Candy Cap Mushroom with Pumpkin Caramel

Finally, the time is here. What time? Mushroom time!! What we’ve been waiting for, I really don’t know, because my mind is completely blown. We’ve contemplated mushrooms in ice cream before…of course we have, but even after all of the crazy shit that we’ve put into our ice cream, mushrooms still didn’t seem like the best idea. And then a few years ago I was chatting with chef Thomas Boemer, of Corner Table, and he suggested using candy cap mushrooms. And then all of this time passed, and for what? Well, we’ve put out a lot of good flavors since then, but this candy cap thing…this should have happened sooner. And since we’re giving thanks next week, we thought we’d make this one a little more festive. You know, with pumpkin. Besides, after just smelling the candy caps, pumpkin is surely going to be a winning combo. Let’s get started with this week’s flavor – Candy Cap Mushroom with Pumpkin Caramel.

 

 

Candy Cap Mushrooms

Candy Cap Mushroom Steep

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are dried candy cap mushrooms. Right out of the gate they smell like earthy maple syrup. I’m already freaking out with excitement. For the ice cream, we grind the dried mushrooms and mix it into our sweet cream base. The base is cooked, aka pasteurized, steeped, cooled, and then the mushrooms are strained out with a fine mesh strainer. During the steeping process, the sweet earthy aromas of the candy caps are flying out of the pot. Seriously amazing! The base is given a generous salting and is ready for the churn.

 

 

PumpkinRoasted PumpkinCaramel Pumpkin Caramel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the pumpkin caramel. Like everything we do, it’s done from scratch. We start with a whole pie pumpkin, clean it, and roast it. The roasted pumpkin mash is then incorporated with the cream we will use for our caramel. For the caramel, first, we caramelize the sugar. Once our sugar has turned a deep amber color and begins smoking, we add our pumpkin cream. Our pumpkin caramel is finished with sea salt, is cooled, and is ready to be layered into our pints.

 

 

Candy Cap Mushroom with Pumpkin Caramel

 

 

 

Candy Cap Mushroom with Pumpkin Caramel. Finally, the time is here. And, to one of many things we’ll be giving thanks to next week, thanks chef Thomas for the hot tip.

 

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 11/21/14 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!

 

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Pumpkin with Chipotle Praline Pepitas and Cajeta

This week we’ll continue with our flavors for the holidays, but this time with some influence from our neighbors to the South. Recently we honed in on a technique we’ve been working on for making our winter squash flavors that has produced favorable results on a consistant basis. This makes us very happy, and in turn will make you very happy when you taste these delicious creams. And since everyone has pumpkin pie on the brain this time of year, I decided why not take our squash victory for a ride in the form of pumpkin for this week’s flavor? In the process of thinking about flavor profiles, I couldn’t stop thinking about a caramel of some sort, and then it hit me…Cajeta! – AKA Mexican style goat milk caramel. In my mind, pumpkin and cajeta have comparable flavor profiles, but my thought was that the cajeta would compliment with it’s subtle cinnamon spice and contrast with the slightly more acidic properties from the goat milk. Done. And for a bit of texture I decided to double-up on the pumpkin and use it’s seeds; but not just plain seeds; pralined pepitas with chiotple powder for an extra kick. Which brings us to this week’s flavor: Pumpkin with Chipotle Praline Pepitas and Cajeta. Let’s get started…

 

 

PumpkinsRaw PumpkinRoasted PumpkinPumpkin Puree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started with the classic pie pumkin squash grown right here in Minnesota. The pumpkin is cubed, tossed with a little butter, and placed in a oven to slow roast. We always talk about reducing water content in our ice cream, and that is a very important concept when we are actually flavoring our ice cream base with something natural, as we are here. This technique of slowly roasting the cubed pumpkins not only reduces the water content, but also allows some of the pumpkins starches to convert to sugar, thus the caramelization around the edges. The roasted pumkin is pureed in a blender with a little cream and added into our brown sugar ice cream base. The base is cooked, and then strained through a fine mesh strainer. The starches that remain in the roasted pumpkin, make for an ultra smooth ice cream. The base is chilled and ready for a churn.

 

 

Raw PepitasRoasted Pepitas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we spread out raw pepitas on a sheet pan and roast them in oven. The roasted pepitas are cooled and placed on a parchment lined sheet pan.

 

 

Caramelizing SugarPenzey's Chipotle PowderPraline Pepitas

 

 

 

 

 

For the praline, we bring granulated sugar and a small amount of water to a boil. The mixture is boiled down until the sugar caramelizes and an amber color is achieved. The chipotle powder is added and the caramelized liquid is poured over the roasted pepitas, salted and cooled. The praline is then broken up into pieces and added into the ice cream at the end of the churn.

 

 

Poplar Hill Goat MilkCajeta 3Cajeta 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cajeta time! For this run, we used Poplar Hill goat milk from Scandia, MN. The milk is reduced slowly with sugar and a cinnamon stick for a few hours, while it transforms from a pale yellow to a rich golden brown. The caramel is strained through a fine mesh strainer and cooled. The cajeta is layered into the pints during packaging.

 

 

Pumpkin with Chipotle Praline Pepitas and Cajeta

 

 

 

An ultra smooth pumpkin ice cream with crunchy spiced candied pumpkin seeds, all layered with a goat milk caramel! Bringing you holiday flavor with a Mexican twist.

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 12/6/13 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!

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