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Almond Cream Ice
1/4 pound blanched and thoroughly dried almonds 1 pint water 2/3 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla A few grains salt Grind the almonds through a food chopper that has a food chopper that has a disk for grinding nut butter. Mix the almond paste with the water and salt. Cook in a double boiler till creamy. Cool, add the sugar and vanilla, and freeze.
This is free from the objection that has been made to milk-and-sugar mixtures.
An early dairy-free ice: almonds ground to butter, thinned with water, cooked to a cream and frozen. It succeeds or fails on how finely the almonds are broken down.
- GrindingThe nut-butter disk of a hand food chopper is replaced by a food processor or high-speed blender. Work the blanched almonds until they pass from meal to a smooth, slightly oily paste, scraping down often; grainy paste gives grainy ice.
- Strain before freezingEven a good processor leaves fine solids. Pressing the cooked mixture through a fine sieve or a nut-milk bag before chilling is the difference between a smooth ice and one that feels sandy on the tongue.
- The double boilerCooking over water, not direct heat, helps keep the almond mixture from splitting and scorching. The recipe gives no time, only 'till creamy'; ten to fifteen minutes with regular stirring will usually get it there.
- Chill fully first"Cool" means refrigerator-cold, ideally several hours. A base churned warm freezes slowly and forms coarse crystals.
- Freezing"Freeze" in this period normally indicates a hand-crank churn packed with ice and rock salt, though still-freezing in a packed mould was also done. An ice-cream maker does the same job; failing that, freeze in a shallow pan and beat thoroughly every 30 minutes for about three hours.
- Texture expectationsWith no cream, egg or stabiliser this sets hard and icy. The sugar -- two-thirds of a cup to a pint of water -- is the main thing keeping it scoopable, so do not reduce it, and let the finished ice stand a few minutes before serving.
- YieldRoughly a pint and a quarter of base, or three to four small servings.