Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream

A few weeks ago, my friend and I went to one of the Talking Taste presentations at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. It's an annual series where local chefs do a talk and cooking demonstration at the museum. You can get an adult beverage from the bar, and have a local chef make you snacky bits while you sip sangria and watch, overlooking Boston Harbor. It is the height of "adult fun".


The presentation by  Tse Wei Lim and Diana Kudajarova  from Journeyman restaurant focused on ice cream. They talked a lot about the different ratio's for making ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, and gelato. They served an arrugula ice cream (and you thought beet was odd), peach ice cream, and blueberry sorbet. 


In a custard based ice cream, you should have 2-11% fat, 15-30% non-fat solids, 15-23% sugar, with egg yolks comprising 7-9% of the base and the rest being liquid.


In a Philadelphia style ice cream base, there should be 7-11% fat, 24-30% non-fat solids, 16-23% sugar, the rest being liquid.


sorbet is 20-60% fruit juice or puree, 25-32% sugar, and the rest should be liquid.


The ice cream I made is a Philadelphia style, made with philly cream cheese (well, Neufchatel to be precise). I got this recipe from a Philly Cream Cheese ad in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.


Ingredients
1 8oz pkg cream cheese or neufchatel cheese
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup whipping cream (I didn't have any on hand so I used half plain yogurt and half milk and it turned out fine)
2 tsp lemon zest (I just zested a whole lemon)
1 1/2 cups fruit cut up bite sized (the ad used strawberries, I used cherries)


Instructions
Combine the cheese, condensed milk, whipping cream/yogurt, and lemon zest in a mixer until smooth. Then add fruit and put in the fridge to cool (the colder your mix is before you put it in the ice cream maker, the better)
Churn in your ice cream maker according to directions.
NOM


The add also included chopped graham crackers, but I chose to omit them

Lemon, Ginger and Honey Buttermilk Ice Cream

Lemon, Ginger and Honey Buttermilk Ice Cream
Originally uploaded by kel h

My dad and sister come and visit me in Boston a couple times a year, and I am always looking for something fun to do with them. One year we went to Northampton, and I had a Honey Ginger Lemonade in a little coffee shop that was just fantastic. I wanted to try to recreate that flavor, and came across a recipe for creamy lemon popsicles from Whipped, and decided to modify it.

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 pinch salt
1 2/3 cup buttermilk

whisk everything together except the buttermilk. Once the sugar dissolves, add the buttermilk and whisk. Refrigerate for an hour before putting in the ice cream maker. Follow your ice cream maker's instructions.

The texture is kind of like ice milk. I think next time I might try to use yogurt or cream along with the buttermilk to make it smoother. The flavor is good, but you might like it a bit sweeter. It's pretty lemony.

These also make good popsicles

I can taste it just by looking at it!

Photo0968
Originally uploaded by kel h

So, a bunch of my friends are on twitter, and one of my friends mentioned the excellent Basil Lime Sorbet he made. And then a bunch of us commented on it, and the ice cream party was born.

We had peach rosemary ice cream (yum) and strawberry champagne rose sorbet (YUM), smartie ice cream with red hots (om nom nom) and banana ice cream with rum caramel sauce (which we liked so much some of us put it on their hot dogs (I'm not saying who)

Also, I made beet ice cream, which was....accurate. I doubt you'd want to make it, and I have NO IDEA what do to with the leftovers. But it is a gorgeous color, and as one of my friends said "I can taste it just by looking at it"

om nom nom dinner with friends

I had my friends over for dinner friday night before watching Inception. I didn't take any pictures, but we had corn and swordfish on the grill, a salad made of cubed watermelon and cucumber with mint, goat cheese and a simple lemon vinaigrette, and grilled peaches with ice cream and bourbon caramel from the NYTimes. The bourbon caramel was a HUGE hit, and so I'm posting the recipe here. The one change i would make is don't let the sugar at the beginning get too dark, because then it's burnt, which is tasty but not the flavor you are going for. It should look kind of like honey.

Grilled-Peach Sundaes With Salted Bourbon-Caramel Sauce

For the Peaches

4 ripe peaches
3 tablespoons peanut oil
Sea salt

For the pecans:
1 cup whole pecan halves
1 1/2tablespoons melted butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

For the caramel:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup bourbon

For the whipped cream:

1 cup best-quality heavy cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Prepare the peaches: Heat a charcoal grill while you bring a saucepan of water to simmer. Score the bottom of each peach with an X, then blanch for about 45 seconds, until skin near the X looks loose. Remove peaches with a slotted spoon and cool in a bowl of ice water. Peel the peaches. Then, with a paring knife, start at the stem of the peach and make a single cut around to the tip. Rotate hands in opposite directions, twist and free flesh from pit.

2. Lay the peach halves cut side up and brush lightly with peanut oil; sprinkle with salt. Place the peaches cut side down on grill (you can also use a stovetop grill pan set over medium heat) and cook until there are grill marks, about 2 minutes. Brush with oil and sprinkle with salt. Flip and grill the other side.

3. Make the pecans: Toss the first four ingredients in a bowl; spread on a nonstick cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until nicely toasted. Remove and toss with the sugar.

4. Make the caramel: Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan and bring to a low boil. Gently swirl the mixture in a circular motion (do not stir) and allow it to boil down until it is a deepamber caramel, at least 10 minutes. Carefully whisk in the cream, protecting your hand from the steam. Immediately whisk in the butter and continue to stir over low heat until mixture is smooth. Stir in salt and bourbon and whisk again. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using.

5. Make the whipped cream: Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla and whip to stiff peaks. Drizzle in the buttermilk and whip until incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use.

6. To assemble: Place 2 peach halves in a bowl; scoop ice cream into each pit and add a dollop of whipped cream. Sprinkle with pecans and drizzle salted bourbon-caramel sauce over the whole shebang. Serves 4. From John Currence, chef and owner of City Grocery, Snackbar, Big Bad Breakfast and Bouré in Oxford, Miss.

Banana Ice Cream

Banana Ice Cream
Originally uploaded by kel h

Adapted from Alton Brown's Banana Ice Cream recipe

Ingredients
6 (approximately 2 1/4 pounds) ripe bananas (frozen overnight, then defrosted)
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
2/3 c honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 container plain yogurt
2/3 c milk

Directions
Place bananas in freezer and freeze overnight. Remove bananas from freezer and allow to thaw for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Peel bananas and place in bowl of food processor along with the lemon juice. Process for 10 to 15 seconds. Add honey and vanilla and turn processor on. Slowly pour in the dairy. Process until smooth. Chill mixture in refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. Place mixture in an airtight container and freeze for 3 to 6 hours before serving.

My new obsession.....sorbet!

I got an ice cream maker, and I've been all about making sorbet. It's super easy.

I just made straberry-basil sorbet, starting with Jamie Oliver's recipe

2/3 cup (160 ml) water
2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar
5 cups or 2 pounds (1 kg) fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice

You make a simple syrup out of the water and sugar over the stove. I added a bunch of basil when cooking it down. You puree the strawberries, add the lemon juice, then throw it all in the ice cream maker.

I also made a blackberry mint sorbet. Swap out the strawberries for blackberries, add mint to the simple syrup instead of basil, and follow the rest of the instructions.

I tried making a honey ice cream, but I need to get better at making the custard base.