Lava Chai'scream

Amidst all the chaos that's happening in Afghanistan right now bleeds my heart. I cannot even imagine the level of difficulties, no food, stranded on airport in the hope to fly out to start a new peaceful life is like. Being a woman and woman owned business our heart goes out for Afghan women. 

Today we are churning Lava Chai'scream in The Chai Bar Kitchen! We love flowers and lavender is one of my favorite flowers! Summer is the time of blooms and we love to eat what nature has to offer us in the season. Today, I want to share my Lava Chai'scream recipe. I really got into making ice creams last year when the pandemic began and one of my ice cream friends recommended me a good ice cream book to start. I'll share the book with you guys in this blog post and also some tips. If you don't want to buy that book, it's ok too because I'll be sharing the basics and the things that I learned from my own experience.

I'll also share how you can make this ice cream with and without ice cream maker. Full disclosure - Without icecream maker will not yield the same texture and consistency but hey it's still pretty good. So, let's get started, shall we?

First things first, when starting any recipe please make sure all your ingredients are out, ready and handy. You don't want to be missing, running or messing things up. These are just my two cents.

There are two kinds of ice creams - Custard base and Philadelphia style. As the name says custard base is the one with eggs and the Philadelphia style is with milk and cream only. Philly style is so easy, common and popular that you wouldn't know its a different style. I didn't know the milk and cream only ice cream is called Philadelphia style until I read the ice cream book. It's also a great way of making ice creams with delicate flavors as the they really get a chance to pop vs a custard base. 

There are 5 major components of ice cream as Dana Cree says in her book 'Hello, my name is Ice cream'. 

1. Ice - Believe it or not majority of your ice cream is ice and not all ice is equal.
2. Fat - Fat is Flavor, and Fat is texture! Remember, it's called Ice Cream and cream is is fat.
3. Protein - Protein comes from milk and is crucial for texture and binding.
4. Sugar and Air - Sugar is so much more than a sweetner. Its gives a structure, bonds the water and cream and adds body.
5. The Texture Agents - Its a super big topic and I recommend reading the book to learn more about this component.

All the above components are crucial in making ice cream and to learn more in detail about it, you can read her book. She has done a wonderful job at explaining these things.

We are from Philadelphia and the flavor that we are making today is a pretty delicate flavor so we are going to make Philadelphia style ice cream.

For this recipe you will need following things:

Equipments:   

Ice cream maker   
or   
High speed blender like Vitamix if not using ice cream maker   

Fine Mesh Strainer

Ingredients:             

40 gm Full-Fat Milk Powder
80 gm Sugar
30 gm Lava Lavender Sugar
400 gm Full-Fat Cream
400 gm Full-Fat Milk
50 gm Glucose

Texture agent - either 1 gm Xanthan gum, or 10 gm Cornstarch

Instructions :

1. Combine milk powder and sugar in a bowl.
2. In a heavy bottom saucepan add milk, cream and glucose over medium high heat and bring it to a rolling boil. Keep stirring. 
3. Whisk milk powder and sugar mixture in the milk pot. Reduce the flame to low simmer and cook for 2 more minutes - Add cornstarch here before cooking finishing the 2 min mark and keep whisking. 
4. Remove the pot from the heat, add in Lava Lavender Sugar and allow it to infuse for 30 minutes.         
5. Strain the base through fine mesh sieve into a shallow glass bowl discarding everything that you catch in the strainer.
6. Fill a large bowl slight over half the bowl with super cold icy water and nest the hot bowl into the ice bath. Stir occasionally until it cools down. 
7. Once cooled, add Xanthan gum and mix well.
8. Once the base is cooled off, stick it in the refrigerator for 24 hrs or at least overnight to cure. This step is super important for the texture.
9. Now churn the base in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instruction. Ice cream is done when it holds up its shape.
10. To freeze your ice cream, immediately transfer it in airtight container, apply press n seal onto the ice cream surface to avoid any ice crystallization and freeze it for at least 12 hours before eating. Or if you are using paper ice cream tubs fill it to the brim, put the lid on and stick it in the freezer for 12 hrs.
11. Without Ice cream maker way - Follow until step 8. Pour your base in ice cube tray, cover the tray with lid or seal it with press and seal. Freeze for 12 hrs or until hard.
12. When you are ready to  serve just pop out a few ice cream base cubes and blend on high speed in a high speed blender like Vitamix until soft and smooth. Scoop and serve.         

If you try it, let us know how you liked it and if you did anything different. We love to hear your stories!! We will see you next Friday, same time with another new blog post and exciting new ideas. Until then Bye- Bye!!

Tea'ta,

Madura!