June 2013 – FROZBROZ

June 27, 2013

Sour Cream Vanilla w/Pluot Jam and Crunchy Quinoa

We’ve talked a lot over the past few years about where our inspirations come from, and sometimes a flavor is developed from a number of different directions. This one began from a plan to create a flavor with the Pluot fruit – a hybrid fruit made from apricot and plum. Stone fruits are in season right now in a big way, and we try to take advantage of them before their season ends and the local berry season begins. The original plan was to make a Pluot jam with our Sour Cream Vanilla base.

Beautiful Flavorosa Pluot’s from our favorite local market, the Seward Co-op.

By total chance, the recent issue of Food and Wine magazine showed up the week before I planned on making this flavor, and I happened across a recipe for making crunchy quinoa to be used in a salad. Salad, schmalad – this was going in Pluot ice cream.

Good old fashioned uncooked Quinoa.

First the pluot jam. Making the jam was rather straightforward process, involving removal of the pits from the fruit, and then combining the pulp and skin with sugar and water, mashing and cooking down into a nice, thick jam.

Then came crisping up the quinoa. First the quinoa was lightly cooked until just tender and dried on a sheet pan. Once completely dry, the quinoa is fried in vegetable oil until it is brown and crunchy, and cooled on paper towels. The original recipe called for salt immediately upon removing from the oil, but I used both salt and sugar to give them a little sweetness as well.

The quinoa fry up with a surprising crunch and a dense nut-like flavor. Very tasty.

Finally the sour cream vanilla base is made with our favorite sour cream and vanilla beans. We use light sour cream because it keeps the fat content of the ice cream at the perfect level.

Our landing, is an incredibly silky vanilla ice cream, rippled with layers of Flavorosa Pluot jam and speckled with crunchy bits of quinoa throughout.

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 6/28/13 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!

June 20, 2013

Asparagus with Truffle Honey

Ok, so this week we are going to test your inner most ice cream love. And not just your inner love, but your preception of ice cream love. And not just your percieved love, but your adventurous ice cream love.

On a recent trip to Pizzeria Lola my wife and I ordered one of the weekly specials: pizza topped with asparagus and truffle honey. Not only does Lola live up to all hype given, but this weekly pizza special was off the charts good. The idea resinated immediatley, and I couldn’t stop thinking about my process and how I would break it down into ice cream. Once asparagus hit the local farmers market, we were on it. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor, Asparagus with Truffle Honey.

Asparagus from the Midtown Farmers Market.

We cut off the tips and blanch them in boiling water to soften up and bring out their vibrant green color. We reserved the staulks and grilled them for delicious eats guys. After blanching, into the food processor for a spin. The puree is added into our organic cane sugar ice cream base right after cooking. We give it a generous salting and the solids are strained out through a fine mesh strainer. The asparagus ice cream is ready for churning.

Now that the asparagus ice cream is done, we’re ready to make our truffle honey. We were lucky enough to get our hands on some of the last remains of Nordeast Nectars honey. Last year many of their bees died off, but thankfully their queen is still alive. This year Britt Lundberg and her neighborhood crew are making efforts to regroup, and hopefully, with a name change, new packaging, and much hard work, we will see more of this local liquid gold from them. To make the truffle honey, we stir a small amount of truffle oil into the honey. The oil becomes suspended in the honey. The truffle honey gets layered into the pints during packaging.

Asparagus with Truffle Honey! It’s creamy asparagus ice cream with an itital burst of truffle flavor leading into a sweet honey finish. Testing your inner love, perceptions and adventures in ice cream. Love, FrozBroz

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 6/21/13 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!

June 13, 2013

Spicy Jerk w/ Dark Rum Caramel

This flavor falls in line with the Caribbean influence we’ve had over the last couple of months, as well as with some of the spiced ice creams we’ve been experimenting with, such as Baharat. The idea hit a few weeks back when I was preparing a Jerk paste to be used for some grilled chicken. With sweet spices like Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Allspice, and a good amount of brown sugar making up the majority of the Jerk seasonings, I couldn’t help but begin to think of ice cream. Add in a dark rum caramel to round out those Jamaican flavors, and you have a winner.

For this flavor, some of the savory elements of traditional Jerk seasonings have been left out, primarily the onion and garlic. The primary components of this flavor are those aforementioned sweet spices, as well as thyme and a habanero pepper to provide the heat that “Jerk” is known for. Since the spices are almost identical to what many identify as the “pumpkin pie” flavors, the pepper and herb are essential to keeping a dividing line between the Thanksgiving dessert and the Caribbean spice.

Since Brown sugar is often used when making Jerk seasoning, I went with our brown sugar base for the foundation of the ice cream.

The spices, and the sole habanero are blended into the brown sugar base to steep while it is cooked.

The caramel begins with brown sugar, and is combined with molasses. Rum is often made from molasses, and since rum burns off with the heat from the cooking process, we use molasses in its place. A bit of real rum is added to the caramel after it cools, so as to not lose the alcohol to evaporation from heat.

Once we’ve spun the Jerk ice cream base, we layer the dark rum caramel in as we pack the pints.

The resulting ice cream is a rich, spicy brown sugar Jerk ice cream with rivers of dark rum caramel.

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 6/14/13 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!

June 6, 2013

Rhubarb with Brandy Orange Caramel

Although you may not able to tell by the weather we’ve been having this year, it is actually Spring in Minnesota. Whatever the temperatures are, it doesn’t matter, it’s time to celebrate the beginning of the new growing season. And to start it all off, one of the first things out of the ground every spring is the beloved rhubarb. So let’s get this celebration started with this week’s flavor: Rhubarb with Brandy Orange Caramel.

This is heirloom rhubarb. The original plant started on my wife’s grandparents farm near Milwaukee, WI. It’s been split many times, but I have to say, this plant likes to get crazy in our yard, and if left alone would grow upwards of four to five feet in height. We twist and pull out the younger stalks for cooking.

We first puree the rhubarb completely. So you’re probably wondering why the puree is green and not pink in color? For the ice cream, I decided to peal the rhubarb first, to eliminate the posibility of retaining any stringing fiberous material. Because the puree will eventually end up in the ice cream, I wanted to make sure that fiberous material didn’t affect texture. In hind site, it didn’t matter, because we processed it fully, but I assure you, this green puree has evey bit of rhubard flavor. The puree goes into a sauce pan and is reduced with a squeeze of lemon juice until nearly all the liquid has boiled off. At this point, we set the puree in a fine mesh strainer and allow it to drain any left over liquid. Any residual liquid could potentially make this an icy rhubarb ice cream instead of a creamy one. The finished/drained puree is added into our organic cane sugar ice cream base.

For the caramel, as we almost always do, we start by caramelzing plain white sugar over high heat. Once caramelized, we whisk in our cream. And since we’re celebrating the beginning of the growing season, I thought we should probably throw in a party favor. Citrus and rhubarb are a classic combination, which gave way to exactly what party favor to use? Another classic combo – brandy and orange. And so it goes. We finish the caramel with brandy, orange zest and a generous salting.

Creamy rhubarb ice cream layered with a zesty brandy orange caramel. Let’s tip our glasses and celebrate the beginning of Minnesota’s growing season, FrozBroz style!

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 6/7/13 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!