Blueberry Black Pepper Cinnamon Stripe

This time of year, our blog starts to sound like a broken record, with constant talk about the seasonal berries, and the upcoming/just starting harvest season of pretty much everything else we can grow in the midwest. And why not?  For midwestern based, food obsessed fools like us, this is the greatest time of year.  One that many of us take for granted, only because much of what we can grow for a month or two is available year round in grocery stores.  But not too long ago, things like tomatoes, strawberries, sweet corn, watermelon…etc. were ONLY available at this time of the year, unless someone in your family was a studios canner.  Even then they weren’t as good as fresh.   When it all boils down to it, the excitement is part of us.  The value of the harvest is in our genes.  It means mother nature has cooperated for the most part and given us the gift of sustenance.   For our farmers, and family it meant surviving another year. It means summer is almost over and we should eat and drink and converse in the sunset and enjoy life in the moment just this once.  And all of that cheesy pillow talk aside, what it really means is second to none flavor.

So with my soliloquy over with, we’re doing another blueberry flavor this week.  Because we can, and because the goodness of fresh north-woods blueberries dictates that we should. What’s different is we’re doing something we’ve never done before.  A twofer.  A two in one.  Two kinds of ice cream that can be enjoyed separately or in harmony.  What we’ll call, the stripe.

Blueberries and cinnamon are two flavors that make something special happen when they’re together.  *cue the love songs* But when you have these prized local blueberries, sometimes you want to taste them on their own.  Get the true flavor.  Leave everything else out of it. So I chose to make two separate ice creams and pack them into the same pint, so you could do exactly that.

Bluberries

 

On a recent trip back from a weekend jaunt up north,  I lucked into a blueberry stand on the main drag of Spooner, Wi. The stand was from Melton’s Blues – a place I definitely plan on going back to – and would recommend visiting.  The blueberries were incredibly flavorful, and with 5 varieties to pick from, you really can’t go wrong.  Check them out on Facebook right here.

 

I pureed and reduced the blueberries into a simple jam, and added some black pepper to provide just a tiny little bite.

Blueberry JamBlueberry Jam

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reduction was added directly into the ice cream base, to make a full on blueberry ice cream.

 

Cinnamon

 

 

For the stripe, I made a simple cinnamon ice cream (a personal favorite)

 

 

 

To finish the job, both ice cream bases were churned simultaneously and alternately layered into the pints.

Blueberry Black Pepper Cinnamon Stripe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result is literally yin and yang – rich fresh blueberry ice cream on one side, cinnamon on the other,  with a tiny black pepper finish.
Want to try it? You can win one of the only two pints in the world, filled with 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. 2 lucky winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 8/9/13 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally and give us feedback. Pints must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

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Port Black and Blueberry

Thanks to a fantastic season here in Minnesota, we are still rolling out new berry flavors. This week we’re combining the summer’s newest arrival, blackberries, with the steadily ripening blueberries. To boot, we’re throwing down a little port into the mix to really enhance the berry berriness of these berries.

 

Hoch Orchard Organic Blackberrries! Hoch, located in the hills of La Crescent, MN, is producing strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, apricots, plums and apples. You will find a variety of Hoch friuts and berries at your local Coop here in Minneapolis.

These blackberries are sweet, juicy and firm, the way blackberries are suppose to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

We were fortunate enough to score these gorgeous blueberries from a family friend’s garden back in our home state of Wisconsin. It didn’t take long to get them off the bush and into our ice cream.

 

 

The blackberries and blueberries get smashed up in a sauce pan, along with this port…

 

 

 

Graham Six Grapes port pairs perfectly with these dark berries. It’s bold, robust, and ripe with it’s own deep berry flavors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They all get simmered down with brown sugar into thick jammy reduction that gets tossed right into the ice cream at the end of the churn. The result…

 

 

 

 

 

An intense black and blueberry ice cream with port.
FrozBroz Port Black and Blueberry ice cream!

 

 

It can be yours.. As we do every week, we’ll be giving away two pints of this flavor. Just leave a comment on our facebook page to be entered into the drawing. If you don’t have a facebook account, leave a comment right here on the blog. We’ll draw two winners on Friday afternoon (7/20/2012) at 4pm and will announce them on our facebook page (or email you if you’re comment resides here). Our only conditions are you must be able to pick it up here in Minneapolis, and agree to give us a little feedback that can be shared with everyone else. Good luck!

 

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