friederike's Reviews
10 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 10Sort by: Title 
| Date | Rating
The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories
By David Lebovitz
Ten Speed Press,U.S. - 2007
Cantaloupe Sorbet : page 111
Very nice and melony in taste. DH thought it was just slightly too sour, but then again he had added more lemon juice (instead of lime) than required.
The one drawback is that it had the consistency of slightly thawed snow. I had already encountered that problem once before with this Lychee and Lime Sorbet and found out that it could be solved by adding an egg white (raw). Then I made this Lychee and Rose Sorbet which doesn't contain any egg whites at all and has a wonderful texture - I thought that was because we were using our ice cream machine. We also used our ice cream machine for the cantaloupe sorbet, so I'm back to square one why this is happening and what to do if you don't want to add an egg white.
useful (0)
Cinnamon Ice Cream : page 38
Great ice cream, as usual. We made a smaller portion, making half a recipe but using 3 egg yolks. Also, we used the 3 cinnamon sticks we still had and added an extra 1 tsp ground cinnamon. The result was creamy and had just the right amount of cinnamon.
We served the ice cream as part of our Big Mac dessert: store-bought Lebkuchen (photo) as buns, the Cinnamon Ice Cream shaped into patties, store-bought cranberry sauce as tomato ketchup, mint leaves as salad and Orangettes as french fries - it looked really good!
useful (1)
Gianduja Gelato : page 47
Very nice, as usual! DH was slightly disappointed that the hazelnuts weren't very pronounced - after all, David Lebovitz gushes about "hazelnut heaven" in the introduction. On the other hand, the name of the ice cream, Gianduja, refers to an Italian chocolate-hazelnut paste that also served as inspiration for Nutella, and that's exactly how this ice cream tastes like.
useful (1)
Lavender-Honey Ice Cream : page 64
I really, really loved this ice cream! My husband was less enthousiast - he thought the flavour of the lavender was too strong. He as a point, as we used honey with a strong flavour we had been given recently by a bekeeper, and if you use an ordinary honey that doesn't have such a strong flavour, the lavender would probably be overpowering.
In any way, lavender makes a great ice cream. It works less well as Lavender Crème Brûlée
We served it as a 'grand dessert' with Chocolate Brownies (shaped with cookie cutters; top left), raspberry coulis, top right, and Lemon Mousse served in a coffee cup, bottom left - the ice cream went really well with the brownies, the rest got lost a bit. Scattered inbetween are fresh raspberries, they looked nicer than they do in the photo.
useful (1)
Mango Sorbet : page 108
Very nice. Could have used a little more lime and perhaps a very little less rum. Served with Coconut Custard, which unfortunately didn't turn out as planned - we'll see if we can find a replacement for the custard to go with the rest of the ice cream.
Edited the next day:
This time we made Coconut Panna Cotta - so much better! It was nice and creamy and went really well with the ice cream.
useful (0)
Orange and Szechuan Pepper Ice Cream : page 84
Very nice ice cream, though you really need to like Szechuan pepper. I knew it wasn't a 'real' pepper, and yet I was slightly surprised that it didn't taste like pepper at all (we actually thought it tasted a bit like cloves); I just guess I could really see an Orange and Proper Pepper Ice Cream work just as well.
We served it together with Kahlúa Chocolate Mousse and Almond and Orange Florentines, which made a perfect combination! Other recipes we (re-)visited today: Lavender Lemonade, Apple Pie with an Almond Crust, Black Ravioli with Snapper and Prawn and Fig-Stuffed Roast Pork Loin with Fig and Balsamic Jam.
useful (0)
Sour Cherries in Syrup : page 185
Very delicious. We weren't sure if ours really were sour cherries - in any case we felt there was no need to add even more sugar, given that they were already preserved in light sugar.
Made for Toasted Almond and Candied Cherry Ice Cream
useful (1)
Really, really delicious! I have only one criticism, which is also why this is a 4 star rating instead of 5, which is that I hardly noticed the cherries. There were just too few of them, and/or their flavour wasn't really strong; additionally, I would have expected a sauce or syrup to be folded into the ice cream. Next time we'll probably double the amount of cherries, keep some of the syrup apart and boil it down into a thick syrup which we can then fold into the ice cream at the very end.
We used Sour Cherries in Syrup for this recipe, and served it with Chocolate Brownies, a great combination!
Edited one day later:
We took another jar, and just boiled it down until it had just a little syrup left, then carefully folded that into the ice cream. Guess what? We thought it was too much, it made the toasted almonds disappear. I guess 1 1/2 jars (275-300g) would be just right.
DH additionally mentioned that he thought the almond extract wasn't necessary and gave a weird flavour - I didn't even notice and think you would taste the almonds even less then. Or maybe just stick to the original amount of cherries (with a little syrup), and omit the almond extract?
useful (2)
Vanilla Ice Cream : page 24
Really delicious ice cream that makes you wonder how you can ever enjoy that bland, commercial ice cream ever again. Be careful, though, it's very rich in flavour, and you probably wont want to eat more than two scoops.
We served it with Apple Pie with an Almond Crust - it's a great ice cream to substitute for vanilla sauce!
useful (1)
White Chocolate Ice Cream : page 33
It's very delicious - but only for the first three spoonfuls or so. After that, it becomes sickening sweet. It helps a lot to serve this with a tangy sauce (i.e. cranberry sauce), but I wouldn't serve it on it's own. I doubt that the sour cherry sauce given in the book is tangy enough to counterbalance the sweetness of this ice cream, but we haven't tried that yet.
We had intended to serve this mousse together with Sour Cherries in Syrup and the Kahlúa Chocolate Mousse for DH's birthday dinner; I'm glad we tested the both ice cream and mousse recipes before. Apart from the sweetness issue, the white chocolate ice cream couldn't hold up against the mousse; the mousse definitely required something fresh. I'm lobbying to pair the mousse off with with the Orange and Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream or maybe the Chocolate-Tangerine Sorbet - we'll see what he'll decide.
useful (0)