Matt O'Connor - The Icecreamists

A bit after my 21st birthday when my friend gave me Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book I bought The Icecreamists by Matt O'Connor because it looked interesting then my sister asked me to make one of the recipes out of it seen as I had the machine out to make the coconut ice cream and she chose the dark chocolate ice cream, Choc & Awe.

While it wasn't as simple as the Ben & Jerry's book because I could just dump everything in the food mixer then into the ice cream maker but that was because the final product was different; this time it was smoother and thicker, more like frozen custard, rather than like standard ice cream.

Unlike the Ben & Jerry's book, there aren't any base recipes and each of the recipes includes its own ingredients.  However, if you compare any of the recipes, O'Connor uses milk, cream, egg yolks and caster sugar as a base which is basically custard which makes a creamy and thick base flavour so you can add your own flavours to make your own ice cream.  On top of ice creams, there are recipes for sorbets for a less heavy dessert and my personal favourite part is the cocktails section which combines alcohol with one of the recipes mentioned in the book for a different kind of drink to share with friends.

Though I said that it wasn't as simple as the Ben & Jerry's book which was basically dumping everything in the machines, it was still simple because the instructions were clear and concise and were therefore easy to follow, all that was needed was a watchful eye while the chocolate was melting in the milk and cream mixture and then being mixed with the eggs because it could go horribly wrong if everything curdled or the eggs scrambled instead of mixed with the chocolate.  Fortunately, O'Connor wrote in the instructions to be careful with the hot chocolate mixture for these reasons which I found good so I knew what to do immediately and I didn't mess up the chocolaty goodness because that would have been a real shame.

The final results of this recipe was an extremely rich and chocolaty ice cream that was also very thick; personally, I found having more than one scoop of the ice cream too much because it was just pure dark chocolate which is an overpowering flavour alone.  This ice cream would have worked with something else as part of a dessert at a dinner party but we didn't test it out and just mixed it with the coconut ice cream I made before which when combined tasted like a Bounty bar.

I highly recommend this book if you like ice cream with a more custard taste and a smoother, thicker texture than normal ice cream; the instructions were easy to follow and a lot of information in the instructions so there were less ways to mess the ice cream up.

Much like Ben & Jerry's, I may write more reviews on other recipes from this book so look out for another blog about this book later on.