S'mores (Graham Cracker) Ice Cream

S'mores (Graham Cracker) Ice Cream

Momofuku Milk Bar has some excellent ice cream recipes. Its graham cracker ice cream recipe tastes great, and stays nice and soft in the freezer unlike most homemade ice cream recipes. I added homemade chocolate ganache and store bought marshmallow fluff to turn this recipe into s'mores ice cream. Unfortunately you do need an ice cream maker and there are no legal web versions of the ice cream recipe. I will not include specific quantities of ingredients to appease copyright laws.

1.  You first need to make graham cracker crust. Preheat your oven to 250 degree Fahrenheit.

2. Combine crushed graham crackers, milk powder (dry milk), sugar, and salt. Also melt butter and mix it with some heavy cream.

3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.

4. Place the wet graham cracker crumbs on a silpat or parchment line baking sheet and bake until it darkens a little. This should take about 15 minutes.

5. After the graham cracker crust finishes and cools, take half of it and pour milk over it. Let it set for 20 minutes or more. The milk will take the flavor. Save the other half for other recipes... like for the next blog post. There is also a little Easter egg for a future future blog post.

6. Filter out the graham cracker solids with a fine strainer. Throw away the solids... or put them in some greek yogurt.

6. Combine heavy cream, glucose, granulated white sugar, milk powder (dry non-fat milk), and salt. I used 75% of sugar the recipe asked for to take into account the additional add ins. The recipe usually comes out too sweet for most people. After tasting the results, I might even use 50% of the sugar for next time. Another note: Glucose is inverted syrup and a common additive in Milk Bar recipes. You can find it in specialty stores or Amazon. It is pricey, but it really helps keep the texture nice and soft. It is one of the most viscous cooking ingredients and is very difficult to handle. I use it because it is worth it.

7. Milk Bar's ice cream doesn't use egg yolks to get that smooth texture. It relies on something that flavored processed greek yogurt uses to get its texture, gelatin. You can use whatever type you'd like. Most professional bakers prefer gelatin sheets because they are easier to measure and use. It is hard to find in stores, but not that expensive on Amazon.

Warm up a little bit of the graham cracker milk. Bloom (wet) the gelatin sheets by placing it in cold water for a minute or two. You'll know when it is ready when it is soft. Don't let it bloom for too long because it will get too soft and you won't be able to take it out of the water. Squeeze out the excess water and whisk it into the warm milk.

It will dissolve without much effort.

8. Pour the gelatin milk mixture back in with the rest of the milk. Whisk in the rest of the mixture really well.

There will be some undissolved milk powder in the end, that is okay.

9. Refrigerate your ice cream liquid for as long as possible (1 hour would be nice).

10. Churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions. Make sure you pour the liquid in through a strainer first to take out any of the solid particles.

At the very end, swirl in some chocolate ganache (use this blog post as a guide), and marshmallow fluff. Be careful not to over-mix the ganache. You want ribbons of ganache, you don't want it to combine with the graham cracker ice cream.

My ice cream maker is not very good, so the ice cream has to be frozen for additional time in the freezer, even after it has churned. This particular time it did not freeze will in the ice cream maker after 35 minutes. Don't fret, the gelatin really ensures that it won't crystallize in the freezer. The results are amazing!

To make some of my friends happy, I stylized a scoop. What do you all think?

Stay tuned for another dessert recipe next week. It will be out of control.