FROZBROZ – Page 19 – Minneapolis Craft Ice Cream

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!

February 26, 2014

Pine Nut with Rosemary Caramel

We often talk about how we come up with inspiration for flavors, so we won’t go there again today, but much of how a flavor is conceived begins with writing a concept down on paper. We have a list of concepts that may just be one flavor or a combination of flavors, but that list is a work in progress. Every time I look at that list, I might stare at one concept and come up with five more ideas from that one. Once a flavor is born, we often move on from the core concept and concentrate on developing others. This week, we’ve developed one of these concepts into a flavor that we thought would be worth taking from paper to the pint. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Pine nut with Rosemary Caramel.

Pine nuts have been on our list of conceptual ideas for a long time. We’ve contemplated many a combination, but there was something that struck me about using pine nuts and rosemary. Although rosemary is an herb from the mint family, it is characterized by it’s evergreen-esk needles and pine-needle-like flavor. At the very least, we’re giving you the illusion that this flavor is made from a nut and needle from the same family.

For the ice cream we start with raw pine nuts and toast them in the oven. The toasted pine nuts go into a blender with our brown sugar ice cream base and are pureed until smooth. During this process, the nuts release their oils into the ice cream base. The base is then cooked, steeped, and strained through a fine mesh strainer. The pine-nut-infused base is now ready to be churned.

Just like our ice cream, caramels can be infused with flavor as well. For the caramel, we start by infusing our cream with fresh rosemary by heating the cream, steeping, and straining out the rosemary. Next, we start our caramel by caramelizing our sugar in a sauce pan over high heat. Once the sugar has boiled and turned a deep amber color, we add our rosemary- infused cream. The caramel is seasoned with salt, cooled, and then layered into the pints during packaging.

Buttery pine-nut- infused ice cream layered with a rosemary-infused caramel. Another concept taken from paper to pint.

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 2/28/14 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!

Don’t forget we have another pint sale coming up this Saturday, March 1st – see here for details on menu, and timing, etc.

February 20, 2014

Turmeric Honey

When our favorite grocery store, Seward Co-op started carrying fresh turmeric root this winter, I jumped at the opportunity to create a flavor with it. Turmeric root has a more unique and pronounced flavor than the powder variety. Its flavor is somewhat ginger like, but still very much it’s own profile. It also has the ability to color almost anything it comes in contact with, neon yellow. Maybe even more poignant – Turmeric is believed to provide a plethora of health benefits that range from cancer and alzheimer’s prevention to detoxifying your liver, boosting your immune system and relieving arthritis. Considering all that, I suppose you could say this is our first homeopathic flavor? Won’t go that far. Either way, it made for an interesting journey and result.

To start, the turmeric root is peeled, minced and blended into our classic cane sugar base. It is steeped in the base to bring out the flavor and color.

You can see from left to right how the color of the ice cream transforms as the steeping process draws the color out of the root. Once the steeping process is complete, the base is strained to remove all of the turmeric root pieces and to provide a nice smooth consistency.

To add some dimension to the flavor, we used some of this local honey produced by our friend Britt. It has a fruity element to it which plays very nicely with the turmeric.

The base is churned and swirled with the honey at the end.

Results? A neon yellow colored Turmeric ice cream with fruity local Minneapolis honey that rounds out the sweetness and ends as one of the more unique flavor profiles of any ice cream we’ve created. It truly plays tricks on your brain as you try to divide the line between what you think it should taste like and what it actually does taste like. Its one of those flavors I keep going back for more because of that very fact. It’s just fun.

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 2/21/14 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!

And don’t forget about our Spring CSI subscription – if you’re offered in reserving pints on a monthly basis between March and May 2014, go here for more info.

Finally – we have another pint sale coming up in two weeks on March 1st – see here for details on menu, and timing, etc.

February 17, 2014

SUMMER CSI Subscriptions

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February 12, 2014

Chamomile Fennel Pollen w/ Meyer Lemon Gin Honey

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and in preparation, I wanted to make an ice cream inspired by a boozy beverage. Because, what better way to celebrate the love of your life than with booze. Trying to find a little inspiration via the interwebs, I found myself looking at a lot of vodka martinis with either strawberries, raspberries or cherries. You know, because it’s valentine’s day, and I guess that’s what everybody wants…every year…the same thing…every year. And I was almost buying into it, until I ran across a beverage created by Lara Creasy of Junction Kitchen and Bar in Atlanta, GA. She created a gin martini paired with a chamomile infused vermouth, a touch of lemon and honey, and finished with a pinch of fennel pollen. By no means does this sound like something that “everybody” wants, but everything about this beverage screams ice cream…and trust me, this is going to be good…really good. Which brings me to this week’s Valentine’s Day boozy beverage inspired flavor – Chamomile Fennel Pollen with Gin Lemon Honey. Let’s get started.

In the original beverage, Creasy used a house made chamomile-infused vermouth, but for the ice cream, I am making my own house made concoction – ice cream infused with chamomile tea and fennel pollen. Chamomile has a mild sweet floral aroma, which comes from the daisy-like flowers it is made from. The floral tones of the tea pair extremely well with the delicate sweet mellow anise flavors of the fennel pollen. The two of them are steeped in our ice cream base, along with a splash of sweet vermouth during the cooking process. The tea and pollen are strained out with a fine mesh strainer. The infused ice cream base is cooled and churned.

For the gin meyer lemon honey, we are using Honey B, a Minneapolis local honey from Northeast Minneapolis. Our friend Britt is working on getting her hive going again after losing much of it last year. This is a good start. The honey is brought to a simmer with a small amount of meyer lemon juice, and then finished with a splash of gin. The honey has a nice tang with a tich of bitterness from the juniper in the gin. It is layered into the ice cream during packaging.

The final result is a Valentine’s dream…floral chamomile and sweet fennel pollen, paired with a tangy meyer lemon gin honey. It’s fresh and new and not the same as last year, or the year before, or the year before that. You get it. HVD! Love, FrozBroz

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 2/14/14 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!