We often talk about how we come up with inspiration for flavors, so we won’t go there again today, but much of how a flavor is conceived begins with writing a concept down on paper. We have a list of concepts that may just be one flavor or a combination of flavors, but that list is a work in progress. Every time I look at that list, I might stare at one concept and come up with five more ideas from that one. Once a flavor is born, we often move on from the core concept and concentrate on developing others. This week, we’ve developed one of these concepts into a flavor that we thought would be worth taking from paper to the pint. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Pine nut with Rosemary Caramel.
Pine nuts have been on our list of conceptual ideas for a long time. We’ve contemplated many a combination, but there was something that struck me about using pine nuts and rosemary. Although rosemary is an herb from the mint family, it is characterized by it’s evergreen-esk needles and pine-needle-like flavor. At the very least, we’re giving you the illusion that this flavor is made from a nut and needle from the same family.
For the ice cream we start with raw pine nuts and toast them in the oven. The toasted pine nuts go into a blender with our brown sugar ice cream base and are pureed until smooth. During this process, the nuts release their oils into the ice cream base. The base is then cooked, steeped, and strained through a fine mesh strainer. The pine-nut-infused base is now ready to be churned.
Just like our ice cream, caramels can be infused with flavor as well. For the caramel, we start by infusing our cream with fresh rosemary by heating the cream, steeping, and straining out the rosemary. Next, we start our caramel by caramelizing our sugar in a sauce pan over high heat. Once the sugar has boiled and turned a deep amber color, we add our rosemary- infused cream. The caramel is seasoned with salt, cooled, and then layered into the pints during packaging.
Buttery pine-nut- infused ice cream layered with a rosemary-infused caramel. Another concept taken from paper to pint.
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 2/28/14 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!
Don’t forget we have another pint sale coming up this Saturday, Â March 1st – see here for details on menu, and timing, etc.
