April 2015 – FROZBROZ

April 30, 2015

Shoofly

It’s been awhile since we’ve done anything with molasses, and that just shouldn’t be. So this week’s flavor is a take on Shoofly pie – a molasses pie that is nothing short of incredible and one of my old favorites.

Instead of making a pie and just chopping it up, I chose to make a crunchy oat crumble that would represent the crumble you typically find on top of a shoofly pie. The versions of the pie I’ve had didn’t have any oat in the crumble but I chose to add them just to give some added flavor and crunch.

The crumble is a simple mix of brown sugar, oats, flour, a bit of salt and then cut with butter – kind of similar to granola but a bit more cookie like.

The mix is spread out on a sheetpan and baked at 350 for about 15 minutes or so until browned and done.

Once it’s cooled, it’s all broken up to be thrown into the ice cream after the churn.

The ice cream base itself is a simple molasses and brown sugar base. Sticky sweet molasses combined with a bit of brown sugar to balance it out a bit.

The scoop is a deep, rich molasses ice cream chock full of crunchy oat crumbles.

Shoofly Ice Cream Recipe

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Oat Crumble Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup rolled oatmeal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into pieces

Instructions for making the crumble (make ahead of time)

Combine 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, oatmeal and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until blended. While the food processor is still running, add the butter gradually until the butter mixes in and resembles a coarse meal.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press out the crumble mix on a greased or lined sheetpan into one thin layer. Place in oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven once complete and let cool. Break into small pieces and set aside. You will have extra to enjoy however you’d like.

Ice Cream Ingredients

1/2 Cup blackstrap molasses
3/4 Cup of Sugar
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup of reserved crunchy oat crumble (recipe above)

Instructions:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add molasses and sugar to eggs and whisk until all are combined well. Add cream, salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place ice cream mix in heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously. Heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat. Cool the ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Place strained ice cream mix in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add cup of crunchy oat crumble in last 5 minutes of churn. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints of ice cream.

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 5/1/15 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!

April 22, 2015

Black Lager with Candied Pretzels

If you follow our weekly explorations, you know that a few weeks back we cranked out a flavor derived from the classic beer cheese soup. Working with beer in ice cream has been pretty enjoyable, so I decided to tackle another classic combination involving beer; beer and pretzels. Not just beer though. And not just pretzels. We bring you this week’s flavor – Black Lager with Candied Pretzels.

About a month ago, we were asked to make a New Belgium 1554 Black Lager ice cream for a beer and food pairing event sponsored by New Belgium Brewing. It turned out so well, that it just made sense to pair with the candied pretzels for this week’s flavor. Although not a local brew, the 1554’s dark malty caramel quality works extremely well in ice cream. For the ice cream, the beer gets reduced to nearly nothing. By the end of the reduction, a 12 ounce beer becomes about a tablespoon of syrup. After doing a side by side taste test using cane sugar in one base and brown sugar in the other, the 1554 with brown sugar crushed. Not surprising, the brown sugar helps accentuate the deep caramel notes in the beer. The beer reduction is added to our brown sugar ice cream base, and after cooking, is cooled, and then ready to churn.

Next, candied pretzels. BTW, candied pretzels…they’re the shizz. To make our candied pretzels we modified the “Pretzel Crunch” recipe from the great pastry chef, Christina Tosi, of Momofuku Milk Bar fame in NYC. With the pretzels, her recipe calls for malt powder, brown sugar, and butter. With the black lager ice cream, the flavors couldn’t be jive’n any better than that. The pretzels get crushed, and all ingredients are mixed together. Our version is going to get baked about twice as long as the original to achieve ultimate crunchy candied pretzel status. Either way you have it, these crunchers are worth their weight in gold. They’re broken up and added into the Black Lager ice cream at the end of the churn.

It’s a classic combination that meets present day ice cream. And by present day, I mean future. Rich caramelly black lager ice cream with crunchers of malty candied pretzels. It’s beer and pretzels at their best.

Black Lager with Candied Pretzels

2 12oz. Beers – New Belgium Black Lager
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 cup pretzels, crushed into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces
4 Tablespoon Butter, Melted
3 Tablespoon Light Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoom Milk Powder
1 Tablespoon Cane Sugar
1 teaspoon Malt Powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions:

1. Beer Reduction: In a stock pot, add the beer and bring to a boil. Stirring occasionally, keep your eye on reduction until foam has died down. You may need to lower the heat occasionally to avoid boil over. Once foam has died down, beer can be reduced on high until beer is nearly gone and approximately 2-4 Tablespoons of syrup remain. Remove from heat and set aside until ice cream base ready.

2. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add brown sugar and whisk. Add heavy cream, milk, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are combined. Pour into stock pot with beer reduction.

3. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously. Keep stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Put base in a clean container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

4. Prepare Candied Pretzels: Preheat oven to 275 degrees and line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper. Break up pretzels into small pieces and toss with other dry ingredients. Add melted butter. Toss until combined and spread out onto lined baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes until dark golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheet. Break up candied pretzel’s and freeze in airtight container until needed.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add 1/2-1 cup of candied pretzels to black lager ice cream at the end of the churn. Store ice cream in air tight container in freezer until chow time.

*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 4/24/15 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!

April 16, 2015

Toasted Grits with Maple Syrup

The original concept for this flavor began with the idea of somehow using polenta – which is very similar to grits but has subtle differences, such as the type of corn used..but that’s elaboration for another time. The fact is I had grits on hand, so out of convenience came a slight course deviation that led here. Why? Well, for one – I love breakfast themed ice cream flavors. I also love grits, and grits for breakfast so I ran with it. Plus, It’s maple syrup season, so it would only be right to have a flavor with some maple syrup in it. Truthfully, we use maple syrup and maple sugar pretty often, but we’ll happily take advantage of an excuse to use it more.

Now regular course ground grits uncooked don’t have a whole lot of flavor. So I chose to toast the grits just a bit in a hot pan to bring some more of the flavor to life.

At the same time, a basic ice cream base is prepared and heated on the stove. The idea is to have the the base heated to around 115 degrees or so, and to add the hot toasted grits into the warm cream to coax as much flavor out as possible. Once the base is finished cooking the grits are strained out with a fine mesh strainer. A little bit is reserved to add just a little crunch to the ice cream without being grainy.

Ah, the syrup. There is so much good maple syrup to choose from in the midwest. This particular flavor of ice cream was blessed with some of the fine goodness produced by the folks of Anderson’s Maple Syrup in Cumberland, WI. The maple magic is layered in as the ice cream is packed into the pint containers.

The finished product reminds me a bit of the cereal corn pops. It’s rich ice cream, infused with a toasted corn flavor, and wonderfully accented with a swirl of rich maple syrup.

Toasted Grits with Maple Syrup Ice Cream Recipe

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

1 Cup of course ground corn grits (polenta would also work)
1/2 Cup of Maple Syrup
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
3/4 Cup of Sugar
2 Eggs
1 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, salt and whisk again until all are fully incorporated. Place in pot in preparation to cook the base and get it started warming over medium heat on the stove, timed so it is starting to warm when the grits are finished toasting and still hot.

Add 1 cup of grits to heavy pan and heat over medium high, stirring frequently until they start to smoke and just begin to lightly brown. Add immediately to warm ice cream base.

Continue to cook ice cream base over medium heat, stirring continuously. Heat mixture until temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove from heat. Cool the ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Strain out all cooked grits with a fine mesh strainer. You can toss the cooked grits, or if you’re creative find another use for them, (they taste pretty amazing on their own). Place strained ice cream mix in a container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

3. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Layer in maple syrup as you pack the ice cream into the container you will freeze it in. Freeze in a tightly covered container for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight if you can wait. Then, enjoy!

*Yields approximately 2.5 pints of ice cream.

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 4/17/15 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!

April 9, 2015

Beer Cheese

Recently, we worked on a beer ice cream for a special event, so naturally the thought was fresh in my mind. I pondered some beer and cheese pairings, but the obvious didn’t occur to me right away. I mean, we’re full blooded Wisconsin over here; cheddar in our veins, probably even beer, so when I finally got it, the pairing made complete sense. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Beer Cheese

For the beer portion of the ice cream, I wanted to use a local brew, duh. For this flavor I went with Bauhaus Brew Labs, Sky Five! Midwest Coast IPA. It’s a full flavored IPA, hoppy for sure, with some nice citrus notes. The beer gets reduced in a large pot over high heat until only a tablespoon or two are left. Our standard organic cane sugar ice cream base is added to the reduction and pasteurized.

I wanted a sharp cheddar for this flavor. Something that makes your lips pucker a little. So being from Wisconsin, I thought I should use a Wisconsin cheese. I decided on Hook’s 7 year aged sharp cheddar. Now getting the cheese into the ice cream is this week’s real challenge. Thankfully, is a secret to making this fool proof. Have you ever made mac and cheese from scratch and your cheese sauce turns out grainy? That’s what I wanted to avoid, and to do so, I am going to use a very small amount of sodium citrate. Sodium citrate is the sodium of citric acid and is more commonly used as a food additive for flavor or as a preservative. Here it is going to keep our cheese sauce from getting a grainy texture. A small amount of beer is brought to a simmer with the sodium citrate added in. The grated sharp cheddar is added, and stirred until the sauce comes together. This cheese sauce is added to the beer ice cream base, and after pasteurization, is cooled and ready to churn.

Whether you’re from Wisconsin or not, there’s no mistaking this ice cream when it hits your lips. Grab a pretzel and dig in!

Beer Cheese Ice Cream

2 12oz. Beers – Bauhaus Midwest Coast IPA
4 oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded – Hook’s
1/2 teaspoon Sodium Citrate

2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
3/4 Cup Organic Cane Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare the cheese: In a sauce pan, add the sodium citrate and cover the bottom of the pan with beer(~1/4 cup). Bring the beer to a simmer. Add grated cheese and whisk until incorporated. Remove from heat and set aside until ice cream base ready.

2. Beer reduction: Pour remaining beer into an 8 quart stock pot and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Keep your eye on the reduction until foam subsides(may need to turn down heat intermittently to avoid boil over). Reduce beer to approximately 2 Tablespoons(it will be a syrup consistency). Remove from heat.

2. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk. Add heavy cream, milk, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are combined. Pour into stock pot with beer reduction.

4. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously. Whisk in reserved beer cheese sauce between 110-140 degrees. Keep stirring continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Strain base through a fine mesh strainer and put base in a clean container, cover, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

*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 3/27/15 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!

April 2, 2015

Avocado Pistachio Chocolate Chip

Avocados and Pistachios are two of my all-time favorite things. The original intention for this flavor was going to focus solely on pistachios, but the more I pondered on how that would happen, the more all of these ingredients crept into the picture. I love that the green color give to the ice cream by the avocado plays some visual tricks. I loved that it looked like a pistachio ice cream. It could also be mint chocolate chip at a glance. Except it’s not.

The avocado is the first step of the ice cream and is the base of the flavor. Avocados lend a great subtle flavor to ice cream, and ironically, actually remind me of pistachio flavorwhen in ice cream. Maybe it’s just that green color. The avocados are pureed with cream and then mixed into our standard ice cream base. Also, if you don’t have a good stick blender, do yourself a favor and get one. You’ll use it a ton. It’s one of my favorite kitchen tools.

The pistachios are roasted and salted. I highly recommend buying the pistachio meats if you can – shelling enough pistachios for a batch of ice cream is not a task I would wish on most people. It helps to roast the pistachio meats quickly at a high temp to keep them from softening too much.

Finally the chocolate chips – are added in after the churn.

The combination of flavors is really unique – but works fantastically well. A rich
avocado ice cream, filled with roasted pistachios and chocolate chips.

Avocado Pistachio Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

(makes approx 1-1/2 quarts)

Ingredients:

1 Large avocado or 2 small
1/2C Pistachio nutmeants, roasted
1/2Tbsp of Butter
1/2C Chocolate Chips
2 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk (use any fat percentage you prefer – higher lends to a creamier base)
3/4C Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

1. Prepare the pistachios: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter and Toss pistachios melted butter and spread on sheet pan. Generously sprinkle 1teaspoon of salt over the pistachios and place in oven for 5-8 minutes. Remove, set aside and let cool completely. Once cool, place pistachios in freezer bag or container and place in freezer until ready to go in ice cream.

2. Prepare the avocado ice cream: Puree avocado with the one cup of whole milk you will be using for the ice cream base and set aside.

Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add sugar and whisk until sugar and eggs are combined. Add cream, avocado puree, vanilla 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. Cool the 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. Add pistachios and chocolate chips in last 5 minutes of the churning process. 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 4/3/15 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!