kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

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.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Yeah, more ice cream again.

Tub 48:

  • 500ml full cream milk
  • 6 tablespoons Natvia
  • 2 teaspoons Orange Liquor Essence
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum

Lite Ice Cream setting on my Ninja Creami. The "Orange Liquor Essence" was bought from a bunch who do flavourings for chocolate, and even though they say their flavourings are good for ice cream, not all of them are, as was shown in this case. This orange-flavoured essence smells wonderful. But the taste is so-so. And since, with ice cream, it is cold, you can't smell the lovely smell. So, for flavour, this tub was meh. It was still nice and creamy, but this tub is going to feed milkshakes, I think.

Just now I tried adding some of the Orange Liquor Essence to hot chocolate. Again, it smelled wonderful. But it ended up making the chocolate taste bitter. Darn.

kerravonsen: colourful circles: "Cool" (cool)

Time for another bit of ice cream. I had high expectations of this one.

Tub 44:

  • 250ml strong coffee (prepared as pourover with 35g ground beans and 500ml water; the remainder of the coffee was drunk later)
  • 100g Lindt 85% cocoa chocolate bar (melted)
  • 7 tablespoons Natvia
  • 125ml low-fat milk
  • 1 teaspoon Guar Gum

I put this on the "lite ice cream" setting of the Ninja Creami. That may have been a slight mistake, because the machine wobbled and it scraped the sides of the container, carving off tiny slivers of plastic.

But it was rich and delicious and creamy. Maybe it could do with a bit more sweetener, but by the time my mouth was all cold, I wasn't noticing the non-sweetness as much. I'm absolutely certain that the Lindt is at least half the reason this is so yummy. This is an ice cream to be savoured.

Definitely worth doing again. Though I've run out of Guar Gum, so I'll have to try Xanthan gum instead.

kerravonsen: a rose bud: "Beauty is mysterious" (beauty)

Back to the frozen iced confections again.

Tub 38:

  • 9g dried rose petals (rose tea leaves)
  • 500ml boiling water

Steep for five minutes.

  • 5 tablespoons Natvia
  • 1 tablespoon gelatin

Sorbet setting on my Ninja Creami, naturally. It came out this lovely delicate pink colour. And yes, you could taste the rose. While this was creamy, it was also icy cold, enough to make my teeth ache. I think it might be worth trying to make a version which is steeped in milk rather than water. Though of course milk is rather tricky to heat without overheating it. My milk frother is great at heating milk, but it doesn't have a 500ml capacity.

Do any of you have a reliable technique for heating milk?

kerravonsen: Avon looking haggard: "Need Coffee" (need-coffee)

More ice cream today.

Tub 39:

  • 250ml fresh brewed pourover coffee (made up with 35g ground coffee and 500ml water; I drank the rest with milk later)
  • 5 tablespoons Natvia
  • 2 tablespoons powdered milk
  • 250ml low fat milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon Guar Gum

This was creamy and delicious; a good coffee taste without being overpowering or bitter. I don't think the powdered milk added much, I'll see how it goes without it next time. Yeah, there's definitely going to be a next time with this one. I added a mix-in of chocolate flakes, that was yummy too. All depends on whether you like tiny crumbs of chocolate in your ice cream. The chocolate flakes I'm using are rather high-end: Lindt Hot Chocolate Flakes, which, as their name suggests, are intended for making hot chocolate. And here I am, using them for the opposite thing! Still, I think it is a good use.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Two different kinds of mint, two different ways of preparation.

Peppermint Tea Sorbet )

Fresh Mint Sorbet )

Processed both of them on the "Sorbet" setting of my Ninja Creami machine.

The peppermint tea comes out ahead. They're both nice, but the fresh-pureed-mint has a bitter aftertaste which is unfortunate. They have different mint tastes because peppermint is not the same mint as one buys as "fresh mint"; the fresh mint is probably spearmint or some other mint, it is milder and not as "peppery" as peppermint is.

The peppermint tea had a a clean taste, whereas the pureed mint was more organic and muddy. The pureed mint had a nice green colour, the peppermint tea was so pale it was almost white.

I think it would be worthwhile either getting some dried spearmint to make tea from, or to just infuse the fresh mint -- that is, to prepare them both in the same way, and then compare them. Because it would be nice to have a mild mint sorbet as well as a peppermint sorbet. Mind you, making spearmint tea from dried leaves would be less work than stripping off all the fresh mint leaves in order to infuse them, so I'll probably try that first.

Even though I have not compared them, I'm pretty sure that the peppermint tea sorbet would have a nicer flavour than using peppermint essence instead. I don't know whether it would be worthwhile trying to make peppermint ice milk using peppermint essence - maybe, maybe not - but that's probably the only thing that would motivate me to use peppermint essence.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Trying two different kinds of vanilla flavouring, to see which one works better.

Tub 35:

  • 100ml boiling water
  • 1 tablespoon gelatin
  • 400ml full cream milk
  • 5 T Natvia
  • 4 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

Tub 36:

  • 100ml boiling water
  • 1 tablespoon gelatin
  • 400ml full cream milk
  • 5 T Natvia
  • 1/2 teaspoon concentrated imitation vanilla extract

Processed both of them on the "Lite Ice Cream" setting of my Ninja Creami machine. The imitation vanilla was strongly vanilla-y, but you could tell that it was imitation vanilla. However, once the tastebuds get numbed by the cold, you don't notice it as much. The natural vanilla wasn't as strongly vanilla as the imitation, but you could taste the undertones and the more full-bodied subtle flavour of the real vanilla, but again, once the tastebuds are numbed, you can't detect the subtleties as much (though they are still there). Both of them were nice and creamy.

I don't dare compare these to high-end vanilla ice cream though, because they will both die of embarrassment, going up against cream and sugar, versus milk and Natvia. But the natural vanilla milk ice is really rather nice.

I am pleased, because vanilla is the most difficult to get right. With other flavours, one can cover up their inadequacies with strong flavour, but with vanilla, the flavour is so light, that you notice all the other problems, like the "cream" not tasting right (because, for example, one used powdered milk), or the sweetener having an odd aftertaste (xylitol can do this), and so on.

So, hooray, I have vanilla! And once you have vanilla, there are so many other flavours you can make starting off with the same base.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Tub 32:

  • Port Wine Lite Jelly ("jello" for the Americans)
  • 250ml boiling water (this is half the water required, so the jelly is double-strength)
  • 250ml fresh Cherries (added and then pureed)
  • 3 T Natvia

The Port Wine Jelly taste utterly dominated this. You couldn't tell that there were cherries in the mix at all, though I surmise that one could tell their absence if one were to make a version without cherries in it and tasted them both side by side (which I am NOT going to do). This has been the strongest-tasting frozen-dessert I have made so far. Even as a "milkshake" (that is, filling a glass 3/4 with the sorbet, pouring on milk and stirring with a spoon) has been quite strong-tasting. I suppose that's good news if one likes the flavours that (Lite) jelly comes in, but having them at double-strength is a bit much. Still, it's good to know that adding jelly doesn't mess things up.

What are your favourite flavours of jelly (jello), if any?

kerravonsen: tea, nuts and noodle soup (Food)

Another one of my non-traditional flavours.

Tub 28:

  • 500ml frozen carrot pieces, cooked in microwave
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 150ml orange juice
  • 2 tablespoons of Natvia

Sorbet setting; it needed re-spinning a couple of times, but did get to the creamy rather than the crumbly. This was an amazing orange colour; no real surprise, they use beta-carotene as a food colouring. Definitely carrot flavour, with an underlying hint of orange. Unlike the peas, this did have a good texture. Before it melted, anyway.

When it comes down to it, though, honeyed-carrot isn't really a flavour I'm into, but I wonder if I did it with oat flour it would be more like a carrot-cake flavour? And if I used Brown Natvia instead of standard Natvia, whether that would add a toffee note? Brown Natvia is a new product, they say it's equivalent to brown/raw sugar in flavour.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

The experiments continue. And I find out things about vanilla.

Tub 31: Vanilla Milk Ice Take Two

  • 100ml boiling water
  • 1 tablespoon gelatin
  • 4 tablespoons Natvia
  • 2 teaspoons Grade B Vanilla Bean Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Caviar
  • 400ml low fat milk

I was hoping that the gelatin would help prevent the vanilla bean powder from sinking or floating, but I was proved wrong. It both sank and floated! I reckon it was the Vanilla Caviar which sank, because that was definitely more dense than the ground bean powder.

Processed with the sorbet setting, all that vanilla bean powder turned the milk-ice an unappetising grey colour. The texture was good, I think it was less icy-feeling than the previous Vanilla Milk Ice, so at least the gelatin was good for something. But the vanilla-ness was mostly numbed away by the cold; so it wasn't an improvement on the vanilla extract of the previous Vanilla Milk Ice experiment.

stuff about vanilla )

Therefore, the next time I try making Vanilla Milk Ice, it will be vanilla extract which I'll be using. I'll just have to try using more of it. That doesn't mean that my Grade A Vanilla Bean Powder is a waste; it will be good for things which are thick already (e.g. yoghurt, cream, coconut cream) or things which are going to be eaten/drunk straight away, such as milkshakes.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

More iced confections! What, you thought I'd stopped experimenting? This burst of experimentation will go on until I've reached the end of my list of things to try, or the end of summer, whichever comes first. (Current length of experiment-list is... eleven items, not counting the tubs which are currently in the freezer.)

Tub 29:

This one was an improvisation, because I had ordered fresh Basil and they gave me "lightly dried basil" instead (which had added oil and salt - ugh!). So I made a Basil infusion with what I had. And it was rather bland, so I added other essences.

  • 500ml boiling water
  • 4 tablespoons "lightly dried" basil

Steep for five minutes.

  • 3 tablespoons Natvia
  • 1/4 teaspoon Peppermint essence
  • 1/4 teaspoon Lime essence
  • 1/2 teaspoon Guar Gum

The first flavour that hits you is the peppermint, but there's an interesting spicy-herb aftertaste which is the Basil. I didn't notice the lime at all. This was also a little bitter, presumably because I steeped the dried basil too long. Making a milkshake with this removes the bitterness, and while it may dilute the flavour, it also reduces the numbing effect of the cold, so that compensates for the dilution.

I think this is worth trying again with actual fresh basil. And the peppermint is a good combination with it, so long as I keep the amount down to 1/4 teaspoon. Peppermint tends to dominate anything you add it to.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Yes, more frozen dessert stuff, folks.

Tub 27:

  • 500ml low fat milk
  • 3 tablespoons Natvia
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Essence
  • 1/2 teaspoon Guar Gum

I used the "sorbet" setting on my Ninja Creami.

Lovely and creamy, but rather bland, so I did a mix-in of chocolate flakes, and that did improve it. One could actually taste the chocolate, it wasn't just texture. But it needs to be more vanilla-y. I had thought that two teaspoons of vanilla essence might be overkill but it seems as if it wasn't enough. Vanilla Bean powder would be stronger, but I'm afraid that it would all settle to the bottom during the freezing process, which would not be desirable.

Still, yay that the milk worked!

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Yes, I did almond chocolate.

Tub 26:

  • 250ml almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons Dutch Cocoa
  • 4 tablespoons Natvia
  • 250ml hot water

Mixed together with stick-blender and soaked overnight in fridge.

Then added

  • 1/2 teaspoon Guar Gum

Then froze overnight.

I added a mix-in of chocolate flakes after I'd processed it, but they didn't really add much to the ice cream. The ice cream itself was smooth and creamy and a milk-chocolate-ish flavour. If I wanted it more dark-chocolate I'd add more cocoa.

I am very pleased that the almond flour is working out so well. One merely has to make sure one eats the ice cream before it melts.

Technically not "ice cream", since it has no cream, let alone any dairy. I am amazed that something which has no cream, no dairy, no sugar, no gluten and is low-carb tastes so nice.

kerravonsen: (Default)

Yes, more ice cream experiments. Don't worry, my enthusiasm will die down eventually.

Tub 24:

  • 250ml Almond flour
  • 250ml strong Rose Petal tea
  • 4 tablespoons Natvia

Blended these, let soak overnight in refridgerator

  • 1 teaspoon rose essence
  • 1 teaspoon Guar Gum

I put this on the "sorbet" setting of the Ninja Creami.

I was seriously expecting this to have an awful gritty texture, because the ice cream base before freezing did have a slight gritty floury feel from the almond flour. And true, the melted bits of the ice cream do have that feel. But the ice cream has a beautifully creamy texture before it melts. Adding the rose essence definitely makes it taste of rose, whereas I don't think the rose tea on its own would have been strong enough. And despite the 4 tablespoons of Natvia, it doesn't taste sickly sweet.

I'm definitely going to try this with cocoa. Even if that doesn't work, at least I know this one does. So nice to be able to make something dairy-free AND low-fat that is more ice-creamy than a sorbet. The coconut ice creams were delicious, but fatty.

If I didn't have to worry about the sugar, honey would definitely be worth attempting. (Isn't there a Greek pastry that has lots of almonds and honey in it? I can't remember the name. Baklava?)

Yay!

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

I think I forgot to give the verdict of the coconut-cream ones.

Tub 16 )

Tub 17 )

Spoiler: I did not like any of the following ones. And I had been looking forward to them too!

Tub 21 )

Tub 22 )

Tub 23 )

Outcomes:

  • If I do a recipe with actual cream in it, use an existing recipe with sugar.
    • Which means I won't be doing it unless it is for someone else.
  • Definitely try Orange Candy Melon again, but next time just do a straight sorbet with just the melon and Natvia.
  • Fruit sorbets mainly seem to do very well.
    • Mango - yes
    • Pineapple - yes
    • Orange - yes
    • Apricot - yes
    • Apple - no, but I blame the nutmeg
  • Beverage sorbets have been 50/50 but it was a matter of my own taste.

So, here are some flavours I would like to make in future:

Read more... )

Question for you all. When I had ordered the Oat flour (for the Christmas Pudding ice cream) they sent me almond flour instead. If I could make up a similar almond-y cream as I did with the oat flour, what flavours go well with almond? Chocolate would, but it would also overpower all the almond-ness (but it might make a good dairy-free "milk chocolate" flavour) Any other suggestions?

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

Another day, another experimental ice cream sorbet.

Tub 15: Spiced Apple

  • 1 400g can of Apple Pieces
  • 1 tablespoon Natvia
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Like the banana-nutmeg, this one was also too bitter, and I likewise blame the nutmeg. It was however apple-y and cinnamon-y, so it might be worth trying again with just cinnamon and more Natvia.

One thing that makes the overly-bitter ones more palatable is to use them to make a milkshake. Which I will now proceed to do.

kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)
The Christmas Pudding Ice Cream basically worked. As often happens with this recipe, it melts far too quickly because of the brandy. Next time, less brandy. But at least the meltiness meant I could scoop it into a different container and mix in a couple of handfuls of dried fruit (because of course the original dried fruit had been pulverized). I only had a bit of a taste, because that is going to be my contribution to Christmas dinner.

The Leftovers-with-banana (Tub 13) had too much nutmeg and was too bitter. Even mixing in chocolate flakes did not help. Pouring maple syrup on top did help, so I suppose it needed extra Natvia. But then I'm not likely to do this again, if I'm doing banana, I'm more likely to be doing straight banana sorbet. Just need to remember to be light on the nutmeg if I add any at all. Ugh, so bitter.
kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)
This is a winner! Lovely and apricot-y, no aftertaste, creamy, and of course an apricot-orange colour. Easy to prepare, just one tin of apricot nectar, Natvia, and Guar Gum. Definitely going to do this one again (once I get some more apricot nectar). I like this better than the pineapple sorbet.

I did ponder whether I would get chopped dried apricots and add them in as a mix-in, but I don't think they would really add much to the experience, except possibly negatively, as chomping on frozen bits of dried apricot might turn out to be not enjoyable.
kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)
The best part of the Pea-and-Mint Sorbet is the mint. Not that the pea is awful, it just has an odd sort of floury undertone. The second-best part of this sorbet is the colour. It is a beautiful natural green.

I am proud that I have proven it can be done, but I don't think I'll do it again. However, I definitely want to try making mint sorbet on its own, with fresh mint (and possibly mint tea made from dried mint).

Possibly mint might be nice with coconut milk? I'm personally rather picky about what flavours I feel go well with coconut, ever since I made some strawberry-coconut ice cream and found I didn't like it. Coconut with chocolate I'm certain will work, as would coconut with vanilla, but apart from that I'm not sure. Any suggestions?
kerravonsen: Jarod investigating ice cream: Genius at work (icecream)

If this is boring you, skip it. Still gonna post this stuff. Read more... )

I don't know how either of these will turn out; the brandy could be too much and prevent it from freezing enough, at least for the first one. I do expect that all the dried fruit will be completely undetectable, with the result being completely uniform. So I may end up trying the mix-in feature with additional dried fruit. We shall see tomorrow, or the day after (tomorrow may end up being busy).

I'm still pleased with the orange sorbet. It's so simple!

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Kathryn A.

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