Marga's Foodblog

We love dulce de leche ice cream. Real dulce de leche ice cream, that made with dulce de leche itself, not the vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls which Haagen Daz tries to pass on as dulce de leche ice cream. Unfortunately, the real stuff is not easy to get.

There is an Argentine ice cream store, Tango Gelato, in San Francisco (they used to be in Fruitvale but they moved!) and their version is pretty good though not as delicious as the stuff in Argentina. Of course, given how different milk tastes in the US I know it'd be impossible to make the real thing, but I'd like to approximate it.

So my new project consits in trying different recipes until I find one I really like. I started with a very simple one - Ben & Jerry's sweet cream recipe substituting dulce de leche ice cream for some of the cream. Didn't work well. It doesn't taste enough like dulce de leche, which doesn't surprise me as it's very heavy in cream. Supposedly, cream dulls the taste buds.

Tomorrow I'll try something else.

Meanwhile, here is the recipe for this one:

Dulce de Leche Granizado

-2 eggs
-1/3 cup sugar
-2 cups cream
-1 cup milk
-1 cup dulce de leche
-1/2 cup shredded dark chocolate

Whisk eggs until fluffy, whisk in the sugar until disolved, whisk in cream and milk. In a separate bowl, whisk dulce de leche with 1 cup of the cream mixture until well blended. Add dulce de leche mixture to milk mixture. Freeze according to manufacturers instructions. Two minutes before it's done add the shredded chocolate. Put in a sealed container and freeze until it hardens.

My second batch of dulce de leche ice cream was more sucessful. This time I used 1 cup of cream, 1 cup of 2% milk, 1 cup of dulce de leche and 4 egg yolks, milk/cream and eggs were cooked separately and then all mixed together, strained, allowed to cool and frozen. I still don't understand what the purpose of cooking is, however.

The taste of this batch was stronger (it had a greater proportion of dulce de leche) and I thought it was just as smooth. Kathy liked the first batch better, but Mike and I preferred this one.

I'm now making my 3rd batch. I used 1 cup cream, 1 1/2 cup nonfat milk (all left at home), and probably 1 1/2 cup dulce de leche. The truth is I didn't measure it, I just keep adding it until it was very sweet. I wanted to add eggs as well, but I overcooked them so I'm not sure how much egg were left in the mix after I strained it. We'll see how it turns out. I've also runned out of chocolate, so this will be plained dulce de leche, not dulce de leche granizado like my last two batches.

About three years ago, Mike had an incredible watermelon sorbet at Charles Nob Hill. One of my motivators in getting an ice-cream maker was to be able to make it for him. Today I finally try but my attempt wasn't very successful. He says the taste is fine but it doesn't have the melt-in-your-mouth consistency sorbet should have. We suspect the problem is that the watermelon wasn't pureed enough (I used a food processor). Next time I think I will use the blender and then strain it (so that I end up with watermelon juice) before making it.

Here is the recipe I tried

-5 cups watermelon puree (about 1/2 a seedless watermelon)
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Heat 1 cup of watermelon puree with the cup of sugar and stir until the sugar melts. Mix in the rest of the puree and the lime juice. Cool in the refrigerator or freezer. Put in the ice cream machine and freeze according to the instructions.

Ben & Jerry's selling strategy must be based in introducing new flavors, as they do so quite regularly lately. We, of course, have to try them, though it's been years since we found a new flavor we really liked. For the most part I stick to my old favorite Chubby Hubby and mourn the demise of Wavy Gravy.

So far, I've tried 2 of the many new flavors.

I really liked Fossil Fuel, a "Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookie Pieces, Fudge Dinosaurs and a Fudge Swirl". It reminded me a little of the dearly departed Wavy Gravy, in that it was a light-flavored ice cream with a fudge swirl, alas it doesn't have the nuts. B&J's fudge is delicious, though, so I'm glad there is another ice cream that features it.

I wasn't as excited about The Gobfather, a "Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Almonds & a Nougat Swirl". I'm not a huge chocolate ice cream fan to begin with, and I didn't feel the almonds or nougat swirl contributed much to it. Indeed, the chocolate flavor is so strong that the nougat was completely drowned.

I also recently had chocolate peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough - a flavor I can't find in their website - which I also wasn't crazy about for similar reasons: the chocolate flavor overwhelmed the cooky dough flavor. I guess no more chocolate-based ice creams for me.

This recipe for a "base" for ice cream contains 2 ingredients and 1 preparation step. Still, I managed to mess it up on all counts. The results, however, where very interesting. This has to be the smoothest, richest ice cream I've ever tasted. There isn't even a hint of iciness, it's all velvety softness. It reminds me of the ice creams that are served in tiny scoops accompanying other sweets at fancy restaurants. Indeed, I think it would go superbly with something crunchy - perhaps toffee crumbs -, though given how sweet it is, something non-sweet may be a good idea. The taste was quite nice, though a bit too sweet. But if you like condensed milk, you'll like this ice cream.

The original recipe called for combining 2 cups of light cream with 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, mixing it well and putting it into the ice cream machine.

I couldn't find light cream, so I used 2 cups of heavy cream instead (thus the richness of the ice cream), and I didn't read the instructions well so I used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Finally I poured each ingredient into the ice cream machine, but realized my mistake and stopped to mix them. The original recipe is supposed to turn a very light ice cream base, clearly mine didn't.

I'm a little late with this posting but better late than ever, right?

Last April was Mika's 4th birthday. We had a party for her the day after her birthday, but I wanted to celebrate the actual anniversary of her birth - so I invited our friends Desiree and Grant, and their kids Trent and Kali, as well as our friends Regina and Boris to meet us for ice cream at the Ice Creamery. The Ice Creamery is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in downtown Castro Valley, which serves Fenton ice cream in more informal surroundings.

We've been to the Ice Creamery many times before, when we want to treat ourselves or the kids, and this time it was a real treat.

I don't know if they take reservations, we certainly hadn't made any, and when we got there around 6 PM or so on a Saturday evening the place was hopping. There were no tables to be found. The hostess/waitress (it's not clear who is whom there), however, tried very hard to accomodate us and was able to put some tables together as people left them so that we all got to sit together by the window. They were very efficient with the service, getting us menus and our orders in and out quite quickly, considering how busy the place was, and making a special effort to bring the kids ice cream first. Considering how antsy they were - 4 yo's are not known for the patience - this was very welcomed. They even put a candle on Mika's ice cream and everyone sang her "happy birthday". At her age this was thrilling rather than embarrazing.

The kids were able to run around and play around and all in all had the most wonderful time. I think we will make going to the Ice Creamery a yearly birthday tradition.

The other night we went to dinner at Grasshopper, and decided to skip dessert there and head to Leonidas instead. Leonidas is a Belgium chocolatier that produces and sells specialty chocolates. There are Leonidas shops all over Belgium, and apparently the rest of the world as well. My friend Adriana who lives in Belgium loves them, and I brought a couple of pounds with me after my last trip there (they are significantly cheaper in Belgium than in the States), but I'm less excited about them. Call me a plebe, but I prefer Sees Candies all the way.

While my friends were getting candy - and Eddie was nice enough to buy a piece for each one of our husbands -, I got some dulce de leche gelato ($3 for a small cup) and I was hooked. The gelato was almost as good as the one back home. It had a light, cool consistency, and yet was creamy and very flavorful. If you're in Rockridge make sure you get some.

Leonidas
6311 College Avenue
Oakland

Yesterday I made dulce de leche ice cream again. This time all I did was mix two cups of cream with dulce de leche. I can't tell you how much because I did it by pouring and tasting, but it was probably 1 1/2 cups. It was a little too much, though, but not much. The results were great. The ice cream is incredibly creamy and very dense - haagen dazs dense. Indeed, it tasted quite a bit like haagen dazs. It didn't get hard on my freezer nor did it crystalize. But it's too dense to eat much of, which is good as this sing is pure fat and sugar. The other problem it has is that it melts quickly at room temperature. But it's soooo good.

Finally, making it is quite expensive - much more than buying ice cream at the store. But I'm glad I tried it. I'll probably make it again, this time with chocolate flakes (I didn't have any of those at home).