Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book
by Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield, Nancy Stevens
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Book Reviews of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book
Book Review: Add an ice cream maker for a great wedding present
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific book, and it solved my perpetual problem of what to give people I know well enough to go to their wedding but not well enough to drop $800 on a wedding present. The recipes in this book make great ice cream. Toss in a decent ice cream maker, and you have a present that no one else will think of, that the receipients will appreciate, and one that they will use over time. (For what it's worth, I usually give the Donvier hand-turned machine because it makes dense, smooth ice cream that reminds me of gelato.)Anyway, about the book and what makes it so great: Ben and Jerry tell you how to make their most popular ice creams, and a bunch that I never saw before. They provide multiple recipes for chocolate ice cream, and write clearly about how they are different. A friend of mine once made all the choclate ice creams and had a tasting party. It was interesting to see how different they really were. (And this book taught me the secret to great chocolate ice cream taste: a pinch of salt--really!)
If you are worried about using eggs, you will want to use a pasteurized egg product in place of the raw eggs. Other than that, this is a terrific book. Lots of good ideas, excellent recipes, and enough discussion about how to create new flavours to encourage even the most reluctant recipe-inventor to go hog wild.
I wish there were a sequel.
Book Review: This book will change your life!
Summary: 5 Stars
This ice-cream is AWESOME!!!!!!! It was the best I ever had in my life, until we recently had home-made ice-cream at a shop in Colorado Springs, where they apparently use the same process but have perfected all the awesome candy/cookie/goodie combinations that I haven't had the time to yet! But I digress. Whenever I serve this to friends they say the same thing - the best ice-cream they've ever had. Just about every recipe is a winner - french vanilla, oreo mint, peanut butter cup, mmmmm. A friend requested peanut butter banana and the texture was a little strange, but even B&J mentioned that the "health food types" always request that kind, and what kind of a texture would you expect from PB & banana? I look forward to making this ice-cream for the rest of my life. Pair it up with a kitchenaid ice-cream maker attachment or whatever kind you prefer, and you are set. You will (rarely) buy store-bought ice-cream again. I eat this in little tiny bowls, usually just one scoop because it is so rich. Just substitute egg-beaters for the eggs (they weren't so concerned about salmonella when this book was published), and remember their rule of thumb...there's not such thing as bad ice-cream!! Especially when you're using the recipes from this fantastic book.
Oh, and it's funny and entertaining too :)
Book Review: Raw Eggs
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was written, I believe, in the 80s, which explains the raw egg thing. Yes, the book uses uncooked eggs. Modify the recipe to make an egg custard before you freeze it, using the same ingredients. I scald the dairy, adding a vanilla bean or anything else you want to infuse it with if you want, and then temper the eggs. I then return everything to the heat until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Great custard-making help can be found in the first few pages of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, a great accompaniment to this book (these for the classic flavors and well known, his for more modern, unusual flavors).
Your other option, of course, is to use those bottled egg products or you can buy in-shell pasteurized eggs. I have never made the recipes with either, but I don't see why that would be a problem.
The recipes are both the classic Ben & Jerry's I have come to expect (Cherry Garcia, etc.) and plenty of flavors I have never had or even heard of. The company and personal history is fascinating.
My only gripe is that it does not have a lay-flat binding or something that I consider to be essential in a cookbook. It's just a small paperback, but well worth that hassle. Totally recommended, as long as you keep in mind that the recipes are made with raw eggs.
Book Review: Looks great, but...
Summary: 2 Stars
This is one of three ice cream books that I own, but I doubt I'll be making any of the recipes without one major modification -- I just have this aversion to eating raw eggs, you see. I didn't realize that B & J don't cook their ice cream base before I ordered this book. So, unless you're absolutely, 100% certain that the eggs you're using are salmonella free, either try cooking the two base recipes that call for eggs (a third doesn't call for eggs)or try another book. And really, making a cooked custard base for ice cream is NOT difficult. You'll have to wait several hours longer for your treat (20 minutes to cook the custard and a few hours to chill it thoroughly) but hey, that gives you time to hit the gym for a hard workout to burn off the calories in advance. And you'll end up with a creamier, superior product in the end. If you really don't feel you have the time or skill to cook the base, you're probably better off finding a B & J's shop somewhere. If you do, by all means experiment with cooking and post your results here, or maybe try the Williams-Sonoma ice cream book. For really decadent ice cream, go for Nigella Lawson's Endless Summer book -- it's a general cookbook, but has an entire chapter devoted to ice cream (the vanilla is particularly heavenly...)Book Review: Nearly perfect recipe book
Summary: 5 Stars
I have a number of ice cream recipe books, and I also have my mother's custard-style ice cream recipe from way back. While I love custard-style ice cream, it is a lot of work, and sometimes I just want to throw together some ingredients and toss them into my MUSSO LUSSINO 4080 (the best ice cream maker there is for the home). That's where this cookbook shines. The recipes are great, and very fast.
One caution: Most of the recipes use raw eggs. I personally don't care, since I buy only locally produced, organic eggs from free-range, non-debeaked chickens. I figure that how happy any animal is, whether human or beast, makes a huge difference in its health, and so far I have never had any problems.
However, if you have concerns, you can use pasteurized egg products. Or you can use an excellent alternative cookbook, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book, which has many recipes that don't require eggs at all. Just be aware that eggs make a big (positive) difference in taste over recipes that don't use eggs.