Fresh Ginger Ice Cream (Jeni's Style)

In my last post I declared my love for ginger, and mentioned that I have been using it a lot lately.  One of the things I had always wanted to try was to make ginger ice cream since I've never found a ginger ice cream at a restaurant or an ice cream shop that I've liked.  Often, this is because candied ginger is used, and I'd really prefer the fresh stuff, while other times I just can't barely taste the ginger.

So, I decided to make ginger ice cream using freshly grated ginger.  It's very simple; I followed Jeni's Backyard Mint Ice Cream recipe (on p. 72 of the James Beard award-winning cookbook), and instead of mint, I mixed in 2.5 tbsp of freshly grated ginger to the batter right after the ice bath, and then churned it in the ice cream machine immediately (since I can skip the overnight steeping).  R. loved it, and so did I.  We finished the entire batch in a couple of days.  Luckily, he appreciates ginger the way I do and likes that I use it generously. :)

Ginger Ice Cream

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.

Chocolate Wasabi Ice Cream (Jeni's Style)

The first batch of ice cream I made from Jeni's cookbook was Gucci Muu Muu, which is essentially a chocolate-based ice cream with curry and toasted coconut.  Ever since then, I had wanted to use the base recipe to make a chocolate wasabi ice cream.  The inspiration came from the time I visited Oh Yeah! in Shadyside and had a chocolate soy ice cream with wasabi mixed in.  I wasn't crazy about the ice cream itself, but I thought the flavor combination was fabulous and something to try at home.

I wanted to emulate Jeni's ice cream as much as possible, so I ordered some chocolate bars and cocoa powder from Askinoskie in Missouri.  I was pretty sure this would make for a great chocolate ice cream base as I'm totally in love with Jeni's Askinoskie Dark Milk Chocolate Ice Cream.  I followed the basic recipe for Gucci Muu Muu (p. 158), but instead of 1 tablespoon of curry powder I used 1 tablespoon of wasabi powder.  I also skipped the toasted coconuts.  Unfortunately, as the batter was churning, I discovered that there had been a misprint in the recipe so I did not use nearly enough heavy cream as I should have! :(  This also explained the thick consistency of my Gucci Muu Muu ice cream when I first made it.  Even though the ice cream still tasted good, it really wasn't the right balance of flavors I was hoping for.  Besides, I wanted to include this ice cream on the menu for my ice cream social, and most of my guests had only heard me rave about Jeni's but had never had the ice cream before, so I was particularly motivated to do right by Jeni and make the ice cream the way I should.

So I tried again with the correct amount of cream and the result was exactly what I would have expected from a Jeni's recipe - rich, creamy, and tasty.  At the party I received an expected gift:  a very classy ice cream scoop and a set of beautiful ice cream bowls (thanks, Kitty!), and I wanted to use them in a photo right away:

Chocolate Wasabi Ice Cream

My guests were quite intrigued by the chocolate wasabi combination and I think they enjoyed the ice cream.  Along with Chocolate Wasabi, I had also served homemade Mint Oreo and Basil ice cream, in addition to several of Jeni's commercial flavors.  The ice cream certainly made for a successful evening!

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream (Jeni's Style)

In my last post I mentioned that I had recently started growing my own herbs, and that the final straw was the time I had to go to five different stores before I could find a little packet of fresh mint.  So naturally, one of the things I started growing myself was mint.  I knew before heading to Italy that the mint would grow rather quickly, but still, I was shocked by the monstrous size of it when I returned after just 12 days.

Newly acquired mint (July 17, 2011)

First week on my patio (July 19, 2011)

Two days before I left for Italy (July 26, 2011)

And upon my return to Italy:

The day after my return (August 9, 2011)
Can you say "mint's gone wild"?!?

I had expected to see a lot of mint when I got back - though not quite this much! - but because I knew I had to find a way to use a lot of mint quickly, and because I was finally going to invite a few people over for a little ice cream social, the idea had been brewing in my head for a few weeks to make some kind of mint ice cream after getting back from Italy.  I had already tried making the base mint flavor so I wanted to add a little something to it, but chocolate chips seem too...boring.  Fellow food blogger Suburghia Foodie had suggested something with honeydew or cantaloupe, but I was worried that the fruits would be too juicy for ice cream (though the mint-melon combo would probably be just perfect for a sorbet!).  The only idea I could come up with was Oreo cookies (not exactly that unusual, I know).  So, I set out to make the mint ice cream using the Backyard Mint recipe from Jeni's cookbook.  Last time I tried this recipe, I didn't have enough mint, so this time I made sure to grab a nice big bowl of it.  I steeped the ripped mint in the ice cream base for about 16 hours - longer than the 12 hours I did last time.  Then, I folded in eight crushed oreo sandwiches (or 16 cookies depending on how you look at it, with the icing removed) to the post-churned batter as I poured it into a container for freezing.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

I really enjoyed the end result.  With my mint continuing to grow like crazy, I have a feeling I will be making this and other variations of mint ice cream pretty regularly!

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.

Basil Ice Cream (Jeni's Style)

Basil Ice Cream

I made this Basil Ice Cream at the same time I was making my Backyard Mint Ice Cream.  (An extra ice cream canister comes in handy at times like these!)  As I mentioned in my last blog, I had a bunch of extra basil that was so fresh and fragrant, it would have been a crime not to use it.  For a while now I had wanted to try making a basil flavored ice cream, so I decided to go for it.  Jeni's cookbook has a recipe for Sweet Basil and Honeyed Pine Nut Ice Cream (page 76), but all I wanted was plain basil ice cream, so I basically used the same recipe for the Backyard Mint and just substituted fresh basil.  Like the mint, the basil leaves had to be ripped into pieces and steeped into the ice cream base overnight (I did the full 12 hours indicated on the recipe), then strained out before finally freezing the base in the ice cream machine and then in the freezer for four more hours.  I had about one cup of basil leaves, and I think that just about hit the sweet spot.  The ice cream was absolutely phenomenal, if I may say so myself! ;)  I liked the Backyard Mint Ice Cream, but I liked the Basil Ice Cream even more!  Both batches were completely devoured in five days.  I will for sure be making this one again, though maybe not too soon, if I want to watch my waistline!

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.

Backyard Mint Ice Cream (from Jeni's Cookbook)

Last weekend I had some leftover fresh mint and basil, and they smelled so good I didn't want to let them go to waste, so I thought, what better idea than to turn them into ice cream?  Jeni's Backyard Mint Ice Cream has been one of my favorites since it was introduced and puts all other mint ice creams to shame.  In her extensive cookbook (which by the way, has made it on the New York Times' Best Sellers' list), Jeni provides the full recipe on Page 72 (also posted here), so I decided that that's how I would use my leftover mint.

The overall process took longer than the Gucci Muu Muu ice cream, which was the first Jeni's recipe I tried, as the torn mint leaves need to be steeped into the ice cream based for 4-12 hours to let the scent permeate the ice cream.  The only concern I had was that the recipe called for "a large handful of fresh mint" and I wasn't really sure that the leftover mint I had was enough, and I knew there wouldn't be any way to supplement it because the previous day I had to go to FIVE stores to find the very last little bunch of mint, some of which I had already used in another recipe. (So "Giant Eagle Mint Ice Cream" would be a more honest name in this case, but the experience did make me seriously consider planting my own mint.).  In any case, to ensure maximum flavor from my minimal mint, I steeped it for the full 12 hours before straining it out.

But when I tasted the ice cream base afterwards, it tasted like...sweet cream.  Good sweet cream, mind you, but no hint of mint.  Yikes!  Should I make it as is anyway or try to make it mintier somehow?  I decided to see if i could salvage the batch by chopping up some of the mint in my food processor and mixing the finely chopped mint into the base.

It worked!

Backyard Mint Ice Cream

I would have preferred to have had it turn out without adding the chopped mint, but at least this turned out great anyway.  So great I finished the entire batch - which was about 2.5 cups - in three days' time, all while I was also enjoying the batch Basil Ice Cream I had made at the same time.  The most amazing part was the texture, both in terms of how easy it was to scoop (unlike ice cream I had made before) and in terms of mouthfeel.

So, I call this one a success. :)

Thanks to my Basil Ice Cream, which I made at the same time and came out pretty much perfect (not to brag or anything!), I now know for future reference that about 2 cups of fresh mint would probably be a good amount to use for this recipe.

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.

Gucci Muu Muu Ice Cream (from Jeni's Cookbook)

I recently wrote a post on my obsession with Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and had also previously expressed excitement about the impending publication of Jeni's cookbook.  When the book arrived two weeks ago, I read it almost cover to cover, and was immediately impressed.  I know I'm biased, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the cookbook beyond what I had already seen in the Food and Wine webpage a few years back.  Turns out the cookbook was really a wonderful investment.  In it, Jeni offers valuable tips about equipment, ingredients, and how to balance ingredients, I love how she starts right out with the four basic steps so you know what to expect.  She also gives great tips on what needs to be done ahead of time, so you don't have your heart set on making ice cream right now only to realize you needed to to have chilled your ice cream bowl yesterday.

Then, of course, there's the 100+ recipes!  My goal had been to use Jeni's techniques to make my own flavors of ice cream, which I'm sure I will get to at some point, but as soon as I got to page 158 of the cookbook, I knew which flavor would be first on my list to try:  Gucci Muu Muu.  I don't quite get why it's called that, but I recognized from the description and the ingredients that it was basically an old favorite of mine that was discontinued called Coco Curry Cocoa (or was it Cocoa Curry Coco? I can never get that straight): Chocolate ice cream with curry and coconut.  In other words, an ice cream that combines three of my favorite flavors in the whole world!  I remember how bummed I was when Jeni's decided to scrap that flavor some years ago, so I was ecstatic to see the recipe right there in the book!

So I probably can't post the recipe here seeing that it's copyrighted and all, so if you want to make this I guess you'll just have to get yourself a copy of the book (which I highly recommend), but I can show you some pictures of my attempt. :)

Ingredients for Gucci Muu Muu Ice Cream
Absent from the photo:  Sugar (my bad)

Toasted coconut to be mixed into the ice cream - yum!

Boiling the ingredients. Do this for exactly 4 minutes - no more, no less!

Mixing in the curry powder, toasted coconuts, and salt

And after chilling, churning, and freezing...Tada!

Gucci Muu Muu Ice Cream

So how did it turn out?  Pretty good, I'd say.  I don't think it's quite like the real thing because the best chocolate I could find in stores is Ghirardelli but I don't think that's what Jeni had used, even back then.  I know her choice of chocolate these days is Askinosie, which I know I would love considering how much I'm addicted to the Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, so I may have to stock up on those for my future ice cream making attempts.

I also realized that I had made one mistake that likely made the batch too thick and hard to freeze.  During the step that involves boiling the liquid ingredients, I misunderstood the instructions in the book where it says "...bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.  Add the cocoa, whisk until incorporated, and continue boiling for 4 minutes."  I had started timing my 4 minutes only after the cocoa had been completely incorporated into the liquid, which added another minute or two to the overall boiling time.  After consulting the amazing Jeni herself, I learned that the 4 minutes referred to the total boil time, as any longer would result in too much evaporation.  And yes, that's the great thing about Jeni; she is taking time to interact with at-home Jeni's ice-cream makers on her forum and offering wonderful tips to everyone who has a question or is running into a problem.  I mean, how awesome is that??  Sometimes I read the posts just to learn.

Overall, I really love this cookbook, and I hope to try a few more recipes soon.  I'm thinking my next attempt would be a variation of the Gucci Muu Muu, maybe even using the Queen City Cayenne recipe as a base, but using wasabi powder instead of curry powder (and maybe skip the coconut too).  I think the chocolate-wasabi combo would be just divine!  I'd also like to try the Rum Ice Cream with Toasted Coconut, which is a flavor Jeni's once offered for a few months and I haven't seen since.  I'm so glad to see that in the cookbook as well.  I'd also like to make something with taro and purple yam (not together).  Lots of grand plans, very little time!

Also check out We All Scream for some really cool illustrated ice cream recipes.  I noticed a new posting for Thai Pineapple Curry Ice Cream and I might just have to add that to the list of flavors to try!

UPDATE 8/13/2011:  I found out after this post that the reason for the pudding-like texture of the ice cream was because there is a typo in the recipe, which calls for 1/4 cups of heavy cream when it should read 1-1/4 cups!

This is part of a series of posts on recipes from or inspired by Jeni's Spendid Ice Creams at Home. The rest of the series may be found here.