further ice cream notes

[radhardened]

Since my last ice cream post, I've made two batches: pink peppercorn ice cream and chocolate ice cream. I'd never cooked with—or, to my memory, eaten—pink peppercorns before. It turned out pleasantly spicy/floral, though for some reason I can't explain I think it would be better paired with something like the chocolate tarts suggested by epicurious. ("Pink peppercorns" are dried berries from a rose plant, not a true peppercorn.) The spice grinder I bought for this purpose produced a fine grind, most of which I strained out, but the remaining pepper grounds didn't pose a problem for the texture of the ice cream. If anything I'd use more pepper next time. I do have some leftover pink peppercorns, and I'd be interested to hear if and how you've used them to good effect.

The chocolate ice cream, using xuth's recipes, was quite rich. I normally like it with a more moderate intensity. The concentration of the recipe posed a logistical problem for me as I was making it—there wasn't enough volume in the custard base to cover the bulb of my candy thermometer as I was tempering it. The coats-the-back-of-a-spoon test is virtually impossible for me to interpret, so I alternated heating the base and tilting the saucepan so that it covered the thermometer's bulb on that side of the pan. It seems to have worked, but a base with more milk or cream would have solved that problem as well as yielding a less intense result.