Turmeric Honey

When our favorite grocery store, Seward Co-op started carrying fresh turmeric root this winter, I jumped at the opportunity to create a flavor with it.  Turmeric root has a more unique and pronounced flavor than the powder variety.  Its flavor is somewhat ginger like, but still very much it’s own profile.  It also has the ability to color almost anything it comes in contact with, neon yellow.  Maybe even more poignant – Turmeric is believed to provide a plethora of health benefits that range from cancer and alzheimer’s prevention to detoxifying your liver, boosting your immune system and relieving arthritis.  Considering all that, I suppose you could say this is our first homeopathic flavor?  Won’t go that far.  Either way, it made for an interesting journey and result.

turmeric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start, the turmeric root is peeled, minced and blended into our classic cane sugar base.  It is steeped in the base to bring out the flavor and color.

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You can see from left to right how the color of the ice cream transforms as the steeping process draws the color out of the root.  Once the steeping process is complete, the base is strained to remove all of the turmeric root pieces and to provide a nice smooth consistency.

honey

 

 

 

 

To add some dimension to the flavor, we used some of this local honey produced by our friend Britt.  It has a fruity element to it which plays very nicely with the turmeric.

 

 

 

 

The base is churned and swirled with the honey at the end.

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Results?  A neon yellow colored Turmeric ice cream with fruity local Minneapolis honey that rounds out the sweetness and ends as one of the more unique flavor profiles of any ice cream we’ve created.  It truly plays tricks on your brain as you try to divide the line between what you think it should taste like and what it actually does taste like.  Its one of those flavors I keep going back for more because of that very fact. It’s just fun.

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 2/21/14 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!

And don’t forget about our Spring CSI subscription – if you’re offered in reserving pints on a monthly basis between March and May 2014, go here for more info.

Finally – we have another pint sale coming up in two weeks on March 1st – see here for details on menu, and timing, etc.

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Garam Masala

Over the past few years we’ve played with many spices, and continue to be fascinated with how they interact with ice cream both as components and sole flavors.  It is our belief that Vanilla is the ice cream world’s corner stone for a reason, and there are still many amazing spices that are just waiting for their chance.  This week, its the magical spice’s turn, Garam Masala.  Garam Masala is really a fantastical mix of many familiar spices, often including a mix of cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger, bay leaf, star anise to name a few.  While you can buy some great mixes off the shelf, a little elbow grease, and a spice or coffee grinder make this spice mix scream to all new heights.  As we’re wont to do, we created our own Garam Masala blend for this flavor.

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The spices are toasted in a pan for a bit, then ground in a spice or coffee grinder to bring them all together.

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Once ground, the spice blend is added into the ice cream mix and steeped during the cooking process to draw out the flavor.

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The result is a delightfully complex, garam masala infused ice cream with notes of cumin, star anise, cardamom and pepper.

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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 1/10/14 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!

Don’t forget, our first pint sale is coming up on January 18th. Click here for details.

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Gingerbread with Lemon Cream

The holiday season is in full swing which means folks are busy baking up all their favorite cookies, cakes, pies and pastries to share with family and friends. And hey, we’re no different. So when my loving wife suggested that we make gingerbread cookies with our four-year-old son to swing into the holiday spirit, I concurred, and then immediately got caught up with the idea of gingerbread and ice cream. It’s not new concept to us. In fact, gingerbread was the second flavor we ever put out on this here blog. This time I wanted to add in the component of lemon, you know, the classic lemon icing that tops gingerbread cookies. So I toiled with the idea of making a gingerbread flavored ice cream and adding lemon bars, but in the end, I was a sucker for a lemon ice cream with gingerbread croutons. Honestly, I thought you all would be too. So let’s get started with this week’s holiday flavor: Gingerbread with Lemon Cream…

 

 

Gingerbread spicesGingerbread batterGingerbreadGingerbread Croutons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you were wondering why we’re not making gingerbread cookies…we are looking for something dense that will hold up in our ice cream. We adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for our ice cream, but the original produces a fantastic dense sticky gingerbread that is fantastic on it’s own. We start with Cardamom, Cloves, Cinnamon, Ginger and Nutmeg to give this cake intensity. The batter is poured into a Bundt pan and after baking is knocked out to cool. For the ice cream, we cube the gingerbread and bake again to form a crunchy layer on the outside that will hold up to the ice cream. The croutons are tossed in at the end of the churn.

 

 

Lemon Zest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we mix in a handfull of freshly grated lemon zest to our organic sugarcane base before cooking. The base is cooked, the zest is steeped, and then strained before cooling and into the ice cream maker.

 

 

Gingerbread with Lemon Cream

 

 

 

Gingerbread with Lemon Cream! It’s craft ice cream for the holidays and we want to share it with you…

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 12/20/13 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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