this week's ice cream experiment
Finished writing the first draft of chapter 5 of The Wolf Prince last weekend; this has been a busybusybusy week, with the added terror of prepping for a video author interview that was canceled at the last moment. Haven't started actually writing chapter 6 yet, but I've been thinking a lot about it, and am hoping to finish it by Sunday night.
Tried making a caramel ice cream recipe that the cookbook author was absolutely raving about, and found it kind of "eh," even after I doctored it up with some fresh orange zest and a shot of Grand Marnier. I am sad at its mediocrity because it was kind of messy to make, involving multiple bowls and a large stock pot used to caramelize the cup-and-a-half of sugar, then to quench the resulting caramel with 3.5 cups of a milk-cream mixture that frothed and bubbled and steamed like crazy when I added it, splattering my cooktop.
It's the proper shade of caramel brown, but the flavor is blandly sweet, tasting more of the vanilla bean I simmered in the caramel milk mixture than actual caramel. Maybe I'll let the sugar go a few more seconds if I ever make this again, to give it a smokier flavor.
I added a double-handful of chopped, freshly-toasted almonds, and that improved things quite a bit, but this still is never going to be my favorite flavor. As a rule, I like sharper tastes--coffee, mint, etc.
The texture, however, is fabulous. I played with running the blades on medium rather than the recommended lowest-speed setting, which whips the ice cream batter as it's freezing in the bowl, and produces a delicately airy confection that remains relatively soft even right out of the freezer, rather than the dense gelato which achieves the consistency of wet concrete when left to harden up.
Here's the score so far on my ice cream experiments:
Tried making a caramel ice cream recipe that the cookbook author was absolutely raving about, and found it kind of "eh," even after I doctored it up with some fresh orange zest and a shot of Grand Marnier. I am sad at its mediocrity because it was kind of messy to make, involving multiple bowls and a large stock pot used to caramelize the cup-and-a-half of sugar, then to quench the resulting caramel with 3.5 cups of a milk-cream mixture that frothed and bubbled and steamed like crazy when I added it, splattering my cooktop.
It's the proper shade of caramel brown, but the flavor is blandly sweet, tasting more of the vanilla bean I simmered in the caramel milk mixture than actual caramel. Maybe I'll let the sugar go a few more seconds if I ever make this again, to give it a smokier flavor.
I added a double-handful of chopped, freshly-toasted almonds, and that improved things quite a bit, but this still is never going to be my favorite flavor. As a rule, I like sharper tastes--coffee, mint, etc.
The texture, however, is fabulous. I played with running the blades on medium rather than the recommended lowest-speed setting, which whips the ice cream batter as it's freezing in the bowl, and produces a delicately airy confection that remains relatively soft even right out of the freezer, rather than the dense gelato which achieves the consistency of wet concrete when left to harden up.
Here's the score so far on my ice cream experiments:
- Mexican Chocolate - Very good, will make again
- Banana-Chocolate-Bailey's - okay but a little too alcoholic-tasting. Probably won't make again
- Hazelnut Gelato - OHMYGOD delicious
- Coffee Gelato - OHMYGOD delicious
- Mango-Lime Sorbet - OHMYGOD delicious
- Caramel ice cream - So-so. Not bad, but really not worth the effort and mess involved in making the batter.