Garlic ice cream – cure for all evil?
Having a cold? A sore throat? Afraid of vampires? Here comes the remedy – Garlic honey ice cream!
Garlic ice cream is controversial – some hate it, others love it. Is it a only a fad? Something to eat just for the novelty, or to show that you dare?
Clearly, the flavour is not for everyone: if you really dislike the taste of garlic, feel free to pass on this one. On the other hand, if you like (or at least can tolerate) garlic, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.
A number of medical benefits are linked to garlic. And as all fans of vampire lore know, using garlic is also one of the ways to keep the Count and his minions away. Exactly why is harder to explain, but garlic had been ascribed strong and mystical powers long before Bram Stoker decided to write “Dracula” in 1897.
As to the numerous positive medical effects, the earliest claims seem to go back thousands of years. While some claims made by traditional herbal medicine would seem a bit far out, others actually have received a certain backing from modern science.
A field where garlic has a long-standing positive reputation relates to the treatment of, and prevention of common cold and coughing. Garlic does possess both anti-bacterial and anti-viral qualities.
Personally, I’m very fond of garlic. But much as I love garlic, the present experiments were actually motivated for health-reasons. Summer was over, and with the kids back in school, the household once again got its fair share of the season’s coughing, sore throats and common colds.
What better way to help fight these ailments than with Mother Nature’s own traditional remedies? I decided to let honey join forces with garlic, furthermore adding some healthy yoghurt to the ice cream base. Given the amount of honey used, the limited amount of cream, and the relative lack of solids, I decided to gain some stability by adapting an ice cream base along the lines of Sicilian gelato (with starch).
A superb complement to garlic ice cream – raspberry jam
Would you believe it? The flavours of garlic-honey and raspberry actually marry beautifully! While garlic ice cream alone can be a bit … demanding (if you are a less devoted fan), the rich raspberry jam adds a welcome, complementary and sweet dimension to the final flavour.
Creating a ripple effect added some dramatic bloodred colour to the otherwise so innocently looking white ice cream.
Raspberry jam just stirred in, with a view to rippled ice cream, following some further freezing to be done
The adults in the family were very fond of the results. The dominating flavour is unmistakeably garlic, but the honey and the raspberry do soften the general impact. Their presence also transforms the tasting experience, from being something to endure, to being something to truly enjoy. The rare combination of flavours make for a different, but delicious, frozen dessert.
I have to tell you, however, that the kids were not convinced. They all turned down my generous offers to test the ice cream, which must be the first time ever. Still, I guess it would be hard to blame them. After all, they had already tested an earlier garlic recipe of mine … with much more garlic, and much less raspberry. Since time is supposed to mend all things, I will make sure to repeat the offer in the future.
And myself? Filled with healthy amounts of both garlic and honey, I look forward to facing the season’s evils with regained confidence.
- 100 ml (about 0.4 cup) cream
- 500 ml (2.1 cups) milk
- 100 ml (about 0.4 cup) yoghurt
- 50 ml (about 3½ tablespoons) sugar
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 5 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed)
- 100 ml (about 0.4 cup) honey
- About 5-6 generous tablespoons of good quality Raspberry jam (soft type)
- Whisk together 100 ml (about 0.4 cup) of the milk with the corn starch, making sure that there are no lumps. Set aside for now.
- Blend the remaining 400 ml (about 1.7 cups) of the milk, the cream, the sugar, and the honey in a sauce pan. Warm until steaming hot on medium heat. Now, blend in the corn starch mixture with the rest of the ingredients in the sauce pan. Barely reaching a boil, cook and stir for about five minutes, or until the mixture begins to thicken. Reduce the heat and continue to stir for another five minutes until the mixture has thickened even further and any possible "floury" taste (from the corn starch) has disappeared.
- Take off from the heat and let the mixture cool down. When sufficiently cooled down, put in the crushed and peeled garlic cloves and blend. Blend in the yogurt and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
- Pass the ice cream base through a sieve in order to remove remaining pieces of the garlic cloves. Freeze according to the instructions of your ice cream machine (or still-freeze without an ice cream machine, as described elsewhere on this site) until the ice cream is almost ready.
- Here you have a choice - either you stick with snow-like white garlic ice cream, and serve raspberry jam on the side when it is time for dessert. Or you add the jam to the ice cream already before putting it in the freezer, creating a reddish ripple effect.
- When almost ready, begin scooping up (rather large) scoops of the ice cream and put into the container destined for the freezer. For each scoop of ice cream, follow up with a generous tablespoon of Raspberry jam, but do not mix them yet. When all ice cream (and jam) is put into the container, take a kitchen knife or something similarly thin and ripple through the mixture a few times - do not overdo it! If you mix too much, the jam is likely to be too well dispersed. The jam will of course still be in there, but you will scarcely be able to see any ripples.
- If you are very fond of garlic, you could of course decide to take any pieces left of the cloves from the sieve, and put them back into the ice cream once the base has firmed up sufficiently. Or you could just eat them on the spot, while waiting for the ice cream to finish churning.
Garlic ice cream made the American way
In urgent situations, I have also tested the “no-heating required” American (Philadelphia-) style of ice cream making. This usually works fine too, provided you follow that base recipe (meaning more cream). For even further stability, in case you do not mind using raw eggs, one or two egg yolks whisked into the base can do the trick.
Two more methods of making the garlic flavor milder:
First, you can cook the garlic before using it. There are several ways to cook garlic, the fastest of which is the microwave.
Second, you can use a type of garlic which is milder to begin with, such as elephant garlic.
Ben, thank you for your advise! Hopefully, it might convince those still a bit hesitant to “take the plunge” and give garlic ice cream a try:-)