Saturday, February 24, 2007

Goodbye Summer: Fluking Ice Cream

Coffee hazelnut icecream

Officially, there are only 4 days of summer remaining, although our summers do like to linger behind weeks after we’ve bade her farewell. What can I say, she likes it here in Sydney and how could you not, we welcome her with open arms, plead with her not to leave come February and yearn for her return mid August.

Sydney I think, is at its best in summer, some may argue that it is spring when she is her prettiest and this may be true, but all we are, are merely waking up from the slumber of humdrum winter days. Sydney is most alive in the summertime, when the sun is out, the humidity is at its peak and flies are doing their best to cling to you.

Coffee Hazelnut Ice Cream and Honey Ginger Gelato

Yes, nothing beats a hot, fly-infested summer. I think the locals have become accustomed to this nuisance come summer, although the visitors have a hard time coping with it. A friend studying here from Africa is convinced she is under attack, although they never seem to bother me anymore, but enough about flies.

So now that we are counting down, numbering the precious days we have left of genial weather and resplendently abundant sunshine, I must turn to the fact that I have only blogged about ice all but once this entire season. I have been making use of the ice cream machine that came into my possession over the Christmas period, although most excursions have been undocumented. Undocumented in the fact that they have, well, not quite up to the standard that I like to regale my readers.

Honey and ginger gelato

The ice creams in question were so disastrous that my freezer for some time had become a morgue for deceased ice cream. It became the case where creative inspiration, alas did not meet with successful realisation. The only realisation that took place was the realisation that my ice creams sucked. They actually didn’t suck that much at the time of conception, sure the concept was great, although something must have gone awry in the process of execution that I somehow gave birth to a mass of icy abominations.

Perhaps I should just stick to more familiar flavours, like run and raisin, rocky road, even vanilla. At least success would have come more easily. Luckily after the third disaster, I decided to stick to combinations I knew were tried and tested and not even I, the fumbling ice cream maker could not stuff up. After the many misappropriations of cream, milk and eggs, I eventually managed to churn out something worthy of this blog. I wasn’t going to lower the bar for those other things that even my dog wouldn’t eat.

Let’s just say that clementine and champagne ice cream sounded like a great idea on paper. But, in actual fact, it tasted worse than that cherry flavoured cough syrup that your mother used to force feed you as a child, as you writhed in discontent as it unwillingly made its way down your throat. Feeling a like a complete loser, here I present to you my two best creations: Coffee and Hazelnut Ice Cream and Honey Ginger Gelato.

Gelato Ingredients

The coffee ice cream is made with hazelnut flavoured coffee so the hints of hazelnut are quite subtle. Although if you are more inclined to use ground hazelnut, go for it. I wasn’t too sure about what this would do to the texture of the ice cream, and given my track record, I decided to go for something a lot simpler, the fewer ingredients the better.

The gelato, was little bit more of a gamble, I had never used honey in an ice cream before, and was scared about what this would do to the taste. But it’s a wonder what the combination of milk, eggs, honey and ginger can do, as by the end it looked like what gelato shoudl look like and, unlike previous attempts, it actually seemed edible! In fact at first I wasn’t too keen on the honey ginger combination, which surprised me as I love it cakes and biscuits, but somehow it didn’t taste quite right to me. However my family loved it, so I guess it wasn’t a complete failure.

So give these recipes a go, but I cannot sure you that they will turn out successfully. Who knows these could have been a fluke.

Coffee Hazelnut Ice Cream

Coffee Hazelnut Ice Cream and Honey Ginger Gelato

100g sugar
4 egg yolks
400ml full cream milk
1 tbsp hazelnut flavoured coffee ground
500ml pure cream (35%-55% milkfat)

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolk together until think and pale.
Place milk and coffee in a medium heavy based saucepan over low heat and bring the milk just to a gentle simmer.
Remove from heat and strain the milk using a fine sieve.
Gradually pour the strained milk into the egg and sugar mixture, whisking slowly as you go.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk the custard until it thickens. (If you have a thermometer, the custard should be at about 60°C.)
Remove custard from heat and pass through a fine sieve again to remove any clumps that may have formed.
Place in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours.
Using a whisk, incorporate cream into the custard*.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions**.
When churned, transfer ice cream to a 1.2-litre air tight container and place in the freezer.
The ice cream should be ready to serve after 1-2 hours.

*Ensure that you do not add the cream to a warm custard.

** Under no circumstances should you place warm custard into an ice cream machine, unless you want to destroy it.

Honey and Ginger Gelato

800ml full cream milk
7 egg yolks
100g honey
1 small knob of fresh ginger, sliced (for infusing)
1 tsp ginger ground

In a large saucepan set over a pan of simmering water, whisk milk and egg yolks together.Add the honey , ginger slices and ginger ground and continuously whisk until honey has dissolved and the mixture has thickened. This will take about 20 minutes and the custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.Remove the custard from the heat and remove ginger slices.
Allow the custard to chill in the refrigerator.When the custard has completely chilled, pour into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.Store the ice cream in a 1-litre air tight container and freeze.The gelato should be ready to srve after freezing for 1-2 hours.

15 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I'm on the central coast of California right now and it is really windy and cold. It's so odd to read about the end of your summer because I'm really not looking forward to the coming Dallas summer. It's already been 80 several days recently and I think when I return it will go directly to 110° and be there through September.
Well, the ice cream sounds lovely both Coffee and Hazelnut Ice Cream - that's my first vote! But Honey Ginger Gelato sounds divine also because I love the honey ice creams! Glad to kept trying!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen - both of these recipes sound wonderful! You may be saying goodbye to summer, but take heart - I've been steadily making ice-cream, and we are in the worst part of winter over here! So don't let what you see out the window change anything - LOL!

Helene said...

Beautiful Jen! I'll take a double scoop of tha gelato! It looks so incredible.

Brilynn said...

Those both sound amazing! I'm such a sucker for ice cream.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Oh, you've captured summertime's beauty in these photos. And what a heavenly honey and ginger gelato.

Alanna Kellogg said...

Gorgeous!

Cheryl said...

Coffee is my favorite flavor of ice cream and your version is just making me salivate here. Fantastic.

Anonymous said...

Both flavors sound really good! I love coffee and hazelnuts, and the giner/honey combination sounds like a favorite infusion of mine :)

On my side of the world we are going to be saying "hello" to summer soon...although with how hot it is right now it seems like it is already biting our heels! Would love some of that ice cream just about now!

Anonymous said...

gorgeous photos....i can almost taste the ice cream!

cupcaketastic said...

Coffee and Hazelnut Ice Cream for me to go please, can you post it to Melbourne before the 1st March. Lovely pics.

Anonymous said...

Simply stunning! And even though summer is great, I'm desperately looking forward to Autumn and some cooler weather (and hopefully rain!!) - but even though the blistering heat is gone, I hope you won't stop your ice-cream making!

thehungrycat said...

Jen--

Your photographs are gorgeous, and everything looks amazing! I'm a new cook, and I love to find new recipes to salivate over. Thanks for sharing all this. Can't wait to try the hazelnut ice cream when it warms up here.

Cheers!

Anita said...

I like your flavor combinations! And such nice shots of your mise - when I'm baking my kitchen is such a mess I'd be embarassed to take pictures!

Inne said...

hi Jen, I've been reading your blog for a while now and I love your pictures - I can almost feel the sunrays coming out of them! How lucky you are there; here in London we're just emerging from a dark, grey and wet winter. I'm going to be in Sydney at the beginning of April, can you please tell me what kind of weather and temperatures to expect?

Anonymous said...

If I wasn't living in Ireland and heading to Murphy's in Dingle soon (Ice Cream Ireland) I think I would be devouring my screen right about now. Looking forward to more of your edible experiments.