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.

 

Swiss Almond

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

grated swiss cheese

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Swiss Ice Cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Swiss Almond Ice Cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

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Sweet Pea Almond with Rye Caramel

Springtime! It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming! Right? It is coming, right? Finally, it is actually here; we think. Soon, the fruits of Spring will start showing their colors, and our flavors will start reflecting all that is seasonable in Minnesota. In preparation for such a late start this year, our friends over at Bossy Acres have been busy in their new greenhouse. Last year Bossy was accepted into the Organic Field School incubator program, giving them access to more land, training, and equipment usage. As part of the program, they are allowed to use a portion of the Gardens of Eagen greenhouse, which gives them a big head start with these Minnesota winters. Such a head start, that it’s enough to inspire this weeks flavor: Sweet Pea Almond with Rye Caramel.

 

Pea Shoots from @BossyAcres

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are so itching to get on to Spring and Summer flavors, and we can’t tell you how happy we were to get a message from the great farmers at Bossy Acres letting us know they had pea shoots for us. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Just look at how gorgeous they are. If you haven’t had them, you best find out the next time Bossy is selling at the market, because these pea shoots epitomize Spring with their snappy yet tender and sweet, earthy pea flavor. This is where it all begins…

 

 

AlmondsToasted AlmondsCrushed Almonds

 

 

 

 

 

For the ice cream, I decided I wanted to infuse the sweet pea and almond flavor into our ice cream base. To get the most flavor out of the almonds, we first slow roasted them in the oven and gave them a quick pulse in the food processor.

 

 

@BossyAcres Pea Shoots and Almonds Steeping in Cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pea shoots and crushed almonds are steeped in our cane sugar base, then strained through a fine mesh strainer. The sweet pea and almond-infused ice cream base is ready for churning.

 

 

Rye BerriesGround Rye Berries and CreamRye Caramel

 

 

 

 

 

The final component of this week’s flavor is a rye caramel. As soon as I heard “pea shoots”, I immediately had visions of creamed peas on rye bread. Ice cream translation: sweet pea ice cream with rye caramel. For the caramel, we first ground whole rye berries and steeped them in our cream. We then caramelized granulated sugar and made a traditional caramel adding in our rye infused cream after caramelization. The result is a light and subtle rye flavored caramel that gets layered into the sweet pea almond ice cream during packaging.

 

 

Sweet Pea Almond with Rye Caramel

 

 

 

Springtime! It’s here y’all! At least it’s here in our Sweet Pea Almond with Rye Caramel ice cream with Bossy Acres pea shoots!

 

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 5/10 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!

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