How’s that for alliteration?
A few weeks ago we were brainstorming flavors, and as fate would have it, our friends Molly and Dave from Minnesota Peach called up with some fresh Minnesota grown figs and serendipity did the rest. The pressure always mounts a bit when we get a precious bucket of fruit from Dave’s farm, and for this one we wanted to do something decadent. So we did what we do best – we took one of our favorite bases as of recent – Fennel Pollen, and combined it with the fruit and of course (being proper Midwestern boys) some cheese.
We started with the figs. Molly delivered them perfectly ripe and they went immediately in a pot to be reduced down with sugar and lemon zest to create a rich fig puree.
The figs cooked down like good little minnesota fruits, and we ended up with this luxurious fig jam.
Then it was time for the cheese. We had decided on Feta, but there are so many options. A visit to our favorite Co-op led us to this incredibly french made Sheeps Milk Feta. It is a very creamy Feta and more mild than Spanish or Greek varieties but still retains a nice salty kick.
To prepare it for the ice cream, we froze it first and then chopped it in its frozen state to keep it from crumbling too fine and turning the ice cream into a crumbly mess. We want the chunk to be significant enough to takeover the palate for a brief moment but small enough to not overwhelm the other flavors.
For the base, we used our Fennel Pollen – which we have developed a serious love affair with and will likely be using this for upcoming flavors as a Vanilla might typically be used.
Fennel Pollen before going into the cream.
The fennel pollen ice cream was spun with the Feta going in at the end and the fig jam layered in as the ice cream goes into the pint.
Its good. Its real good. Little chunks of salty and creamy that melt into your mouth while you get bursts of figgy goodness all enveloped by the royal fennel pollen ice cream.
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 on Friday 9/28 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback or else 🙂 . Good luck!
yum.