CSA week ten - White chocolate tangerine ice cream

[I accidentally posted this yesterday with last Wednesday's date on it so I think people might have missed it. I'm sending it off again with today's date. I apologize if it turns up in the RSS feed twice.]

I say "tangerine", but really I used the sour oranges too and threw in a carambola. All in an attempt to get some fruit flavor to come through, but all our fruit, while sweet and juicy, didn't have a lot of character so I wasn't entirely successful. Infusing the cream with flavor from the zest would have helped but I didn't trust the white specks that were starting to appear on the skins of my fruit. Plus the fruit was getting mushy so zesting would have been difficult. Still, there's a basis here to work on.

Ingredients:
Juice of 2 sour oranges
Juice of 2 ponkan tangerines
Juice of 1 carambola
4 ounces white chocolate
2 cups cream
1 centimeter knob of ginger, finely grated
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 ounces cream cheese

I didn't want to apply any heat to the juice so I forwent the cornstarch part of the Jeni Britton formula. I figured the white chocolate should help with creaminess so it shouldn't be missed too badly.

I juiced the oranges and tangerines, whisked in the cream cheese and vanilla and set aside.

In a microwavable bowl I mixed the white chocolate, sugar, ginger and a half cup of cream. I microwaved it for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, just until the chocolate and sugar were fully dissolved. Then I added that to the juices. After a taste I decided it wasn't fruity enough so I squeezed in a carambola. That chilled and the next day I churned.

Part way through churning I found that the fruit flavor and the sweetness had both receded further so I poured in some agave nectar which helped a bit. I should have squeezed in a lemon too. By the way, did you know that agave nectar would be more properly called high fructose agave syrup? Came as a surprise to me. But I don't suppose the fact that it's an industrial product makes it any better or worse than corn syrup or honey. Fructose is fructose wherever it comes from.



The texture is creamy, but firm improving when I leave it out of the freezer for five minutes. It melts away to nothing quite rapidly like ice milk, which, on average, it sort of is, I suppose.

The flavor isn't as citrusy as I would have liked, but that's the mildly-flavored fruits I had to work with. Overall, it's is pleasant but undistinguished, vaguely identifiable as orange or tangerine and white chocolate but without any tartness to bring it to life.

I've taken it around and it's not getting an enthusiastic response. That's fair; I'm not entirely enthusiastic myself. With the citrus not popping, the flavor combination is kind of weird. I'm going to bring in a lemon tomorrow and see what it's like if I squeeze a little over top. In the meantime, a little honey's a nice addition.

OK, it's tomorrow and I can confirm that a little squeeze of meyer lemon does perk things up nicely. I'm going to take it around with my lemon to see if I get a better reception. ... Those who tried both slightly preferred it with honey. It's sweeter for one, plus the drizzle of honey is a very nice presentation. Maybe using both is worth trying.