Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Did this one last night. The base is the July, 2011 Cooks Illustrated vanilla base complete with Madagascar vanilla beans. I searched the internet for ideas on the rum raisin aspect. All the R/R recipes called for soaking the raisins, but some added only the raisins while others added both rum and raisins to the custard. The one I chose simmered the raisins in rum, infusing them, and hopefully dissipating some of the alcohol. We ended up adding a cup and a half of raisins, with an inexpensive dark rum that was simmered down to a half cup.

The base was a "double" batch so we had about 6 cups of heavy cream and milk combined. I had read recipes that called for 3/4 cup of rum for 4 cups of milk/cream mixture, so I thought the half cup of rum would be okay. But even with simmering, the residual alcohol was a very effective anti-freeze! We churned for almost an hour and a half, but never got the custard to freeze up. It expanded, to be sure, but was very soft soft-serve when we quit. We portioned it out and stuck it in the freezer pronto.

I tasted it as we were putting it into containers. It was nice, but fairly rummy. After sitting in the freezer overnight, it hardened up substantially and is presentable. The rum flavor has diminished significantly and the raisins are superb, remaining quite chewy and unfrozen. All in all, a success though I may reduce the amount of rum to 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) at our next go, to help it form up better.

We will likely make this again, but the dark chocolate version, for Thanksgiving.

I haven't had R/R ice cream in ages. It was my FIL's favorite. He espesially loved the Baskins Robins version. He would buy it by the large 5 gallon card board container like in the ice cream parlors. He really loved the stuff! lol

I really enjoyed making it and look forward to trying the dark chocolate version soon. I am sharing the last of it with a group of expats here this afternoon as dessert for lunch.

My wife is giving a small group of high school students a demonstration in ice cream making next week. We will demo how to do a custard, how an old style "ice and salt" machine works, but since it takes so long to make and comes out soft, we will make ice cream ahead for them to taste. Actually to make it more hands on, we are going to do the CI recipe for ice cream sandwiches. Then let them cut out their own cookies from a sheet pan and assemble their own ice cream sandwiches.

Since it is all high schoolers, no rum involved, though I'm sure the staff wouldn't mind some in theirs. The school's principle is coffee buddy of mine who introduced me to teaching English to Korean students who "holiday" here. My wife loves to cook and enjoys giving presentations, so this will be a good experience for her. I will be one of those Noh assistants that dress in black and you don't notice (or aren't supposed to anyway), hovering in the background and handing stuff to her as she needs it.

That sounds like fun Steve. I love doing things like that as well.

BTW: I have trouble picturing you fading away in the background! lol

Laurie