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Prune & Armagnac Ice Cream

Jane Grigson, the celebrated English cookery writer, writes "The best prunes are reckoned to come from Agen, or the district known as the Agenais. As this is Armagnac country, too, they are often put together in a most felicitous way."

I first came across prune and armagnac ice cream in Lindsay Shere's Chez Panisse Desserts. Her ice cream recipes have worked so well for me at home; they tend not to ice up after they've been processed. The dairy fat content is slightly higher than the recipes I've used in restaurants.

Paula Wolfert also has some lovely recipes with prunes and armagnac in her book "The Cooking of South-West France".

For me, the texture of this ice cream is so luxurious. The soaked prunes are added to the ice cream after it is churned. The prunes are naturally creamy. The armagnac adds flavor, but also lowers the freezing point contributing to the creamy texture.

Cacao Nib Ice Cream

Cacao nibs are interesting to me.  They are roasted, shelled cacao beans and can be thought of as the precursor to chocolate bars and cocoa powder.  They are not sweet, but exceptionally flavorful and aromatic. 

When chocolate is manufactured, the cacao beans are removed from their pods, fermented, dried, and then cleaned.  The beans are then roasted and cracked open to remove the hard outer shell.  The shell is discarded and what remains are the nibs.  The nibs are ground into a paste, and the paste is processed diferently according to the desired product, be it cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate bars for baking, bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. 

Sharffenberger chocolate makers have packaged cacao nibs for retail sale, and they are fairly easy to find.  Recently I happened to find them both at Williams-Sonoma and Whole Foods. 

I came across an interesting recipe from Sharffenberger for cacao nib ice cream that I wanted to try.  And the photo of the ice cream, above, is my version of their recipe.  To make the ice cream, I infused the cacao nibs and a vanilla bean in the milk and cream for a good half hour.  Then I proceded to make the ice cream base.  After churning the base in an ice cream maker I swirled in caramelized cacao nibs (think 'cacao nib britttle'), and then placed the ice cream in the freezer to finish setting up.  The result was wonderful.  The flavor reminded me of a really, really good chocolate brownie.  And the crunchy bits of nibs provided an interesting texture, in addition to adding to the intensity of the flavor.

Mint Ice Cream & Milk Chocolate

I wasn't a fan of mint & chocolate ice cream until very recently.  The grocery store brands never appealed to me.  The mint flavor often tasted dull, and I didn't like that the bits of chocolate were frozen because I couldn't taste the chocolate.  Homemade mint ice cream is a completely different story.  Fresh mint is infused in the hot milk and cream mixture before the custard base is made.  The milk mixture turns a beautiful pale green and the flavor of the mint is vibrant.  Rather than mixing chopped chocolate into the ice cream before it freezes, I like to chop the chocolate and sprinkle it on top of the quenelles.  In this way, the chocolate stays at room temperature, melts more quickly on your tongue and melds with the mint ice cream. 

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches

Meyer lemons and ice cream are two things I really love.  Meyers, which are a hybrid variety of lemons and mandarins, are sweeter and less acidic than the more common Eureka lemons.   They have a beautiful floral frangrance and distinct flavor.  Meyer lemons are at their peak during the winter months, beginning in December.  When I lived in San Diego, you could buy four or five beautiful organic Meyer lemons for a dollar at the farmer's market. 

I became enamored with making ice cream while I was working at the Winesellar & Brasserie in San Diego.  We decided to start making our own ice creams, and I started to experiment with different recipes, both at home and at work.  Many of the ice cream recipes that inspired me came from Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Shere.  The recipes are wonderful and dreamy;  brandied fig ice cream, for example, and prune & armagnac ice cream, and blood orange ice cream. 

A couple of weeks ago I made Meyer lemon ice cream, adjusting Lindsey Shere's recipe a bit.  Inspired by the ginger lemon cream sandwich cookies you find at Trader Joe's, I sandwiched the ice cream between gingersnap cookies. 

I thought it would be both fun and very interesting to demonstrate how to make ice cream at home.  So here is our video, which captures the whole ice cream making process, from making the ice cream base to churning it in a home Cuisinart ice cream maker to sandwiching the ice cream between the cookies. 

                    Meyer Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches