Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Churning Away

I can't believe I wasted seven whole months! Since Christmas I have had the instrument of deliciousness sitting in my basement collecting dust. Unbelievable! Anywho, now that I know what it can do, I've been putting the ice cream maker to good use. My latest project? Cinnamon ice cream. Like the Chocolate Sorbet I made, this recipe is also by David Lebovitz and found in his book The Perfect Scoop.



Several years ago I had the best cinnamon ice cream ever. It was at Rhythm Cafe and it was insane. Simply sick. It was sweet, it was spicy, it was delish. When I saw this recipe I knew I had to give it a go since I doubt the boys at Rhythm are going to tell me their secrets.

In the first part of the recipe, David tells you to steep an assload of cinnamon sticks in milky goodness. I did this as instructed but found the result not a cinnamony as I had hoped. There was a nice cinnamon flavor, but not the spiciness I was wanting. So, in a move that could have been disastrous, I added a HUGE heaping tablespoon of ground cinnamon to the mixture. The results were great in that I got a whole lot of cinnamon flavor but not so great in that I never got the heat. I am not sure if my cinnamon is shit (quite possible since it is run of the mill grocery store stuff) or if I needed to use something like cinnamon oil. Whatever the cause, I got great cinnamon flavor, but not the mild kick I had in my mind.

Even without the heat, the ice cream is great and a huge hit at our house. It is especially nice over a heated oatmeal raisin cookie.

And can I just tell you how awesome I am. I am so awesome, I made a traditional custard base for this ice cream and didn't scramble the eggs. Initially I was a little scared of the custard thing and the whole scrambling of the egg yolks, but then I decide that the internets were just being pansies and that it wouldn't be that hard. Reality is somewhere in the middle. I stirred my little heart out and followed the directions to a tee but I did have a little egg residue at the end when I strained.



But it was little enough that I said, "Self, you rock!" If you have a hankering for some sweet cinnamon ice cream this is the way to go. It is creamy cinnamon yummy.

In addition to churning away at the ice cream, I am churning away on my Bee Fields Shawl. Unfortunately the Bee Fields is a lot slower and the final result is going to take more than a few hours.

3 comments:

Sue said...

hey i suggest that you go get some hot cinnamon at the new spice store in west hartford center, i think it's called panseys? peaveys? something like that. i hear they have like 50 different kinds. or 10 or some largish amount.

Rebecca said...

Sue´s idea is great. They are called Penzey's. I have mail ordered from them before and their spices rock!

I buy the cinnamon at Whole Foods whatever brand that is, and it's a lot nicer than the grocery store cinnamon. But Sue's idea is better.

How about some kind of cinnamon liquer? That could be nice too, maybe. I don't personally know of any but there must be some good ones. All I can think of is cinnamon schnapps, which might be interesting in a kind of bizarre kind of way.

Suz said...

Tell you their secrets they did! And now look, you could open up your own Rhythm!