Fresh from the Freezer

  Spring has sprung, the air has gotten warmer, and my sinuses have filled with pollen. But really, besides for hay fever, there are countless reasons to love spring. Strawberries… baby birds poking their little, itty bitty beaks out of eggs… strawberries… the crisp breeze, not yet too hot, the temperature juuust right… strawberries. I really, really like strawberries. They’re one of my favorite fruits. They’re delicious in salads, in all sorts of desserts, in drinks, dipped in chocolate, eaten plain, or—my favorite—in a sandwich with peanut butter. As a part of my Garbage Food series, today I’ll be introducing a simple recipe that uses strawberry tops to infuse water. Drinking water has never been a problem for me. I’m not one of those people who carries around a gallon of water wherever I go, but I’ve also never hated drinking water. Some people view hydration as a chore, even going so far as to say that water “tastes boring.” I don’t really feel the need for my water t...

By all accounts, this recipe should not work. Before I make ice cream (or most other frozen treats, for that matter), I first run the recipe through icecreamcalc to get an idea of how it will turn out. In my opinion, one of the worst things is an ice cream recipe that ends up being too hard to scoop. I like using icecreamcalc to make sure that the ice cream will be nice and scoopable even when it’s... well... fresh from the freezer. When I plug David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Sorbet/Sherbet recipe into icecreamcalc under the “sorbet” setting, everything looks all wrong. The water is too low, the solids are too high, and it’s all too sweet. Theoretically, this chocolate sorbet should turn out grainy, overly sweet, and fatty. Instead, this chocolate sorbet comes out richer and more decadent than any chocolate ice cream you’ve ever had while somehow also managing to be light and refreshing. It’s impossibly creamy and tastes like you churned a brownie. It’s also accidentally vegan as ...

 Have you ever had a savory ice cream?  Well, this ice cream recipe isn't technically savory, and it isn't technically ice cream, either. In fact, this was my first time making gelato. Also, despite the flavors, it was sweet. And it was delicious. I adapted this recipe from Helen Rosner's recipe for Olive Oil Gelato on Saveur . The only thing keeping my recipe from becoming pesto ice cream is the lack of garlic and Parmesan.  This isn't ice cream. I need to stop calling it that. Let's briefly discuss the difference between gelato and ice cream.  The difference between ice cream and gelato Ice cream and gelato both have milk and sugar, but compared to ice cream, gelato has less cream, less air (meaning a pint of gelato weighs more than a pint of ice cream), and a higher freezing temperature, meaning it is served slightly warmer. Ice cream, on the other hand, usually has more cream, more air (called runoff), and a lower freezing temperature, making it colder.  I...

Here's how to turn leftover whipped cream into ice cream. This recipe is easy to follow, adaptable, and absolutely delicious. It also uses up lots of leftover whipped cream!  As this blog's name might imply, I am a bit of an ice cream fiend.  The beginning of COVID lockdown had me turning inward for entertainment, and that involved digging up the old ice cream machine stashed away in the pantry and figuring out how to use it.  That's how my ice cream journey got started.  Since then, I've made all sorts of different ice creams out of all sorts of ingredients. There's a lot of room for creativity in ice cream, including the base recipe.  Yes, you can make ice cream base with leftover whipped cream. My family had lots of leftover whipped cream from Thanksgiving, and after using an online ice cream calculator, I decided to make ice cream with it. It turned out absolutely delicious.  This is a pretty big recipe. I'd definitely recommend churning it in two batch...