benny – Page 3 – FROZBROZ

June 11, 2015

Mango Lassi

I was dead set on doing a mango flavor this week because the Ataulfo mangos are here and they are so dang good. There were a lot of iterations and ideas to pair with the mangos including habeneros, coconut, mint, basil and lime – all which we might play with down the road. However, the idea of making a mango lassi ice cream hit me like a lightning bolt and there was no way I could pass it up. Nothing like something refreshing and invigorating to celebrate early summer.

A “lassi”, if you are not familiar, is a drink similar to a smoothie – very popular throughout India and surrounding countries. It’s typically made with pureed fruit, spice and yogurt. For this week’s flavor the atualfo mangos were paired with greek yogurt and cardamom.

The process for this ice cream begins with fresh ripe mango, pureed with greek yogurt. We’re big fans of the Greek Gods greek yogurt because it’s got a great creamy texture that works perfect in ice cream.

While the key ingredient in this flavor is having good quality, ripe mangos – the ingredient that brings it all home is the cardamom. In this flavor the cardamom takes a subtle back seat role to the mango flavor, but the flavor as a whole wouldn’t be complete without it.

The scoop – mango lassi wrapped up in a scoop of ice cream. A rich, mango yogurt ice cream tinted with cardamom. And you can pick up a pint for yourself starting this Saturday at our home kitchen.

Mango Lassi Ice Cream

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

2C Heavy Cream
1C Greek Yogurt, full fat (or less if you’d prefer)
2 Mangos
2 Eggs
3/4C Sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Instructions:

Peel and dice mango and puree with yogurt in food processor or with wand blender until all is smooth. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add mango puree, cream, and cardamom and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place ice cream mix in heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously 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.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. 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 6/12/15 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!

May 28, 2015

Bananas Foster

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been on a major banana kick lately. It just works so fantastically well in ice cream – flavor, texture, all of it. So for this week’s flavor we go back to an old favorite dessert of both of ours – Bananas Foster. The cinnamon, the brown sugar, caramelized bananas, rum – it’s a tough combo to beat. Here’s our version in ice cream form.

First – the syrup. In traditional bananas foster the rum is typically used mostly for show at the end – to create a big flame up in the pan, garner some “oohs and aahs”, and put the finishing touches on caramelization. But the flavors are really about the brown sugar and cinnamon. So this syrup is just that – an invert syrup made with brown sugar, and cinnamon – and finished with a touch of rum.

Lest we forget the bananas. They need to be very ripe – almost overripe. Like we’ve done in all our previous banana flavors, the foundation of this ice cream is pretty much the same. The bananas get roasted and caramelized in the oven to maximize the flavor and are then pureed into the cream. The puree is added to an ice cream base that uses brown sugar instead of regular sugar and a touch of cinnamon as well.

We’re pretty in love with this banana ice cream base. Once we’ve given it a spin, the cinnamon rum syrup is swirled in at the end.

The final scoop: a silky roasted brown sugar banana ice cream decorated with ribbons of cinnamon rum syrup.

Bananas Foster Ice Cream

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Syrup Ingredients:

2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon rum

Ice Cream Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar plus more for dusting bananas
2 Eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 Cup Cinnamon Syrup (recipe above)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the syrup (make ahead of time and chill): Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and water in a heavy bottom pot and place on burner over medium/high heat. Bring to slow boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 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.

2. Prepare the ice cream: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop the bananas into 1/2 inch chunks and toss with a the melted butter until coated. Place on sheet pan and dust with brown sugar. Place in oven and roast for approx 10-15 minutes or until bananas are starting to carmelize. Puree with the one cup of whole milk you will be using for the ice cream base and set aside.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add brown sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, banana puree, cinnamon and salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

Place ice cream base in a pot over medium heat, stirring continuously. Continue to heat 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) and then place in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Place the ice cream into container and swirl in the cinnamon syrup. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, 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 5/29/15 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!

May 13, 2015

Ginger Brown Butter Vanilla Bean

We haven’t done a vanilla centric flavor in awhile, so I took the opportunity this week to remedy that. While it’s true my sons are completely spoiled in their access to ice cream, the wide assortment of flavors we make are often complex and a little challenging for them. I wanted to tailor something more for them, especially with birthdays coming up – we HAD to have some kind of ice cream to eat with the cake. Hence, we arrived at this week’s flavor – very much a vanilla but tinted with just a twist as we do.

The process for this flavor is relatively simple – it’s all in the base.

First, the ginger is finely grated and added fresh to the cream base, along with fresh vanilla bean. Vanilla extract works fine in a pinch, but nothing compares to actual vanilla bean flavor. All of these flavors steep and infuse into the ice cream base during the cooking process – so it is important that they go in beforehand or their flavor will not be as intense.

A little bit of butter is browned in a pan, and whisked in once the ice cream base has reached a temp around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. If added in while the ice cream base is cold, it coagulates immediately and you get chunks of brown butter which you most likely don’t want. When added in while warm, it gets whisked into the base and emulsifies to become one. Harmonious brown butter flavor in an umami concert with ginger and vanilla bean and cream.

The scoop – a beautifully rich, ginger and brown butter tinted vanilla bean ice cream.

Ginger Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

2C Heavy Cream
1C Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
2 Eggs
3/4C Sugar
1 Whole Vanilla bean
1Tablespoon of finely grated ginger
2Tablespoons of melted butter (browned)
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add grated ginger, vanilla bean (scraped from pod) and sugar to eggs and whisk until all are combined well. Add cream,milk, salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Note: You can add in the vanilla bean pod to steep during the cooking process for more vanilla flavor, but make sure to pull it out and discard before freezing the ice cream. Place ice cream mix in heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously. Once mix reaches 115 degrees Fahrenheit, whisk in the melted browned butter until emulsified into the ice cream base. Continue to 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.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. 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 5/15/15 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!

April 30, 2015

Shoofly

It’s been awhile since we’ve done anything with molasses, and that just shouldn’t be. So this week’s flavor is a take on Shoofly pie – a molasses pie that is nothing short of incredible and one of my old favorites.

Instead of making a pie and just chopping it up, I chose to make a crunchy oat crumble that would represent the crumble you typically find on top of a shoofly pie. The versions of the pie I’ve had didn’t have any oat in the crumble but I chose to add them just to give some added flavor and crunch.

The crumble is a simple mix of brown sugar, oats, flour, a bit of salt and then cut with butter – kind of similar to granola but a bit more cookie like.

The mix is spread out on a sheetpan and baked at 350 for about 15 minutes or so until browned and done.

Once it’s cooled, it’s all broken up to be thrown into the ice cream after the churn.

The ice cream base itself is a simple molasses and brown sugar base. Sticky sweet molasses combined with a bit of brown sugar to balance it out a bit.

The scoop is a deep, rich molasses ice cream chock full of crunchy oat crumbles.

Shoofly Ice Cream Recipe

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Oat Crumble Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oatmeal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into pieces

Instructions for making the crumble (make ahead of time)

Combine 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, oatmeal and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until blended. While the food processor is still running, add the butter gradually until the butter mixes in and resembles a coarse meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press out the crumble mix on a greased or lined sheetpan into one thin layer. Place in oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven once complete and let cool. Break into small pieces and set aside. You will have extra to enjoy however you’d like.

Ice Cream Ingredients

1/2 Cup blackstrap molasses
3/4 Cup of Sugar
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup of reserved crunchy oat crumble (recipe above)

Instructions:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add molasses and sugar to eggs and whisk until all are combined well. Add cream, salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place ice cream mix in heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously. Heat 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). Place strained ice cream mix in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add cup of crunchy oat crumble in last 5 minutes of churn. 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 5/1/15 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!

April 16, 2015

Toasted Grits with Maple Syrup

The original concept for this flavor began with the idea of somehow using polenta – which is very similar to grits but has subtle differences, such as the type of corn used..but that’s elaboration for another time. The fact is I had grits on hand, so out of convenience came a slight course deviation that led here. Why? Well, for one – I love breakfast themed ice cream flavors. I also love grits, and grits for breakfast so I ran with it. Plus, It’s maple syrup season, so it would only be right to have a flavor with some maple syrup in it. Truthfully, we use maple syrup and maple sugar pretty often, but we’ll happily take advantage of an excuse to use it more.

Now regular course ground grits uncooked don’t have a whole lot of flavor. So I chose to toast the grits just a bit in a hot pan to bring some more of the flavor to life.

At the same time, a basic ice cream base is prepared and heated on the stove. The idea is to have the the base heated to around 115 degrees or so, and to add the hot toasted grits into the warm cream to coax as much flavor out as possible. Once the base is finished cooking the grits are strained out with a fine mesh strainer. A little bit is reserved to add just a little crunch to the ice cream without being grainy.

Ah, the syrup. There is so much good maple syrup to choose from in the midwest. This particular flavor of ice cream was blessed with some of the fine goodness produced by the folks of Anderson’s Maple Syrup in Cumberland, WI. The maple magic is layered in as the ice cream is packed into the pint containers.

The finished product reminds me a bit of the cereal corn pops. It’s rich ice cream, infused with a toasted corn flavor, and wonderfully accented with a swirl of rich maple syrup.

Toasted Grits with Maple Syrup Ice Cream Recipe

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

1 Cup of course ground corn grits (polenta would also work)
1/2 Cup of Maple Syrup
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
3/4 Cup of Sugar
2 Eggs
1 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place in pot in preparation to cook the base and get it started warming over medium heat on the stove, timed so it is starting to warm when the grits are finished toasting and still hot.

Add 1 cup of grits to heavy pan and heat over medium high, stirring frequently until they start to smoke and just begin to lightly brown. Add immediately to warm ice cream base.

Continue to cook ice cream base over medium heat, stirring continuously. Heat 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). Strain out all cooked grits with a fine mesh strainer. You can toss the cooked grits, or if you’re creative find another use for them, (they taste pretty amazing on their own). Place strained ice cream mix in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Layer in maple syrup as you pack the ice cream into the container you will freeze it in. 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 4/17/15 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!