Small Batch Ice Cream – Page 10

August 23, 2012

Brown Sugar, Grilled Peach and Cinnamon Syrup

We continue to run with the seasonal flavors and late summer brings us to one of our faves – the peach. These particular peaches came from Barnard Orchards in Wisconsin. Love to get local peaches and these were incredibly juicy and sweet. Since we’ve been incorporating the grill more and more, it seemed like it was the right thing to do for this flavor, since peaches on the grill are extremely necessary for a fully recognized summer.

Sweet enough to bring the southern drawl out in anyone.

And to the grill they went, to get a nice char and to caramelize all of that sweet peach sugar.

After the grill, they were diced and roasted a bit more to further caramelize the sugars and remove the remaining moisture that would turn icy in the freezing process.

At this point, they’re basically candy.

The cinnamon syrup was stolen from a decadent family favorite dessert my mother makes called cinnamon pudding cake. It is very similar to honey in consistency – brown sugar boiled with a bit of water, butter, and cinnamon until it reaches a thick consistency.

Its amazing in ice cream, on ice cream- and pancakes and waffles don’t mind it either.

Finally the ice cream, made with our brown sugar base, is filled with these golden peach morsels and swirled with the cinnamon syrup as it is packed into the pint.

Not a bad way to celebrate the final days of summer. Can you tell how much fun we’re having yet?

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 (8/24/2012) 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!

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!

August 9, 2012

Sage Honey and Almond

We’re at the peak of harvest, and this is the time of year where we start diving more into the savory territory, putting our own sweet spin on the once a year local produce we get here. There are so many options its hard to choose, whether it be veggie or herb, or a combination of both. Sometimes its so overwhelming we need to step back and simplify in the wake of the bounty. Nuts and honey anyone? Yes. Throw in some sage? A perfect curveball.
From beginning to end the process is relatively simple, and totally rewarding

We don’t need to talk about how good this honey is a whole lot more, but we will becuase its that good. Its the difference between sweet, and incredible.

The honey was swirled into the cream as it went into the pints

The almonds were roasted ever so slightly, and tossed in a bit of salt.

Almonds were coarsely crushed and added in to be pervasive throughout.

The sage was roasted in the oven, a process similar to what we follow with fresh lavender, which mellows out the “perfumey” tastes, and intensifies the herb flavor. The leaves were ground and steeped into the base while hot, to fully infuse the sage flavor into the cream without leaving chunks of leaf to get caught in your teeth.

The end result is a light, sweet ice cream – sage providing a nice setup for the honey and almonds. A perfect summer cream, savory, but not really. Is that possible? As far as we’re concerned it is.

Want some? Leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the weekly drawing to win one of these two of a kind pints of craft ice cream. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (8/10/2012) 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!

August 2, 2012

Manhattan Cocktail

This time of year is total bliss for us over here at FrozBroz central headquarters. There are so many fruits and vegetables in season and so many on the horizon that flavor choices come easy. Last week we railed out our Cherry Pit Creme Fraiche with Rainier Cherry and Lemon Thyme, featuring Rainier cherries. It was such a success that it kept me thinking about cherries, which brought to mind one of my favorite supper club cocktails, the Manhattan. I mean, a Manhattan cocktail would be delicious in ice cream, right? And so it became my mission to create the FrozBroz Manhattan Cocktail ice cream. Let us begin!

Sweet cherries! To me, this is where it all begins. I love a classic Manhattan and even an Old Fashion, and a great maraschino cherry can make it all the better. So first things first; have to make a killer cocktail maraschino cherry with these gorgeous Bing cherries.

Cherries get pitted, and tossed in a sauce pan to simmer with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon stick and almond extract. After a simmer down they come off the heat and we add…

Luxardo maraschino cherry liqueur. Made in Italy, this sauce is made with a distillation process using sour cherries. It packs a ton of flavor, and of course, alcohol, which helps displace the water content in our cherries. This will keep our maraschinos from turning icy in the cream.

The result are these beautiful maraschino cherries that are going to play an integral part to the backbone of our Manhattan. They get chopped up and added into our ice cream base.

And since were talkin backbones, lets not forget about the other crucial ingredients; Angostura bitters, sweet vermouth and orange zest.

Along with our maraschinos, they’re tossed in and working together to make this killer Manhattan ice cream base scream for whiskey.

Canadian whiskey that is. And why not make it a whiskey caramel? Ok, sure, yeah, we will! We simmer out a caramel with sugar, add cream, and lastly our Crown whiskey. The alcohol content in the herskey will lower the freezing temperature of the caramel, allowing it to remain soft in the ice cream. We layer the whiskey caramel into our pints during packaging.

There you have it…FrozBroz Manhattan Cocktail ice cream!

It can be yours.. 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 (8/3/2012) 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!

July 19, 2012

Port Black and Blueberry

Thanks to a fantastic season here in Minnesota, we are still rolling out new berry flavors. This week we’re combining the summer’s newest arrival, blackberries, with the steadily ripening blueberries. To boot, we’re throwing down a little port into the mix to really enhance the berry berriness of these berries.

Hoch Orchard Organic Blackberrries! Hoch, located in the hills of La Crescent, MN, is producing strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, apricots, plums and apples. You will find a variety of Hoch friuts and berries at your local Coop here in Minneapolis.

These blackberries are sweet, juicy and firm, the way blackberries are suppose to taste.

We were fortunate enough to score these gorgeous blueberries from a family friend’s garden back in our home state of Wisconsin. It didn’t take long to get them off the bush and into our ice cream.

The blackberries and blueberries get smashed up in a sauce pan, along with this port…

Graham Six Grapes port pairs perfectly with these dark berries. It’s bold, robust, and ripe with it’s own deep berry flavors.

They all get simmered down with brown sugar into thick jammy reduction that gets tossed right into the ice cream at the end of the churn. The result…

An intense black and blueberry ice cream with port.
FrozBroz Port Black and Blueberry ice cream!

It can be yours.. 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 (7/20/2012) 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!