A few weekends ago, we rented a beach house in Matagorda, Texas with some of our good friends. We were hoping we'd be able to have a bonfire on the beach. I made homemade amaretto marshmallows and homemade graham crackers for the occasion. I ran out of time to make homemade chocolate bars, but don't think I hadn't thought of it! Unfortunately, due to the lack of rain, there was a county-wide burn ban. We probably should have known that we wouldn't be able to have a fire because we'd already seen bone-dry ponds and waterways at a wildlife refuge just north of Matagorda.
I hoped we'd be able to use our grill to roast marshmallows instead of a bonfire, but the mosquitoes were so voracious that we were unwilling to leave the house except to run to the beach and back. (Thinking back, there was a fireplace in the house. If only I'd put two and two together...) In the end, we came home with as many homemade marshmallows and graham crackers as we took to the beach house. Defeated, C and I lit a "firewood" candle and made s'mores in our living room. Long after the graham crackers had been eaten, the marshmallows still sat on our counter. Determined to not let them go bad, I decided I'd try them in ice cream.
Objective
Make s'more ice cream using the basic custard recipe I used to make End of Summer Pistachio Almond Gelato.
Materials
Vanilla Gelato (makes about a pint of frozen gelato):
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1/16 tsp. salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
S'more Fixin's:
1/2 cup chopped marshmallows (about half the size of a mini marshmallow)
1 cup chopped graham crackers (~3 graham crackers)
1.5 oz. chocolate (I used Cordillera Cocuy 70%)
Methods
To make the gelato base:
1. In a medium saucepan (with a heavy bottom if you have it) over medium heat, warm the whole milk, cream, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Warm it thoroughly but do not boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale (use an electric mixer if it's convenient).
2. When the cream mixture is nearly at a boil, remove it from heat. Temper the eggs by whisking about 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into the eggs, then slowly stirring this mixture into the rest of the hot cream.
3. Place the pot back on medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (somewhere around 175°-180°). Stir until the custard covers the back of a wooden spoon and doesn't drip when you touch it.
4. Pour the custard into a large measuring cup or batter bowl (the spout will help you later). Place the custard in an ice bath to cool, stirring frequently. When the mixture is cool, place plastic wrap directly on the custard to seal it in the container. Refrigerate overnight (or however long it takes to chill completely--the colder the better).
To make the fixin's and gelato:
1. Place the oven rack next to the broiler and preheat the oven to 350°. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle with the chopped marshmallows. Bake the marshmallows until they are lightly browned on top. Take them out of the oven and move the foil with toasted marshmallows to a wire rack to cool slightly. Scrape the toasted marshmallow into a medium bowl with the chopped graham crackers. Stir to mix (kind of like making Rice Krispies). Set aside.
2. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate (stirring frequently). Once melted, turn of the heat, but keep the chocolate in the double boiler so that it doesn't re-solidify.
3. Prepare your ice cream maker and churn the gelato base according to them manufacturer's instructions. (Note: It will freeze very quickly because it's a small batch. When adding the fixin's, you may need to use a spatula to help keep the ingredients moving in the machine.) Once the base is more-or-less solid, gradually add chunks of the mallowy-graham crackers (a fork is helpful because it will be really sticky). Finally, put the melted chocolate into a plastic bag and cut off one of the corners. Slowly stream the melted chocolate into the churning gelato. This will make little flakes of chocolate instead of chunks.
6. Scrape the gelato into a freezer-safe container with a lid. Place the gelato in the freezer and allow it to solidify, 30 minutes to an hour.
Results
Yum! I could have eaten the entire batch in one sitting. The gelato itself is nicely flavored and not too sweet. The texture is very creamy and thick like a custard. The s'more fixins fit into the texture nicely because they are all soft.
Discussion and Future Directions
I am very glad I chose to use my homemade marshmallows for s'more gelato! (I'm calling this gelato and not frozen custard or ice cream because the recipe for the original custard base was called a gelato and because the fat content is a lot lower than ice cream.) I was pleased that the gelato turned out as smooth and creamy as the pistachio gelato. I had trouble with the texture when I tried using the recipe for chocolate gelato. I think I've found the magic ratio of whole milk:cream:eggs for my taste. The texture is very much like that of a frozen custard vs. an ice cream, but, it's not so fatty as to leave your teeth coated in cream. I very much appreciate frozen desserts with a clean mouth feel. Nothing ruins ice cream like the inability to get it out of my mouth when I'm done eating it!
The fixin's turned out perfectly! I read a lot of recipes for different takes on s'more ice cream. None of them seemed quite right. The texture of fresh marshmallows in ice cream was distracting. Roasting them in the oven and stirring them into graham crackers gave the flavor of a s'more without making the marshmallow noticeable. I was nervous about the graham crackers getting soggy and debated whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad thing. I considered brushing them with melted chocolate to help them maintain a little crunch, but I'm glad I didn't. Instead, they provided soft little pockets of flavor. Finally, I was very pleased that I chose to make chocolate flecks or "stracciatella" instead of adding chunks of chocolate. Hershey's Milk Chocolate is soft enough that chunks would probably be ok, but anything more firm would hurt to bite into when frozen. Since I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, I knew I wanted to use my secret stash of 70% chocolate. I buy it in big individually wrapped chunks from the grocery store. The first time I went to buy chocolate that way, I smelled every single dark chocolate and picked the one that smelled the best--Cordillera Cocuy 70%. I'm hooked. (So hooked that I recently bought a chunk the size of small hardcover novel.)
I'm also hooked on this gelato. It's definitely better than s'mores. Truthfully, I don't really like s'mores because they're so sweet they give me stomach aches. My mom argues that you have to have one s'more a summer for it to be considered summer. This gelato is my new s'more substitute. Not only does it taste better, but as an added bonus, I don't have to go outside in the hot, sticky Houston summer and get attacked by mosquitos to enjoy it! What a great and cooling take on the summer essential!
Supplementary Materials
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