July 2014 – FROZBROZ

July 29, 2014

Coffee Cherry

We’re going back to an idea that spawned during the cold months of winter. It’s a flavor that has both summer and winter appeal. But in the end, the cherry wins. It’s that time of year when sweet cherries are plentiful, which makes it the perfect time to bring back last winter’s flavor idea – Coffee Cherry. Let’s get started…

These are Peace Coffee beans roasted right here in Minneapolis. In particular, we are using their Guatemalan Dark roast, which provides a bitter dark and oily grind that works very well for our coffee infusion. The beans are ground, steeped while we cook our base, and then strained out with a fine mesh strainer. The base is cooled and ready for churning.

Next, Cherries! Cherries from Barnard Farms in Michigan. These cherries are dark, sweet and robust, which will complement our coffee infused ice cream. Think bold flavors…that’s we have here. We clean and pit the cherries, then simmer them down with sugar and a bit of lemon juice. The cherries and their syrup are added into our coffee ice cream after it is churned.

Coffee Cherry ice cream…a cold weather idea to warm your summer soul. And for those supportive CSI full share members, this was part of your July CSI share. Cheers!

On the bright side, if you’re not a Full Share memeber, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 8/1/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

July 24, 2014

Blueberry Rhubarb

Que Andy Williams…”Its the most wonderful time….”

Seriously though, with ice cream most times of the year are pretty wonderful. But summer tops them all when we get our hands on local berries. We’re wrapping up an incredible and well utilized strawberry season and coming into the peak of blueberry season once again. Every year we usually create a few flavors based on each of these berries and we have so many ideas backlogged that it’s hard to decide what to do. We’ve been into combining fruits this summer and thanks to a 1947 New York court decision, Rhubarb is also considered a fruit. Either way, rhubarb and blueberry make a pretty incredible combination. Superlatives aside, lets get to the party. Rhuberry Blubarb!

Starting with this fresh rhubarb we procured from the Seward Co-op, and these incredibly flavorful blueberries fresh from Northfield, MN, we begin our journey.

Both the rhubarb and the blueberries are cooked down with sugar to eliminate the water content in them and keep them from making the ice cream icy. The blueberry jam is added straight into the cream for a deep blueberry ice cream flavor. The rhubarb is swirled in after the churn, leaving nice thick rivers of tart rhubarb jam that add a nice bright tartness to the bite.

The scoop: a rich blueberry ice cream, swirled with tart rhubarb jam. A perfect snapshot of mid-summer.

July 14, 2014

Honey Churro with Cajeta

This week we’re throwing y’all a curve ball. The fruits are coming, but we’re taking a little hiatus while the berries ripen a bit more. Instead of local produce in our ice cream, this week we’re going to feature a few other wonderful local products to the Minneapolis area with our Honey Churro with Cajeta. Check it out…

Originally I was going to simply pair up a honey ice cream base with a cajeta caramel, but as I kept thinking about it, churros popped into my head…churro infusion! That’s it! These churros are from Marissa’s Bakery on the corner of 28th St and Nicolett Ave in South Minneapolis. Marissa’s has the mother load of all salty and sweet breads and pastries ascended from Mexico. The fried churros are perfectly crunchy, yet tender and sweet. We chop them up and toss them into our ice cream base to steep. After the steep, the churros are strained out and we add a little Beez Kneez Honey to sweeten it up. The Beez Kneez is a Minneapolis company on a mission to produce healthy hives, educate people about bees, and also deliver their honey to willing buyers. Check them out, if you haven’t heard of them already.

Now that our honey churro base is ready to spin, we start making the cajeta. Cajeta is a caramel made with goat milk and a touch of cinnamon. This week we’re using Poplar Hill goat milk from Scandia, MN. The milk, sugar and a cinnamon stick are simmered down for a few hours until a golden caramel has formed. The cinnamon stick is strained out, and the cajeta is cooled. The cajeta has a beautiful silky texture and subtle, yet recognizable, flavor of goat milk. The cajeta is layered into the pints during packaging.

This week’s curve ball – Honey Churro with Cajeta. Available to our Full Share CSI members as part of their July share.

If you’re not a Full Share memeber, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7/18/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

July 9, 2014

Strawberry Graham Cracker

A few weeks back we had a request for a flavor that featured graham crackers. We love and encourage flavor requests, and were happy to run with that idea and pair it with our annual outpouring of love for strawberries. As we often do during the few weeks strawberries are available, we can’t help ourselves from creating at least a few flavors with them. Maybe it’s pure selfishness on our part, but we can’t get enough of them.

For the graham cracker, we had to do a little processing first to make sure it holds up in the ice cream. So we combine with some butter, salt and mayyybe a little sugar and puree in a food processor until a new buttery dough forms.

The mix is then spread out on a sheet pan and baked off in the oven until nice and crunchy, then broken up in preparation to go into the ice cream.

The strawberries are cooked down and make into a jam, and then added straight into the ice cream before the churn.

The end result is a fresh strawberry ice cream full of buttery, crunchy chunks of graham cracker. For sale soon, at our kitchen.

In the meantime, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7/11/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

July 1, 2014

Strawberry Lemonade

Guys, girls, ladies, gentlemen, brothers, sisters – it is Strawberry season!! Seriously, this where the summer harvest kicks off, and there’s really no better way to do it than with a fresh strawberries and ice cream. With a twist, perhaps? After throwing down our Pina Colada flavor last week, beverage ice cream has been steadily on my mind. Soooo, I thought it might be kind of refreshing to throw a classic combo together and make a Strawberry Lemonade ice cream. And that’s just what I did. Check it out…

Strawberries! I’m pretty pumped to say the least. These are from Pine Tree Apple Orchard located in White Bear Lake, MN. They taste as good as they look, believe me. To get them into our ice cream, we clean them, mash them in a pot, simmer them down with a bit of sugar, and there you have it…strawberry jammin. The jam is swirled into the ice cream after the churn.

For the lemonade ice cream, we’re using some very nice looking organic lemons. They’re not native to Minnesota, but they sure do make a refreshing glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. My idea was to essentially make a lemonade concentrate to flavor the ice cream base. To do this, I made a highly concentrate lemon syrup. The lemons are juiced and simmered with organic cane sugar until the desired consistency is achieved. Instead of adding sugar to the ice cream base to sweeten, I used to the full concentration of the lemon syrup. The lemon ice cream base is cooked, cooled, and is ready to churn with the addition of the strawberry swirl at the end.

Strawberry season has arrived with a refreshingly creamy twist of lemon for this week’s flavor – Strawberry Lemonade

Like to try some? You can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 7/4/14 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!