Fixing cinnamon ice cream woes

I want to tell you about a great trick I discovered to resolve the problem with using ground cinnamon in ice cream. I have always had problems with the cinnamon clumping when I added the milk and cream. Previously, I had suggested making a slurry with just enough milk before adding the it to the base. Although it worked, it was not a great solution. This time, I mixed the cinnamon with the sugar that is mixed with the eggs. You do this step before adding the eggs. When the eggs go in, the cinnamon is well distributed and does not clump at all.

Butternut Squash with Cranberry Swirl

Admittedly, this recipe might be slightly inspired by the Top Chef finale. Still the squash is different and the swirl is all me.

Cranberry and squash are two classic fall flavors and make this recipe taste like it belongs as part of Thanksgiving dinner.

I cheated a bit. Usually, I prefer to do as much from scratch as possible, but I used frozen squash puree. Shame on me, but the result is more than adequate. The butter and brown sugar bring out the sweetness of the squash nicely and adds a bit of a foil for the cranberry sauce which can be quite tart, even frozen.

If you want, sterilize some jars and preserve the cranberry sauce. This recipe makes a lot more than you need and it is delicious on its own.

One more note, I am guessing a bit at the ice cream proportions. I made my usual base using 2 cups milk, 2 cups cream, 3/4c of sugar and 5 eggs. Unfortunately, I did not buy enough squash for this so I only used about 2 1/2 cups of the base with the squash. Everything should work out fine, but be forewarned you may need to adjust this a bit to your taste.

Butternut Squash Ice Cream with Cranberry-Clementine Swirl

Cranberry-Clementine Swirl

16 oz cranberries
1 cup water
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of slat
zest of 1.5 clementines
1 tsp clementine juice

1. Put the water, sugar, cinnamon, salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.


2. Add the cranberries, zest, juice. Cook for ten minutes until the berries have popped and become very soft.


3. Cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Butternut Squash Ice Cream:

12oz frozen, pureed butternut squash
1 TBL brown sugar
1/4 ounce unsalted butter
1.25 cups whole milk
1.25 cups cream
3/4 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
Salt to taste

1. Microwave the squash until hot. Add the butter, brown sugar and salt. Set aside.


2. Mix the egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt.


3. Put the cream, milk, and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a saucepan. Heat until bubbles just begin to form around the edges of the liquid.


4. Add about 1/3 cup of the heated liquid to the eggs slowly while stirring the eggs the entire time.


5. Add the egg mixture into the liquid. Stir constantly until the temperature exceeds 175 degrees F.


6. Remove the liquid from the heat, strain into a bowl. Add the squash, stir to incorporate.


7. At this point, taste and correct the seasoning. When you are satisfied with the flavor, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight to let the flavors mature.


8. Freeze in your ice cream maker. Swirl in the cranberry-clementine mixture at the very end of the freezing process.

Here is a picture of me

Here is a picture of me taking the first bite of a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream at Disney World from earlier this month. It was a great treat considering the abnormally hot and sticky weather.

I am still stumped by the chocolate curry ice cream. I am still soliciting opinions. Truthfully, I have been a little too busy to work on anything too. I will be revisiting my pumpkin ice cream today. Check it out for a fun fall treat.

Blueberry Fig Sauce

I had a house full of extra fruit on the verge of going bad so I thought it wise to use it up in a sauce. In general, this is a great way to use up old fruit. Cooking it down into a sauce to spoon over or add into a basic sweet cream or vanilla ice cream base is a great way to not waste food. It would certainly make your mother and all those starving kids in Africa very happy to know you didn't waste your fruit.

I always find it difficult to specify the amount of sugar you should use. Your fruit may be more or less sweet than mine. In my case, I used a little more than 1/4 cup of sugar. The figs were ripe, but the blueberries were a bit tart. My only comment is that between the maple syrup and the sweetness of the fruit, you should be careful not to over sweeten the sauce with sugar. You can always taste and add more sugar in after a while if it is not sweet enough. Use extra fine sugar and stir it into the still warm sauce, or rewarm the sauce to incorporate the sugar.

I think this will be great either swirled into or served warm over vanilla ice cream. If you cook it a little longer you can cook down into fresh jam.

Blueberry Fig Sauce:

1 pint fresh blueberries
16 ounces fresh figs (I used both green and mission varieties)
8 ounces maple syrup
Sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt

1. Depending on their size, halve or quarter the figs.


2. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, until the blueberries are practically melted into nothing.


3. Remove from the heat, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream Torte

My almond and cherry mood continues with this extremely time consuming recipe. Trust me this one is worth it. I brought it to a friend's dinner party for six people and five guests had seconds. I am guilty of this overindulgence. Please don't tell my doctor, she would renounce her Hippocratic oath and attempt to kill me because I am on a special diet to lower my cholesterol.

This recipe is derived from my own ice cream recipe, the ice cream torte from Dorrie Greenspan's "Baking," and Very Cherry Sauce from "A Passion for Ice Cream" by Emily Luchetti. So as you can imagine there are a few parts to this. None of them are complicated or difficult to perform, but it takes a lot of time to freeze. Each layer must set before the next one is added. This means at least 30 minutes for each chocolate ganache layer and another 20 (or so) minutes for each ice cream layer. My total freeze time took about 4 hours this does not include the time to make the ice cream mix or the cherries.

The cherries are amazing. You will use them all, but will have left over syrup which should keep for a few weeks. Use this syrup as a drink flavoring, or a dessert sauce.

The ganache has eggs in it. These eggs don't really cook. If you are worried about eating undercooked eggs, than please try to find pasteurized ones.

The recipe below is a good example of the necessary progression you need. I will do my best to show you simultaneous steps.


For the Candied Cherries:

2 pounds of fresh sweet cherries
2.5 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of water
1.5 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp kosher salt

1. Stem the cherries, but don't pit them.


2. Put cherries, sugar, and water into a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil.


3. When the water turns clear, all the sugar has been absorbed. Set a timer for 5 minutes, reduce the heat and simmer the cherries.


4. Drain the cherries, reserving the liquid. Spread the cherries out on some foil in a single layer to cool


5. Put the liquid back into the saucepan with the lemon juice and salt and reduce to 2 cups. It will be very dark and syrupy. Cool the liquid to room temperature. Use an ice bath if you want, but note it will make clean up harder.


6. When the cherries have cooled, pit them by squeezing out the pits. Then place them in the completely cooled syrup and refrigerate.

For the Cherry Ice Cream:

3/4 of the Candied Cherries
1/4 cup of of the Cherry Syrup
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream

1. Place the cherries and the syrup in the blender and puree. When you do this, the cherries will retain a lot of the syrup. Don't count that extra syrup as part of the 1/4 cup of required syrup.


2. Put the milk and cream in a saucepan and heat over medium heat to about 150F, where the milk/cream is hot but not boiling.


3. While the milk and cream heats, put the yolks in a bowl with the sugar and beat until the sugar is fully incorporated.


4. When the milk is at temperature, take about 1/3 cup out and temper the eggs. Add the eggs to the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until the temperature is 175F.


5. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Incorporate the cherry puree, being sure to mix thoroughly. Strain the custard then cool to room temperature. if you are not going to use an ice bath and stir the mixture during cooling, be sure to cover the custard with plastic wrap directly on the surface to avoid forming a skin on the surface. Refrigerate overnight or at least a few hours until cold.


6. DO NOT FREEZE YET.

For the Ganache:

9 oz 70% bittersweet chocolate
1 3/4 sticks of butter
1/2 cup sugar
8 eggs

1. To facilitate easier melting cut the butter into chunks and the chocolate into small pieces. Put the pieces in a double boiler and completely melt, stirring occasionally to ensure the ingredients become incorporated. Set the mixture aside to cool for five minutes. PLEASE NOTE: Dorrie Greenspan warns that overheating will cause the chocolate and butter to separate and not be able to reincorporate. So please be careful.


2. Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture one at a time, ensuring each one is fully incorporated before adding the next one. This mixture will get thick.


3. Lightly grease an 8 or 8.5 inch springform pan. I used cooking spray. You could use butter, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you use too much, the butter will freeze and attach itself to the torte. No one really likes to eat frozen butter.


4. Pour one third of the ganache (about 1 1/3 cups) into the bottom of the spring form. Bang the pan on your work surface to remove any bubbles. You may need to use a toothpick to pop some them. Set the pan in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to allow the ganache to set. Place plastic wrap on the surface of the remaining ganache to avoid creating a skin.

Final Assembly:

2 cups slivered or sliced almonds

1. As the ganache is setting, freeze half of the ice cream according to your ice cream machine's directions.


2. Toast the nuts and cool them to room temperature. Chop them into small bits.


3. At this point, wait for the ice cream to finish freezing if the 30 minutes for the ganache has expired. If the ice cream finishes before the 30 minutes for the ganache, put it in the freezer. The ice cream should be the consistency of soft serve so it is easy to spread. If it is too frozen, leave it out to loosen up.


4. Remove the ganache from the freezer, put down a layer of the nuts. Add the ice cream, smoothing it so the top is as flat as possible. Place this back into the freezer for at least 20 minutes until the ice cream is set.


5. Remove the pan from the freezer, pour half of the remaining ganache (1 1/3 cups) over the ice cream. Bang on the table again to remove air bubbles. Again you may need a toothpick, but you have to work fast so the ice cream doesn't melt. Put this back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes until set. Put the plastic back over the remaining ganache.


6. Freeze the remaining custard. Again minding the texture.


7. While the ice cream is freezing, remove the remaining cherries from the syrup and chop them.


8. Remove the ganache from the freezer once it has set and the ice cream is at the right texture. Spoon the cherries over the ganache. Include some of the syrup Put the ice cream on top of the cherries. Smooth the surface of the ice cream. Put this into the freezer for at least 20 minutes until it sets.


9. Feel free to start cleaning up you have a few minutes to spare. If you want, toast some more nuts to put on the top as decoration.


10. Once the ice cream is set, remove the pan from the freezer, pour over the remaining ganache. Bang out the bubbles then place the pan back into the freezer for at least 30 minutes before serving.


11. At serving time, unmold the torte, slice and serve. I had no problems removing the pan sides because my friend's freezer was a bit too warm. If you have problems, Dorrie Greenspan suggests using either a warm towel or a brief application of a hair dryer to the sides of the mold.

Fig Almond Ice Cream

This was a last minute recipe I developed for a dessert for my friends who are babysitting tomorrow night. The honey and almonds are classic flavor affinities to figs.

This recipe is a little different than the base I usually use. There is no milk. Also, the ratio of eggs to cream is very high. When you take it out of the refrigerator before freezing this will be the consistency of a tight pudding. This means you will have the most outstanding texture when frozen.

I want to warn you that the recipe I made is slightly different than the one posted below. I included almond extract, which was a bit overpowering. You would be better off using 1/2 cup of chopped toasted almonds.

Pick the ripest figs you can find because once picked, figs do not continue to ripen.

Fig Almond Ice Cream

1.25 pounds fresh figs
3 tablespoons water
1/4 cup honey
6 egg yolks
scant teaspoon orange zest
2 cups cream
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rough chopped toasted almonds

1. Clean the figs, slice them into quarters.


2. Place the figs and water in a sauce pan (the larger, the better so the figs are in one layer). Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer, cover and cook the figs for 10 minutes. By this time, the figs should be very soft.


3. Add the orange zest and honey to the figs. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors incorporate.


4. Transfer the figs and their liquid to a blender. Puree until smooth. Leave it in the blender.


5. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan until tiny bubbles form at the edges (about 150 degrees F). You may have to give it a stir or two to make sure that a skin doesn't develop on the surface. Whatever you do, DO NOT let the cream boil. If it does, you will have to throw it out and start over again. The fat will separate and not reincorporate no matter how hard you might try.


6. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the sugar.


7. When the cream comes to temperature, use a large cooking spoon to take a few spoonfuls to temper the eggs. Then, add the eggs to the cream. Stir until your thermometer reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.


8. Remove the custard from the heat, and add it to the blender with the figs. Add the lemon juice and blend until everything is incorporated. Be careful here - you are blending hot ingredients. If you try to blend too quickly, the blender will lose its top and the contents will spill out all over the room. I suggest holding the top firmly and pulsing on low for about 10 pulses before trying to gradually increase the blender speed.


9. Put pour the contents into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard. Cool to room temperature, chill overnight, then freeze according to your ice cream machine's instructions.

Like chocolate candy?

Please go check out my new friend Anne at Chamberlain's Chocolate Factory in Norcross, GA. Today I sampled the dark chocolate with Marcona Almonds. It was great.

Cherry Sorbet

My two year old is almost three. She is now able to make requests for food that need to be taken seriously. For the past four days she has been on my case to make cherry sorbet. The poor girl is allergic to milk and nuts so she can't have ice cream. It's just plain cruel.

Here is a very basic cherry sorbet recipe. I would think you could gussy it up in a ton of ways. For example - add 1/2 teaspoon of almond or vanilla extract. Maybe mixing in some kirsch or chocolate liqueur. You can also try spices like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. I found some pomegranate molasses in the fridge, it might be a good substitute for some of the sugar or the corn syrup. Play around and have some fun.

I am in a cherry mood. I will be making a cherry ice cream soon to incorporate into an ice cream cake. The recipe will hopefully be up by the end of the weekend, but no promises.

Cherry Sorbet

About 3/8 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 pound cherries
Juice of 1/2 small lime

1. Combine the water, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. remove from the heat.


2. Pit the cherries and put them in a blender


3. Put the fruit, lime juice, sugar water into a blender and blend for 30 seconds or so, until everything is liquid.


4. Chill over night then freeze in your ice cream machine the next day.

Some great Ice Cream Links

I have updated my links including a real newbie to the scene - The Ice Cream Geek. He has just started but it looks like a promising new site.

BTW, I have a couple of weeks break between semesters ahead of me and I think there is at least one recipe in me, plus the one I still owe you for the ice cream cake.

Happy Ice Cream Month

Happy Ice Cream Month.

Slate has a brief, yet great article about commercial ice creams that use terms like "slow-churned." You can check it out here.

Hopefully next week I will have enough time to work on an ice cream idea for my friend Ivey's birthday. She has approved my idea of red velvet ice cream cake with butter pecan and cream cheese ice cream. I have a great red velvet cake recipe that I am dying to try. Of course I will share the recipe with you.

Ice Cream Social

We had a great time competing at the third annual Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social last weekend. I made some new friends and got to eat some wonderful ice creams. If there is one thing that really struck me about the event it is that ice cream is a blank canvas. It really is a great medium to experiment and be creative.

There were some amazing ice creams there, some were great, some were good ideas who needed some help with execution, and some suffered from the 95 degree temperatures. It may have been hot, but can you think of a more perfect time to eat 20+ different ice creams?

My Maple Ice Cream with Candied Bacon came in second place. The winner made strawberry ice cream with white balsamic and pepper. It was good. I tried to get the winner to guest blog the recipe, but she balked. She is launching a company making ice cream and ice cream cakes and understandably doesn't want to share. I'm going to try and work on her for something else.

Other than mine, my favorite was from Jake's Ice Cream. It is easy to understand why he is the reigning king of ice cream in Atlanta. He made Peach Cobbler Buttermilk Ice Cream. It tasted like summer. Unfortunately he fell victim to the heat and the ice cream didn't hold up well, otherwise I would have expected him to win.

Here is a highlight of some of the other flavors:

1. Mulatto chili chocolate - This was great. I had experimented with spicy ice creams before. My problem was that they really confuse the brain. As Dan??? the ice cream maker told me, spicy ice cream works, but only in a small quantity as a component of a bigger dessert. You would never think about sitting down to watch TV and eat a big bowl of the stuff. He is absolutely right.



2. Honeysuckle - one bite and I was 6 year old kid again, picking apart flowers to get to the nectar. Unfortunately, the texture didn't hold up. I would think this one would be better as a sorbet. Still, I applaud the time and effort needed to make this one. Each flower has only a tiny drop of liquid. This was a herculean effort to get enough flavor for two gallons of finished product.



3. Low fat lemon ice cream - made with nonfat milk and olive oil. Light, clean and refreshing. This stuff was so creamy you would never know it was low fat. They did it through molecular gastronomy. It was the biggest surprise. I am trying to get these guys to share the recipe.



4. Malted banana - really great. Banana ice cream is tricky if you use fresh bananas because they turn brown. They did a great job keeping the color right and it was very tasty.



5. Basil ice cream with roasted peaches - this one had a great flavor, unfortunately the chef did not bring any dry ice. As a result, it was roasted peaches in a cold cream of basil soup. Tasty for sure, but heat was her enemy. I may make a variation on this one.
   

I will repost the Maple bacon recipe in a few days.

Now is the time for me to start planning for next year. I have some ideas, but I want to hear from you. Please drop me a note here in the comments section, or at ice.cream.fellow@gmail.com.

Richard Blais just tweeted this recipe

Cole Slaw Sorbet:

1 quart cabbage juice
2 cups mayo
2 oz glucose
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon jalapeño (diced or minced I presume)
1 tablespoon black pepper

If I have translated and extrapolated this properly from Twitter, put everything into a blender and mix throughly.
Freeze in your ice cream machine, or if you are chef Blais, hit it with some pellet sized dry ice in your stand mixer.

Maple and Bacon Ice Cream

I took this one down before the Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social in case any of my competition pays attention to my blog. In case you haven't heard, this recipe won second place. The winning entry was strawberry ice cream with white balsamic and pepper. It was good. I asked the winner to share her recipe with us and she said balked. Not surprising. She is in the process of launching a company selling ice cream and ice cream cakes.

Including my recipe, there were four bacon ice creams at the contest. The other three suffered from varying degrees of two problems. First, the bacon pieces were too big. As one of the other contestants mentioned to me, cold fat is horrible to eat. Bacon pieces need to be really small or else you end up with this chewy piece of frozen bacon flavored gum. Blech. The second problem was the saltiness. Sure, the sweet salty combination is a classic in desserts. Who doesn't love salted caramel or a chocolate covered pretzel? But still, ice cream is really a sweet treat first. It is possible for ice cream to take on a more savory approach, such as my Cilantro Lime Ice Cream, but this is really the exception rather than the rule. The other bacon ice creams at the contest were desserts but much too salty. You should end with a pleasant, sweet flavor on your tongue, not one of overpowering saltiness. And this is why my ice cream was so successful.

In my recipe, the bacon's smokiness comes through with just a hint of the saltiness. I do this in two ways. First, candy the bacon to make it sweeter. Baking in the oven with the brown sugar lacquers the bacon with a dark, sweet coating that makes it more complimentary to the ice cream by masking the saltiness without affecting the smoky flavor. Second, cutting the bacon into tiny, bacon bit sized pieces. As I mentioned earlier, frozen fat is not crowd pleaser. The small pieces make it much more palatable.

I really feel that this maple bacon ice cream is the best flavor I have made. If you are a bacon lover, than you are already on board with this. If you are not, than you don't know what you are missing, but this flavor is still worth eating. Everyone who ate this one raved about it. It really tastes like frozen breakfast.

Mrs. Fellow thought the reason I came in second and not first was the meat. Some people are squeamish about bacon in ice cream. If that is the case, or if you are a vegetarian, omit the bacon and you will still have the best maple ice cream you have ever tasted.

The key to success is the maple syrup which must be pure. You don't want anything with added corn syrup or artificial flavors because it has to be reduced until it is practically sugar. I reduced the maple syrup to remove almost all of the liquid. What you are left with is a difficult to handle slag of maple sugar. This very important step concentrates the maple flavor so don't cheat by not cooking it down all the way. The less water, the more concentrated the flavor. In fact, the cooking process can even caramelize the maple syrup a bit and give it almost a coffee-like flavor accent. Maple syrup is tricky to work with, it wants to boil up and bubble over. I used a 5 quart stock pot to reduce this recipe. If it cools too much before you add it to the milk and cream, you two options push through it with a strong spoon because it will reincorporate into the milk when it gets warm again, or microwave it VERY BRIEFLY to make it mostly a liquid again.

Making the bacon is easy, I used Dave Lebovitz's recipe. I won't post it, so follow the link if you need it (don't worry, it has new window poppy goodness so you won't lose your page here). The important thing is that you use regular cut bacon and not thick cut. This helps keep it crispy. I used the center cut stuff with more meat and lower fat. Also, make sure the bacon is cut and completely cool before adding it to the ice cream.

So, without further ado, here is one of the best ice creams you will ever make and eat. This stuff rocks. You owe it to yourself to work through weirdness and try it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Maple Ice Cream with Bacon

1.5 cups of the best maple syrup you can afford
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
2.5 cups of cream
1.75 cups of milk
At least six strips of caramelized bacon, cut into bacon bit sized pieces.

1. Cook the maple syrup down to 1/2 its volume about 3/4 of a cup. This stuff tends to boil over so take it slow and low. Check it frequently and do your best to keep it away from a full boil.


2. In a medium saucepan, combine milk, cream, and syrup reduction. Stir to dissolve the maple syrup reduction. Bring to a bare simmer. Depending on the temperature when it is added, you may find that the syrup reduction solidifies. Do not fear. When you get above 160 degrees F, it will easily mix into the liquid.


3. While the milk and cream are heating, mix the yolks with the salt. Beat well.


4. Temper the eggs with the dairy mixture by slowly adding about 1/3 of the liquid(in two or three additions). Remember to whisk constantly during the tempering process. Add the eggs mixture to the remaining milk mixture. Stir constantly until the the temperature reaches 175F.


5. Cool to room temperature overnight. Freeze in your ice cream machine and add the caramelized bacon at the last minute or so of freezing.

Follow me on Twitter!

Click here for my profile. I will tweet when new recipes are posted and when ice cream is in the news. Occasionally I will tweet interesting food articles.

For those of us who use Twitter regularly, it is annoying when someone you follow tweets too much. So I promise not to overdo it.

http://twitter.com/IceCreamFellow

Mascarpone Ice Cream

If you recall my recipe for goat cheese ice cream, the result was very good and very strong. I liked that sharp flavor but it didn't pair well with anything. That problem is solved with this recipe. Mascarpone is milder, but has pronounced flavor that merges well into many desserts.

When I made the Salad du Printemps from the French Laundry Cookbook it called for mascarpone sorbet. I reinvented it as ice cream with fantastic results. This is a bit richer than the mascarpone sorbet, because of the eggs. What can I say? I really like custard bases.

If you recall from the goat cheese ice cream, you should whisk in the cheese when the custard is still warm. It helps to better infuse the cheese into the base. Mascarpone, on the other hand is much softer so you can do it when the base is room temperature. Nevertheless, this fellow suggests doing it while the ice cream base is warm because it definitely makes it easier.

If you don't have time to make the French Laundry recipe (which I will not provide), you will do just great by pairing it with chocolate almond cookies.

Mascarpone Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
3/4 cup of sugar
2 cups milk
1.5 cups cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mascarpone
pinch of salt

If you follow my recipes you should really know the drill by now, but for you newbies:

1. Heat the cream and milk with half of the sugar.


2. While the liquid is heating, beat the yolks with the remaining sugar and salt.


3. When the milk.cream mixture is at a very bare simmer, remove about 1/3 cup of it and take the pan off the heat. Slowly add the 1/3 cup liquid to the eggs to temper them. I like to do this in 3 small additions of the liquid. The slower the eggs heat, the better the final product (I don't know the science behind this, but try scrambling an egg over high heat and over low and compare the results. The low heat egg is much more appealing).


4. Pour the tempered eggs into the saucepan with the milk.cream, put the pan back on the heat. Cook stirring constantly until a thermometer reaches 175 F.


5. Pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve. Cool to room temperature then chill over night.


6. Freeze in your ice cream maker.

Strawberry-Tarragon Sorbet

We had a dinner party last weekend and Mrs. Fellow went all out. The menu was huge:

Shrimp and corn chowder
Watermelon and feta salad with Serrano Chile dressing
STRAWBERRY AND TARRAGON SORBET
Roasted leg of lamb, lyonaise pommes anna, roasted asparagus
Salad du Printemps (from the French Laundry Cookbook) - Candied fennel, rhubarb confit, mascarpone ice cream, and oranges.

I made this sorbet for the palate cleanser between the salad and main courses. It is adapted from The Sweet Life, by Kate Zuckerman. People frequently refer to sorbets as refreshing. If that is what you want, than this one won't disappoint. My daughter loves this stuff she is eating her way through the leftovers with enthusiasm.

The texture and look are very creamy despite the lack of dairy. I think you will like this one. Strong berry flavor matched with a perceptible licorice taste.

Some tips:

• You can use less than perfect berries because they macerate for a while. Just increase the maceration time if they are too tart.


• If you still find the final product to be too tart, feel free to add more sugar. However, because the mixture will be cooler and not easily rewarmed, you may want to try superfine sugar. Its smaller crystal size makes it easier for the sorbet to absorb without extra heat.

Strawberry - Tarragon Sorbet

2.5 pounds of ripe strawberries
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
2 TBL corn syrup
1 ounce fresh tarragon (left whole on the stem)

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut them in half. If the berries are not perfectly ripe, macerate them with the sugar for 10 - 15 minutes to get them nicely juicy.


2. Put the water, berries, and corn syrup into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer until the berries get very soft, about 5 minutes.


3. Add the tarragon, simmer for one more minute. Then turn off the heat and steep for 5 minutes.


4. Remove the tarragon. Puree the berries (I used a stick blender, but you can transfer to a regular blender).


5. Pass the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.


6. Cool to room temperature then chill overnight.


7. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Coming soon

Three recipes will be posted soon - Mascarpone ice cream, strawberry-tarragon sorbet, and something using bacon!

Goat Cheese Ice Cream

Once again, the recipes are getting fewer and farther between. This blog is the victim of my busy schedule. Graduate school is kicking my behind and I am barely able to manage my regular day to day life.

A few weeks ago, I made some goat cheese ice cream. Mrs. Fellow loves the goat cheese. She loves the ice cream. So why not put them together? I did, and what I got was delicious. 20 people tasted it, and all 20 loved it.

The ice cream was tangier than expected. I thought the cold would dull the flavor more. Although it works for dessert, it isn't very sweet. This causes a problem when trying to match it with other flavors.

When I made this a couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Fellow had purchased a box of clementines that were sitting idle. I think she likes the idea of clementines more than the application. Anyway, I decided to make a clementine gelee, which was delicious. But it didn't work with the goat cheese flavor. Likewise for my strawberry gelee. I liked the combination with chocolate, but Mrs. Fellow did not.

Anyway, here is the recipe. Let me know if you find a good food pairing for it.

Goat Cheese Ice Cream:

1.5 cups of goat milk
2/3 cup sugar
8 ounces goat cheese (the soft one sold in logs)
6 egg yolks
1 whole egg

1. Break up the goat cheese in a bowl big enough to accommodate it and the goat's milk. This is messy business, but will make the incorporation of the cheese easier.


2. Mix the egg yolks, whole egg with 1/3 cup of sugar. Beat thoroughly.


3. Heat the milk and the 1/3 cup of the sugar to a bare simmer.


4. Temper the egg yolks with the warm goats milk. Do this by slowly adding about 1/3 of a cup of the milk while stirring the eggs.


5. Add the egg mixture into the goat milk pot. Cook, stirring constantly until the thermometer reaches a temperature of 175 degrees F.


6. Strain the mixture into the bowl with the goat cheese. Mix thoroughly until all the goat cheese is incorporated.


7. Cool to room temperature (you can use an ice bath to speed up the process).

Cover with plastic wrap on the surface of the ice cream mix. Chill at least four hours, but preferably overnight. Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Coffee Ice Cream

I know it has taken a very long time for me to get my next recipe out. I have had more than a few complaints. My idea for a recipe failed miserably. That means its back to the drawing board. The flavor was based on coffee ice cream. It didn't work but I made enough ice cream to experiment with a couple of ideas. Luckily this one came out better than I could have imagined.

The coffee ice cream recipe is directly lifted from Dave Lebovitz's book called "The Perfect Scoop," so I will not post it. Buy his book, he has some great recipes. My addition is this "cookie." Use Nabisco Famous Wafers for this. There is no subsititution. One box should make just enough crumbs. You won't find them in the cookie aisle because they are almost always with the chocolate syrup and hot fudge in the ice cream aisle.

Chocolate Almond Cookie:

1.5 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
1 cup of blanched almonds, toasted
1/3 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of butter, melted

1. Crush the cookies, sugar, and almonds in a food processor until they are a finely chopped. Put the contents in a mixing bowl.


2. Add the melted butter mix together with the crumbs until it is fully incorporated.


3. Spread the mixture into a single 1/4 inch layer on a a baking sheet.


4. Using a ramikin or small prep bowl, press on the cookie to pack it tight. This will allow it to bake and form into a hard solid mass.


5. Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.


6. Remove and let completely cool.


7. Break the cookie into bite sized pieces and incorporate into the ice cream during the last minuted of freezing time.

National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

Again, I am not a very good blogger. I am the process of moving and I have not yet set up my kitchen and one of my computers died. Shame on me. In the meantime I have had to subside on Ben and Jerry's. Although I will share with you that the Fellows had one of the best frozen dessert experiences in a long time at a restaurant in Atlanta called Aja. The dessert consisted of coconut sorbet, lemongrass sorbet and strawberry gelee was served to us in a young coconut. Absolutely outstanding. I want to track down the creator of this masterpiece and have him or her guest blog for us.

The first Saturday in February is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. This year, it will be on Feb. 7th. Mark your calendars and plan for it. I am going to have a bowl of banana ice cream in my cereal to honor the late Mr. Robbins (of Baskin-Robins). It was his breakfast of choice.

Life gets in the way again

There seems to be no good time for me post. I was really hoping to catch up over the holidays while school was out. Instead, I bought a house and simultaneously got pneumonia. New recipes are forthcoming.

The National Ice Cream Retailers had their annual convention and gave out the following accolades:

Vanilla Ice Cream: Blue Ribbons
Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, Shelby Township, MI (Vanilla, Vanilla Bean & French Vanilla)
Capannari Ice Cream, Mt. Prospect, IL
Diamond Star Ventures, Inc. dba Classics Frozen Custard (Frozen Custard), Ruidoso, NM
Gifford’s Dairy Inc., Skowhegan, ME
Karen’s Kreamery, Surprise, AZ
MaggieMoo’s International, Norcross, GA
Smith Dairy, Orrville, OH
Sno Top Ltd., Manlius, NY

Vanilla Ice Cream: Red Ribbons
Anderson’s Frozen Custard, Williamsville, NY
Corn Hill Creamery, Rochester, NY
Chocolate Shopppe Ice Cream (Old Fashioned Vanilla), Madison, WI

Vanilla Ice Cream: White Ribbons
Avondale Dairy Bar, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Smith Dairy Products Co., Orrville, OH (Organic Vanilla Bean), Orrville, OH

Strawberry Ice Cream: Blue Ribbons
Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream, Madison, WI
Gifford’s Dairy Inc., Skowhegan, ME
Karen’s Kreamery, Surprise, AZ
Smith Dairy Products Co., Orrville, OH

Strawberry Ice Cream: Red Ribbons
Anderson’s Frozen Custard, Williamsville, NY
Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream, Shelby Township, MI
Avondale Dairy Bar, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Double Dip, Lebanon, OH
MaggieMoo’s International, Norcross, GA

Strawberry Ice Cream: White Ribbon
Corn Hill Creamery, Rochester, NY

If you happen to live near any of these shops please check them out. If you get a chance drop me line and let me know if they really are as good as the judges said they were.