The next flavor we tried from the recipe book was the premium vanilla. The big differences from the basic vanilla are using eggs and a vanilla bean. The store was out of vanilla beans so we used two teaspoons of vanilla as a substitute.
The first step combined heavy cream and whole milk on a saucepan with the vanilla. The mixture is heated to a slow boil and left simmering for half an hour. I guess with the vanilla extract, the thirty minutes could have been cut down but I was not sure how important it is to evaporate the dairy somewhat.
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| Adding vanilla the wrong way |
Meanwhile, I combined three-quarters of a cup of sugar with two large eggs and three egg yolks, beating them into frothy goodness with a low-speed hand mixer. It took a minute or so, easily done before the cream/milk/vanilla stuff was ready.
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| Separating eggs is a pain! |
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| Frothy! |
Once the thirty minutes were up, I took a cup of hot liquid from the mix and slowly added it to the egg/sugar bowl, beating at a low speed. Once that was combined, the egg mix went into the main saucepan to cook over medium-low heat until the mixture would "coat the back of a spoon." It didn't take long.
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| Making the combo |
What did take long was cooling the whole mixture down to a chilled temperature before putting it in the ice cream mixer. After twenty minutes on the counter, the bowl spent over an hour in the fridge trying to get cool.
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| Preventing contamination |
After that, the process was the usual 25 to 30 minutes in the machine.
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| A yellow vanilla |
The final results were good. The ice cream was creamier than the regular vanilla though it tasted more like custard (the egg flavor was still there). Perhaps the vanilla bean would have been more dominant.
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| The completed ice cream |
This vanilla was tasty but I am not sure it is worth all the extra effort that goes into making it. I would definitely plan ahead better next time, especially for the long cool down before going into the ice cream mixer.
I went back to the regular vanilla recipe for my wife's requested flavor: chocolate-covered pretzel. She bought the pretzels at the store. I briefly thought about using the basic chocolate ice cream recipe but thought that might be too much chocolate.
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| Ingredients |
Regular vanilla is pretty easy to make. I broke up the pretzels into little bits by hand since I thought the blender or food processor would pulverize them too much. I added the chunks in the last five minutes of blending. the mix was overflowing the mixer with a whole cup of additives!
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| The final ingredient |
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| The final product |
As it turned out, the chocolate was barely tastable. The pretzels kept their crunch, so there was good with the bad. Maybe the chocolate base should have been the way to go.
The next recipe was S'mores ice cream. I made the usual chocolate base, planning on adding some graham crackers and marshmallow fluff.
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| Soon to be S'mores |
Using the previous experience with food processing the chocolate and sugar with the warm milk, I upgraded to the blender so there'd be no overflow.
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| The blender |
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| The blended |
For the graham crackers, I used the graham cracker crust part of my cheesecake recipe (without putting it in the springform pan, naturally). The recipe has a pack of graham crackers (one of the three that comes in the box), three tablespoons of melted butter, and a tablespoon of sugar. To pulverize the graham crackers I used the food processor (so it still saw some action). Then I mixed in the sugar and butter in a bigger bowl. The result was 225 grams of graham cracker mix or about 1.75 cups in volume.
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| A tight fit |
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| Measure twice, add once |
That seemed like a lot to put into the mixer (especially after the near overflow with the chocolate pretzels), so I put in half and did some layering with the rest of the crust mix. I layered in the marshmallow fluff as well.
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| Adding to the mixer |
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| Making layers of graham crumbs and marshmallow |
I have to say that adding the marshmallow fluff was the hardest part. It did not spread easily (or at all) over the ice cream. It hardly came off the rubber spatula! To make it less lumpy, I put another dollop of chocolate/graham ice cream on top and that smushed it out. I may try a different brand of fluff in the future or maybe slicing up actual marshmallows, though that won't get the ribbon effect that is typical.
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| Finished product |
The whole batch of ice cream did not fit in our tupperware, so we had to eat a serving immediately after finishing. It was delightful. Even later, after dinner and some extra freezing, the ice cream scooped well and had an awesome flavor. The graham cracker layers did cause some separation probably because they were too thick. When we scooped, the ice cream above the graham cracker layer would come out without the ice cream below it. Maybe I can mix the graham crackers and the marshmallow?
More experiments next week!
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