benny – Page 18

September 6, 2012

Beet Sour Cream Habanero with Chocolate Swirl

We’re nearing the end of the summer harvest which means a scramble to get our hands on all the local produce we can and figure out ways to use it. We’ve been scheming on root vegetables for awhile, and experimented a bit, but this flavor crosses into new territory for us. We stretched our legs, and gave it a hint of spice from one of the hottest peppers you can get your mitts on, and added a nice chocolate ganache swirl for kicks.

Beets are plentiful at the farmers markets, and we picked some up from our neighborhood favorite – (Midtown Farmers Market).

Coincidentally, I happened across a pile of these beautiful habaneros as well. The flavor of the habanero pepper is often overlooked because they are so hot, but if the seeds are removed they can be very tolerable in small amounts. The red pigment and sweetness of the beet, along with the heat of the habanero seemed to be the perfect one-two pair. After all, red means HOT right?

The ice cream was a 3 step process. First, the beets were pureed with a little bit of water to bring the juice out of them.

Damn if that color isn’t gorgeous.

After pureed, we strain out the pulp and reserve the juice to reduce into a syrup.

I think I accidentally discovered a recipe for fake blood in this process. But I digress..

For this flavor, we use our sour cream ice cream base since it pairs so well with beets and pepper everywhere else. While the beet juice cooks down, we take the reserved pulp along with the (1) seeded habanero pepper and steep them in the hot ice cream mix, then strain again at the end. This process allows us to keep the starchy/grainy vegetable out of the end product, but maximize the beet flavor and retain some of the heat of the pepper without making the ice cream an endurance/sanity contest. The heat ends up being incredibly subtle and tolerable even to my 4 year old son. Yes it could certainly be hotter.

Finally, the scratch made chocolate ganache, is added in to the ice cream as a swirl for an extra twist.

There you have it. Beet Sour Cream Habanero with Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream. A beet and habenero infused sour cream ice cream with little ribbons of chocolate ganache. The beet provides a unique earthy sweetness which goes great with the hint of chocolate and ends with a nice bit of heat on the back of your palette.

If you’re interested in trying –

Every week, we give two pints away of our new flavor in a random drawing. To enter, leave a comment on our facebook page or, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (9/7/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and agree to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. Good luck!

August 23, 2012

Brown Sugar, Grilled Peach and Cinnamon Syrup

We continue to run with the seasonal flavors and late summer brings us to one of our faves – the peach. These particular peaches came from Barnard Orchards in Wisconsin. Love to get local peaches and these were incredibly juicy and sweet. Since we’ve been incorporating the grill more and more, it seemed like it was the right thing to do for this flavor, since peaches on the grill are extremely necessary for a fully recognized summer.

Sweet enough to bring the southern drawl out in anyone.

And to the grill they went, to get a nice char and to caramelize all of that sweet peach sugar.

After the grill, they were diced and roasted a bit more to further caramelize the sugars and remove the remaining moisture that would turn icy in the freezing process.

At this point, they’re basically candy.

The cinnamon syrup was stolen from a decadent family favorite dessert my mother makes called cinnamon pudding cake. It is very similar to honey in consistency – brown sugar boiled with a bit of water, butter, and cinnamon until it reaches a thick consistency.

Its amazing in ice cream, on ice cream- and pancakes and waffles don’t mind it either.

Finally the ice cream, made with our brown sugar base, is filled with these golden peach morsels and swirled with the cinnamon syrup as it is packed into the pint.

Not a bad way to celebrate the final days of summer. Can you tell how much fun we’re having yet?

Want to try some? As we do every week, we’ll be giving away two pints of this flavor. Just leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (8/24/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and agree to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. Good luck!

August 22, 2012October 30, 2023

FrozBrozTV Debut

Yep. We did it. We went on t.v., lived through the worst nightmare techincal difficulties scenario, and had a blast. The local NBC affiliate, KARE 11, was nice enough to invite us on live, and we made a flavor for them in return – Cherry Jelly Donut. We’ll release it here sometime in the near future, but in the meantime check out the video and have yourself a laugh at our expense. Click the image below to go to the video and article on the Kare11 website.

August 9, 2012

Sage Honey and Almond

We’re at the peak of harvest, and this is the time of year where we start diving more into the savory territory, putting our own sweet spin on the once a year local produce we get here. There are so many options its hard to choose, whether it be veggie or herb, or a combination of both. Sometimes its so overwhelming we need to step back and simplify in the wake of the bounty. Nuts and honey anyone? Yes. Throw in some sage? A perfect curveball.
From beginning to end the process is relatively simple, and totally rewarding

We don’t need to talk about how good this honey is a whole lot more, but we will becuase its that good. Its the difference between sweet, and incredible.

The honey was swirled into the cream as it went into the pints

The almonds were roasted ever so slightly, and tossed in a bit of salt.

Almonds were coarsely crushed and added in to be pervasive throughout.

The sage was roasted in the oven, a process similar to what we follow with fresh lavender, which mellows out the “perfumey” tastes, and intensifies the herb flavor. The leaves were ground and steeped into the base while hot, to fully infuse the sage flavor into the cream without leaving chunks of leaf to get caught in your teeth.

The end result is a light, sweet ice cream – sage providing a nice setup for the honey and almonds. A perfect summer cream, savory, but not really. Is that possible? As far as we’re concerned it is.

Want some? Leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the weekly drawing to win one of these two of a kind pints of craft ice cream. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (8/10/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and agree to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. Good luck!

July 26, 2012January 29, 2024

Cherry Pit Creme Fraiche with Rainier Cherry and Lemon Thyme

The summer of berries continue. This week is probably the peak for Rainier Cherries, so if you haven’t had any yet, get out and get some. We got ours at the Seward Co-op. While I have a love for all varieties, these are my perennial favorite, partially because we don’t see them for long when and if they get here. That isn’t to say that locally grown cherries aren’t fantastic, but I was in a pinch this week and couldn’t resist the chance to work with peak season Rainiers.

I only recently found out that cherry pits aren’t necessarily garbage, and can be used to give desserts a more intense cherry flavor with an almond-like twist when cracked and roasted and steeped or boiled into a syrup. Interestingly enough, it turns out the cherry pits are often used to make cheap almond extract which I always thought had tasted like cherries, and now I know why.

“BUT SOMEONE TOLD ME THEY’RE POISONOUS”, you might be saying. While this is technically true (they do contain a tiny amount of cyanogenic glycosides) you would need to eat a ton of them to get sick, and roasting or boiling them greatly reduces this risk (from what we’ve read). They are more commonly used in cooking around the country than you might think.

For this flavor, we boiled them into a simple syrup and steeped it with the pits.

While the cherry pit syrup was steeping, the cherries were cooked down with a little sugar and then steeped with some sprigs of lemon thyme.

The base was made with Creme Fraiche to substitute for some of the regular cream which added a nice sourness and paired wonderfully with the almondy cherry pit syrup.

Right before churning, a little fresh minced lemon thyme was added directly to the base as well.

The result is a dense cherry flavored ice cream with an incredibly silky texture from the creme fraiche and a nice tart kick from the sweet Rainier cherries and Lemon Thyme. Beautiful if we do say so ourselves.

Rockin’.

Only two will have it, my precious. As we do every week, we’ll be giving away two pints of this flavor. Just leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (7/27/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and agree to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. And we’re serious about that. We’ll hunt you down for feedback. Get your food critic pants on – you might be the lucky winner and inquiring minds want an objective opinion. Good luck!