New knowledge!

I am very excited about this new ice cream book by Dana Cree. There are detailed yet easy-to-read scientific explanations of how all the ingredients in ice cream work together to make good ice cream.

To be honest, I have made tons of ice creams using trial and error to learn what works and what doesn’t but I have never understood WHY. This book breaks it down.

The chapter on “Texture Agents” is especially interesting. I didn’t know there were so many stabilizers available to the home cook!

All these years, I have been using corn/tapioca starch and cream cheese (Jeni’s method), and even though many times I have wanted to substitute with xanthan or guar gum, I haven’t dared because I couldn’t find any information on the internet about the correct ratio to use. This book is amazing - WE NOW HAVE RATIOS for EVERYTHING!

Dana Cree has not only given us her formulae for custard-based ice creams, Philadelphia style (eggless) ice creams, very exciting sounding sherberts, and sorbets, she has also written out precise ratios for different stabilizers and described the best way to use each one, or why you would choose one over the other.

For instance, I didn’t know that the cream cheese stabilizer is best whisked into a COLD base. I had been whisking it into a hot base. (or not using it at all)

I also didn’t know about adding “milk powder” to the base, which makes it creamier (absorbing water crystals). Heck, I am ordering milk powder on Amazon Prime Now pronto.

Link: interview with Dana Cree.

Buy the Book

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WHAT I HAVE MADE THIS WEEK :

Super Coffee ice cream! (includes 1 sachet of Mushroom Coffee powder.)

2. Grapefruit Sorbet with Tarragon and Gin. So good. (I used store-bought 100% Grapefruit juice instead of juicing my own)

On my list to make this week: (I will be following Dana Cree’s recipes)

Pineapple Sherbert with Cajeta



Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Peach Compote

Orange Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt(?) with Dark Chocolate Freckles

If I have the time, I will be illustrating these for you too :)