MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

peach frozen yogurt

Don’t let the fact that this is frozen yogurt mislead you. It is rich and thick and coats your mouth the way ice cream does.

5 medium (about the size of a tennis ball) very ripe yellow peaches
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain whole-milk Greek yogurt (or yogurt you strained yourself)
a squeeze of lemon juice

Peel peaches and cut them up into chunks. In a small saucepan, combine water, peaches, and their pits (cooking them helps loosen the very last bits of fruit and maybe it contributes some kind of faint almond-like flavor?… didn’t hurt to try). Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and add sugar, stirring it until it’s all dissolved. Let cool, then puree (it’s okay if there are a few chunks of fruit bobbing around). Chill peach puree for several hours or overnight.

Whisk peach puree into yogurt. Add lemon juice. Freeze in an ice cream machine. Yum.

red currant and vanilla ice cream

I’ve only had Van Leeuwen Ice Cream’s red currant flavor once: the first time I stumbled upon one of their pale yellow trucks in SoHo a few years ago. The ice cream was rich but not too sweet, with tart red currants that popped against a smooth vanilla background. It was the type of revelatory moment that you’d talk up around friends who like to talk about superlative experiences with food. Subsequent visits began with a longing to relive that first taste, but each ended with a scoop of some other (also good) flavor. The trucks, and now stores, seem to be permanently sold out of currants and cream. They told me their currant supplier is small and can only provide limited quantities of the fruit each season.

The workaround? Wait patiently for these pretty pearly berries to arrive in my CSA share, as they do every summer, then make a batch of ice cream that will scream to be eaten in one sitting.

(makes about 1 quart)

1 cup red currants, stems removed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
dash of salt
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine currants and 2 tablespoons sugar in a small pan. Heat over a low flame, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and currants have released some of their juice. The currants should be softened but still hold their shape. Set aside and refrigerate. (Tip: you could simply spoon this currant sauce over store-bought vanilla ice cream for more immediate gratification.)

Heat milk, cream, sugar, and salt over medium-low heat in another saucepan til steamy.

Temper egg yolks and pour back into the saucepan. Cook custard over low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (or until it reaches 160 degrees). Stir and scrape frequently to prevent the mixture from coagulating around the edge and bottom of the pan.

Strain custard through a mesh strainer into a cover-able bowl. Stir in vanilla. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours or overnight (it should be as cold as possible). Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the machine’s instructions. Fold in cold currant sauce and enjoy it like soft-serve or pack it in the freezer to let it harden (they call this “ripening”).

black sesame ice cream

My friend Scott finally came to visit a few weeks ago. Those of you who were at my wedding may remember him from the live entertainment portion of the evening featuring two shirtless guys wrestling. Scott and I have known each other for 20 years, and he once lied to an entire fraternity house by introducing me as his sister (I continue to assume this was in my best interest). For a friend like this, I would do almost anything. Like make black sesame ice cream that he has been telling me about for the past two years or so.

Combine in a medium sauce pan and heat over medium-low heat til steamy:

• 1 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 cup light cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• dash of salt

Temper and pour back into the saucepan:

• 3 egg yolks

Cook custard over low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (or until it reaches 160 degrees). Stir and scrape frequently to prevent the mixture from coagulating around the edge and bottom of the pan.

Strain through a mesh strainer to make things extra-smooth. Whisk in:

• 6 tablespoons black sesame paste
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• tiny drizzle of toasted sesame oil (optional)

Chill overnight, then freeze in an ice cream machine according to the machine’s instructions. By the way, a cheap and reliable one costs around $50. Not a big deal! Once you’ve had homemade ice cream, it’s hard to go back.

peachy biscuit ice cream sandwich

Forget cobbler. Instead of waiting for a dish full of fruit and dough to get all gooey and hot in the oven, I sandwiched some peach slices between leftover buttery breakfast biscuits with homemade honey-bourbon ice cream and a smear of Jocelyn’s tart blueberry jam. Incidentally, this was a break from learning about fat metabolism.

gingersnaps with lemon ice cream

milkmadeicecream:

Back to that ice cream sandwich idea. Here’s one we whipped up with lemon ice cream and gingersnaps. I love love love the combination of lemon and gingery baked goods (I used to keep a box of Carr’s ginger lemon creme cookies at my desk, and we’d eat these whenever we could in Berkeley). The lemons were grown by a friend in San Diego, and hand-imported in economy class by my personal fruit smuggler. The hardest part about making these is not eating all of the cookies and ice cream before they’re ready to be sandwiched together in perfect harmony.

<00, Mitch

candied bacon + ice cream

I just wanted to say that imperfectly candied (uh, burnt) bacon is pretty good on homemade caramel apple ice cream.

MILKMADE ice cream

We’re really doing it! MILKMADE is a creamy collaboration between my college buddies Diana and Pavla and me. And we’ve been covered on Grub Street! I am so excited.

i scream, you scream

Diana (photo taken from here) and I made nectarine and raspberry ice cream in her kitchen on Saturday. Hurray for our first collaborative batch!

And then I went home and made some coffee ice cream using custard from a previous failed batch. If you ever want to see me in my most dejected state, by the way, come find me right after I’ve produced un-frozen ice cream, flat gougères, or overcooked steak. I salvaged the custard from Friday and thought long and hard about what could’ve gone wrong during my first-ever attempt at making ice cream. After picking up some tips from D, I was rewarded with a pint of homemade ice cream made with Peet’s delicious coffee. I loosely followed this recipe.

So based on attempt #1, do NOT do the following when making ice cream:

• store the custard anywhere but the coldest part of your refrigerator (the back)
• stop and chat with whomever else is in the room, even for 5 seconds, after you’ve removed the mixing bowl from the freezer
• overfill the mixing bowl (I’m wary of pouring anything beyond the halfway mark at this point)
• cook a full meal on the stove right next to the ice cream machine
• take the freezer bowl out of the package and, in your excitement, attempt to make ice cream before the bowl has been in the freezer for at least a few days (and be sure to let it re-freeze properly between batches, for 24 hours… thanks to kind commenter Sylvie for these tips)

While there are lots of sciencey things about ice cream that are also important, I tend to have problems with simply following directions (remember what I said about being bad at measuring things for baking?). Lesson learned.