Thibault
Now based in Paris, Thibault and Celine are consistently innovating with new flavours, particularly sorbets. They have a classic half-gallon White Mountain freezer that brings delight throughout France.
Entries by Thibault ↓
by Thibault – January 1st, 2010 — ice cream, recipe
Calisson ice-cream had been on our mind for a while now, since we got offered a tiny ice-cream recipes book with this one featuring.
Calisson is a small delicacy from the south of France. It is aesthetically perfect, a smooth and silky pebble with sharp angles making it as streamlined as an Airstream van. I’ve always been fond of this almondy paste with a sugar icing… although I have to say the taste is not that refined. But calissons benefit from their everlasting reputation of luxury delicacy.
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by Thibault – February 22nd, 2009 — recipe, sorbet
Charline, a friend of Céline’s, had planned a big party in her new flat on the 14th of February, partly to dance like crazy but also to relieve people from this indigestible tradition that is called Valentine’s Day. Charline is a connoisseur, she offered me a recipe book about ice cream (containing an interesting Calisson ice cream recipe I’d like to try one of these days…), and so the standards were quite high… And yet we did not have much time and ingredients. Therefore we opted for an easy-to-make and yet original sorbet: Litchi and lime sorbet.
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by Thibault – January 5th, 2009 — ice cream
By Jove, the blog is as rusted as the mechanism of our beloved machines. But it still works! I just wish other crankers would write more often. And I wish I could crank with them! When is the next meeting of the ice cream team?
Anyway, I brought the machine home for the Christmas holidays in Auvergne. I thought we would serve gallons of frozen dessert, but due to the huge amount of food already present, we did only one batch. It was still worth bringing the machine!
To go with the chocolate cake of Christmas Eve, the best flavour seemed to be tangerine, light and refreshing seasonal fruit.
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by Thibault – October 21st, 2008 — ice cream
This week end, Dear Old Pat came to visit. Having lived with Peter, he shares our ice cream frenzy, and insisted for doing one batch. No need to say it twice!
I had been wanting to make fig ice cream for a while. I’ve been told this was not a good idea, considering the very light flavour of fresh figs, and the multiple seeds contained in them. But as I’m stubborn, and as figs were cheap on the market, we tried nonetheless.
The Ice book supports the making of a custard to get the best flavour in the ice cream. But custards are long and tedious to make, and the Russell Recipe is so tempting….
Ingredients:
- 1kg of fresh figs
- 1 cup of sugar
- 250 mL of cream
- 2 eggs
- About 1/2L milk
Cook the figs with a few tablespoons of water. Let them simmer until the skin is tender (about 15min). Then blend them, but not too thin (you don’t want to crush the seeds).
Beat 1 egg and a yoke with the sugar. Add the cream. Sieve the fig puree (you can choose to leave a few seeds to keep the characteristic crunch, but do not let them all, it would be most unpleasant), and enough milk to fill the canister.
We went cranking in the street, with 2 other friends. The machine is slowly making its reputation through Paris.
The ice cream was delightful, smooth and creamy. The fig flavour was very light, but nonetheless present. I guess if you want to obtain a strong flavour you have to make a custard, and even infuse fig leaves.
by Thibault – September 20th, 2008 — ice cream
It’s been a while since we’ve made that one, but never too late to write a post!
After the more-than-disappointing lemon ice-cream we made in Carbisdale Castle during our Hebridean trip (the lemon juice curdled the milk, and we ended up with a gross yoghurt-flavoured ice cream… and yet our roommate shouted “It’s the best ice cream I’ve ever had”, in his sleep, in the middle of the night, hu hu…), I needed a better experience with lemon.
I have to say my brother is a huge lemon sorbet fan, he tries them everywhere he can, and his expectations are quite high. When he asked us to make one, pressure was therefore on us…
We followed the recipe from the book “Ices”, that is to say:
-10 lemons
- 750mL of sugar syrup
-250mL water
- 1 egg white
We put the zest of 10 lemon in the syrup, brought it to the boil, then added the juice, and left it to cool. It’s probably better to wait something like 12h, but we did not have time…
The peculiarity of this sorbet is that we opened the machine at mid-cranking to add the beated egg-white. This is supposed to give a better consistency. It’s actually not that hard, you just need another bucket: remove the canister from the machine and open it, then put the ice and water in a separate bucket (otherwise you won’t be able to replace the canister), the replace canister and ice in the machine, and resume cranking!
My brother was not disappointed, and ranked our sorbet among the best ones he had ever tried. It was very strong but not too acidic, and incredibly refreshing. A true success.
by Thibault – August 23rd, 2008 — ice cream, recipe
Another interesting element has made its appearance in the quest for the nut ice cream: almond milk. We’ve discovered this peculiar liquid in an organic shop, first for drinking but then, on account of its slight bitterness, for using in an ice cream.
Abricot seemed to be the fruit to go with, sweet, delicate… And almond/abricot is a common combination, maybe because one contains the other…
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by Thibault – August 6th, 2008 — recipe, sorbet
I know I’m going to be called a dairy fat heretic, but I’ve decided to carry on the sorbet trail. Moreover, it seems to me that summer rhymes with sorbet… and that red fruits also rhyme with sorbet (which does not necessarily mean that summer rhymes with red fruits). It happened that my grandfather told me his garden was loaded with redcurrants… the association of ideas did not need much concentration, the way was paved for another deliciously acidic frozen dessert!
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by Thibault – June 15th, 2008 — ice cream
I estimate worth-mentioning the fact that we finished the leftovers of the Verveine sorbet in an odd place: the Störvatt, at my father’s house. This barbarian name describes a Scandinavian wooden tub, a bit like a giant barrel, filled with water, and containing a stove. By lighting a fire in the stove, you can heat the water up to 40°C, and enjoy your hot bath in the snow, the rain, or under the stars, while smelling the scents of wood and campfire…a truly unique experience. And enjoying a bowl of homemade ice cream lost in the vapours of hot water is amazing.
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by Thibault – June 7th, 2008 — recipe, sorbet
Our first sorbet « Made in France » had to be a typically French one. We therefore tried to make one with the famous plant that grows in our region: the “Verveine”.
This plant is normally used to make liqueur, or herbal teas, but you can sometimes be served one of these sorbets in a restaurant. Pour a few drops of liqueur on it, it’s wonderful!
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by Thibault – June 6th, 2008 — breakfast, ice cream, pancakes, recipe
During a day out with my school, I had the luck of finding a fruit and cereal shop that was selling everything at half price. Bargain! I bought 1 kg of dates for 1 pound, foreseeing the scrumptious ice cream that was to result from this fortuitous opportunity!
Back home, Peter suggested to add a few apples to this recipe, to add a bit of freshness to the strong flavour of the dates. That seemed like a good idea…we therefore started the mix!
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