Sunday, September 13, 2009

Infusion: Matcha Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream


Let's bring a little science back into this, shall we? All this cooking out of cookbooks is making me antsy and frustrated. ESPECIALLY since I find myself holding grudges against the authors for their recipes. Don't get me wrong, I understand the effort and skill it takes to formulate recipes...but damn, these formulas cannot seem to get on my good side. The thing of it is...they are great concepts. The flavor combinations are spectacularly unique and beautiful, but the recipes themselves are just "meh." So I'm going to take a break to fulfill a request.
Gennyfer brilliantly suggested Green Tea Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream as my next endeavor. It seemed less intense than the Chocolate Jalapeno that Heather had suggested, mostly because I already had most of the ingredients in my home....so I gave it a go. I decided to combine two recipes. Fer Food's Green Tea Mint Chocolate Chip and Ma'Ona's Matcha Ice Cream recipe. This would take my love for custard base ice creams and infuse it with the flavors I desired to be in my ice cream. Butterflies in belly, I began the process. I was quite nervous because my ice creams have mostly felt like failures lately, and I had such high hopes for this one.

Matcha Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

7t. Matcha Green Tea
4t. dried peppermint leaves
4c. half and half
4 egg yolks
3/4c. sugar
1/2t. peppermint extract
3/4c. chocolate chunks

In a heat-proof bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and fluffy. In a heavy based saucepan heat half and half, matcha, and mint until almost simmering. Temper dairy into yolk mixture and return to pan. Heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Strain repeatedly until the ice cream base no longer has herbs in it. Spin in ice cream maker until thick. Add chocolate chunks in during the last couple minutes and allow to churn until incorporated. Transfer to freezer-proof dish and freeze until firm.

"How'd it turn out?" You ask? Phenomenal. The texture is PERFECT. The matcha is rather subtle because the mint intensified while I let my base chill overnight...but because I used dark chocolate chunks, my cocoa counterpart put up quite a fight against the peppermint avenger. What I like most about it is that there isn't much separation in flavor. Like with the Peach Cardamom, it literally infused into one new flavor compound rather than "Oh, here's the mint...And now I taste the chocolate...Oh! And there's the matcha flavor!" I think the recipe would be just fine with a more mellow chocolate, but the dark was certainly no problem. I am very excited to share these samples for some feedback :)

Matcha Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream on Foodista



6 comments:

  1. Found your recipe on TasteSpotting. Thanks for posting. However I have one possible suggestion. If you used fresh mint instead of dried you may end up with a more subtle result since dried herbs are typically stronger than fresh.

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  2. Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you found me. I thought the same thing, but when I discovered that the fresh mint my friend had given me had gotten all dried out, I decided to just go with it. It still smelled wonderful, and didn't want to throw it out. I certainly don't think it would hurt for me to use fresh mint next time...after all, how else will I know which works best unless I try, right? :)

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  3. I'm pretty sure this is the one I tried - it was great! Ate the whole thing in one sitting!!

    Just 2 comments - I think the mint was a little too strong. I noticed it most when I first tasted it (it wasn't an aftertaste), it was more like mint gum...was it spearmint? (I think I would have preferred peppermint - although I could be totally wrong - maybe it was pepp??) I would have liked a "softer" mint flavor.

    The other thing was the texture - it was a bit icy, but I think that's because it had been froze, thawed, frozen again...due to transportation.

    But clearly, it was tasty! Oh ya, and I'd pay top dollar! I've been dairy-free for at least the past 6 months, and it's hard to find fun, creative treats! You're on to something, for sure!!

    Thanks so much for letting me sample! Anytime you want a taste-tester, I'm available!! (oldportcandy)

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  4. I can only imagine what this would taste like, but I really enjoy reading your different recipes here. You know what,Foodista announced that they are going to publish the best food blogs in a full color book that will be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing this Fall 2010. It would be so great to see your blog and recipe featured in this book. You can find out more about it at this link http://www.foodista.com/blogbook. Hope you wont mind if I left this message here. I wanted to email you but couldn't find one, so I dropped this message instead. Hope you do join. Thanks!-Alisa@Foodista

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  5. Thank you so much, Alisa! I just HAPPENED to look down into the comments TODAY which happened to be the LAST day to enter! Geez, I hope I still have enough time to get some ratings...Thanks again :)

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