Ice Cream Social on Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Sunday. 4-6pm. Free class at 2pm.  44 Eagle Street, Brooklyn. Off the Greenpoint G stop.

Ice Cream Social on Eagle Street Rooftop Farm

Sunday. 4-6pm. Free class at 2pm. 

44 Eagle Street, Brooklyn. Off the Greenpoint G stop.

Brooklyn Based

Brooklyn Based spilled the beans in today’s email: We’re having a meeting June 19th! 1-3pm at 515 Court St (the corner of 9th and Court, a.k.a. the Brooklyn Brainery space). I whipped up some almond banana chocolate espresso brandy walnut vanilla cupcakes last night in preparation for ice cream zaniness, so get hyped!

We’ve also ditched the pay-for-play aspect of ICC, but don’t you worry: we’ve set up a page about how to make awesome ice cream without a machine (which is, yes, kulfi, the Indian relative of ice cream, but it’s so amazing that you totally won’t care!). 10 minutes of work + 4 hours of freezing = a lifetime of ice cream. I’ll be putting up video instructions in the next week or so, too.

Ice Cream Workshop

So, the magic ICC meeting this Sunday is only for people bringing their own ice cream, but there’s also a secret backdoor!

We’re putting on an ice cream workshop before the ice cream social, and anyone who ponies up the $15 to attend the workshop gets in to the meeting automatically. Pop on over to http://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/56-ice-cream to sign up!

ice cream club’s return from the… deep freeze?

ICE CREAM CLUB’S TRIUMPHANT RETURN!: 2/13/2011

at Brooklyn Brainery, 515 Court St in Carroll Gardens

DETAILS TO FOLLOW.

(Really, just email me at soma@brooklynbrainery.com and I’ll put you on the mailing list)

A mid-November ice cream club meeting, outside of course!

A mid-November ice cream club meeting, outside of course!

great photo series on humphrey slocombe ice cream in san francisco from the selby

great photo series on humphrey slocombe ice cream in san francisco from the selby

theselby.com

Hi

Are Ice Cream formulations based on weight or volume when referring to percentages ie 10% milkfat 10 % MSNF 14% sugar etc. how does one arrive at a "base formula" at home, will it be like bakers percentages for scaling
larger batches? — Asked by Anonymous

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you can rely on volume. The reason why weight is so important in baking is because things like flour density is greatly impacted by how you sift and measure. A packed cup of flour vs. a gently sifted cup of flour can only be overcome by relying on weight.

Ice cream, on the other hand, is typically a bunch of liquid - milk, cream, maybe butter - nothing you can compress at all. Typical granulated sugar is in the same boat, although brown sugar can be a little questionable.

So, yes, I vote for bakers’ percentages.

I'm trying to make an ice cream using of home brew beer. I have found that I can make ice cream that is about 6% alcohol by volume. It will freeze just fine, it is just icy. Is there a way to reduce the water content in the alcohol without boiling (I want to keep the alcohol.) or do I just need to significantly up the fat content? — Asked by Anonymous

Freeze distillation a.k.a. freeze your beer and take out the frozen bits!

Am I remembering correctly that you mentioned making gin ice cream? I just infused some vodka to make gin, so I have all the herbs and spices to do it, and I was wondering how yours turned out... — Asked by thefulfillmentcenter

Honestly, it wasn’t that great. It was certainly edible, but even when dunked in some tonic, I felt like it wasn’t much more than a novelty item. Your view might depend on how much you like gin/juniper.

That being said, I think the problem was the bitterness the juniper berries imparted. I steeped the berries in the cream for a very very very long time. Maybe blanching them first like they were spinach or tea might have taken some of the bitterness out.

Butternut Squash I made this with the standard ratio (2c. cream, 1c. milk, .5c sugar, w/ some cinnamon and nutmeg), and a whole mashed butternut squash. In the end though, it didn’t turn out nearly butternutty enough, so I probably should have scraped out the squash a little better or used one that was way bigger. At the very least, it’s a pretty color. 

Butternut Squash

I made this with the standard ratio (2c. cream, 1c. milk, .5c sugar, w/ some cinnamon and nutmeg), and a whole mashed butternut squash. In the end though, it didn’t turn out nearly butternutty enough, so I probably should have scraped out the squash a little better or used one that was way bigger. At the very least, it’s a pretty color.