Summer for me means the beginning of Berry Season, which ranks right up their with the start of the NFL season in September and the NBA season in October. I usually start to get impatient around this time for the Oregon strawberries to realize that it is time to ripen so I can make pies with them, and I end up buying the imported California strawberries. The problem with the California berries is that while they can grow to the size of volleyballs, the middle of the berries is generally filled with that un-delicious white pithy core stuff.
Clearly, the only way to solve this situation is to core out the jumbo berries, fill them with ice cream and then coat the entire thing in chocolate:
I really see no other viable alternatives.
The ice cream was a separate success in itself. I've made a number attempts on soy based ice cream. Each time the ice cream started out great but then froze into a solid, non-dairy, chunk of flavored ice. Adding alcohol to the mix just postpones the inevitable for a day or two.
After some internet research, I decided to give xanthan gum a try. Xanthan gum is apparently derived from the bacterial shell of some microorganism, so I guess it's natural and organic, right? I am not quite sure how someone figured this out in the first place, but it is supposed to act as a thickener/emulsifier. In ice cream, the xanthan gum prevents ice crystals from forming, which helps to make the ice cream actually creamy, and less icy-crunchy. Much to my surprise, it actually worked, and made the soy ice cream seems a little more like the dairy-full kind.
I can picture the dude who first started using xanthan gum in food preparation: after pondering for hours in the kitchen, suddenly slapping the table and yelling: "I got it! Dead bacteria carcasses!"
Delectable.
--Isaac
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