Fennel Pollen

February 12, 2014

Chamomile Fennel Pollen w/ Meyer Lemon Gin Honey

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and in preparation, I wanted to make an ice cream inspired by a boozy beverage. Because, what better way to celebrate the love of your life than with booze. Trying to find a little inspiration via the interwebs, I found myself looking at a lot of vodka martinis with either strawberries, raspberries or cherries. You know, because it’s valentine’s day, and I guess that’s what everybody wants…every year…the same thing…every year. And I was almost buying into it, until I ran across a beverage created by Lara Creasy of Junction Kitchen and Bar in Atlanta, GA. She created a gin martini paired with a chamomile infused vermouth, a touch of lemon and honey, and finished with a pinch of fennel pollen. By no means does this sound like something that “everybody” wants, but everything about this beverage screams ice cream…and trust me, this is going to be good…really good. Which brings me to this week’s Valentine’s Day boozy beverage inspired flavor – Chamomile Fennel Pollen with Gin Lemon Honey. Let’s get started.

In the original beverage, Creasy used a house made chamomile-infused vermouth, but for the ice cream, I am making my own house made concoction – ice cream infused with chamomile tea and fennel pollen. Chamomile has a mild sweet floral aroma, which comes from the daisy-like flowers it is made from. The floral tones of the tea pair extremely well with the delicate sweet mellow anise flavors of the fennel pollen. The two of them are steeped in our ice cream base, along with a splash of sweet vermouth during the cooking process. The tea and pollen are strained out with a fine mesh strainer. The infused ice cream base is cooled and churned.

For the gin meyer lemon honey, we are using Honey B, a Minneapolis local honey from Northeast Minneapolis. Our friend Britt is working on getting her hive going again after losing much of it last year. This is a good start. The honey is brought to a simmer with a small amount of meyer lemon juice, and then finished with a splash of gin. The honey has a nice tang with a tich of bitterness from the juniper in the gin. It is layered into the ice cream during packaging.

The final result is a Valentine’s dream…floral chamomile and sweet fennel pollen, paired with a tangy meyer lemon gin honey. It’s fresh and new and not the same as last year, or the year before, or the year before that. You get it. HVD! Love, FrozBroz

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 2/14/14 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!

October 4, 2012

Fig, Fennel Pollen and Feta

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!

August 16, 2012

Tomato Jam

It’s official, my favorite time of year has come…Tomato Season! I think we can safely say that the sooner we can purchase our produce after it is harvested, the higher it’s quality and flavor will be. That’s just one of many reasons to buy local, but as far as produce is concerned, it’s not always possible here in Minnesota, and some of our alternatives can satisfy those winter cravings. But tomatoes are one of those fruits that are really only good during the local harvest season. I’ve had plenty of “ok” tomatoes during the off season, but this time of year, tomatoes are a gold mine and their flavors are fantastic. As the harvest rolls in, many folks are canning and freezing their tomatoes, so here at FrozBroz we wanted to share another alternative for saving some of this tomato season for the months to come. And in the process put some of that hard work into our ice cream. So let’s get started with this week’s flavor…Tomato Jam!

Roma tomatoes purchased at our lovely Midtown Farmers Market. Check them out when you can, cause the vibes over there be jammin.

If you’ve ever canned tomatoes before, the first thing you have to do is get the skin off.

Hey look, these have the skin off! And to do that, we dropped them in a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds and then into an ice bath to cool down.

The tomatoes get quartered, then seeds and innards removed.

Into a large sauce pan with sugar, fresh ginger, lemons and cinnamon stick.

We simmer it all down for a few hours until the tomatoes are translucent and almost falling apart, at which point we remove lemons and cinnamon stick and increase heat to reduce moisture content.

The end result is this gorgeous tomato jam. Let us tell you, this can be put on almost anything sweet or savory. Spread it on a crostini with goat cheese and caramelized onions or on your Serrano ham sandwich, OR if you’re us…

Layer it into your ice cream infused with Fennel Pollen. FrozBroz Tomato Jam Ice Cream!

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 (8/17/2012) 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!

May 3, 2012

Sometimes simple is best. Over the course of the last year we’ve explored ice creams that sometimes include up to 5 main flavors. Big flavors like these greatly open up the variety and combinations we can make, but can also overshadow the greatness of one of those ingredients on their own.

In this instance, it was extremely tempting to pair the Fennel pollen with almonds, or honey or pistachios, etc. But in the end, the flavor of this particular spice turned out to be so complex and so incredible in ice cream that it demanded the stage to itself, at least for its first foray into our flavor cache.

Fennel pollen is an expensive spice, not so much because of being hard to find, but because of how difficult it is to harvest. It’s gathered by shaking it off the buds of fennel flowers and can take quite a bit of time to collect just an ounce. It has a golden appearance, and kind of tastes like it.

We steeped the fennel pollen in the cream to fully extract as much flavor as possible. The batter was then churned immediately. It seemed almost too easy.

We expected a unique flavor, but nothing like this. Once paired with the cream and sugar base, the obvious flavors such as anise blossomed, but so did caramel and curry notes. It could pair extremely well with a lot of different desserts or dishes, but to appreciate the depth of the flavor it really needs to be eaten all by itself.

Gold.

If we ever imagined an ice cream flavor for royalty, this would be it. We’re very excited about the how it turned out, and have a feeling this will be a Froz flavor for a long time to come.

As we do every week, we’ll be giving away two pints of this flavor. Just leave a comment on our facebook page or in the comments here to be entered into the drawing. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (5/4/2012) 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 be willing to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else.

Good luck!

Would you like to see more of this kind of ice cream or be able to buy it online? Then please, help us with our fundraiser on indiegogo, we only have 8 days left and need all the help we can get! In exchange you’ll be one of the first to get our ice cream. Visit our page at www.indiegogo.com/frozbroz