Olive Oil

At first thought Olive Oil and Ice Cream wouldn't seem to go together, but thanks to a neighborhood pizza place (Pizzeria Lola: Link) where they offer homemade v*nilla ice cream with olive oil and sea salt on top. Sounds odd but it's very good and made me want to try a similar recipe in the Humphry Slocombe cookbook.  

Humphry Slocombe created this recipe after visiting their own neighbors at McEvoy Ranch which produces high end olive oils, which you can order online here: Link

While I didn't use McEvoy Olive Oil, I took the book's suggestion and purchased about 12oz of high quality oil at the nearby Whole Foods for roughly $15. 

Here we go...here is the set up:

After mixing together the egg yolks and sugar the fairly substantial amount of olive oil is mixed in:

Once the olive oil is mixed in the sugar and eggs look pretty glazed:

Meanwhile, I microplaned half of an orange and half of a lemon and set aside before eventually adding it to the ice cream:

After combining all of the ingredients, including the cream and milk, I placed overnight in a fridge (notice the flecks of zest in the mixture):

Then the mixture is placed in the ice cream maker:

After about 20 minutes in the mixer I put in a container and placed in the freezer overnight to let firm up for consistency:

And here's the finished product. The recipe says that the olive oil ice cream goes well with other deserts, including fruit, and since we've received strawberries the last three weeks in our CSA I put them together:

Verdict

I thought this recipe was a little hit and miss. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the citrus zest which I thought was a bit overpowering. The olive oil was nice and a unique flavor, but it was a bit jarring at first before mellowing out. Another recommendation from the book was to pair it with a little chocolate, which I did and thought that it was a much better pair than fruit. 

Author Note

I've been a little slow with my posts and behind on my goal of at least one post a week. Sometimes work gets in the way of ice cream making! I've already made my next flavor (Fluffernutter) and will have a post soon on that recipe within the next couple days.

Here's Your Damn Strawberry Ice Cream

This past week I received a fair amount of Strawberries in my CSA box as they are coming into season here in Minnesota. Since Strawberries are probably near their peak in most of the country I thought this was as good of a time as any to tackle Humphry Slocombe's Here's Your Damn Strawberry Ice Cream. 

As explained in the book, this is a basic Strawberry Ice Cream recipe that is pretty tame compared to almost everything else in the book. It was originally developed as a worthy substitute for smeared lipstick within the epic "Tranny Smackdown." There were leftovers sold the next day, which marked the sole occasion that Strawberry Ice Cream was sold at the shop.

Personally I have never made a fruit based ice cream before, so I was pretty shocked when I read the recipe for the first time that there is literally no cooking involved. You effectively blend the fruit, mix everything together, then freeze. It's such an easy recipe that even an ice bath isn't even needed.

Here are all the ingredients all laid out:

First step is taking your halved strawberries and blending them for all of 15 seconds:

That was easy:

You then strain the mixture into a bowl, removing all the seeds:

Action shot

Leaving you with this:

Then you mix in the cream, condensed milk, sugar, salt, and a little bit of vinegar to form the base:

Even though the recipe didn't call for it. I covered the mixture and popped it in the fridge for a few hours to make sure it was chilled before spinning:

After spinning the mixture for about 20-25 minutes...

You get this finished product:

The Verdict

Some damn fine strawberry ice cream. I'll admit that while I enjoy new and interesting ice cream flavors, I'm a sucker for a basic strawberry ice cream...especially this time of year. I was lucky to have some really great locally grown strawberries already on hand, which I think helps lift the recipe up versus other store brought varieties. Essentially, the ice cream actually takes like strawberries. Also, the recipe is outrageously easy and unlike other ice cream creations it doesn't use almost every pot and pan in your kitchen and it can be ready the same day. So if you find yourself at a local farmers market or grocery store and see a couple cups worth of high quality strawberries I would highly recommend this version of an old standby.