Recipe Test Squared: Two Takes on Philadelphia Style Ice Cream (Vanilla)
Not a lot of process when making a Philadelphia style ice cream!
I know the Sam Hinkie and Sixers references are beyond tired at this point, but what can I say? When I think of Philadelphia, I immediately think, “Trust the process.”1 It can’t be helped.
The good news is that because the process of making Philadelphia-style ice cream is so incredibly easy, I decided to try two different recipes this week! I made this one from the Food Network’s Alton Brown—whose personality I find smug and incredibly off-putting, but never-the-less!—and this one from Max Falkowitz, formerly of Serious Eats.
The hallmark of Philadelphia-style ice cream (or American style), is that it does not use egg yolks. Instead, it uses only milk, cream, and sugar (and with what strikes me as a higher ratio of cream to milk). The result is thought to be lighter and more airy than custard or gelato. Also a lot easier to make…which I appreciate!
That out of the way, here’s how this week is going to go: I’m going to detail the making of each ice cream (first the Falkowitz recipe, then the Alton Brown one) and then provide some comments on the taste of each at the end. Doing comparative taste tests won’t be a regular feature here on the blog, but since I’m doing two recipes this week, I figured doing a head-to-head match-up is essential.
30-Minute Philadelphia Style Ice Cream
I kicked things off with Falkowitz’s recipe, which bills itself as taking only thirty minutes to prepare. The preparation was certainly easy, perhaps the easiest I’ve ever done.
Preparing the mix was so simple I neglected to document the process! You just whisk the above ingredients and dump the mixture into the ice cream maker. I used whiskey in lieu of the Scotch called for in the recipe.
Then into the machine to churn!
Perhaps because my Breville is slow, this took longer than 30 minutes (mine churned for about 50 minutes, which for me, is par for the course ). But since the churning time is hands-off, the active preparation time is probably ten minutes tops—five minutes to prep the mixture, and five minutes to put it into a container when it’s finished—making it the easiest ice cream I’ve ever made.
Falkowitz recommends eating it right out of the machine, but I didn’t do that…except for this one bite.
Aaaaand the dregs I scooped out from the churning bowl with a spatula at the end. Those first bites were good! But as I mentioned, notes on the taste will be at the end of this post. On to the next recipe!
Alton Brown’s Serious Vanilla Ice Cream
That I find Alton Brown’s personality irritating (reminds me of one of these guys from Trading Places) did not stop me from trying out his Vanilla ice cream recipe. Dude has a lot of food cred after all.
Whereas Falkowitz uses scotch as a kind of magic ingredient in his recipe, Brown uses peach preserves. He includes them to take advantage of the pectin found in preserves, which he says provides a smoother texture and helps gel the ice cream (for stability so it can be scooped and hold shape). I didn’t have peach preserves on hand, so I used apricot preserves. According to Brown, the preserves doesn’t impact the flavor much because you’re using a vanilla bean.
You take those ingredients above (2 cups half-and-half, 1 cup cream, 1 cup sugar minus 3 tablespoons, 3 tablespoons apricot preserves2, vanilla bean, pinch of salt) and put ‘em in a pot. Like so:
Once the mixture reaches 170°, take it off the heat, and put it in a container to cool in the fridge (or “mellow” as Brown says in the recipe video3). I got some of these fancy restaurant supply containers some years back when I started making ice cream. I used them for ice cream storage.
I left the mixture in the fridge for about eight hours to “mellow”. And before churning, I strained out the bits and pieces of apricot.
Here’s it is churning:
And of course, a quick taste for the chef!
My kids and wife sampled some of the small bits of ice cream remaining in the churning bucket. My son said, “Wow, I actually like this vanilla ice cream!”
So How Did Each One Taste?
Even though these are both vanilla ice creams, they tasted very different from each other! While both were equally smooth, creamy, and scoopable, Alton Brown’s had a wonderfully fresh vanilla taste, while the flavor of Falkowitz’s was more defined by a subtle yet pronounced whiskey flavor that almost overshadowed the flavor of the vanilla extract. The hints of whiskey were very nice; I liked it, and my brother-in-law told me he preferred it to the Alton Brown one.
My kids and my wife, however, clearly preferred Alton Brown’s recipe. Using a fresh vanilla bean never fails. The fresh vanilla taste of Brown’s recipe was delicious. I said above that it reminded me of Carvel, and this is certainly true in terms of texture—it was smooth and creamy due to the pectin, with no hint of apricot. But the fresh vanilla taste was far better than Carvel’s vanilla. Again, using a fresh vanilla bean does wonders.
While I enjoyed both, I think the clear winner of this Philadelphia ice cream face-off is Alton Brown. It is not as easy to make as the Falkowitz recipe, but the creaminess and fresh vanilla taste were clear winners. I enjoyed the Falkowitz recipe, and would not hesitate to make it again given how easy it is. But I think it’s more of an adult dinner party dessert recipe due to the booziness.
Brown’s recipe, on the other hand, is a crowd pleaser no matter what the occasion—adult dinner party, kid birthday party, or just for eating it on your own at home. My personal distaste for Brown’s personality aside, it is an excellent recipe. It’s fairly easy to make, tastes delicious, and it can be adapted to other flavors (steep mint to make a Mint Chip, add cocoa powder instead of a vanilla bean to make Chocolate, etc.). Congrats Alton. The Process has declared you a winner this week!
Also this video.
The published recipe says 2 tablespoons of preserves, but in the video that accompanies with the recipe, Brown uses 3 tablespoons.
Brown presents this “mellowing” step as some sort of insider secret of the ice cream industry, which I found quite odd given that most ice cream recipes I’ve encountered require heating and then cooling in the fridge overnight to let the flavors combine. So I don’t think it’s really that much of a secret. But enough hating on Brown.