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7/1/12

Baja and Alta California Ice Cream / Nieve de Baja y Alta California




With the summer at the door the days have been increasingly warm here in San Diego. The time for cold beer, refreshing lemonade and luscious ice cream is now here. With my trusty ice cream maker and The Perfect Scoop, the book by David Lebovitz, on hand, I am ready for the summer!

I've been making good use of this book since I got it for my birthday, back in February. I have been making homemade ice cream for me and my husband, he loves ice cream and eats a bowl of it every night. His favorite flavor has always been vanilla and the recipe for vanilla ice cream in The Perfect Scoop is terrific, I make it often.

 All the recipes in this book are wonderful and the book also has recipes for sorbets, frozen yogurt and for sauces and toppings. I have made several of the ice creams in this book beside the vanilla; Aztec hot chocolate, cinnamon and even frozen yogurt. Sometimes I follow the recipe to the letter but sometimes I feel creative and modify them to my taste or to what I have on hand. Today, I'll share an ice cream recipe with a few modifications. 

I used a wonderful wine syrup from the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico and my favorite olive oil from the San Joaquín Valley in California, USA. I hope you enjoy it.


Wine Syrup from Baja California and Olive Oil from Alta California

Olive Oil and Wine Syrup Ice Cream

1 1/3  cups whole milk
1/4 cup honey (the recipe from the book calls for 1/2 cup sugar)
1/4 cup wine syrup (this is my addition)
Pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup fruity olive oil

Warm the milk, salt, honey and wine syrup in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set aside. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan. 

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, or a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through a strainer and stir it into the cream. Whisk the olive oil into the custard vigorously until it's well blended, then stir until cool. 

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

The Perfect Scoop!


And now some pictures from the Guadalupe Valley: