Roasted Carrot

We’re hitting our end and we’ll continue with everyone’s favorite orange root.  Carrots.  Harvest time carrots are the best, and there’s no other time to get that carrot-y flavor out than now.  This has been one we’ve wanted to do for years, and we finally got to it on our list.

 

carrots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These babies are gorgeous, and I can’t get enough of them during this time of the year. We grill them, eat them raw, slice, shredded..but nothing is better than roasted in the oven.  The sweetness that comes out of the carrot during this process is incredible, and was the inspiration for this flavor.

Roasted Carrots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s what we did.  We roasted them in the oven in butter until they got all caramelly.

Carrot Puree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then they went for a spin in the food processor, and we’re mixed into our brown sugar base.  The brown sugar brings the brown butter and the roasted carrot flavor out even more.

Roasted Carrot Ice Cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is our reward – an extremely rich and creamy, roasted carrot ice cream that sings with a deep roasted caramel flavor and ends with a nice carrot kick.

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 8/23/13 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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Grilled Cheeseburger

Yes, really!

The whole idea of our weekly flavor was born from a challenge to ourselves, to concept and create on a regular basis, over a long term.  This is how we keep our minds fresh, fuel our curiosity, make our breakthroughs and hone our skills.  It also meant we would ultimately begin to challenge our own paletes, as well as our followers’ in the process.  And because we’re willing to walk out on a limb here and there, we get a lot of funny suggestions for flavors.  Sometimes we actually entertain them.  Sometimes we don’t.  In this case…

This flavor wasn’t created as a gimmick or as a joke, in fact, it was created out of pure desire to see if we could make something this far out, actually taste good.  We realize that the public’s taste for Cheeseburger ice cream might be nil, but much of the point of these weekly releases are to give you an idea of our thought process when we concept, and ultimately create a flavor.  Once in awhile our ideas fall flat, and those get left on the kitchen floor, never to be posted here or created at all for that matter.  This one, in our opinion, did not.

It all started with a discussion on the consumption of shakes and malts while enjoying a burger and fries.  Many of you willingly slurp down ice cream as a means to wash down a cheeseburger, even dipping fries in it.  In some ways, the meal and the dessert are synonymous.  So why wouldn’t this flavor work?  We had to try.

The concept was narrowed down to a few important factors.

1. No physical meat in the final product

2. Somehow make the ice cream taste reminiscent of a grilled cheeseburger, while still allowing ice cream to be, well, ice cream

 

We agreed that steeping a burger would be the approach to get the flavorful fat and flavor to soak into the cream- the beef, the smoke, the char, and the cheese.

So, we had some cheeseburgers.

IMG_0046BEEFCheeseburgers

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously we start with quality ground beef, and Grass Run Farms is a good one.  The burgers went on a hot charcoal grill and were topped with Wisconsin Cheddar.  We ate some of the cheeseburgers.  Then we took the two left over and kept them to steep in the ice cream base.

Wisconsin Cheddar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being Wisconsin boys, we knew there had to be more cheese, so we tailored our ice cream base to accept more of this fine cheddar along with the grilled grass fed patties.

BriocheBrioche CroutonBrioche Crouton

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t worry, we didn’t forget the bun.  For this, we took our favorite New French Brioche Buns and baked them off into croutons with some help from our friends butter and salt.  They went in at the end of the churn.

Grilled Cheeseburger Ice Cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here it is.  A creamy, dense cheddar cheese ice cream steeped with charcoal grilled, grass fed beef patties and specked with brioche bun croutons.  A  sweet ice cream that ever so subtly reminds you of a cheeseburger.

Of course, you want to know – what did we think?  It IS good.  Honestly it wouldn’t be my first choice, and isn’t for eating in mass quantities – but its a blast to try and experience the brain tease.
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 7/25/13 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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Fenugreek Praline Pecan

The first time I considered Fenugreek as an ice cream flavor was after trying some gouda cheese with fenugreek seeds in it; amazed at the sweetness and maple like flavor the fenugreek added.  After some deliberation, and some more research, I discovered that fenugreek is one of the main flavor components of fake maple syrup. My curiosity was piqued, and I was sold.  To round the flavor out, I chose to add caramel coated pecans to the mix and make it our own spiced up version of praline pecan.

First the pecans..

Pecan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make praline pecans we first roast and salt whole pecans and smash them into smaller, more bite friendly sized pieces.

praline pecan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we make a simple caramel that is boiled to a “hard crack”, so it doesn’t pull your fillings out when you bite into it, but instead as a crunch.  The pecans are added in at the very end and then cooled to keep the caramel coating.

Praline Pecan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the pecans are cooled they are broken out of their caramel sheath and end up with a perfect caramel praline coat.

Fenugreek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the ice cream, we steep the Fenugreek seeds in our organic cane sugar base and strain them out before the churn.

Fenugreek Praline Pecan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we get is a spiced maple kissed ice cream studded with crunchy praline pecans.
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 5/17/13 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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Aged Gouda + Honey

Our love for cheese just about eclipses our love for ice cream and that’s been no secret over the years.   One cheese at the top of my list for use in an ice cream flavor is the incredible aged gouda “Jeff’s Select”. The cheese is the product of a partnership between Jeff Wideman, master cheesemaker from Maple Leaf Cheese in Wisconsin, and Jeff Jirik, founder of Fairbault Dairy in Minnesota.  What could be more perfect than a cheese that geographically represents our former and home state? The gouda is warm aged for 9 months in the sandstone caves of Fairbault.

Jeffs Select Gouda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result is an aged gouda with an incredible nutty flavor to it, without being overly salty.  So good we chose it to be the main flavor component of the ice cream.

Shredded Gouda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cheese was finely shredded to allow it to evenly melt into the cream base during the cooking process.  For a harder cheese, it melted wonderfully and incorporated into the cream base without issue.

Ames Farm Honey

 

 

 

 

I wanted to pair the cheese with something, and considered a lot of fruit options.  However Ames Farm honey from Watertown, MN was the hands down winner.

 

 

 

 

Ames Farm honey is something for Minnesota residents to be proud of, and been a staple in our kitchen for years.   For this flavor we swirled it in as the aged gouda ice cream was packed into pints.

Aged Gouda and Honey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we ended up with is a magical pair.  The nuttiness of the aged gouda translates perfectly in the ice cream, and its subtle salty undertones are nothing less than harmonious with the ribbons of honey.

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 5/3 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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Coconut Hibiscus and Lime

A few weeks ago I was enjoying a dinner at a local mexican restaurant when I noticed a hibiscus drink on the menu.  I had been kicking around the idea of making a hibiscus ice cream for awhile and this cool, sweet hibiscus tea got my gears turning.  After some more research, I discovered this dark red tea is an international favorite, loved in the Phillipines, Middle East and South America.  Different cultures have slightly different ways of making it, but all utilize the Hibiscus flower as the main flavor component.  However, with the Jamaican kick I’ve been on, my path was already chosen.  It turns out Hibiscus tea is so popular in Jamaica that it is actually ordered simply as a Jamaica in some areas of the U.S.

IMG_9656

For this flavor, I went back to our vegan friendly/dairy free coconut base. The coconut cream was a perfect backdrop for a Jamaican inspired flavor.

Lime zest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As is often done when this drink is served in Jamaica, i added lime zest to give it a citrus-y kick.

Hibiscus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These gorgeous Hibiscus flowers are packed with Vitamin C and are steeped in our coconut cream base to extract all of their bright floral flavors.

Coconut Hibiscus and Lime

 

 

 

The Hibiscus petals dye the ice cream a pretty pink.

 

 

 

 

The result is a rich, coconut based ice cream, laced with a tangy, floral hibiscus with a zippy finish of lime. Vegan friendly and dairy free.

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 4/19 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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