Dilly Dessert
Some of these unorthodox ice creams aren’t as easily assembled at it may appear.
New flavor development typically takes two to six months, says Dave Deadman, co-owner of the Chocolate Shoppe, a second-generation Madison business with outlets in 22 states.
“First, you have to develop an idea or flavor concept,” he explains. “Second, you have to find the ingredients that meet your quality, flavor profile and food safety requirements.
“Third, we start making very small batches (one to two gallons) of the potential flavor — using different combinations of the ingredients. Fourth, we taste-test all the potential flavor combinations to see if the flavor is as good as it sounds.”
The hardest part? Naming the flavor, Deadman says.
At Scratch Ice Cream in Milwaukee, the test batch for a new flavor comes from a one-pint ice cream maker. Refinement takes days to weeks, says co-owner Ryan Povlick. He and partners Dustin Garley and Justin Povlick will open a new retail location at The Rock in Franklin this month.
A three-day short course in ice cream making has been taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Dairy Science in Madison. Students travel from as far away as Asia, often with a goal to make ice cream with indigenous ingredients and flavors.
“Certain ingredients behave differently when added to ice cream,” explains Scott Rankin, who heads the UW program. “Alcoholic beverages are one example. You can’t just add them” without consequences.
Non-dairy, plant-based proteins cause complications too, as do a range of sweeteners. Take nothing for granted.
A frozen dessert needs to harden but stay scoopable. How easily the product melts, flows from a dispenser and holds up to toppings — like hot fudge — are important. So are quality of dairy and other ingredients.
“Our program is small and applied, hands-on,” Rankin says, addressing the technology of ice cream making as well as the science.
“It’s like a driving school, with every possible car available to drive,” only instead of cars, students operate small- to large-scale equipment and produce several hundred gallons of ice cream.
“There’s not a lot of training out there like this,” Rankin says. For each enrollee in these 12-student courses, two or three go on a waiting list.
Part of the allure of UW ice cream classes is trying various kinds of equipment.
Students typically want to make a specialty ice cream, and that has included one of the program’s Wisconsin success stories, Karen Kelley, who 10 years ago opened Kelley Country Creamery at the family farm near Fond du Lac and subsequently won a couple of dozen national and international awards.
She learned to make ice cream through a UW short course, and her more ambitious flavors include sweet corn.
Ice cream and coronavirus
“It’s a comfort food and a happy food,” Kelley says, of ice cream. Sales of pints and quarts this year are “astronomical — at least triple” what she usually sells.
The coronavirus has complicated business but not driven it away.
“People are coming,” Kelley says. “Nothing is normal for anyone now,” but good ice cream “helps maintain a sense of normalcy.”
Although the creamery was built with a walk-up window for ordering, it was left unused until this year because customers preferred to come inside Kelley’s and see ice cream choices before buying. Now, two additional windows handle sales too, and only employees go indoors.
A freezer was moved into the shop, to expedite pickup of pint and quart orders. Outdoors, a row of porch rocking chairs was removed, but scattered picnic tables remain.
“My biggest challenge is the supply chain — my ability to get ingredients is not as strong,” Kelley says. “Before choosing a flavor of the month, I have to make sure we’ll have what we need” to produce a specialty ice cream for the duration.
Steve Kinsey of LeDuc’s Frozen Custard, 240 W. Summit Ave. in Wales, agrees that’s a challenge.
“Lots of supply chain, delivery issues,” he says. “We’ve also seen some shortages and price increases.”
This recipe, origin unknown, made the rounds among Sheboygan County households roughly 40 years ago. It was a nod to Dairy Queen’s chocolate-coated Dilly Bar (created in 1955) and subsequent Buster Bar (which added peanuts, fudge).
30 Oreo cookies
3⁄4 cup margarine
2 quarts vanilla ice cream
1 1⁄2 cups Spanish peanuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1⁄2 cups evaporated milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Place cookies in a resealable plastic bag and use rolling pin to crush them. Move cookie pieces to a medium mixing bowl. Melt the margarine and add to cookies. Mix well and put into a 9-by-13-inch metal pan, covering the bottom evenly. Place in freezer.
Soften the ice cream about 20 minutes, just until it can be spread evenly over the cooled crust. Sprinkle peanuts evenly over ice cream. Freeze.
Melt the chocolate chips. Add to evaporated milk and powdered sugar in medium saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Cool thoroughly.
Remove the pan with ice cream and nuts from freezer. Top with cooled chocolate mixture. Return to freezer. When hardened, cut into serving portions.
At Chocolate Shoppe, pint sales were good during the past two months, but Deadman says that is a very small part of business overall. “Initially, we reduced our ice cream production by 75%” and closed our company owned ice cream stores (all in Madison),” he says. Forty percent of employees were furloughed three weeks.
“We are now back to full employment, and are ready for the summer ice cream season.”
Take-care kits
At Scratch Ice Cream, Povlick says virus fears affected retail sales heavily during safer-at-home weeks, “but our wholesale grocery store pints along with our care package deliveries kept us afloat.”
In his $40 Quarantine Care Package is the customer’s choice of six ice cream pints, plus 18 balls of cookie dough ready for the oven (the dough, made in-house, also goes into ice cream). Add $5 for delivery in the Milwaukee area.
“Business will be business,” Povlick says. “There are a lot of unknowns, but we will take it one day at a time and make the adjustments necessary.”
Purple Door, which has its original outlet at 205 S. Second St. in Milwaukee, closed two of its three locations in March, then pivoted by offering more online options and $20 Sundae Survival Kits — the custom
er's choice of two ice cream pints and five toppings, plus cups and spoons.
Group gatherings aren't as popular this year, but Kelley takes orders for Diamond Drops — fancy, customized ice