Making ice cream was never the same after Luke Cook told me to "cream it up...for Daddy." I can say with 100% honesty I didn't hate that request, wrapped as it was in a bouquet of my favorite kind of obvious gay bait which I may or may not have asked for. But, let's get to the ice cream!
Luke listed a few common classics: banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. He then explains that one often sees a combo of the two, but rarely all three. Luckily, his fruit and chocolate combo is one that I not only tolerate but love. I started out by roasting some ripe bananas in the oven with a little brown sugar, sugar and salt. I roasted them just long enough to concentrate their flavor and no longer, to ensure they didn't get too soft and mushy. Once the bananas cooled, I blended them up and reserved them to add to my standard base once it was fully cooked. I've tried many different banana recipes with varying results. I've tried using super fresh bananas, extra ripe bananas, steeping the bananas in cream and milk for 24 hours, and many other techniques. I've found that roasting them, just to the point of caramelization is one of the best techniques for me. You get a strong banana flavor, and not a lot of starchiness or iciness in the final ice cream, which can sometimes happen. I've also grilled bananas, which I also highly recommend (more on this in another post), actually, I recommend grilling most fruit for a unique depth of flavor (grilled pineapple is my favorite).
For the chocolate fudge swirl, I used my tried and true recipe that never fails. It's chocolatey and fudgy, not too sweet, a little salty, and has just the right amount of chewiness when frozen. It's a combo of cocoa powder, sugar, salt, golden syrup and heavy cream. You could easily swap out the golden syrup for something more readily available like corn syrup, I just like the unique caramelly profile of golden syrup. I do have a pretty salty palate, so I tend to make it too salty to eat on its own, but perfect when swirled through a rich and sweet ice cream.
Just like my chocolate swirl recipe, my peanut butter ripple is one of my staples. I use coconut oil, chunky peanut butter, sugar and salt. It remains hard and crunchy, almost like that chocolate shell coating that freezes hard when you pour it on ice cream. I like the crunchy contrast of my ripple when biting into a scoop, it almost feels like a peanut butter candy or a soft brittle.
Once I creamed it up for Daddy...the Luke Cook ice cream turned out to be one of my favorites!
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