Thursday, June 12, 2014

A change of heart

I like what I like and sometimes it’s very difficult for anyone to change my mind. I guess I’m what you’d call, stubborn.




I’m like that with food too. I am open to experiment with everything and anything but sometimes I just have a hunch I’m not going to like something, for example ice cream made with sweetened condensed milk. I thought it would be horrible, I was imagining cloying sweetness, nasty aftertaste and terrible texture. I was wrong. I made this type of ice cream only to realize it’s not as bad as I had imagined. It is actually pretty great.




I made this pastel pink-colored strawberry ice cream a few days ago when it has gotten unbearably hot here and we needed something to cool us off, quickly. I had all the ingredients at hand and it only took ten to fifteen minutes to make and a little over three hours to freeze. The same evening we enjoyed it and we felt refreshed from the heat.




The texture was amazing; rich, smooth and velvety, and the flavor not as sweet as I was expecting as it was balanced by the addition of freshly squeezed lemon juice. What bothered me in the resulting ice cream mixture was the intense milky flavor and aroma, so in order to compensate for that, I added some strawberry liqueur. Once frozen, the milkiness had mellowed, ending up being quite pleasant and not at all intrusive.




What I particularly like about this ice cream (like with this one) is the fact that it is creamy and rich even though it is not churned. No ice crystals are formed due to the fact that it contains only a small amount of water, thus making the ice cream smooth and velvety. Gotta love that.




Truth be told, I’m still partial to the classic ice cream base and method, and I don’t plan on putting away my ice cream maker, but hey, this one’s made me change my opinion about its kind.









No-churn strawberry ice cream
Adapted from Ijspret by Linda Lomelino

I didn’t remove the seeds from the strawberry purée as I enjoy them in the ice cream. If you don’t, pass the strawberry purée through a fine sieve to get rid of them.

As mentioned above, I added strawberry liqueur to the mixture to add an extra layer of strawberry flavor and to take away the milky flavor from the ice cream. You can use vanilla extract instead.




Yield: about 1 liter

Ingredients
250 g fresh strawberries
1 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 tsp strawberry liqueur (or pure vanilla extract)
400 g sweetened condensed milk
250 g cream, full-fat (35%), cold

Special equipment: small food processor or blender, stand or hand-held mixer


Preparation
Rinse the strawberries under cold running water, hull them and cut them in half. Place them in a food processor or blender and purée them.


In a large bowl, add the strawberry purée, the lemon juice, the strawberry liqueur (or vanilla) and the sweetened condensed milk. Combine using a spatula until you have a homogeneous mixture.


In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl), beat the cold cream on high speed with the whisk attachment (or using your hand-held mixer), until soft peaks form, i.e. until fluffy but still soft. Add one-third of the whipped cream to the strawberry purée-condensed milk mixture and fold it in using a whisk in order to lighten it up. Then add the rest of the whipped cream and fold it in with a spatula, very gently, so you don't deflate the whipped cream.


Empty the ice cream mixture in a container suitable for the freezer, cover it and place it in your freezer. After 3-4 hours depending on your freezer, your ice cream will be ready and you don't need to stir, whip or beat the mixture in-between.

Before you serve it, leave it out of the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

You can keep the ice cream in your freezer for a week.

More strawberry ice cream.




5 comments:

  1. This sounds really good, Magda. My mother used a similar recipe (although it had egg yolks, too, I think) for making several ice creams - peach, cookie & cream, and mint chocolate chip. Because I grew up with it, it never occurred to me that it might not be good. If I were to think of it now pretending I had never had it, I would also think I might not like it! Happy weekend! ~ David

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  2. I was, very kindly, made some ice cream with condensed milk and I wasn't very keen on it, like you I had concerns that it would be over sweet - and it was. However, reading this I am inspired to have a go myself and see if I can make it as delicious as yours sounds!

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  3. What a great method for making ice cream. I am always a bit hesitant about sweetened condensed milk as well...it can be a bit cloying...but your recipe for ice cream is no doubt the perfect way to use it. I shall try this with some ripe peaches I have on my counter. Thanks.

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  4. All that fat makes it a no-churn ice-cream. I love using condensed milk, love!

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  5. Thank you!! A delicious, speedy, recipe.

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