I scream for ice cream
I feel fully committed now.
Oh, it’s not the new $100 ice cream maker, which I can stash in the basement and ignore when the weather turns cool. It’s the $15 scoop I bought on the weekend. I just know it will sit in my drawer and stare at me in an accusatory manner — every day. It will says things like, “Well, you bought me. When are you going to use me?”
I promised to use it as a melon baller, but it just laughed. “Ya, right. When’s the last time you made a fruit salad?” Well, I plan to make one. Soon.
So, to make it happy, I scooped some of the ice cream I made last week. In doing so, I noticed some interesting textural differences. The vanilla frozen yogurt is almost granular. Can you see the tiny ice crystals on the lower left edge of the scoop? It tastes good, but doesn’t have the smooth texture of real ice cream. It also softens very quickly. Almost too quickly.
This chocolate scoop is made with real cream and whole milk. It’s like eating a frozen truffle. See the difference in texture? It’s almost like ganache. It freezes more firmly and takes a while to soften. I scooped the chocolate after the vanilla (you can see a bit of white where I didn’t rinse the scoop well enough) and it still wasn’t soft enough, hence the split in the chocolate ball.
I thought making homemade ice cream would be a simple. Mix, churn, freeze. But I’m learning there are a few tricks. Fortunately, Diana Burrell, a food writer and avid ice cream maker, is ahead of me on the frozen dessert learning curve and passed along some tips for ice cream makers with freezer bowls. She says:
- Freezer bowls work best when they’re stored in a deep freezer, rather than a refrigerator freezer, which typically doesn’t get down to 0 degrees F (18C). Whenever I read negative reviews about the Cuisinart/Braun/other brand makers — “They don’t freeze the ice cream properly!” — I know it’s because they’re storing the bowl in their top freezer.
- Make sure the ice cream base is as cold as you can get it before you dump it into the freezer bowl — otherwise the base won’t freeze and aerate the way it should. I usually take my base from the fridge and stick it in the freezer for a couple minutes to get it extra chilly.
- A couple tablespoons of alcohol in the unfrozen base keeps the finished product from freezing into a solid block. I use Bailey’s or rum in chocolate bases, vanilla or plain vodka in vanilla bases, and stuff like kirsch, quince schnapps, and Calvados in the fruity ices.
So, I’ve cleared a spot in the basement freezer and have lots of booze on hand to keep the ice cream soft. Now my dilemma is deciding which flavour to make next? If you have any favourites, speak up! Post your pick in the comments section and I’ll create one for the most intriguing answer.
