25 July 2012

I Am My Own Damn Hero

Of the couple different ice creams I've already made this summer, I think my favorite so far is the goat cheese ice cream I made for Lauren's birthday. Lauren and I choose words for birthdays and Christmas and buy gifts based on that word. Her word this year was 'twist' so I thought it would be fun to take that to the birthday dessert as well.


6 egg yolks. SIX!!!

Making the custard is my least favorite part of making custard.
As much as I prefer custard based ice creams they are a pain in the summer, on a gas stove. I'm also not good at being patient about slooowly bringing the custard to a simmer and I always end up with bits of cooked egg in the custard. I don't have a strainer so usually I just decide to not care. This time I decided to use what I had on hand a poured the custard through a straining spoon.

Goat cheese is one of the greatest foods ever created.

This would have been good even without running it through the ice cream maker

But freezing it was a good idea

The custard on it's own was, upon first taste, utterly bizarre. But I had to taste it again. And  again. It was weird and addictive and weirdly addictive. It kind of tasted like cheese cake, but goaty. In a good way. So in order to both temper the strong goat flavor and tie in the season, I topped the ice cream with limoncello soaked strawberries.

Viva Italia!

Strawberries and lemon-perfect with summer and goat cheese.

Hero shot

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
8 oz. fresh goat cheese
6 large egg yolks

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until creamy/frothy. Over medium heat, bring the milk to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk a small amount of milk into the egg mixture. Once that's tempered, add the egg mixture to the milk and thicken custard while stirring constantly. Pour hot custard through a strainer over crumbled goat cheese and stir until completely incorporated. Cool the custard thoroughly (I let it sit in the fridge overnight) and freeze per the ice cream maker directions.

Goat cheese; ice cream; summer fruit; limoncello...how could this not be just about the awesomest thing ever?

No comments: