Erik – Page 11 – FROZBROZ

January 15, 2014

Caramel with Salt Candied Pretzel and Chocolate Syrup

We may be halfway through the month of January, but this week we’re going back to the holidays. Everyone has their favorite holiday baked goods, and it seems as though every year there are more and more varieties on the cookie plate. This year, my sister-in-law turned me onto mini pretzels topped with melted down rolos. She pressed whole pecans into some of these snackers after the melt down, and others she left plain. However I ate it, I liked it. These flavors are not re-inventing the wheel, but they certainly make for irresistible snacking. And when I say irresistible, what I mean is, uncontrollable. And so, I wanted to deconstruct these little snackers and put them into our ice cream. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Caramel with Salt Candied Pretzel and Chocolate Syrup.

I decided that I wanted to make a caramel ice cream base, which is something that we’ve never executed before. Now seems like the perfect time, and making the caramel base is really no different than our process of making caramel itself. First, sugar and a very small amount of water are brought to a boil. The sugar is boiled until it starts to caramelize and turn a nice deep amber color. At this point, our cream is whisked in, and we add the caramel cream to the remaining portion of our ice cream base, which is heated through; emulating the pasteuriztion process. The result is a golden ice cream base ready for the churn.

Pretzels! Who doesn’t like pretzels? Ok, if you don’t like them, I can guarantee that you’re going to love these pretzels. They are an adaptation of Christina Tossi’s (of Momofuku Milk Bar fame) pretzel crunch. We are essentially making a pie crust or other type crumb to make these pretzels. The pretzels are broken up into small pieces, and baked with sugar, malted milk powder, salt and butter. Look out, cause these alone can make for a hella snackathon. They are tossed into the ice cream at the end of the churn.

And finally, our chocolate syrup. Here we make a simple syrup, by boiling organic cane sugar and water together, and then add our Valrhona cocoa powder. It’s the bomb chocolate syrup, and we layer it into the pints during packaging.

Bang! Caramel with Salt Candied Pretzel and Chocolate Syrup. It’s January, but we’re still serving up some holiday-inspired snackers frozbroz style.

Like to try some? 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 1/17/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

Don’t forget, our first pint sale is coming up this Saturday, January 18th. Click here for details.

January 15, 2014October 30, 2023

Citypages

Q&A: FrozBroz Erik Powers and Ben Solberg

January 1, 2014

Peanut Butter with Roasted Bananas

Happy new year, guys! It’s January 2014, which means a lot to us at FrozBroz. It means that our ice cream will officially be for sale this month. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for announcments regarding this exciting new time for our ice cream’s existence.

As for this week, we’re dropping another bit of FrozBroz nostalgia. We all have memories of friends coming over to play after school, and likely your parents whipped up something for you and your friends to eat or snack on, just as mine did. It’s possible we all share this same bit of nostalgia. For me, one of the most memerable lunch/snacks my mother ever put in front of me was a peanut butter and banana sandwich. She always served it open faced – white bread, creamy peanut butter, and thick banana slices. So successful that my friends who were over, loved it as much as I did. So successful, that this week, I’m going to put the peanut butter and bananas in our ice cream. It’s a classic combination, and one that is close to me. Let’s get 2014 kicked off right, with this week’s flavor: Peanut Butter with Roasted Bananas.

I flip-flopped a lot before deciding which part of this flavor should be the ice cream; peanut buter or banana? Ultimately, I decided that a peanut butter ice cream would probably go over better, as most of you that follow us Broz, are peanut butter freaks. For the ice cream base, we use fresh ground peanut butter ground at the Seward Co-op. The peanut butter is added to our pure sugar cane base, cooked, and then strained through a fine mesh strainer. The base is salted and is ready to churn.

FYI, to let you in on a little secret…someone’s grinding up fresh ground artisinal peanut butters to sell over at our new kitchen space, CityFoodStudio. Keep your eyes peeled.

Speaking of peeled, let’s talk roasted bananas. Again, as we always talk the talk, we work to decrease the water content of our fruit and increase natural sugars to reduce iciness in the ice cream. These very not local bananas are sliced and roasted in the oven on parchment until caramelly. Their flavors are concentrated and ready to be added into our peanut butter ice cream at the end of the churn.

Peanut Butter with Roasted Bananas! Brining in the new year with some FrozBroz nostalgia.

Like to try some? You can win one of the only two pints in the world, filled with 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. 2 lucky winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 1/3/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback. Pints must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

December 19, 2013

Gingerbread with Lemon Cream

The holiday season is in full swing which means folks are busy baking up all their favorite cookies, cakes, pies and pastries to share with family and friends. And hey, we’re no different. So when my loving wife suggested that we make gingerbread cookies with our four-year-old son to swing into the holiday spirit, I concurred, and then immediately got caught up with the idea of gingerbread and ice cream. It’s not new concept to us. In fact, gingerbread was the second flavor we ever put out on this here blog. This time I wanted to add in the component of lemon, you know, the classic lemon icing that tops gingerbread cookies. So I toiled with the idea of making a gingerbread flavored ice cream and adding lemon bars, but in the end, I was a sucker for a lemon ice cream with gingerbread croutons. Honestly, I thought you all would be too. So let’s get started with this week’s holiday flavor: Gingerbread with Lemon Cream…

In case you were wondering why we’re not making gingerbread cookies…we are looking for something dense that will hold up in our ice cream. We adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for our ice cream, but the original produces a fantastic dense sticky gingerbread that is fantastic on it’s own. We start with Cardamom, Cloves, Cinnamon, Ginger and Nutmeg to give this cake intensity. The batter is poured into a Bundt pan and after baking is knocked out to cool. For the ice cream, we cube the gingerbread and bake again to form a crunchy layer on the outside that will hold up to the ice cream. The croutons are tossed in at the end of the churn.

Next, we mix in a handfull of freshly grated lemon zest to our organic sugarcane base before cooking. The base is cooked, the zest is steeped, and then strained before cooling and into the ice cream maker.

Gingerbread with Lemon Cream! It’s craft ice cream for the holidays and we want to share it with you…

You can win one of the only two pints in the world, filled with 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. 2 lucky winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 12/20/13 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback. Pints must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

December 5, 2013

Pumpkin with Chipotle Praline Pepitas and Cajeta

This week we’ll continue with our flavors for the holidays, but this time with some influence from our neighbors to the South. Recently we honed in on a technique we’ve been working on for making our winter squash flavors that has produced favorable results on a consistant basis. This makes us very happy, and in turn will make you very happy when you taste these delicious creams. And since everyone has pumpkin pie on the brain this time of year, I decided why not take our squash victory for a ride in the form of pumpkin for this week’s flavor? In the process of thinking about flavor profiles, I couldn’t stop thinking about a caramel of some sort, and then it hit me…Cajeta! – AKA Mexican style goat milk caramel. In my mind, pumpkin and cajeta have comparable flavor profiles, but my thought was that the cajeta would compliment with it’s subtle cinnamon spice and contrast with the slightly more acidic properties from the goat milk. Done. And for a bit of texture I decided to double-up on the pumpkin and use it’s seeds; but not just plain seeds; pralined pepitas with chiotple powder for an extra kick. Which brings us to this week’s flavor: Pumpkin with Chipotle Praline Pepitas and Cajeta. Let’s get started…

We started with the classic pie pumkin squash grown right here in Minnesota. The pumpkin is cubed, tossed with a little butter, and placed in a oven to slow roast. We always talk about reducing water content in our ice cream, and that is a very important concept when we are actually flavoring our ice cream base with something natural, as we are here. This technique of slowly roasting the cubed pumpkins not only reduces the water content, but also allows some of the pumpkins starches to convert to sugar, thus the caramelization around the edges. The roasted pumkin is pureed in a blender with a little cream and added into our brown sugar ice cream base. The base is cooked, and then strained through a fine mesh strainer. The starches that remain in the roasted pumpkin, make for an ultra smooth ice cream. The base is chilled and ready for a churn.

Next we spread out raw pepitas on a sheet pan and roast them in oven. The roasted pepitas are cooled and placed on a parchment lined sheet pan.

For the praline, we bring granulated sugar and a small amount of water to a boil. The mixture is boiled down until the sugar caramelizes and an amber color is achieved. The chipotle powder is added and the caramelized liquid is poured over the roasted pepitas, salted and cooled. The praline is then broken up into pieces and added into the ice cream at the end of the churn.

Cajeta time! For this run, we used Poplar Hill goat milk from Scandia, MN. The milk is reduced slowly with sugar and a cinnamon stick for a few hours, while it transforms from a pale yellow to a rich golden brown. The caramel is strained through a fine mesh strainer and cooled. The cajeta is layered into the pints during packaging.

An ultra smooth pumpkin ice cream with crunchy spiced candied pumpkin seeds, all layered with a goat milk caramel! Bringing you holiday flavor with a Mexican twist.

Want to try it? You can win one of the only two pints in the world, filled with 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. 2 lucky winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 12/6/13 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback. Pints must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!