Recipe 20: Triple Coconut Ice Cream

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

After last week’s ice cream debacle (see Recipe 19 and Recipe 19b), I really needed a win – an ice cream that would be delicious, uncomplicated, and reaffirm my confidence in myself.  My sister chose Triple Coconut Ice Cream.  It was the perfect choice.

As you may remember, a couple months ago I made Coconut Ice Cream with Crystallized Ginger.  It was amazing.  Incredibly thick and creamy, and the coconut and ginger complemented each other extremely well.  Since it had turned out so well, I went into this recipe pretty confident, but I can honestly say Triple Coconut Ice Cream exceeded my wildest expectations.

Unsurprisingly, this recipe tastes very, very strongly of coconut.  It’s also slightly chewy because there’s just under a cup of shredded coconut in it.  But what really brings it together is the vanilla base, which is this wonderful combination of cream, sugar, vanilla, and coconut that tastes an awful lot like Italian cream cake.  Every bite is simply amazing, and if I have enough ingredients I’m absolutely making it again this week.  I cannot speak highly enough of this recipe, and if you have even the slightest taste for coconut, you absolutely have to try this.  You’ll be so happy you did.

The recipe I used came from Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream: 52 Easy Recipes for Year-Round Frozen Treats by Sally Sampson (which is about to become my new go-to cookbook).

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup coconut milk
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup shredded sweetened coconut
• ½ cup toasted, shredded sweetened coconut 

Directions

1. Place the milk, cream, coconut milk, and ¼ cup of the sugar in a small pan and cook over low heat, whisking from time to time until sugar is dissolved.
2. Place the egg yolks, ¼ cup of the sugar, and the salt in a small bowl and whisk until completely mixed.  Add ¼ cup of the warm milk mixture at a time, whisking all the while (add about 2 cups of this total).
3. Slowly return the egg and milk mixture to the remaining milk mixture in the pan and continue cooking until it just begins to thicken.  Don’t allow it to boil.  You’ll know it’s done when the mixture coats the back of a spoon and creates ripples when you blow on it.
4. Remove mixture from heat, straining if necessary.
5. Once the mixture reaches room temperature, add the vanilla extra and stir to combine.
6. Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours.
7. Approximately an hour before you transfer the mixture into an ice cream maker, toast ½ cup of shredded sweetened coconut.  To do so, preheat the over to 350 degrees F.  Place the coconut on a baking sheet and bake until lightly colored and fragrant – about 10 minutes.  Flip after five minutes.  Once done, set aside to cool.
8. Once the mixture is cool, transfer it to an ice cream maker and churn according to directions.
9. When the ice cream is almost done, add the shredded coconut (toasted and untoasted), and then process until it’s done.
10. Once churned, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm – at least three hours.

The resulting ice cream will be sweet, creamy, firm, and oh-so-coconut-y.  It will also taste delicious with just about anything – chocolate/fudge, caramel, apricots, pineapple, walnuts, pecans, and Mango Ice Cream – and be a huge crowd-pleaser.  Its only flaw is that there’s so little of it – barely 4 cups!  (Also be aware that it really is a “chewy” ice cream – there’s just so much coconut!  I love noshing on coconut, but if you don’t, you might want to add slightly less shredded coconut.)  So if you make this, make extra and expect it to be gone almost immediately.  It’s just that delicious.

Enjoy!

Overview

• Base prep time: 30 minutes (including toasting the coconut)
• Base chill time: at least 3 hours
• Ice cream set time: at least 3 hours
• Taste: sweet, firm, and creamy with strong taste of coconut and a lighter taste of vanilla – very chewy because of the massive amounts of shredded coconut
• Difficulty level: low to medium
• Expense level: low to medium
• Makes: approximately 4 cups (1 quart)

Recipe 19b: Mango Ice Cream -- The Ice Cream That Finally Was

Monday, April 27, 2015

As you may have seen in last week’s post, “Recipe 19: The Ice Cream That Never Was (Mango Ice Cream),” I just could not make mango ice cream.  I really couldn’t.  That week I tried two separate recipes, and they turned out horribly.  The mango was going really, really bad – either bitter and bland or overripe and bland.  It was incredibly frustrating.

But I didn’t want to give up.  I love mangos.  And I wanted a mango ice cream.  So I kept trying.

And on my fourth try, I finally got it.  Cue the dramatic, ugly crying and falling on the floor.

I am so happy that I kept trying because what I finally got is really, really good.  It’s a little soft, very creamy, and extremely mango-y but not too sweet.  I actually never found a good mango ice cream recipe.  I attempted mango kulfi this week (Kulfi is sometimes called “Indian ice cream,” but it’s really more like flavored, frozen whipped cream.), and it just didn’t turn out.  What I ended up doing was finding a plain custard base (taken from the Coolhaus Ice Cream Book by Natasha Case and Freya Estreller) and then adding canned pureed mango, vanilla, and lemon juice to get the flavor I wanted.  I ended up buying eight cans of mango in my quest to get the correct flavor.

In the end, I used canned pureed Alphonso mango, which is indigenous to India and has a slightly different flavor from South American mangos, which is what we use in the US (Ignore my original ingredients photo where I attempted to use Dole canned mangos.  Ugh.  Horrible idea.  Do not buy Dole.).  Alphonso mangos are extremely sweet and taste ever so slightly like rotten mangos.  I know this sounds horrible, but it’s really not.  Imagine an overripe mango.  Now imagine that instead of the sugars destroying the flavor, they actually enrich it and make it sweeter.  That’s kind of like what an Alphonso mango tastes like.  It takes a little getting used to but makes an amazing ice cream with a mango flavor that won’t turn or get overpowered.  However, you will have to go to your local Indian market (or amazon.com) to find it.

Below is my patented mango ice cream recipe, and I can 100% guarantee that it works and tastes delicious.  Enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 large egg yolks
• Approximately 16 oz. sweetened pureed mango
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice 

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine milk, cream, and half of the sugar.  Set over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil – about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk yolks and remaining sugar until smooth, heavy, and pale yellow – about 30 seconds.
3. When the cream mixture just comes to a boil, whisk, remove from heat, and begin adding ¼ cup of the cream mixture at a time to the yolk-sugar mixture, whisking constantly until blended.  Mix in approximately 2 cups of the cream mixture.
4. Pour the yolk-sugar-cream mixture back into the pan and cook on low to medium heat.  Whisk constantly.  The mixture should become slightly thickened and coat the back of the spoon (If you blow on the back of the spoon and the mixture ripples, you’ve got the right consistency.).
5. Remove the base from heat and stir occasionally while it cools.  Once it reaches room temperature, pour into a new container, cover, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
6. Once the base is chilled, remove from the fridge and begin adding the pureed mango.  Add the mango ½ cup at a time then add the vanilla extract and lemon juice – feel free to change the quantities to suit your taste.  If using unsweetened pureed mango, add more sugar to taste.
7. Pour the base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
8. Once churned, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm – at least four hours.

And there you have it – a delicious, mango-y treat that tastes delicious with vanilla or coconut ice cream (which you will learn about tomorrow when I post my Triple Coconut Ice Cream recipe).  Personally, I prefer South American mangos, and I’d like to try to make my own puree in the future – making sure that I have the very best and ripest mangos, of course – but that won’t be for a while yet.  After four attempts, I’m a little sick of mangos, but, hey, I made it!  I didn’t give up!  And I created sometime wonderful in the process.  It almost makes the two dozen mangos I wasted in the process worth it.  Sigh.

Enjoy!

Overview

• Base prep time: 30 to 40 minutes
• Base chill time: 12 to 24 hours (the longer the better)
• Ice cream set time: at least 4 hours
• Taste: soft and creamy with a strong mango flavor and hints of cream, vanilla, and lemon juice
• Difficulty level: if you follow this recipe and don’t have to start from scratch like I did, low to medium
• Expense level: see above (low to medium)
• Makes: approximately 8 cups (a lot!)

Recipe 19: The Ice Cream That Never Was (Mango Ice Cream)

Monday, April 20, 2015

            Guys, I cannot make Mango Ice Cream.  I really, really can’t.  I’ve tried two separate recipes and wasted 10 mangos in the past week.  But I really just can’t make Mango Ice Cream.

            The initial recipe I tried came from Scoop Adventures: The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States by Lindsay Clendaniel.  I would not recommend this recipe.  Ms. Clendaniel forgot to include the step where you add the mango puree so I had to guess, and she recommended covering and refrigerating the base for two hours.  This was a horrible idea.  The mangos went really, really bad and tasted extremely overripe – there was almost no sugar or flavor.  The result tasted spoiled and went in the bin.

            Next I tried this recipe from Nami at Just One Cookbook.  I was initially very excited about it because the recipe was from people with a strong cultural heritage of using mango.  The original poster, Tina from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner, grew up using mango in a lot of her local foods and knew how to use mangos in cooking.  I expected this recipe to go smoothly.

            Unfortunately, I’m probably using the wrong mangos, and I didn’t get fully ripe ones.  The taste started out much better than the first attempt but quickly became bitter and bland.  I’ve bought yet another batch of mangos to attempt this recipe and am letting them fully ripen.  I will probably not allow the base to chill but will immediately freeze it – that or follow the instructions of a few other recipes and freeze/blend the ice cream in mixtures.  And, if that doesn’t work, I’ll see if any of the Asian or international markets have Philippine mangos – apparently, they’re sweeter than South American, which is what I’ve been using (because they’re what we have).
            I’m really sorry about this, guys!  I’m really frustrated with this recipe and not quite sure if I’ll ever get it right.  If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.  I would love to make a good Mango Ice Cream.  Mango is probably my favorite fruit, and I’ve had mango lassi and mango kulfi and absolutely loved them.  I really wish I could make some mango ice cream for myself and share it with all of you.  –frowns in disappointment-

Recipe 18: Raspberry Lemon Sorbet

Monday, April 13, 2015

This week I decided to try something new: a sorbet!  Specifically, a Raspberry Lemon Sorbet.  Yum!

A sorbet, in case you didn’t know (and I didn’t before I attempted this) is made from water, sugar, and flavoring (usually fruit).  It’s gluten-free and vegan-safe, and it’s quite a bit healthier than ice cream (No dairy!).  Also, if you buy the flavoring in season, it can be really, really cheap.  And did I mention that it’s delicious and oh-so-refreshing?  Because it absolutely it.

Sorbet also seems to be pretty forgiving if you’re following a recipe though there are a few things you should know to get the best sorbet possible.  Understanding which fruits make the creamiest sorbets is important as is nailing a general rule of thumb for sugar-to-fruit ratios, but, instead of paraphrasing what I learned, I’m just going to direct you to this awesome article entitled “The Science of the Best Sorbet.”  It’s incredibly helpful and tells you just about everything you need to know about sorbets from the best fruits to use to the importance of corn syrup and the use of alcohol and cooking the fruit.  I fully plan on referencing it in my next sorbet attempt.

Because there will be another sorbet attempt.  I forgot how delicious sorbet could be and how it really hits the spot when you’re looking for a sweet that isn’t too heavy on the stomach.  The recipe I used, which more or less can be found here, was tart but sweet and melted easily on the tongue, leaving you wanting more.  The color was a gorgeous, shocking red-pink, and the smell was a perfect balance of raspberry and lemon.  My only possible complaint is that it wasn’t quite as firm as I would like.  Next time, I think I’ll add a little corn syrup to the recipe to set it a little nicer – if only so that it plates better.

 Below is my modified recipe for Raspberry Lemon Sorbet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups raspberry (I used fresh but frozen works too)
• ¼ cup lemon juice + 2 dashes (or to taste)

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a gentle boil.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then turn off the heat and let it cool.
2. Place raspberries in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add lemon juice and blend until well incorporated.
3. Push the raspberry-lemon puree through a fine-mesh sieve and into a large mixing bowl (You want as few seeds as possible.).
4. Add the sugar water to the raspberry-lemon puree and mix well.
5. Cover and put the base in the fridge until very cool – at least 2 hours.
6. Once chilled, pour the base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Once churned, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm – at least 4 hours (Your sorbet may end up very hard – it is only fruit, water, and sugar.  If so, take out of the freezer about five minutes before serving to thaw a little.). 

And that’s it!  Sorbets really do seem very easy.  The hardest part seems to be finding a good recipe and/or understanding a fruit’s chemical make-up well enough to predict how the sorbet will set (which I guess might not be easy for anyone that doesn’t read that article I linked to).

This sorbet was absolutely delicious and a wonderful combination of tart and sweet.  The lemon juice really enhanced the raspberries’ natural coloring and paired well with a flavor that can sometimes be a bit too subtle.  I think this sorbet would go really well with vanilla ice cream, and I have a ton of ideas on how to enhance it – making a vanilla swirl, putting it in push-pop containers, and making popsicles to name a few.  This is going to be a good summer.

Overview

• Base prep time: 15 – 30 minutes
• Base chill time: at least 2 hours
• Sorbet set time: at least 4 hours
• Taste: tart and sweet with a perfect balance of raspberry and lemon flavors; a beautiful color but only medium firmness
• Difficulty level: low
• Expense level: low
• Makes: approximately 6 cups

Recipe 17: Pink Panther Ice Cream

Alternative Title: Troubleshooting with Ice Cream

Monday, April 6, 2015

This week was a bit of a mess as far as ice cream went.  If you checked my Upcoming and Past Flavors page, you’ll have seen that I was supposed to do a Mango Ice Cream.  Unfortunately, the price of mangoes doubled by the time I went to buy them, and I didn’t want to pay $2.49 per mango.  That seemed outrageous.  But, being the brilliant fellow that I am, I didn’t discover this until Saturday evening which basically meant that if I wanted to stay on track ice cream-wise I had to find a new recipe tonight.  And I did.  It was Pink Panther Ice Cream from Scoop Adventures: The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States by Lindsay Clendaniel of Scoop Adventures.

Pink Panther Ice Cream seemed like a lovely recipe and a wonderful addition to our Easter spread the next day.  It had plenty of fruit, a dash of alcohol, and a beautiful shade.  Unfortunately, it also had crème de cassis: black currant liquor.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find crème de cassis on a Saturday night in Kentucky?  No one knows what it is, not even people who have worked with alcohol their entire lives.  Grocery stores don’t carry it, and local liquor stores don’t carry it.  I suppose that’s why God invented Liquor Barns, the end result of a bunch of rednecks shooting down a spaceship and filling it with alcohol.  But bless them because Liquor Barn had one bottle of crème de cassis.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of my ice cream woes.  I’m not fully satisfied with this recipe.  Like my Margarita Ice Cream recipe some time ago, it leaves a sort of waxy, filmy taste on the back of your tongue.  Initially, I’d thought the powdered sugar in the Margarita Ice Cream had done that, but Pink Panther Ice Cream doesn’t have any powdered sugar in it.  So what could the problem be?

Butterfat.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Ice Cream Geek, I’ve learned that one of the biggest factors in an ice cream’s texture is the amount of butterfat (the fatty part of the milk) that’s in it and that when you have too much butterfat, it leaves a weird, waxy taste on the back of your tongue.  The author of the article “Butterfat and Ice Cream” was also kind enough to create an Ice Cream Butterfat Calculator for public use.  How much butterfat does this Pink Panther Ice Cream Recipe have?  19%, quite a bit above the 10% -- 16% that ice cream usually has (And for your information, Margarita Ice Cream has 28.9% butterfat – no wonder I couldn’t get rid of that waxy taste!).

There are a few things I can do to change this, the easiest being switching ingredients.  Whole milk only has 3.5% butterfat so switching around the proportions of heavy whipping cream and whole milk should give me less butterfat but still maintain the taste and texture.  However, in doing so I might create a lot of ice crystals since this recipe only uses milk and heavy whipping cream as emulsifiers – and comes with alcohol, which makes it harder to freeze, as well as fruit, which is naturally icy.  Perfecting this recipe will probably take quite a bit of trial and error.

However, its butterfat content wasn’t the last of my issues with this recipe.  I personally thought the dairy component overwhelmed the somewhat delicate fruity flavors and diminished the ice cream’s refreshing quality.  By the time it was churned, the black currant, raspberry, and orange flavors were almost nonexistent – mere aftertastes.  In the future, I’d like to add more orange zest and steep it longer as well as add some raspberry extract to really bring out the flavor.  I’d also like to try this recipe as a sorbet or sherbet, though I have no idea if it’s even possible to make a decent alcoholic sorbet/sherbet.  And yet, as summer nears I have the feeling that I’m going to find out.

Until then, here is the Pink Panther Ice Cream recipe I used.

Ingredients

• 6 oz fresh raspberries
• 1 tbsp orange juice concentrate
• 1 ¾ cups heavy cream
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 2 ½ tbsp crème de cassis

* Note: you might try 1 ¼ cups heavy cream and 1 ¾ cups whole milk.  That will bring it down to the more acceptable 14.3%.

Directions

1. Place the raspberries in a blender and puree until smooth.
2. Strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the raspberry puree with the orange juice concentrate.  Cover and set aside.
4. Combine the cream, milk, sugar, salt, and orange zest in a medium saucepan.  Place over medium heat and bring the milk mixture to a low boil.  Cook until the sugar dissolves – 3 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and pour through a sieve into the raspberry-orange juice mixture.  Cool to room temperature.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled – at least 4 hours.
6. Once chilled, pour the ice cream base into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  When it’s almost churned, add the cassis (Doing so at the end means that your ice cream will actually freeze.).
7. Once churned, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm – at least 4 hours.

As I said above, the end result left a lot to be desired, and the churning process really diminished the fruit flavors.  The resulting flavor smelled heavily of oranges and started out tart but was quickly overwhelmed by dairy – kind of like a weak, frozen Orange Julius.  The texture was good though a bit melty (alcohol, you know) and set nicely into a medium firmness.  And, despite my misgivings about this recipe, I wouldn’t necessarily tell people not to try it.  It’s a really pretty lavender-pink, smells delightful, and could be excellent on a summer’s day in a sugar cone.  Just maybe tweak the whipping cream-milk ratio, okay?  You’ll be glad you did.

Overview

• Base prep time: 20 – 30 minutes
• Base chill time: at least 4 hours
• Ice cream set time: at least 4 hours
• Taste: initially tart with strong notes of orange and subtle ones of raspberry and black currant – flavor is quickly overpowered by heavy cream and butterfat
• Difficulty level: medium
• Expense level: low to medium
• Makes: 4 cups (1 quart)