Rose Levy Beranbaum’s name has been synonymous with baking ever since her groundbreaking classic, “The Cake Bible,” was published in 1988. Her follow-up tomes on pie, cookies, and bread have reinforced that reputation.
“But the sweet that I love to eat most is frozen, not baked,” she writes in the introduction to “Rose’s Ice Cream Bliss” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25). As I ogled its pages on a sweltering, self-isolating day cooped up in my condo, I found myself craving not only the cold comfort readily available by the pint, but also the sense of accomplishment that could come from making my own ice cream.
The recipes in her latest volume aren’t nearly as daunting as the hive-shaped honey bee cake covered in marzipan bees from “The Cake Bible,” but they’re just as precise. Ingredients are measured in grams and milliliters as well as cups and spoons, and temperatures are given for various stages of the process. With a scale and an instant-read thermometer, it’s easy enough to achieve the level of exactitude designed to get you to ice cream nirvana.
It’s also wise to read through her introductory guide to ingredients, equipment, and her basic method for ice cream the way she prefers it: “super creamy and totally free of iciness.” If you prefer a less rich ice cream, she’ll tell you how to adjust accordingly.
Beranbaum walks you through the old favorites like vanilla and caramel, before introducing you to more sophisticated flavors such as Thai Corn and Royal Velvet Lavender. She gives instructions for adding swirls of sauces and other adornments like Citrus Stardust, and devotes a chapter to transforming those scoops into more elaborate frozen concoctions such as Mini Pavlovas and Watermelon Ice Cream Bombe.
I hauled out my ancient, under-utilized Donvier to test out two more conventional flavors — one for strawberry and the other for orange. While those chilled, I baked her chocolate chip cookies and fudgy chocolate cookies for turning part of those batches into ice cream sandwiches. And with one bite of each, I got just what Beranbaum promised: pure bliss.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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