Flavors – Page 26

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!

May 30, 2013January 29, 2024

Lilac

Easily my favorite flower, Lilacs mark the beginning of spring, or in the case of this year – summer. Once they are in bloom their smell is unmistakeable. In my opinion, it’s the best time of the year for many reasons, and lilacs are a pretty awesome part of it.

We’ve toyed with exploring floral flavors before, such as with our valentines day inspired flavor earlier this year – Rose with Cinnamon Honey. The idea of lilac ice cream has been percolating since last spring, but since their blooming season is so short we didn’t have enough time to get it done. With a whole year to prepare, (and big thanks to Erik’s neighbor for letting us steal from her tree) it was time to make it happen.

The first step to making this ice cream is to pick the little flowers from the lilac branch and make sure that there is no green stem left. Any green part at all adds a bitterness to the cream and taints the lilac flavor. Its a very laborious process because so many tiny flower buds have to be plucked perfectly to provide enough of the lilac flavor – but with some patience, and a good cup of coffee, its cathartic.

The cream base is made using our standard recipe with organic cane sugar. I toyed with the idea of using coconut milk or adding chevre, but in the end kept it clean to maximize the flavor of the lilac. The lilac flowers are steeped in the base to suck out every ounce of flavor we can get. After the steep, the flowers are strained out right before the churning process begins.

Finally, Lilac ice cream. It’s a light, delicately floral bite that tastes ever so subtly like that wonderful lilac fragrance, without being overpowering.
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 5/31/13 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!

May 23, 2013

Cherry Torte

Birthdays often carry countless traditions. Over time, some of those traditions fade away, but for my father-in-law, there is one birthday tradtion that has stayed with him since his early childhood. After the first taste of his mother’s cherry torte, it was a request that never faded when his birthday came around. Now years later Charlotte, his mother, has passed away, but my mother-in-law graciously makes Charlotte’s cherry torte recipe, and my father-in-law reluctantly shares his birthday tradition with the rest of his family. So this week, one week after my father-in-law’s birthday, I set out to deconstuct and recreate Charlotte’s cherry torte in FrozBroz fashion; ice cream style! Let’s get started with this week’s flavor: Cherry Torte.

Contrary to my wife’s family’s belief, I actually can reproduce Charlotte’s short bread crust with flawless results. This crust is a key component as it adds texture, nuttiness, and the integral buttery flavor of traditional shortbread. To achieve this, sugar, butter and flour are mixed together before adding crushed pecans, at which point the dough is pressed into a pan and baked. After cooling, the crust is broken up into chunks, and for the ice cream, we toss the chunkers in toward the end of the churn.

Cream Cheese! The second layer of the torte consists of cream cheese whipped with sugar, vanilla, and whipped cream. For the ice cream, we incorpoarte the cheese and vanilla into our pure cane sugar ice cream base during the cooking process. This sets the stage for an ultra rich cream cheese ice cream base.

Next, the cherry topper! This is where I’m going to break tradtion a little. At this point, the torte could essentially be constructed with a can of sweet cheeries in heavy syrup; crust chunkers fill the bottom of a pan, the cream cheese/whipped cream is spread on, and the canned cherries in heavy syrup top it all off. I made the desision to go with tart cherries in water for the ice cream. I wanted the cherries to contrast the sweet ice cream by adding that tart twist. We puree the tart cherries and water, then simmer down with a bit of cane sugar on the stove top until the cherries reach proper viscosity. The cherry jam is still sweet, but brings that element of tartness. We layer it into the pints during packaging.

The result is a rich cream cheese ice cream studded with pecan shortbread chunkers and layered with a tart cherry syrup jam. This is a FrozBroz tradition that is destined to never fade. Happy Birthday Dan!

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 5/24/13 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!

May 16, 2013

Fenugreek Praline Pecan

The first time I considered Fenugreek as an ice cream flavor was after trying some gouda cheese with fenugreek seeds in it; amazed at the sweetness and maple like flavor the fenugreek added. After some deliberation, and some more research, I discovered that fenugreek is one of the main flavor components of fake maple syrup. My curiosity was piqued, and I was sold. To round the flavor out, I chose to add caramel coated pecans to the mix and make it our own spiced up version of praline pecan.

First the pecans..

To make praline pecans we first roast and salt whole pecans and smash them into smaller, more bite friendly sized pieces.

Then we make a simple caramel that is boiled to a “hard crack”, so it doesn’t pull your fillings out when you bite into it, but instead as a crunch. The pecans are added in at the very end and then cooled to keep the caramel coating.

After the pecans are cooled they are broken out of their caramel sheath and end up with a perfect caramel praline coat.

For the ice cream, we steep the Fenugreek seeds in our organic cane sugar base and strain them out before the churn.

What we get is a spiced maple kissed ice cream studded with crunchy praline pecans.
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 5/17/13 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!