Using commonly savory ingredients in a different way to flavor a favorite frozen dessert is a delicious trend in making ice cream and extreme toppings today.
Most ice cream desserts are based upon the same basic recipe with flavors added from fruits, candies and other ingredients. The ingredients are added by steeping them in the cream mixture as it is cooked or by chopping the ingredients into pieces or portions and putting them into the final finished ice cream. To take your ice cream dessert to that extreme level, try using a savory ingredient in a way most would not think of as a dessert.
Orange-Red Bell Ice Cream
- 1 red bell pepper, skinned and sliced lengthwise
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 oranges
- 6 large egg yolks
- Put red bell pepper slices in a saucepan with the milk, ½ cup of the cream, and the sugar, and heat until warm. Zest the oranges directly into the pan. Once temperature is just before a boil, cover, remove from the heat and let steep for one hour. After steeping, warm it back up.
- Pour the rest of the cream into a bowl. Set a strainer over it.
- In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly incorporate the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking all the time, then pour it all back into the saucepan. Stir over medium heat until it thickens and coats a spatula.
- Pour through the strainer into the remaining (room temperature) cream and stir.
- Cool over an ice bath and refrigerate until ready to run in the ice cream machine. Freeze as directed.
Sugar Candied Jalapenos
- 8-10 jalapeno peppers, sliced or cut into rings
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon tumeric
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon mustard seed
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- green food coloring, optional
- 1/4 coarse ground (pearl) sugar – red or green
- 1/4 coarse ground sea salt
- In a saucepan, add sugar, vinegar, dry seasonings and 1 cup water.
- Heat over low heat until the mixture forms a syrup. Add more water if syrup becomes too thick.
- Add 1-2 drops food coloring (optional) and mix well.
- Add jalapeno slices or rings and heat 3-4 minutes.
- Remove the jalapenos and allow to cool.
- Repeat adding the pepper slices back to the reheated syrup and then cooling until the jalapeno peppers are thickly candied.
- After the final layer of syrup, roll wet jalapeno slices or rings into an even mixture of the pearl sugar and sea salt.
- Cool and serve!
- 4 Large jalapeno peppers, sliced into rings
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup to 1 cup water
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon chili pepper powder of your choice
- 1 drop green food coloring
- Heat a small saucepan to medium-low heat
- Add water
- Dissolve sugar, Turmeric powder, ginger and chili pepper powder
- Add drop of food coloring and stir until sugar is dissolved
- Add jalapeno peppers and simmer 3-4 minutes
- Remove jalapenos and allow to cool
- Repeat several times by adding the jalapeno peppers to the syrup then, removing to cool until they are candied
- Serve!
Copyright Catherine Laurenzi-Bridges. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Catherine Laurenzi-Bridges - Catherine is a published author, recipe contest winner, freelance writer and Le Cordon Bleu trained professional chef. She has been ...
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