Entries Tagged 'gelato' ↓

Howdy folks!

This weekend, we realized that we had never seen Celine and Pierre’s ice cream machine, which was sent a few months ago by Walt. We therefore decided to unite what are probably the only two existing machines in Clermont Ferrand, and to prepare a nice double dessert.

Pierre, driven by enthusiasm and ambition, had chosen nothing less than pistachio, which is considered by some of us as the Holy Grail of ice-cream… I decided to let him undergo this ordeal by himself, and to prepare something that would go well with his attempt. Chocolate seemed the best option…

I did not see Pierre’s preparation, but he described it to me and took a few pictures. He was not aware of the grinding problem, the main issue in this recipe : it seems to me (but correct me if I’m wrong) that Peter and David had tried to soak, peel and blend the pistachio, but that this gave a slightly powderish texture. Pierre, driven by his instinct, bought unroasted pistachios, peeled and ground them with a pestle and a mortar. To get a paste, he added powdered sugar, about the equivalent (in size, not in weight) of the pistachios. The pictures show it produced a nice, wet paste which Pierre chose not to sieve.

The rest of the ingredients is not very clear : about 10cl of cream, a handful of sugar, some milk, and a few seeds of cardamom… This gave about 60/70 cl of liquid, which was not a lot, but I suppose the peeling and grinding were so tedious that Pierre had decided to cut it short… We were afraid the machine wouldn’t work with so little a quantity, but it turned out to be ok…

For my part, I followed the chocolate gelato recipe (to be found on this site), which always proved to be reliable…

It was funny cranking the two machines at the same time. One single person could do it, with a lot of synchronization… The chocolate-filled machine went stiff much quicker than the other one but when we opened the canisters, the pistachio was in fact much firmer than the chocolate. The former just had a little more room in the container…

Results : the chocolate was as expected : rich and smooth. The pistachio had many qualities : the flavour was there, definitely, with a nice hint of cardamome. The texture was a little rough though : bits of nuts gave a little grittiness (which was not necessarily unpleasant…), and it lacked a certain smoothness that more cream could have brought. I think the mortar/pesle technique is an interesting idea and deserves to be investigated. Many thanks to Pierre and his family for showing us a different way on the nut ice cream, and for this pleasant desert!

I love green tea ice cream. I think the first time I tasted it was with my brother at a Japanese restaurant in New York more than a decade ago. I still think that some of the best green tea ice cream I’ve had is in New York, at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, a must-stop on any New York visit, even in the ice-cold winter.

A number of years ago we tried making green tea ice cream in the way that seemed logical – brewing gunpowder green tea and adding it to the family recipe. We struggled to get a satisfactory result until one trip to Venice about five years ago. I found a fantastic little gelateria with a Jamaican-themed decor and a very friendly gelato-maker who invited me behind the counter to help him shell pistachios for his delicious nut ice creams. He let me taste a range of unique flavours and then brought out his special green tea batch made for a fancy Japanese restaurant elsewhere in Venice. I was duly impressed and insisted he share the secret.

Needless to say, it’s actually quite simple, but the required green tea can sometimes be hard to track down. You need to use Matcha to make green tea ice cream. Matcha is a finely powdered green tea with a very strong unique flavour. It lasts a long time so it’s worth always having a supply in the fridge. The only place in Edinburgh where I could find it was a specialist chocolatier who agreed to sell me a small bag from their kitchen supply. I’m sure you can get it online easily enough.

It had been a while since I made green tea ice cream so when Ben asked me to make it before he left for the Antarctic (he has moved there for the next 18 months!) I was delighted to get out my Matcha.

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We recently made a batch of Chocolate Gelato that was to be served to a 12-year-old girl. Knowing that the young ones among us are often less keen on super dark chocolate I reduced the cocoa powder to just 1/4 cup, hoping that would please her. Unfortunately it was still “too chocolatey and not creamy enough”. Fair enough. I take criticism and try to learn from it.

A few months ago my ice cream services were won in a charity raffle, and the winner requested a batch of chocolate ice cream for a kids party today. So I’m trying a new recipe that should be less dark and more creamy and will hopefully please the young’uns. Not wanting to completely eschew our tried and tested Gelato recipe, I’ve made some simple modifications. My experience has shown that adding a pint of double cream to a gelato results in a mixture way too thick to freeze so I got a pint of single cream and I also reduced the cocoa powder right down. Continue reading →

When I was a kid I did not like chocolate ice cream. Strange as it seems now, I didn’t really have any interest in the stuff. If I was given a serving of Neapolitan ice cream I would devour the pink and white stripes as quickly as possible to avoid accidentally eating any meltings from the brown stripe. Don’t get me wrong, I always loved chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I didn’t even understand why I didn’t like chocolate ice cream.

And then several years ago I went to Italy. Italians don’t mess around with ice cream. True Italian gelato can be found in few places in the world, but in Italy there seems to be a law requiring at least one quality gelateria in every square mile. Naturally, I did my best to try them all. But after 4 or more triple-scoop cones per day for a couple weeks, I admitted defeat. It would take me several lifetimes to sample every flavour in every gelateria. But along the way, I came across something very exciting: delicious chocolate gelato!

I asked Aunt Nancy if she knew how to make chocolate ice cream, but she said Mike and Sam had tried to use chocolate milk in the Russell recipe and had unsatisfying results. This caused me to question my firm lifelong belief that the Russell Recipe never fails. (Note: Lately I have reconfirmed this undeniable truth by making a successful chocolate and coconut ice cream with the Russell Recipe…)

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