Misha Ellison on Spoutible

2/19

Start with your “mise en place” - getting all the ingredients out and measured.

Literally translated from the original French to Italian: “getta you merda togetha.”

A picture of the ingredients used in this ice cream. From left to right, there is a container of sugar, a green container of heavy cream, a red container of milk, a green box of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, and in the foreground are a small bottle of vanilla extract and a bowl with six white eggs. On a stand behind the ingredients is a sauce pot, silver on the outside with a long silver handle, and black on the inside. Inside the pot are two implements: a black plastic ladle, and a small wire whisk.

07:39 PM - May 03, 2023

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3/19

And we’re going to want an ice bath for later, so let’s set that up now. That’s just a bigger bowl with ice water, and a smaller bowl that will fit in it without getting water in it. We’ll eventually cool our liquid base in the smaller bowl.

Two large metal prep bowls on a white tile counter. The left bowl is filled about halfway with water and ice cubes. The right bowl is slightly smaller and otherwise empty.

07:40 PM - May 03, 2023

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4/19

Ice cream starts as a liquid base. Here we’ll add 2 cups cream, 1 cup milk, about 2/3 cup sugar, and a couple tablespoons vanilla extract to a pot. Heat that sucker up to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and we’ve got ourselves a nice #SweetCream .

#GoodStart

A sauce pot on a stove with cream and milk already in it. There is a plastic orange measuring cup above the pot with white granular sugar pouring out into the cream/milk mixture in the pot.

07:42 PM - May 03, 2023

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5/19

We could stop there and have a nice vanilla base. But I like a custard base for ice creamier. We only use egg yolks, so we have our first challenge: separate the eggs. That takes both hands. You’ll need to YouTube it.

Add another 1/3 cup sugar to those yolks and whisk.

A square cut in half vertically with a white line creating two panels side-by-side. The left panel contains a photo of a small glass mixing bowl with six egg yolks. In front of the bowl is a wire whisk with a black handle. Above the bowl is a plastic orange measuring cup with white granular sugar, tilted such that the sugar is pouring onto the eggs in the bowl. The right panel contains a photo of the same glass bowl, with the wire whisk being used to blend the sugar and egg yolks into one smooth mixture.

07:43 PM - May 03, 2023

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6/19

Once our sweet cream has come to a simmer (NOT a boil!) time to temper the eggs.

It’s like this: cream HOT, eggs COLD. Too much heat too quickly will give us scrambled eggs (BAD). So we SLOWLY drizzle a cup of cream into the eggs, constantly stirring.

#NeedBothHands

A sauce pot sits on the front left burner of a white stove. It contains a sweet cream mixture and is about a quarter full. Above and slightly in the pot is a ladle with some of the cream scooped in it. To the right of the pot sits a small glass mixing bowl with blended egg yolks and a wire whisk sitting in it. The image intends to convey that the labeled cream will be slowly drizzled into the egg yolks, while constantly stirring the egg yolks with the whisk.

07:45 PM - May 03, 2023

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7/19

And when we’ve incorporated about a cup of the hot cream into the cold eggs, we reverse it - slowly pour the egg mixture back into the pot of cream while constantly stirring.

#TemperingGood
#ScrambledEggsBad

A square cut in half vertically with a white line creating two panels side-by-side. The left panel contains a photo of a pot with a sweet cream mixture on a stove, with a small glass bowl containing a partially-tempered egg custard hovering over the pot and slightly titled to convey that the custard is about to be slowly drizzled back into the pot. In the custard is a wire whisk. The right panel contains a photo of the same pot with the full custard mixture blended in it, and the wire whisk being used to stir the mixture.

07:46 PM - May 03, 2023

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8/19

We do need to make sure our eggs cook sufficiently to make the base safe to eat (drink?) So while constantly stirring, we bring up the heat until we get around 175ºF.

(Around 80ºC for all you who have figured out the metric system really is better)

#MetricLove

A pot on a stove with an egg custard being cooked in it. There is a wire whisk in the pot on its left side, invoking constant stirring, On the pot’s right side, the needle end of a digital thermometer is immersed in the custard with a temperature reading displaying.

07:48 PM - May 03, 2023

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9/19

Let’s take a moment to pay homage to my 7th grade HomeEc teacher, Mrs. Schiebe.

Is it because she was super hot and around 80-90% of us boys and 10-20% of the girls had a crush on her?

Partly. But also because she taught us “CLEAN AS YOU GO.”

#WiseWords

07:49 PM - May 03, 2023

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10/19

Once the custard is finished, we want to strain it. I’ll show you why in the next spout. We set up the ice bath, put the strainer on top, and pour.

#Foreshadowing
#ItGetsUgly
#ButDontBeScared
#ItWillBeOkay

A square cut in half horizontally with a white line creating two panels, one above the other. The top panel contains a photo of two large metal mixing bowls functioning together as an ice bath (the slightly smaller bowl is on top and in the slightly larger bowl. The larger bowl contains ice water which is not visible in the photo. Above and in the smaller bowl is a strainer with a black handle extending past the left side of the ice bath bowls. The bottom panel contains a photo showing a close-up of the egg custard being poured into and through the strainer, into the top bowl of the ice bath.

07:50 PM - May 03, 2023

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11/19

This. This is why we strain. Even the best among us at tempering eggs will still get a few bits of scrambled egg in there, and no one wants scrambled egg in their ice cream. #gross

#IDontWantToMeetTheManThatDoes

A close up photo of the strainer after the ice cream base has been strained through it. Several small bits of scrambled egg are visible in the strainer.

07:52 PM - May 03, 2023

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12/19

So glad we prepared that ice bath before! That was so smart of us! #NotJustAPrettyGuppy

Little bowl in big bowl, custard strained into little bowl, stir some to release heat… let it cool like that until it’s around room temperature...

A photo of a large metal mixing bowl containing a custard ice cream base, with a red rubber spatula being used in the bowl to mix it and help release its heat. The bowl is actually the top bowl in an ice bath. The bottom bowl it is in is not visible in the photo, but contains ice water helping to cool the mixture.

07:53 PM - May 03, 2023

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13/19

…then we can pour it into a sealed container to put in the fridge. We want to get the base nice and cold before churning it, so we’ll let it sit for a few hours.

#TheGoodKindOfCold

A photo of a large mixing bowl containing a custard ice cream base, tilted above a plastic food container such that the custard is pouring into the container. The bowl is mostly empty and the container is mostly full.

07:55 PM - May 03, 2023

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14/19

Time to freeze the base. We can’t just put it in the freezer (aw!) because we’d get a block of ice (oh!)

For creamy goodness we need to keep the liquid in motion WHILE it is freezing (ah!). This is “churning”, from the Latin “churnicus” which means “ice block no good."

07:56 PM - May 03, 2023

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15/19

There’s lots of ways to churn a liquid base. I use this little guy.

It has a freezer bowl that rotates while it’s on, with a little plastic thingie inside that keeps the liquid in motion.

#ThatsTheTechnicalTerm

A photo of a two-quart ice cream maker machine. The particular model is silver, with a black on/off dial on its bottom front and the name of the manufacturer Cuisinart above it. The machine is assembled with its freezer bowl in place, its plastic mixing arm inserted, and its clear plastic top square dome set in place over both.

07:57 PM - May 03, 2023

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16/19

The liquid base is fridge-cold so it’s ready to churn. This part’s easy. We turn on the machine, pour the base into the bowl, and let it go around 20-30 minutes.

#ChurnBabyChurn

A photo of a two-quart ice cream maker machine. The machine is silver, and its front black on/off switch is in the on position pointed to the right. A custard ice cream base is being poured into the machine’s freezer base from above, sourced from a clear plastic food container, and poured through the wide aperture in the clear top of the machine.

07:58 PM - May 03, 2023

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17/19

If we left it at that, we’d have a terrific vanilla ice cream. BUT… we want Thin Mint Cookies & Cream ice cream.

Easy peesy. We just crush up a bunch of the cookies, and we’ll add them with about 5 minutes to go on the churn.

#CanItBeThatSimple
#YesItCan

A square divided into three panels, two equal-sized squares stacked vertically to the left, and a single panel the height of the two combined to the right. The top left panel is a photo of a green Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie box. The bottom left panel shows a large plastic food storage bag that is sealed, and is filled with black cookie crumbs that used to be whole Thin Mint cookies. Resting on top of the bag is a rolling pin, invoking the instrument used to turn the cookies into crumbs in the bag. The right panel shows the bag tilted above the aperature at the top of an ice cream maker, invoking that the cookie crumbs are being poured into the machine.

08:00 PM - May 03, 2023

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18/19

When done churning, we’ve got a terrific ice cream the consistency of soft serve. This is perfect. We’ll now scoop it into a container and put it in the freezer for a few hours (or overnight) to “cure”, from the Latin “curucus” meaning “get hard”.

#ThatDoesntSoundRight

A photo showing a long green plastic food container intended to hold ice cream partially filled with a thin mint cookies and cream ice cream. The container sits to the left of the round freezer bowl of an ice cream maker. The freezer bowl contains the thin mint ice cream that is being spooned into the green container. Resting on the green container is the implement being used to spoon the ice cream, a red rubber spatula.

08:01 PM - May 03, 2023

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