Ice cream diaries

[gwyn]

So, now that I've made a few batches of ice cream, what have I learned? One, it's important to follow ALL the instructions for putting the device together. Two, I need to find some insulated gloves that I won't care about getting ice cream all over them, because frostbitten fingers just for the sake of dessert are not good.

I've made five different batches so far. Each one of them has turned out differently.

* The first was basic vanilla. This was the best one of all until the recent one. Possibly it was the ease, possibly it was also that dad put the contraption together correctly.

* Chocolate was next. That one turned out very badly, though my friend's kids loved it, and dad didn't complain. I just couldn't get the chocolate to unseize, first of all, no matter how long I heated it once the milk was in. My arm became so tired from stirring that I finally gave up and left the lumps in. I also didn't like the taste -- too dark cocoa powdery for me. I think I will eschew the B&J's recipes on chocolate and instead use the one in my West Coast Cooking book.

* Coconut actually tasted pretty good, although it was a little... foamy is the only word I can think of to describe it. It had a kind of consistency that reminded me of froth in a drink, which I hate. So I think I may tone down the coconut cream next time, just a little. This one also was waaaay more than the "generous quart" they said, and it was overflowing the mixer so bad I had to take it off before I think it was totally ready. And if I had put the damn thing together right, that might also have helped.

* Lavender was an especially valuable learning experience. I'd read repeatedly that steeping the lavender too long would make it bitter, but I did what the recipe called for, only I think it was much too long. I also think that between the too-long steep time and the lavender honey, it was a bit of sensory overload. Next time I'll steep it a lot less, and use half regular honey to half the lavender honey. And this was where I finally figured out a crucial small detail about the machine I was forgetting, and that's why it wasn't giving me the slip and locking sound signal that it was done.

* Peach, my latest batch, is probably the best of all of them. It's super, super creamy but with this faint peach taste, and small chunks of sweet tart peaches. And since I finally put the mixer together right, it did tell me when it was done, so I was able to get the peach pieces in in due time, and just as it started to runneth over, it was done. Yay! Everyone liked the lavender ice cream last week, even though they agreed that it was powerfully lavender, so this week I hope they will like the peach as much, if not more, for being more balanced.

Some people have summers of pie, I have summers of ice cream experiments, apparently. Although it's a little expensive to make, with the fresh summer produce, I'm enjoying it a lot. I think next week I'll grab some of the last of the plums and try that.

****
I bought a new cell phone (long story short, the old one wasn't keeping a charge and had a fatal flaw that was really bothering me, even though I mostly love the phone) off of ebay today. It was such a good price even on the buy it now price, it was unlocked and no contract, works with my carrier, and had free shipping. The one thing I don't really know how to do, though, is make it mine. When it comes, is there anything I have to do besides slip my old SIM card into the new phone? Does that carry over my numbers and information? I think I understand this stuff, but in practice, I really don't, and I've never done this before. I always went to the Cingular store, but I really don't like going there at all and I just loathe having to deal with the hard sell, when I know what I want to do and buy.

Comments

[varina8.livejournal.com]

The peach ice cream sounds incredible. I love homemade treats that get better and easier the more you make them.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You should come over for ice cream! Any excuse to make some, believe me!

[varina8.livejournal.com]

Let me get my life back and you're on! The work-school load is killer this semester.

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

I am so looking forward to the peach ice cream! It sounds divine.

[carose59.livejournal.com]

My experience with cell phones is that you can store on both the phone itself and on the SIMM card, so you'll want to be sure that the numbers really are on the SIMM card. (And if they're not, you should have the option of saving what's on the phone on the card.)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Yes, that is totally what I needed to know -- I think, since I didn't know SIM cards from a hole in the wall when I first got this phone, when it asked me where I wanted to save phone numbers, I just picked phone ("Card? What card?"). So I am dutifully trying to copy all my numbers from the phone to the card. I'm sure I'll still mess some up, but at least I will get most of them.

[carose59.livejournal.com]

And even if you do miss some of them, as long as you still have the old phone, you can just put the card back in, move the missed numbers onto it, and then stick it back in your new phone.

[brynnmck.livejournal.com]

OMG, that ice cream sounds fantastic. *drools*

Also, according to the episode of Burn Notice I just watched--which is where I get all my technical advice--you should just be able to switch the SIMM card. So... there you go. Hee.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I should have people over for an ice cream party. I want to get the people who missed the addition-warming party over anyway, so I guess that's as good an excuse as any -- however, I don't have anything fun for people like rock band games!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also, yes, I learned everything I know about cell phones from Burn Notice, too. Only they left off a couple of important things, I found, when I looked all this stuff on the intarwebs.

Cell Sim

[(Anonymous)]

The SIM card carries the number and other information that identifies the phone as yours. It may or may not have stored numbers on it. It depends on the phone model and the carrier. I would assume that your contacts will not carry over and make sure you have them written down someplace, assuming you can't re-enter them organically, which is a fancy way of saying when someone calls, add them to your contacts.

Jay

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Wow the peach ice cream sounds delicious! Although lavender sounds intriguing. I had honey lavender Haagan Daaz the other week and it was too much honey-flavored, so I probably would've liked the extra lavender. heh.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I didn't know HD made that kind of flavor. I was trying to recapture this ice cream I had at Le Pichet down at the Market -- I'm not there yet, not by a longshot, but since it was handmade, I figure I have to keep trying.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... and now I want ice cream!

I've even had homemade lavender ice cream, before. It was incredibly good, but sadly led to my discovery that I'm allergic to lavender (as a food, at least). :-p

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, crap! Yeah, that would be bad. I had never even thought of lavender in food until I had some honey-lavender ice cream at Le Pichet downtown. I was in heaven and told my friend that it was, as Buffy said, the most amazing thing I'd ever put in my mouth. ;-) I don't know if I'll ever get to where it tastes like Le Pichet's but I can keep working on it. ;-)

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Some ice cream tips:

The best chocolate ice cream recipe is in Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Shere. Otherwise, make a rich creme anglaise and while it is still hot, stir in a quantity of warm melted chocolate that is 75% semi-or-bittersweet and 25% excellent quality milk chocolate, then strain it over an ice bath to cool it down fast. Chill thoroughly in fridge before freezing (all ice cream bases must be very cold before they go into ice cream freezers). One of my executive chefs gave me this formula years ago, and it always works.

Peach ice cream will never be really "peachy" unless you stir a small amount of peach or apricot brandy or schnapps into the base (not too much or the alcohol will impede freezing). Even good ripe farmers' market peaches are no longer peachy enough for ice cream.

Be sure to add enough sugar and a little bit of salt - freezing flattens out flavors.

Lavender ice cream is the devil's ice cream - it requires only the smallest amount of steeping time. Otherwise it ends up tasting like bad cologne. Plegh.

Vanilla bean ice cream is best when you let the hot cream and vanilla pods steep for at least two hours at room temperature (as long as you reheat it to make anglaise).

Perservere!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Wow, you are a fount of knowledge! I don't even know what a creme anglaise is, so obviously I have a bit of reading up to do. ;-)

The next choccie recipe I was going to try does pretty much what you were saying -- that is, melting it into the cream. That sounds like a much better option for a cooking loser like me. When you say strain over an ice bath, what do you mean? I'm not sure I can envision what that looks like...

(srsly, cooking doofus, that is me)

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

An ice bath is a bowl set on top of another bowl filled with ice and a little bit of water. It is to cool down a cooked mixture quickly (or "shock" it) - thus the hot ice cream custard base (aka creme anglaise, a thin rich cooked custard also used as a dessert sauce) is strained through a sieve into the empty bowl and stirred until the ice underneath cools it off and stops the cooking process.

And you are not a cooking doofus or loser, you are learning how to cook. As with any endeavor, it's all trial and error at the beginning. Keep going - you'll be an expert before you know it, and you'll have a lot of fun along the way. You obviously have a good palate already - your farmers' market post made me incredibly jealous as we have nothing like it LA (LA stinks as a food town).