Frozen Desserts for Hot Days
By ETHEL M. SOMERS
F}}ROZEN desserts furnish a more delightful finale to the meal than any other type of sweet. They are at once palatable, healthful, and refreshing—a real treat in the hot weather menu. Ices, sherbets, frappes, parfaits, and ice creams in various flavors all lend themselves to a wide variety of attractive dessert services. Nor is such a service necessarily costly either in time or money. Frozen desserts are very simple. Sherbets and ices are quite inexpen- sive, but when molded or served in an attractive glass service, they have every appearance of elab- orate extravagance. The pleasing velvety tex- ture of a frozen mixture depends upon the percent- age of fat contained, the presence of a filler, the rate of turning the freezer, and the proportion of ice to salt in the freezer. A low fat percentage pro- duces anice cream of pleas- ing flavor but of a decid- edly granular texture. A “filled” ice cream, or one to which cornstarch, egy, or gelatin has been added, is more velvety. A rapidly churned cream is smooth but slow to freeze. A high proportion of salt in the freezer means a rapid freezing and a resulting coarse texture.
For a quick preparation the ice must be
very finely crushed. This exposes as much
surface as possible to the salt, which melts the
ice. The ice in melting takes up heat from the
mixture to be frozen. Hence the more salt used
the more rapid the melting, the quicker the
freezing, and, therefore, the coarser the prod-
uct. The proportions of ice and salt for freez-
ing to obtain the proper texture are as follows:
Two parts ice to one part salt for frappe and
punch; three parts ice to one part salt for all
mixtures to be frozen with stirring; four parts
ice to one part salt for packing, to allow the
ripening process; one part ice to one part salt
for mixtures to be frozen without stirring. Ice
cream should freeze in fifteen to twenty min-
utes; water ices in twelve to fourteen minutes;
sherbet, frappe, and punch in nine to ten min-
utes.
If an ice is to be molded, just before it is frozen stiff, dip the mold in cold water, drain, line with heavy waxed paper only if its shape is plain, pack the frozen mixture well into the mold with a wooden spoon or spatula until the mold is level full. Cover the filled mold with waxed paper to extend ‘beyond each edge at least one inch. Cover the filled mold tightly
and bury for ripening in a four-to-one mixture of ice and salt. To serve, wipe the mold care- fully, remove the cover, loosen with a spatula around the edge, and invert on a chilled serv- ing plate.
Plain Ice Cream
2 cups cream 1 teaspoon vanilla ⅜ cup sugar
SCALDING the cream before using will give a greater body and finer grain to the ice cream. Dissolve the sugar in the cream and freeze as per general directions, using one part of salt to three parts of ice. Eighteen, twenty-five, or thirty-two per cent cream may be used. The higher the per- centage of fat in the cream the richer, yellower, fluffier, and less apt to melt is the resulting ice cream. Fillers or binders, as they are sometimes called, added to ice cream have much the same effect. This recipe gives one and one-half pints to one quart of ice cream, depending upon the rich- ness of the cream.
Plain Filled Ice Cream
1 cup milk 1 cup cream (25%) ⅜ cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Mix the cornstarch with the sugar, add the hot milk and boil five minutes. Cool, add the cream and vanilla and freeze.
New York Custard Ice Cream 1 cup cream ½ cup milk, scalded 1 egg yolk ¼ cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the egg yolk and add the scalded milk and sugar. Stir and cook over water until thickened. Add the cream and vanilla and freeze. This also is one of the filled ice creams. Being part milk, they are much cheaper to make and, though not as rich in flavor, are nevertheless very nutritious.
Gelatin Ice Cream
1 cup milk, heated 1 cup cream . 2 teaspoons gelatin ⅜ cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 tablespoon cold water
SOAK the gelatin in the cold water, then dissolve it and the sugar in the hot milk, add the cream and’ vanilla and freeze.
Chocolate Ice Cream may be made by increasing the sugar of any of these given recipes to one-half cup and adding one ounce of chocolate melted by cooking in one-third cup boiling water.
Fruited Ice Cream may be made by increasing the sugar to one-half cup and adding one-half cup fruit juice to the chilled milk and cream mixture before freezing. Or, by opening the freezer when the mixture is half frozen and adding one- third to one-half cup of sliced or crushed fruit. Repack and freeze again until firm.
Fruit Ice (One Quart) 3 cups water
1½ cups sugar
Fruit juice or fruit pulp as follows: 1½ cups stewed apricots; 3 bananas, 3 oranges, 3 lemons; 1½ cups blackberry juice plus ⅓ cup lemon juice: ¾ cup lemon juice; 2 cups orange juice plus 2 tablespoons grated orange rind plus ¼ cup lemon juice; 2 cups grated pineapple plus 6 tablespoons lemon juice.
MAKE a sirup of the sugar and water by boiling them together ten minutes. Cool. Add the fruit juices and pulp. Pack in a one to three salt and ice mixture and freeze.
Parfait
1 cup sugar 1 cup water 3 egg whites, beaten 1 pint cream, whipped 1 tablespoon vanilla, almond, orange, or lemon
BOIL the sugar and water about five minutes or until it threads. Pour onto the stiffly beaten whites, stirring constantly. Fold in the whipped cream and vanilla. Pack in a one to one mixture of ice and salt and let stand four hours.
