apples poached in straw wine with heston blumenthals dry ice ice cream

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apples gently poached in mullineux 2010 straw wine

I had some dry ice left over form a shoot recently and had always wanted to make Heston Blumenthals instant ice cream using dry ice. As seen on TV.  I wanted to see what the texture was like compared to ice cream made in an ice cream machine as I am pretty damn obsessed with ice cream and the making thereof.

I set about bashing the dry ice pellets and sifted them to make a very fine snow. I made the cream base which is essentially cream, milk and glycerine with no eggs.

I set up my camera on a tripod and filmed the whole thing but regret I cant use this footage as I still need to master video technology for my blog. Needless to say it was pretty hysterical and the whole ice cream making exercise was done in a couple of minutes.

I did get a shot of the dry ice and my Kenwood Mixer in action.

the making of heston blumethals dry ice ice-cream

There was a bit of gushing overflow becuase I couldnt see through all the dense dry ice plumes, and initially the ice cream looked really hard and clumpy. When I put it into my mouth it was the silkiest, smoothest ice cream texture I have ever experienced.

To check that this was a as a result of the dry ice vs. the recipe, I made another batch using the same recipe and ran it through my ice cream machine.  The result yielded the same flavour ice cream, but the texture was slightly looser and not as smooth.

I served this with the apples I had gently poached in the delectable Mullineux 2010 Straw Wine which I had tasted at The Swartland Revolution.

Simply cover 4 apples which have been peeled, cored and chopped into large pieces with a dessert wine and heat.  Keep the lid on as you dont want too much of the golden nectar to evapourate. When the apples are just cooked, serve with cream or ice cream and more of the sauce poured over it.  I also added a few chopped roasted almonds.

I loved the Mullineux Straw Wine so much I also made it into a jelly and had this with chicken liver pate.

heston blumenthals dry ice ice cream

Recipe to make the ice cream:

  • 500ml whole milk
  • 300ml double cream (I used ordinary cream)
  • 80g  caster sugar
  • 100g glucose syrup
  • 1kg dry ice

Put the milk, cream, sugar and glucose syrup in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and the glucose is liquid. Set aside.
Wrap dry ice in a pillowcase and smash it into a powder with  a rolling pin, or a hammer making sure that there are no large lumps of dry ice as these will remain as lumps in the ice-cream. I then sifted the dry ice to make a very soft snow

Pour the cream mix into the bowl of an electric mixer. From now on you need to work reasonably rapidly to avoid freezing up the equipment. Shake a little of the dry ice into the mixing bowl and, using the mixer’s paddle, mix on the first (lowest) speed until the dry ice dissolves and its vapour clears. Continue to add dry ice a little at a time until the ice-cream has absorbed all of it. It’s important to add the dry ice in small quantities to prevent the ice- cream going grainy. Once the dry ice is absorbed, beat the ice-cream on the second speed until smooth. Quickly scrape the ice-cream out of the mixer and into the container. Store in the freezer until required. it is best eaten within 24 hours, but I found it lasted a couple of weeks.

 

7 Comments

  1. Hi Sam – Another divine sounding recipe with Mullineux Straw Wine! Where do you get dry ice? I have a friend in UCT Chemistry Dept but I presume it’s more easily available than that!

  2. HI Nicola I tracked down a supplier but he only sells a min quantity of 25kgs which makes this very expensive. There is a dry ice maker in Brackenfell, but they are just too far for me to go.

  3. This was mindblowing. That straw wine is out of this world and with that creamy vanilla ice cream – just sublime.

  4. Liquid nitrogen is another Heston B favourite . It’s delivered in small quantities to CT medical practices every week (for burning off moles and warts) and the suppliers are usually quite happy to make a household sale on their rounds.

    Liquid nitrogen is even colder than dry ice, so the ice cream freezes more or less instantly. I make it by ear – tip a quarter-cup into the mixer bowl and wait for the clonking to stop. Repeat until the ice cream reaches the desired consistency …

    One of the family favourites is the original Victorian strawberry ice cream recipe made Heston-style. Lightly whipped cream, pureed strawbs and a little caster sugar.

  5. Oh wow Steve thanks for sharing. I definitely want to try the liquid nitrogen version too. So much fun and a really fabulous result.
    Sam

  6. usha singh says:

    Hi Sam

    This looks and sounds amazing and this ice cream has no eggs–YAY. My blog has somehow been lost in the migration. Have a wonderful week ahead

  7. Oh No Usha that is awful, but don’t worry they will find it and dock it back into its new home. My blog got lost in cyberspace once for about 48 hours and I thought I was going die

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