Sage Blueberry

Summer harvest is in full swing, and to utilize the bounty we’re bringing together herbs and berries.  Like our friend Heidi of Serious Jam, we’re bringing together sage and blueberries. An unlikely paring maybe, but hit up the farmers market this weekend and get your hands on a jar of her blueberry bourbon sage jam. You won’t be sorry. You won’t be sorry if you win a pint of our ice cream this week either. Here’s how we’re going to go about this week’s flavor – Sage Blueberry.

 

 

Sage

sage infusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, we’re going to establish a sage ice cream base. As we often do with fresh herbs, we’re going to infuse our standard cane sugar ice cream base by steeping the herbs during the pasteurization process. The sage is chopped, steeped, and then strained out. We chill down the infused base, and it’s ready to churn.

 

 

blueberries - Bayfield Fruit Companyblueberry jamminblueberry jam

 

 

 

 

Next, we’re going to make a freezer type blueberry jam using these blueberries from the Rabideaux’s Bayfield Fruit Company. The blueberries are crushed, lemon juice and sugar are added, and the jam is simmered down until proper consistency is achieved. After the jam is cooled, it is swirled into the sage ice cream during the packaging process.

 

 

Sage Blueberry

 

 

Utilizing the bounty one ingredient at a time. Earthy sage infused ice cream with ribbons of local blueberry jam.

 

 

 

 

Sage Blueberry

Ice Cream Base:
2 cups Heavy Cream
1 cup Milk
3/4 cup Cane Sugar
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Sage, chopped
1 teaspoon Sea salt

Blueberry Jam:
2 cups Blueberries
1/2 Lemon, juiced, seeds removed
3/4 cup Cane Sugar

 

Instructions:

1. Make blueberry jam: Place a plate in the freezer. Place blueberries in medium sauce pan. Using a potato masher, crush blueberries(leave some whole). Add lemon juice and sugar, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Cook and stir until bubbles subside and jam appears slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. To test doneness, spoon a small amount onto the chilled plate. If jam wrinkles when you push your finger into it, it is done. If not, cook and stir a little longer before testing again. Let cool; cover and chill completely.

2. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully.  Add cane sugar and whisk.  Add heavy cream, milk, and salt.  Whisk until ingredients are combined. Add Sage.

3. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees.  Remove from heat. Allow sage to steep for 10 minutes. Strain base into a clean bowl with a fine mesh strainer. Cool ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Cover base, and chill in refrigerator overnight.

4. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Swirl in blueberry jam after ice cream is in storage container. 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 7/31/15 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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Blueberry Rhubarb

Que Andy Williams…”Its the most wonderful time….”

Seriously though, with ice cream most times of the year are pretty wonderful.  But summer tops them all when we get our hands on local berries.  We’re wrapping up an incredible and well utilized strawberry season and coming into the peak of blueberry season once again.  Every year we usually create a few flavors based on each of these berries and we have so many ideas backlogged that it’s hard to decide what to do.  We’ve been into combining fruits this summer and thanks to a 1947 New York court decision, Rhubarb is also considered a fruit.   Either way, rhubarb and blueberry make a pretty incredible combination. Superlatives aside, lets get to the party.  Rhuberry Blubarb!

 

Rhubarb

Blueberries

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting with this fresh rhubarb we procured from the Seward Co-op, and these incredibly flavorful blueberries fresh from Northfield, MN, we begin our journey.

Blueberry Cinnamon Jam

Rhubarb with Sugar and Vanilla Bean

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both the rhubarb and the blueberries are cooked down with sugar to eliminate the water content in them and keep them from making the ice cream icy. The blueberry jam is added straight into the cream for a deep blueberry ice cream flavor.  The rhubarb is swirled in after the churn, leaving nice thick rivers of tart rhubarb jam that add a nice bright tartness to the bite.

Blueberry Rhubarb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The scoop: a rich blueberry ice cream, swirled with tart rhubarb jam.  A perfect snapshot of mid-summer.

 

 

 

 

 

Toast and Blueberry Bourbon Sage Jam (Serious Jam)

Once in awhile we stumble onto something that makes all of our experimentation worth it.  Ever since we’ve befriended our pal Heidi Skoog of Serious Jam, I’ve wanted to do a Toast and Jam flavor to pair with one of her wonderful jams.  The challenge was figuring out a way to make ice cream taste like toast without having soggy toast floating in it.

toast and jam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had originally planned to make croutons like we do with many other baked goods, but I wasn’t convinced croutons from bread would hold up in the ice cream long enough.  The “ah-ha” moment came as I pulled the toast from the toaster.  When I was a little kid, my mom would save dark or burnt toast by scraping the dark spots off with a knife.  Why not just scrape the toasted layer off the bread?

toast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that is exactly what I did.  Using some fantastic sourdough from the New French bakery located right in our neighborhood, I made a bunch of dark toast and scraped the toasted strata off into the sweet cream base.  The toasted bits all steeped in the base as it heated, and the toast flavor that is produced is nothing short of spectacular.

Serious Jam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But before we get all caught up in the idea of how much fun toast ice cream is, let’s talk seriously for a moment about Serious Jam.  For this flavor I used one of Heidi’s banner jars, Blueberry Bourbon Sage jam.  It is a fantastic, classically made jam full of ripe blueberries – singing with hints of sage and bourbon.  Every one of her jams is a winner.  We’re lucky enough to share a kitchen with her so we’ve become a little spoiled when it comes to jam.  Look for her to be selling right beside us in the kitchen at upcoming sales.

toast and jam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the matter at hand, Toast and (Serious) Blueberry Bourbon  Sage Jam ice cream.  I was literally jumping up and down at the result – the ice cream is brimming with toast flavor, and makes the perfect match for some very Serious jam.

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 4/18/14 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!

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