February 2015 – FROZBROZ

February 26, 2015

Coffee and Doughnuts

This week is pretty simple…some days you just wake up and you have coffee and donuts on the brain. That’s what happened to us. So naturally we thought this would make a great ice cream flavor, and you know, we were right. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Coffee and Doughnuts.

For the ice cream, we decided to go with a coffee infused ice cream base. These are Guatemalan Dark beans from one of our great local roasters in Minneapolis, Peace Coffee. The beans get course ground and are added into the base before we heat pasteurize it. Once the ice cream base is brought up to temperature, the grounds are steeped for a few minutes, then strained out with a fine mesh strainer. The base is then cooled and is ready for the churn.

For the donuts, sometimes when you have them on the brain, you have to go with an old favorite. Cake doughnut from A Baker’s Wife in South Minneapolis. These! These are perfection! Crispy outside. Light and airy inside. Come on. To get the doughnuts into the ice cream, we’re making croutons. Diced, tossed with a little butter, and then into a low oven to toast lightly. The croutons are cooled and get tossed into the coffee ice cream prior to packaging.

Simple, but amazing! Peace Coffee infused ice cream with chunkers of locally made donuts from A Baker’s Wife. Let’s get this out of our brain and into our mouth.

Coffee and Doughnuts

Ingredients:

2 cake doughnuts
1 Tablespoon Butter, melted
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 Cup Organic Cane Sugar
2 Eggs
1/4-1/2 Cup Coffee, course ground – depending on how strong you want
3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare the doughnut croutons: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. Dice the donuts into 3/4 inch cubes and toss with melted butter. Spread doughnut cubes out evenly on lined sheet sheet so that none are touching each other. Bake for approx. 30 minutes. The cubes should be slightly golden brown. Remove from the oven, cool, place in air tight container, and freezer until ready to use.

2. Prepare the coffee ice cream: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, milk, coffee and salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

Place ice cream base in a pot over medium heat, stirring continuously. Continue to heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and allow coffee to steep for about 5 minutes. Strain coffee grounds out with a fine mesh strainer. Cool the strained ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Place coffee ice cream into container and stir in 1 cup of doughnut croutons. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, 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 2/27/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

February 19, 2015

Chocolate Fudge with Hazelnut Creme

This week’s flavor is more about exercising and experimenting with techniques, and also a way to make more chocolate ice cream. As we continually strive to create new combinations, we’re always looking for new ways to incorporate ingredients, change up old techniques and perfect others. I used this week’s flavor as a means to do several of these things. The first was to create a better chocolate syrup/sauce/fudge that would stay somewhat fluid and gooey while frozen (it can be a real challenge). The second was to experiment with making a flavor infused, cream based syrup/sauce that would achieve the same properties. Both made this week to go into a classic chocolate ice cream.

First, the chocolate syrup. The ultimate goal is to achieve a thick chocolate syrup that does not freeze hard. It can be tricky and frustrating. The key is having a sugar concentrate, mixed with the right amount of fat. We begin by boiling sugar and a bit of water, similar to how you would start a simple syrup. Cocoa powder is added once the water has boiled off, as well as some cream. The chocolate sauce is finished with salt. It’s perfect for a topping or as an add-in. Or to eat with a spoon 🙂

The Hazelnut cream syrup originated from the idea of trying to make a syrup or caramel like sauce that we could flavor with any ingredient we wanted to – from fruits, to herbs, to nuts. Cream is easy to infuse with all sorts of flavors, so it provides a nice palate. The first step is infusing the cream.

The hazelnuts are toasted and ground into a meal while still hot, and then cooled and strained. What is left is hazelnut flavored heavy cream. That is reserved for making the hazelnut cream syrup.

The rest of this process is very similar to the chocolate sauce. Sugar and water brought to a boil, and then combined with cream just before caramelization happens. What is left is a caramel-like hazelnut infused cream. Also a great topping or add-in.

For this week’s flavor combination, the ice cream is a straightforward chocolate ice cream with both syrups swirled in. It’s a fantastic deep chocolate ice cream teetering with swirls of more chocolate and finishing with hazelnut goodness.

Chocolate Sauce (that won’t freeze hard):

Ingredients:

1C sugar
1/2C water
1/2C Cocoa powder
1C Heavy Cream
1/2tsp salt

Instructions:

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, watching carefully. DO NOT STIR here or it will become grainy. Once boiling, the sugar/water mixture will begin to let off steam. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the steam begins to disappear, then remove from heat and carefully whisk in 1/2C of cocoa powder until fully incorporated. Then, add gradually add cream and stir until fully incorporated into chocolate sauce. Add salt at finish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Hazelnut Creme Syrup:

Ingredients:

1C sugar
1/2C water
1/2C Hazelnuts
1C Heavy Cream

Instructions:

Infuse the cream (Prepare 1-2 hours ahead of time):

Heat the cream in saucepan over medium-low heat to bring to approximately 115 degrees or so. While cream is heating, toast hazelnuts hazelnuts for 3-4 minutes until skins become loose and come off easily. Remove from heat and grind in a blender until they are a course meal. Immediately add warm hazelnut meal to warmed cream and remove from heat. Bring mixture to cool in refrigerator for an hour or so, then strain all hazelnut meal out of cream with fine mesh strainer. Set hazelnut cream aside/refrigerate until ready to make syrup.

For the Syrup:

Combine the sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat, watching carefully. DO NOT STIR or it will become grainy. Once boiling, the sugar/water mixture will begin to let off steam. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the steam begins to disappear, then gradually add the hazelnut cream and stir until fully incorporated. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Chocolate Fudge Hazelnut Creme Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 Cup of Milk (choose your percentage based on how fatty/creamy you’d like your ice cream to be – the higher percentage the creamier the ice cream)
2 large eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup of Chocolate Syrup (Recipe above)
1 Cup of Hazelnut Creme Syrup (Recipe above)

Instructions:

1. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk more until cream, sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, milk, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

2. Place ice cream base in a pot and heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously. Once mixture reaches approximately 115 degrees, gradually whisk in cocoa. Continue to heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Place chocolate ice cream into container and swirl alternately with chocolate and hazelnut syrups. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, 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 2/20/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

February 9, 2015

Spicy Cinnamon Chocolate Caramel Pecan

Love is in the air, and with Valentines Day just a few days away, we wanted to hit y’all with something decadent, and spice it up a little too, for your hot lovin. This one should be pretty easy to wrap your heads around. It has all those things that make you see hearts and stars when you eat it. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Spicy Cinnamon Chocolate Caramel Pecan.

For the ice cream base, we’re using three components: Valrhona cocoa powder, Penzy’s cinnamon(China), and Penzy’s cayenne pepper. Like your love, flavor intensity is high here. The three components are whisked into our sweet cream base made with organic cane sugar. The base is pasteurized, cooled, and is ready for the churn.

Next, the caramel. Salty caramel. For your loving taste buds. First, sugar is brought to a boil until it’s caramelized and becomes a beautiful amber color, at which point we add our cream. The caramel is then finished with sea salt. It’s simple, and friggin’ delicious. The caramel gets layered into the ice cream before packaging.

We finish off this lovers’ delight with some toasted salty pecans. Seriously though, simplicity can sometimes be bliss. The pecans take a little ride into the oven, toast at a low temperature, and are finished with salt when they come out. They get tossed into the ice cream whole at the end of the churn.

Lovers unite! Decadent spicy chocolate cinnamon ice cream layered with salted caramel and pecans. Happy Valentines Day!

Spicy Cinnamon Chocolate Caramel Pecan:

Ingredients:

Ice Cream:
2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 Cup of Milk (choose your percentage based on how fatty/creamy you’d like your ice cream to be – the higher percentage the creamier the ice cream)
2 large eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1/3 cup Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Caramel:
1 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon water
1 Cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Pecans:
3/4 Cup Pecans, halved
1 teaspoon Butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare the base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk more until cream, sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, milk, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne and salt, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. The cocoa powder may not fully incorporate until the base is cooked.

2. Place ice cream base in a pot and heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously. Heat until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Prepare the caramel: In a heavy bottomed pan, with sides at least 4 inches high, add sugar and water and bring to boil. Do NOT STIR at this point or the caramel will become grainy. As soon as the sugar starts to turn an amber color, remove from heat immediately. Add heavy cream and whisk vigorously until incorporated. Stir in sea salt and cool.

4. Prepare the pecans: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes. Toss with melted butter and salt. Bake for another 10 minutes. Cool pecans.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add pecans in last 5 muntes of the churn. Empty ice cream into an air tight container and pour some of the caramel over the top. Lightly stir the caramel into the ice cream. You can eat immediately as soft serve, but we would recommend freezing in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. The flavors will continue to develop and change over the next few days. Enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, 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 2/13/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!

February 5, 2015

Swiss Almond

This isn’t the vanilla ice cream filled with chocolate covered almonds you might be familiar with. There are almonds in it, sure, but that’s where the resemblance ends. I’ve had cheese on the brain (when don’t I?) and have been kicking around a swiss cheese flavored ice cream for quite awhile. As a kid, swiss cheese may as well have been poison ( to my wife it still is). It’s one of those foods that is divisive – most either love it or hate it. Well, my tastes have shifted in adulthood and I’ve found myself on the “love it” side of the fence. Funny how many flavors hearken back to childhood memories good and bad. To round out the swiss cheese ice cream, I chose to add some sliced raw almonds to the mix for a little crunch.

For the swiss cheese selection, we chose Emmentaler. I wanted a cheese that was on the dry side, to keep the moisture content down and to keep it from getting stringy in the melting process. I would have loved to have used something local but local aged swiss is harder to find than I thought.

The process of making the ice cream base is relatively simple. The cheese is grated as fine as possible to make the melting and incorporating process go smoothly.

The simple sweet cream base is mixed up and the grated swiss cheese is added gradually as the base cooks on the stove top and whisked until it is completely smooth. The base is chilled, and the sliced almonds are added in at the end of the churn.

The end result was a very nice swiss cheese ice cream, speckled with a crunch from the sliced raw almond. The pungent swiss cheese is mellowed out by the cream and sugar but it’s bitter edge remains ever so slightly. Fantastico!

Swiss Almond Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 Cup of Milk (choose your percentage based on how fatty/creamy you’d like your ice cream to be – the higher percentage the creamier the ice cream)
2 large eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup finely grated dry swiss cheese (Emmentaler or any aged swiss)
1 tsp salt
1/2 Cup Sliced Raw Almonds

Instructions:

1. Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk more until cream, sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, milk, and whisk again until all are fully incorporated.

2. Place ice cream base in a pot and heat over medium heat, whisking or stirring continuously, gradually adding the grated swiss cheese and whisking more until cheese is completely melted into base. Heat until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes) and then place in a container, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add sliced almonds in last 5 muntes of the churn. You can eat immediately as soft serve, but we would recommend freezing in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. The flavors will continue to develop and change over the next few days. Enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints

If you’d rather not make it, 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 2/6/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!