The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #10 {Prune Armagnac Ice Cream} And My Top Favorites From the Gourmet Ice Cream Series!

This is almost the ice cream that wasn't. I was slated to make it three weeks ago and was under the impression that I could just walk right into my local liquor store and buy a bottle of Armagnac. Boy was I mistaken! After three weeks of trying to source Armagnac, I finally gave up and decided I was making this ice cream with a substitution, Brandy! It is what it is, folks.

This recipe was a little more time consuming to make, simply because the prunes need to macerate in the brandy for at least 12 hours! Then the macerated prunes get blended with a cup of the ice cream base before being adding back into the ice cream based and stirred. Please feel free to see the picture below where I stirred the macerated and blended prunes into the ice cream mixture. I had high hopes for a beautiful deep plum colored ice cream, but this is when I realized this was not that, as they say.

 

 

Look! My ice cream is a beautiful shade of peanut butter with prune chips running throughout! From this point on, I will now refer to this as Prune Chip Ice Cream, thank you very much!  

 

In The Gourmet Cookbook, Ruth Reichl states "The brandy prevents the ice cream from being too sweet and keeps it slightly soft, with a consistency closer to that of gelato than of ice cream. This recipe comes from the Mapotel de France in the lovely Gascon town of Auch, via Gourmet reader Robert White.

 

The ice cream is in fact soft, with a whipped consistency, and little baby bits of prune chips scattered throughout, kinda remind me of how chocolate chip ice cream in appearance, but not in taste.This is most definitely an adult ice cream. You can definitely taste the alcohol and the little bits of prune chips contribute some texture and a mild prune flavor. The ice cream itself has some carmel notes, but is on the whole quite mild. I didn't mind this ice cream and it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't delicious. It is not my favorite ice cream, but I am very happy to have finally experimented with these flavors.

 

And now for the top favorite ice creams in the series! Over the past ten weeks I made ten ice creams: Vanilla Bean Ice Cream; Burnt Orange Ice Cream; Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl; Italian Lemon Ice; Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream; Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream; Lemon Meringue Ice Cream; Maple Walnut Ice Cream, Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream; and Prune Armagnac Ice Cream. 

All of the recipes were good but my all-time favorite was the Maple-Walnut Ice Cream. I love all things maple-flavored and the flavor of the maple with the texture of the walnuts was simply irresistible. Plus, the ice cream base was smooth and velvety. Our second favorite was the Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream. It was so rich and chocolatey and did indeed have a velvety texture. And, the third favorite was the Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl. It was summery and refreshing and so easy to make. I loved the cream cheese ice cream base and the possibilities on different swirls and variations.

Runners up would be the Italian Lemon Ice...on a hot day that would be the most refreshing treat there is and it is so lemony it'll make your mouth pucker. And also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream. That brown sugar base was really something special.

I had a very fun time trying out lots of fun ice cream recipes and will experiment with more at a later date. For now, we all need a little break from ice cream.

Prune Armagnac Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1 quart

3/4 cup (about 6 ounces) pitted prunes

1/3 cup Armagnac

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half and half

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

Pack prunes into a 1/2-pint jar and add Armagnac; it should just cover them. Cover jar and let prunes macerate at room temperature for at least 12 hours.

Combine cream, half and half, and salt in a 2 quart to 3 quart heavy saucepan. With tip of a knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into cream mixture, then drop in pod. Bring mixture just to a boil and remove from heat.

Whisk together yolks and sugar in medium metal bowl. Add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour into saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 on thermometer; do not let boil.

Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into cleaned metal bowl; discard pod. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Pulse prunes with macerating liquid in a food processor to a thick, slightly chunky puree. Add about 1 cup cold custard and pulse just until well combined, then whisk mixture into remaining custard.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

From The Orchard @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!