New Ice Cream Cookbooks!
Enough recipes to keep my busy for years to come.
I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this blog going. I’d like to think that five years from now, I’ll still be plugging away each week, churning up some new flavor of ice cream to share with family and friends. But all things in this life have their expiration date, and I’m curious when my clock will strike twelve and this whole effort will transform back into a pumpkin.
Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that happening anytime soon given the arrival of these two books: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and The World of Ice Cream by Adrienne Borlongan. I’ve already mentioned both in earlier posts, so I’ll just jump right into my initial reactions.
I’m already familiar with the Lebovitz book from long borrowing periods from the NYPL back in the 2010s. But it’s been a long time. Paging through it, I’m reminded of how varied the recipes are: from simple classics to more complicated (i.e. more mix-ins) fare.
I appreciate that there are easy entry points as well as more advanced recipes (plus toppings, mix-ins, and vessels). And I very much appreciated this:
As for Borlongan’s book, it’s full of beautiful photos and delicious-sounding recipes… that also seem quite advanced!
Despite the complexity, I’m excited to challenge myself by making some of these (lots of mix ins!). And to also find inspiration by making simplified versions of some of the flavors.
I’m also intrigued by her approach to using stabilizers, which, it seems, she wholeheartedly endorses:
This is a similar approach to the owners of Salt & Straw, who use xanthan gum as a stabilizer in their base recipe. Borlongan thinks you shouldn’t shy away from using these scary sounding stabilzers to improve your ice cream…I might try using some next week when making some matcha ice cream.
The six different base recipes alone make me very excited to have The World of Ice Cream as a reference, as a guide, and as an inspiration for flavors.
And with that, my small but mighty cadre of dear readers, I wish you a happy Friday and a relaxing weekend…full of ice cream!
My Salt and Straw take was that the texture/quality of the ice cream stood out less than the eccentric flavors. I want to try that Japanese Neapolitan!