Almond Biscotti and Mascarpone Ice Cream

Almond Biscotti and Mascarpone Ice Cream

We had Italian night at work (spaghetti, lasagna, garlic bread etc) so I was tasked with coming up with an Italian flavored ice cream.  I wanted to do something different.  My first thought was something with ricotta cheese, but not being a big fan of ricotta, I decided to go with mascarpone cheese instead.  Originally I was going to make it with amaretti cookies, but alas I could find none, so I went to a back up of biscotti, and decided to add almonds for good measure.  The marscapone has a very mild flavor so you can't really taste it in the ice cream so much, but you can definitely tell it's there in the texture. 

And just too keep things interesting I thought I'd do a step by step guide this time. 

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar

4 cups Heavy Cream

6 Egg Yolks

1 8 oz tub Mascarpone

1 box Biscotti

1 6 oz back Slivered Almonds (you can used any almonds, I just prefer the slivered ones)

First thing I did was melt the mascarpone cheese

Add Sugar

Add heavy cream

Mix together on low heat to gently warm

Once warmed, temper your eggs

Continue to warm, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes or until coats the back of a spoon. 

While the base is chilling completely in the fridge, you can get started on chopping the almonds

Also chop the biscotti cookies into pieces and set aside until ice cream base is completely cool.  Churn ice cream as instructed on your ice cream maker.

When it's almost done churning you can add in the biscotti

And add the almonds.  Finish churning and put in the freezer to harden.  Once hard, serve and enjoy!





Mango Chili Lime Ice Cream

Mango Chili Lime Ice Cream

Well this flavor opened to mixed reviews - people either liked it or they really didn't.  I personally enjoyed it, even with the spice (and I am not a spicy eater).  The lime is really just and under note. 

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar (perhaps more for your mango's depending on the tartness)

4 cups Heavy Cream

6 Egg Yolks

4 Mango's (this is how many I used but I would recommend probably 6 as mine didn't have as strong of mango flavor as I would have liked)

2 Limes

1 Jalapeño

Recipe:

First thing I did was peel and dice the Mango's.  Then I diced the jalapeño (removing some of the white and seeds so it wasn't too spicy, but I left a good amount).  Then I zest both limes and juiced them.  All of this went in the blender with about  a half cup of sugar since my mango's were pretty tart.  Let this puree as much as you'd like.  Set aside.  I did strain this a little to get out the larger pieces of jalapeño. 

To make the ice cream base (which I make the same for all my ice creams) is really easy.  Add 4 cups heavy cream and 2 cups sugar in pot and let it cook on low (this is really important, you don't want to over cook it, really you're just trying to warm it up).  While this is slowly warming, I separate my egg yolks out. 

Once the cream has gotten mildly warm you need to temper your egg yolks.  This means adding the warmed cream mixture into your bowl of egg yolks and mix it together.  Then add the cream and egg mixture back into the pot.  This is VERY important - you don't want your eggs to scramble. 

Keep on low and stir occasionally.  Again, we don't want to over cook this.  About 15 minutes until the mixture has thickened a little and will coat the back of a spoon.  At this point it goes into a bowl (or your ice cream canister) and gets mixed with the mango puree.  Then put into the refrigerator until it cools completely.  This takes a few hours. 

Once completely cool, it's time to churn!  Follow your ice cream makers instructions.  When done my ice cream is about milk shake consistency, which is perfect.  This gets put into a freezer safe tub and put in the freezer to harden.  This takes several hours, so I'd recommend making this a day ahead. 

Once frozen, serve, and enjoy!!



Ghosts of Ice Creams Past

While I've just recently decided to start a blog, I've been making my ice cream for almost a year now.  I'm always trying to come up with new an interesting flavors and have had some successes... and some failures.  I figure I'd start with brief history and rating of my past flavors.

Strawberry Mint - Mild Success - This was my first batch and the consistency was definitely lacking.  Also the mint gave it a subtle toothpaste flavor, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

Raspberry Lemonade - Semi Success - Still working out consistency issues and came out pretty tart, but hey, it's lemonade!

Peachy Keen - Semi Success - Perfect consistency just not enough peach flavor.  If I attempt this one again I'll try canned peaches instead of fresh peaches.

Honey Nut - Semi Success - One of my favorite flavor combinations, truly delicious, but this never got past milk shake consistency, I'm thinking that honey doesn't freeze?

Caramel Apple - Semi Success - While I've finally mastered my consistency, due to the addition of apple cider the consistency still wasn't what it should have been.

Pumpkin Pie - Success - Perfect, creamy, tasted EXACTLY like pumpkin pie, even tried the store bought kind later and thought mine was much better!

Cranberry Lime Sorbet - Success - My first attempt at a Sorbet, came out great if not a little tart, definitely needed more sugar!

Guinness - Super Success - This was a request for a "Clog-Your-Arteries" party.  I don't really drink beer, especially not Guinness and yet this was really good and a HUGE hit!

Cheesecake - Super Success - One of my favorites, captured that cheesecake flavor spectacularly, and pieces of graham cracker crust? YUM

Bacon - Disaster - Sadly this did not turn out as I hoped.  While trying to increase that "bacon" flavor I decided not to drain the fat.  BIG MISTAKE.  What I got was fat flavored ice cream - no bueno.  Trust this flavor will be revisited, I already have ideas on how to improve this recipe!

I may have forgotten some but those (to me) at least are the most memorable.  After trial and error, I finally settled on a great base recipe, one that all my ice creams consist of - one that gives a delicious rich and creamy texture.  After that it's just about adding whatever flavor you're looking for! 

Stay tuned - more to come!!