown's from Churn Baby Churn 2, but you might find one you prefer.

Basically, start there and then add flavor as you desire... fruits, mix-ins, extracts. In general, unless you're adding a lot of something very sweet or very thin, you won't need to really adjust the base at all. Just take a good vanilla base, dial down the vanilla a little, and add in your flavoring.

Thanks -- I'll try that base. I plan to avoid any ice cream base which involves raw eggs.

I made Gourmet's recipe for Tangy Frozen Greek Yogurt this weekend, and it rocks. If you like frozen yogurt in the style of Pinkberry, Berry Chill, Red Mango, etc., then you should give this recipe a try. (I'm eating it with fresh blueberries.)

Thanks, Chgoeditor! I've been meaning to find a good fro-yo recipe - I want to try taking our rolling ice cream maker camping, but I'm nervous about bringing custard in an unfrozen state. This looks like a good way to go - and easy to dress up, too!

Mhays wrote:Thanks, Chgoeditor! I've been meaning to find a good fro-yo recipe - I want to try taking our rolling ice cream maker camping, but I'm nervous about bringing custard in an unfrozen state. This looks like a good way to go - and easy to dress up, too!

I made a lemon basil frozen yogurt last summer that turned out really well. I have the recipe on my blog, but basically, you make a simple syrup with 3 parts sugar to one part water, pour the hot syrup over the lemon basil leaves in a blender and blend well. Strain the syrup and mix it into some greek-style yogurt, chill and freeze. I made it as an experiment more than anything, but I was really pleased with the way it turned out and how simple it is. You could easily replace the lemon basil with another herb, or infuse the syrup with spices instead.

Good to know - I'll probably add fruit or other flavors. Now I just have to get my hands on some Greek yogurt (easy enough, I know - I just need to get out of the house first!)

Mhays wrote:Good to know - I'll probably add fruit or other flavors. Now I just have to get my hands on some Greek yogurt (easy enough, I know - I just need to get out of the house first!)

It's less than a week later and I'm on my second batch (which I made with TJ's 2% Greek Yogurt, without serious degradation to the recipe). I've been eating it with some fresh blueberries piled on top (i.e., not mixed in while it's churning).

Rasberry and strawberry sherbet made with buttermilk and plain ole vanilla to go with a blackberry, blueberry tart:

Black Raspberry chocolate-chip frozen greek yogurt. Thanks, chgoeditor and eli! I used a cup of frozen black raspberry puree, about 2/3 cup of sugar, a 16 oz tub of Krinos greek-style yogurt, a splash of vodka (it still froze pretty hard) and drizzled about 2 tbsp of ganache slowly over the top as I slowly mixed it in.

Close-up of a chocolate chunk:


It isn't Graeter's, but it will do nicely.

I made the strawberry yogurt and the lemon yogurt from David Leibovitz's site. Both were very good. There are a number of recipes there, including candied bacon ice cream and a roquefort honey among the other more usual suspects.

Blueberry ice cream:


2 pints of blueberries
1 cup of sugar
5 egg yolks
1 pint of heavy cream
1TBS aged balsamic

Cook blueberries with half a cup of sugar until they release their nectar. Strain and reserve nectar. You will use about a cup of it for teh ice cream - kepp the rest to use as a syrup over the ice cream. Discard skins or eat them. Beat yolks with other half of sugar until pale. Add to the blueberry nectar and a little of the cream. Cook this custard to 165 degrees or so. Then strain it into the rest of the cold cream. Add balsamic. Chill well and churn in machine.

Came out wonderfully creamy and packed with blueberry flavor.

Looks great, Kenny. Our last test batch of blueberry came out hard as a rock -- too much water left in the blueberries. Looks like a good recipe for try #2.

gleam wrote:Looks great, Kenny. Our last test batch of blueberry came out hard as a rock -- too much water left in the blueberries. Looks like a good recipe for try #2.

Thanks. That sometimes happens to me too with fruit ice creams, but this time it came out really creamy and a scoopable consistency right out of the freezer. I think the keys here were cooking the blueberries for awhile to evaporate some of that water, using all cream instead of my usual 2/3 cream, 1/3 milk formula, and using a bit more sugar than I do in my usual ice cream recipes.

I somehow managed to forget to take pictures, but I made Lebovitz's chocolate sorbet and cinnamon ice cream for a dinner at a friend's last night. They were delicious on their own, but they were glorious together. A pairing I would highly recommend.

D'oh! I just threw out some mint because the leaves were all wilted. I could have just infused them for ice cream! Grrrr!!!

I'm making some ice cream for a BBQ this weekend and I'm paranoid about the delivery. If I pack a styrofoam container with gel ice packs and stick it in one of those insulated bags, will it make the 1-hr trip to Crystal Lake? Anything better I can do to make sure my stuff is nice and solid?

Pie Lady wrote:D'oh! I just threw out some mint because the leaves were all wilted. I could have just infused them for ice cream! Grrrr!!!

I'm making some ice cream for a BBQ this weekend and I'm paranoid about the delivery. If I pack a styrofoam container with gel ice packs and stick it in one of those insulated bags, will it make the 1-hr trip to Crystal Lake? Anything better I can do to make sure my stuff is nice and solid?

It'd probably be fine, but if you want to be certain, find someone who will sell you dry ice (yellow pages, walmart, etc) and leave a few blocks wrapped in plastic/paper in the bag with the ice cream. We did this at last year's LTH picnic with some sorbets and they stayed sufficiently frozen for 4-5 hours.

Pie Lady wrote:I'm making some ice cream for a BBQ this weekend and I'm paranoid about the delivery. If I pack a styrofoam container with gel ice packs and stick it in one of those insulated bags, will it make the 1-hr trip to Crystal Lake?

almost definitely not if you're planning to churn the ice cream, then pack it up and go. Keep in mind that you'll need several hours of freezer time before you can think about packing for the trip.