400 FLAVOURS
Almost to the 1/10th mark! Almost 1k, if this was a 10k! We’re doing it!
Recipe 038: Peppermint Ice Cream
Weeding the garden the other day, I came across some recurring peppermint spreading through one of the beds. The plan for the garden didn’t include getting totally overrun by the refreshing scourge of mint, so I ripped it all right out. But then: what if I put this to use?
Peppermint ice cream:
Ingredients:
34 grams peppermint leaves (a bit less than a cup)
2 cups whole milk
4 tsp corn starch
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1.5 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp clear corn syrup
Instructions:
Heat the cream in a pot to just under a boil, like 200F.
Add the peppermint, stir well, and turn off the heat.
Let the peppermint leaves steep in the cream for at least 30 minutes, then strain. Press on the leaves to get out more cream. You should have about 1.25 cups of cream, maybe a bit more. Set aside.
(I put the cream in the freezer and then thawed it later to continue the ice cream making, but you can skip that step)
Mix the cornstarch with two tablespoons of the milk in a small bowl, whisking to make a slurry. Set aside.
Whisk cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Set aside.
In a large pot, mix the remaining milk, sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and corn syrup. Once the mix gets to a boil, let it boil for four minutes.
Remove pot from heat and whisk in the corn starch slurry.
Return pot to heat, have it reach a boil, and stir until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat. Carefully pour a bit of mix into the cream cheese bowl, whisking to make sure the cream cheese is melted into the mix, then add the rest of the mix.
Add cream and whisk to incorporate.
Let cool, or put bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice water to speed cooling.
Once cool, put into fridge for at least 4 hours.
Once chilled in fridge, churn mix until soft serve thick, about 10-15 minutes.
TASTING NOTES: I was worried the peppermint wouldn’t be strong enough to come through, but: it is! It’s a complex flavour, with both the clear crystal coldness and a delicate herbalness. When we added some magic shell, the chocolate overrode the herbal character, leaving it just minty.
WORTH MAKING: Yeap!
Recipe 039: Sodium Citrate Vanilla Ice Cream
I bought Ice Cream: Eighth Edition, and there’s a little mention in chapter 3 about sodium citrate (the same salt that makes nacho cheese gooey) enhancing milk foaming. Let’s do an experiment: one batch of vanilla with it, and one without, to see what happens!
This is the same recipe as the Jeni’s Ice Cream Vanilla (Home Edition), but with the addition of some sodium citrate. I tried to keep everything the same, trying to get the same cooking and churning times, so I made a batch that just omits the sodium citrate as a control.
Sodium citrate vanilla ice cream:
Ingredients:
¼ tsp sodium citrate
1 tsp vanilla paste (or equivalent to 1 bean)
2 cups whole milk
4 tsp corn starch
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1.5 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp clear corn syrup
Instructions:
Mix the cornstarch with two tablespoons of the milk in a small bowl, whisking to make a slurry. Set aside.
Whisk cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Set aside.
In a large pot, mix the remaining milk, cream, sodium citrate, sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and corn syrup. Once the mix gets to a boil, let it boil for four minutes.
Remove pot from heat and whisk in the corn starch slurry.
Return pot to heat, have it reach a boil, and stir until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat. Carefully pour a bit of mix into the cream cheese bowl, whisking to make sure the cream cheese is melted into the mix, then add the rest of the mix.
Let cool, or put bowl into a large bowl filled with ice water to speed cooling.
Once cool, put into fridge for at least 4 hours.
Once chilled in fridge, add vanilla paste and churn mix until soft serve thick, about 15 minutes.
TASTING NOTES: Well… it’s vanilla! Turns out the foaming enhancements of sodium citrate were tested specifically with reconstituted milk from powder, not fresh milk. So I probably shouldn’t be surprised that there’s no dramatic difference, in taste, texture, or appearance. The non-sodium citrate one feels a little bit less resistant to melting & pressure in the mouth, but just a bit, and that could be due to other little differences of production.
WORTH MAKING: As a good vanilla: yes. As a showcase of sodium citrate’s awesome frightening power: no.
Thanks for reading, and let me know if you try any of these recipes. Every week I’ll be posting one (or two, or three) more, until we reach….