Vanilla Ice Cream, Ice Milk, and Ice Cream Freezers
Vanilla ice cream is about the pleasure of tasting pure ingredients. It is the naked truth of ice cream. There are no ripe berries, rich chocolate ribbons, or crunchy mix-ins to hide behind, so if the ingredients aren’t top notch, the ice cream will be, well, rather vanilla. Though I dressed my dish of vanilla ice cream up with a papaya accent and some candied nuts, this vanilla ice cream is anything but hiding.
It’s 103 degrees F in Seattle today and 99 degrees F in my house at the moment. Somehow writing about ice cream seems like it should make me feel cooler, but it’s not working. Weather this hot is as befuddling to Seattleites as snow is. Having a stash of freshly made vanilla ice cream in the freezer from this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe has made for many brief escapes from the heat, so thank you to Lynne of Café Lynnylu for picking such a timely recipe for us to make. You can find the recipe on her blog if you need to create a summer escape of your own.
I grew up eating ice milk. I have such fond memories of ice milk with the sweet icyness that melted so easily on my tongue. Ice milk, which is defined as having less than 10% milk fat, has been replaced by modern-day low fat ice creams. These new fangled low fat ice creams are designed to mimic the texture of full fat ice cream making them a completely different experience from eating ice milk. The imprint of ice milk on my young palate makes me biased toward lighter ice creams, which is one of the reasons I really like this recipe. Dorie uses equal parts cream and milk and 6 egg yolks. I have made many recipes with a higher proportion of cream and up to 9 egg yolks, and find them to be too heavy.
Have you ever wondered what the key is to making really luscious smooth ice cream at home? The length of time it takes to freeze the ice cream is key. I learned this from Kate Zuckerman in her book The Sweet Life: Desserts from Chanterelle
A number of years ago I came across a recipe for Five Herb Ice Milk that was published in Gourmet magazine. The combination of herbs, cream (or milk in this case), and sugar is shockingly delightful. It was a jump-up-and-down-around-the-kitchen-squealing-with-joy type of flavor discovery. If you are an ice milk fan you will love the consistency of this, and if you aren’t, just infuse the herbs in your favorite ice cream base recipe.
Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 84 recipes completed 137 to go!
All photos by David Peterman unless otherwise noted
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July 29th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Neat to think about how freezing it quickly affects the creaminess, and I agree – too many egg yolks, and ice cream just gets too heavy! Papaya and nuts sound like a perfect topping though.
July 30th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Hi Carol – your ice cream looks fabulous and it sounds like you really need a cool treat! Very interesting information about the fast freezing time affecting the ice crystals.
Thank you for the tip on calibrating a thermometer: so obvious, yet I never would have thought of it! I have a few of them, so I’ll be giving them a test.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:00 am
I am glad the calibrating info helped.
For anyone else interested in calibrating your thermometers:
Fill a cup with ice and then add cold water.
Place your thermometer in the ice water and let the temperature register. It should read 32 degrees F. If not, you now know how much your thermometer is off, but many thermometers have a nut or a screw that can be turned to adjust the reading to the proper temperature. If you have an adjustable thermometer you should calibrate it on a regular basis.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:47 am
great way to beat the heat! kate zuckerman has a lot of good advice, doesn’t she?
July 30th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Carol!!!!!!
How are you? I love your newsletters and website. You have inspired me to launch my own business some day. I love the entrepreneurial spirit!
I have never had ice milk before and I am now curious. Speaking of herbal ice creams, I plan to make a batch of basil ice cream . . sounds interesting huh?
Yours look picture perfect good. I love this ice cream as well. Simple, tasty, and not too artificial sweet.
Take care, my friend!
July 30th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I’ll have to try ice milk. It sounds delicious.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:22 am
You are making me crave an ice milk malt from a restaurant chain here in KC. I grew up eating them and I love them!
July 30th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Wow. GREAT post. Totally want to buy the book now (I am reading about it on Amazon as wel speak!) and TOTALLY want to try the herb ice cream!
July 30th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Basil ice cream is fantastic! In fact Kate Zuckerman has a recipe for it in her book, The Sweet Life.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I have made a number of things from The Sweet Life and I think it’s a great book. In addition to interesting recipes she includes a lot of good technique and ingredient information as well as lots of misc. helpful tips. The collection of recipes includes many familiar items, but a lot of very inventive and interesting desserts as well. I also really love her use of different spices and interesting flavor combinations.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:30 am
This is a fantastic post Carol! I’ve used a frozen canister ice cream maker for several years, and recently received one of the more expensive IC makers as a gift. I’ve made several attempts to make ice cream using the more expensive model, but have been unhappy with the results. Now I understand…thank you for the insight!
July 31st, 2009 at 9:30 am
It seems like the more expensive machines should be better, but not so. The one upside to our style machines is you can freeze batch after batch without needing to re-freeze the canister. Buying an extra canister would be the solution, as long as you have the available freezer space.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Wow, I can’t believe the temperature in Seattle!
Your Vanilla Ice Cream looks so refreshing with the papaya and I love the candied nuts! (Also love your ice cream serving dish!)
Ice milk sounds like the perfect dessert for the hot summer days/nights!
August 7th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Great post on ice milk, ice cream and techniques of freezing the mixture. The papaya and nuts are perfect toppings. Thanks for making Dorie’s recipe with me.