OH AND HEY: Brooklyn Skillshare is tomorrow! Fight your way through the madding crowds at 3:15 to hit up my ice cream class, or show up earlier to try out a thousand other free classes.

Coverage!

Recent press mentions:

Time Out New York: Covered in an article on underground foods. How edgy are we, ‘eh?

Brooklyn Paper: Right over here - which is accompanied by a picture in which I look like an incredibly rude and pompous ice cream magnate. Accompanied by a recipe for Laurel’s Ginger Blackberry (previously on the blog).

Gingered Beet: Gina rocked three flavors coming in, gingered beet is getting its own post because this picture makes it look 150% radioactive.

Gingered Beet: Gina rocked three flavors coming in, gingered beet is getting its own post because this picture makes it look 150% radioactive.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream & Caramelized Pear Ice Cream: I went double-duty on caramel this time, even going so far as toobey recipes from the internet.

The salted butter caramel is literally the best thing to ever meet my mouth, and a lot of people agree (for their respectively mouths, of course). It’s a (gasp) custard recipe, which means it has eggs, and is sourced from this David Lebovitz blog post.

As for the caramelized pear, two things: First, it is slightly hellish to dice up 3 pears. It’s much more work than you’d ever think, and this is coming from someone who minces heads of garlic in his sleep. Secondly, make sure your strainer wasn’t stolen or some nonsense a week ago! I had to leave the pureed bits of pear in, and while other people weren’t as up in arms about it, I thought it lent the ice cream a kinda terrifying texture. The flavor was great, though, and the recipe (another David Lebovitz) is over here.

Did you know if you put sugar in a pan over heat it melts and caramelizes? No butter, no water, no cream, no nothing. It does it all by its lonesome! For all of the magic dessert things I’ve done in my life I somehow missed out on that fact.

Ginger Honey with Candied Ginger Bits So, I’m pregnant. This recipe is for all the preggers ladies and everyone else. Ginger is a first-trimester savior, it calms your stomach and clarifies your attention. Plus, you need lots of calcium! Honey deepens the flavor, and is supposedly better than refined sugars. OK, maybe I should have made it lower fat, but I did not: my contribution to the club today will be 2 parts cream, fresh ginger-steeped and some ginger powder mixed in, 1 part whole milk, a cap-full of vanilla, a scant 1/2 cup honey, and candied ginger bits.

Ginger Honey with Candied Ginger Bits

So, I’m pregnant. This recipe is for all the preggers ladies and everyone else. Ginger is a first-trimester savior, it calms your stomach and clarifies your attention. Plus, you need lots of calcium! Honey deepens the flavor, and is supposedly better than refined sugars. OK, maybe I should have made it lower fat, but I did not: my contribution to the club today will be 2 parts cream, fresh ginger-steeped and some ginger powder mixed in, 1 part whole milk, a cap-full of vanilla, a scant 1/2 cup honey, and candied ginger bits.

Maraschino Cherries!  For some inexplicable reason, I got the idea earlier this summer that having a jar of real maraschino cherries in the frig to top ice cream with was a really good idea. It took me a good while to round up the key ingredient, Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, but I finally made a batch this week, and they are so incredibly delicious.  The recipe is stolen from here, and it’s pretty simple: boil 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, some lemon juice and a cinnamon stick, along with some vanilla if you want. When it boils, throw in a pound of pitted cherries and cook for 5-7 minutes. Take them off the heat and add 1 cup of Luxardo. Let ‘em cool and keep ‘em in the frig.  I never actually ate them with ice cream, but they were amazing with greek yogurt and nothing like what comes in a jar at the store. Eat enough and you might get a buzz, not that that’s a bad thing. 

Maraschino Cherries! 

For some inexplicable reason, I got the idea earlier this summer that having a jar of real maraschino cherries in the frig to top ice cream with was a really good idea. It took me a good while to round up the key ingredient, Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, but I finally made a batch this week, and they are so incredibly delicious. 

The recipe is stolen from here, and it’s pretty simple: boil 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, some lemon juice and a cinnamon stick, along with some vanilla if you want. When it boils, throw in a pound of pitted cherries and cook for 5-7 minutes. Take them off the heat and add 1 cup of Luxardo. Let ‘em cool and keep ‘em in the frig. 

I never actually ate them with ice cream, but they were amazing with greek yogurt and nothing like what comes in a jar at the store. Eat enough and you might get a buzz, not that that’s a bad thing. 

What ice cream maker would you recommend for a broke novice? Thanks! — Asked by Anonymous

Honestly, I love everything by Cuisinart. This is their cheapest, and some members of ICC have had good results with it.

On the other hand, I think people have had success with absolutely every machine under the sun. Ice cream is one of those things that’s really ingredient- and process-driven, and as long as you’re using a standard base-goes-in-the-freezer machine I’m sure you can adapt your methods to any quirks your machine throws up!

My ice cream turns out very rich and creamy, except when you eat it, there is a grainy residue left on the spoon. The ice cream itself doesn't seem to be grainy when you eat it - just on the spoon.This recipe has a much larger proportion of egg yolks, and has the addition of butter (which I've never heard of doing). The other difference from other recipes is the procedure - it calls for the egg yolks and sugar to be whisked together, then add the 1/2&1/2 and cook it in the top of a double boiler. Other recipes have eggs added after you've taken some of the warm liquid and added it to the eggs. Is the problem the result of something in the recipe, the procedure, or is this the 'graininess' that I've read about as a result of it freezing too fast? — Asked by Anonymous

Since you’ve pointed out the egg yolk process is different than most recipes, let’s focus on that.

The egg yolk mixture is, in its heart of hearts, a custard. Custard has a reputation for being fickle, and googling around for “grainy custard” bears this out. From a comment on this page,

 

3. Eggs curdling. What happens in curdling is that tiny bits of eggs get thoroughly cooked and bind together in little crystalline bits (scrambling). The result is grainy custard. The trick is to work the custard over low heat (double boiler) and to whisk constantly. That way, you give time for the sugar molecules to come between the yolk molecules. Make a zabaglione tonight to test: on a double boiler over low heat, whisk in four egg yolks, a quarter of a cup of sugar and a quarter of a cup of dry marsala. If the heat is low and the motion constant, you will have a good custard. Then buy a package of mixed berries at Trader Joe’s (freezer section) and you’ve got a great dessert.

 

Additionally, this Chowhound thread seems to agree that either too low or too high of a temperature can mess with your custard.

 

So! As a first stop I’d recommend trying out the ‘standard’ method you outlined in your question (despite what the recipe says) and seeing if that solves the problem. There are also a TON of other tips in that Chowhound thread on other aspects of graininess that you could check out if that doesn’t solve the problem.

Let us know how it turns out! 

Is Your Favorite Ice Cream Made With Monsanto's Artificial Hormones?

I thought this was relevant to da club—why’s best to make your own!

tinyparticles:

Great article from the Huffington Post…and a great reason to consume only organic and rBGH free dairy products!

Ginger Blackberry I brought this to the super chill meet-up today. Philly-style, steeped the ginger in the cream, added strained blackberry puree at the very end. Nice and spicy (that’s how I like it, anyway)!

Ginger Blackberry

I brought this to the super chill meet-up today. Philly-style, steeped the ginger in the cream, added strained blackberry puree at the very end. Nice and spicy (that’s how I like it, anyway)!