Bay Leaf Ice Cream

I love the smell of fresh Bay, especially when slightly toasted -- it's exotic, herbaceous, slightly fruity -- and I thought it might be appropriate for an unusual ice cream. Fortunately, Irene has a Bay plant the thrives here on our Barcelona terrace, so she gave me a good sized branch. I wanted coax the flavors from the fresh leaves, as well as the aromatics from slightly toasted ones, so I did half-and-half. I doubt this would work with store-bought dry Bay leaves but tell me if you try it.

The procedure was pretty much a basic vanilla ice cream (or our Saffron one), but with the milk/cream first infused with Bay. The taste is appealing, and slightly exotic without being "weird"; it seems like something I'd find in a fancy restaurant. 

The faintest green cast and an inviting aroma

 20 g      Bay Leaves, fresh

300 ml     Milk, whole

400 ml     Cream

170 g      Sugar

    pinch  Salt

  3 whole  Eggs, whipped

Large branch of Irene's Bay plant

Pull the leaves from the Bay branch.

Gently toast 10 g of them in a dry skillet until the slightly brown and begin releasing their aroma.

In a pot, add the Milk and Cream, the raw and toasted Bay leaves.

Cover and let steep on low heat for an hour to infuse.

Strain and capture the Milk/Cream, then add back to the clean pot.

Add the Sugar and Salt to the still-hot mixture, and stir to dissolve.

Whip the eggs.

Ensure the mixture isn't too hot, probably 50c or less, and whisk in the Eggs.

Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it hits 78-80c and the mixture starts to thicken a bit; once it starts, it thickens quickly, so be careful when it's above 70c.

Strain into a large pourable bowl or similar; I use a 1L measuring cup and get about 900 ml.

Cover with plastic film, pressing onto the surface to prevent a skin.

Let cool, then chill overnight in the fridge.

Process with an ice cream churn 20-30 minutes, then scoop into containers, cover directly with film, and freeze overnight.

It helps to let it thaw a little so it's scoopable, maybe 20-30 minutes in the fridge.

Serve.

Helado de Ajo Negro (Black Garlic Ice Cream)

Years back, Black Garlic seemed to be a secret amongst geeky pro chefs, and making it involved multi-day low temperature cooks. Now we're finding it in regular grocery stores for reasonable prices. It has a surprising and appealing sweet flavor, without the bite you might expect. I thought it might make an intriguing ice cream, and it turns out, lots of others are doing this too -- some with additions of vanilla, chocolate, honey, even 36 variations. I want my first version to be pure and direct, to showcase the ingredient; perhaps later, I'll add complementary flavors. 

Sidebar. The first Black Garlic we got here in Barcelona (from Mercadona) was in a plastic tub which contained peeled cloves with a great fruity flavor: a bit tart and a bit sweet, kinda like a like a date or tamarind, maybe a hint of balsamic vinegar. The 60 g jar we got from Consum was a surprise when I opened it for this project: it had a distinct note of garlic and not as much of the sweetness we had earlier, it might go well with chocolate, but it's too garicky for a solo tour. We went on a quest to find more sweet/tart ones and found it only in whole head form: at Ametller and Bon Preu (from the same producer and same 5€ price),  and 8€ at Fruiteries Borau (a different producer). All three contained 2 whole heads, and peeling them was not terribly easy: they were soft and sticky enough that they didn't pop out of the peels easily (I even tried freezing the heads first).  The whole heads had less overt garlicky smell and taste than the Consum jar, and I had a slight preference for the fruit of Ametller/Bon Preu brands. You might want to buy a couple different brands to find the most appealing flavor before you embark on this recipe, and get the peeled if you can; you can use less-fruity ones in savory dishes.

Most recipes I've seen mash the Garlic into a paste; this no-churn recipe just steeps then discards the cloves. Some use 1-2 Tablespoons of paste for 2.5-3 Cup of Milk and Cream; here, I'll use more for a pronounced flavor. I'll use the proportions of dairy and sugar that I use for my Saffron Ice Cream.

 70 g      Black Garlic cloves, peeled (from two peeled heads)

  3 whole  Eggs, whipped

300 ml     Milk

400 ml     Cream (35% fat UHT is what I used)

170 g      Sugar

  1 pinch  Salt

To give it some texture, mash two-thirds of the Black Garlic cloves to a paste;

slice the other half and reserve for adding at churn time.
Whisk the Black Garlic, Eggs, Milk, and Cream together in a large saucepan;

whisk in the Sugar and Salt.

Heat over medium, whisking frequently to prevent the milk from scalding, and watch the temperature.

Bring the temperature up to 78-80C / 175-180F, stirring constantly until thickened and a custard is formed, maybe 10 minutes; close to the final temperature, it will start to thicken quickly so be careful; the mixture should coat the back of a spoon. 

Transfer to a 1 Liter measuring cup with a spout and let cool.

Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the film onto the surface of the custard base to prevent a skin forming.

Chill overnight. 

If you have a frozen-canister ice cream churn (like this Duronic frozen-canister style I bought recently), freeze the canister overnight as well.

The next day, pour the base into a chilled churn; while churning, add the reserved sliced Black Garlic.

Churn for the recommended time, usually 20-30 minutes.

Distribute into freezer containers, cover the top of the ice cream directly with plastic film, cover with lids, and freeze overnight.

Before serving, check out the texture: you might want to let it thaw 15-30 minutes in the fridge to provide a scoop-able texture.

Small scoops served in pastry shells

Funny that this popped up in my Duolingo Spanish lesson -- maybe she should have used Black Garlic instead of fierce normal garlic.

Saffron Ice Cream: no churn

My favorite ice cream is saffron but here in Barcelona, I don't have my old churn. I'm basing this recipe on Leite's Culinaria no-churn vanilla ice cream, converting to metric, then scaling to match the common size of Cream we find here.

Saffron ice cream in cones, with sweet Moscatell dessert wine

This turned out well, though it was not as fluffy as my churned version. It was a little firm, so I'll let it soften a bit in the refrigerator before scooping. It was intensely saffron-y, probably because I can get good quality saffron here at reasonable prices. The Sweetened Condensed Milk gave it a slight caramel flavor which I'd like to reduce, but backing it out it would reduce the sugar which would make it even more firm.

0.2 g    1/8 tsp    Saffron Threads (1/2 of a 0.4 g jar)

 15 ml     1 Tbs    Brandy (or Rum)

200 ml   2/3 C      Heavy Cream, chilled

200 ml   2/3 C      Whole Milk, chilled

340 g     12 oz     Sweetened Condensed Milk

  1 pinch  1 pinch  Salt

Crush and infuse Saffron threads in Brandy for 30 minutes or longer.

Whip the Cream until small to medium peaks form, about 8 minutes.

In a separate bowl, combine Milk, Condensed Milk, Salt.

Mix in the infused Saffron Brandy.

Gently whisk in the Whipped Cream into the Milk Mixture.

Pour into a loaf pan or other container; I used a 500g plastic sorbet tub with tight-fitting lid.

Cover with plastic wrap or lid and freeze until fully set, at least 4 hours.

Serve directly from the freezer, or if it's too firm, let warm up a bit in the fridge until it's scoop-able. 

Deconstructed Fruit Cake Ice Cream

We received a Grandma's Gourmet No Sugar Added Fruitcake which was loaded with fruit, but tooth-achingly sweet. We decided to take it apart and make an ice cream from its components. I started with my Saffron Ice Cream, which is a standard custard-style, proportioned to fit in our cheap churn. I reduced the sugar since the cake has a lot, and reduced the egg, because the cake in the cream mixture helped thicken it.

Ice cream tastes like fruit cake, fruit and nuts mixed through

 17 ounces Fruit Cake
1.5 C      Whole Milk
  2 C      Heavy Cream
1/2 C      Sugar (down from 1 C)
  2 whole  Eggs (down from 3)

  2 Tbs    Brandy

Add Milk and Cream to pot; break apart Fruit Cake, trying to keep fruit and nuts intact, and add to the pot.  Warm pot and allow cake to dissolve into cream, stirring gently to separate fruit and nuts.

Strain through coarse strainer.

Separate nuts from fruit, reserving fruit; bake nuts until toasted (it's OK if some of the cream sticks to the nuts).

Whiz the cakey cream in Vitamax blender; add in Sugar and blend; add in Eggs and blend until smooth. 

Heat gently in the pot to 170-175F, stirring frequently so the Eggs start to set but do not overheat and curdle them.

Pour into bowl, cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, pour base into spinning chilled ice cream maker churn; when it starts setting up, add Brandy to loosen a bit, so it doesn't tax the motor too much. If you've got room (and motor), add fruit and nuts; otherwise, stir them in before adding to freezer tray. Churn 20 minutes, it should swell as air is introduced.

Add churned ice cream to one or more flat-ish freezer containers and freeze overnight.

Licorice Ice Cream

The flavor of Fernet reminded me of licorice, and that made me think of a Chocolate Fernet gelato I made. So why not Licorice ice cream? I'd never seen it, but the interwebs say it exists and there are recipes like this one from Epicurious.

I used licorice by Wiley Wallaby, as it seemed less like synthetic candy than Twizzlers. I also got some Pontefract Cakes from the UK which are more intense and less sweet, so I'll try that next. I've got some Brewers Licorice which I'd also like to try but need to understand how much to dilute it, as it's definitely not a candy: "will burn your mouth... wear gloves"!

Here's our first take on licorice ice cream; sorry, no pictures this time.

140 g       5 oz   Licorice
360 ml  1 1/2 C    Milk
360 ml  1 1/2 C    Heavy Cream
175 g     3/4 C    Sugar
pinch              Salt
  4         4      Egg Yolks
2.5 ml    1/2 tsp  Vanilla

Melt the Licorice in the Milk, slowly, stirring frequently; I got impatient and blitzed it with an immersion blender.
The licorice contains flour so it thickened the Milk quite a bit.
The licorice dye turns the Milk a ghastly gray-green color somewhere between camo and radically overcooked peas; if you have it, a few drops of Black Food Coloring would help.
Add Cream, Sugar, Salt, Vanilla and heat to dissolve.
Adjust heat to under 82C/180F -- higher than 85C/185F will curdle the Eggs.
Whisk the Egg Yolks.
Temper the Yolks by adding some of the hot liquid to them while whisking, then add this back to the hot Cream mixture.
Heat to 82-85C, 180-185F so the Yolks will thicken the Cream.
Pour into a container; it has a disturbingly gelatinous texture, like wallpaper paste, but should be fine once churned. The taste is good, like very sweet licorice; serving cold should balance out the sugar.
Cool overnight.
Process in an ice cream churn, put in a container and freeze overnight.
The thickness caused our churn to really struggle, but the finished texture came out fine.
Taste was good, not as intense as I'd like, but definitely a decent and slightly unusual dessert with an uncommon flavor profile.

Saffron Ice Cream

In 1993, Steve Pope mentioned this on USENET group rec.food.cooking and it sounded interesting. We modified the basic French Vanilla ice cream recipe that came with our cheap ice cream maker, leaving out the vanilla so the saffron comes through. The amounts here just fit our maker. It’s made by Deni and cost about $40, and the same model Cuisinart sells for about twice that: it’s a metal bowl you chill in the freezer, and put it on a motor base that spins it under a lid that has a dasher paddle. Now that we live in Barcelona, we had to buy another machine because I missed this so much -- we have plenty of good ice cream here, but not saffron; it's a Duronic IM540 for 43€, with a top-mounted motor, which like the others, makes the pouring chute rather small for loading.

We had saffron from Whole Foods -- overpriced, poorly packaged, but reasonably tasty.  Next time we used the Spanish saffron we got from Penzey's. We haven’t yet tried very well priced stuff from saffron.com. In Barcelona, we can easily buy good quality saffron, even in our grocery store.

I like to serve this drizzled with a thin thread of ancient honey we have had lurking in our pantry -- it’s dark and intensely flavored and for some reason really complements the saffron. Of course you have to age the honey for a decade or two first :-)

0.2 g 1/8 tsp Saffron threads
15 ml 1 Tbs Brandy or Rum

3 3 Eggs
350 ml 1 1/2 Cup Whole Milk
475 ml 2 Cup Cream (heavy whipping cream, 36% fat)

200 g 1 Cup Sugar
1 pinch 1 pinch Salt

On 2024-10-15 in Barcelona, I only had 400 ml cream so scaled down 85%, maintaining the Eggs and Saffron; the finished ice cream was a good texture:

300 ml Milk

400 ml Cream

170 g Sugar

Crush and infuse Saffron threads in Brandy/Rum for 30 minutes or longer. A trick I learned from a Spanish chef on YouTube is to fold a piece of paper and crush the Saffron inside with the back of a spoon or similar -- it produces a fine powder.

Whisk Eggs, Milk and Cream together in large saucepan, over double boiler if you're worried about curdling.
Add Sugar and Salt and cook over low heat (double boiler) at 78-80C / 170-175F stirring constantly until thickened and a custard is formed, about 15 minutes; close to the final temperature it will start to thicken quickly so be careful.
The mixture should coat the back of a spoon.
Cool, then add Saffron Brandy mixture; the mixture must be cool before adding any alcohol like Vanilla extract or Saffron Brandy, or it may explode. Mix well.

This original amounts should make 4 1/2 C mixture, the max our ice cream maker can handle. The reduced amount above seemed about right, making 900 ml chilled mix, and not overflowing our Duronic ice cream maker.

Sorry about the bands in the photo below, a weird interaction between the camera and LED lights strobing.

Churn in ice cream maker per its instructions, transfer into containers and cover snugly with film to prevent ice crystals, then freeze overnight to set.

Film pressed against the ice cream. Again with the strobe-bands :-(