- We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives. - And I swore off dairy, but then Ben and Jerry's named a flavor after me so... - 'Stark Raving Hazelnuts'. - Not bad. - Bit chalky. - A Hunk-a Hulk-a Burning Fudge is our favorite. - That's a thing? Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week, we're taking a look at those non-existent Ben & Jerry's flavors - namely Stark Raving Hazelnuts, Hunk-a Hulk-a Burning Fudge, and because I like doing things in threes -
I'm stealing this idea from redditor dctctx - I'm going to take a crack at the brilliantly named Raspberry Thorbet. First up, we have to negotiate some hazelnuts. Ideally you want to buy hazelnuts that have already been blanched and peeled, but if you're like me and you didn't do that, you can blanch them for 3 minutes in a mixture of
2 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of baking soda. This is going to turn the water black -
but don't be alarmed, that's natural - then we're just going to drain them and dunk them into an ice water bath. And now the skins should be super easy to remove - just rub them between your fingertips and they should come right off. Go ahead and drain those on a few paper towels, pondering aloud the whole time why they would even sell hazelnuts with skins on them. Pat them dry, roast them in a 350°F oven for 5 to 7 minutes, and then it's time to candy them. Into a saute pan goes 3/4 of a cup of sugar, along with 3 tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt that we're gonna bring to a boil over medium heat, and just keep it moving, keep it swirling until it is a light golden amber color, at which point we're gonna dump in our toasted hazelnuts - make sure that each nut is individually covered in sugar- and then we're gonna dump them out onto a
parchment-lined baking sheet, before separating with force- uh, with forks. Then once no single nut is atop the other, we're gonna let it cool for about 15 minutes until it has hardened and we have ourselves sort of a hazelnut brittle that we can then break into individual nuts. And as you've probably guessed, this is going to be the filling for our Stark Raving Hazelnuts, which was described by Doctor Strange as 'a bit chalky', which says to me that it was probably frozen yogurt. This one is by far the easiest to make at home: We're starting by combining 24 ounces of strained Greek yogurt, 3/4 of a cup of sugar, 1/3 of a cup of sifted cocoa powder and 1 cup of low-fat milk, plus for flavor a little pinch of salt, a little drizzle of vanilla extract, and a little shake of instant coffee. Then we're just gonna whisk that all together - preferably in a larger bowl than this one - until it is completely homogeneous. And then we're just going to cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours - it is very important to have an extremely cold base when making any kind of ice-cream. Now in the past I've shown how to make ice cream using hacks and tricks - if you want to see those, click the link in the upper right hand corner right now - but since we're trying to recreate Ben & Jerry's here,
I figure I'm gonna use a machine. So I'm just gonna churn our yogurt for about 25 minutes, adding the candied hazelnuts in the last 5 minutes. Next up is recreating the Ben & Jerry's pint artwork - which I think I did absolutely perfectly - and then scooping our churned yogurt, which should have the consistency of a very thick milkshake, into our container and then freezing for a minimum of 2 hours, which is perfect cuz we got other ice creams to make. How about we do Hunk-a Hulk-a Burning Fudge next? For this one, I'm gonna make straight-up ice cream, so we have to make a more traditional custard first. Into a large saucepan goes:
1 and 1/2 half cups of heavy cream, 1 and a 1/2 cups of milk, 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1/3 of a cup of light corn syrup. We're bringing this mixture to 175 °F, whisking constantly, before we introduce it to 5 egg yolks whisked together with 2 tablespoons of white sugar. And now we need to engage in a process known as tempering, which is slowly heating the eggs by taking a cup of our milk-cream mixture, and drizzling it in as slowly as possible while whisking constantly. This is going to temper our eggs so they do not scramble when we pour them back into our saucepan. And bring this mixture up to 185 °F, while whisking constantly, but not before we add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder. I'm also again gonna add a little shake of instant coffee- this is not gonna make it taste like coffee, it's just gonna amp up the chocolate flavor. So will a pinch of salt and a little drizzle of vanilla. 185 °F, so we're gonna kill the heat, and then add 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, chopped up small so the residual heat of our custard can melt it into the mixture. Now we're gonna take advantage of the rare opportunity to taste some hot ice cream which tastes exactly how you'd imagine it -
really good, but really weird. And once we've let this cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes, we are covering and placing in the fridge for at least 8 hours, more than enough time to make our fudge swirl. Into a small saucepan goes 2/3 of a cup of milk, along with a WHOPPING 1 and 1/4 cups of granulated sugar and a little pinch of salt. We are whisking this until combined and just barely bringing to a boil, at which point we're gonna tap in 1/3 of a cup of cocoa powder. Whisk until combined, kill the heat and then we are again adding 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, which we are going to cover with the wrong size pan lid and allow to melt for 3 minutes. Once the time is up, we are lastly whisking in: 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter until completely incorporated. And we need to let this cool completely to room temperature because we don't want anything melting our ice cream when it comes out of the machine. Speaking of which, let's get that chocolate base out the fridge and into the ice cream robot. Then churn for 20 to 30 minutes until it is lightened in color and resembles soft-serve. I'm not gonna add the toppings in the machine this time, because we want a fudge swirl. So I'm gonna scoop all the ice cream into a loaf pan, drizzle liberally with our fudge sauce and top with chocolate chunks - or hunks rather. Then we're just gonna gently fold that together, until we have a nice fudge swirl and all the hunks are evenly dispersed throughout the ice cream. And then deposit it into yet another beautifully designed Ben & Jerry's pint container. Likewise, this guy needs at least 2 hours, if not 4 hours in the freezer before consumption, which gives us some time to make our Raspberry Thorbet. First, we need to make a pectin solution: We're combining 1 cup of water, a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of Sure-Jell Pectin, which we're going to bring to a light simmer,
whisking constantly with tiny whisk until the pectin has melted and the mixture is homogeneous. Then we're gonna set that aside to cool to room temperature - about 20 minutes. Then into a food processor goes 20 ounces of fresh raspberries - not fresh raspberry leaves - in addition to 2/3 of a cup of granulated sugar and our cooled pectin mixture. The pectin isn't required, but it's apparently going to help our sorbet's texture, according to the knowledgeable folks over at America's Test Kitchen. We are now processing this for 30 seconds until it is completely smooth, save for the seeds and pulp, which we are now going to laboriously
strain out using a spoon and eventually a soup ladle, pressing all the liquid out of the solids until we're left with nothing but seeds. Now another thing we're gonna do to try to improve our sorbet's texture is freeze 1 cup of this mixture while we chill the remainder for the requisite 8 hours. This is apparently going to seed our
sorbet with ice crystals that will cause it to freeze faster and end up less icy. So we're going to remove our chunk of frozen future gelato and add it to our chilled stuff - a potato masher worked very, very well for me - Then once it's totally smooth, we are pouring into our machine and churning for 15 to 25 minutes. One last moment of admiration for the pure artistry that went into making these containers - and then we're packing it full of Thorbet, freezing again for at least 2 hours before consuming. And after so many hours of waiting, it's finally time for the taste test. Stark Raving Hazelnuts was pretty good,
but it was indeed chalky - I look forward to trying to improve on it when I make froyo from The Good Place. Raspberry Thorbet was very good, but it's not exactly raspberry season so the flavor would definitely be better later in the year, but Hunk-a Hulk-a Burning Fudge is my magnum opus: it is rich, it is creamy, and it is crazy chocolaty. And it's easy to make - you might even say it's a... snap.
u/dctctx ayyy you got mentioned. I always wanna eat the food he makes even tho this time im lactose intolerance but it would be sooo worth it
Can we please see more of /u/OliverBabish's original artwork in future episodes? Even better if Sawyer and/or Vinny get in on it - you're all already a creative collective group, so graphic design isn't too far out a concept.
Useful link:
America's Test Kitchen's raspberry sorbet [paywall]
Me after eating 3 pint of ice cream:
"Mr Babish, I don't feel so good..."
What about Wong's tuna melt?
And also, /u/OliverBabish, I love you 3000
Why do you have to sift the powder rather than just dumping it in?
Man that Hunka Hulka Burning Fudge looked so fuckign good, I'm so tempted to make it over summer but I've neither an ice cream machine nor the arm muscles to make it by hand.
Im sure its absolutely delicious (which is really what matters, i guess), but how could the hunka hulka burning fudge be anything but pistachio with a fudge swirl?
Can't wait for The Good Place episode
Other MCU flavors
Captain America. Vanilla ice cream with apple pie filling and crust chunks.
Black widow. Tula Bread and Sour Cream ice cream. Spicy ginger bread pieces, sour cream base ice cream. With jam and honey swirls.