Monthly micro-batch: spicy café con leche ice cream

While I was in Boston visiting friends over the holiday, my good friend, Jodi, gave me a disc of chocolate from local producer, Taza. Called Chocolate Mexicano, it inspired me to create a fun micro-batch with cayenne peppers I dried during the summer and some of my favorite locally roasted coffee, Ritual Roasters.

Ingredients:

• 1 C coffee
• 1/8 - 1/4 C sugar (err on the side of less since the chocolate already has sugar in it)
• 1 dried cayenne pepper
• 1 C half-and-half
• 1/2 C whipping cream
• 1 disc of Chocolate Mexican, chopped rough

Instructions:
Gently heat the coffee over a medium flame. Dissolve the sugar and reduce the coffee by half. Cut the pepper into large pieces and add to the coffee mixture. Mix in the half-and-half and whipping cream. Heat till almost bubbling then remove from the heat. Let it cool then put in the fridge over night to allow the flavors to meld.

Before processing in the ice cream machine, strain through cheese cloth to remove the chunks of pepper. Process till smooth in the ice cream machine. Add the chocolate to mix in, then freeze to harden it up a bit.

Monthly micro-batch: bourbon ginger ice cream

I've been a vodka drinker for the last 15 years of my life. So it was a pretty big deal that Paul shamed me into trying different variants of whiskey and I ended up liking it. Hence the libation recipes in the blog. Since fruits are not as plentiful at this time of year, I figured I'd use bourbon as the central ingredient in my monthly micro-batch. Slightly spicy, creamy, and amazingly warming, this is perfect for the cold holiday season. Snuggle up with a bowl.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C Makers Mark
• 3 T grated ginger
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/4 C sugar
• 1 C half-and-half
• 1/2 C whipping cream

Instructions:
Gently heat the bourbon over a medium flame. Grate the ginger into the bourbon and mix. When you find ginger in your local market, buy as much as you can. You can grate it and freeze it or just freeze is whole. Then you can use it year round.

Cut the vanilla bean length-wise and scrape out the seeds with a knife. Add the seeds to the mixture on the stove. Cut the bean shell into large pieces and throw it in, too. Mix in the sugar, half-and-half, and whipping cream. Heat till almost bubbling then remove from the heat. Let it cool then put in the fridge over night to allow the flavors to meld.

Before processing in the ice cream machine, strain through cheese cloth to remove the chunks of ginger and vanilla bean shell. Don't worry, the vanilla seeds are tiny and will pass through. Squeeze the cheese cloth to get as much flavor out as possible. Process till smooth in the ice cream machine, then freeze to harden it up a bit.

Monthly micro-batch: pineapple guava sorbet

I know most of you are in the middle of snow storms and such, but seriously, pineapple guava is still in the farmers market here in San Francisco. I know it's not fair, but it's true. This fruit is a lot of fun to eat all by itself - just bite of the end and squeeze and suck the luscious center out. But I also thought it would make a tasty, refreshing sorbet. It's light and slightly tropical, so it serves as the perfect foil to all the rich foods of the season.

Ingredients

• 1 C ripe pineapple guava innards
• 1 C fresh ginger ale

Instructions
To get the most out of this fruit, you need to roll it on the countertop to soften it up.

Then chop the top off and squeeze the pulp out, scooping out the center.

Once you've got about a cup of pulp add the ginger ale. I used the Alton Brown recipe for ginger ale. I find it to be a little light on the ginger, but a little more subtle than using lemonade that most sorbet recipes call for.

Add about a cup of ginger ale and watch it bubble!!! Blend it up till smooth. If you don't like bits of guava, you should probably strain, otherwise throw it straight into the ice cream maker.

Process in the ice cream maker till thick and then finish in the freezer.

Monthly micro-batch: candy striped fig ice cream

I'm not much of an ice cream girl. Everyone else on earth, their favorite part of Italy? Gelato. Me. Meh. As a result, the new shared ice cream machine has really only been used for sorbet.

Until today.

All summer, we have beautiful mission figs. But one day, I found candy striped figs. These beauties look like candy, with the bright yellow and green on the outside, and the luscious red, seedy interior. It just made sense to use them for ice cream.

Ingredients (adapted from Fun and Food Blog):

• 2 cups fresh figs, cut into quarters
• 2 T honey
• 1/8 cup sugar (or adjust to taste, I don't like mine so sweet)
• 1/4 C brandy
• 2 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 eggs, beaten

Instructions: 

In a small saucepan over medium high heat, saute the figs until they start to soften. Add the brandy, honey, and sugar and mix well. Continue to cook until the sugar is totally dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

You can either mash the figs up by hand or put them in the blender for a quick whirl (not too long to preserve the chunkiness).

Meanwhile, in a separate medium saucepan over medium high heat, warm up the milk and whipping cream. Stirring frequently with a whisk, bring it to almost boiling, but don't let it boil. Hint from Alton Brown, as soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, take it off the heat. Let this cool to almost room temperature, too.

Whisk the eggs into the milk mixture. Then stir in the fig mixture. Mix well, but note that the fig mixture will likely clump together a bit. Put in the fridge overnight. The next day, process the mixture in an ice cream maker until doubled in size. (I should have remembered to take a picture of this part. I'm still mesmerized watching it and must have been distracted.)  Then allow to sit in the freezer for another hour or so to harden up a bit.

Monthly micro-batch: plum and petite sirah sorbet

When I was at the farmers' market a few weeks ago, the main fruit vendor was definitely pushing his product. While I was perusing the beautiful fruitly flesh, they dropped their prices for two pounds of fruit. So while I was only planning to get a couple of plums, I ended up with a bag full. Couple that with a slightly too sweet petite sirah and you've got an amazing sorbet.

This recipe is adapted from Epicurious.

Ingredients:

• 4 plums, pitted and chopped
• 1 C red wine
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 cloves
• 10 whole peppercorns
• 2 large strips of lemon zest
• Juice of half a lemon (about 1 T)

Instructions:
In order to more easily fish out the cloves, pierce them into the lemon zest. Add all the ingredients to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Turn to medium and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.

Take off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Cool for a few more hours in the fridge. Pull out the lemon zest, cloves, and cinnamon. Put the rest of the ingredients in the blender and smooth. Process in an ice cream maker.

Serve immediately or put in the freezer to harden a bit more.

Monthly micro-batch: white peach sangria sorbet

When I moved to CA, Paul and I merged our kitchens. As a result I have an ice cream maker. I don't even like ice cream, but I thought it would be fun to do micro-batches (yielding less than 4 cups) of ice cream or sorbet with flavors of the season. In August, the farmers' markets here are overflowing with big, beautiful peaches, so something peachy and summery seemed like a good idea.

This recipe makes a refreshing summer treat. You can also use this as a tasty replacement for ice in white sangria or can be served with a little bubbly and fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

• 2 big, ripe white peaches
• 1 C dry white wine (like Pinot Grigio)
• 2 T sugar
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Instructions:
Cut up the peaches and remove any brown spots.

Mix the peaches with the rest of the ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to almost a boil then remove and let cool.

When cooled to room temperature, put all the ingredients in the blender and blend till smooth. Typical directions tell you to cool the mixture for a few hours in the fridge. I like to go against conventional wisdom, so I just put the warm mixture in the ice cream maker. It took longer to freeze, but it didn't break the machine.

If you like your sorbet a little soft, serve immediately. Put in the freezer in an airtight container if you'd like it to get harder or if you have any leftovers. You may need to microwave the leftovers for a few seconds to be able to serve them. Or you can eat it straight from the container :)