4 Levels of Ice Cream Sandwich: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi i'm scotty and i'm a level one chef hi i'm anthony and i'm a level two chef i'm frank proto and i've been a professional chef for 27 years i love ice cream sandwiches because uh the cookies the ice cream putting them together is like the ultimate snack an ice cream sandwich i think is a delicate balance between creamy ice cream and a nice stiff but also crunchy cookie on the outside this ice cream sandwich pretty much encapsulates all the flavors that i love bananas caramel fudge chocolate [Music] today i will be using store-bought cookies and cream ice cream because oreos are my favorite cookie so i'm making vanilla bean ice cream i'm choosing to do no cook ice cream just because it's been a busy week for me and i'd like to make the things as easy as possible i'm making a caramelized banana and fudge ice cream i'm choosing to do a custard method which is basically i'm going to cook my cream and milk and then i'm going to cook my eggs with it first thing i'm going to do is get my vanilla bean and i'm going to cut it straight down the middle oh almost and now i'm just running my knife down the inside to help pull off all these vanilla seeds the rest of the vanilla pod goes into the cream i'm going to add my milk and my cream and i'm going to add the sugar i love the simplicity of this recipe this is it no eggs were harmed in the making of this ice cream you can make ice cream without eggs the custard just tends to be a little richer a little more velvety so while that's getting hot i'm gonna add my sugar and my egg yolks to the mixer i have not ever made ice cream from scratch i feel like just the thought of it makes me a little nervous i'm heating the milk until it comes to a light simmer and then i'm going to temper the milk into the eggs tempering sounds like making sure something is the right temperature tempering basically means heating the egg yolks and sugar up slowly so they don't curdle when they go back in the pot with the cream so we're gonna go back into the pot and we're gonna let the custard finish cooking and thicken up the next step will be to strain this now that i've made the custard i'm going to let it chill completely and once it's chilled completely we can spin it in the ice cream maker all right so i'm going to let this steep in the fridge for about two hours to help pull out all that vanilla flavor look at that go ahead with your ice cream scooper so i like using an ice cream scooper because i've broken a lot of spoons this is so much easier than making my own ice cream the next part for my ice cream is the bananas and these are basically gonna get mixed into my custard base i'm gonna heat my sugar up until it starts to melt as it melts it goes from sweeter it starts to caramelize and then it starts to get a little bit of bitterness as it gets browner and that bitterness is a great counterpoint to the sweetness we can add our cream i'm just going to whisk that in i'm going to add my brandy now as well and a nice hefty pinch of salt so now we have that nice caramel my bananas can go in now the bananas are kind of part of the caramel and it's all one and that's what i want i need this to chill completely at least two hours because if it goes into our ice cream and it's warm it's not gonna freeze right you know as a chef we tend to over complicate things so what am i doing i'm making fudge as well it's basically taking some coffee some corn syrup some sugar some cocoa powder and some vanilla and just cooking it until it gets a nice glossy fudgy consistency i'm gonna let this fudge chill until it's completely cold all right now that my ice cream has chilled in the fridge i went ahead and pulled out the vanilla bean chunks it's got a freezing cold base in here that will end up freezing the ice cream and it starts turning it so that way it kind of chills down and freezes at an even rate and now i can add this to the ice cream machine it's so simple to use easy now my caramelized bananas and my ice cream base are fully chilled and i'm gonna puree them up so they're fully combined i'm gonna put this in this is a home version of a commercial ice cream machine it has the chilling mechanism inside a lot of times people will use the the bowl that freezes and then you spin it but this machine does the freezing and the spinning and it's all contained in one i'm gonna let this spin until the custard becomes like a soft serve ice cream now that my ice cream's been churning for about 20 minutes it's at the perfect soft servey kind of consistency to transfer to a container so now i'm gonna let this freeze until it firms up there we go my ice cream's been churning for a little over an hour now what i'm gonna do is take my fudge and swirl it into my ice cream now i'm gonna freeze this until it's firm and scoopable so now i'm gonna work on the cookies i am making a classic chocolate chip cookie with store-bought cookie dough chocolate chip cookies are my favorite cookie even though i did just say oreos were my favorite cookie i'm going with a brown butter cookie for two reasons one because it's gonna give me a nice crunch and two that brown butter flavor is gonna complement the vanilla bean ice cream perfectly and what i'm gonna use is a pizzelle a small crispy italian waffle i had just had these with my father and i'm like this would make a great ice cream sandwich i'm gonna add sugar and espresso powder the espresso will give the chocolate a more chocolatey flavor a very light spray of cooking spray on the pan so i'm gonna make these cookies by taking a spoon scooping out a perfect amount little rolling process doesn't have to be a perfect circle i'm just going to add my flour to my bowl next my baking soda baking powder and my kosher salt so i'm going to add my eggs in and i'm just going to turn it on let it go i'm just going to give it a whisk to distribute everything nice and evenly i'm gonna add just a pinch of salt right now and i'm adding my cocoa powder this is just regular butter that i cooked over medium heat until it was brown the brown butter is gonna add a nice kind of toffee-ish type flavor my light brown sugar and my baking powder cool i'm gonna add my butter my egg my egg yolk my almond extract and my vanilla extract we'll add our flour so my batter is pretty well mixed i'm just going to start pulling off small chunks to roll in our sugar because i like that little extra bit of sweetness and the nice kind of crunch that you get on the outside what i'm going to do is just flatten them out just a tad and i will put it down on our tray now that i have the batter made for the cookies i'm going to put it into this pizzelle iron basically it's just a smaller waffle iron that's going to make a nice thin cookie rather than a thick deep waffle just push them down a little and then i'm going to clamp it closed squeeze it shut i think i put too much in holy cow preheat the oven to 350 bake 12 to 13 minutes or until golden brown all right that's what i'm gonna do now i'm gonna let my cookies bake in the oven for about 14 minutes all right so you can see that the cookie is starting to brown a little it's still a little soft i'm gonna put it on my tray to chill as they chill they'll start to harden and that's what i want for my finished cookie nice they came out perfect these are huge and now i'm gonna work on my toppings i'm working with magic shell chocolate and crushed oreo cookies i'm gonna be making candied pistachios i love that it brings a crispy crunchy texture to the ice cream sandwich the topping i'm making for my ice cream sandwich is a peanut praline i think that peanuts banana and fudge go great together magic shell chocolate is chocolate that freezes in seconds change the way i look at ice cream i will make sure i shake this extremely well i'm gonna go ahead and pour it into the bowl to make the dipping process easier i'm gonna add the pistachio nuts and the sugar to the pan over about medium heat until the sugar starts to caramelize and the pistachios get just a little bit toasted to make the praline i'm gonna cook some sugar i'm gonna add my cream my baking soda the baking soda is gonna add a little lightness a little airiness i'm cooking this sugar mixture to 240 degrees which is right before the hard ball stage which means that the sugar is firm enough that it's going to hold its shape but it's also going to break fairly easily so now that my pistachios are toasted and the sugar is sticking to the nuts i'm going to add a little bit of salt and add just a pinch of cayenne just a little bit of heat my candy pistachios are going to be just a little bit sweet a little salty a little crunchy and then a little tiny bit spicy i'm going to add my vanilla and my butter try not to splash it on yourself and stir once those are mixed in peanuts go in mix and i'm going to go right onto a silpat which is a non-stick silicone pad i'm going to let this chill on the counter i'm not going to put it in the fridge you get a lot of moisture from the refrigerator and i don't want to get that moisture i'm just going to let it chill until it's cool enough to break up into little pieces so i'm going to grab about six cookies to start i'll put it in the bag close it up good so i'm crushing them up and i will pour them in my bowl for easier use now that my peanut praline is cool i'm gonna throw it in the food processor and just give it a quick blitz so now it's time to build my ice cream sandwiches so i got my cookie i'll come in here grab my choice scoop of ice cream so i have to make sure it's the perfect size and then just very gently press down on it not gonna push the cookie down because the cookie will crack make sure it's lined up now i'm applying even pressure to the entire cookie and just kind of mush it together nice and easy i'm just going to roll it in my praline to get it all along the edges make sure it sticks so with the magic shell i'm just gonna roll the edges of the ice cream sandwich in the shell and then straight from there right into the oreos position the sandwich completely vertically and then roll and now i will plate my sandwiches to make them look as delicious as possible plating is simple for this all i really have to do is take one of my sandwiches and put it there look at that and these are my ice cream sandwiches this is my vanilla ice cream sandwich on a brown butter cookie with candied pistachios this is my caramelized banana and fudge ice cream sandwich with a chocolate pizzelle and peanut praline [Music] i'm excited to try this i really am everything about this sandwich screams eat me eat me really fast get me in your belly i'm pretty impressed with myself for having pulled this off the ice cream obviously delicious the magic shell with the oreos you might think oh too much chocolate never enough chocolate that flavor combination is incredible the vanilla with the pistachios the candy oh so good that brown butter comes through in the end this is everything i dreamed it would be and more some guys have fantasy football i have fantasy ice cream sandwiches this wins in every single draft in the world ice cream sandwiches are something everyone can love there are so many options let's see how each of our chefs made theirs scotty used store-bought ice cream commercial ice creams usually have emulsifiers added to keep all of the various components together in one cold creamy mixture you'll see proteins or starch-based plant gums or algae-based polysaccharides added all ice cream has some air added as part of the churning process without the air you would have a block of sweetened cream that would be really hard to scoop and eat anthony made one of the two main types of ice cream his was a no cook ice cream base also known as a standard or philadelphia style ice cream and it's made simply with milk cream and sugar as the base frank made the other style of ice cream called custard or french style ice cream which includes egg yolks egg yolks contain lecithin phosphatidylcholine and proteins that act as the emulsifiers for the base of his milk cream and sugar because egg yolks coagulate at a relatively low temperature around 155 degrees fahrenheit frank needed to temper his eggs making a custard style ice cream like frank did requires a lot of technique and is definitely a level three elevation frank made chocolate pizzelles pizzelles are cooked by conduction which means that the hot griddle comes in direct contact with the batter both on top and bottom transferring heat directly molecule to molecule from the griddle to the batter making them thin and crispy this would make a great ice cream sandwich the batter is dehydrated which then allows browning reactions to progress between the starches sugars and proteins when bacon cookies in the oven like scotty and anthony did the bottom of the cookie is quickly baked by conduction however the top is baked by waves of radiant energy that travel through the air heating it that originates from a heating element in the oven it's why the tops are softer and dome-shaped and the bottoms are dark and crispy scotty dipped his sandwich in magic shell chocolate the magic of this product is that it contains alkalized cocoa milk and emulsifiers like lecithin combined with coconut and sunflower oil that hardens when cold like when it's poured on ice cream anthony toasted pistachios and sugar pistachios contain small amounts of free sugars making them noticeably sweet why are they green it doesn't make any sense to me these nuts are partially green from chlorophyll which makes them pretty too frank made handmade praline by first caramelizing sugar to 240 degrees fahrenheit which is the softball stage so named because if you drop some of the sugar at this temperature into cold water it forms balls that are only lightly colored and still soft and pliable ice cream sandwiches aren't just a summertime snack they are wonderful all year long next time you're in the mood for a sweet treat we hope you'll take some of these tips from our three wonderful chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 460,777

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels ice cream, best ice cream, best ice cream sandwich, cookie sandwich, easy ice cream sandwich, epicurious, epicurious 4 levels, expert ice cream sandwich, frank proto, gourmet ice cream sandwich, homemade ice cream, homemade ice cream sandwich, ice cream, ice cream cookie sandwich, ice cream sandwich, ice cream sandwich recipe, make ice cream, make ice cream sandwich, make your own ice cream, quick ice cream sandwich

Id: DOYkhnNYOCM

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 08 2022