promised updates

Two updates on things I’ve mentioned but never followed through about:

1) The latest ice cream experiment was a success.  We had a “going away” lunch for one of my friends at work and she requested I make ice cream, so I made her tell me what flavor she wanted.  She decided on chocolate chip.  But I knew I couldn’t just make vanilla ice cream and add chocolate chips.

The only time I added chocolate chips was to my coffee ice cream, and I found that you couldn’t even taste the chocolate because it was so hard and cold.  I wanted to try to replicate the amazing chips you find in Graeter’s ice cream, because they’re soft and really chocolatey and incredible.

I thought that if I could melt the chocolate and then put it in the ice cream while it was freezing, so that the chocolate hardened with the ice cream, that might be part of the solution.  Then I found this recipe for stracciatella gelato, which is like chocolate chip only better– because the chocolate is more distributed through the gelato.

But I was a little weirded out by the recipe calling for gelatin and dry milk.

I went with it.

And I’m glad I did.  It definitely didn’t turn out like Graeter’s, but it was still really delicious.  I loved how the chocolate was in chunks and strips and was sort of all over the ice cream.  You could really taste it.  And while I love vanilla, I really liked that the ice cream base was really milk-y tasting and not as vanilla (which makes sense, since there was tons of cream/milk and barely any vanilla).  It would be a nice base to a lot of other ice creams — peanut butter, any candy mix, etc.

The ice cream wasn’t creamy enough for my liking.  I’m not sure if it’s because it called for more milk and less cream (ala gelato) or what part the gelatin might have played in the consistency.  So I’m looking forward to playing around with it and seeing what happens.

I do think I’ll be using that technique whenever I want to add chocolate chip/chunk/pieces to a recipe, though.  (can we say ‘mint chocolate chip’???)  It was delicious!!

No pictures this time.  I’ll make it again!

2) Awhile back, I asked my readers to pray to St. Frances of Rome for a special intention. And then I told you I’d update you when she answered my prayer.  Well, I wrote that in the evening of June 27 and she had answered my prayer by the morning!

My friend Megan and I are going to Rome!  When I asked for prayers, we were really struggling to find a place to stay within budget.   I was getting lots of “we have no room” emails from religious houses!  Thanks to prayers and the patroness of our trip, we are staying in the house of St Frances of Rome in Trastevere, which is now a religious house and open to pilgrims.  We’re so thrilled to be staying with her, next door to St. Cecilia’s, that we didn’t mind going a bit over our original budget.

I’m so excited about our trip that I try not to think about it too often.  And the crazy thing about our trip is that we don’t have any set plans. We have a night in Assisi and six days in Rome.  Other than that — we’re just eating, praying, and visiting old friends — St Cecilia, St Catherine, St Monica, St Peter…

I love to show people around the city — I love, love, love being a tour guide — but there’s going to be something really fun about just being.  We both studied over there, so we don’t have to rush around and see everything.  We can just be.  Yay!!

Roma, I’ve missed you!

a daring experiment

I was asked to make ice cream for a little lunch we’re having for a friend tomorrow, and, in classic style, I’m trying a new recipe.

Why do I always do this?

All of my other recipes were pretty straight-forward.  Cream, milk, vanilla, sugar.

This one called for some special ingredients.  And on top of that, I want to try a little experiment with melted chocolate.

It’s in the machine now.  Stay tuned.

espresso, anyone?

One of department chairs at work mentioned that his favorite ice cream was Häagen-Dazs coffee.  This wasn’t earth-shattering, given his love of coffee.  (he’s the one that taught me how to make a pot of drip coffee.  When I was 26 years old.  True story.)

So last weekend I began researching coffee ice cream recipes.   Most of them called for instant coffee, which I didn’t have, so I began searching for espresso ice cream recipes.  The only coffee I had in my apartment was espresso for my Moka pot, so I knew I had to craft my recipe around that.

The recipe I found was a gelato recipe, calling for a 2 parts milk to 1 part cream.  It also called for eggs, and it also made more than a quart and a half (my ice cream maker’s max).

So I set about tweaking the recipe to make what I could.

These were the stars of the recipe:

I decided on a whim to mix in chocolate.  It was my first attempt at a “mix-in,” and I figured you can’t go wrong with good dark chocolate.

My machine didn’t seem crazy about the mix-in (you add it in the last five minutes of mixing), but I’d do it again.  I don’t think I will get such good chocolate next time because the chocolate ends up being so cold, you can’t really taste if it’s good quality or not.  In fact, I was debating whether I should have put it in at all, but everyone said it was good, and my friend Liza said it added a nice texture.

Someday, I’ll learn the secret to Graeter’s chips.  Their chocolate pieces are perfect — not hard, sort of soft and malleable.  It completely “makes” the ice cream.  Mmm, strawberry chip ice cream at Graeters… Yummy…

Anyway, the ice cream got thumbs up all around at work.

I asked for constructive criticism since it was the first recipe I’ve just made up.  But they didn’t have much, mostly because they didn’t have any criticism. My thoughts:

•  I think I would play around with the milk-cream ratio to see if less cream would bring out the coffee flavor more.  A heavy cream content, I think, tends to coat the tongue, and I wonder if that masked the coffee a bit.
• Maybe the use of espresso instead of instant coffee diluted the coffee taste, too.  I don’t like Starbucks coffee, but I was thinking their VIA instant might be the best bet in that regard.
• I’m still debating the use of chips.

Those are my thoughts.

I’m up for suggestions… what should my next adventure be?

Branching out

When I was on vacation with my sister and her family, Jill asked if I had ever thought about making strawberry ice cream.  I hadn’t made ice cream since before Lent, and with the machine in the closet (out of sight, out of temptation) I hadn’t really thought about it lately.

The next time I was at the grocery store, strawberries were on sale…  So I picked up some whole milk and some half and half, and decided to give it a shot.

I may have pulverized some of the strawberries a bit too much.

I just used the recipe from the Cusinart book that came with the machine.  It was pretty straightforward — a basic ice cream base (no eggs) with strawberries thrown in.  They recommended fresh, but frozen would be fine too.

My friend Liza had given me cute individual styrofoam containers, so I filled them and took them all the work.  I’ve learning from past mistakes — It’s best to share the fruit of your labor with everyone at work rather than eat it all yourself.  And these little containers make it so easy to share.

I asked everyone to be honest in their critique so I could improve the recipe.  I didn’t hear many complaints!  One taster said it was the best homemade ice cream he’s ever tasted… but we’ll see what he says after he tastes this weekend’s experiment.  It was my first time really tweaking a recipe, such that I really made my own recipe.  Details to follow…

attempt 5 & attempt 6

I’ve been commissioned to make ice cream for a baby shower, so I had an excuse to make more ice cream (and not eat it myself).  I can only make a quart and a half at a time, and I need to let the bowl freeze in between batches, so I needed to plan ahead.

I took the opportunity to make the Mexican vanilla batch with eggs, and that turned out well.  (Attempt 5)  I haven’t decided if I like it better than Mexican vanilla without eggs, but there is definitely more body to it.  I had a double batch of that, so I should have about half a gallon.

Then I had a decision to make.  What flavor!?

And then a half-eaten jar of Nutella sealed the deal.  It needed to go before Lent, so it was going in ice cream.

I found this recipe.

And I fell in love.

This stuff is amazing.  (I’m sorry for all of you reading this tomorrow morning.)

First flavor attempt: successful!

attempt #4

Allow me to introduce to you the star of batch #4:

Mexican vanilla beans and extract!

I ordered the Mexican vanilla from Blue Cattle Truck Trading Co. to ensure that there wasn’t any coumarin in it.  It wasn’t cheap, but I was hoping it was worth it.

I ended up using the recipe I used for my very first batch of vanilla ice cream, a simple recipe that didn’t have a custard (egg) base.  I made the base the day before I was going to make the ice cream, because I think it sets up nicer when the base has been in the refrigerator for awhile.  However, I forgot to stick the ice cream bowl in the freezer, so when I went to make the ice cream, I couldn’t.   Then I went out of town, so my base sat in my refrigerator a few extra days.  I assumed it would be fine, but when I went to pull it out, there appeared to be a little film on the top– almost like the frothy top of the base had separated from the rest of the base.  I stirred it around, but the film still seemed to remain, so I simply poured it through the strainer as I poured it into the ice cream maker bowl and hoped for the best.

I know you’re probably sick of seeing pictures of tupperware containers full of vanilla ice cream, but here we go again:

Verdict: the flavor is definitely different from the regular Madagascar vanilla that we’re used to using.  I can’t really describe it, which makes blogging about it hard.  It’s a stronger flavor and richer than Madagascar.

I had some of the gelato-attempt left, so I did a taste test.  You can obviously tell which is the gelato (which contained eggs) and which is the newest batch (no eggs):

Please don’t judge me and the fact that I eat ice cream every evening.  (I don’t really.)

I’m anxious to try a custard base with the Mexican vanilla now.  I really liked the flavor of the Mexican vanilla, and I think I’ll be using it in other baked goods, too.  It probably wouldn’t be worth it to use in something like brownies, but I’m wondering how it would affect my sister’s famous chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies.  Since her recipe calls for an insane amount of vanilla, I think you would be able to taste a difference.

I’ve been commissioned to make ice cream for a baby shower, so I’m going to branch out and make a few different flavors.  It’s exciting to make it for other people too, and it’ll be my last big hurrah before Lent comes and the ice cream maker is packed away for 40 days.   I’m thinking of trying to make coffee, pistachio, or strawberry, and then probably that custard-based Mexican vanilla.  I don’t think I could get a chocolate ice cream that was chocolate-y enough, so I probably won’t even try.

As always, stay tuned.

(And could someone come down here and help me eat all of this?)

third attempt

While waiting to receive my Mexican vanilla and vanilla beans in the mail, I decided to try the french vanilla gelato recipe found in Making Artisan Gelato.  There were two vanilla recipes in the book — this one claimed to be closer to gelato than ice cream.  The other one (called “Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Gelato,” although both recipes called for Madagascar bourbon vanilla) omitted the eggs and called for equal parts cream and milk, to make up for the richness the eggs would normally bring.  In the description of that one, the book admitted it was closer to ice cream.

So I went with the French Vanilla gelato, which called for two cups of whole milk to one cup of cream.  (The other two recipes I’ve tried so far had both been ice cream recipes, and likewise called for two cups of cream and one cup of whole milk.)

I followed the recipe closely to make the custard correctly, something I hadn’t done in my last ice cream attempt, although the custard seemed to turn out fine then.

Verdict: My first taste, before putting it in the freezer to harden properly, tells me that this one is going to be my favorite yet.  Of course, it’s impossible to compare them all fairly because I’m not tasting them side-by-side.  But if I would have had to guess before tasting, I would have said that my first taste of this one was at an unfair disadvantage because I was tasting it on a full stomach, after having already eaten dessert tonight.  (which is one reason I merely tasted it, and didn’t eat a whole bowl.)

I thought the vanilla came out more in this one.  That could be for a number of reasons:

1) I am finally learning how to scrape the vanilla bean to its full potential

2) I dumped in extra extract  (3/4 t is nothing.  Really…)

3) I made the custard better this time?

4) The fat of the cream is not interfering with my taste buds.

I sort of made that last one up.  But it makes sense in my head.

Try as I might, it’s impossible for me to change the recipes just slightly enough so as to have a “control” in my experiments.  But my first impression is that I like this one the best.  I’ll have to wait and judge creaminess and consistency (which is where I really expect to taste a difference) once it freezes up a little more.

One thing that annoys me with the homemade ice cream making process (which I can’t help) is that the edge of the mix gets the coldest (obviously, since it’s right next to the cold bowl) and so it hardens up a lot more than the rest of the mix.   So you’re left with these really hard pieces (you can kind of see them in the last picture). I can’t really do anything about that, though.  It’s still delicious.

Next attempt: Mexican vanilla!

UPDATE:  Verdict — not my favorite.  I suppose that a gelato recipe requires a gelato maker.  As you would expect from a recipe with more milk than cream, the gelato turned out almost icy and not as creamy as the other attempts.   Now I need to decide what recipe to use for my Mexican vanilla.  I’m thinking of using the first (the one sans eggs) because I think the vanilla flavor will come out the most in that one.

second try

This weekend I continued my quest to make the best vanilla ice cream.  This time I followed David Lebovitz’s recipe almost exactly (I say “almost” because I’m sure I did something differently or wrong), instead of using a blend of the Cusinart recipe and his recipe, like I did last time.  So the major difference between the first batch and the second?  Egg yolks.

I used to think that ice cream with egg yolks is automatically custard, but I’ve since found that’s not true.  A lot of premium ice creams have egg yolks in them.  For it to be custard, it must have 10%  milkfat and 1.4% egg yolk solid.  I’m not exactly sure how to measure that, so I’m not sure if I made custard or ice cream.  I’m thinking since David calls it ice cream, it must be ice cream.

…Although I used six egg yolks instead of five.  Ha!  See, I told you I probably did something differently.  It just took me a little bit to figure out what exactly.  So maybe I made custard.  Who knows.

My hope was that the addition of the eggs would give some more body to the ice cream so it would be less airy than the first attempt.   I know that my ice creams will always be more airy than gelato, for example, because ice cream makers, by the sheer nature of how they work, incorporate more air into the substance during churning.  Ice cream can contain almost 50% air (think McDonald’s soft serve), versus gelato that has more like 25%.  Gelato makers churn at a lower speed.

What I made today is not gelato because (besides the whole air thing that I don’t have much control over) it has 2 cups of heavy cream and one cup of milk, just like my first recipe.  Gelato usually has the reverse — 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 cups of milk.

Okay, enough talking– here’s my second attempt:

I was surprised that the mix wasn’t more yellow; but I guess when you add two cups of heavy cream, it dilutes the egg mixture enough!

Notice there are more “black dots” this time — I did a better job scraping out the vanilla bean, I think.

Verdict: This recipe definitely has more body than the first, although not to the extent I hoped.  It is richer than the first, but isn’t custard-tasting.  I’m contemplating adding more vanilla extract in the future, too — both batches have been delicious, but haven’t hit me over the head with their vanilla taste.  Maybe that’s a good thing, but that’s what I need to figure out.

Future plans also include using a gelato recipe (more whole milk, less heavy cream) and also tracking down some Mexican vanilla and seeing what difference that makes.  Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Just purchased some Mexican vanilla!  The quest continues…

the quest to make the best

What better kind of ice cream to begin my quest than vanilla?  I don’t think it’s the easiest, necessarily — in fact, it might be among the hardest.  I think the texture and flavor profile of vanilla has to be superb because it can’t hide behind accessories like nuts and chocolate chunks.

But it’s among my favorite flavors, and I thought it just made sense to go with vanilla.

I used a recipe that came with the ice cream maker, but then veered off a bit and used a vanilla bean in addition to the extract that it called for (and therefore used slightly less extract).  I used both a Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean and Madagascar vanilla extract, so I’d be interested in the future to change it up a bit and use Tahitian or Mexican instead.

The milk, sugar, and salt cooked a little bit with the vanilla, then seeped for awhile.  This is when I realized I probably should have a strainer.  Oh well — a good eye and a spoon would have to do.

Then the vanilla-sugar-milk mixture was added to the heavy cream and vanilla extract.  After all that was mixed, it went into the refrigerator overnight.

Then it went into my beautiful orange ice cream mixer!

Around and around she goes!  It didn’t take long…

I’m sorry… if you don’t think that looks yummy… there’s something wrong with you.

It’s now in the freezer, getting a little harder.  But based on my first taste, it’s fantastic.  It was light and airy,  so definitely not gelato-like … but really delicious.   I was glad I used both the vanilla bean and the vanilla extract, even though the black flecks d0n’t stand out like they do in store-bought ice cream.  It would be interesting to compare it to ice cream only made with extract, because this was definitely a great level of vanilla-ness.

I’m tempted to become a connoisseur of vanilla ice cream and forget all those other flavors! Stay tuned for more ice cream-making endeavors.

UPDATE:  I couldn’t really wait for it to get much harder before I tried a bowl.  My friend Maria and I agreed that it was so light, it was almost more marshmallow-y than ice-cream-y.  I might make a batch with eggs soon and see what I think about that.  In the meantime, I need to work on my adjectives.

PS The bowls were part of my Christmas present too.  Pretty adorable, huh?