HELLO, MY NAME IS ICE CREAM
By Dana Cree
Represented by Number one agent
Super Awesome Literary Agency
Book Proposal Table of Contents
Overview
How to Use This Book
Overall Look and Feel with Sample Illustrations
Author Bio
Press Clippings and Videos
Illustrator Bio
Table of Contents
Extended Table of Contents
Sample Writing:
The Science
Controlling Water
Ice Cream Stabilizers: Less Scary Than You Think
Sample Headnotes
Sample Recipes
OVERVIEW
There is hardly a book on ice cream that hasn’t passed through my hands. My bookshelves at home have been sagging with the weight of books filled with scoops and sundaes for as many years as I have been cooking and baking. It goes without saying, I love them all. When I first sat down to write this book, I took to my desk chair with my back turned to the shelves stocked with these frosty tomes. As I placed my fingers on the keyboard, I stopped and turned back around. I looked at each book, and thought about why I carried that book from the bookstore into my home, what it introduced me to, and what I am looking for when I open it today.
I decided it would best serve readers if I wrote the book I wanted to find the first time I started to make ice cream, long before I wandered into the halls of culinary school. As an eager but inexperienced cook I wanted a book that would teach me how the heck ice cream was made in the first place, and was filled with pages that suggested amazing flavors I couldn’t wait to make and devour.
But then I remembered the books I looked for as I grew more experienced. I wanted more than a collection of recipes. I wanted a book that taught me why my ice creams were or weren’t working when I started to get creative and tweak the recipes, or more so, why they worked at all. I wanted to understand the science behind the ice cream.
As I recalled the last few years, as my understanding of ice cream grew deeper, I thought of the books I now wanted. Books that would allow me to be the mastermind, providing the creative voice for the flavors. I wanted a book to give me the tools to invent my own flavors that would rival what I saw in scoop shops and the grocery store.
It became clear, I would write a book that could be all of those things for you, gently guiding you through some of your first scoops, informing you of the how’s and whys, and finally acting as a tool if you want to dive in head first and invent flavors of your own.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book, if you only scratch the surface, will provide you with many, many recipes you can make for any occasion. Otherwise you can make use of all three sections of this book in your ice cream adventures.
The opening section of this book is called “The Knowledge.” I’m going to be honest, I almost always skip through these sections, flipping past pictures of pots and machines, diving right into the recipes, back tracking when I come across parts of the recipes I have questions about. Therefore, this section is written as a field guide, providing reference information on the ice cream makers commonly available, small appliances that make quick work of the recipes, and sharing a list of tools I find indispensable. The ingredient section will describe the core ingredients used in ice cream making, and demystify some of the less common ingredients. Most importantly, this section will describe the importance of working with a ratio when making ice cream, why I favor metric measurements, and why I so adamantly encourage the use of a digital scale in the home kitchen. Those wishing to dive deeper into the whys and how’s of the science behind ice cream should find all they desire in this section as well, with a lesson on the 5 structural components of ice cream.
Feel free to start this book on any page that strikes your fancy, and use it backwards or forwards. Above all, this book is my way to share with you my life long love of eating ice cream, and the things my career as a pastry chef has taught me about making it. My biggest hope is that these pages fuel your passion for ice cream!
The section titled “The Recipes” will walk you through the basics, such as a lovely vanilla custard, a deep chocolate, or perhaps a nice strawberry buttermilk sherbet. You’ll learn how to infuse your ice creams with herbs, teas, and spices, and how to use different flavored sugars. I’ll show you the difference between ice creams made with eggs and without. I will teach you why sherbet is the best way to add fruit to ice cream, and how to turn your favorite yogurt into a killer fro-yo.
This section will also include chapters for some really stellar add-ins. You’ll be able to create a deeply chocolate cookie crumb for a perfect cookies and cream, ribbons of thick caramel, and more unique items like pretzel toffee or butterscotch crumble that will add another dimension to your ice creams. You’ll find a recipe for chocolate chunks that melt in your mouth inside a scoop of ice cream, avoiding the unfortunate fate most chocolate chunks suffer: becoming hard to chew and waxy at frozen temperatures. Many of these recipes can double as ice cream toppings, scattered across any ice cream you like, and would make for a top-notch sundae bar at your next gathering when you show off your new ice cream skills!
In the section titled “The Scoops” you’ll find my favorite flavors: twists on classics I grew up on and unique flavors that draw from my experience in both the savory and sweet side of restaurant kitchens around the world. These scoops will all use two or more of the recipes you’ll find in the recipe section. Not only will this section teach you how to make my favorite flavors, but it should stand as an example on how to make your own unique flavors from the recipes I provide. I like to think of these recipes as Legos. Much like a Lego kit, you can follow the instructions and recreate what is pictured, or you can design something of your own.
For example, Ricky’s Coffee Pretzel Toffee begins with the recipe for cold press coffee ice cream and packs it with shattered pieces of pretzel toffee and chocolate chunks. Maybe you would rather to run a ribbon of caramel through the coffee ice cream, and add chunks of cookie dough. Or maybe you’re really wild and want to add caramel and cookie dough to bourbon-brown sugar ice cream! The sky is the limit.
You’ll also learn how to create swirl flavors by following the instructions for cheesecake Neapolitan, blood orange creamsicle, or rainbow sherbet. Once you master this technique you’ll be able to pair any two or three flavors together you like! Bourbon brown sugar next to peach sherbet? Why not! Roasted chestnut next to raspberry? If you insist.
OVERALL LOOK AND FEEL WITH SAMPLE ILLUSTRATIONS
I’ve always been drawn to Anna Posey’s illustrations. They are playful without being childish, whimsical but never silly, and never limited to one medium. These are words I would use to describe my own style when it comes to ice cream, and a marriage of our similar style will bring a powerful visual aspect to the written essays and recipes included in this book.
I envision her broad range of illustrative style showing what a photographic image of a scoop of ice cream can’t. We will use watercolor washes over pen and ink sketches of the ingredients included, and playful suggestions of the emotions evoked by ice cream. For example, a photograph of root beer ice cream would visually be a brown scoop. Anna’s use of illustration mixed with photography could place that brown scoop on a piece of paper over an illustrated ice cream cone, with the ingredients that comprise the complex flavor scattered around, their names drawn next to them; cinnamon, clove, ginger, lemon, orange, mint, brown sugar, vanilla, and sassafras.
Anna will also illustrate the pages containing the science behind ice cream to help with understanding, breaking up the heady text with lighthearted visual cues.
Because Anna also works as a pastry chef as well as an illustrator, she brings a deep understanding of the material in the book, which will increase her ability to visually represent it, making an incredible contribution to the visual appeal of this book.
Anna’s sample illustrations and food styling can be seen here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/omh4cdsq1z54hg7/AAAtk_mTWCB94rVji90V8qnaa?dl=0
AUTHOR BIO
A Seattle native, Dana Cree began her culinary journey in 2000, studying at The Art Institute of Seattle. Cree worked in the savory side of the kitchen for three years at Seattle’s Lampreia, before heeding her pastry calling. After a lengthy stage at The Fat Duck, in Bray, England, in early 2005, Cree returned to Seattle and assumed the role of pastry chef at Eva. There she honed her flavor-focused and detail-oriented style.
Cree spent several highly influential weeks staging with Alex Stupak at WD-50 in New York. Upon returning to Seattle, she took the helm at Veil. It was there that she explored modernist technique in a fine-dining setting, putting to use lessons learned at WD-50 and The Fat Duck.
When Veil closed in 2008, Cree joined the opening team at Poppy. There she continued to refine and focus her concepts, crafting exciting and accessible plates, fit for the high-volume setting. Her work at Poppy earned her recognition from StarChefs, who presented her with a Rising Star award in 2009.
Cree left Seattle in 2010, and after a stage at Noma in Copenhagen, she returned to the States to work at Alinea in Chicago. There she learned to push the boundaries of possibility. Later that year Cree found herself back in Denmark, as the pastry chef at Kadeau restaurant, on the island of Bornholm. There she immersed herself in Baltic products and a New Nordic minimalist style.
When Kadeau closed for the harsh Scandinavian winter, Cree returned to the States, positioning herself under the tutelage of Sherry Yard at Spago Beverly Hills. There she revisited classic techniques and learned to foster strong relationships with area farmers.
Cree returned to Chicago in 2012, where she now draws on her broad range of experiences as the pastry chef at Blackbird and avec. Nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef by the James Beard Foundation in 2014 and 2015, and honored with the Jean Banchet Pastry Chef of the Year award in 2014, her thoughtful, nuanced, and resoundingly delicious desserts perfectly culminate the divergent dining experiences of both restaurants.
In the summer of 2015 Cree resigned from her position at Blackbird to expand her thoughtful and nostalgic line of ice cream, called Hello My Name Is Ice Cream under her new role as Partner and Culinary Director for 1871 Dairy.
For insights into Dana Cree’s culinary exploits, visit ThePastryDepartment.com, a Saveur Best Food Blog Finalist of 2014 and www.helloicecreamchicago.com
PRESS CLIPPINGS
Food and Wine Magazine….The Year Of The Pastry Chef
http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/the-year-of-the-pastry-chef
Tribune Dining Award 2015
http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/chi-dana-cree-of-blackbird-20150106-story.html
Pastry Chef of the Year- Jean Banchet- 2014
http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct-jean-banchet-award-winners-20150130-story.html
Saveur Best Food Blog Finalist- 2014: www.ThePastryDepartment.com
Tasting Table Best Pastry Chef 2013
http://www.tastingtable.com/bestpastrychefs2013#page_id=page0
Saveur 20th anniversary Birthday Cake
http://www.saveur.com/gallery/20th-anniversary-birthday-cakes?image=17
Dana Cree Takes Ice Cream to the Next Level- Brooklyn Magazine
http://www.bkmag.com/2014/08/12/blackbirds-dana-cree-takes-ice-cream-to-the-next-level/
Dana Cree Is A Magical Human Being- The Stranger- 2011
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/theres-no-wrong-way-to-eat-dessert/Content?oid=3994893
Hello My Name Is Ice Cream- Zagat
https://www.zagat.com/b/chicago/Behind-the-Scenes-Ice-Cream-Making-at-Blackbird
Lottie + Doof
http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2015/05/lottie-doof-dana-cree/
Medium
https://medium.com/the-egg-beat/dana-cree-a-modernist-classic-b0f4db91aa98
Seattle PI
Upper Stories
http://blog.thompsonhotels.com/2014/12/pleasure-in-pastry/
VIDEOS
The Science of Perfection…. Warring
http://www.waringcommercialproducts.com/videos.php?pcID=&video_id=31
Making Frozen Yogurt on WGN
http://wgntv.com/2014/09/29/lunchbreak-chef-dana-cree-makes-lemon-frozen-yogurt/
Ellement Collective Steamed Pumpkin Cake
http://elementcollective.com/2014/05/a-taste-of-pumpkin-steam-cake-by-blackbirds-dana-cree/
Anthony Bourdain No Reservations, Pacific Northwest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Z0h3NeXF8
Minute 33
ILLUSTRATOR BIO
Anna Posey currently lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband, David Posey. Anna has a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in Fine Arts. She is currently working as the Pastry Chef for the Publican and Publican Quality Meats, in Chicago. As a chef in a ‘farm-to-table’ based restaurant group, she feels lucky to be surrounded by such beautiful foods, flowers and wildlife on a daily basis. She hopes to bring the repetitive beauty and playfulness of nature into her works.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream
Introduction
Section 1: The Knowledge: A Field Guide to Ice Cream
Chapter 1 The Equipment
Chapter 2 The Ingredients
Chapter 3 The Science
Section 2: The Recipes: Formulas for Making Ice Cream
Chapter 4 Ice Cream
Chapter 5 Custards
Chapter 6 Sherbets and Frozen Yogurt
Chapter 7 Add-Ins
Section 3: The Scoops: Composing Ice Creams
Chapter 8 A Colorful Spectrum of Composed Scoops
Pink-Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue and Purple
Browns
Whites
EXTENDED TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 1: The Knowledge: A Field Guide to Ice Cream
Ice Cream is one of life’s simplest pleasures, a treat for the youngest of children, and a delight for every generation above. Making ice cream should also be simple, provided you play by the rules. Were this a cartoon, a 10-foot scroll of rules would unravel, tumbling across the floor. Yes, there are a lot of rules to ice cream, and the more of them you follow, the higher quality your ice cream will be. If you think about it, ice cream is a liquid (sugar doesn’t freeze) a solid (ice crystals) and a gas (air whipped in) at the same time. Getting all three states of matter to exist next to each other isn’t easy, and you can exercise vast amounts of knowledge in pursuit of perfecting the nuances of this texture.
I spent the first 3 years of my restaurant career making ice cream in home ice cream makers, by following simple recipes I found in cookbooks without any understanding of why ingredients did what they did. I simply followed the recipe and learned there are a few unbreakable rules about ice cream, a few that really need to be followed, and some that just make your life easier. I gathered a roster of equipment that is essential to making a nice ice cream, and learned that a bag of ice purchased from the store is a home ice cream makers BFF.
About 6 years into my career, I took a job at an uber-modern molecular restaurant called Veil. Veil had a different ice cream machine than the home models I’d been using or the professional batch freezers found in pastry departments with nice budgets, and all my tried and true recipes began to fail. This machine, the Pacojet, chewed up my ice cream bases, literally, and spit out grainy, icy, un-creamy messes. When I started asking around about my failures I couldn’t see that I was opening up the biggest can of worms I’d encounter in my career. Since then, I’ve been absorbing information about ice cream ravenously, and will leave a large amount of that knowledge here in these pages, for the most curious of ice cream makers.
Above and beyond, these are guidelines. These rules are simply best case scenarios, great suggestions for getting you from a pint of milk to a superior pint of ice cream with success. Just as you can dive into the deep end of this creamy pool as I have, you can also splash around in the shallow end and have equally as good a time. I don’t want these rules to frighten anyone away from trying their hand at ice cream. Above all, ice cream is a simple and delicious pleasure, and I’ve yet to see any homemade ice cream left behind to melt.
Chapter 1: The Equipment
The Machines
- Why you need a kitchen scale
- Different ice cream machines
- Blenders, food processors, and juicers
The Essentials
- A bag of ice! (your best friend when making ice cream)
- Heavy-bottomed pots
- Metal or glass work bowls
- Fine-mesh strainers
- A whisk and a spatula
- A microplane
Chapter 2: The Ingredients
Core Ingredients
Stabilizers (Less Scary Than You Think)
Adding Flavors
- Infusions, herbs, spices, teas, bananas
- Fruits
- Chocolates
- Additional sugars
Chapter 3: The Science
Five Components of Ice Creams
- Sugar, fat, air, ice, other solids
* Putting the ice in ice cream—or not
* Sugar: just a big softie
* Fat: friend not foe
* The air in there
* Solid matter
Ratios!
- Structural necessity of the ratio
- Staying true: how to adjust ingredients within a ratio
Energy Transfer: heating things up and cooling things down
- The ice bath
- Curing your base overnight
- Churning time
- Hard freezing
Section 2: The Recipes: Formulas for Making Ice Cream
The pages following in this section contain the working soul of this book. Here I’ll introduce you to the four styles of base: ice cream, custard, sherbets, and frozen yogurt. Each of these types of base can stand alone, and be served as-is, any way you like.
In culinary school, I was taught the classic French technique, to thicken your ice cream base with egg yolks, giving it a rich custardy quality and a velvety mouth feel. You’re likely to be most familiar with this style if you’ve had Haggen Daaz, which knocked American’s socks off in the 80’s when they released their richer, denser line of ice creams into grocery stores.
Ice Cream shops around America favor an eggless technique. This is sometimes referred to as Philadelphia style, or American style to differentiate it from it’s custardy French cousin. American style ice creams are rich in butterfat rather then egg yolk, and are lighter texturally, as the cream whips just like whipped cream when churned.
Sherbets are no stranger to the ice cream eating masses, most often consumed as a rainbow of flavors. However, one of the most common questions I’m asked is to explain what makes a sherbet a sherbet. Standardized definitions are informed by percentages of sugar, milk content, and PH levels, but nothing that provided me with an explanation I could give to friends. This forced me to distinguish what I considered a sherbet by creating a family of them. Halfway between a rich American style ice cream and a sorbet, the sherbet recipes I’ve created contain a whopping 25 percent fruit, and are finished with bright buttermilk. I’ve come to believe these sherbets are the best way to include fruit in an ice cream, and they always turn the most vivid colors.
Frozen yogurts are my favorite ice creams to make at home. I love the bright acidity of frozen yogurt, which balances the sugar necessary in ice cream brilliantly. Frozen yogurts require the least amount of time and energy to transform liquid dairy into frozen ice cream. Instead, I put my efforts into finding the most delicious yogurt I can get my hands on.
Through the years of making ice creams, I began to let the flavor dictate the style of ice cream I would make. Lemon custard is rich and subtle, lemon ice cream is bright and creamy, lemon sherbet is lean and bracing, and lemon frozen yogurt is tart and supple. However, other flavors don’t play as well with every style. I have found deeper, rounder flavors like spices, teas, liquor, caramels, honey, and nuts work best in custards. Other cleaner flavors shine in the egg-free American bases, like matcha, crème fraîche, fresh garden herbs, and citrus. I’ve also adopted an American Style base for my chocolate ice creams, allowing the flavor of the chocolate to define the nuances of the scoop and provide all the richness. Sherbets were made for fruits, and all our fruits find themselves tucked in these buttermilk bases. Frozen yogurts belong to themselves, and are brilliant with the bright fruits of summer, the tart citrus of winter, and sweeter elements like candied fruits, jams, and sweet syrups like honey and maple.
I have also included a section of recipes for add-ins. You’ll find these recipes are all formulated to be the correct texture at frozen temperatures, which might make them seem a little funny when you are making them. I’ve worked hard to make sure these are perfect in ice cream and don’t break a tooth, or become soggy from the moisture. Many of these recipes can also be used as toppings for ice creams of your own making, or pints you’ve purchased. Most importantly, they are used to make the Scoops outlined in section 3.
Chapter 4: Ice Cream
- Blank-Slate Ice Cream Base
Recipes: Garden Mint, Lemon Crème Fraîche, Cream Cheese, Goat Cheese, Coffee Mascarpone, Basil, Date, Danish Licorice, Parmesan, Earl Grey, Hong Kong Milk Tea, Sweet Potato, Cheddar, Blue Cheese
Chapter 5: Custards
Recipes: Cheesecake, Tahitian Vanilla, Roasted Chestnut, Cardamom, Cold Press Coffee, Parsnip, Sweet Corn, Jasmine, Burnt Honey, Pyrat Rum, Fig Leaf, Bourbon Brown Sugar, Toasted Hay, Pumpkin Sage, Banana
Chapter 6: Sherbets and Frozen Yogurt
- Blank-Slate Ratio Sherbet/Frozen Yogurt
- Guidelines on Puréeing Fruits
Recipes: Nectarine, Raspberry, Black Raspberry, Pineapple, Orange, Apricot Rooibos, Avocado, Bubblegum, Mango Lassi frozen yogurt, Hibiscus frozen yogurt
Chapter 7: Add-Ins
- Ribbons, Ripples, and Compotes
Recipes: Vanilla Bean Caramel, Butterscotch, Milk Jam, Sorghum Syrup, Plum Caramel, Passion Fruit Caramel, Strawberry Ripple, Black Raspberry Ripple, Pink Peppercorn Caramel, Cranberry Compote, Lemon Curd, Stewed Blueberries, Macadamia Butter, Smoked Almond Butter, Rhubarb Compote, Strawberry/Tomato Compote, Caped Gooseberry Jam, Raspberry Jam
Recipes: Cider Poached Figs, Guava Leather, Chocolate Crêpes, Vanilla Bean Marshmallows, Rose Marshmallows, Soft Almond Meringue, Candied Citrus, Coriander Poached Quince, Vanilla Poached Pears, Candied Kumquats, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Brownies, Thai-Spiced Carrot Cake, Basil Poached Pineapple, Gooey Butter Cake, Marzipan Cake
- Crispy, Crunchy, Chunky Bits
Recipes: Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chocolate Chunks (white, milk, dark, sesame), Chocolate Cookie Chunks, Pretzel Toffee, Buttercrunch Toffee, Brown Sugar Candied peanuts, Hazelnut Streusel, King Peanut Crunch, Buttered Pecans, Caramelized Rice Crispies, Pecan Cracker Jack, Cinnamon-Coated Black Walnuts, Candied Cashews, Walnut Brittle
Section 3: The Scoops: Composing Ice Creams
If I tried to count the number of ice cream flavors I’ve made in my long tenure as a pastry chef, I doubt I’d find it possible. Because I use ice cream as a component in desserts, the flavors I’ve created span a veritable continent, and can be as simple as sour cream, lemon, or brown sugar, or as wild as roasted parmesan, black truffle, or burnt honey. Most of the flavors I’ve created fall somewhere in between, and add an elegant touch to desserts. When I started creating ice creams to be packed in pints, or served in scoops over cones, the flavors I’d created for desserts didn’t have the same appeal. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll lick a scoop of caramelized lemon verbena ice cream off a cone tomorrow. But cinnamon basil custard just didn’t seem to stand on it’s own without the blueberry and blackberry pie it was designed to sit atop.
Pint pioneers Ben and Jerry have made their reputation on filling their ice creams with everything under the sun, and I decided instead of putting ice cream on desserts I could put the desserts in the ice cream. I packed cinnamon basil ice cream with black and blue compote and chunks of flaky sugar-coated pie pastry. And that caramelized lemon verbena received the snickerdoodles and plum caramel ribbon that once sat alongside the scoop on a plated dessert.
This section contains ice creams composed as thoughtfully as a dessert, sweet phrases containing enough textural variety and bold flavor to stand alone. Some are inspired by flavors I grew up eating, and some are based on desserts I’ve created along the way. Many are inspired by the people around me who are constantly pressed with the question, “what kind of ice cream should I make today?”
Each scoop will include a headnote with the story behind the flavor, a little glimpse into why and how I put the flavors together, and who inspired me along the way. The recipes combined to create these scoops are all cataloged in the recipe section, and can be made in one day, or over the course of a few days, as your time allows.
You’ll find the ice creams in this section organized by color. It’s a quirk of my own brain, to see flavors as colors. I’ve used this as a tool to help me conceptualize and combine flavors for years, and I found no other logical way to present this motley crew of ice creams to you.
PINK-RED
Cheddar Berry: Beecher’s Flagsheep cheddar ice cream with strawberry-tomato compote
Sofia: aged goat cheese ice cream with coriander poached quince and pistachios
That’s My Jam: parsnip ice cream with cranberry compote and milk jam
Strawberry Bubblemallow: bubblegum ice cream with vanilla bean marshmallows and strawberry ripple
Spring Sours: hibiscus frozen yogurt with rhubarb compote and soft almond meringue
Pink Pink Rose: beet sherbet with guava leather, rose marshmallows, and pink peppercorn caramel
Apricot Red Tea Chunk: apricot rooibos ice cream with milk chocolate and butter toffee
ORANGE
Orange Blooms: marigold ice cream with candied kumquat and passion fruit caramel
After Midnight: pumpkin sage ice cream with toasted coconut and toffee peanuts
Toffee Nectarine: nectarine sherbet with hazelnut toffee and rose milk jam
Elementary Swirl: vanilla bean custard ice cream and blood orange sherbet swirled together
Rainbow Sherbet: raspberry, pineapple, and orange sherbets swirled together
The Rainy Season: basil custard ice cream with anise poached pineapple and Thai-spiced carrot cake
Malted Sweet Potato: sweet potato ice cream with candied cashews and brewers malt
YELLOW
Lemony Lemon Crème Fraîche: lemon crème fraîche ice cream with candied lemon and a ribbon of lemon curd
Banana in Black: banana ice cream with black raspberry ripple and burnt vanilla meringues
Pyrat’s Booty: Pyrat rum ice cream with golden chunks of walnut brittle
Sassy Lassi: mango lassi frozen yogurt with smoked almond butter and candied kumquats
Sweet Corn Gooseberry: corn ice cream with butterscotch and caped gooseberry jam
GREEN
Alligator Pear: avocado ice cream with macadamia butter, candied grapefruit, and milk chocolate chunk
Caroline’s Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: garden mint ice cream with chocolate chips and chunks of cookie dough
Janet’s Tea: jasmine green tea custard ice cream with orange marmalade and macadamia nuts
BLUE AND PURPLE
Blue River: blue cheese ice cream with balsamic cherry compote and hazelnut streusel
Black Raspberry Chocolate Chunk a black raspberry sherbet with chunks of semisweet chocolate inside
Parmesan Black Raspberry Chunk: roasted Parmesan custard ice cream with black raspberry ripple and basil-white chocolate chunk
Bornholm Blueberry: hay custard ice cream with stewed blueberries and a honey ribbon
Heart of Plum: cardamom custard ice cream with marzipan cake and plum caramel
BROWNS: DARKEST CHOCOLATES TO LIGHTEST CREAMS
Hot Date: date and urfa biber ice cream with caramelized rice crispies and bittersweet chocolate chunks
Crêpes and Coffee: coffee mascarpone ice cream with chocolate crêpes, candied hazelnuts, and chocolate fudge ripple
Southern Hospitality: bourbon custard ice cream with pecan cracker jack and sorghum syrup
Tea and Cookies: Hong Kong milk tea ice cream with crushed shortbread and candied lemon
Svaneke Swirl: Danish licorice ice cream with raspberry ripple and chunks of dark chocolate
Turtle Brownie Cheesecake: cheesecake ice cream with buttered pecans, caramel ribbon, and chunks of brownie
Mont Blanc: roasted chestnut custard ice cream with vanilla poached pears and melted milk chocolate
Coffee Pretzel Toffee: cold-press coffee ice cream with chunks of pretzel toffee and chocolate chunks
Parlez-vous Francais? brie ice cream with kombucha poached pears and a burnt-honey ribbon
LIGHTEST CREAM COLORS
Autumn Orchard: fig-leaf custard ice cream with cinnamon-coated black walnuts and apple cider poached figs
King Peanut: vanilla bean ice cream with crispy chunks of peanut buttery nuggets and a ribbon of vanilla bean caramel
Cookies Cookies and Cream: vanilla ice cream with crushed chocolate butter cookies and chocolate cookie dough
Gooey Butter Cake: cream cheese ice cream with chunks of the gooiest butter cake ever
Turkish Tiramisu: mascarpone ice cream with coffee poached dates and sambuca chocolate ripple
SAMPLE TEXT
The Science: Controlling Water
Years ago I had the privilege of staging in the pastry kitchen at WD-50 while it was under the care of Alex Stupak. It was his visual style that drew me into his kitchen, gorgeous twirls of gravity-defying chocolate pudding next to dollops of avocado purée, frozen capsules of orange sorbet containing a magically unfrozen vanilla cream center, popcorn powders that dashed across red-hearted strawberries and taro ice cream nestled between nuggets of deep-fried butterscotch. I soon learned that it was thoughtfulness and piercing curiosity that pulled seemingly impossible desserts from the tangle of Stupak’s imagination. Once conceived, it was his diligent research and gifted intelligence that allowed him to bring these impossible desserts to fruition. While I wouldn’t call him a man of few words, he didn’t mince them, and some of the snippets he shared with me have become cornerstones of my own creative process.
“You know, it’s really just about controlling water,” he said, looking over my shoulder and through the window that peeked from the subterranean pastry department into the prep kitchen like a captain’s room. He walked back to what he was doing and quite possibly forgot the moment ever existed. Lucky for me, it burned into my brain, the reality of it so immense, yet the truth so simple. I’ve heard it said that food is just water with impurities, and every action we take in cooking, on some level, is to control the water inside our food.
Making ice cream is a perfect application of controlling water. Milk is almost entirely made from water, and when frozen, water becomes ice. We need ice to make ice cream, but too much, or too large, and the namesake element of this frozen cream becomes unpleasantly obvious. With a few extra steps, you can spare your ice cream this unfortunate fate.
Spinning a very cold ice cream base: We can control the size of the ice crystal by making sure the water is as close to an ice crystal as possible, taking it straight from a long night in the fridge and putting it immediately in the ice cream machine. This forms ice crystals that are small seeds, which will mature into small ice crystals.
Using stabilizers to help control the water: An entire section is devoted to this subject. Let me just say, stabilizers are your friends when it comes to controlling water.
Reducing the amount of water: You can reduce the amount of water by increasing the amount of non-water based ingredients. The less water there is in the ice cream, the less ice you can create. Ingredients like chocolates, fruit purees, nut butters, egg yolks, and butterfat commonly replace watery milk in recipes, but also define the flavor. Ice cream makers often employ non-fat milk powder to help increase the amount of non-water based ingredients without altering the flavor.
Ice Cream Stabilizers: Less Scary Than You Think
I’ve heard a lot of public disapproval of stabilizer use in ice cream. However, it’s usually in the form of ice cream shops congratulating themselves on their lack of stabilizers, billing them as invisible villains from corporations, placed in your ice cream to give it more than its fair share of time in the freezer, masking cheap ingredients and slowly poisoning your body. The general sentiment seems to be that no stabilizers = good, and stabilizers = cheating. You know what I think about that? More power to them! Fight the good fight, people. But in all honesty, that’s not what stabilizers are. Yes, they can be, and are abused by large-scale manufacturers. In limited amounts, however, stablizers are simply innocuous food-safe substances that are in fact invisible heroes of ice cream’s texture. Can you make ice cream without them? Sure. Will you improve the texture your ice cream by employing stablizers? Absolutely.
I myself use stabilizers. I like the texture they give my ice creams, and I’m going to show you why, demystifying what they are and shining a bright light on the proud job that they do for our ice creams. However, if the following information does not sway you toward believing in their textural benefit, then you have my word, I’ll never speak of it to you again, and you and I can spend the rest of this book making ice cream together without them. Although by the end of this section, you might realize that you’ve been using some of these stabilizers all along.
First, before we meet the hardworking crew of ice cream stabilizers, I want to talk about what they do.
First and foremost, ice cream stabilizers emulsify your ice cream base. That means they mix the un-mixables. The functional components in ice cream are pretty cliquey. Water and oil really don’t care for each other, and getting them together takes a really convincing mediator. The sugars love water and will grab onto a molecule or two of it, but will drag it down, as sugar’s higher molecular weight is affected by gravity. When warmed, the little blobs of butter fat really like to slip around until they find more little fat blobs, becoming larger blobs of fat, then floating together to the top, congratulating themselves on their elevated status.
An emulsifier is a powerful agent, which I envision as a patient peacekeeper with two outstretched hands. One of these hands is hydrophilic and loves to hold the hand of water. The other is lipophilic and will gladly hold on to the fat. This keeps the water and fat from running away from each other, and with a strong enough grip that they can’t pool together into bigger bodies. And the sugar that is holding tight to a water molecule will be held in suspension when the emulsifier attaches to the same water molecule.
Thanks to emulsifiers, the components in ice cream can live in harmony and form what is called a matrix. At times, before a stabilizer is added, I can see components in ice cream separating with my naked eye, but usually, after whisking the ingredients together, it looks perfectly smooth. This is a deceptive, temporary state. Eventually, the forces of nature will move the fats back up top with the other fats and the waters back to the waters, and the sugars to the bottom of the bowl. It’s not something you will likely notice until the ice cream has been churned. Then, you will feel little granules of butter on your tongue that eventually will coat your mouth, a flaw I call “flabby”. Once the ice cream spends a night in your freezer, you might not notice the granules of butter because the water that was still allowed to pool together will have formed large enough ice crystals that all you’ll feel are crunchy flakes of ice.
By forming an emulsion, your ice cream has more stability—i.e., it has been stabilized. By a stabilizer. A friendly, hand-holding, peace keeping stabilizer. At their most basic, ice creams will only contain an emulsifying agent, and for home use, this is the most important reason to bring a stabilizer into your kitchen.
Stabilizers also improve texture by reducing the size of ice crystals in your ice cream by absorbing water. They come from a family called hydrocolloids, a name that buzzed through molecular gastronomy when the trend was peaking. It simply means that it gels water. You’ve used hydrocolloids if you’ve ever thickened something with cornstarch or flour—defined by their ability to absorb water and form a gel when heat is applied. Think Jell-O pudding. Gelatin is also a hydrocolloid, evident by every cube of wiggly Jell-O ever made. In fact, gelatin itself was used in early ice cream production; however, it lost favor when more affordable plant-based hydrocolloids became available.
Why is absorbing water important to the texture of ice cream? The answer is one we will be coming back to over and over . . . ice. When a hydrocolloid absorbs water, it holds it hostage. Not really hostage, as hostages can be released. This water becomes permanently involved with the hydrocolloid. This water can freeze, but it will only ever be able to form a small ice crystal. Small ice crystals make for a smooth, creamy consistency when eaten. When ice cream fluctuates in temperature and ice begins to melt, water’s desire to be together is rekindled and it pools. When it refreezes, these now slightly larger groups of water molecules grow into larger ice crystals. Imagine a pint of ice cream that goes from the freezer of the grocery store to your car, then to your freezer, to your table, back to your freezer, and back to your table again. The water in this pint of ice cream will have partially melted, frozen, melted, frozen, etc., until the final few moments you have with this dessert will be more ice than cream.
When water molecules enter into an eternal bond with a hydrocolloid, they will remain separated from other water through this freeze-thaw cycle. This may not matter much to you if you plan on eating your ice cream immediately after being made. But by keeping the water separate in its’ liquid phase, it can travel through these freeze thaw cycles without becoming part of a larger ice crystal.
You may think that putting your ice cream in your home freezer will spare you the rollercoaster store-bought pints suffer through. However, home freezers do not stay particularly cold as far as freezers go. Throughout the time your ice cream spends in the freezer it will suffer through multiple openings and closings as members of your household fish around for ice cubes or frozen pizzas. The way many home freezers are made, with a front facing door, allows all the cold air to spill out when they are opened. And the most tempting place to store your ice cream, in those neat little shelves on the door itself fluctuate the most in temperature. A home freezer is constantly fluctuating in temperature, and so will the ice cream you’ve freshly spun and tucked away, making the addition of a hydrocolloid in homemade ice creams quite helpful.
While the hydrocolloids go to work on the water, another agent in stabilizers will start to do some work on the fat. Mono and diglycerides will begin to alter the fat molecule, stripping and destabilizing the little globules over an eight-hour period, which sort of makes the fat sticky. This sticky fat wants to stick to other fat, which we don’t want, and tiny bubbles of air, which we do want. By curing your ice cream overnight and allowing these mono and diglycerides to go to work, the fat is readily available to stick to air bubbles the moment you start churning your ice cream. A bubble of air becomes trapped in the ice cream when enough little sticky fat globules completely surround it. This same magic trick happens when you drag a whisk through cold cream repeatedly, thus whipping it into whipped cream. You need to whip your ice cream in the same manner, otherwise it would be a popsicle. Without air, ice cream is just a frozen brick.
Now, there are many other things that can be done with stabilizers that have to do with the viscosity of your mix, the dryness of the base, and ionic charges, but that stuff applies to commercial production and is beyond the scope of what I have done in restaurants, let alone what you and I are going to accomplish in your home kitchen.
Whew. That’s a lot to think about, so I’ll sum it up. A stabilizer holds your base together and controls water activity, leading to a smoother, longer-lasting texture, and helps it whip efficiently.
Most stabilizers are bundled packages, with a little of this and a little of that, designed to do a lot of things for you without you having to think about it. However, it’s a lot like the bundles my cable company keeps trying to sell me. I want the important stuff, and one specialty item, but I can only get them along with other things I don’t necessarily want or need. You can find these bundled stabilizers for sale on the Internet, and if you want the stabilizer experience but don’t want to really worry about what’s going on, then I recommend buying one. I myself have used blends in my career for exactly that reason. For home use, however, you can choose one or two individual stabilizers that will affect your ice cream in all the right ways.
Without further adieu, I give you the cast and crew of ice cream stabilizers.
Egg Yolks
I consider egg yolks to be the girl next door. You’ve known them all your life, you’ve played together, grown up together. In fact, you’ve probably got some in your refrigerator right now. What you don’t know is that their potent ice cream-stabilizing qualities have been right in front of you the whole time. They contain the hand-holding emulsifiers and the mono and diglycerides that help with whipping. These can be the exclusive stabilizer in your ice cream, should you so desire. They do nothing for the freeze-thaw cycle or the size of the ice crystals, however, which is why you’ll find recipes in this book that contain both egg yolks and additional stabilizers. And they impart a custardy, eggy flavor to ice creams, so I like to limit their use to flavors that work well with the richness of a custard.
Cornstarch
Cornstarch increases viscosity, reduces iciness, and is the most familiar hydrocolloid in the family of ice cream stabilizers, one many of you have used yourself. It is made by fermenting corn and then separating the starchy endosperm before the starch is washed free and dehydrated. When introduced to a water-based liquid, each starch granule swells with water before it gelatinizes at boiling temperatures into what I imagine to be a room filled with beach balls. The more beach balls of cornstarch are introduced, the harder it is for the fast-moving water to move around. In ice cream, this means that the fat and sugar have a hard time moving to the top and bottom of your mix, turning the ice cream base into a traffic jam, keeping everyone mixed together. Because water is absorbed, never to return as large ice crystals, cornstarch makes for a smooth ice cream. However, the starch itself begins to break down over time, and because it only confuses everyone into staying in place and doesn’t actually bind them, its emulsifying properties weaken over time and fats, sugars, and waters drift apart.
Guar Gum
Guar gum is about 10 times as powerful as cornstarch. It has long, coiled chains that not only absorb water, but then cross-link, trapping more free water in a web. In low concentrations, these webs don’t completely connect into a solid gel, rather they function similarly to cornstarch, bunching together and causing a traffic jam that keeps the fats and sugars in place.
Xanthan Gum
Carrageenan
Locust Bean Gum
Polysorbate 80
Mono and diglycerides
SAMPLE HEADNOTES
Cookies Cookies and Cream: vanilla ice cream with crushed chocolate butter cookies and chocolate cookie dough
This ice cream is almost just an excuse to give you this chocolate cookie dough recipe. It came through my hands in 2005, tucked inside the pages of Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, hiding behind more glamorous cakes and confections. However, the author, Dorie Greenspan, knew what treasure was buried inside, and she dubbed them “world peace cookies,” believing their flavor so powerful it could silence any skirmish. When I started working on the cookie for the cookies-and-cream ice cream, I adapted the recipe, crumbled the dough over a sheet pan, and baked these little nuggets until crispy. The recipe, a cookies-and-cream-style ice cream with dual cookie textures, makes enough for you to fill your ice cream with crispy cookie and chunks of dough, and still have extra to snack on while your ice cream is freezing.
Elementary Swirl: vanilla bean custard ice cream and blood orange sherbet swirled together
As a child, I would eat just about any ice cream I could get my hands on. Even vanilla, my ice cream nemesis, always got the better of me, and I ate it begrudgingly, knowing that not having ice cream was always worse than suffering through my least favorite flavors. While vanilla was never my choice, my eyes always lit up at the sight of the little plastic cups filled with orange sherbet swirled with vanilla ice cream. Something magical happens to each flavor when they are combined, and this was one of the first flavors I sought to replicate as a grown-up ice cream maker. I no longer want the wooden spoon provided with each cup, chewed beyond recognition, a childish attempt at pulling every last drop of flavor from the experience. Instead, I now help myself to a grown-up size portion and eat to my heart’s delight.
Turtle Brownie Cheesecake: cheesecake ice cream with buttered pecans, caramel ribbon, and chunks of brownie
As a young baker, I became accustomed to a never-ending supply of brownie edges. Pave Bakery, a small bakery in the town I grew up in, hired me as a cashier in high school, and in my downtime I would trim the bar cookies and brownies and cut them in neat 4-inch squares. The edges, crispy and abundant and of no risk to my youthful metabolism, were a daily source of nutrition for me. Nowadays, I need a more reasonable use for those brownie edges, and I have created numerous ice cream flavors to house these chewy bites. Tucking them into cheesecake ice cream is a perennial favorite, and this version, dressed up like a turtle candy, is an absolute crowd-pleaser. You can use the entire brownie for this recipe, or trim the edges and save the brownies themselves for sundaes.
Gooey Butter Cake: cream cheese ice cream with chunks of the gooiest butter cake ever When Perry Hendrix signed on as chef of Blackbird, he dubbed his style “modern Midwestern.” No sooner were those words out of his mouth than I was uttering the words “gooey butter cake.” It was autumn at the time, and we flavored our gooey butter cake with bourbon to be served with holiday pie components like spiced pumpkin and caramel pecans. You could certainly stick chunks of this gooey butter cake in a pumpkin ice cream next to caramel and pecans. However, we have found we like this cake best in a tart cream cheese ice cream. The two textures are amazing together, as the cake never freezes completely solid, its gooeyness accentuated.
Lemony Lemon Crème Fraîche: lemon crème fraîche ice cream with candied lemon and a ribbon of lemon curd
My aunt Mary has been an iconic figure throughout my whole life. My mother’s older sister, she was often the hero of family legend. Many of their exploits took place in Trenton, being the Jersey girls they were, and when my aunt relocated to California, my mom eventually followed behind. California, land of citrus, fostered a deep love of lemon in my aunt. The lemonier, the better, and I’ve made a habit of sharing the lemoniest of recipes with her when I come across them. I made this one with her in my heart, scenting a crème fraîche ice cream with lemon zest and flooding it with a healthy dose of fresh lemon juice. Chunks of candied lemon are scattered in the ice cream, and a thick ribbon of buttery lemon curd swims throughout. For the leagues of lemon lovers out there, and Aunt Mary, this one is for you.
Caroline’s Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: garden mint ice cream with chocolate chips and chunks of cookie dough
Many gifted cooks and interns have passed through the kitchens I helmed, each coming with different goals and experiences. Caroline, a young lady from Massachusetts, first came to spend 6 weeks with my team at Blackbird while waiting for the seasonal restaurant she worked at on the Cape to reopen. Fast forward a year, and fresh off a stage at OddFellows Ice Cream in Brooklyn, she came back to visit us. I told her she could exercise her newfound ice cream knowledge and make a flavor for us. Her excitement got the better of her and she couldn’t decide! I asked her what her favorite flavors were and she exclaimed, “Chef! I don’t know! Mint chocolate chip…cookie dough!” I simply replied, “Yes,” and Caroline’s Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream was born, a double whammy of American classics made with a heaping pile of fresh mint, large chunks of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough.
Tea and Cookies: Hong Kong milk tea ice cream with crushed shortbread and candied lemon
Our tea ice cream was inspired by my former sous chef Janet Tong. She described the milk teas of her native Hong Kong, deep like espresso and silky smooth, enriched with evaporated milk, an elegant cousin to the Thai iced tea we know and love. We chose the Regal English Breakfast tea from Chicago’s Rare Tea Cellars, and include a healthy dose of evaporated milk to create this silky black tea ice cream. Once the ice cream is churned, delicate vanilla shortbread is crushed and scattered over the ice cream in tandem with candied lemon.
Ricky’s Coffee Pretzel Toffee: cold-press coffee ice cream with chunks of pretzel toffee and chocolate chunks
Our cold-press coffee ice cream gets an upgrade with the addition of chunks of twisted pretzels covered in butter toffee and dark chocolate. The idea came from Blackbird’s owner, Ricky, who was quite pleased with his creative prowess when the flavor came to fruition! We are certain you too will be quite pleased with this flavor, particularly if you favor salty-sweet treats.
Svaneke Swirl: Danish licorice ice cream with raspberry ripple and chunks of dark chocolate
When I worked at Kadeau on the Danish island of Bornholm, I would treat myself weekly to scoops of ice cream made on the island at Svaneke Is. Svaneke the shop is named for the seaside town it is tucked away in, which in turn is named for the swans that populate the town. I would wait my turn patiently, scanning the menu for any new flavors and listening to the kids chatter in Danish. My favorite combination was raspberry ice cream with a second scoop of licorice, which was often studded with pieces of the chocolate-covered licorice made by Jon Bulow a few doors down. I would carry my cone a few blocks to the shore, relishing the brash flavor of Danish licorice tamed by local dairy, all the while watching the brave Baltic swans bobbing up and down on the brisk sea.
Pyrat’s Booty: Pyrat rum ice cream with golden chunks of walnut brittle
The dessert menu at Poppy restaurant was split into two sections. The first half contained five desserts, and the second contained six composed ice creams. There were many enticing factors swaying my decision to join the opening team of the restaurant—the lack of white plates, the wonderful owners, Jerry and Stevie, and the bright, clean, Scandinavian design of the dining room. However, nothing made me happier than the section of the menu dedicated to ice creams. They are scooped in fist-sized orbs into glasses and topped with complimentary creams, sauces, meringues, fruits, or nuts. I served herbed apple cider sorbet under ribbons of caramel and pine nut Cracker Jack, and coconut ice cream with candied kumquats, lime meringues, and passion fruit sauce. Jerry Traunfeld, the chef, was always supportive of my offerings, but he would occasionally tell me to make something like a rum ice cream, with something like walnut brittle in it. I would return to him with results similar to rum ice cream, and things alike in style to a walnut brittle before it finally hit me: I should make a rum ice cream with walnut brittle. I pulled the Pyrat rum from the bar and scented a custard ice cream with it before studding it with golden chunks of walnut brittle. Dubbed Pyrat’s Booty, this ice cream is a true treasure, one that will surely never be left buried in your freezer.
Strawberry Bubblemallow: bubblegum ice cream with vanilla bean marshmallows and strawberry ripple
Bubblegum is considered a fantasy flavor by professional flavorists, which means it doesn’t exist anywhere in reality. Captain obvious, I know, but as it stands to reason that we can’t make something from nothing, all fantasy flavors are built from pieces of other flavors we know and love. After a conversation about bubblegum with Chris Young, who at the time was in Seattle writing the Modernist Cuisine series, I learned that the backbone of bubblegum flavor was isoamyl acetate, a flavor molecule found in overripe fruits, particularly banana. In addition, orange, lemon, and vanilla were used to round out the flavor of the pink gum. When I thought of bubblegum as orange, lemon, banana, and vanilla, it became very easy to pair flavors with it, and nothing works better than strawberries. We use our strawberry sherbet flavored with our own formula for bubblegum made from the familiar flavors of orange, lemon, banana, and vanilla. A ripple of bright red strawberry runs through the bubblegum ice cream, winding between big pieces of vanilla bean marshmallows.
SAMPLE RECIPES
1 custard base
1 frozen yogurt base
1 sherbet base
1 ice cream base
1 ribbon
1 crunch
1 scoop recipe using the custard base, ribbon, and crunch
Vanilla Custard-Style Ice Cream
Yield: 1 quart
Cream (20%) 200 g / 1 cup
Milk (50%) 500 g / 2 cups
Glucose syrup (5%) 50 g / 5 tablespoons
Sugar (15%) 150 g / 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons
Vanilla bean 1 each, or 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Yolks (10%) 125 g / about 6 small or 5 large yolks
If you want to stabilize your ice cream, you have options!
(*chef’s choice)
15 g / 4 tsp cornstarch, mixed with 30 g / 2 tbsp of cold milk and whisked into the dairy once it comes to a boil; cook for 30 seconds until thick before proceeding
*50 g / 4 tbsp cream cheese, softened and added to the pot with the dairy
1 g / 1/4 tsp guar or xanthan gum, blended into the finished base after chilling in the ice bath
1 g / 1/4 tsp commercial stabilizer mix, mixed evenly with the sugar before adding it to the pot
- Place the cream, milk, glucose, and sugar in a medium pot. With a small knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise and use the tip of your knife to scrape the small black seeds from the pod. Add both the pod and the seeds to the pot. (If using vanilla extract, wait to add it to the cooled ice cream base.) Place the pot on a stovetop burner over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking occasionally to help dissolve the sugar and to discourage the milk from scorching.
- Cook until the dairy mixture comes to a full, rolling boil, then remove the pot from the heat and discard the vanilla pod.
- Place the yolks into a medium bowl and whisk them until they break apart and are smooth and even. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot dairy mixture to the egg yolks, whisking quickly to blend the two before the hot milk cooks the egg yolks. Add the tempered egg yolks back into the pot of hot milk and immediately whisk together until even. Place the pot over medium-low heat and cook until the custard thickens, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula to avoid curdling.
- When you notice the custard start to thicken, or the temperature reaches 180 on a digital thermometer, remove the pot from the heat and immediately transfer the custard base into a shallow metal or glass bowl. Nest the bowl of warm custard base into a larger bowl filled with a lot of ice and a little water and stir the custard occasionally until it cools down. (If using vanilla extract, whisk it in now.)
- When the custard base is cool to the touch or a digital thermometer reads 50 degrees or below, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the bits of egg yolk membrane that remain intact and any other particles that may be present. (This step can be skipped, but straining will ensure that you have the smoothest ice cream possible.)
- Transfer the custard base to the refrigerator to cure for 6 hours, or preferably overnight. (You can skip this step and immediately churn your cooled custard, but the texture will be much improved if you cure your custard base.)
- When you are ready to spin your custard, place it into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The custard-style ice cream is finished churning when it thickens into the texture of soft-serve ice cream or whipped cream. This typically takes 30 minutes.
- To freeze your custard-style ice cream in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer your finished ice cream to a container with an airtight lid and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely. Depending on your freezer, this can take between 4 and 8 hours. If you prefer not to wait, feel free to enjoy your custard-style ice cream as soon as you wish; the texture will be similar to soft-serve.
Lemon Frozen Yogurt
Yield: 1 quart
Sugar (25%) 250 g / 1 cup
Glucose or corn syrup (05%) 50 g / 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
Cream (12.5%) 125 g / 1/2 cup
Lemon zest 10 g / zest of 2 lemons
Greek yogurt (45%) 450 g / 2 cups
Lemon juice (12.5%) 125 g / ½ cup
If you want to stabilize your ice cream, you have options!
(*chef’s choice)
10 g / 1 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 30 g / 2 tbsp of cold milk and whisked into the dairy once it comes to a boil; cook for 30 seconds until thick before proceeding
50 g / 4 tbsp cream cheese, softened and added to the pot with the dairy
*1 g/ 1/4 tsp xanthan or guar gum, blended with the lemon juice for 1 minute
1 g / 1/4 tsp commercial stabilizer mix, dry mixed with the sugar before adding it to the pot
- Place the sugar, glucose or corn syrup, cream, and lemon zest in a small pot. Place the pot on a stovetop burner over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking occasionally to help dissolve the sugar and to discourage the cream from scorching.
- When the cream comes to a full, rolling boil, remove the pot from the heat and immediately transfer the cream mixture into a shallow metal or glass bowl. Nest the bowl of the warm cream mixture into a larger bowl filled with a lot of ice and a little water and stir occasionally until it cools down.
- When the cream is cooled, add the yogurt and lemon juice to the bowl of cream and whisk until smooth and even. Strain the frozen yogurt base through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the flecks of lemon zest and any other particles that may be present. (This step can be skipped, but straining will ensure that you have the smoothest frozen yogurt possible.)
- Transfer the frozen yogurt base to the refrigerator to cure for 6 hours, or preferably overnight. (You can skip this step and immediately churn your cooled frozen yogurt, but the texture will be much improved if you cure your frozen yogurt base.)
- When you are ready to churn your frozen yogurt, place it into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The frozen yogurt is finished churning when it thickens into the texture of soft-serve ice cream or whipped cream. This typically takes 30 minutes.
- To freeze your frozen yogurt in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer your finished frozen yogurt to a container with an airtight lid and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely. Depending on your freezer, this can take between 4 and 8 hours. If you prefer not to wait, feel free to enjoy your frozen yogurt as soon as you wish; the texture will be similar to soft-serve.
Raspberry Sherbet
Yield: 1 quart
Raspberry purée (22%) 220 g / 1 cup
Buttermilk (11%) 110 g / 1/2 cup
Citric acid 3 g / 1/2 teaspoon
Sugar (18%) 180 g / 2/3 cup
Glucose syrup (11%) 110 g / 1/2 cup
Milk (27%) 270 g / 1 1/4 cups
Cream (11%) 110 g / 1/2 cup
If you want to stabilize your ice cream, you have options!
(*chef’s choice)
*25 g / 3 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 30 g / 2 tbsp of cold milk and whisked into the dairy once it comes to a boil; cook for 30 seconds until thick before proceeding
50 g / 4 tbsp cream cheese, softened and added to the pot with the dairy
1 g / 1/4 tsp xanthan or guar gum, blended into the sherbet base when cooled
3 g / 1/2 tsp commercial stabilizer, mixed evenly with the sugar before adding it to the pot
- Place the raspberry purée, buttermilk, and citric acid in a bowl and whisk together until evenly combined. Set the bowl aside in the refrigerator.
- Place the sugar, glucose syrup, milk, and cream in a medium pot. Place the pot on a stovetop burner over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking occasionally to help dissolve the sugar and to discourage the dairy from scorching. When the dairy comes to a boil, set a timer for 1 minute and cook, stirring gently with a spatula, until the 60 seconds are up.
- Remove the pot from the stovetop and pour the hot dairy into a shallow metal or glass bowl. Nest the bowl of the warm dairy mixture into a larger bowl filled with a lot of ice and a little water and stir occasionally until the dairy is cool to the touch. Remove the raspberry-buttermilk mixture from the refrigerator and add it to the cooled dairy. Make sure that your dairy is entirely cool, as any residual heat when mixing with the acidic berry purée will curdle your ice cream.
- Strain the sherbet base through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the flecks of lemon zest and any other particles that may be present. (This step can be skipped, but straining will ensure that you have the smoothest sherbet possible.)
- Transfer the sherbet base to the refrigerator to cure for 6 hours, or preferably overnight. (You can skip this step and immediately churn your cooled sherbet, but the texture will be much improved if you cure your sherbet base.)
- When you are ready to churn your sherbet, place it into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The sherbet is finished churning when it thickens into the texture of soft-serve ice cream or whipped cream. This typically takes 30 minutes.
- To freeze your sherbet in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer your finished sherbet to a container with an airtight lid and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely. Depending on your freezer, this can take between 4 and 8 hours. If you prefer not to wait, feel free to enjoy your sherbet as soon as you wish; the texture will be similar to soft-serve.
Garden Mint Ice Cream
Yield: 1 quart
Nonfat milk powder (3%) 30 g / 1/4 cup
Sugar (15%) 150 g / 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons
Cream (30%) 300 g / 1 1/4 cups
Milk (48%) 480 g / 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons
Glucose (5%) 50 g / 3 tablespoons
Fresh mint, leaves and stems 100 g / 1 big handful
Peppermint oil 5 g / 1 teaspoon
If you want to stabilize your ice cream, you have options!
(*chef’s choice)
15 g / 4 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 30 g / 2 tbsp of cold milk and whisked into the dairy once it comes to a boil; cook for 30 seconds until thick before proceeding.
50 g / 4 tbsp cream cheese, softened and added to the pot with the dairy
1 g / 1/4 tsp xanthan or guar gum, blended into the ice cream base when cooled
*3 g / 1/2 tsp commercial stabilizer, mixed evenly with the sugar before adding it to the pot
- Place the milk powder and sugar in the bottom of a medium pot and whisk together until evenly combined. Add the cream, milk, and glucose to the pot and put the pot on a stovetop burner over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking occasionally to help dissolve the sugar and to discourage the dairy from scorching. When the dairy comes to a full, rolling boil, remove the pot from the heat, add the fresh mint, and use a spoon to dunk it under the surface of the dairy. Cover the pot and steep the mint and dairy together for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the mint from the dairy and discard. Pour the hot ice cream base into a shallow metal or glass bowl. Nest the bowl of the warm ice cream base into a larger bowl filled with a lot of ice and a little water, and stir occasionally until the dairy is cool to the touch. When the ice cream base is cool, add the peppermint oil and stir until evenly combined.
- Strain the ice cream base through a fine-mesh sieve to remove remaining bits of mint and any other particles that may be present. (This step can be skipped, but straining will ensure that you have the smoothest ice cream possible.)
- Transfer the ice cream base to the refrigerator to cure for 6 hours, or preferably overnight. (You can skip this step and immediately churn your cooled ice cream base, but the texture will be much improved if you cure your ice cream base.)
- When you are ready to churn your ice cream base, place it into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The ice cream is finished churning when it thickens into the texture of soft-serve ice cream or whipped cream. This typically takes 30 minutes.
- To freeze your ice cream in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer your finished ice cream to a container with an airtight lid and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely. Depending on your freezer, this can take between 4 and 8 hours. If you prefer not to wait, feel free to enjoy your ice cream as soon as you wish; the texture will be similar to soft-serve.
Caramel Ribbon
Yield: 1 cup
Glucose syrup 40 g / 4 tbsp
Cream 100 g / 1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon
Salt 2 g / 1/2 teaspoon
Vanilla bean 1/2 each, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar 100 g / 1/2 cup minus 1 teaspoon
Water 40 g / 1/4 cup
Butter 15 g / 1 tablespoon
- Place the glucose syrup, cream, and salt in a medium pot. Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use the tip of your knife to scrape the seeds free of the pod, placing both the pod and the seeds into the pot of cream. (If using vanilla extract, wait to add it to the caramel until after all the hot cream has been added.)
- Place the pot on a stovetop burner set to medium-high heat and cook, stirring to dissolve the glucose syrup and salt, until the dairy begins to simmer. Remove the warm cream from the heat and set aside in a warm place.
- Place the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir just until the sugar and water are incorporated, then brush the sides of the pot with a moist pastry brush or a rolled paper towel to wash any sugar crystals back into the solution.
- Continue cooking, washing any stray crystals back into the boiling syrup as necessary, until the sugar begins to color. When you notice the sugar begin to turn amber, stir once or twice to encourage even cooking. Continue cooking until the sugar caramelizes, taking on a medium amber color, similar to honey. Be warned, the color of the pot can make the caramel appear darker than it is, so to test the color, dip a small piece of white paper into the caramel.
- When the sugar has reached the desired honey color, immediately remove the pot from the heat and add the butter. Stir to combine. This will immediately stop the caramel from cooking any further.
- Begin carefully adding the warm vanilla cream, bit by bit, stirring between additions and avoiding the sputtering cream as it is introduced to the hot caramel. (If you are using vanilla extract, add it after all the cream has been added.)
- When all the cream has been added, strain the caramel through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding the vanilla pod. (This step can be skipped, and you can simply remove the vanilla pod with a spoon, but straining will ensure that you have the smoothest caramel possible.) Transfer to a container to cool in the refrigerator. The caramel will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks, or in the freezer for 6 months.
King Peanut Crunch
Yield: 2 cups
Peanut butter 180 g / 3/4 cup
Milk chocolate, chopped 60 g / 1/3 cup
Coconut oil 25 g / 2 tablespoons
Cocoa nibs 40 g / 1/4 cup
Feuilletine 80 g / 1 1/2 cups
Sea salt 5 g / 1 teaspoon
- Place the peanut butter, milk chocolate, and coconut oil in a metal bowl and set aside. To make a double boiler, use a pot three-quarters the width of your bowl, fill the pot with 2 inches of water, and place it over medium heat until it starts to simmer. When the water begins to simmer, reduce the heat to low and place your bowl of peanut butter and chocolate over the top. Melt the chocolate and peanut butter together over this double boiler, stirring until smooth and even.
- When completely melted, remove the bowl from the double boiler and set it on a dry towel. Add the cocoa nibs, feuilletine, and sea salt and stir until evenly coated.
- Line a flat sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper and scatter the peanut crunch mixture over it. Place the pan in your refrigerator or freezer, leaving it there until the crunch completely hardens.
- When the peanut crunch is firm and solid, remove the pan from the freezer, gather up the crunchy bits, and transfer them to a container with an airtight lid and place in the freezer. The peanut crunch will keep in the freezer for 1 month.
King Peanut Ice Cream
Yield: 1 1/2 quarts
1 batch Vanilla Custard-Style Ice Cream base
1/2 batch Caramel Ribbon
1 batch King Peanut Crunch
- To prepare for layering this ice cream, place a 1 1/2-quart container in the freezer. Make sure the caramel ribbon is cold in the refrigerator and that the peanut crunch is in the freezer. You’ll want them to be cold when you add them to the soft ice cream, otherwise they will melt the newly formed ice crystals.
- Churn the vanilla ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- When the ice cream has finished churning, take the chilled container, caramel, and crunch and place them on the counter.
- Drizzle a little caramel on the bottom of the container and sprinkle over a little of the crunch. Place one-third of the ice cream in the container, spread until flat, and drizzle a few spoonfuls of the caramel over the ice cream before scattering about 1/2 cup of the peanut crunch over it. Continue layering the ice cream with the caramel and the crunch until it has all been added to the container.
- Plunge a spoon up and down through the layers two or three times. This helps distribute the textures throughout the ice cream enough so that they aren’t separate layers. But be careful! If you stir too much, you risk destroying the delicate structure of air you’ve just whipped in. A couple two-three dunks of the spoon will do.
- To freeze your ice cream in the American hard-pack style, immediately transfer your finished ice cream to a container with an airtight lid and store it in your freezer until it hardens completely. Depending on your freezer, this can take between 4 and 8 hours. This step is necessary to transform all the participating textures into a solid scoop of ice cream instead of a slippery, gooey mess.