Fan Flavor Contest

This brings to a close our second “Fan Flavor Contest”. Again, the winner will be stylin in a spanky new FrozBroz T-shirt as well as eating a pint of their suggested flavor. We had a great response and everyone offered an impressive array of flavors, some intriguing and some kinda scary. So thank you to everyone who participated, and congratulations to Adam Arling who was the winner of “Fan Flavor Contest” No. 2 with his flavor suggestion of Sweet and Sour Cream Cheese Wonton.

When we make a flavor, conceptually, there are a number of different routes to take it. For this one, we both immediately knew that making a sweet and sour syrup to layer into the pints was the route for us.

The sweet and sour syrup consists of a reduction of rice vinegar, tomato paste, sugar, pineapple chuckers, and last but not least…Sriracha Chili Sauce. We needed to reduce this mixture into a syrup instead of thickening with cornstarch, so we could evaporate as much of the water content as possible.

After the syrup has reduced and thickened, we strain out the pineapple and tomato solids and we’re left with a nice sweet and sour syrup that doesn’t get icy when frozen in the ice cream.

The wontons presented a challenge – so thin and fragile they’re likely to get soggy in the cream – so we took a double headed approach – some steeped in the cream to add the fried flavor, and others were rolled up before frying and dried in the oven after to get a maximum crunch. Will they hold up in the ice cream? Time will tell, but the wonton flavor is undeniable.

Cream Cheese! We decided to mix this directly into our base . It makes for an ultra rich cheese cakey ice cream, along with all of the starches from steeping the base with fried wontons.

That wraps up or second “Fan Flavor Contest” with Adam’s suggestion of Sweet and Sour Cream Cheese Wonton FrozBroz style. Congrats Adam on the cray cray suggestion.!

UPDATE: 4/23/2012 Feedback from one of our winners…

Four of us tried the Wonton ice cream last night. Three of us enjoyed it; it was a bit too “saucy” for the fourth person’s tastes (she’s sensitive to vinegar flavors).

Here are our comments:
+ The ice cream base is really tasty and creamy. The cream cheese added smoothness to the base; we all felt that this base was exceptional in its texture. The flavor was mild, which was good so that it didn’t “fight” the sauce ribbons.
+ The sauce ribbons provided a good flavor contrast. It was a weird flavor for ice cream, but weird in a good way. We all enjoy funky desserts, so we really got into the fact that there was sweet n’ sour sauce in our ice cream!
+ The crunchy wonton bits added a nice texture contrast, and their flavor was appropriately wonton-y. Personally, these bits were my favorite aspect of the ice cream.
+ The other wonton bits were too mushy; they made it feel like the wonton bits were inconsistent.
+ The blending was inconsistent. Some bites were really strong with loads of sauce, while others were sauce-less. With much of the flavor coming from the sauce, we felt that the end product would be better if the ribbons were thinner and more evenly incorporated.
+ This same group of people tasted your Cardamom Basmati Pistachio ice cream, and we all agreed that we LOVED that one and LIKED this one.

Please don’t forget about our Indiegogo fundraising – we have just under 26 days to go and need all the help we can get! Help us meet our goal so we can start making our ice cream and getting it to all that want it.

http://www.indiegogo.com/frozbroz?a=446076

Well, our first ever “Fan Flavor Contest”, is in the books. The winner got a stylin’ FrozBroz T-shirt, but more importantly we made a batch of their flavor and gave them a pint of it. Another lucky fan gets a pint as well. Based on the number of suggestions we got, we would have to say, it was a success. Thanks to all who made suggestions – they were all fantastic ideas. Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages as we will be announcing more contests in the weeks and months to come. It was really great to see our fans’ creative minds at work. A big congratulations to Ann Harste who was our first ever winner with her suggestion of Apricot Parmesan.

Let’s get to work…

From the beginning we had thoughts of apricot marmalade. We just weren’t sure if we wanted to layer the marmalade in, or mix it right into our ice cream base. Either way, marmalade it was.

These are beautiful Turkish apricots purchased at our favorite Seward Coop.

To get the marmalade going, we diced them up, covered with water and brought them to a simmer.

After simmering for awhile, we added sugar and continued simmering until we ended up with…

Apricot marmalade!

This is gold. The depth of flavor here is intensely apricot, as one might expect. In the end, we decided to mix the marmalade into the base, and layer into the pints as well. Double bonus!

Having Wisconsin in our blood, we’ve incorporated a variety of cheeses into many of our flavors, including Parmesan. In our Olive Oil Parmesan ice cream we finely grated the cheese so that it would almost disappear in the base. For this flavor, we wanted to get a nice shaving to cut through the sweetness of the marmalade.

So that is what we did…shaved it. Sartori StraVeccio Parmesan from Plymouth, Wisconsin. It’s fruity, nutty and has some roasted caramel tones to it. To add a little more nuttiness, we added a pinch of fresh ground nutmeg to the base. The Parmesan shavers get tossed in at the end of the churn.

And there you have it folks. Our first ever “Fan Flavor Contest” comes to a close with Ann’s suggestion of Apricot Parmesan Frozbroz style. Congrats Ann, and excellent suggestion!

Don’t forget about our Indiegogo fundraising – we’ve got 44 days to go and need all the help we can get! http://www.indiegogo.com/frozbroz?a=446076

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A quick update: Ann got us her feedback in no time, and we thought we’d share it – but we can only take 50% of the credit since the idea was all Ann 🙂

Wow you guys! Could my prize be changed to a lifetime supply? Besides more for us, I’d like to serve some to all the people who wrinkled their noses at me when I told them the flavor.

Both apricot and Parmesan have the potential to dominate, but you interpreted the idea in a way I didn’t think of. Your ice cream recipe showcases both flavors while keeping them in balance with each other.

A truly decadent ice cream to savor slowly in order to appreciate the flavors and textures going on. I love to eat ice cream when it is like a treasure hunt to find all the goodies hidden in it. The apricot marmalade had an intensely deep and concentrated flavor and a great sticky texture with pieces of candied apricot. Finding the crumbles of Parmesan, which gave bursts of salty, tangy flavor, was my favorite part of the treasure hunt. And of course the body of the ice cream itself was luscious and creamy, with a hint of the apricot.

We all loved it.

My son started eating it and said “That’s really good tasting Parmesan!” My husband took one bite and exclaimed “OH, that is good! I didn’t think it would taste like this!”

To serve it, I made a shortbread crunch to sprinkle over the ice cream to replicate a favorite combination of mine which is a shortbread cookie topped with a cheese and something really sweet, like apricot or caramelized sugar. – Flavor Contest #1 Winner, Ann Harste

Category: Fan Flavor Contest

Sweet and Sour Cream Cheese Wonton – Fan Flavor Contest No. 2

Apricot Parmesan – Fan Flavor Contest No. 1