double dip: vanilla and coffee caramel

DID YOU KNOW that Russians are great fans of ice cream? Morozhenoe, it is called, and you can buy it on the street even in November. I once spent five months in St. Petersburg and knew everything was in order the day I walked down Nevsky Prospekt licking ice cream in my long underwear, a turtleneck, two wool sweaters, a babushka shawl, and the beautiful but thin black greatcoat my host mother had laughed at when I arrived ("This is your coat?"). It's not the best ice cream you've ever had, but it will do (as ice cream usually does). A popular flavor is plum.

If you love ice cream, you must try making your own. It is so delicious, so easy, and even if you use expensive ingredients like vanilla beans, it is still cheaper than premium store-bought brands.

This was supposed to be the summer of ice cream for me. In late May, when the air was finally warming up and my apartment was close enough to completion that I allowed myself to start thinking about what it would be like to live there, I ordered a hand-cranked Donvier ice cream maker just like the one my grandmother gave me when I was a little girl. I also ordered Chez Panisse Desserts, which was said to be full of delectable ice cream recipes. Despite my intense (undying, really) devotion to vanilla, I looked forward to inventing new flavors, specifically cilantro sorbet and gingersnap ice cream. The machine arrived; the book arrived; and best of all, the contractors finished up and I moved in to my apartment.

My plans to make vanilla ice cream for my very first dinner chez moi were foiled when it turned out the cooktop did not work and so I could not make custard. I tried to make a frozen strawberries and cream dessert; I tried to make mint ice with great bunches of mint from Andrew's parents' garden; I tried a no-cook vanilla ice cream recipe. It wasn't the same, though, and the summer of ice cream was simply not to be. To add insult to injury, the Lee brothers published a piece in the Times about the joys of making ice cream at home, and they included a recipe for gingersnap ice cream. Boy, was I hot under the collar that summer day.

They finally got my cooktop working in September, so on the second day of fall, I finally got to make my ice cream. When I first tasted it, straight out of the maker, I worried that it was too eggy; when I took it out of the freezer the next day, it has frozen rock-solid, and I worried that it was full of watery ice crystals; but when I let it soften just a bit that second day, it was just right, with a marvelous flavor and a satisfyingly smooth, pliant texture.

VANILLA ICE CREAM from Chez Panisse Desserts

-In a medium saucepan, gently warm 1 cup of half, 2 cups of heavy cream, and 2/3 cups sugar, into which liquid/sugar mixture you have scraped the seeds of a 4-inch piece of vanilla bean [DOES ANYONE HAVE TIPS FOR SCRAPING OUT VANILLA SEEDS? I have done this twice in the past month now and fear that I am ending up with $1 worth of pricey vanilla beans in the trash or under my fingernails. Alton Brown must have some brilliant solution]. Throw in the scraped pods as well. Warm, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves.
-Whisk 6 egg yolks just enough to break them up (save the 6 whites for breakfast the next morning, so you can feel less guilty about the ice cream you had no idea was so yolk-rich until now). Whisk in a splash of the warm cream mixture to warm the eggs.
-Add the now-creamy yolks to the cream mixture in the saucepan. Cook over low heat until the mixture reaches 170 degrees F. Supposedly you can do this by checking whether the mixture "coats the spoon," but I feel so much better with a thermometer (which you can buy at K-Mart, Martha Stewart Everyday, for not much money). "Coats the spoon" means that when you run your finger through the custard on the back of the spoon (with which you have been stirring constantly so as to ensure that you are not making scrambled eggs), it leaves a clear trail. This is a distinction too subtle for me, and I prefer the thermometer.
-Once your custard is ready, strain it to remove the little bits of scrambly egg you have probably accumulated. Put the pods back into the custard and chill thoroughly. Once it is chilled, remove the pods and freeze it howeveryour ice cream maker tells you to.

Gosh, that was good. I know I'm no longer alone in saying this, but the phrase "plain vanilla" has never sounded right to me. Is there anything more luxurious than those bitty black beans? But this weekend, I had to try another flavor, one I had been dreaming of since my Chez Panisse Desserts book arrived. I hadn't planned ahead (like David Lebovitz, I do not grind my coffee at home, and I had no half-and-half), so this is a modified recipe (thank you, Mark Bittman). Andrew thinks it could use a dusting of spice, but I think it is amazing and perfect the way it is. I even overcame my fear of homemade caramel to make this...

COFFEE CARAMEL ICE CREAM

-Warm 1/2 cup ground coffee in 1 cup of 2% milk and about 2 cups heavy cream (I had just under 2 cups heavy cream). When tiny bubbles appear around edges, cover and steep for about half an hour--until the coffee taste pleases you.
-While the cream is steeping, put 1 cup of sugar in a smallish-medium saucepan with 3 tablespoons of water. Cook over high heat until it turns a light caramel color (mine developed a honeycomb of thick-looking bubbles before turning color; is this right?). When the color is right, put the pot in your sink and quickly pour in 1/4 cup of warm water. THIS WILL SPATTER AND HISS. Then it changes consistency. Cook to dissolve the caramel.
-Strain the coffee grounds out of the cream mixture; then stir caramel into cream mixture. Splash a bit of this into your 6 lightly-whisked egg yolks and put creamy yolks back into the cream. Heat to spoon-coating consistency as described above (170 degrees). Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Chill thoroughly and make ice cream.

This ice cream did not freeze as hard as the vanilla--the caramel kept it chewy, even when it was dead frozen. It is very rich and, I think, extraordinary. I did not even notice the substitution of 2% milk for half-and-half, which leads me to believe that some more experimenting is in order.

 

Comments

[Luisa]

So funny - we are on the same wavelength. I also bought Chez Panisse Desserts once when I was having serious jonesing for homemade ice cream (nevermind that I have no ice cream maker - YET!) and then when I read the Lee Bros article this summer, I got soo impatient! Still waiting, mind you. Is x-mas here yet?

[Robin]

You should give yourself a Halloween present! I was worried that my dinky $50 maker would not get the texture right, but with all those egg yolks and all that cream, it basically can't go wrong.