Date Ice Cream

[kerravonsen]

More ice cream adventures.

Tub 49 & 50:

Yes this is two tubs, I ended up making twice as much as I needed to fill one tub, so I filled two tubs.

• 500g date paste
• 2 tablespoons Treacle (aka Molasses)
• 500ml full cream milk
• 8 tablespoons Natvia

The date paste was from a middle-eastern grocery. It was a brown slab of pure dateness, about the consistency of fudge or hard caramel. That is, I could cut it with a knife, but had to press down with both hands. So I cut it into cubes. It was very difficult to puree with the milk; if I hadn't been using a genuine Bamix I'm sure it would have broken my stick-blender. The motor got pretty hot, and it took quite a while. If I were to do this again, I would puree it one cube at a time instead of trying to do them all at once. The mixture ended up being quite thick, and a light brown colour.

I can't remember what setting I used on the Ninja Creami, but when it was done, the date-cream had been truly pulverized, it was almost liquid, like half-melted soft-serve. So I put it back into the freezer. When I checked it the next day, it had not frozen solid like every other Ninja Creami tub that I'd put back. No, it was actually a perfect ice-cream consistency, perfectly scoopable. Fascinating.

The taste was date. Date date date date. You couldn't tell there had been treacle added. And I realised that, while I like date, I don't like it enough to eat an entire litre of date ice cream. Ah well. You live and learn. I feel as if it needs to be eaten with vanilla sponge cake or pancakes - something to provide a lighter accent against all the dateness.

Comments

[nocturnus33]

My son, who just graduated as a chef, made a blue cheese ice cream last week. It makes me think of you. The ice cream was completely salty to be served with salad. As he lives in another city, I wasn't able to taste it. He claims it is highly odd, as it's not a desert; but he said it is lovely. Only for brave people.

[kerravonsen]

I guess it's no more strange than the US dish of jello (jelly) salad. But definitely only for brave souls, because Blue Cheese is only for brave souls.

[nocturnus33]

I'm fan of blue cheese, but I'm not sure if I would be fan of it's ice cream.

[jaxomsride2]

Interesting food chemistry, date puree has a very low freezing point.