FROZBROZ – Page 16 – Minneapolis Craft Ice Cream

June 11, 2014

Cilantro Lychee Cashew

This flavor is a perfect example of how fate leads us to an end we hadn’t planned on or even thought about when we started. Originally this was going to be a simple Lychee ice cream. When one finds fresh Lychees in Minnesota, one is compelled to buy them immediately. It all seemed serendipitous.

One problem: by the time I reduced the water filled lychees down into a syrup to flavor the ice cream, I just didn’t have enough to make the flavor strong enough.

So…time for a left turn. I had fresh cilantro and it seemed like a nice pair for the lychee syrup. Adding a nice salty crunch to the mix sounded nice, and I also happened to have cashews on hand. So maybe we call this a pantry flavor? Or maybe I should stop talking and get on with it..

We’ve wanted to use cilantro for awhile – though it’s a divisive flavor. I happen to be in the camp that loves it. The other camp (otherwise known as the “vile weed” camp), only taste it as a soapy, bitter nastiness. So apologies to you folks, and follow me cilantro lovers! The cilantro was steeped in the cream to scent the flavor without making it super pungent. I of course would like more. Maybe next time.

The cashews were tossed in butter and salt, and roasted in the oven until golden and crunchy.

And that brings us to the scoop – a cilantro scented ice cream swirled with lychee syrup and studded with crunchy roasted cashews.
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. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 6/13/14 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!

June 5, 2014

Vanilla Rhubarb with Pecan Crumble

Naturally, we’re continuing down spring’s path of locally grown produce. And for those of you who visited our pint sale last weekend, you may be thinking that we’re walking backwards down that path, because this week’s flavor was actually for sale last week. Fortunately, for two lucky peeps, there are a few pints left. This week we’re featuring one of spring’s first harvests, rhubarb, with this week’s flavor, Vanilla Rhubarb with Pecan Crumble.

As in year’s past, the rhubarb that we use in our ice cream is actually an heirloom variety that was passed down to me from my father-in-law. My father-in-law got his split from his parents’ old farm near Milwaukee, Wisconsin years ago. You might say, rhubarb is rhubarb, but in my opinion, it tastes better knowing where it came from. To make our vanilla rhubarb base, we first add a little Madagascar vanilla to our standard cane sugar base. We then make a rhubarb jam, first by chopping up our rhubarb, and then cooking it down in a pot with lemon juice, lemon zest and cane sugar. The fibers of the rhubarb break down and form a beautiful jam, which we swirl into our vanilla base before packaging.

We decided we wanted a little crunch time in this one, and pecans and graham crackers came to mind, so we decide to make a shortbread style crust. The pecans and graham crackers get pulsed in the food processor with flour, brown sugar and salt. The dough is pressed out on a sheet pan and baked until crusty. The crust chunkers are broken up and crumbled into the ice cream at the end of the churn.

It’s an irresistibly smooth vanilla ice cream swirled with Minnesota grown rhubarb jam, all studded with crunchy crumbles of pecan graham cracker crust. It’s the next stop on spring’s path.

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. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 6/6/14 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!

May 28, 2014

Watercress

We’re heading into our favorite time of year where we get to rely on fresh locally grown produce for what seems like such a short time. Because of this, we basically turn into skipping records for 3-4 months obsessed with how much fun it is to experiment with all of these fresh flavors. This time it’s Watercress. It’s readily available but not exactly easy to find, and why not jump at the chance to infuse this delightfully peppery plant into ice cream and see what magic happens?

When we start with new flavors like this we often find ourselves dealing with the temptation to build on top of them with other flavors – rather than let the singular flavor own the ice cream. In this case, I didn’t want anything to distract so its simply fresh watercress from Viroqua, Wisconsin steeped in our sweet cream base. Sometimes simplicity produces complexity.

The ice cream takes on just a slight hint of green from the steep, and gets a nice tint of earthy pepper-ness from the Watercress greens. An appropriate introduction into our summertime flavor adventures.

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. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 5/30/14 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!

May 21, 2014

Soy Brown Butter

About a month ago, I made a soba noodle salad with a sesame ginger soy dressing. Per the usual, my thoughts gravitated towards ice cream, and in the end, concentrating on soy sauce in ice cream. Salty? Sweet?…it has to be great. Days later, I overhear the other bro_z having a conversation about how butter and soy sauce are supposed to be some sort of magical combination. I was immediately thinking brown butter and soy, and so this week’s flavor was born – Soy Brown Butter. Let’s get started…

The New York Times calls it “The Sublime Combination”. Soy sauce, in this case Wan Ja Shan Tamari Soy made in the Hudson Valley of New York, and Brown Butter made from Hope Creamery butter in Hope, MN. This flavor may be simple, but these two very high quality ingredients make for more complex in flavors. Without the other, the flavors of one may not fully rise. There is the salty, malty, caramel-esk components in the soy and the nutty, buttery components of the brown butter. Together they bring tastes of sweet, salty, and umami. Gold! Usually we would be concerned about adding the liquid content of the soy into our ice cream base, as its water content would make for an icy batch, but with the butter’s fat content to counteract, there’s nothing to be concerned about here. The tamari soy and brown butter are mixed into our brown sugar ice cream base.

Soy Brown Butter! The sublime combination of sweet, salty and umami all wrapped up in a scoop.

Like to try some? You can be one of two lucky winners of this fantastic, 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 5/23/14 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!

May 15, 2014

Tamarind w/Salted Coconut Caramel

Tamarind is one of those sleeper ingredients and it is utilized as an ingredient in more things than you might think – from Worcestershire sauce to pickles to candy and desserts . Its got a sour, almost dull citrus flavor that isn’t all that appealing on its own – but when sweetened with sugar it comes to life. I’ve been passing by a basket of the pods in the grocery store for a few months now and finally got around to snatching some up and making ice cream with them. For this flavor I chose to pair the slightly sour and tropical tamarind with a coconut caramel.

The tamarind is not the easiest thing to work with. These pods have a hard shell that must be cracked off, and found inside is the pulp which surrounds seed pods. To get the flavor into cream, I made a syrup and steeped tamarind directly into the ice cream base as well.

While the base steeped with tamarind pods, we went to work on the coconut caramel. The first step was to toast coconut, which makes them more flavorful and heats the coconut oils for a more powerful steep. The toasted coconut is then steeped in cream, which will is then used to cool the caramel and make it into the sauce.

Sea salt is added once the caramel has formed up, which brings out the coconut flavor even more.

After the tamarind ice cream has churned, we swirl the coconut caramel in and pack it into the pint.

And that brings us to the scoop – a delightfully sour and rich tamarind ice cream, decorated with ribbons of salty toasted coconut steeped caramel.

Like to try some? You can be one of two lucky winners of this fantastic, 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 5/16/14 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!