Recipe: Maple Bourbon Ice Cream with Raspberry Ripple

This recipe is pretty special because we made the maple syrup and raspberry jam ourselves from trees/canes in our own yard.

I adapted Max Falkowitz's Maple Ice Cream recipe from Serious Eats, but used my own base recipe and substitutions.  

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup real maple syrup (Grade A or B)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp bourbon (optional)
• 1/2 cup (or so) of old-fashioned raspberry jam (preferably seedless). Can substitute store-bought, but look for one that has as few ingredients as possible (ideally just berries, sugar, lemon juice or ascorbic acid. Avoid low sugar varieties as they might freeze too hard).

Custard Instructions:

1. Place cream, milk, yolks, and maple syrup in a saucepan with a cooking thermometer.
2. Stirring frequently/constantly, raise the custard to 175-180F. Remove from heat immediately upon reaching 180. 
3. Chill until very cold (if using a compressor ice cream maker, this step may be omitted or shortened).
4. Place the custard in the ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add bourbon at the end when the ice cream is the consistency of soft-serve.
5. Remove the dasher from the churn and dollop in jam and barely stir. Pack in freezer containers and transfer to the freezer for hardening off.

Substitutions for raspberry jam and other flavors:

• Candied pecans or walnuts
• Broken pieces of ginger snaps
• Peach preserves/jam ripple
• Candied ginger
• Omit the bourbon
• Increase the salt to one full tsp for a salted maple ice cream.

Recipe: Banana brown sugar ice cream with peanut brittle chunks

    This was just such a revelation, I decided to share the glory that is fresh banana ice cream. It's wonderfully smooth and delicious, and tastes like bananas and not like yellow Laffy-Taffy. 

I adapted Dana Cree's Banana Ice Cream in Hello, My Name is Ice Cream, but used my own techniques and substituted brown sugar for regular sugar. I got the idea for the flavor from Ice Creams, sorbets, and Gelati: The Definitive Guide, but I didn't follow their recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 very ripe bananas (yellow with lots of black marks), peeled and cut into 1" chunks
• 2 cups cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup liquid sugar (tapioca syrup, glucose, corn syrup)
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1-1.5 cups of peanut element, broken into small pieces (see below for recipe)

Instructions:

1. Peel and slice the bananas and set aside.
2. Place cream, milk, yolks, and sugars in a saucepan with a cooking thermometer.
3. Stirring frequently/constantly, raise the custard to 175-180F. Remove from heat immediately upon reaching 180. 
4. Quickly add the banana chunks, and weigh them down with a plate or lid, to keep them submerged.
5. Cover and let steep for at least two hours, but up to overnight.  If leaving for more than 2-3 hours, place custard in the refrigerator after 2 hours.  Give custard a jiggle every so often.
6. Using a slotted spoon, remove the banana chunks, or pour custard through a mesh strainer.  Add vanilla and salt.
7. Freeze ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions. 
8. Add peanut brittle at the end of the churn.
9. Enjoy!

    Bananas: Once you remove them from the custard, you might consider making them into banana bread, or cut them smaller and add to pancakes.

    Peanut elements: 

• Peanut Brittle: you can use any recipe that you like. Break enough of it into small pieces to make 1.5 cups. The remaining should be devoured because it's delicious when it's fresh.   I made a half recipe of Spruce Eats Old Fashioned Peanut Brittle. 
• Candied peanuts: This is a little easier to make, and less messy, and there's no need to break them up. I use this recipe.
• Mazapan: This Mexican candy is a great addition to ice cream. If you overprocess it (as I do, as we prefer it that way), it's a little like the center of a Reece's peanut butter cup.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: David Lebovitz's Fresh Mint Ice Cream

"Fresh Mint Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other ice cream reviews can be found here.

Mint bed in mid-May (top), and early July (bottom).

I started a mint bed in the spring, in order to make one of life's great joy's: fresh mint ice cream. The mint bed was finally established enough for me to feel comfortable harvesting some of it for ice cream.  I had intended to make Jeni's Backyard Mint recipe today (my family's all-time favorite ice creams), but I was out of cream cheese, so trying a new recipe instead. Most mint recipes don't include eggs, but this one does, so I'm curious to see how it turns out - do the yolks overshadow the mint? (no, it was quite tasty).

Note: The online recipe, the ebook recipe and the older edition of the paper book don't match on the mint.

• Online: 2 cups (80g) packed fresh mint leaves
• eBook: 2 cups (80g) lightly packed fresh mint leaves
• Paper (older edition): 2 cups (40g) lightly packed fresh mint leaves.

Eighty grams of mint leaves without stems is a LOT.  You certainly can fit that much into two cups, but it's definitely packed, and not lightly packed.  Though it doesn't include eggs, Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe most closely matches David's:

• Technique - she also steeps the mint for an hour and not, say overnight as Jeni does
• Amount of mint: Rose also calls for 2 cups lightly packed.  But her "lightly packed" mint weighs only 53 grams.  

Because 53 is way closer to 40 than 80, I used the amount called for in the hard copy of his book (40 grams).

I wrote to David, and he got back to me after I'd made the ice cream - it's supposed to be 80 grams (something he'd corrected for the newer edition), which tells me he intended it to be a more strongly minty ice cream, rather than the more gently minty ice cream that I made (though it's still quite wonderful).  He told me that the difference arose from a conversion error - he's an American living in France, and mostly uses metric units.  I must say that I sympathize.  I've spent the last 10 years making myself use metric as much as possible, and it's just better in every way.  

I think I'd also like to blend some of the mint with the mixture, so that it's a bit more green (and overshadows the yellow from the yolks).

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor. Next time I'll use white sugar. The flavor is fine, but between the green from the mint, the brown from the sugar, and the orange from the yolks, the color was kind of an unattractive pale mustard color.
• After the steeping, the dairy mixture was only slightly warm, so I just added the yolks, and whisking constantly, raised the temp to about 175F/80C.

Results:

• Same day: Quite good - silky smooth, but the mint flavor was more gentle and less overly herbaceous than Jeni's recipe, which is both a pro and a con. The adult members of my family love the herbaceousness, but my 7-year-old granddaughter does not.   Because I didn't like the slightly mustardy color of the custard, I churned it on a fast speed to lighten it, and the finished ice cream is much prettier.
• Next day: silky smooth, a bit harder than I prefer, but overall quite delicious.    
• Try #2 with 80g of mint: delicious. The flavor didn't really seem that much stronger with 80 grams vs. 40. Still delicious and smooth.

Uses:

• I added 1/2 cup Oreo chunks and also layered in ribbons of Dorcas's hot fudge which I think gets a little lost. I need to learn how to make a more forward fudge ripple, I think.  
• I've seen recipes that call for chunks of chocolate ganache, and I suspect that would be wonderful as well.  
• Girl Scout Thin Mints would also be a great textural element. I'll have to pick up a box the next time they are selling.
• Second time I made it, I poured melted chocolate into the churn, for a dark chocolate stracciatella. That is very good but note-to-self: turn the churn on the slowest setting, otherwise it makes teeny-tiny freckles of chocolate in the ice cream.  

Book Review: Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode

https://amzn.to/3VlczaS

This has got to be the strangest ice cream book I own. I like daring and unusual flavors, but this one takes the cake (pun absolutely intended). I've read through it pretty carefully and tried a caramel sauce from the book, though not any of the ice creams yet, and well ... it's weird. It's not bad by any means, just unexpected.

Not because of its unusual flavors (of which it has many), but in its combination of flavors. Most ice cream cookbooks include recipes for three things: 1) classic flavors, 2) house specialties, and 3) mix-ins and toppings. 

Every ice cream shop is going to have the classics: vanilla, chocolate, mint, caramel, strawberry, coffee, etc., and most ice cream cookbooks are going to include the author's take on those. S&S on the other hand has only one, a recipe for double-fold vanilla.   All the other house specialties utilize classic flavors (strawberry-honey balsamic with black pepper ice cream, or salted sweet cream ice cream with caramel ribbons). 

In other words, this book leans extremely heavily on the house specialties (which I kind of like), and I love trying new combinations and unusual flavors. But ... ice cream happens to be something that is reliably vegetarian (if not vegan), and this book isn't an exception, not exactly. As a long-time mostly-vegetarian, that is also something I appreciate, but as a pragmatist, I'm fine with the fact that most ice cream books are going to have at least one recipe that includes candied bacon, and there is one such offering here (bacon caramel). 

But it doesn't stop with bacon; the irony makes me giggle a little. It has recipes for/including turkey (turkey skin/stock/boullion/fat), chicken (stock/boullion/fat/skin), gelatin, and …. pork blood. Take a gander:

• Xocolatl De David’s Bacon Raleigh Bar Ice Cream (gelatin and bacon)
• Chocolate "Sardines" Ice Cream (gelatin)
• Creepy Crawly Critters Ice Cream (candied bugs)
• Grandma Dracula’s Blood Pudding Ice Cream (pig blood)
• Buttered Mashed Potatoes & Gravy Ice Cream (chicken stock and bouillon)
• Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Ice Cream (turkey stock, bouillon, and skin)

Some of the omnivorous recipes actually sound pretty good, and if I still ate meat, I'd happily give them a try (the Xocolatl one is salted sweet cream ice cream with chocolate-covered pecans, caramel infused with bacon, and chocolate marshmallow nougat, and the "Sardines" recipe is chocolate with chunks of Swedish Fish-infused jello). There is one I might learn to like if I could get past the crunchy chitin from bugs (the creepy crawly flavor is tequila, orange, and matcha ice cream with chocolate-covered crickets and coconut-toffee candied insects). But the last three kinda turn my stomach (brandied chocolate pig's blood, mashed potato ice cream with white chocolate/chicken bouillon ripple, and turkey ice cream with turkey skin brittle).  I don't think I'd like those even if I were still omnivorous. 

But those recipes aside, 51 of the 57 recipes are vegetarian, and there are many that sound great, in particular Stumptown Coffee & Burnside Bourbon Ice Cream, Almond Brittle With Salted Ganache Ice Cream, and the Honey-Lavender.  There are many others that sound delicious as well. 

As for the mix-ins, they are pretty standard, including the usual chocolate sauces and brittles, cookies, and brownies.  The caramel sauce is really quite excellent - it remains pliable when frozen (kitchen chemistry to the rescue!), instead of turning hard like stiff taffy the way most caramels do when cold.

It uses a philosophy that I really like, providing three different bases to which you add flavorings: an ice cream base, a sorbet base, and even a vegan ice cream base. 

The vegan base is another area where they get weird.  First of all, the presence of a base suggests that it's neutral-flavored and easily adaptable, but in this case they only use it in a single recipe, and they give zero instructions for using it with other flavors.  In fact, their vegan base probably cannot be widely used as it is STRONGLY coconutty, and the coconut would overshadow most other flavors.  So, this feels (particularly in the context of a meatier-than-usual offering) almost phoned-in, included so they can claim it's vegan-friendly when it really isn't. 

So: if you are looking for dairy-free desserts, look elsewhere (it doesn't even include sorbets which are typically vegan). But if you are interested in interesting flavors, this might be a fine choice.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Rose Levi Beranbaum's Chocolate Ice Cream

"Chocolate Ice Cream" from Rose's Ice Cream Bliss by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other Chocolate ice cream reviews can be found here.

This is an unusual recipe in that it includes a little malted milk powder and a tiny bit of instant espresso powder (1/16 tsp for the whole recipe). It's not as deeply chocolate as I prefer, but it's really quite delicious, perhaps the best "regular" chocolate ice cream I've ever made.

It was a little hard getting all the cocoa dissolved, so next time, I think I'd put the salt, espresso powder, sugar, malt powder, and cocoa in the saucepan first and stir it together well, then add the yolks, liquid sugar, milk, and the first part of cream on top of that.  Whisk, then turn on the heat.

Creating the custard went really fast because I set my pan on the scale and used the gram measures from Rose's book, hitting tare between each ingredient.  I also cooked the custard in the pan (as the recipe directs) instead of the double boiler, and it seemed fine.  Once chilled, it was quite thick, but still pourable. 

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• Tapioca syrup instead of glucose.
• Nielsen Massey vanilla extract.
• Lake Champlain Unsweetened Organic Cocoa - this really is one of the best ones - excellent flavor and it's finely ground enough that it easily goes into solution with little effort, without imparting a powdery taste.

Results:

• Same day: Wonderfully smooth texture, nice milder chocolate flavor.
• Next day: Smooth, nice texture, slightly less scoopable than I'd like.

Uses:

• I stirred in about 1.5 ounces of crispy toasted sweetened coconut chips/flakes and while the coconut chips are a nice texture element, they are quite delicate, and the flavor gets a little lost against the chocolate.  I think chunks of coconut macaroons (Mounds candy bars?) would be better, or maybe toasted shredded coconut - anything to make the coconut element bigger, and a little more forward.  
• I also stirred in 1/4 cup of toasted slivered almonds because that's all I had on hand.  The toasted almonds held their own nicely against the backdrop of the chocolate, but I think it needed double the amount I used.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Jeni Britton Bauer's Olive Oil Ice Cream with Roasted Pepitas

  "Olive Oil Ice Cream with Roasted, Salted Pepitas" from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other ice cream reviews of unusual flavors can be found here.

Note: Pepitas are a variety of pumpkin seed with no hard hull and a thin, delicate thin.  They are common in Mexican cooking. 

I've been planning to make this recipe ever since I ordered an award-winning, freshly pressed olive oil (link below) from California two months ago. I know from unfortunate past experience that rancid olive oil is unbelievably nasty, so it was important to me to be absolutely sure that the olive oil had zero hint of rancidity.

But, I must admit this ice cream flavor kinda scares me. Really.  I've had the book for more than a decade, and I've never managed to try it, despite being intrigued by the idea. Olive oil? Seriously, that's for salad dressings and sautéing veggies, right?

So, I finally decided to stop being afraid of the flavor and give it a try. I figured that the worst case is that I end up composting it, wasting 1/4 cup of a very nice olive oil. 

.... And, to my surprise, it's pretty good! I don't think I'll ever be a huge fan, and unless someone in my family falls in love with it, I probably won't make it again, but it's definitely not going in the compost.

There is a faint hint of olives in the flavor, which is decidedly strange (but not bad) but shouldn't be because olives are fruits, and sniffing the chilled (but unchurned custard) it is a little off-putting because it makes me think of sautéed vegetables. But the colder the base got, the better it was. Once it was churned/soft-serve, it was pretty good, and once it was hard frozen, all off-putting notes disappeared, and it's just good.  I think maybe a little lemon zest would be a wonderful note.

Here's something weird: it's an unusually creamy ice cream, which is counter-intuitive, given that it has LESS cream than other recipes (you reduce the cream, and then make up the fat content with the olive oil).  

The real standout though, was discovering that roasted pepitas are insanely delicious in ice cream, and that discovery alone was worth the effort of making an ice cream I may not make again.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• Tapioca starch instead of cornstarch (1:1 ratio).
• Tapioca syrup as the liquid sugar instead of corn syrup (1:1 ratio).
• I only had raw pepitas on hand, so I tossed them into a dry skillet with some fine popcorn salt, and stirred almost constantly. When they started to pop and snap, I removed the pan from the heat and froze them. 
• I used Katz Rock Hill Ranch Estate Grown Chef's Pick Extra Virgin Olive Oil harvested in November/December 2023. I wanted to ensure that the ice cream had zero hint of rancidity, so I made sure to get olive oil I was certain was fresh.

Results:

• Same day: Silky smooth, OK flavor, wonderfully crunchy pepitas.
• Next day: Silky smooth,  nice flavor, wonderfully crunchy pepitas. Nicely scoopable.

Uses: 

• I don't think this flavor is one that lends itself to a float or a sundae. But that's OK - it stands on its own nicely.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Vanilla Ice Cream

"Vanilla Ice Cream" from Rose's Ice Cream Bliss by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

Since I couldn't find the recipe online, I've included a stripped-down version of her ingredient list with only the imperial measurements (but really, you should just buy her book, which also gives metrics - both weight and volume - and instructions/techniques, and ... it's my new favorite ice cream book). I've also shared my own instructions/techniques which do differ from the author's.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 smallish Madagascar vanilla beans, split and seeds scraped out
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 8 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 3 tbsp liquid sugar (glucose or reduced corn syrup)
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place all ingredients except the vanilla extract into a saucepan over medium-low heat, or upper chamber of a double boiler. Whisk ingredients together and then turn on the heat (medium-low) and continue whisking until ingredients reach about 175F/79C and have thickened slightly and coat the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat, add vanilla extract, and set custard in very cold water and whisk for a few minutes and the custard cools down. Place in fridge and chill overnight and very cold. Before churning, remove the vanilla pods.

I used 2 small Madagascar vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean Kings and Vanilla Bean Project Regenerative Organic Certified Pure Vanilla Extract.  I definitely favor using both extract and beans.  

The custard barely thickened, even though I took it all the way to 180F (dangerous, as eggs do odd things above that temp), even 182 briefly (I hadn't intended to take it above 175F, but I was messing with my new thermometer) 

The vanilla flavor is wonderfully strong and the ice cream is silky smooth. I really like this recipe a lot.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor
• Tapioca syrup 1:1 instead of glucose
• Vanilla pods infused in the custard in overnight
• I didn't follow Rose's techniques, but used the no-temper method (outlined above), which is similar but not identical.

Results:

• Same day: silky smooth and wonderfully flavorful. 
• Next day:  silky smooth and wonderfully flavorful. Scoopable, but only just.

Uses:

• I stirred Mi-Del lemon snap chunks into the ice cream and layered/swirled lemon curd in with the ice cream to make lemon-vanilla cookies and cream.  It was very, very tasty.

 

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Ample Hill's Creamery Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

  “Vanilla Bean” from Ample Hill's Creamery: Secrets and Stories from Brooklyn's Favorite Ice Cream Shop by Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna.

• The online recipe for the base can be found here (for those who don't use metric measurements: here).
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This was an unusual recipe in that it directs you to steep a few whole coffee beans in the custard, which you strain out just before churning.  It uses only 3 eggs for one recipe, and I found that the custard didn't thicken very much when I cooked it (the recipe has you take it to 165 and ignores the texture).  It also includes a LOT of skim milk powder (1/2 cup!) and it took a lot of whisking to get it fully dissolved.  The coffee beans float which made it very easy to locate them and pull them out the next day.

I used a Madagascar vanilla bean from Vanilla Bean Kings and Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract (which I'm trying to use up). 

I really like this recipe. It is nice and smooth and has a lovely flavor. The recipe says you can't taste the coffee, but I totally could. It's obvious in the soft-serve stage, and still faintly detectible once fully frozen.  As much as I love coffee ice cream, I don't think I'd include the coffee beans again - it limits how the finished ice cream can be used, and I found myself searching for the coffee and wishing it were stronger.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• The recipe in the book calls for 1 vanilla bean and 1.5 tsp of vanilla extract so that's what I did.
• Turbinado sugar (always).
• No-temper technique in a double boiler: I put the egg yolks and sugar in the top chamber of the double boiler and whisked them until well integrated. I added all the rest of the ingredients (except for the extract) and turned on the heat. I whisked constantly until the milk powder dissolved, then frequently after that.

Results:

• Same day: Coffee flavor was definitely detectible. Delicious and smooth.
• Next day:  Coffee was much less obvious in the fully-frozen ice cream. Still smooth and reasonably scoopable (though I wish it were more so).

Uses:

• I used 1.25 cups of homemade chocolate chips and also layered in caramel sauce.  I'd intended to make a vanilla-lemon ice cream but I didn't think the coffee flavor would go with lemon very well.
• I think if the coffee is included, I'd lean toward combining the ice cream with stronger, bolder flavors that don't lean sour.  So chocolate is good, and fruit other than citrus.  Caramels, hot fudge, etc.

Marriage to a Fellow Tool-Whore

It's fun being married to a tool-whore who not just enables me to buy more cool kitchen gadgets, but actively encourages it.  

I'm still trying to figure out the cause of my two custard failures (seriously, I've made several dozen successful ones and never had a failure before, so this is bugging me), and I can't rule out having simply overcooked it (see below for my reasoning). 

So, I researched kitchen thermometers and came up with two well-regarded models tested by organizations I trust, the OXO Good Grips Glass Candy and Deep Fry Thermometer ($23), and the Thermoworks ChefAlarm® Cooking Alarm Thermometer and Timer ($65). They both have significant pros and cons and the price varies significantly (the expensive one isn't so expensive we can't afford it, but it does seem like a lot to spend on a thermometer) so it wasn't an easy decision.  Anyway, I sent the links to Chris thinking that he may have an opinion based on his own needs/uses.  I also thought he'd most likely encourage me to just get the cheaper one as it would almost certainly meet my needs.

A few minutes later, he came to my office and we had the following conversation:

Chris: This is probably not the advice you were looking for ...

Me:  [thinking: great, he's going to suggest making do with what we have]

Chris: ... but I think you should get them both.

Me: [eyebrows up] What? Really?

Chris: Yeah.  I'm pretty enchanted by the electronic one and the various uses, though I don't like that it uses triple-A's instead of rechargeables.  And the cheap one is low-tech and looks both accurate and reliable ... and it'll be great to have after the fall of civilization.

Me: Well, OK, then [orders both].

Why I think I may have overcooked the custard:

I tend to use my Fluke infrared (IR) thermometer (and it lives on the kitchen island), as it's quick and extremely handy.  But after my first custard failure, I made it again, this time using TWO thermometers, the Fluke as well as a cheap candy thermometer, the kind with a dial and a probe that extends down into the custard that you clip to the side of your pan.  

I noticed that the Fluke tended to read significantly cooler than the candy thermometer, by about 7-8 degrees F.  But the nature of IR thermometers is that they measure surface temperature only.  You can hold the trigger and scan across the item's surface, and when you release the trigger, it'll give you an average of the surface temps, but it's still just surface temperatures.  The probe, on the other hand, is measuring (I think) an average temperature along its length below the surface.  

I cooked the custard until the IR readings were consistently 170F.  The probe also showed that it was around 170F by that point as well (why do they sometimes match, and sometimes not?), but it took significantly longer to get there.  So maybe I cooked it too long, or maybe it was much hotter than 170 near the bottom of the mixture, despite my constant stirring.  And custards need to be kept under 180-185F, otherwise the egg yolks do weird things.

Making custard with four
thermometers is kind of a pain

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Van Leeuwen's Vanilla Ice Cream

  “Vanilla Ice Cream” on page 37 of Van Leeuwen's Artisan Ice Cream Book by Laura O'Neill, Ben Van Leeuwen, Pete Van Leeuwen, and Olga Massov.

• The online recipe can be found here. (You'll need to scroll down a bit, and click on the image to enlarge).
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here. 

I made this ice cream FOUR times before I felt like it was at all reasonable to review it.  The first two times were failures, and despite all my research, I still don't know why. The third time was a failure for a different reason (one that was entirely my fault), and the 4th time was an unmitigated success producing a wonderfully rich, smooth ice cream.

This ice cream uses eight egg yolks for a quart-sized batch.  Yes, you read that right - EIGHT.  The ice cream is very nearly yellow in color.  The recipe lacks both a liquid sugar or any sort of stabilizer, but I suspect the extreme number of yolks may keep the ice cream smooth despite that, though I'm curious to see if it remains smooth after a couple of weeks in the freezer.

For the first three tries, I was still using up older stock of Madagascar vanilla beans, and for the fourth try I finally got to use my newer Vanilla Bean Kings stash. 

First try (failure): I used the no-temper technique (placing all ingredients while still cold into the pan) in a sauce pan using medium heat (as normal) and whisked nearly continuously until it reached 170F/77C and when it was done cooking it was nice and smooth, but once the custard cooled, it had turned grainy (before going into the churn). I don't think the problem could be with leaving the bean pod in the custard overnight - I always do that, and it's never caused graininess before.  The ice cream was an abject failure. Good flavors, but absolutely terrible, grainy texture. Overall, it was a 3 out of 10.  Other than giving a few samples away to family, I tossed it.  

Second try (failure): Same as above, but I cooked the custard on medium-low and used not one but TWO thermometers - a probe-style clipped to the pan, and also regular checks with the instant-read.  This, too, was smooth while hot and grainy once cool.  I rescued this one by running it through the Vitamix before churning, and that raised its score to maybe a 7/10. Still not where it should be, but definitely worth eating.

Third try (failure): For this one, I followed the recipe EXACTLY (except for leaving the bean pod in the custard overnight), even using a double-boiler. I did notice that the quality of the creme anglaise was better than usual when the cooking was complete. The graininess was still there the next morning, but MASSIVELY reduced, like by 90%.  I also re-read the sidebar which suggests blending the bean pod in with the custard, and I unthinkingly did so, which spoiled the experiment by adding a confounding variable).   I must not have blended it long enough because the texture was just  ... odd.  Almost, powdery, I guess? It was scoopable, though, so I don't think it was an emulsion failure, and the odd texture seemed to be from not-quite-fully processed vanilla bean pod bits.  I don't think the vanilla flavor was improved by blending the bean, so I won't be doing that in the future. I threw away the second half of the quart.

Fourth try (success): I used a bean from Vanilla Bean Kings (is it possible that the problems with the previous tries were with the beans I was using?), and I again followed the recipe as written (though I left the bean pod in the custard during the chilling process, removing it just before churning).  This time, I turned out perfectly and was delicious.

For whatever reason, this custard seems far more finicky than others, but that might be an unfair assessment, and I will be doing some testing to see what caused the graininess.   Like, can I get away with just a saucepan (instead of a double-boiler) if I add some liquid sugar and/or stabilizers? Or what if I use the double-boiler - is that enough to use the no-temper method even without the liquid sugar or stabilizers?  Or did I simply overcook it in the saucepan? (My instant read thermometer seems to register a cooler temperature than the candy thermometer.) I am really not sure what the tradeoffs will be. It'll be interesting to find out.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor for the first two batches.
• I used white sugar for the third and fourth batches (as I'm trying to figure out the cause of the graininess).
• This recipe uses only one vanilla bean, and no extract (I think I prefer vanilla ice cream to have both), but in the first batch, I accidentally used two vanilla beans, so the flavor was nice and strong despite the lack of extract.  How did I accidentally use two?  Before putting the milk/cream for this recipe in the freezer (I buy milk and cream in larger quantities, then freeze it in ready-to-go amounts), I split a vanilla bean and dropped it into the milk.  When I was ready to make this ice cream, I set the jar of frozen dairy in a pan of warm water to thaw, then started gathering my other ingredients. Forgetting that there was a bean frozen into the milk, I got another one ready to go and added it to the pan. Then I dumped the milk into the pan ... along with the second bean.
• For the second batch, I used only one bean.
• For the third batch, I used only one bean, but I blended it into the custard.
• For the first two batches, I used the-throw-all-cold ingredients into the pan and cook until it hits 170F/77C technique (ie, no-temper technique), but for some reason, the custards were grainy.
• For the third and fourth batches, I used a double-boiler, and did temper the eggs.

Results:

• Custard 1: 
• Same day: Grainy. Good flavor.
• Next day: Terrible texture. Dry and very, very hard and grainy. The flavor was good. But it was bad enough to throw it away.
• Custard 2 (blended before churning): 
• Same day: Good flavor, acceptable texture.
• Next day: Acceptable texture, reasonably scoopable, Flavor was good.  Much better than the previous batch, but definitely far from my best.
• Custard 3 (radically reduced graininess that might just be the vanilla seeds, blended pod into custard before churning). Unfortunately, I don't think I blended the pod ENOUGH because it made it a little chalky.
• Same day: kind of chalky from the blended pod.  Not sure I like that.
• Next day: It's reasonably scoopable, even frozen hard. Texture is still off, but I think that's the fault of the pod, which I apparently didn't blend fully. I also don't think the flavor is especially improved by blending the pod, so doubt I'll bother with that again.
• Custard 4: Delicious.  Just perfect both days.  

Uses:

• I added dark chocolate chips, candied orange peel, and drizzled homemade orange syrup into the ice cream to make a ripple of sorts in two batches. I think ginger snap chunks would taste great with this combination, or maybe chocolate wafers (like Oreos, but better).
• With the third batch, I didn't add any stir-ins as I'm having guests that weekend, and having vanilla ice cream on hand would be a good idea.
• With the fourth batch, I added Oreo cookies and raspberry ripple.  

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Dark Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Black Pepper

  “Dark Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Black Pepper” from Rose's Ice Cream Bliss by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

• My other ice cream reviews can be found here.

I can't find the recipe online except behind a paywall, so I've included the ingredients below, so you can get a sense of the flavors:

• Dairy: 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk
• Eggs: 7-11 (I used 9)
• Sugars: - 3/4 cup dark brown sugar and 2 tbsp liquid sugar
• Other flavors: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and a pinch of salt
• Black pepper: Added as a "to-taste" topping when the ice cream is served.

I didn't like the black pepper as a topping very much - it felt out of place and didn't meld the flavors at all. We also managed to inhale it a bit from time to time, making us cough a little now and then as we ate.  I'm inclined to either add black pepper to a caramel sauce and layer that in, OR cook the black pepper inside a fine mesh bag to infuse the flavor, then remove it before churning. 

I didn't think the brown sugar flavor was quite strong enough, so I stirred in 2 tsp of molasses to the chilled custard (molasses is acidic, so it's best added when the milk is cold to avoid curdling the dairy). One family member thought the molasses flavor was too strong, and others liked it.  

Alas, my ice cream maker decided to leak coolant out the bottom (fortunately NOT into the ice cream), so I transferred the partially frozen mixture to my backup ice cream maker and promptly broke the hub assembly on the second bowl, so I finished churning by hand (just mixing it in the frozen bowl).  I went from two ice cream makers to zero in about 5 minutes.    I now have a replacement bowl (under warranty) and a new hub assembly on their way to me.  Obscenities could probably be heard at my neighbor's house.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• I used brown sugar as the recipe called for instead of my usual turbinado.
• I used glucose as the liquid sugar.
• I (mostly) followed Rose's no-temper technique; I put the egg yolks into the pan, added the granulated sugar to them and beat them a little to combine. Then I added all the other ingredients except the vanilla, turned on the heat and cooked, gently whisking nearly constantly until the temperature passed 165F/74C and it was starting to thicken.  I didn't use a double boiler, and the texture was nice and smooth.
• I transferred the mixture to my milk can, added the vanilla extract, and set the can in a sink of cold water. I mixed for a few minutes, then left it to chill for an hour before transferring to the fridge to finish chilling.

Results:

• Same day: Nice and smooth despite the hand-mixed finish. Very nice flavor.  I think I'd recommend people start with 1 tsp of molasses to amp up the flavor, and add a second (as I did) if they like it strong.
• Next day: Not as smooth as I'd like, but very very good considering how I churned it.

Uses:

• Strawberry sauce goes nicely on it. I think an apple caramel sauce ribbon would be good, as well as graham crackers, or a cookies-and-cream variation using ginger snaps.  

Ice Cream Recipe Review: David Lebowitz's Chocolate Ice Cream

  “Chocolate Ice Cream” from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebowitz.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other chocolate ice cream reviews can be found here. 

I don't know if it's the double-boiler that caused this, but this is the smoothest egg-based custard I've ever made (despite not having a liquid sugar nor a stabilizer both of which really do help prevent iciness).  I also had some difficulty getting the custard up to 170F/77C, but I watched the consistency, and it thickened appropriately on the cool side - around 160F/71C.  I wonder if it's because the water level had dropped too much in the lower chamber of the double boiler?  It was far from empty, but it dropped an inch in the time I cooked the custard.

Note: to pasteurize an egg, it must be held at 140F/60C for 3.5 minutes. The custard was held at a significantly higher temperature for a significantly longer period of time, so the concern here wasn't with food safety, but whether it would achieve the right texture (it did).

Either way, once chilled, the custard was so thick (about the consistency of pudding cups I ate as a kid) I had to spoon it into the churn.   I must have managed the temperatures appropriately because I doubt it would have thickened so much if I hadn't. 

It's also very deeply chocolatey (which I appreciate in an ice cream).  I think I prefer the flavor of Fany Gerson's chocolate ice cream with mazapán (which tastes like a flourless chocolate cake in ice cream form), but this was really, really good.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• I used chocolate chips as the chocolate source.
• I'm currently using a double boiler for my egg-based custards.
• I used the no-temper technique I adapted from Serious Eats and Rose Levy Beranbaum. I placed the egg yolks into the upper chamber of the double boiler (while it was cold) and whisked them with 1/3 of the sugar. Then I added all the rest of the ingredients except the vanilla and chocolate chips, whisked it gently then turned on the heat under the double boiler.  
• I filled the sink with cold water in preparation for rapid chilling of the custard.
• The chocolate chips and vanilla went into my mini milk can that I use to chill the custard.  I poured the custard onto the chips, then placed the can into the sink of cold water to begin the chilling process.  
• I whisked the mixture to melt the chips, and it turned a deep glossy, chocolatey brown (that glossiness is what you are looking for), and I continued whisking for a couple of minutes, long enough for it to cool to warm then left the can in the cold water for an hour before transferring the custard to the fridge overnight.
• I churned at a faster speed than usual to decrease the richness a little. It lightened noticeably in color (as with a whipped ganache).

Results:

• Same day: Silky smooth. The flavor is more deeply chocolate than the color would imply. Wonderful.
• Next day: Excellent flavor and texture.  Not as scoopable as I'd like - still need to let it sit at room temp for 10 minutes first. 

Uses:

• Chambord is delicious on this ice cream. 
• I think a salted caramel ripple would be wonderful in it, or even some sort of banana ripple ... or any fruit ripple, really.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Strawberry Ice Cream

  “Strawberry Ice Cream” on page 55 of Rose's Ice Cream Bliss by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

• The online recipe can be found here. (see below for instructions for using fresh or frozen strawberries rather than puree).
• My other strawberry ice cream reviews can be found here.

This flavor is a challenge, I admit. Strawberries, being the wateriest of fruits, can make it difficult to achieve a smooth texture. Many churners resort to making strawberries-and-cream styles (vanilla ice cream with ribbons of strawberry jam), or they use less strawberry puree, resulting in more dilute flavor. My own recipe from 15 years ago has a wonderful flavor, but when frozen hard, it gets a little icy.

This recipe, while very very good, didn't result in as intensely strawberry flavor as I'd like. I know that fresh strawberry ice cream can be pure manna, so I plan to persevere until I've got a more intensely-flavored, silky-smooth strawberry ice cream. 

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always), as I prefer the flavor.
• The online recipe is a variation that uses commercially-made puree.  If you are using frozen/fresh strawberries, here's what you should do instead:
• Freeze 20 ounces of strawberries (if using fresh strawberries only). 
• Place frozen strawberries in a colander over a bowl and let thaw (several hours at room temp, a couple of days in the fridge). 
• Stir the berries and gently press until you have about 7 tbsp or 1/2 cup of juice collected in the bowl 
• Place the strawberry juice, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 2 tsp of lemon juice in a large glass 4-cup measuring cup (you MUST use at least this size of cup for the next step to prevent boil-overs).
• Cook the juice in the microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after every 30-second blast.  Repeat until it has reduced to about 1/4 of the original volume. It will be thick and a little syrupy.
• Puree the pulp from the strawberries and combine it with the cooked strawberry syrup.
• Follow the online recipe as written, using your homemade sweetened strawberry puree in place of the commercial puree. Don't add additional lemon juice - it's already in the puree that you made.
• I omitted the drops of strawberry essence called for in the original recipe (it's not listed in the online version).
• Because my strawberry syrup amount was off and I used all of the sweetened puree (slightly more than the recipe calls for), I added 1 tbsp of milk powder to the custard. I probably shouldn't have done that, as now I don't know how it would have turned out without it.
• I just mashed the strawberry pulp instead of pureeing it in a food processor. I probably should have pureed it. 
• I used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch at a 1:1 substitution. I stirred the milk/starch slurry into the custard just after removing it from the heat.
• I used glucose.

Results:

• Same day: Soft-serve texture is good, and the flavor is nicely strawberry-ish. I'd like it to be stronger yet, though.
• Next day: This is wonderfully scoop-able, even hard-frozen. I'm not sure if it's due to the mashing (instead of pureeing), but I can detect the strawberry seeds, something I don't recall from previous batches of this flavor. But it's far smoother than the recipe I developed 15 years ago.  The flavor is still very good.    

Uses:

• I left it plain, but I think a ribbon of strawberry sauce/ripple or macerated strawberry compote would be delicious and intensify the flavor nicely.
• Topping it with chocolate sauce or adding chocolate or toasted white-chocolate stracciatella to the ice cream would be yummy.
• Maybe stir in some sort of candied graham crackers to add crunch and suggest a strawberry pie?

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Fany Gerson's Chocolate Ice Cream with Peanut Marzipan

"Chocolate Ice Cream with Peanut Marzipan" on page 99 of  Mexican Ice Cream: Beloved Recipes and Stories by Fany Gerson.

• I couldn't find this one online; I included an adapted version below. 
• My other chocolate ice cream reviews can be found here.

This ice cream tastes like a cross between a flourless chocolate cake and a Reese's peanut butter cup.  It's decadent and delicious.  

You'll either need to buy or make peanut mazapán, a Mexican candy made with only two ingredients: roasted peanuts and powdered sugar.  

This is actually the second time I've made it - I screwed it up the first time. I was experimenting with a new technique of adding all the ingredients at once, then cooking until the custard thickens, but what I didn't know is that in order to thicken the custard, the egg yolks need to reach a much higher temperature than chocolate can handle, and I wound up with seized chocolate (flavor was still good, but the ice cream was grainy - like eating chocolate sand).  The fats were also not properly emulsified which made the ice cream VERY hard, but also also had an odd texture: kind of dry and crumbly.  

So this time, I put all ingredients except the chocolate and cocoa into the pan, cooked it until the custard thickened, removed it from the heat, and then let it cool down to below 120F/49C before adding the chocolate. That technique worked fine, and I wound up with delicious ice cream that was decidedly non-grainy. 

So, learn from my mistake, and don't heat your chocolate up beyond the temperature needed to melt it. 

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup (160 ml) of chopped/crumbled mazapán peanut candy
• 2 1/4 cups whole milk (530 ml)
• 3/4 cups heavy cream (175 ml)
• 1/2 cup sugar  (100 grams)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp salt
• 7.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips or finely chopped bars (210 grams)
• 3 1/2 tbsp of high-quality dutch-process cocoa (53 ml)
• 2 tsp Mexican cinnamon (optional)

Instructions:

1. Chop or crumble the mazapán (aim for pieces about the size of chocolate chips), and place in the refrigerator or freezer.
2. Place all ingredients except the chocolate and cocoa into a pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until it begins to thicken (about 165F/74C). 
3. Remove from heat and let sit for about 30 minutes.
4. Add the chocolate to the custard and stir until melted and fully incorporated. If you let the custard get too cool, turn the heat on low and stir constantly until chocolate melts. Remove from heat immediately. 
5. Chill custard in ice water (place pan in a bowl of ice water) for 30-60 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill fully.
6. Churn.
7. Stir mazapán into the soft ice cream, serve, or transfer to freezer to harden fully.

Notes:

• The temperature of the custard needs to drop to about about 110F/43C before you add the chocolate (it MUST be below 120F/49C, otherwise the chocolate will seize, rendering the product grainy, like chocolate sand). I found that it took about 20 minutes to cool enough, but the time will vary based on ambient temperatures.
• You need to locate a source of good quality dutch-process cocoa, that is finely ground enough to ensure it melts/dissolves fully. Low-quality cocoa that hasn't dissolved will leave the ice cream tasting powdery.  I like Lake Champlain Cocoa.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• I added 1/8 cup of glucose to help smooth the ice cream (it's a non-sweet ice cream). I think I should have added another 1/8 cup.
• The original recipe has you heat the dairy with half the sugar and when the sugar has melted, temper a mixture of egg/remaining sugar/salt/cocoa mixture. Cook until thick, then strain the custard into the chocolate and stir to melt/incorporate. I didn't do it that way.
• I didn't include the cinnamon. I don't like it in chocolate (or coffee for that matter).

Results:

• Same day: Ohmygod.  Delicious.  
• Next day: Ice cream is still much harder and less smooth than many other recipes when frozen hard, but the chocolate ice cream flavor is one of the best I've tried. It's obviously made right this time and the texture is definitely not wrong.  This ice cream is very addictive, and very rich.
• I want to figure out how to make this a little smoother/softer, while preserving that wonderful flavor.  
• It's also a little too salty - most recipes call for a pinch on the light end, and up to 1/4-1/2 tsp on the salty end for a recipe. This one calls for a full teaspoon. I think the salt should be cut at least in half.

Uses:

• This one is too rich and delicious for additional toppings and stands alone.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream, French Vanilla

 “Vanilla Ice Cream,” on page 28 of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This ice cream recipe uses 6 egg yolks, which is on the high end, but no sweet syrup, nor texture agent such as corn starch or tapioca flour.  It still turned out well.

I tried out a technique I read about at Serious Eats - I added all of the ingredients except for the vanilla extract into the pan, turned on the heat, and whisking regularly (not quite constantly), I brought the mixture to 165F (74C), when it began to thicken.  I removed from the heat, added the vanilla extract, then chilled the custard.  It turned out perfectly, and was far less work than the typical method.

I prefer vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean Kings, but I'm still using up existing stock of vanilla beans (in this case from Penzey's), and I used vanilla crush extract from Sonoma Syrups, which is an excellent extract.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• With the exception of the vanilla extract, I put all of the cold ingredients (including the egg yolks) into a pan at once, and whisked regularly until it began to thicken.
• The recipe directs you to pour the custard through a sieve into the vanilla-infused milk before chilling. I ommitted that step which is only really necessary if you scramble the egg yolks.

Results:

• Same day: The soft-serve stage is silky smooth and the vanilla flavor is great.  I got more overrun than usual (beating more air into the ice cream), so the soft-serve phase was a little less dense than I like.
• Next day: The flavor and texture are excellent. I definitely prefer the strong vanilla flavor that combining beans and extract provides. The texture is perfectly smooth, and it's not frozen too hard.

Uses:

• I stirred in chocolate chips, peanut mazapán chunks, and a lovely bourbon-orange caramel sauce. The combination was delicious.

Ice Cream: My new favorite topping: Mazapán

I tried the chocolate-peanut Mazapán ice cream recipe from Fany Gerson’s Mexican Ice Cream book, and I cannot say enough good things about mazapán, which will be a delicious stir-in to many ice creams.

What is mazapán, you may ask? Well, it's a little like marzipan, but made with peanuts instead of almonds, and it's somewhere between a cookie and a candy.

It's very simple, typically made with two ingredients: unsalted, roasted peanuts, and powdered sugar.  You process them in a food processor until it holds together, then you press the mixture into molds to make a delicate, crumbly cookie.  

It's a little like the center of regular Reece's peanut butter cups, but drier and more crumbly.  

Anyway it's delicious in ice cream - (when you cut the cookies up, leave the chunks reasonably large, at least chocolate-chip sized). Keep the mazapans in the fridge until it's time to stir them into the ice cream once churning is complete.

Here's a recipe:

https://www.allroadsleadtothe.kitchen/2011/09/mazapanes-de-cacahuate-peanut-marzipans.html

If you’ve never tried it, be sure to look at several recipes (google for "peanut mazapan"), and watch a few videos to get a feel for how to make it (you MUST work the mixture in the food processor until fine enough to hold together, and that takes awhile. If you find you can’t get the mazapans to hold together, put them back in, and work it longer). I also pressed it out in a mat and cut circles with a cookie cutter instead of loading them individually. I pressed the mixture down in the cutter with the back of a spoon before removing the cutter and transferring the cookie. I grabbed the leftovers and made a smaller mat… rinse and repeat.

April 22, 2024 update: I've decided that my mazapanes were over-processed, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I decided to see what the candy is supposed to taste like, so I ordered some La Rosa mazapán from Amazon.

To my surprise, it was really quite different. Much paler, far more fragile, and sweeter, tasting strongly of powdered sugar. They remind me a little of Mexican wedding cookies, or even a powdered doughnut. They crumble easily (it's a bit surprising I managed to get one unwrapped in one piece for the photo below). Mine are more cohesive, have a stronger peanut flavor, and the peanut chunks are finer. The peanuts are also roasted less.

The darker one is my homemade mazapán, and
the paler one is made by La Rosa in Mexico.

For the purposes of ice cream - because mine was more cohesive, they provided really nice pops of peanut flavor in the mixture, and I also liked the toastier peanut flavor, whereas the traditional mazapán is going to break up more when it's stirred into the ice cream, and the flavor with be both milder, and more distributed.  But, I really loved the bigger chunks of peanut in the the La Rosa product.

The next time, I'm planning to overprocess half of the batch on purpose, maybe even processing it further than I did. For the second half, I will stop processing when the mixture is still quite coarse (but the oil has started to release), then integrate the two.  It may not be traditional, but it'll be delicious.  

Ice Cream Recipe Review: David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream, Philadelphia Style

“Vanilla Ice Cream, Philadelphia Style” on page 29 of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This ice cream recipe doesn't have a sweet syrup, nor a texture agent, so I'm guessing it will freeze harder, and be less smooth.  It also doesn't have eggs, so it doesn't thicken prior to churning, which made it VERY easy and fast to get it into the churn.

I mostly followed the recipe as written, though I put all of the dairy in the saucepan (instead of reserving some), and brought the mixture to a full simmer.

The recipe calls for both a vanilla bean and vanilla extract, so the vanilla flavor is nice and strong.  When I develop my own recipe, I'm planning to use both.

 I prefer vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean Kings which are by far my favorites, but I needed to use up old stock, and so used a vanilla bean from Penzey's (which was perfectly fine). I also used Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract which merely OK (it's better than most regular grocery-store brands, but I've since found much better extracts) so I'm trying to use it up too.

The flavor out of the churn was very good, but it was less complex than I'd like and definitely less rich (I really do prefer egg-based custards for vanilla ice cream), and I think Jeni's vanilla recipe is a better egg-free vanilla).  I think the lack of cooking (other recipes call for boiling the dairy, sometimes for as long as 4 minutes) means less caramelization of the milk sugars or something.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• I put all of the dairy (instead of just 1 cup of the cream) in the saucepan. I also brought it to a full simmer (instead of removing it from the heat as soon as the sugar is dissolved).

Results:

• Same day: The soft-serve stage is smooth and the vanilla flavor is great, but the flavor is thinner somehow, and less rich even than other eggless custards.  I wonder if the lack of cooking caused this?
• Next day: I definitely prefer the strong vanilla flavor that this recipe provides. However, the texture is definitely not as smooth as other recipes I've tried, both with or without eggs. It's even slightly icy.  Thus far, this is my least favorite philly-style vanilla.

Uses:

• I turned the ice cream into chocolate-chip raspberry ripple ice cream by stirring homemade chocolate chips (do NOT use plain old chocolate chips - they will be hard, waxy, and flavorless because they are not intended for ice cream) into the ice cream, and then when I packed the freshly churned ice cream before putting it into the freezer, I alternated layers of raspberry ripple (Jeni's recipe) with the chocolate-chip ice cream. 

Ice Cream: The right kind of chocolate chips

 Chocolate chips for ice cream (adapted from Dana Cree's recipe):

You don't want to use regular chocolate chips in ice cream, not even mini chips, because they will be hard, flavorless, and waxy in your ice cream. The problem is that chocolate chips are formulated to melt at a relatively high temperature, which means when they are cold, or when your mouth is cold from eating ice cream, the flavor of the chocolate doesn't come through.

You need to lower the melting point of the chocolate by adding coconut oil. It's easy (but a little messy).  You want to use refined coconut oil (look for "expeller-pressed" or "refined" on the jar) so that it does not add coconut flavor to the chocolate. 

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces of good chocolate chips (your choice of white, milk, semi-sweet, or bittersweet)
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil

Steps:

1. Place chocolate chips and coconut oil in a big glass measuring cup. 
2. Place it in the microwave and give it a 20-second blast on high. Stir.  
3. Alternate microwaving in 20-second increments and stirring, and as the chocolate gets close to melting, shorten the microwave times to 10 seconds. 
4. When the chocolate is smooth and shiny, pour it onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and spread the chocolate into a fairly thin layer, no thicker than about 1/4 inch (6 mm).  
5. Place in the freezer until hard (at least 2 hours or overnight). 
6. Break the sheet of chocolate up, and keep the big chunks in the freezer while you prepare your work surface.
7. Place a flexible cutting board (if you have one) on the cookie sheet (preferably one with tall sides to help contain any chunks of chocolate that go flying).  Or maybe work in a tall-sided roaster to help contain the chocolate.
8. Take 1-2 chunks of chocolate out of the freezer, place them on the cutting board, and chop them up with a serrated knife.
9. Transfer your chocolate chips into a second container, and keep that in the freezer as well.
10. Repeat the previous two steps until all of the chocolate is processed.

When not being chopped up, the big chunks and the chips should be kept in the freezer, so you will be going in and out of the freezer frequently during this process.

It's messy - chocolate flies everywhere, and any that gets on your hands will melt.   But this amount makes enough very tasty chocolate chips to make at least 3-6 batches of ice cream.  

Added: I wonder if it's possible to make the chocolate chips even more melty, perhaps by adding more coconut oil?  I worry that if I add too much, it will get funky.  But how much is too much?

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Fany Gerson's Vanilla Ice Cream

 “Vanilla Ice Cream/Helado de Vainilla” on page 68 of Mexican Ice Cream by Fany Gerson.

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This ice cream recipe doesn't have a sweet syrup, so it's likely to freeze harder, but it does use a texture agent, which grabs free water molecules and helps prevent the ice cream from getting icy.  It also has more vanilla than most - it calls for two Mexican vanilla beans and 1/2 teaspoon of Mexican vanilla extract.  I like the more intense flavor, and the lack of eggs in the custard is barely noticeable.

Making the custard works a bit differently: you cook the sugar, vanilla and 3/4 of the milk until it reaches a simmer. Then you add in the reserved milk with the cornstarch (there's a LOT of cornstarch - 1.5 tbsp), and when it's thickened, you stir in the cream after the cooking is done.  The result is a much thinner, easier-to-pour custard, and it was a lot easier to get into the churn the next day.

I used both vanilla beans and Pure Vanilla Extract by Villa Vainilla. The extract is great (though the amber color is surprising - I'm accustomed to vanilla extract being the color of coffee). The beans, on the other hand, were a little small and more dried out than I'd like, but they still produced a good flavor.  I prefer vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean Kings which are by far my favorites, but they happened to be sold out of Mexican vanilla at the time I was purchasing ingredients for this recipe. 

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• I used tapioca flour/starch in place of corn starch, 1:1 ratio.
• The recipe directs you to pour the custard through a sieve before chilling. I ommitted that step, and let it chill overnight with the vanilla beans in place. I fished them out before pouring the chilled custard into the ice cream maker.

Results:

• Same day: The soft-serve stage is silky smooth and the vanilla flavor is great.
• Next day: The flavor is quite good, particularly given that it's an eggless custard. I definitely prefer the strong vanilla flavor that this recipe provides. However, while the texture is good, it's definitely not as smooth as other recipes I've tried, both with or without eggs.  
• The recipe is small - it barely makes a quart.  

Uses:

• I stirred in some candied pecans and layered in some leftover caramel sauce to make a ripple.

Ice Cream Recipe Review: Bi-Rite Creamery's Vanilla Ice Cream

“Vanilla Ice Cream” on page 35 of Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones by Kris Hoogerhyde, Anne Walker and Dabney Gough. 

• The online recipe can be found here. 
• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

This is the first ice cream recipe I've made in many years that has neither a sweet syrup (which helps keep the ice cream a little softer when fully frozen), nor a texture agent such as corn starch (which grabs free water molecules and helps prevents the ice cream from getting icy).  But ice cream never used to include those things, so I suspect it will be fine. I might have to let it sit longer at room temp before serving, and it may have a slightly shorter shelf-life in the freezer.  

It also has more vanilla than most - it calls for both a vanilla bean and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  I suspect that I will like the more intense flavor.  I used a Madagascar Vanilla bean (my last one from Vanilla Bean Kings which are by far my favorites. I'll order more from VBK when I use up some other beans I have on hand). Because my own homemade vanilla extracts are months away from being ready, I researched vanilla extracts, and splurged on two fancy ones reviewed by Saveur: Organic Pure Vanilla Bean Extract “Crush” by Sonoma Syrup Company (which I used in this recipe) and a Mexican vanilla bean extract Pure Vanilla Extract Elixir by Villa Vainilla, that I purchased for a ice cream recipe that calls for extract made with Mexican vanilla. 

July 25, 2024 update: Finally got around to trying this again.  

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor.
• I brought the dairy/sugar/vanilla bean combination to boil, then turned off the heat, and immediately tempered the eggs.  Once I added the egg mixture and it thickened, I let it steep for 30 minutes before transferring the custard to my mini milk can for chilling prior to churning. In retrospect, I probably should have done it the way the recipe called for because I suspect the hot dairy is a more effective solvent for the bean than the thickened custard is. 
• The recipe doesn't say when to remove the vanilla bean. I fished it out just before churning.
• I used my tedious egg-tempering method (which is basically like theirs but in smaller amounts, and pouring from high up)
• I didn't churn right away - I chilled the custard in my mini milk can in a sink of cold water, then transferred the can to the fridge to chill all day. I churned in the evening.
• 2024-07-25: Did the no-temper technique. Except for the vanilla extract (which I added at the end) I put all the ingredients (cold) into the pan, and whisked regularly until the temperature reached 175F. 

Results:

• Same day: I made a rookie mistake - I stopped the churn in the middle of churning, and then the paddle froze to the sides, and I could NOT get it going again. I am annoyed with myself- I KNEW this would happen (because it's happened before). So I hand mixed the harder sheets of ice cream frozen onto the sides of the bowl into the softer custard as well as I could but I fear the texture won't be representative of the recipe. The soft-serve stage seems OK, but it's hard to say what the end result will be once fully frozen.
• Next day: The flavor is good, but the texture is definitely lacking, and that is probably my fault. I think I'm going to have to make this one again to give it a fair churn.  
• One week later: I tried again, and that's when I discovered that I'd actually broken the hub assembly on my ice cream maker (a part that is well-known for breaking, though mine lasted for 7 years). I ordered an after-market replacement. In the meantime I froze the unchurned custard. 
• 10 days later: When the part arrived, I thawed the custard, and finally churned it. It seems fine, but I don't think it's a fair representation of the recipe, so I will try one more time.
• The recipe is small - it barely makes a quart.  
• 2024-07-25:

Uses:

• I made a new caramel sauce from the Salt and Straw ice cream book though I substituted glucose for the light corn syrup. I failed (again!) to get it dark enough during the cooking, so it's not as richly flavored as it should be, but it was much better than last time. I amended it with a little bourbon, a little black strap rum (very dark) and some orange extract, and it's quite good. And it stayed much softer when frozen, so it made a much better ripple to fold into the ice cream after churning. My last batch was hard like stiff taffy when frozen.
• I layered in some caramel sauce (see uses section below) when I was packing the ice cream away, to make a ripple.
• 2024-07-25: Layered in strawberry sauce and chunks of shortbread cookies to make a strawberry shortcake ice cream.