Flavor #49 - Ocha! お茶

I was 14 when I first had Green Tea ice cream and I know exactly where I was at that moment. Coming home from my freshman year of high school, this little store that was on the road from the school to the train station in Tokyo's western suburbs. What I really liked about it was its unusual, yet compelling, flavor and the addition of a frozen circle of whipped cream in the middle of the cup.

The store is still there, but the only pictures I can find of the little shop all have the store with the shutters closed. And I can not seem to find a shot of a single up of green tea ice cream with the frozen whipped cream in the middle. Ben & Jerry's made a big splash recently when they put out their flavor with a fudge column in the middle, the whipped cream in the middle was decades earlier. But I digress.

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

1 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1 Pinch of Salt

2 Tablespoons + 1 Teaspoon of Matcha (Ground Green Tea)

The most difficult part of this recipe was finding the Matcha. It's not that hard to find, I guess I was going to the wrong Asian food stores. It can be expensive too. At one store, it was $38 an ounce! Matcha is a special type of green tea. It is specially prepared green tea leaves ground into a fine powder. It would taste completely different if you took dried green tea leaves and ground them down. I tried more than once to get this to come out the way I wanted and finally had to roll back the amount of Matcha from the initial recipe I was using as the ice cream came out way too bitter. I also think that green tea goes so well with whipped cream that I added it in for my personal serving. Some people will add a scoop of vanilla to it, which tastes pretty good too!

Two years ago I got to go back to my high school for the first time in years, taking the train as I did back then. I stopped at the little store on the way back and wouldn't you know it, no Green Tea ice cream!  Still, I grabbed some Monkey Head and jumped back on the train into town.

いただきます!

Enjoy!

Flavor #48 - Happy Birthday Johnny D!

A little back story here. I started this challenge as an attempt to make 100 different flavors of ice cream in 365 while trying to make each flavor as healthy as possible. No chemicals and organic options whenever possible. As I was getting this underway, my friend John DiCicco made a Facebook comment about his favorite flavor, Cake Batter. I was in the organic groove that day and let him know my displeasure as I know how many chemicals there can be in the commercial recipe for cake batter.

I should have known better than to criticize. You like what you like. The only way I can really change someone's taste is to give then a better option - or just give the people what they want. Cake Batter was not even in my initial list of flavors. It is now.

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

3/4 Cups of Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Pinch of Salt

1 Cup of Cake Batter

This is not an organic or chemical free flavor. As it was with the Heath Bar flavors earlier in the challenge, I am using store bought cake mix. I have looked into making my own, but it will be a while before I have that mapped out as I will need to make quite a few adjustments before I am ready to present that option. It will happen and when it does it will be in addition to this entry and not a part of the overall challenge. As I have said in the past, no one will ever confuse ice cream with health food, but there is no reason why we should have to suffer through so many chemicals and additives with a good frozen treat.

Johnny D was not the only one to encourage me to make this flavor. Zach has not stopped talking about Cake Batter and gives this recipe the thumbs up. This flavor is now one of the top 10 most purchased flavors in the country.

Tastes damn good too. So thanks Johnny D and Happy Birthday!

Enjoy!

Flavor #47 - PB&J Ice Cream

It's back to school time! PB&J was a regular in the sandwich rotation while I was growing up and it saddens me that so many kids are deprived of this great American sandwich experience due to over sensitive school systems. And now, due to so many kids with peanut allergies, if I do chose to serve this commercially, I will need to deck out the shop with warning signs like I am serving Uranium, just to keep insurance costs down.

I knew how I wanted to make this from the start and did not consult any other recipes. I started by slathering a thick layer of peanut butter on 2 1/2 large slabs of graham crackers followed by a generous layer of grape jelly with another graham cracker on top. Those 2 1/2 sandwiches spent a few hours in the freezer to firm up while I prepared the vanilla ice cream base. I took the sandwiches out of the freezer shortly before the mix cam out of the machine and chopped them into different sizes and folded them into the mix once it came out of the machine.

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

3/4 Cup of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1 Pinch of Salt

5 Slabs of Graham Crackers

4 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter

3 Tablespoons of Grape Jelly

Since I had not been happy with my other attempts at peanut butter flavors, I was skeptical as I was preparing this one. Both boys give this a thumbs up and tell me they like the flavor and they like the crunch. The peanut butter sticking to the graham cracker seems to be a big plus!

Enjoy!

Flavor #46 - Franklin Mint Chip or...

Occasionally, while putting a flavor together, I come across several options for names. I have wanted to do a twist on Mint Chocolate Chip for some time now and finally came across some recipes I likes. While in the planning stages I knew I wanted to avoid they typical neon green crappy mint looking ice cream while also avoiding a mint flavor that was too overpowering. All the while, Franklin Mint Chip was the name I had on the drawing board - OK so it's not really a drawing board but rather a spreadsheet. But Franklin Mint seemed pretty cool with the image of Charlie Brown's only friend of color in my head.

As I was researching, I stumbled across a recipe called Dirty Mint Chip from both Martha Stewart and Coolhaus that was pretty much what I was looking for. Here's a recipe that uses actual mint leaves, no fake coloring and brown sugar, which I am coming to have an ever greater appreciation for as I move through this challenge. This now has me rethinking the name as Dirty Sexy Mint Chip, reminiscent of the cancelled ABC show from a few seasons back staring Peter Krause and a host of others. It was also the show that gave us our first look a Sofia Vergara.

Thing is, I could go with either name.

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar

1 Pinch of Salt

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1/3 Cup of finely chopped Mint Leaves

I may have to tweak this recipe for those who really love a strong mint flavor. If that's what you like, this ain't it.  This has a very delayed minty kick to it that washes over your tongue after the mouthful has already melted away as the mint oil from the leaves stays with you. It makes a great palate cleanser.

Still stuck on the name for this one.

Enjoy!

Flavor #45 - Strawberry Lime Sorbet

This should be a very brief entry as I didn't expect to be making another flavor so quickly. The short of it is that we had some strawberries in the fridge that were teetering on the edge, along with a few extra limes, and here we are.

1/2 Container of Strawberries, juiced to about one cup

1 1/2 Limes, squeezed

1 Cup of Simple Syrup

I really like how this came out. The mix of the two flavors is interesting with neither taking control over the other but rather combining for an interesting experience. I am glad I did this one.

Enjoy!

Flavor #44 - Tiramisu Ice Cream

Twenty years ago here in the US, Tiramisu became the big date night desert order. It seemed to come on so quickly that Tom Hanks joked about it in Sleepless in Seattle, not knowing what it was and wondering if some woman would want him to do it to her. Thankfully, we never had to see that, although I am sure that Rosie O'Donnell was doing more than her share of Tiramisu from the craft service table!

I checked out a few different recipes for this and have combined some of the better aspects for my own. Sadly, adding bits of sponge cake to this does not work as well as adding baked goods to other flavors, as the sponge cake does what a sponge does, making the cake a real mess. So I will continue to work on that aspect of this flavor. This is also, by far, the most expensive recipe I have come across as the cost of the Mascarpone Cheese alone was close to $12 and if you do not have any of the liquor on hand, there is another added expense.

 16oz of Mascarpone Cheese

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup Milk 

1 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup of Kahlua

3 Tablespoons of Dark Rum

1 Teaspoon of Espresso Powder

1 Pinch of Salt

1/4 Cup of Mocha Fudge

Start by making the mocha fudge sauce as it needs to cool before adding it to the mix. I always have some homemade fudge sauce on hand. To turn it into mocha, heat about 1/3 of a cup of the fudge sauce into a sauce pan while adding three teaspoons of Espresso Powder, stirring as you go until the powder blends.  While the sauce cools, toss all of the other ingredients in a blender and liquify until the sugar is no longer making that grinding noise.  When the mix comes out of the ice cream machine, try to divide the batch into three part so you can layer the first two with the mocha fudge sauce while topping it off with the last of the Tiramisu mix.

The alcohol and the cheese will make this a rather soft ice cream. If you want a harder freeze or do not want the alcohol in there at all you can take out either the Kahlua or the Rum or both, and substitute with more Espresso Powder. Although I like a harder ice cream, the alcohol does make this flavor very authentic. All my memories of Tiramisu and other Italian style cakes always have that strong rum based flavor as does this ice cream. You can also make this a little harder by lowering the cheese content and adding more milk and cream.

This may not have the same impact Tiramisu had back in the 90's, but it is still pretty damn good!

Enjoy!

Flavor #43 - Cookie Butter Ice Cream

A few months ago, I read an article about how Cookie Butter was flying off the shelves at Trader Joe's and how those who were purchasing it were praising its "crack-like" addictive qualities. As I was planning this flavor out, my friend Tim Douglas recently quarried on Facebook (paraphrasing here), asking friends who loved Cookie Butter if they all go a few knuckles deep into the jar when they needed a fix.

Cookie Butter has a rich European history and does come from a traditional holiday cookie called Speculoos and has only made its splash on this side of the pond somewhat recently. It is known around the world under a variety of names such as Belgian Spice Cookies, Dutch Windmill Cookies or Biscoff Cookies and depending on the country, could have slightly different ingredients. To me, the flavor is similar to gingersnaps. The paste version has been around now for less than a decade. Why someone chose to grind this into a paste is beyond me, but I am sure there will be someone out there who will be equally perplexed as to why I chose to make this into ice cream. 

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

1 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1/4 Cup of Cookie Butter

Blend your mix, toss it in the machine and you now have the highly addictive Cookie Butter ice cream. How addictive is this stuff? Upon the initial tasting, James demanded the entire batch!

Enjoy!

Flavor #42 - Creme Brulee Ice Cream

I love a good Creme Brulee after a great steak dinner. We love it so much around this house that we have our own special dishes and a blow torch to cook up the top as they would in a professional kitchen. As you really can't take a flame to ice cream successfully, I had to scout out some alternatives.

1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups Milk

5 Egg Yolks

1 Cup Sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 Teaspoon Corn Flour

I went with the eggs and cornflour in the base as I wanted a thicker, more custard like consistency to echo a traditional creme brulee. The brownish flecks you see are the crusted sugar bites as you would have on the top of your freshly served creme brulee.  That was the challenge for me in this recipe as it is easy to burn the sugar on something like this and I did so more than once!

1 Cup of Sugar

2 Teaspoons Water

You will have to make this part of the recipe well in advance of putting the custard mix in the machine as this takes time to make and to cool. The recipe I found looked simple. However, it took me three tries to get close to what I wanted. My first try I burned badly. The second I took out prematurely and was all lumpy and the wrong color.  The third try was still a little more singed than I prefer, but the others in the house seem to like it and it does set off the sweet taste of the custard base.  Once you get the mix melted and to the correct color, carefully pour it out on a non-stick surface and allow a lot of time for it to cool and harden. From there, break it up into small bite-sized pieces.  Careful, as the melted sugar can get sharp!

It almost looks like a collection of sea glass! Add the sugar pieces after the mix comes out of the machine.

Now I will have to get some steaks!

Enjoy!

Flavor #41 - Cherry Sorbet

It is cherry season in this corner of the globe (Thanks Canadian Cherry Growers!)

Two things I have learned about working with cherries:

1 - Pitting cherries is ridiculously labor intensive.
2 - On their own, cherries taste nothing like all the imitation cherry flavoring I have consumed over the course of my life.

Needless to say, I had to make this more than once to get it the way I wanted.  My first try, based on one recipe I found, turned into a hard block of ice, was practically black in color and tasted terrible. I then took pieces from a few other recipes and here it is.

2 Cups of Cherries

1/2 Cup of Double Simple Syrup

3 Lemons, Juiced

1/2 Cup of 100% Apple Juice

After the crazy amount of time it took to pit the cherries, juice them and strain the juice all while trying not to stain any of my clothing, I was not sure it was worth the effort. Then I tasted it and can say it was a worthwhile endevor. I still think that cherries taste nothing like what I have been lead to think cherries taste like after years of red chemicals and additives. The apple and lemons compliment the real cherries to give me the flavor of the fake cherries I was looking for.

Enjoy!

Flavor #40 - Watermelon Sorbet

This was my first time working with watermelon and it took a few tries to get this how I wanted it. There are lots of recipes out there using varying amounts of melon, water, sugar and other fruit combinations. The first time out, using a seedless watermelon, I got something that resembled watermelon by color but what tasted like cucumber. Now don't get me wrong, I love cucumber and hope to do a few cucumber based flavors (They're great in smoothies!), but I really wanted this to taste like watermelon. I am blaming the white seeds in the seedless watermelon as they do look like the seeds you would find in a cucumber.

3 Cups of Watermelon

1/2 Cup of Double Simple Syrup

1/2 a Lemon, Squeezed

6 Strawberries, Juiced - about 1/4 Cup

I liked this so much I gave myself a brain freeze!

Enjoy!

Flavor #39 - Caramel Swirl

I first had this flavor while I worked at Haagen Dazs on Newbury Street back in the 80's. The Dazs calls it Dulce de Leche. I never thought I could make this on my own. It is a simple vanilla base with lots of caramel mixed in, but it is easy to screw up, from ruining the initial batch of caramel to not mixing it with the ice cream correctly. A lot can go wrong.

I first had to make the caramel. Learning from my first attempt when I made the caramel flavored ice cream, I knew I had to be very careful bringing the caramel mix to the right temperature and then cooling it down sufficiently to eventually add to the ice cream.

2 Cups of Sugar

1 1/2 Sticks of Butter

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

Melt the sugar over medium heat until it liquifies, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Watch it carefully and do not let it burn or boil! Add the butter after taking the sugar off the burner and watch out for the butter splatter! Once the butter is added in and you keep stirring, add the cream slowly as the mixture continues to cool. After an hour of so, this should be ready to add to the ice cream mix.

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 1/2 Cups of Milk

3/4 Cup of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

1 Pinch of Salt

As you take the ice cream out of the machine, flatten out the batch in the container in layers. Add a thin layer of caramel topped off with more ice cream. Flatten out the next layer of ice cream while trying not to disturb the layer you just made beneath. It is easy to screw up and it takes some time to develop your technique. But at worst, you have a tasty mess on your hands and at best it looks aesthetically pleasing! The caramel recipe should give you enough for a long while so feel free to spoon it out Sundae style or add it to your coffee while remembering how little you paid to make it and how much Starbucks charges for your Caramel Macchiato!

Enjoy!

Flavor #38 - Chocolate Triple Threat

As I still look to develop my chocolate recipes I decided to go a little over the top with this one. Chocolate ice cream with brownies, chocolate chips and chocolate fudge ribbons. The brownies are home made.

4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

The fudge sauce is also home made. I have also shaved down 2oz of milk chocolate.

The ice cream mix is still in development.

1 1/2 cups of heavy cream

1 1/2 cups of milk

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 cup of fudge sauce

1 pinch of salt

I am not sure why, but this batch took longer than expected to go through the hard freeze for serving, but once it did, boy was it worthwhile. These brownie are more chewy that cake-like and I am happy to see it is still like that after the freeze. The shaved chocolate blends well as does the frozen fudge sauce.

Enjoy!