yet another photo of homemade frozen treats
So tonight I attempted to make green tea gelato. I should have taken a photo of the botched result, but I could hardly bear to look at it, much less share it with you all. It was ugly.
It didn't sound all that hard: you steep the tea in the milk, then whisk that into egg yolks and sugar, then cook until it thickens a bit. After that, you chill it, add the cream, and put it in the ice cream maker, but the cooking step is where I screwed up. I think I let it cook just a couple minutes longer than I should have, because it was thickening nicely and then suddenly, with no warning sign that I was aware of, I just had a curdled mess. Oops. So no green tea gelato tonight.
But I really just didn't want to go to bed tonight without having made ice cream, so I started over. Except this time I decided I should do something with the leftover basil I had from the margherita pizza I made for dinner, so I made this intriguing-sounding basil ice cream. The technique was almost identical, so this time I just took it off the heat sooner and that seemed to fix the problem. Here it is, almost ready to come out of the ice cream machine:
It didn't sound all that hard: you steep the tea in the milk, then whisk that into egg yolks and sugar, then cook until it thickens a bit. After that, you chill it, add the cream, and put it in the ice cream maker, but the cooking step is where I screwed up. I think I let it cook just a couple minutes longer than I should have, because it was thickening nicely and then suddenly, with no warning sign that I was aware of, I just had a curdled mess. Oops. So no green tea gelato tonight.
But I really just didn't want to go to bed tonight without having made ice cream, so I started over. Except this time I decided I should do something with the leftover basil I had from the margherita pizza I made for dinner, so I made this intriguing-sounding basil ice cream. The technique was almost identical, so this time I just took it off the heat sooner and that seemed to fix the problem. Here it is, almost ready to come out of the ice cream machine:
The flavor was really light and refreshing -- suddenly, basil makes perfect sense in desserts. This would be great, I think, after a spicy meal, say, Thai food.
One question, though, for you veteran ice cream makers: Do all ice cream recipes make you cook it up like a custard first? It seems like just a bit more work than I'm inclined to do on a typical weekday. This is going to sound really lazy, but aren't there any where you just dump stuff into the machine? Or do they taste better the first way?
posted by Anonymous at 10:50 PM
5 Comments:
yep, I think most ice creams require cooking up a custard first. I tend to make sorbet much more often because of that.
There are actually plenty that are not necessary to cook first, but I do think that the flavor is better as is the texture. I agree that it kind of discourages the making of it, but I find it is worth it for many of them. I find if I make the custard, then chill it, I can whip it up quickly the next day.
My favorite book that descibes so much and has fabulous recipes, and endless variations.... Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop by Gail Damerow. There are many with no cooking in it.
I am eager to try the basil ice cream you made- totally intrigued! and thinking of your green tea attempt made me think of some heavenly Earl Grey ice cream I made a while back. I will have to try it with some killer papaya pineapple green tea I have too.
Bluestarr - can you post your Earl Grey ice cream recipe?
Update: Tara made strawberry ice cream today. I think this means we have now used the ice cream maker more in one week than most ice cream maker owners do in a lifetime.
I love the idea of Earl Grey ice cream! And, in fact, we even have some Green Earl Grey tea that's calling out to be made into ice cream.
Here's another question for the homemade ice cream experts: how low-fat can you get away with? If you use, say, whole milk instead of cream, or even 2%, will it be any good?
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