Disasters in Ice Cream II: Crisis Averted

I got an ice cream maker with the express intention of making ice cream all the freaking time, spending my days and nights dreaming up new flavors that would leave the likes of Baskin and Robbins showering me with accolades. Although I created lots of theoretical ice creams (Nut Brown Ale Prailene, S'more, Ginger Ale) I hadn't actually exercised any creativity with the machine yet, opting instead to stick with recipes until I figured out the logistics of the little bugger.

Last night, though, the kitchen inspiration we all aspire to was given a chance to shine. What started as a simple attempt to make a custard based cheesecake ice cream quickly devolved into a scrambled egg protein shake (lesson learned: whisk harder when mixing boiling milk into cold egg yolks). Thankfully the sink was hungry for some of that sugary egg curd action. Even more thankfully I had a tub of mascarpone hiding in my fridge waiting for her moment to shine.

I learned from Alton Brown that sugar+food processor=superfine sugar. Alton Brown has a habit of explaining the obvious in a way that does not make you feel dumb for not previously realizing that something like superfine sugar could be created by grinding sugar until it was more fine. I thank Alton Brown for that, because superfine sugar makes cold-based desserts much easier to create.

I added 2/3 cup fine sugar to about a pint of strawberries and throwing it all into the processor until it was a fine juicy paste. Then the addition of a cup of half and half and the tub of mascarpone made the 'cream' part possible. I could have stirred the cream and mascarpone together until it was the same consistency, but I didn't and I will pretend that was on purpose. Stirring all the ingredients together at once meant the mascarpone didn't get a chance to break down totally, leaving light little chunks of the cheese in the finished product to help cut through some of the sweetness.

I finally added crumbled up Graham cookies which I had made earlier from a mix. Certainly just regular graham crackers would work although the extra butter from the cookies makes everything that much tastier. Throw it all in the ice cream machine and in an hour I had delicious strawberry graham ice cream. Lighter than custard based creams, it was remarkably pink. This was a relief because I had feared the graham crumbs would give a grey color, and no one wants that.

So my first improvised ice cream turned out to be wonderful when served fresh. I have a feeling it will be a little less great when the strawberry has sat in the freezer for a day, but let us hope the cream helps avert another disaster in ice cream.