Kiwi Green Tea Sherbet.

A while back I had to scrap a kiwi custard. I had a couple of kiwis on hand the other day, so I decided to go again with another kiwi thing. I really enjoyed the clementine sherbet I made in december, so why not work on some kiwi sherbet?

A simple syrup was made with the addition of the zest from one lime. I brewed about a cup and a half of strong green tea. After the syrup and tea had cooled in the fridgerator for a few hours I skinned five kiwis and pureed them along with the juice of that lime. The tea and about one quarter cup of syrup were added to the kiwi mixture. Enough heavy cream was added to make two pints. The mixture was frozen.

A Dimension Of Perfectly Ordinary Vanilla.

They say the classics never go out of style, so today I made a classic vanilla ice cream. I started by tossing two split and halved vanilla beans into about a cup and a half of milk, heated it to just before a boil and let the vanilla beans steep in the milk for 20 minutes. The only reason I halved the beans was because they were too long to fit in my pot, otherwise simply splitting them lengthwise would be enough.


As the end of the twenty minutes approached I separated out the yolks from the eggs that had been sitting out, warming up to room temperature. The yolks were placed in a mixing bowl along with some sugar and whipped together.
Today, I have decided to make a change in my basic recipe. I have been thinking about it, and from now on I am going to add one more egg yolk to my custard. From now on I will use seven yolks. This is a purely "superstitious" addition. I hope the addition to "lucky" seven yolks will improve the power of my ice creams. The perfection of the egg will now be increased with the godly symmetry of seven.


After the twenty minutes had elapsed I removed the vanilla beans from the milk. I added some of the warm milk to the egg mixture a little bit at a time, and then poured that mixture back into the warm milk and slowly cooked it for a few more minutes until my custard was cooked.
While the custard was cooking I scraped the seeds from the beans and put them back into the custard. When it was finished cooking I strained the custard and allowed it to cool. Once the custard had cooled I added some heavy cream and threw the mixture into my machine.




"...a fallacy that is becoming more and more widespread, and that is that unfamiliar things are more interesting than familiar things. The argument being that familiarity with an object exhausts the object, we know all there is to know about it, and it holds nothing further for us. Nothing could be more mistaken. The less we know about an object, the more primitive the concepts by means of which we try to grasp it... As the sounds become more usual, so the listener is invited to penetrate more and more into them. In this way something unfamiliar is brought home."
-Cornelius Cardew

White Chocolate Peppermint Sandwiches.

These white chocolate peppermint ice cream on traditional american weed brownie sandwiches were conceptualized a while back, and what better occasion than the new year/decade to actualize them and revel in the excess they represent.
The first step was to bake the brownies, but before the brownies could be baked the weed oil had to be cooked. We turned the herb into a powder buy running it through a food processor (less volume, more surface area.), making sure not to run the machine so long as to heat the herb. Next I took the half cup of oil that was called for on the back of the box and put the oil along with the weed into a large frying pan. The grass was allowed to cook in the oil on a very low flame for about ten minutes. Once the oil had cooled it was added to the box of brownie mix along with two eggs and some water. The brownies were baked according to the box, in a 9x9 pan. We thought this would allow for eight nice sized sandwiches.


Next we got to work on the white chocolate peppermint custard. As usual a custard was prepared using eggs, milk, and sugar. I reduced the amount of added sugar considerably to compensate for the sugar in the white chocolate pieces. While the custard was being prepared the chocolate was melted in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. The hot custard was then strained into the chocolate and thoroughly blended together. It was looking a little too viscous, so I mixed about half a cup of heavy cream into the mixture and stashed it in the fridgerator to cool.

Once everything had cooled I added a very small amount of vanilla and a rather large amount of peppermint extract to the mixture along with more cream. This mixture was then put into the ice cream machine and I set to work splitting the brownie in half while the machine did its thing. This was a little more complicated than I was expecting it to be, and would have been simpler if I had allowed myself enough time to let the brownies completely cool before slicing them, but I gave myself a deadline and I set to work anyway. Scoring the edge of the brownie was simple enough. I used a chopstick to measure a halfway point and scored the perimeter of the brownies. However once I had begun slicing all the way though I realised that the brownies were still a little moist in the center. But I got the brownie separated and reassembled the spotty bits as best I could.
After I had my two slices of brownie I crushed a pair of candy canes that were found laying around from christmas. I took the bottom slice of the brownie and put it back into the 9x9 pan it was cooked in. The crushed candy canes were sprinkled all over the bottom slice.



As the ice cream approached completion a good amount of white chocolate chips were added. A few moments later the chips were distributed and the custard frozen. I removed the completed ice cream onto the candy cane sprinkled bottom slice of weed brownie. I was able keep a pint of the ice cream off the sandwich, so I would estimate a pint to a pint and a half of ice cream were used in the sandwiches. After I had dealt with the custard the top slice of brownie was added and the sandwich was put into the freezer to firm up.


The next day I took the sandwich out of the freezer and, in an effort to remove the sandwiches from the pan, wrapped them in a kitchen towel I had soaked in hot water. Then, using a knife, I seperated the edge of the sandwich from the pan and fliped it out on to a rack and then over again onto a cutting board. The 9x9 brownie was cut in half one way and in quarters the other. Eight brownies were made and seven were put back into the freezer. I ate one and wraped the others up.
Hours later my limbs were very heavy and my mind quite relaxed.

Clementine Sherbet.

I've never made a sherbet and I am not one hundred percent certain what constitutes a sherbet. Wikipedia says that sherbet is just an american term for sorbet, which seems to be what I would call an Italian ice, or what the Italians call grenita. American sherbert is a frozen fruit desert with less than 3% milkfat. I'm pretty sure my sherbet is more than 3% milkfat, as I used a healthy amount of heavy cream. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is; I'm not really sure what to call this other than fucking delicious!
The first step was to make a simple syrup. Once the syrup had cooled I got to work and juiced about fifteen clementines and one lime. this was fun, the fruit was all at room temperature and they gushed abundantly.



I added about half a cup of simple syrup and one quarter teaspoon of vanilla to the juice, then topped it off with heavy cream. I poured this mixture into the machine and in about twenty minutes I removed some of the most delicious and rich frozen fruit desert I had ever made.


This was especially fun to make because it required no cooking (except for making the syrup) and no room for error that can come in with the eggs. I also assume this is considerably healthier than my regular iced creams, some people care about that.

A Tip Of The Hat To Elvis.

Banana ice cream with peanut butter squirts. Daniel D said he would be into a banana and peanut butter ice cream. He's a pretty cool guy, so I made him some. A standard custard with yolks, milk, and sugar. Blah blah blah. Earlier, I had whipped four ripe bananas into a smoothish liquid. There were still considerable lumps. I mixed the bananas, custard, and a bit of vanilla all together and stashed it in the fridgerator.


In an effort to make the peanut butter pipe better I whipped it up, and added a pinch of salt and some honey for good measure. The whipped peanut butter was put into a bag. The cooled custard was mixed with heavy cream and put into the machine. When the ice cream was frozen I squirted the peanut butter into the cups, alternating with scoops of the ice cream.


After last months garlic ice cream it was nice to see pints finished.

Roasted Garlic.

Another collaborative effort, this time the impetus and assistance was from Jen. I got a head start by throwing 5 heads of garlic into the oven on Wednesday as some squash was being roasted for thanksgivings soup. After about an hour I pulled the garlic out and, once they cooled, squirted the roasted cloves out of their skins and into a container to be fridgerated until it was time to make the custard.

As usual we made a pretty standard custard with milk, egg yolks, and sugar.With hopes to add a bit more flavor one 1/4 cup of the regular white sugar was substituted with brown sugar. After the custard had cooled we tossed the roasted garlic and approximately one cup of cream into the blender and tried to get it all as well pureed as possible before making garlic whiped cream. The puree was then passed through a strainer into the custard. More heavy cream was added until we had our 4 cups.


That shit was put into the machine and we listened to the first side of Season Of Glass as it did its thing.
I'm not sure if I like it. I noticed Jen only had a spoonful. It is a sweet, creamy, savory ice cream, it just tastes like garlic. Obviously I expected it to taste like garlic, in fact it tastes better than I expected. I'm just not sure I ever need to taste it again. I am very excited to share this ice cream with Blaine, she is one of the biggest garlic lovers I know. Hopefully I can get some to Cousin Brian as well, but DC is far away for a pint of ice cream.
Much love to these brave souls.




"Garlic has been regarded as a force for both good and evil. A Christian myth considers that after Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left footprint and onion in the right"
-David Pickering

Gingerbread.

So, Autumn rules. The leaves change, I get to wear sweaters and flannel, girls wear sexy boots, novelty seasonal bullshit, slow food, etc....
I can't say I eat too much gingerbread, but it seemed like a fun thing to try. I assembled all the ingredients; milk, egg yolks, brown sugar, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, heavy cream, and candied ginger.


Kate helped out with this one and she grated the ginger root, while I separated the eggs and grated the nutmeg. The usual custard was made using brown sugar and molasses. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and strained ginger juice were added to the custard and the mixture was then strained and allowed to cool.


Hours later I added the cream to the chilled custard and poured the mixture into the machine. Once the custard had set up I added the candied ginger and allowed the machine to mix the pieces throughout.




"How could one be in this world without feeling dismayed by it? Even if one paints flowers and gingerbread."
-Gerhard Richter