To celebrate the birth of my new daughter this past
week I made ice cream for the rest of the family.
But not just any old “vanilla” ice cream. I decided
to make something a bit more exotic. I’ve seen
sensationalistic cooking shows where chefs try to
distinguish themselves by making wildly
non-traditional flavors like bacon ice cream, goat
cheese ice cream, or corn ice cream. I wasn’t going
quite that far, but still wanted something a bit out
of the ordinary.
After checking the fridge and deep freeze, I found an
unfinished bag of frozen Fragaria x ananassa chunks.
This fruity plant is a member of the Angiosperms
clade, of the order Rosales. Perfect! But to ensure
the right degree of sweetness, I also dug out some
granulated Saccharum officinarum extract.
Once you have the ingredients assembled in the right
proportions, and assuming you have an ice cream
maker, making ice cream is dead simple. In fact, an
ice cream machine is one of the few specialty kitchen
appliances that I regularly recommend to others. Ice
cream does not have to be an unhealthy snack, but
you’ll never get the healthy type if you only buy it
from the store.
The recipe I put together for this batch is as
follows:
1 cup whole milk
2 cups Fragaria x ananassa (chopped)
3 teaspoons Saccharum officinarum extract
(granulated)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch of salt
Pour the mixture into the ice cream machine and let
it churn until it achieves the desired frozen texture
and thickness.
And there you have it. Serves 5 or 6 kids, including
adult kids.
I have nothing against vanilla ice cream, and in fact
I eat it all the time. But sometimes it is nice to
have something a little different. And it is always
nice knowing exactly what your ice cream is made of,
unlike The Who-knows-what that goes into mass
produced “frozen dairy dessert”.
