Jungle Sundaes

I've never disliked avocados, but the past few months I've been especially fond of them. Mostly, we add them to salads and sandwiches, but I decided to get a little crazy with them last week. The night before, I had made us a really simple banana split. Banana is unusual in that it is a creamy fruit. The next day as I was cutting into the salad avocado, I remembered that avocado was also a creamy fruit, and a delightfully wacky idea took form: avocado sundae! So we tried it that night: half an avocado, roughly chopped up, covered in cookies and cream ice cream, chocolate sauce, and chopped brazil nuts and cashews. Filled with trepidation, we dug into it, only to barely be able to taste the avocado. It tasted as good as any bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts, which is to say, good.

Emboldened by the fact that it didn't suck, we decided to decrease the ice cream to get more of the avocado flavor. I scooped half an avocado into a bowl, put two small scoops of ice cream on it, and drizzled, instead of drenched, it with chocolate sauce and brazil nuts. I wasn't hungry that night, but Jon wolfed it down and enjoyed it.

The next time, we decided to combine the creamy fruits and made what we have dubbed the Jungle Sundae:

1/2 banana, 1/2 avocado, 2 scoops vanilla ice cream, chopped brazil nuts and cashews, chocolate sauce.

It's a little big for one person, but so is a banana split. I don't actually know if avocados grow in the jungle. I think of them as coming from California and Mexico. But the other ingredients (bananas, vanilla, nuts, cacao) could come from the jungle, right?

Yogurt ice cream

Jon and I made two batches of ice cream this weekend! Both were great. The first one was Jon's choice, lemon ice cream. It turned out really well, but the second one, a yogurt ice cream recipe from last September's Bon Appetit, took the cake. It also keeps a really great texture even after being frozen, something some homemade ice creams, like our lemon one, don't do as well. I would post the lemon ice cream recipe, but I'm going to hold off in case we refine it. The yogurt ice cream needs no refinement, although Jon thinks it would be better with another flavor, maybe lemon or blueberry, in it. I say he's crazy. It is rich, sweet, and slightly sour.

Yogurt ice cream

The Bon Appetit recipe calls for Greek yogurt. I used my own homemade yogurt and drained it until it was about 2/3 of its original volume.

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup sugar, divided

3 egg yolks

1 cup thick yogurt

Combine milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar in a medium saucepan. In a heatproof bowl of volume at least a quart, combine egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar.

Over medium heat, stir milk and cream mixture until all sugar has dissolved. Slowly pour milk mixture into egg yolk mixture, whisking to combine. When all the milk has been stirred in, pour entire mixture back into saucepan.

Over medium heat, stir constantly until mixture reaches 170 degrees or coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, pour into bowl, and allow to come almost to room temperature. Stir in yogurt.

Chill until chilled, then freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

Blueberry-thyme frozen yogurt that is almost awesome

The new HEB had blueberries at an amazing 97 cents a pint last week, so we bought three of them. I had been wanting to try to make frozen yogurt, and I thought blueberry would be a good flavor for that. I didn't want to use any sugar, so I decided to add an herb flavor to make it a little more sophisticated. A quick taste test on the balcony showed that thyme was the right herb for blueberries.
I think I've gotten a little cocky lately. Most of my recent culinary experiments have been smashing successes (chickpea flour crackers, red pepper-tangelo sherbet, eggplant basil, oversalted kasha stirred into scrambled eggs, etc.), so I decided I didn't need no stinkin' recipe or any guidelines for making frozen yogurt. I made up a recipe, using just a tiny bit of sugar, and froze it. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze very well in my little ice cream maker, so I had to put it in the freezer for a while, take it out and crank it, etc. After eating dinner, we dug into the yogurt, and it was great. It was pleasantly tart, the blueberry flavor was rich, and the periodic bursts of thyme flavor were lovely. Next time I might steep the thyme in simple syrup to increase both the sweetness and the thymey-ness, but overall it was very nice. After we ate our dessert, we froze the rest like we usually do.
Unfortunately yesterday when I got it out to have some, it was as hard as a rock. I'm sure it would have softened in time, but I had to leave again before it was soft enough to eat. I was able to scrape a few spoonfuls off the top, and they were quite tasty, but I couldn't get very much. I have some theories on what went wrong and how I might fix it next time.

1) I didn't use much added sugar or fat, which lower the freezing point, so the mixture is too much like ice. To fix this I can add more sugar and maybe some cream next time, or use thicker yogurt, which has more fat and less water.
2) The way I froze it, taking it in and out of the freezer, didn't incorporate enough air into the mixture, so it froze too solidly. To fix this, I can make sure the freezer isn't too full and the little cannister that's supposed to go in there gets cold enough. I can also try to whirl it in the food processor and see if that breaks it up and adds some more air.

Have any of you had this problem, or do you know more about frozen dessert science than I do? Any tips would be welcome.

Blueberry-thyme frozen yogurt
1 1/3 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, thick stems removed
1 tsp sugar
About 1 cup plain yogurt

Puree blueberry, thyme, and sugar. Pour into 2-cup measuring cup and add enough yogurt to equal 2 cups total. Mix thoroughly. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Frozen raspberry mousse

I have been having a lot of fun with desserts lately. This was in the July 2008 Bon Appetit. I made a couple modifications, decreasing the sugar quite a bit and using frozen instead of fresh raspberries. I can get frozen ones for $2.79 a pound, while fresh are $3.99 per 4.4 oz. This mousse is good. We ate the first cup right after mixing it up, and it's just as good thawed as it is frozen. I stand by the decrease in sugar, and I might even decrease the cream next time too (or, equivalently, increase the raspberries). It is very rich. Kirschwasser, a clear cherry brandy, really makes a difference. I was dubious because 1 tbsp is so little, but I could tell it really made the flavors pop. That said, if you don't have any, just add a little orange or lemon juice or water to make it blend more easily. I'm sure it will still be delicious.

Frozen raspberry mousse (adapted from Bon Appetit)
2 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, mostly thawed
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp kirschwasser
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sour cream

Place raspberries, sugar, and kirschwasser in a blender and blend until very smooth. In a large bowl, whip heavy cream with an electric mixer until it holds stiff peaks. Add sour cream and beat just to combine. Gently fold in raspberry puree. Don't worry if you don't get it all the way blended. The little white ribbons are pretty. Eat some now if you want. Pour the rest into parfait glasses (I used a combination of wineglasses and teacups) and freeze. I used 6 glasses and put a hearty 6-oz helping in each glass. Let it thaw in the fridge for a couple hours or on the counter for 20-30 minutes before eating.

Jon demonstrates the proper way to clean the mixing bowl:

Mint ice cream

This was Jon's birthday dessert. We had a transcendent mint milkshake at a burger place in New York City in October. It had the grassiness of real mint, unlike a lot of mint flavored products. I have made mint ice cream twice since then, trying to get the same refreshing taste. The first time, I only used mint, cream, milk, and sugar. It was quite good and fresh and grassy, but I wanted it mintier. In this one, I added mint extract, and it's perfect. Both of us really enjoyed it. In case you're curious, I grow three types of mint in my garden: chocolate mint, grapefruit mint, and peppermint. I used a blend of the three. This ice cream is not very sweet. The recipes that came with the ice cream maker usually use 1/2 cup of sugar per pint-ish of ice cream, and I halved it. It just needs a hint of sweetness, in our opinion.


Mint ice cream:
1/2 cup milk (I used whole, but you can use skim or anything in between)
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup fresh mint, finely minced
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients together. Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can freeze it in a pan in the freezer, periodically running a fork through it to mix it up, and then whirl it in a food processor to incorporate some air. This recipe makes about 2 cups of ice cream. If you have a bigger ice cream maker, you can double or triple it.

Sherbet photo shoot

I took some good pictures of the sherbet in this post, so I thought I'd share them here.

This is the ice cream maker churning away. I used up all the ice my ice maker can hold at one time plus another Cafe Bustelo can full and about 20 oz of salt. Have you ever made ice cream using ice and salt? The salt both melts and lowers the freezing point of the ice, so at the end you have a ton of this ridiculously cold water. You put your hand in there, and your bones start to hurt. It's pretty neat to see chemistry in action like that.

Here is a super-close up of a little espresso cup full of sherbet garnished with half a home-grown strawberry and a mint leaf.
And here's another. How pretty.

Tangelo-red pepper sherbet

I am having an "iron chef" party tomorrow night to celebrate the end of the semester and the end of qualifying exams for the first- and second-years. The theme ingredient this time is peppers. Yesterday I did a test run on the recipe I'm making for the party, a tangelo-red pepper sherbet. I saw a recipe for tangerine sherbet on a NY Times "Tiny Kitchen" video, and while I was brainstorming things to make for the party, I remembered it and thought that tangerine would pair well with red bell pepper. The grocery store didn't have tangerines, but I usually get tangelos anyway, so I went with those. We went the fresh-squeezed route, but the results would probably be fine with regular juice, even just orange juice or an orange-tangerine blend. I used gelatin. I know that it isn't vegetarian, but I've had it in my pantry for a long time, and I wanted to see if it helped with stabilization. It didn't really seem any different from other frozen desserts I have made, so I don't think I will use it next time.

I decided to "roast" my peppers in the microwave following a suggestion of Barbara Kafka in Vegetable Love. I wasn't too fussy about peeling them, and although the peel was definitely noticeable in the final product, it was not objectionable. The microwave technique worked, but I might do them in the oven next time since I'll have a lot more peppers, and microwaving plastic wrap for that long seems a little foolish.

I actually own three ice cream makers of various types right now. How excessive. They were all given to me by relatives who don't use them much. I made this one in a little ice cream maker with a canister you freeze for several hours. It's Donvier brand, probably bought by my grandmother in 1973. It doesn't freeze things very solid for me, but it's convenient, and I just wanted a small batch. It makes about a pint at a time. Tonight I am going to make the "real" batch for the party using my more traditional Waring ice cream maker that makes about 1 1/2 quarts and uses ice and salt. It will probably freeze a little better. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you should borrow one of mine or freeze it in a metal pan and scrape it with a fork every once in a while. After it's frozen, you can whirl it in a food processor to incorporate some air.

Jon and I both really enjoyed this, so it's not just my crazy hippie tendencies talking. Or maybe we're both crazy hippies. I decreased the sugar slightly from the tangerine sorbet recipe, and I liked it. It would probably even make a good palate cleanser between courses of a fancy dinner if I were the kind of person who made fancy dinners that required palate cleansers. Jon suggested maybe adding some lemon juice the next time for a bigger citrus presence, but I don't think I will. The success of this idea has led me to brainstorm a lot of other slightly odd sherbet, sorbet, and ice cream flavors, and now that I have the little ice cream maker out and remember how easy it is to use, you might see some more weird ice cream creations on here.

Tangelo-red pepper sherbet (inspired by "Tiny Kitchens" from the NY Times):
1/2 tsp gelatin
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 large red bell peppers
3/4 cup tangelo juice (about 3 tangelos for us)
zest of 2 tangelos
3/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin in the water in a small saucepan. Leave it alone for a while as you prepare the red peppers. Cut out the cores, remove seeds and white stuff, and cut into large pieces. Remove whatever peel is convenient to remove, more if you don't want peel in your sherbet. Put all the pieces on a large plate or bowl, cover tightly (I used plastic wrap, but I don't know if I should be advising others to put plastic in the microwave for long periods of time), and microwave for three minutes. Maybe add another minute for good measure if they don't seem roasted enough to you. Transfer the peppers to a food processor and process until quite smooth. You should end up with about 3/4 cups red pepper puree, but the volume isn't that important.

Now go back to the saucepan with the water and gelatin in it. Put some low heat under it and stir it gently until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add the tangelo juice, zest, red pepper, and sugar and stir until blended. Remove from heat and transfer to refrigerator until cold. Combine this with the cream, which should also be cold, and freeze in whatever way you normally freeze ice cream. This recipe makes about a pint. If you have a large ice cream maker, you should probably double it.

**Update, 05/07/09**

In case you were curious, here is the recipe I ended up making for the party. It makes about 1 1/2 quarts of sherbet and got good reviews.

2 1/4 cups tangelo juice (from 11 tangelos)
zest of 4 tangelos
4 large red bell peppers
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cream

Get Jon to juice the tangelos. It takes a while. Meanwhile, broil the red peppers, turning often, until they are soft and a good amount of the peel has turned black. Place in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap until the peppers are cool enough to handle. (You can help Jon juice and zest the tangelos while you're waiting.) When the peppers are cool, peel them and puree them until quite smooth. Combine juice, zest, pepper puree, and sugar in a large bowl and chill. When it is cold, add the cream and process according to ice cream maker instructions. It's nice if you can freeze it for at least an hour afterward to get it to harden up.