September 2011 – FROZBROZ

September 29, 2011

Peace Coffee Chocolate Truffle

As the Autumnal Equinox passes and our days and nights begin to feel cooler and shorter, we got to thinking about flavors that are warm and comforting. We couldn’t think of two more warm and comforting flavors than coffee and chocolate. You know that feeling you get in the Fall when the day turns dark and you just want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a tub of ice cream. FrozBroz has you covered – Peace Coffee Chocolate Truffle.

We start with Guatemalan Dark coffee beans roasted here in Minneapolis at our favorite Peace Coffee. Check them out if you haven’t already at www.peacecoffee.com. They are doing good things for coffee farmers and our community.

We infuse our cream with coffee using a french press.

Now let us make some truffles with Divine Dark Chocolate. Divine is a fair trade chocolate that is 45% owned by the farmers – and it’s delicious.

Chop it!

We make a nice ganache, let it cool, chop it up again, and toss in cocoa powder – truffles.

Here’s the final product for your couch consumption – Peace Coffee Cocoa Truffle.

You can win one of two available pints this week — leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, make your comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (9/30/2011) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page. Our only condition is you must be able to pick it up. Good luck!

September 22, 2011

Black Pepper Grape Syrup, Pita Cracker and Chevre

Our second installment of flavors inspired by Minnesota Peach, the farm of fruit genius Dave Griffin, located outside of Cold Spring, MN . Watch this video and get a great idea of what we’re talking about here: http://vimeo.com/27403794 .

We had a chance to visit a few weeks ago, and Dave gave us the full tour of his farm where he grows plums, apricots, cherries, hazelnuts, black walnuts, a variety of veggies and probably most importantly — where is he is working hard at breeding a hearty peach that can survive the harsh Minnesota winter. Last but not least he has, by his estimation, somewhere around 50 varieties of grapes. We tasted so many grapes our heads were spinning, and it was hard to comprehend all of the flavor.

Dave was generous enough to send us home with a bounty to work with, and we went right to it:

It was intimidating to make sure our experimenting didn’t result in a waste. When you witness the passion and heart that a farmer puts into bringing food to your table, you really realize just how valuable that food is.

back to the grapes..

The beginning of our flavor brainstorming was to use a blend of varieties- Baltics, Concord, Muscat (and a few others I unfortunately can’t remember) to make a rich syrup which would be somehow used in a flavor.

On the way home from the farm I stopped to find some ingredients to pair with the grape syrup and ran across this beautiful chevre from Donnay farms.

No, you do not notice a knife swipe in the top of this. Purely your imagination.

It was at this point where I got a little worried I was going down the wrong path with the chevre – so I decided to make the grape syrup and take some time to think.

Here is the gorgeous syrup produced from the Minnesota Peach grapes, with a little black pepper to add some depth.

Finally the thinking paid off and I turned a HolyLand pita in to a cracker to finish up the combination and bridge the gap between the grape syrup and the chevre.

Crunchy. Salty.

The final outcome: Black Pepper Grape Syrup swirled in with Pita Crackers and Chevre

You can win one of two available pints this week — leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, make your comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (9/23/2011) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page. Our only condition is you must be able to pick it up. Good luck!

September 19, 2011October 30, 2023

Press!

Thanks to the fine folks at the always incredible Heavy Table blog for this awesome write up. We’re blushing to say the least.

Get the whole article here..

http://heavytable.com/ben-solberg-and-erik-powers-of-froz-broz-craft-ice-cream/

September 15, 2011

Plum Jam with Maple Orange Walnuts

In anticipation of our trip to Minnesota Peach, David Griffin’s fruit and vegetable farm in Cold Spring, MN(http://vimeo.com/27403794), we got to thinking about what we could pull together as a representative ice cream. David’s niece, Molly, kept us updated as to what was ripe and in season. It seemed every weekend something came up and we weren’t able to make it out to the farm. Fortunately, this gave us time to conceptualize this one – Plum Jam with Maple Orange Walnuts.

We start with Cinderella Plums from Michigan, purchased at the Seward Coop. These plums are sweet and bright, but wait until we get our hands on some of David’s “Surprise” plums next year.

Pitted and sliced, then thrown in a pan and toss with sugar and lemon.

Simmer Down. Plum Jam. Like Jammin? Check out Serious Jam www.serious-jam.com/ located here in Minneapolis.

These Walnuts get slow roasted with Wild Country Maple Syrup from Lutsen, MN , then finished with orange zest, cinnamon and salt.

Thanks to Minnesota Peach for a huge amount of inspiration. To that – Plum Jam with Maple Orange Walnuts.

As usual, you can win one of two available pints this week — leave a comment on our facebook page at facebook.com/frozbroz to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, make your comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners later this afternoon and will announce them on our facebook page. Our only condition is you must be able to pick it up. Good luck!

September 1, 2011

Jalapeno Honey Cotija

We will not succumb to Fall. Our answer? Jalapenos.

These beauties came from the fine farmers market in our former stomping grounds, Eau Claire, WI.

Steeped in the ice cream base, they provided a little bit of heat and the fresh pepper flavor is really incredible. It really works surprisngly well in the cream. Fresh summer jalapenos have an incredible fragrance and sweetness.

What goes well with Jalapenos? Cotija cheese. Cotija is a popular cheese in mexican fare – similar to Feta, but saltier and more dry. Salt is good. Sugar is good. Fat is good. You get the drift.

Crumbly.

Our favorite honey from Minnesota’s own Ames Farm brings the cheese and the peppers together in a final swift blow.

It’s swirled in as the ice cream goes into the pint container so you get nice little rivers of it as you scoop. Honey is so concentrated with sugar that it doesn’t freeze, so it maintains its texture perfectly in ice cream. Its not uncommon for it to form a little puddle in the pint container after you’ve had a scoop or two and freed it from its frozen confines. And that’s not a bad thing.

This is summer.