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Jun. 20th, 2013 02:24 pmI bought an ice cream maker company cookbook a while ago on Amazon. It's a very old one, a cheap little paper pamphlet with the sort of type on the front that makes one think it may have been printed in the 1930s, or at least that it's a reprint of a 1930s pamphlet. I'd looked it up after seeing one of its recipes on Mid-Century Menus- there was a main courses section, you see, and since this was an ice cream maker company cookbook, everything had to involve the ice cream maker, even if it was based around chicken...
Anyway, last night I tried one of the actual dessert recipes. The first recipe in the book is for 'apple mint ice cream'. This sounds appealing, but it's a bit misleading. The first ingredient in the recipe is two ounces of bitter chocolate (plain ol' unsweetened or baking chocolate, basically), and the mint is about three drops' worth. Essentially it's a chocolate mint ice cream recipe that gets all its sweetness from 3/4 cup of apple jelly. I, alas, was unable to find apple jelly when I was at the store buying ingredients. I knew I could get it elsewhere, but a, I was lazy, and b, when more light passes through the jelly than would through the side of a bottle of beer, I start wondering if it actually ever had anything to do with the fruit in the first place. I used 3/4 cup apple butter instead and then used two ounces of chocolate chips, as Smuckers apple jelly has four times the sugar of the equivalent volume of apple butter.
I won't say it wasn't tasty when I got it out of the freezer last night, but it was a bit weak in the flavor department- the chocolate didn't seem much (the recipe involved melting the chocolate and mixing it with milk, not leaving the chips whole) and the mint was almost impossible to perceive. Maybe old school mint flavoring was more like oil of peppermint rather than just extract. Also, the stuff fell apart much too easily when I scooped it out. This may have been the fault of a recipe that used jelly no longer having quite so much pectin to work with. If I make this stuff again I will see about trying it with actual apple jelly, and I will use cocoa powder and butter instead of chocolate chips (cocoa powder tends to deliver a more intense flavor), and either get peppermint oil or use more peppermint extract.
Anyway, last night I tried one of the actual dessert recipes. The first recipe in the book is for 'apple mint ice cream'. This sounds appealing, but it's a bit misleading. The first ingredient in the recipe is two ounces of bitter chocolate (plain ol' unsweetened or baking chocolate, basically), and the mint is about three drops' worth. Essentially it's a chocolate mint ice cream recipe that gets all its sweetness from 3/4 cup of apple jelly. I, alas, was unable to find apple jelly when I was at the store buying ingredients. I knew I could get it elsewhere, but a, I was lazy, and b, when more light passes through the jelly than would through the side of a bottle of beer, I start wondering if it actually ever had anything to do with the fruit in the first place. I used 3/4 cup apple butter instead and then used two ounces of chocolate chips, as Smuckers apple jelly has four times the sugar of the equivalent volume of apple butter.
I won't say it wasn't tasty when I got it out of the freezer last night, but it was a bit weak in the flavor department- the chocolate didn't seem much (the recipe involved melting the chocolate and mixing it with milk, not leaving the chips whole) and the mint was almost impossible to perceive. Maybe old school mint flavoring was more like oil of peppermint rather than just extract. Also, the stuff fell apart much too easily when I scooped it out. This may have been the fault of a recipe that used jelly no longer having quite so much pectin to work with. If I make this stuff again I will see about trying it with actual apple jelly, and I will use cocoa powder and butter instead of chocolate chips (cocoa powder tends to deliver a more intense flavor), and either get peppermint oil or use more peppermint extract.
