Customer Reviews

The Ice Cream Bible

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

People who don't wish to eat real ice cream should refrain from reviewing ice cream books. To malign this wonderful book because it doesn't offer "diet ice creams" or because the book recommends eggs in ice cream recipes (which is what traditional ice cream demands) is like maligning a Kosher cookbook because the recipes don't have enough pork in them. If you don't wish to eat real ice cream, then...don't. But don't hurt a professional author who has worked hard to give wonderful recipes (each one with very unique measurements -- not 4 eggs for every recipe, etc.) just because you wish to eat Betty Crocker grade ice cream. Also, though the measurements may have needed uniformity, a cup is a cup. Adding a little more or less will just tweak the taste a bit, but it won't hurt if you add 50ml more or less. The low-brow cuisine obssessive habit of measuring everything exactly is frankly sophmoric. You get more than enough ideas to create wonderful ice cream. Just use your imagination inspired by these wonderful gourment recipes to create your own ice cream. And again, if you don't like real gourmet ice cream, then at least have the decency not to hurt the ranking of a tremendously wonderful book. In addition to this book, I recommend "Frozen Deserts" and "Making Artisan Gelato" -- neither of these books are for fake ice cream lovers, and the measurements in Frozen Deserts are in restaurant portion quantities. But please note this book is hailed by the pastry chef of New York's Per Se restaurant, considered one of the finest restaurants in the world. Both books, and Linton's The Ice Cream Bible, give wonderful tips on making ice cream correctly...and yes, this entails using eggs and some imagination and creativity. I would have loved more photos in The Ice Cream Bible, but you can't have it all. There are books with pretty pictures, but their recipes don't work. The recipes here are legitimate. They are not complex, unless you are really really dumb. Incidentally, making real ice cream entails cooking and cooling ingredients. If you are impatient to do this, skip making ice cream and buy what you wish to eat at the supermarket. In life, you get what you invest. If you invest time and love in preparing ice cream, you will love the ice cream created by your dedication to the correct process. In the world, there are "fast food ice creams" and then there are "gourment ice creams." The Ice Cream Bible is a text for lovers of gourmet ice cream THAT YOU CAN make in a home ice cream maker in home proportions. So it's relatively easy to make ice cream, yet you are getting hundreds of wonderfully unique and delicious recipes.

I have to say this. What is good about making your own ice cream is that you can switch around milks, creams if you like. You can add anywhere from 4 to 8 egg yolks in a recipe. So if you want soy milk do it, lactose free milk, do it. It is up to you. I have to say I have 15 ice cream books, I collect cookbooks, I have them all. This one is brilliant and yes it doesn't have pictures, but alot of these books don't. This has variety. And, let me tell you I made the vanilla ice cream this week (with 4 yolks) and no yolk/joke, Unbelievable is all I can say. I made The Perfect Scoop (another superb book) strawberry sauce. Nervana. That is one of the best vanillas I have made or tasted. It is good to have a base then you can do ripples, tin roof, heath bar crunch etc. Congratulations. BTW, I have 2 ice cream makers. I have vanilla and coconut ice cream in the freezer right now.

Good for the serious cook and the dabbler (Me and my wife). The range is quite good (they have real gelato recipes, unlike most ice cream books I looked at. The recipes are clear and arranged in a way that makes sense. Essentials are in the recipe itself, suggestions are in tips on the side. Best of all, the results are fantastic.

As to the comment from the other reviewer, for US customers, this won't be a problem.

The only redeeming quality this book has is the wide range of flavor ideas. They span from the usual (Ultimate Chocolate, Butter Pecan), to the interesting (Pumpkin, Coconut Mango), to the outlandish (Carrot Ginger, Parmesan, Roasted Garlic). I haven't been brave enough to try the flavors in the latter category (titled Sweet and Savory in the book). The main problem I have with the book is the poor execution of the recipes. The first time I made one of the recipes, I followed it to the letter. It called for all of the sugar to be whisked into the egg yolks, while the milk and cream heat on the stove. Then you combine the two mixtures with whatever flavorings you are using. The problem is that there is too much sugar per egg yolk when they are combined like that, so the mixture gets exceedingly thick and impossible to whisk. Now I will put about a third of the sugar in with the yolks and whisk, and stir the rest into the warm milk to dissolve. Also I found there is a wide range in the quantity of finished product. I just made the Cafe au Lait recipe and haven't even poured it into my ice cream maker yet, but I can guarantee there is too much liquid for my maker. I'll have to freeze it in two batches. I haven't had that problem with any other recipe yet and I don't know if it's just this particular one or not.

This book is amazing! Slowly trying out the recipes but so far the ones I've done turn out perfectly. Most recipes and simple and easy to read and can be done with ingredients from your nearest grocery store.

I like this book, but I'll be using the recipes for inspiration, not cooking directions, after my recent experience making "Caramel Ice Cream". Ice cream is pretty simple: you combine sugar, milk, cream, egg yolks (for custard ice cream), and flavorings; cook it (for custard ice creams); then chill and ultimately freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker. Thus the main reason to buy an ice cream recipe book is to find out what ingredients you need for a particular flavor, and what the proportions should be for each ingredient.

Frequently, a book's ice cream recipes will repeat the same standard preparation directions over and over again. This, I think, is why the "Caramel Ice Cream" recipe in this book went so very wrong. Step 2 says to stir sugar and water together over medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved, and then to "[c]ook, stirring constantly, until deep amber color." With most custard ice creams, you do indeed cook the mixture, stirring constantly. But when you're trying to caramelize sugar--which I had never done before--the one thing you do NOT do is stir the mixture! You boil it, swirling the pan from time to time, until it changes color. (When you stir constantly, all the liquid boils away, and you get a big lump of pure white, crystallized sugar that is practically fused to the bottom of your saucepan.) After two failed attempts, and after watching an online cooking video, I was finally able to caramelize the sugar. In the end, the ice cream made according to the recipe ingredients turned out tasting absolutely fabulous!

The recipes in this book are the right size to be easily frozen in a 1-1/2 quart ice cream maker. There are many, many recipes, including recipes for basic ice creams (e.g., chocolate, vanilla, peach), exotic ice creams (e.g., black pepper and cloves, avocado lime, red bean), and standard variety ice creams (e.g., butter pecan, pistachio, key lime, lemon custard). The book has mouth-watering, full-color photographs of many of the finished ice creams.

The book also includes good introductory material about ingredients and equipment, and recipes for sauces, gelatos, ices and sorbets, drinks, and low-fat ice milks and yogurts. I rate this at 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 stars because of my "Caramel Ice Cream" misadventure. Other ice cream recipe books that I highly recommend are Williams-Sonoma Ice Cream (good complete instructions for Caramel Ice Cream); The Perfect Scoop (excellent instructions for making custard ice creams); and The Best Ice Cream Maker Cookbook Ever (lots of good recipes and instructional material).

Just got the book and ice cream maker a couple of weeks ago and decided no more store bought ice cream!! We've tried a few recipes and have found that the flavorings can be a little heavy-handed. Taste, taste, taste! We used half the amount of the lemon juice in the lemon ice cream so that it didn't overpower the creamy flavor. Plenty of recipes to choose from though which is why I bought it.

The lack of precise quantities or measurements is astonishing: 1 cup may have 250 ml,even 400 ml (see pg 24, granulated sugar), 200 ml,.... you choose. The first impression I had is that nobody made any review on the manuscrit. I don't recommend this book to my friends.
Jayme Kopelman Sao Paulo, Brazil

After receiving an ice cream maker as a gift, I was looking for a good book to help me since I've never made ice cream at home. This had many good recipes for some delicious frozen desserts. However, many included eggs and things that I just didn't want to put in my ice cream. Some of the recipes were complicated - altho produced a delicious product if you wanted to put in the time and effort. Many recipes required cooking, which meant it had to cool so it was time consuming. There were little to no low-fat options given in the book and it was difficult to substitute lower fat options because the results would be totally different. If you're a "seasoned" ice cream maker, want to put in some extra time for truly quality ice creams, this is your book. If you're a beginner, want lower fat options or don't want to spend the kind of time required to make some of these recipes, this book may not be for you.