Entries Tagged 'ice cream' ↓

I was hosting an impromptu dinner party this evening and someone else had promised to bring dessert. I tend to make a lot of strawberry ice cream this time of year, but wasn’t planning on cranking today.

When the promised dessert did not materialise I somehow ended up telling my five guests about the joys of the White Mountain Freezer. They were certainly intrigued, but since I’m from Missouri, just talking is never enough. For some reason, we were also talking about the Show-Me State.

The story goes that in 1899 a Congressman named Willard Duncan Vandiver from Columbia, Missouri (my hometown) was dining at a naval banquet in Philadelphia. Someone at the banquet must have been making some grandiose claims worthy of incredulity, and Vandiver remarked, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces me nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

So in true “show-me” spirit, we quickly procured some double-cream and whipped up a unique batch of ice cream with ingredients I had on hand.

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I was first inspired to have a go at making this ice cream when I went to my local food market and saw the most fantastic display of squashes and pumpkins. It was like something out of a harvest festival – all the colours of the rainbow and textures from as smooth as a babies bottom to as wrinkly and gnarled as grandmas elbow!

Having had a ponchon for pumpkin for a few years now, I had already worked my way through a range of recipes including: pumpkin curry, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin soup, pumpkin mash and pumpkin pie (the latter was expertly made for me by Big D when he cam out for grad at the beginning of the year). I decided that it was time to take things to the next level and try pumpkin ice cream…

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A complex series of events led Peter’s 1/2 gallon freezer to live in London for several months. This resulted in a reduction in Peter’s icecream making activities, since it takes quite a sizable gathering the polish off a 1 gallon freezer (or a heroic personal effort). So I planned a trip to visit my lovely friends and collect the machine at the same time.

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After some elegant shipping arrangements the ice cream maker so kindly procured for me by the triple motion crew (see last post for detailed thanks) has finally made it to South Africa. Yippee!

However, in order to get it here within my luggage allowance I had to co-opt some help in the form of my good friend and fellow Antarctic traveller, Brian. What better way to thank him for his efforts than to make a batch of ice cream.

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As Big D’s little S I have been subjected to freezing cold sessions at the crank for a number of years now.  However, it’s only recently that I’ve warmed to the art of icecream making and decided to take the plunge and ask the triple motion crew to get me my own trusty machine (thanks go to Peter and Big D for hunting one down). Said instrument was presented to me earlier on today and with Big D close on hand to supervise, we wasted no time in initiating it and me into the world of icecream making.

Normally I am a die-hard vanilla fan but since that had been done before (and very well) I thought I should work on a signature dish.  After a moments pondering I decided should strive for a cool, creamy, supper smooth lemon ice. I am a big fan of lemon and have been making lemon sponge cake for family birthdays for years. It seemed appropriate to carry this on into my fledgling icecream making career.

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My wonderful, talented, intrepid Antarctic biologist sister was awarded a PhD by Stellenbosch University for being very clever and hard working. Hurray!

My first thought (naturally) was “lets make a batch of icecream to celebrate”. So I threw the ½ gallon freezer in my bag and 12 hours of long haul flight hours later I was in Cape town.

Things didn’t run so smoothly initially when the bag containing my beloved machine disappeared into the black hole of baggage handling. Thankfully it re-appeared 24hrs later with the contents having suffered no ill effects from the journey. However for this brief period the fate of my ice-cream adventure hung in the balance.

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The apple & cinnamon ice cream-scone combination:  truly a winner.

It was inspired by and amazing icecream experience I had in Italy with chocolate gelato in a brioche bun.

Peter and I first tried it out when we made icecream for the great and good of the the UK documentary film community at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival last year (that’s a long story). It was a huge success, I remember standing around on the pavement on a chilly November morning (no danger of the icecream melting prematurely that day) stuffing myself and passers-by with sconey, creamy goodness. The scones were extra useful that day since we didn’t need to buy tubs and spoons to hand the icecream out and they were far tastier than commercial wafer cones.

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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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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 →

While I insist to not have favourites, this recipe is certainly high on my list.

So when my dad sent me a new one-gallon White Mountain freezer for my birthday, I knew how I had to inaugurate the new machine.

We first made Whisky and Honey Ice Cream when we were cycling in the Outer Hebrides and it was certainly an amazing experience to make and eat it in the Standing Stones of Calanish.

I decided to celebrate by making a big batch of Whisky and Honey Ice Cream that I could keep in the freezer and enjoy over a few days. I soon discovered this is the perfect ice cream for storage.

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