There are a lot of ice cream recipes on this page, no question about it. That is because Annalena loves to make ice cream, much more than she actually enjoys EATING it. Like many of her buds, Annalena is more of a savory gal than a sweet one. She treasures a comment made by Daisy at one point: "if given a choice, I'll take another pork chop please, and skip dessert." And indeed, Annalena would do the same thing (lately, however, she should be skipping both the dessert and the pork chop, but that's another matter).
Ice cream making is easy. It really is. You DO need an ice cream maker of some kind, of course. Many of you will feel this is something you simply do not want to have around the house. Well, Annalena wants to get you to a point that is parallel to something that the legendary Julia Child wrote in her baking book.
Julia wrote that one of the things she hoped to accomplish in her book, was to get readers to the point where they had to have a full strength , stand mixer. "Not for a birthday gift, not for Christmas, but NOW." I smiled when I read that. Yes, if you taste enough homemade ice creams, you WILL want your own machine. The Dirty Bird makes his . Tall Jeremy makes his. Brad isn't making his yet, but he should be.... and maybe Sivan will be making hers soon, too.
This recipe is dedicated to the small cadre of homemade ice cream makers, but also to their friendly homemade ice cream EATERS. Push them folks. They'll do it.
Do any of us remember when there WASN'T salted caramel around? Now,do you remember how you reacted when you first tasted the stuff? I do, and I still get that way whenever I have one that is made well. The combination of the buttery, sweet, salty flavor. And then you add it to cream. Well, ragazzi, on its own, salted caramel is one of those miraculous flavors. Annalena has posted on this blog a recipe for salted caramel pudding, and this is very much an outgrowth of that recipe.
It was inspired by looking for an appropriate pairing for an apple dessert. Fruit wise, Annalena has very much given in to the autumnal fruits in terms of her dessert making. The Guyman and I are still eating late season strawberries and raspberries, but by and large, they are not showing up in desserts. Raspberries may make an appearance with the apples of the dessert for which this ice cream is an accompaniment, but they may not. Beyond that, it is the season of pears, grapes, persimmons, pumpkins figs , and the other wonders of fall.
When you put ice cream out for a dessert, it should be a flavor that compliments the dessert. All bets are off, of course, if ice cream is "THE" dessert, unless you are trying to link it to your meal. For example, if the meal has a Provencal theme, I would suggest a lavender honey ice cream. If it was extremely rich, maybe you want something on the astringent side.
OK, so what are the complimentary flavors for apples? Annalena posed this question and got some interesting ideas: vanilla. Cinnamon. Cheddar cheese. Yes, all good choices, but nothing was "singing." And then....
Let's make some ice cream. This is absurdly easy, but you have to keep an eye on things at the beginning. You start with a cup of white sugar, in a dry, wide pan. Turn the heat to medium low and with a fork, or a whisk, start stirring the sugar gently, and constantly, until it begins to melt. When that happens, lower your heat even more, and let it melt. You may find that it is not melting completely, and if that's the case, you can stir it some more. Keep a very close eye on it. The color "amber" or "dark amber" should be in your mind. That's what you're looking for. When you get there, take the pan off the heat and, keeping it a bit away from you, pour in a cup of heavy cream. YOu're going to get spattering, and the caramel will seize up. Do not fear, you want this. Put it back on the heat, and stir some more, until the caramel dissolves. Annalena found that she had one clump of it that refused to dissolve, and that was her snack for labor. Now, stir in one healthy teaspoon of a flaky sea salt. This is where you use the fancy stuff that someone gave you as a gift that's too good to use for cooking (it is. Sprinkle it on bread and butter though, and feel yourself swoon).
When you have the melted caramel and cream mixture, put it to the side. Now, in a separate pot, add a cup of milk, another quarter cup of sugar, about a third of a cup of creme fraiche, and three, whole eggs. Before you put this back on the heat, break up the eggs. Over medium heat, cook this until you see it begin to thicken. You have to be careful here not to overcook it, and even so, you will probably get some curdling. If you do, just strain out the curds. You'll have plenty. Now, add the seeds and pod of one half of a vanilla bean.
Combine that custard with the caramel mixture.
Now, what do we do at this point? Anyone out there have an idea besides Sue? I betcha the dirty bird knows.
Yes, I'm smiling. WE TASTE. We taste, especially, because we have a "rogue" ingredient here, in the salt. There are salts that are saltier than others, and what you find salty may not be what I find salty, etc, etc, etc. So, you have to make a judgement call: keep in mind that the frozen product is going to taste less salty than what you have in front of you, and if you want more...
But wait. Some of you have done something, in the past, when you've been snowed in. What did you use to melt the snow?
Yup. Rock salt. Salt will lower the freezing point of things, and as such, they will melt. So, amici, if you add salt to this mixture, it will not freeze as hard as it would without the salt. For some of us, like the Guyman, that is not a bad thing. So, do your balancing act and decide what you want to do. I think you could safely go up to adding a full two teaspoons of salt to this recipe, but I wouldn't go further than that.
And of course, you know the drill after that. Let it chill, take out the vanilla bean, dump it into the ice cream maker, and churn. It will never freeze as solidly as , say, plain old vanilla ice cream would, but it will be a beautiful tan color, and you will be so proud of yourself you will not be able to stand it.
Maybe I exaggerate a bit there, but you will be proud of yourself, and you will make this again. THAT I promise you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment