Life is Just a Bowl of...Cherry Garcia?

Forgive the obviousness of the title. Clearly the brain freeze that comes from nearly non-stop ice cream making (and eating) is getting to me, stifling my creativity for writing perhaps, while vehemently fanning the flames of an undying obsession. Let this also serve as my excuse for not posting in over a week, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me when you taste my latest creation. Well, my homage to a classic Ben & Jerry’s creation really. One inspired by the bountiful red cherries of the summer season.

When it first occurred to me to turn those ruby colored, jewel-like fruits into ice cream I decided to take my search online to find a published recipe for Cherry Garcia. I was disappointed to find that none of the recipes started with a cooked custard base, something I’ve extolled the virtues of before and have become almost evangelical about. I’m convinced it’s the only way to get that densely rich, über-creaminess that is paramount in great ice cream. So, heaving a heavy sigh I decided the only thing to do was to write a recipe of my own.

And so the journey began. As is my creative process, my kitchen cupboards were soon plastered with post-it notes filled with my nearly indiscernible scrawl as I mixed, whisked, scalded and stirred my way to the perfect custard base. Too many egg yolks and the ice cream tastes “eggy.” Too few and it’s not dense enough. 7 egg yolks I decided were the perfect amount. Now it needed just the right hit of sugary sweetness. I added sugar starting with less, tasting and adding more as I went until I’d achieved the perfect balance of sweet but not cloying. Whenever I write a recipe the biggest challenge is remembering to scribble down each addition on those post-it notes as I go, before I forget what I’ve done. As you can surely imagine this becomes an even bigger challenge when I’m writing cocktail recipes, but I’ll get to that another day. I decided that a bit of black cherry preserves would be just the thing to give extra cherry flavor and a rosy blush to the ice cream base. When I was satisfied with the proportions of tart and sweet I whisked the cream into very soft peaks and folded it into the cooled custard. This extra step of lightly whipping the cream only adds to the dreamy, cloud-like texture that is both light and dense at the same time. A culinary contradiction of the fondest sort!

After a 25 minute whir in the Cuisinart, the ice cream was at the glorious soft serve stage. This is exactly when you want to mix in the cherries and chocolate and where I stand hovering over the ice cream maker, spoon in hand, greedily shoveling big mouthfuls of the frozen ambrosia. I heave another heavy sigh, but this time it's full of deep and utter satisfaction.

Ah yes, life is indeed a bowl of Cherry Garcia.

Homemade Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia
(With Two Flavor Variations)

Densely rich, über-creamy and studded with bits of fresh cherries and dark chocolate. Enough said.

Makes a scant 2 quarts

1½ cups whole milk
7 large eggs yolks
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons black cherry preserves
1½ cups heavy cream, lightly whipped
4 ounces good quality dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

Heat the milk in a pan, and while it’s getting warm, beat together the sugar and egg yolks and vanilla extract in the bowl of a freestanding mixer with a paddle attachment until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and falls back on itself in a ribbon, about 3 minutes. When the milk is just below the boil slowly drizzle it in a thin and continuous stream while whisking briskly so the egg is gradually warmed up. Return everything to the saucepan and cook while stirring with a wooden spoon. Make sure that you are constantly scraping the spoon across the bottom of the pan so the custard does not scorch. The custard is done when it has thickened slightly and can evenly coat the back of the spoon and when you run your finger along the back of the spoon and it holds the “line.” Don’t let the mixture come to a boil, or it may curdle.

Strain the custard into a metal bowl through a fine sieve to remove any bits of egg and stir in the black cherry preserves. Nestle the bowl of custard into a large bowl of ice water to cool more quickly. I do this because I’m incredibly impatient, but you could just put the whole thing in the fridge to cool completely. Lightly whip the cream until it holds a very soft peak and fold into the cooled custard. Continue stirring occasionally until mixture is cold, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the custard to an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the ice cream is almost finished churning add in the chopped chocolate and the cherries to combine. Put the finished ice cream in a storage container and freeze until firm.

*Variations: This basic ice cream recipe is so versatile that you can add any flavor combinations you like to the base. Below are two of my favorites.

Toasted Coconut: Substitute 1 (15 ounce) can Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut (NOT coconut milk!) in place of the cherry preserves and 1 cup sweetened toasted coconut in place of the cherries and chocolate.

Peanut Butter Cup: Substitute 1 cup creamy peanut butter in place of the cherry preserves and 1 bag of Reese’s mini peanut butter cups, chopped, in place of the cherries and chocolate.

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The Ice Cream-Making Monkey on My Back

I may very well be headed for an intervention. I’m afraid I’ve got a monkey on my back and below is the recipe that started it all. A few days ago I posted a recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream with Blueberry Sauce and found myself pontificating about the exact moment in time my obsession crystallized. I was given a copy of Padma Lakshmi’s latest cookbook, Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet, a beautiful tome full of exotic recipes made simple for the everyday foodie. I was drawn in by her engaging narrative, innovative twists on cooking and of course, the beautiful food photography. When I stumbled upon her recipe for Rose Petal Pistachio Ice Cream, I read the recipe with great interest and could just imagine a dense custard-based ice cream delicately perfumed with the essence of rose. I knew I was in trouble. Deep trouble. I had always resisted the notion of making my own ice cream with the same vigilance I resist making my own mayonnaise. Not that I have anything against a good homemade mayo, I just don’t have the time for such things. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s the patience that I lack. There, I said it.

Back to ice cream…

From that moment forward I went on a whirlwind ice cream making binge. I dabbled in the standards of course and got those out of the way first. I experimented with cooked custard bases and not, and have come to the solid conclusion that a cooked custard wins every time, because without it you simply cannot get that dense creaminess that is key in great ice cream. When the inevitable next step in my obsession occurred and mere chocolate, vanilla and strawberry were no longer enough, I decided to up the ante and started searching for more daring, edgy flavors. I was like a junkie chasing the proverbial ice cream-making dragon! I was elated when a search on the internet turned up a recipe for David Lebovitz’s Candied Bacon Ice Cream. Yes, you read that correctly! As a kid who was raised with a can of bacon grease in the fridge that my Mom used to fry up everything (and I do mean everything!) this recipe spoke to me. I am a firm believer in the gospel of bacon and all things salty and sweet; this ice cream simply put, is the Alpha and the Omega! However, I’m still deciding if David Lebovitz is the Devil himself for creating it.

With the arrival of the hot summer months comes the beckoning call of my Cuisinart ice cream maker in the form of its comforting, motorized whir that brings with it the promise of meltingly sweet frozen decadence in short order. I’ve tried stashing it away, out of sight, but to no avail. I know it’s there and that knowledge eventually erodes away at my resolve, swimsuit season or not! It seems that I may be saddled with this ice cream-making monkey for a while. Any suggestions as to what I should name him?

Rose Petal & Pistachio Ice Cream

From Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet
by Padma Lakshmi

Makes about 1 quart

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons rose water*
5 tablespoons rose petal jam*
¼ cup crushed, raw, unsalted pistachios
2 tablespoons dried rose petals, without stems or leaves, just petals

Heat the cream and milk over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until the mixture is just below the boil. In a small bowl beat together the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. Add about ¼ cup of the hot cream mixture to the yolks stirring vigorously so the eggs won’t scramble. Add warmed yolk mixture back to the heated cream, whisking constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens slightly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the rose water and rose jam. Cool the mixture completely in ice water bath (my prefered method) or in the refrigerator.

Pour the cooled custard into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions. When finished churning , remove the ice cream and fold in the pistachios and rose petals if using, mixing well to distribute evenly. Freeze ice cream until ready to serve.

*Rose water and Turkish rose jam are available in Middle Eastern markets and online.

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Ice Cream Makes Me Want To Scream!

I never quite understood the appeal of making homemade ice cream. Why would you when there are so many great varieties available at the market? But my Mom did when she was a young girl and she’d tell fond stories of her and her four sisters lugging out the rock salt, taking turns cranking the ice cream machine until their arms felt like they would fall off and - wait for it - how it was an all day endeavor! Poor things. Can you imagine? I would just sit there staring blankly, feeling sorry for her while I devoured my bowl of Chocolate Malted Crunch from Thrifty’s. The prospect of making ice cream didn’t appeal to me at all and I secretly wondered why she’d never thought of calling the authorities because surely this had been a form of child abuse! I had no idea my Grandma had been such a proponent of childhood slavery. “Oh, It was fun!” my Mom would say, but my eight-year-old self wasn’t buying it, nor did I believe that it tasted “even better” as she claimed because they’d spent the whole day making it together and anticipating it for that night’s dessert. Snide even at age 8, I’d roll my eyes and say something like, “God Mom, the olden days must have been hard. Were you raised on the prairie? Did you have to milk cows too?” Ah yes, the snarkiness of youth, all the while thinking I knew all the things I was still too naïve to know I didn’t know.

As I got older and (I thought) my tastes more discerning, I eventually turned my back on the pedestrian likes of the Thrifty’s brand ice cream of my youth when I discovered Haagen-Daz and Ben & Jerry's. I was now, or so I thought, a bona fide gourmet ice cream snob. Even still, the mere thought of making homemade ice cream with all its work seemed much too involved and absurd to me. What was next? Water from scratch? I mean, you can just buy that in a bottle too!

Fast forward many years later: one day a friend presented me with a cookbook full of esoteric and worldly recipes. As I came upon an entire chapter devoted to ice cream I patronizingly skimmed passed with no intention of stopping until one recipe in particular caught my eye. Rose Petal Pistachio Ice Cream! I was immediately intrigued. I’d never heard of such a thing, but as I read about the dense custard base gently perfumed with rosewater and rose petal jam and studded throughout with emerald-like chunks of green pistachios, I knew I could not rest until I’d tried the glorious ice cream described and photographed so beautifully in this book.

An hour later, sitting in traffic, I had a beautiful stainless steel Cuisinart ice cream maker strapped in the passenger’s seat of my car as I drove to the Middle Eastern market for exotic ingredients. That happened to be a Friday afternoon and by Monday I had made 7 different varieties of ice cream! So much in fact, that I had to call friends over for a tasting party. To say I was hooked would be an understatement. To say I was obsessed would probably lie closer to the truth. I couldn’t believe how easy and fun it was to make your own ice cream, not to mention delicious! Gone, of course, were the needs for rock salt and all that churning by hand of my Mom’s childhood. I still shudder at the thought! All I had to do was whip up a custard base, flavor it with whatever struck my fancy and pour it into the machine. Thirty minutes later I had the richest, dreamiest, densest, most luxurious frozen velvet I had ever had the pleasure of eating. It made me want to scream! (In a really good way!) I devoured it greedily and kicked myself for not jumping on the homemade ice cream train years earlier. I realized in that moment that I’d never really had truly great ice cream. It makes me wonder what other things I don’t know that I’m still too naïve to know I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll look into that water from scratch thing after all.

Cheesecake Ice Cream with Blueberry Syrup

This recipe comes originally from Nigella Lawson. I’ve tinkered with it a bit by adding lemon zest to both the ice cream and the sauce as I think it gives an extra brightness and edge to both.

Makes about 1 quart

FOR THE ICE CREAM
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, room temperature
1½ cups heavy cream, lightly whipped
Juice of half a lemon
½ teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

FOR THE BLUEBERRY SYRUP
2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
1½ cups sugar
2/3 cup water
½ teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Heat the milk in a pan, and while it’s getting warm, beat together the sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and egg in the bowl of a freestanding mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth. When the milk comes to just below the boil, whisk the cream cheese mixture while slowly drizzling the milk in a thin and continuous stream so the egg is gradually warmed up. Return everything to the saucepan and cook while stirring with a wooden spoon. Make sure that you are constantly scraping the spoon across the bottom of the pan so the custard does not scorch. The custard is done when it has thickened slightly and can evenly coat the back of the spoon and when you run your finger along the back of the spoon and it holds the “line.” Do not let the mixture come to a boil, or it may curdle.

Strain the custard into a metal bowl through a fine sieve to remove any bits of egg. Nestle the bowl of custard into a large bowl of ice water to cool more quickly. I do this because I’m incredibly impatient, but you could just put the whole thing in the fridge to cool. Add the lemon zest and juice and whisk in the slightly beaten cream, stirring occasionally until mixture is cold, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the custard to an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Put the finished ice cream in a storage container and freeze until firm.

To make the blueberry syrup, combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until thickened to desired consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature before serving. (If thinner syrup is desired, strain through a fine mesh strainer while still hot.

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