I saw vanilla paste at Trader Joe’s the other day, for a not-so-expensive option. And you can pretty much use it in place of extract in whatever.
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I’ll look for it next trip! Vanilla paste seems pricier the way I usually use extract. I don’t see any advantage to using paste in places where vanilla is only a supporting role, like chocolate cakes, choc chip cookies, etc. I’d try it in places like pound cake, shortbread, crème brûlée where it might make a difference in taste.
Besides, I have 3(!!) big ol bottles of extract recused from mom’s condo. Before we realized dementia was setting in, she’d buy the same ingredients over and over, forgetting she’d gotten them. Bunches of chocolate chips, baking soda, vanilla, 13 lbs of butter(!!!), and half a closet full of paper towels and Kleenex. Finished the butter last year. Almost through the paper products.
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I buy good vanilla beans, not bad price, at Costco. Try it once for your ice cream. Little luxuries are worth it.
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Was trolling this thread for pistachio ice cream/gelato recipes; seems like a handful of folks have made David L’s pistachio gelato and liked it. I had ordered Sicilian pistachio cream during the pandemic and never opened it, but now I’ve opened it to make that pistachio chocolate-chip bundt, and it has to be used within a month. So ice cream it shall be!
Any other pistachio recipes folks like?
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Mixed berry sorbet. I used the ratios from this Binging with Babish episode:
Not being raspberry season I used the frozen mixed berries from Trader Joe’s. Each bag is 16oz so I had to use two to get the required 20oz.
1 cup water + pinch of salt + 1 tsp pectin. Heat and stir til pectin is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Thaw 20oz. mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries).
Put berries, pectin mixture, 2/3 cup sugar into the Vitamix I inherited from mom. Purée.
Pass berry purée through fine mesh sieve to remove pulp and seeds. I used a ladle to press it through just like Babish. I also did the step of freezing a small portion of the mix and crushing into my cooled berry purée before churning. It works! I had very well charmed sorbet in 15 minutes!
Very pleased with the results. It’s ALMOST as good as the old Ben and Jerry’s DoonesBerry (a blueberry/raspberry swirled sorbet)
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That looks lovely. You took that shot right after churning, or had it been in the freezer for some time?
That’s after being in the freezer for a day or so. My lighting is awful, but I assure you the color is a deep, saturated magenta that I am taking care to wipe up IMMEDIATELY should I spill any. This stuff looks like it’ll stain worse than red wine.
Delicious, though. And the berry cost puts it at slightly less than the the price of a pint of Haagen Daz or Talenti sorbet. And this yields 3x that, so it’s even frugal!
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I’m more curious about scoopability vs color …
It’s quite scoopable after curing, though I had to let it soften a bit straight from the freezer or it was a bit icy.
Next batch, I might up the sugar level a little bit (maybe 3/4 instead of 2/3 cup) and/or sub out some of the sugar with corn syrup, as suggested by David Leibovitz.
Pistachio was churned tonight!
I made 75% of the David Lebovitz recipe, and the quantity difference was small enough that my Cuisinart couldn’t churn it for very long before it became a mass that wasn’t moving around much in the canister. I did my best to help it churn, then turned the machine off at 10 min and put it in the freezer.
Prelim tastes are very good, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
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Voila, my first pistachio, using david lebovitz’s pistachio gelato recipe and imported pistachio paste.
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And the verdict???
I found it a tad sweet. I need to check the percent of sugar Vs nuts in the pistachio cream I bought … I think when I make it again, I’ll cut the sugar a bit.
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Day 2 report on the pistachio: improved flavor and texture! Very creamy, very scoopable, more rounded flavor.
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Try #2 for the mixed berry sorbet.
Start w 1 cup of water, pinch of salt, and 1 tsp pectin in a saucepan. This time I added 1/3 c sugar as well, and heated, whisking til everything’s dissolved and it’s JUST come to a boil. Set aside to cool.
Again, 20oz of TJ’s frozen mixed berries, this time w. 1/3 cup corn syrup instead of sugar, puréed in a vitamix and passed through a fine mesh sieve.
Once the pectin mix is cool, add to berry purée, cool overnight.
This time the mixture was noticeably thicker when I went to churn the next day and things set up VERY quickly. I was ready to transfer to a qt container and freeze in well under 15 minutes.
The result still freezes quite stiff overnight, but is quite scoopable, and the texture smooths out of you let it sit out just a minute or two.
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Attempt 3 at lemon sorbet. Best effort yet.
2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp sure-jell pectin, a heavy pinch of salt, and the micro planed zest of 1 Meyer lemon from the tree outside.
Heat til everything dissolves and it boils. Remove from heat, add 3/4 cup corn syrup, and allow to cool.
When cool, combine with 1.5 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice, sieved to remove pulp. Stash in fridge overnight.
Churn the next morning, pouring through a sieve again to remove zest.
This is after being in the freezer 5+ hours. Absolutely smooth and silky. This might be the final formula for this flavor.
The color is all natural. The lemons are VERY deep yellow.
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Beauty.
I bet it tastes like summer! Lucky you!
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