March 2014 – FROZBROZ

March 27, 2014

Seaweed

We’re just going to come out and say it right away this week. We made seaweed ice cream. Most people are probably going to think that this is a crazy and totally disgusting idea, but in all actuality, it is a pretty tasty ice cream. This is where the future of ice cream is going folks. Don’t you want to know what a savory ice cream tastes like? We are just getting your feet wet now, so it’s easier for you to dive in later to the savory flavors of our future. So let’s get started with this week’s flavor: Seaweed…

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the PBS show Mind of a Chef, so if you haven’t and you are into food, you should try and catch an episode. In particular, I’ve really enjoyed the series featuring chef David Chang. The episode where he is in Japan is really where this idea of seaweed ice cream came to be. Chang was perusing through a Japanese market where he was explaining the different types of seaweed and their uses in Asian cooking. He talked about his favorite nori (seaweed) being a Korean variety that is traditionally raosted and seasoned with sesame oil. I think it was the chip-like crunch and sesame seasoning that hooked me, when I saw Chang take a bite. United Noodles Asian Market isn’t far from my house, so I headed over and grabbed a few packages. United Noodles is another whole story, but go check them out if you live in the Twin Cities and love Asain food and groceries. It’s unbelievable in there.

Each package contained a carton of about ten ultra-thin sheets of dried, roasted and seasoned seaweed. The seaweed was salty and the sesame seasoning reminded me of a night out eating sushi. Of course my next thought was, this could be good in ice cream…had to try it.

For the ice cream, we took the sheets of Korean seasoned seaweed and blended them up with our organic cane sugar base. The base is cooked and cooled, and the seaweed remains in the ice cream.

Just going to come out and say it…we made seaweed ice cream. It’s probably unlike any ice cream you’ve ever eaten before. It’s savory and tastes exactly like the some of its parts. It is a flavor that you may only eat a spoonful or two of at a time, but it will keep you coming back for more wondering what it tastes like again, because the experience is so unfamiliar. Come on, get your feet wet.

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. Winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/28/14 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!

March 20, 2014

Oat Rum Raisin w/ Cinnamon Caramel

Ever since we originally created the Oat w/Maple Brown Sugar, we’ve been enamored with how silky ice cream gets from steeping with oats. Not to mention the incredible oat flavor. I wanted to use that base to create a flavor as a play on the oatmeal raisin cookie. It wasn’t until right at the end that the thought occurred to me – “I should probably soak these raisins in rum”. Man, am I glad I did. So now you have our play on both rum raisin and the oatmeal raisin cookie. Why not combine them?

First the base. These fine organic rolled oats are combined with our brown sugar ice cream base and put through a warm steeping process. During the steep, the starch is extracted from the oats much like what happens when you make oatmeal. That starch is what gives the oatmeal its sticky consistency – the more you cook the oats, the more of that starch comes out and the stickier the oatmeal gets. We like the starch. The starch in ice cream is a natural stabilizer and gives the ice cream an extra silky texture. The oats are strained out after the steep is complete.

The caramel is a straightforward sugar based caramel, infused with cinnamon when the cream is added at the end. The cream helps keep the caramel a light sauce instead of something something that pulls your teeth out of your head while you try to eat it.

Here comes the curveball. The original idea was to simply add raisins to the mix to complete the idea of the oatmeal raisin cookie. Instead they were soaked in rum overnight, as we’d do for a straight rum raisin. The raisins soak up the rum and turn into boozey candy that gets thrown into the ice cream right at the end of the churn.

This scoop a fantastic representation of the oatmeal raisin cookie with a cinnamon caramel holding it all together amongst a deluge of rum raisins.
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. Winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/21/14 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!

Don’t forget about our pint sale,TONIGHT Thursday March 20, 2014. Click HERE for details.

March 12, 2014

Stout with Irish Coffee Syrup

St. Paddy’s Day party favor preparation is in full swing here at FrozBroz central headquarters. Last year it was our Irish Soda ice cream, and similarly, this year we are throwing down another beer flavored ice cream for the party. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor: Stout with Irish Coffee Syrup…

For this week’s flavor we decided to back to our roots; Wisconsin, to find a smooth, easy drinking stout to flavor our ice cream base. We chose Central Waters Brewing Satin Solitude Imperial Stout. It’s not a traditional Irish stout, but it possess those deep dark malty qualities that we were looking for. For the ice cream, we reduce the beer down to a syrup like consistency and add it into our organic cane sugar ice cream base. The ice cream is ready for the churn.

Next, Irish coffee syrup. Like many of our components, coffee syrup has been on the list of conceptual possibility list for some time now. It began with concept of a black cherry ice cream with a coffee syrup, but at that time, cherries weren’t in season so the idea got pushed aside. Recently, ideas surrounding St. Paddy’s Day came up including creating a flavor based on a coffee stout, and that’s when the coffee syrup came back into the fold. And since it’s the Irish holiday, why not throw in some Irish whiskey for good cheer! I mean come on, its St. Paddy’s day! It’s meant to be. For the Irish coffee syrup, we start by simmering down some Peace Coffee Yeti Coldpress with cane sugar. After our desired flavor and honey-esk consistency are achieved, we take it off the heat and spike it with another Minnesota original, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey. The result is a nice balance of bitter coffee and sweet Irish whiskey. The syrup is layered into the pints during packaging.

Stout with Irish Coffee Syrup! It’s malty caramely stout ice cream with ribbons of sweet Irish coffee. Party preparations complete! It’s not just ice cream, its St. Paddy’s Day all churned up and frozen into a pint…of ice cream.

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. Winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/14/14 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!

This flavor will be offered along with a few others, in limited quantities, at our next pint sale, Thursday March 20, 2014. Click HERE for details.

March 6, 2014January 29, 2024

Black Sea Salt Malt

We talk a lot, maybe too much, about where our inspiration comes from – but its a huge part of what we do and is something we cherish and welcome. I often find the path and the journey is equally, and sometimes more rewarding than the end result and not just in making ice cream.

In the case of this flavor, the inspiration came from a book (and a friend). “And In Their Passing, A Darkness: The Salt Machine”, written by my pal Jeff Smieding, is a fantastic piece of fiction and one I highly recommend. Jeff had asked me to create a flavor for his upcoming book launch party and wondered if we might somehow involved salt since it is an overarching theme in his book. We had just procured some barley malt with the intention of developing a few malt themed flavors – and as fate would have it Jeff happens to brew his own beer once in awhile so we arrived at the genesis. Black Sea Salt Malt.

The foundation of the ice cream is our regular organic cane sugar base flavored with vanilla bean and a heap of this barley malt powder to give it that classic “malt” flavor.

Then comes the salt. For a long time, I’ve wanted to create a flavor with course salt as an add-in – to give crunchy bursts of salty goodness. I chose this course black sea salt because it dissolves more slowly than its counterparts and would provide the textural element that would last a bit longer. It also looks fantastic and fits the darkness element of Jeff’s book quite nicely.

The ice cream base is churned and the salt added in at the very last minute. As it churns for just a few seconds more – the smaller salt crystals dissolve into little rivers of black and grey swirled throughout the ice cream.

I am always motivated and excited by ice cream flavors that play tricks on the mind and the palate, both in color as well as with texture and flavor. This particular flavor looks almost like chocolate chip, but obviously tastes nothing like it.

The ice cream really is striking if I do say so myself. A malted vanilla base speckled with crystals of black sea salt that provide occasional explosions of salt among the sweetness.

Check out Jeff’s book here and if you feel so inclined, go enjoy a local brew and see Jeff read from his book in person at the book launch Wednesday March 19 at Harriet Brewing.
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. Winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 3/7/14 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!