Jeni Britton Bauer and Washington Post food writers talk ice cream
James Beard Award-winning American ice cream maker Jeni Britton Bauer recently joined The Washington Post Food section staff in answering questions about all things edible. Here are edited excerpts from that chat.
Q: What does the addition of alcohol to an ice cream base do to the texture of ice cream?
A: When you add alcohol, it will depress the freezing point of the ice cream, meaning the ice cream will need to be colder to be frozen. If you add too much alcohol, you can make your ice cream soupy — it won’t freeze. Sugar also does this. Some ice cream makers even use a bit of vodka so that they can reduce the sugar in a sorbet.
Q: When I am making strawberry ice cream, I want at least a few “pieces” of strawberry, not completely pureed and strained fruit. But while my ice cream taste great straight out of the ice cream maker, once it’s been in the freezer for a while, the bits of strawberry always freeze solid, which makes it difficult (if not actually unpleasant) to eat.
I cook the strawberries with sugar, and have even added vodka to the mix and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days before making the ice cream. This process worked well with cherries (the halved cherries were much larger than the strawberry pieces I end up with after the cooking process) but the strawberries still froze.
How do the commercial brands keep their strawberry bits from freezing? Is it something I can do at home?
A: I have never had even a commercial brand of ice cream that had soft, flavorful strawberries in the frozen ice cream. The only thing I can suggest is to roast the strawberries for 8 minutes with some sugar and when you purée it, stop before it’s all liquid. The small chunks will still be icy, but if they are small enough then it won’t disrupt creaminess of the overall. One suggestion might be to take some of the berries all the way to jam consistency, where all the water in the fruit is bound to sugar, then you could achieve softness while frozen.
Q: What foods make you happy? I’ve been in the doldrums lately (not least because I’m spending most of my time in AC with the blinds drawn to hide from the heat) and I’m thinking that there may be something happy-making that I could cook or buy. It’s different for everyone, obviously, but maybe you can spark some ideas. Pre-empting one obvious choice: the nectarines and peaches at my farmers market and grocery store are dreadful. The cherries are nice, though.
A: I’m going to go with the theme of the day here ... ice cream!
Also, do try to get outside when you can, even if it’s for just a little in the morning or evening, just so you don’t feel so cooped up!
A: Fresh fruit but, like you said, some are hard to come by. Honestly, when I need a little bluesy pick-meup, I make a spicy bacon pasta that a former roommate used to make for us when we both worked late night shifts. Just bacon, tomato sauce, red pepper flakes and parm over linguine. Also pancakes! Q:
I’ve made fig brandy several times, and have some leftover brandied figs in the freezer. Do you have some suggestions for ice cream or even sorbet made with these goodies?
A: I would be inclined to put it into a cheese ice cream. It’s easy to make a soft cheese, or cream cheese ice cream, or use super fresh goat cheese. Then sprinkle the brandied figs into it.
Q: Please tell me how to make scapes last, hopefully until next summer. I’ve heard they can be made them into pesto. How long does that last? I’m hoping you’ll offer instructions for that and other options, whatever changes the taste least, like maybe simply putting them in the freezer?
A: I’ve never tried freezing them whole, but you can freeze the pesto (especially if you make it without cheese) for up to a year, sure. Then just thaw and stir in the cheese.