Saturday, August 12, 2006
Eureka!
Home ice-cream making is something like alchemy -- it's a lot of trial and error, it's about putting crazy ingredients together, it's miraculous watching the mixture churn into ice-cream, and ice-cream is in itself, a magical entity.
Having slept on the outcome of my initial endeavours last night and mulling over it a little more during boxing this morning, I decided to rectify the methodology in a couple ways -- add the rum five minutes before the end of the churn and slice slightly bigger chunks of banana. Since I still felt my mixture was a little too watery when set into the freezer, I thought I'd follow the basic instructions as closely as possible, in order to detect where I might have gone wrong, or if the recipe just sucked. I also whisked the milk and sugar harder, and got that a little airier before stirring in the cream and bourbon vanilla extract.
And what happened? After 30 minutes of churning, there was ice-cream in the freezer bowl! It wasn't even the "melting milkshake" Ryan and I discussed... it was actual ice-cream! After adding the banana chunks and Bacardi Gold, I let it churn a little more, then scooped it out into the tupperwares. After a generous drizzle of Midnight Moo, off to the freezer it went to settle down.
This morning's success gives me a home ice-cream maker swagger. Some people can tend to their gardens and others can be obsessed with home decor, but I'm all about the ice-cream churn.
Having slept on the outcome of my initial endeavours last night and mulling over it a little more during boxing this morning, I decided to rectify the methodology in a couple ways -- add the rum five minutes before the end of the churn and slice slightly bigger chunks of banana. Since I still felt my mixture was a little too watery when set into the freezer, I thought I'd follow the basic instructions as closely as possible, in order to detect where I might have gone wrong, or if the recipe just sucked. I also whisked the milk and sugar harder, and got that a little airier before stirring in the cream and bourbon vanilla extract.
And what happened? After 30 minutes of churning, there was ice-cream in the freezer bowl! It wasn't even the "melting milkshake" Ryan and I discussed... it was actual ice-cream! After adding the banana chunks and Bacardi Gold, I let it churn a little more, then scooped it out into the tupperwares. After a generous drizzle of Midnight Moo, off to the freezer it went to settle down.
This morning's success gives me a home ice-cream maker swagger. Some people can tend to their gardens and others can be obsessed with home decor, but I'm all about the ice-cream churn.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Chubba chubba
Now that the first attempt is out of the way, it's safe to say that home ice-cream making can certainly easily turn into a life-threatening, all-consuming obsession.
I didn't want this to be just regular ice-cream, so I picked up the ingredients from Trader Joe's -- Kemp's heavy whipping cream, Midnight Moo Organic Chocolate Syrup, Chiquita organic bananas, Spices of the World cinnamon powder, and Trader Joe's Vitamin D whole milk. I had to get granulated sugar from Jewel, since Joe didn't have it, and Bacardi Gold from Osco.
Taking several cues from that kitchen maestro, my mom, I followed the instructions to making a basic vanilla base, then turned that into a Bananas Sara premium flavour with some (I hope) sound intuition laced with taste. To the base I added four teaspoons of pure bourbon vanilla extract, six teaspoons of Bacardi Gold and a hard sprinkle of cinnamon. Then I added the mixture into the churn, and thar she went. I kept peering into the churn the way a relief pitcher in the bullpen might keep peering at the phone to see if he's the next call. Five minutes before the official 30 minutes of churn was over, I added in one banana's worth of diced pieces. I then drizzled Gladware with Midnight Moo chocolate syrup, spooned in the churned mixture, and put it away to freeze up.
A little alarmed that the final mixture might have seemed too watery -- the consistency was like melting milkshake -- I sought help from the master home ice-cream maker, Ryan "B.P." Puckett. Ryan remained calm on the phone while listening to my description of the mixture consistency, then assured me that it should be fine. We chatted a little about organic fruit sorbets, and I went to buy more heavy whipping cream for the next batch.
I can now see why Baskin and Robbins needed 31.
I didn't want this to be just regular ice-cream, so I picked up the ingredients from Trader Joe's -- Kemp's heavy whipping cream, Midnight Moo Organic Chocolate Syrup, Chiquita organic bananas, Spices of the World cinnamon powder, and Trader Joe's Vitamin D whole milk. I had to get granulated sugar from Jewel, since Joe didn't have it, and Bacardi Gold from Osco.
Taking several cues from that kitchen maestro, my mom, I followed the instructions to making a basic vanilla base, then turned that into a Bananas Sara premium flavour with some (I hope) sound intuition laced with taste. To the base I added four teaspoons of pure bourbon vanilla extract, six teaspoons of Bacardi Gold and a hard sprinkle of cinnamon. Then I added the mixture into the churn, and thar she went. I kept peering into the churn the way a relief pitcher in the bullpen might keep peering at the phone to see if he's the next call. Five minutes before the official 30 minutes of churn was over, I added in one banana's worth of diced pieces. I then drizzled Gladware with Midnight Moo chocolate syrup, spooned in the churned mixture, and put it away to freeze up.
A little alarmed that the final mixture might have seemed too watery -- the consistency was like melting milkshake -- I sought help from the master home ice-cream maker, Ryan "B.P." Puckett. Ryan remained calm on the phone while listening to my description of the mixture consistency, then assured me that it should be fine. We chatted a little about organic fruit sorbets, and I went to buy more heavy whipping cream for the next batch.
I can now see why Baskin and Robbins needed 31.
Chubosaurus roamed the earth...
Today, a Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice-Cream and Sorbet Maker (ICE-20 Series) was purchased at Linens & Things, and the dream of playing ice-cream god is fast approaching reality. The freezer bowl portion of the maker is now sitting in the freezer, set at the coldest temperature of -5 degrees, and in a few hours, the very first batch of Chubosaurus Cones ice-cream will be created.
This month's flavour is Bananas Sara, I Scream!, a confection concoction inspired by the Bananas Sara dessert crepe at La Creperie (www.lacreperieusa.com) on the corner of Clark and Diversey. It will be a banana ice-cream laced with Grand Marnier and drizzled with thick chocolate syrup, add whipped cream to taste.
Bananas Sara, I Scream! won the honour of starring in the Chubosaurus Cones premiere since August is also Sara Christensen's birthday month, and she was indirectly named for the infamous crepe (which was named after Sara Roignant, wife of La Creperie owner Germain). If your first name was also the name of a great crepe, you're pretty much set for life. It's just like being named after a Neil Diamond song.
This month's flavour is Bananas Sara, I Scream!, a confection concoction inspired by the Bananas Sara dessert crepe at La Creperie (www.lacreperieusa.com) on the corner of Clark and Diversey. It will be a banana ice-cream laced with Grand Marnier and drizzled with thick chocolate syrup, add whipped cream to taste.
Bananas Sara, I Scream! won the honour of starring in the Chubosaurus Cones premiere since August is also Sara Christensen's birthday month, and she was indirectly named for the infamous crepe (which was named after Sara Roignant, wife of La Creperie owner Germain). If your first name was also the name of a great crepe, you're pretty much set for life. It's just like being named after a Neil Diamond song.
