ice cream « (y)our food choices™

Chocolate and cinnamon. One of many flavor combinations that go well together.

If there’s just one food we could eat every day, without turning into Chubby Hubbies, it would be ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s and Hagen daz are our two favorite grocery store brands. Locally, we love Bi-Rite Ice Creamery in the Mission, in San Francisco, but since it’s on the other side of the city and the lines are typically too long we don’t get to eat their ice cream as much as we would like to. So what are two guys like us to do? Make our own!

There is nothing more satisfying than making your own ice cream. You can substitute milk for cream if you want (sad); reduce the amount of eggs or add a few more for a richer version; and the flavors are limitless. A search in our pantry can change a simple chocolate ice cream into chocolate cinnamon ice cream, you can even add a pinch of cayenne pepper for a Southwest/Mexican flavor combination, or add fresh seasonal fruit at the end for a wonderful berry chocolate concoction.

With summer upon us in all it’s glory, it’s time to make our own. There is nothing wrong with going to the store and purchasing your favorite flavor, but spending a little time in your kitchen can change the boring vanilla into the vanilla rum raisin, yum! Try your own combination and don’t just limit your flavors to 31. There’s thousands upon thousands of combinations that still haven’t been discovered. Enjoy!

Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cups cream

2 cups whole milk

½ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Optional: 2 cinnamon sticks or ½ tablespoon cinnamon powder, or 1 star anise, or ¼-1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, or a handful or two of fresh or frozen blueberries, chopped peaches, chopped strawberries, plums, bananas, etc., or anything else you can thing of that might go well with chocolate.

Add the cream and milk to a medium saucepan over medium heat. [If you are using cinnamon sticks, star anise, or any whole spices or herbs, add them to the milk and cream to infuse the flavor. Leave the milk on the back of the stove with the heat off for about 20-30 minutes. Strain before continuing.]

Add the ½ cup of cocoa to a small bowl and add ½ cup of the cream and whisk until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture into the milk, whisking until everything is smooth. In a separate bowl add the egg yolks, sugar and salt and whisk together. Slowly add the milk, about ¼ to ½ cup at a time to temper the egg yolks. After you have added about 2 cups milk pour the mixture back in the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until slightly thick. At this point you are making a light custard. You don’t want the custard to be too thick, nor do you want to scramble the eggs. Once the custard is made add the vanilla and allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours or overnight. Add to your ice cream maker and process for 25-30 minutes, or according to your ice cream machine.

Freezer for another two hours and enjoy on a hot summer day, or a cold winter one (like most July days in San Francisco).

Cardamom Vanilla Bean Ice Cream w/ Pistachios

There are flavors that defy description because they are so unique to a single source and so unlike anything else that it’s virtually impossible to draw a comparison to anything. Cardamom is one of those flavors for me. Any attempt to describe it as tasting like anything else seems futile. I’ve read descriptors like “camphor” and “eucalyptus” and “lemon” and I suppose I can taste the eucalyptus in cardamom. It’s a sweet spice like cinnamon with the cool of mint but it tastes like neither. Cardamom is warm and intensely satisfying in its uses in both sweet and savory dishes. From chai tea to curry, basmati rice to ice cream, cardamom rocks whatever it touches.

Green Cardamom Pods

We had some heavy cream that needed to be used before it went bad and Jason suggested we make ice cream. I love vanilla ice cream but I wanted a little something more. Cardamom came to mind almost immediately. I found a recipe at thespicehouse.com that included both green cardamom pods and a vanilla bean – perfect! With a sprinkle of chopped pistachios, this beautifully flavored ice cream satisfies a craving for the exotic.

Cheers, Steve

Cardamom Ice Cream Recipe

2 cups whole milk or light cream

1 vanilla bean

8 whole green cardamom pods, cracked

¾ cup sugar

4 egg yolks

¾ cup heavy cream

Heat milk or light cream in a saucepan with the cardamom pods and vanilla bean. Bring to a gentle boil. Remove pan from heat and cover, allowing cardamom and vanilla to steep for approximately 20 minutes. Remove cardamom pods, split vanilla bean and scrape seeds into heated milk.

Beat eggs and sugar until pale yellow. Reheat the milk. While continuing to slowly beat the sugar/egg mixture, gradually add about ½ cup of the milk, enough to thin and temper the egg mixture, then scrape the egg mixture back into the milk and heat slowly until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Don’t let the custard come to a boil. If it gets too hot too quickly the egg in the mixture will cook into lumps and the custard will “break.” Once the custard has thickened, take the pan off the heat and set the pan into an ice bath and continue stirring until the custard cools.

Beat the remaining heavy cream until just beginning to thicken and fold into the cooled custard. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice cream is finished it will look like soft-serve ice cream. Scoop it into a freezer-safe container and freeze for another 2+ hours to allow it to harden before serving. Scoop and enjoy!