benny – Page 2 – FROZBROZ

August 20, 2015

Margherita Pizza

We’ve riffed on tomatoes several times in the heat of the summer. In all of our ideation, we’ve always kicked around the idea of pizza but it wasn’t until now that we finally decided to take the leap. Although I must admit, I did simplify the idea this round – and chose to leave out the pepperoni (even though I was soo tempted to put it in). Instead I went the classic margherita route, inspired by the simple pizza topped with garden fresh tomatoes, basil and good old mozzarella cheese.

The process begins with the tomatoes. I chose to make a tomato jam for the tomato component of the flavor because the cherry tomatoes are typically sweeter and remind me a bit of a regular berry. The jam was made like we would make any other fruit jam, a little lemon juice, and sugar and that’s it! The cherries soak in lemon juice to coax out the liquid and then are cooked with sugar until the water is displaced. It’s a sweet jam that explodes with tomato flavor.

With the jam complete, the next step is the mozzarella ice cream base. Similar to how we’ve used cheese in previous flavors, the mozz is shredded very fine, and then slowly whisked into the ice cream base as it’s being cooked.

The last step is the basil. Fresh basil is minced very fine and added in fresh at the end of the churn to provide that bright herb-y accent that cuts right through the cheese and tomato.

I have to say, the end result was even more delightful than I expected. I knew it would be good, but the flavors came together so fantastically well. As it turns out cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and mozzarella are just as successful of a trio in ice cream as they are on pizza.

The scoop is a tangy, mozzarella and basil flecked ice cream swirled with sweet cherry tomato jam.
Margherita Pizza Ice Cream Recipe

Cherry Tomato jam ingredients:
1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (about 1/2 pound)
1 to 1-1/2 Cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Ice Cream ingredients:
1 Cup of Milk (The higher the fat percentage, the creamier the ice cream)
2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 Cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 Cup of sugar
1 Cup of pre-made Cherry Tomato Jam
1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil
1 teaspoon of salt

Instructions for the Jam: Place a plate in the freezer (this will come in handy in a bit). In a medium saucepan combine the sliced cherry tomatoes and lemon juice. Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mash briefly with a potato masher to press out more of the juice, but don’t pulverize. Stir in sugar. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Cook and stir the mix until the bubbles subside and the jam appears slightly thickened, somewhere around 15 minutes. To test for doneness, spoon a small amount onto the chilled plate. If jam is gooey and wrinkles when you push your finger into it, it is done. This means it will not be icy in the cream (which you do not want). If not, add a bit more sugar and cook and stir a little longer before testing again. Cover and chill completely until you are ready to make the ice cream.

Instructions for ice cream: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar whisk until fully combined. Add heavy cream, mozzarella cheese, and salt. Whisk again until all ingredients are fully blended.

Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously. Keep stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat. Cool ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Put base in a clean container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add basil in last 5 minutes of churning. Place ice cream is in freezer proof storage container. swirling in the cherry tomato jam in layers as you do so. Place container in freezer and freeze ice cream for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait.

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints
If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 8/21/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

August 6, 2015

Cherry Basil Yogurt Pretzel

I happened across these gorgeous dark Wisconsin cherries in the past week and snatched them up to pair with some of the fresh basil I have growing in the backyard. The very evening I bought the cherries I came home to my 2 year old son snacking on a handful of yogurt pretzels and knew right then and there that yogurt and pretzels would also have to be part of this combination. Serendipity and ice cream are a scheming pair.

The Cherries are the star of this show as they should be, and we begin with making them into a light jam. We’ve got this fantastic new method that really preserves the integrity of the fruit while keeping it from getting icy. It’s all about displacing the water content with sugar. Ah, the sweet wonder drug that we are slaves to. Sugar. With a nod to Oscar Wilde, we preach moderation in everything, including moderation.

Once the jam is made, the rest of this process is smooth sailing. The ice cream is a simple yogurt/cream base made with our favorite full fat yogurt to give it a nice tang.

This pretty garden fresh basil is minced and added in fresh at the end of the churn.

The pretzels are broken into smaller pieces and also added in at the end of the churn.

The end result is a rich yogurt basil ice cream swirled with fresh cherry jam and studded with pretzel chunks.

Cherry Basil Yogurt Pretzel Ice Cream Recipe

Cherry jam ingredients:
1 pint fresh cherries (about 1/2 pound)
1 Cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Ice Cream ingredients:
1 Cup of plain yogurt
2 Cups of Heavy Cream
3/4 Cup of sugar
1 Cup of pre-made Cherry Jam
1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil
1/2 Cup pretzels (broken up)
1 teaspoon of salt

Instructions for the Jam: Place a plate in the freezer (this will come in handy in a bit). In a medium saucepan combine the cherries and lemon juice. Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in sugar. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Cook and stir the mix until the bubbles subside and the jam appears slightly thickened, somewhere around 15 minutes. To test for doneness, spoon a small amount onto the chilled plate. If jam is gooey and wrinkles when you push your finger into it, it is done. This means it will not be icy in the cream (which you do not want). If not, cook and stir a little longer before testing again. Cover and chill completely until you are ready to make the ice cream.

Instructions for ice cream: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar whisk until fully combined. Add heavy cream, yogurt, and salt. Whisk again until all ingredients are fully blended.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add basil and pretzels in last 5 minutes of churning. Place ice cream is in freezer proof storage container. swirling in the cherry jam in layers as you do so. Place container in freezer and freeze ice cream for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait.

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints
If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 8/7/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

July 23, 2015

Black Currant Cassis w/Black Pepper

Our friend Heidi Skoog recently picked up a windfall of black currants from the amazing Blue Fruit Farm in Winona, MN. They literally live up to their name by only growing blue fruits. How cool is that? Definitely a place worth visiting for their exotic varieties of berries, including these black currants. I’ll be honest, I’ve never had a black currant that wasn’t dried before, and the fresh black currant is one of the most unique tasting berries I’ve come across. Slightly smoky in flavor, they are almost more savory than sweet. I couldn’t have been more excited to make ice cream with them. For a twist, why not throw in a little Cassis and some black pepper?

The flavor begins by making a jam out of the currants. Its the same jam process we use for everything and in this case will also provide the bulk of the sweetness for the ice cream. Cassis, a black currant liqueur, is added in once the jam is cooled (so as not to lose the flavor) to give it even more dimension.

To make the ice cream, we start with a simple cream base but use only a fraction of the sugar we typically do because the black currant jam is already sweet. The jam is blended directly into the base and gives it a beautiful purplish hue. Fresh cracked black pepper is added while the base is cooked, to infuse a subtle bite into the currant-y cream.

The scoop is a wondefully complex black currant cassis ice cream with a little bite of black pepper.

Black Currant Cassis w/ Black Pepper Ice Cream

Black Currant Cassis jam ingredients:
1 pint black currants (about 1/2 pound)
1 Cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon of Cassis liqueur

Ice Cream ingredients:
1 Cup of Milk (whatever fat percentage you prefer)
2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup of sugar
1 Cup of Currant Cassis Jam
1/4 tsp of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions for the Jam: Place a plate in the freezer (this will come in handy in a bit). In a medium saucepan combine the currants and lemon juice. Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in sugar. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Cook and stir the mix until the bubbles subside and the jam appears slightly thickened, somewhere around 15 minutes. To test for doneness, spoon a small amount onto the chilled plate. If jam is gooey and wrinkles when you push your finger into it, it is done. This means it will not be icy in the cream which you do not want. If not, cook and stir a little longer before testing again. Let cool; then add cassis and black pepper when jam is cool. Cover and chill completely until you are ready to make the ice cream.

Instructions for ice cream: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and currant jam and whisk until fully combined. Add heavy cream, milk, and salt. Whisk again until all ingredients are fully blended. Base will take on the bluish purple color of the currants.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Place ice cream is in freezer proof storage container and store ice cream for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait.

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7/24/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

July 8, 2015

Dark and Stormy

Our Facebook fan flavor contest from a few weeks back provided a ton of great flavor ideas and we’ll probably add a few more before summer is over. This week we’re going to go back to the summer cocktail theme using a fan suggestion and visit another great summer drink featuring ginger ale, lime and rum – the Dark and Stormy. For the ice cream version, we made a ginger brown sugar ice cream with candied lime and dark rum syrup.

The most labor intensive part of making this flavor is making the candied lime – so we’ll start there. The lime rind is carefully separated and sliced – then boiled 3 times to remove the bitterness. Once that is done, the lime “zest” is simmered in a simple sugar syrup until tender, tossed with sugar and laid out on a sheetpan to dry.

Then comes the dark rum syrup. It starts with brown sugar and water, which is boiled into a syrup. The dark rum is added at the end once cool to prevent all of the alcohol from burning off. Rum is a sweet liqour that disappears in more sugar, so we want a little of the alcohol to stay in the syrup and round out the flavor.

Last but not least, the ice cream base. To serve as the ginger ale portion of the cocktail, we use brown sugar and fresh grated ginger. It makes for a nice slightly dark and gingery base to hold up the candied lime and rum syrup.

The candied limes are added in at the end of the churn and the rum syrup is swirled in as the ice cream is packed into it’s container.

The scoop is a light and airy brown sugar ginger ice cream studded with candied limes all embraced by a dark rum syrup swirl.

Dark and Stormy Ice Cream Recipe

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

For Ice Cream:
2C Heavy Cream
1C Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
2 Eggs
3/4C Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon of finely grated ginger
1/2 tsp salt

For Syrup:
1C Brown Sugar
1/2C Water
2 Tablespoons of Dark Rum

For Candied Lime:
3 Limes
1C Sugar + Extra for dusting
1C Water

Instructions:

1. Prepare the candied Lime (make 1 day ahead of time): Remove the peels from the limes. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove any thick white pith from lime peel. Cut peel into thin 2-inch-long strips. Place peel in pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and strain, repeat boiling and straining 3 times to remove bitterness from peel. Once boiling has been completed, bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to boil. When sugar is dissolved, add strained lime peel and reduce to simmer; cook for approximately 30-45 minutes or until lime peel is tender. Once tender, strain lime peel and toss with sugar to coat, then spread out on sheet pan and let dry completely (will go faster in refrigerator – usually takes about 3-4 hours). Once lime peel is dry chop into small 1/4″ sized pieces and chill in refrigerator until you are ready to churn ice cream.

2. Prepare the syrup (make ahead of time and chill): Combine the brown sugar and water in a heavy bottom pot and place on burner over medium/high heat. Bring to boil and cook until temperature reaches 220 degrees farenheit (you’ll need a candy or high heat digital read thermometer). Watch closely because it can boil over lightning fast. Remove from heat. Let cool to room temperature and then add the rum and stir until incorporated. Chill further in refrigerator until you’re ready to make ice cream. It helps to test some of the syrup in the freezer to make sure it doesn’t get too hard or thick. If it does – simply add a bit of water or rum and heat until you can incorporate it all (or do it while it is still warm).

3. Prepare the ice cream: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add grated ginger, brown sugar and salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place ice cream mix in heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously. Heat ice cream mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat. Cool the ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Once cool, place ice cream mix in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add in 1/2C candied lime in the last 5 minutes of the churning process. The rum syrup is swirled in to the ice cream as you pack it into the container. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints of ice cream.

If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7/10/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

June 25, 2015

Mojito

Nothing spells summer like sipping on a Mojito in the sun. For those of you not familiar, a mojito is a rum-based cocktail flavored with fresh mint, lime and mixed with club soda. It’s a flavor we’ve kicked around for ice cream a number of times, but when we recently solicited our facebook fans for flavor ideas it came roaring back to life. With that extra encouragement we went back to the drawing board and came up with a version that we’re pretty darn happy with – and hopefully our fans will be as well.

This flavor revolves around the mint, lime and rum of the mojito. To avoid having a mint ice cream that would overpower the rum and lime flavors, we chose to put the mint into a syrup.

First the mint is pureed with a bit of water and then brought to a boil with sugar to create a syrup.

Since the mint loses it’s nice green color and a some of the fresh flavor while being cooked into the syrup, more fresh mint is added into it once the syrup has cooled. In addition, the rum part of the equation comes in here -the rum is also added to the syrup once cool. We add it to the syrup rather than the ice cream itself because it has a tendency to stand out a bit more in the flavor when concentrated into a syrup vs. diluted into the ice cream base. The syrup gets swirled into the ice cream at the very end.

The base of the ice cream holds the lime flavor. And the best way to naturally impart a fresh lime flavor into the cream is to use the zest of the lime. The lime zest steeps in the cream during the heating process and creates a nice lime flavor without adding any additional water content (which is ice cream’s #1 enemy).

The scoop is a summery lime ice cream swirled with a fresh mint and rum syrup. Happy summer!

Mojito

2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Milk ((choose your percentage based on how fatty/creamy you’d like your ice cream to be – the higher percentage the creamier the ice cream)
2 Large Eggs
1-3/4 Cup of sugar
1 Cup of fresh mint
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon Rum
1 Tablespoon of Lime Zest

Instructions:

Prepare syrup (should be prepared at least 1 day ahead: Puree 1 Cup of mint with 1/2 Cup of water. Place mint/water puree in pot and add 1 Cup of sugar. Bring mixture to light boil over high heat until it reaches a temp of 220 degrees Fahrenheit. Or if you don’t have a candy thermometer (I do this even with one): boil for approximately 5-7 minutes, remove pot from heat and spoon some of the syrup into a small glass ramekin, plate or bowl. Place the sample in your freezer for around 15 minutes. When at least 15 minutes have passed, and make sure it has cooled to a sticky syrup consistency. If its really thin you will need to boil a bit longer and do the freezer test again. If it’s too thick, you might need to add a tablespoon of water to the pot. Once you have reached that desired syrupy consistency you know you’ve got it where you want it. Once the whole mix is cool (this is key) add another 1/4 cup of finely chopped mint along with the rum and mix well. Then cool it all in a container until you are ready to freeze your ice cream.

2. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add 3/4 Cup sugar, and lime zest and whisk. Add cream, milk, salt and and whisk until all are fully combined.

4. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Place ice cream base in a small pot and heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes).

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Swirl in the mint rum syrup as you pack the frozen ice cream in a freezer proof container. Let freeze for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight (if you can wait). Enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints
If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 6/26/2015 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!