Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook

I always thought ice cream was good, but then I had Salt & Straw. It made me realize that ice cream can be incredible. Ice cream can embody complex flavors that evolve across your palette has you eat them, and they don't have to revolve around what combinations of sugary treats you want to add to them. Sadly, I don't live in a state that has salt and straw, and after trying every highly rated local ice cream shop, I was disappointed to find them all to be uninspired sugary nonsense.So I set out to make my own ice cream, and though I am only a week into my journey, I am already making better ice cream than anything I have found locally. This book is full of tons of recipes (listed below), and while some of them sound strange, much of the strangeness is certainly not a novelty. The flavors are complex and mind blowing, thing's you'd never expect to be delicious are so. Anyways, this is an eye opening book, and Tyler talks a lot about what he learned from making these different flavors within the book as well, which is great for educating yourself for future experimentation. The flavor recipes in this book are as follows: The Bases: Ice Cream Base Sorbet (or Gelato) Base Coconut Ice Cream Base (Dairy Free) The Classics: Arbequina Olive Oil Stumptown Coffee and Burnside Bourbon Freckled Woodblock Chocolate Chocolate Gooey Brownie Xocolatl de David’s Bacon Raleigh Bar Dandelion Chocolate’s Roasted Cacao Bean Gelato Cinnamon Snickerdoodle Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper Pear and Bleu Cheese Double Fold Vanilla Roasted Strawberry & Toasted White Chocolate Salted Caramel Bars & Coconut Cream The Brewers Series: India Pale Ale Smoked Hefeweizen Hopped Farmhouse Ale Hopricot Gelato Imperial Stout Milk Sorbet w/ Blackberry-Fig Jam The Flower Series: Wildflower Honey w/ Ricotta Walnut Lace Cookies Honey Lavender Rose City Riot Grand Poppy-Seed Sherbert Dandellion Bitters Sorbet with Edible Flowers The Berry Series: Meyer Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Custard Black Raspberry Cobbler Fro-yo Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero Foraged-Berry Sherbert Strawberry-Cilantro Sorbet The Farmer’s Market Series: Caramel Corn on the Cob Cauliflower Garam Masala Green Apple & Mayo Sherbert Roasted Parsnip & Banana Sorbet Aquabeet Sorbet The Student Inventor Series: Olde People The Kail Creeasheon Chocolate Sardines Skittles Rainbow Sherbert Stop, Guac, & Roll The Spooktacular Series: Amortentia Sorbet Essence of Ghost Creepy Crawly Critters Grandma Dracula’s Blood Pudding The Great Candycopia The Thanksgiving Table-to-Cone Series: Sweet Potato Casserole with Maple Pecans Buttered Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Cranberry-Apple Stuffing Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Pumpkin Custard & Spiced Goat Cheese The Holiday Series: Peppermint Cocoa with Homemade Peppermint Patties Gingerbread Cookie Dough Apple Brandy & Pecan Pie Butter-Roasted Chestnut Fennel Five-Spice Eggnog

I had Salt & Straw in LA for the first time a few months ago. I’ve been thinking about it ever since! Fast forward to just a few weeks ago when I discovered that this book. Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes, because let’s be real — some of the books we get from restaurants and bakeries with their recipes tend not to be exact, especially since they’re producing at larger quantities and some recipes just don’t scale well. I decided I’d at least give it a try, so I bought this book, along with an ice cream machine and some other gadgets/tools and got busy. The recipes are straight forward and easy to make. My first batch was the caramel ribbon ice cream. Whoa! It was an exact match of what I remember from the ice cream shop in LA. And then I had to try to snickerdoodle — while a bit more effort is involved in this recipe (making the cookie), it’s definitely worth the time. Just do it! What I also liked about this book is how it got my creative gears going. I’ve already envisioned using the base recipe and pairing it with other things to come up with my own flavors. Highly recommend this book. I own about 45-50 dessert recipe books ranging from baked goods to other ice cream books. This would def be in my top 5 and I know that I’ll use it again and again.

What a fun cookbook. Easy to see why it won awards. Very instructive! Insightful and simple instructions. A few items seem regional and a little harder to find. The way the book was photographed is very top shelf and whimsical -- and fun. There are desserts included in the book, I like that, but did confuse me sometimes when I was looking for my next ice cream project. Would have been nice to see some substitutes for harder to find ingredients, and personally I would like to see some low fat (?), lower sugar, higher protein options -- with all the rich flavor, please

This has got to be the strangest ice cream book I own. I own a lot of ice cream books, and I've made a lot of ice cream, and I like daring and unusual flavors, but this one takes the cake (pun absolutely intended). I've read through it pretty carefully and tried a caramel sauce from the book, though not any of the ice creams yet, and well ... it's weird. It's not bad by any means, just unexpected. Not because of its unusual flavors (of which it has many), but in its combination of flavors. Most ice cream cookbooks include recipes for three things: 1) classic flavors, 2) house specialties, and 3) mix-ins and toppings. Every ice cream shop is going to have the classics: vanilla, chocolate, mint, caramel, strawberry, coffee, etc., and most ice cream cookbooks are going to include the author's take on those. S&S on the other hand has only one, a recipe for double-fold vanilla. All the other house specialties utilize classic flavors (examples: strawberry-honey balsamic with black pepper ice cream, or salted sweet cream ice cream with caramel ribbons). In other words, this book leans extremely heavily on the house specialties (which I kind of like), and I love trying new combinations and unusual flavors. But ... ice cream happens to be something that is reliably vegetarian (if not vegan), and this book is no exception. As a long-time mostly-vegetarian, that is also something I appreciate, but as a pragmatist, I'm fine with the fact that most ice cream books are going to have at least one recipe that includes candied bacon, and there is one such offering here (bacon caramel). But it doesn't stop with bacon; the irony makes me giggle a little. It has recipes for/including turkey (turkey skin/stock/boullion/fat), chicken (stock/boullion/fat/skin), gelatin, and …. pork blood. Take a gander: Xocolatl De David’s Bacon Raleigh Bar Ice Cream (gelatin and bacon) Chocolate "Sardines" Ice Cream (gelatin) Creepy Crawly Critters Ice Cream (candied bugs) Grandma Dracula’s Blood Pudding Ice Cream (pig blood) Buttered Mashed Potatoes & Gravy Ice Cream (chicken stock and bouillon) Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Ice Cream (turkey stock, bouillon, and skin) Some of the omnivorous recipes actually sound pretty good, and if I still ate meat, I'd happily give them a try (the Xocolatl one is salted sweet cream ice cream with chocolate-covered pecans, caramel infused with bacon, and chocolate marshmallow nougat, and the "Sardines" recipe is chocolate with chunks of Swedish Fish-infused jello). There is one I might learn to like if I could get past the crunchy chitin from bugs (the creepy crawly flavor is tequila, orange, and matcha ice cream with chocolate-covered crickets and coconut-toffee candied insects). But the last three kinda turn my stomach (brandied chocolate pig's blood, mashed potato ice cream with white chocolate/chicken bouillon ripple, and turkey ice cream with turkey skin brittle). I don't think I'd like those even if I were still omnivorous. But those recipes aside, 51 of the 57 recipes are vegetarian, and there are many that sound great, in particular Stumptown Coffee & Burnside Bourbon Ice Cream, Almond Brittle With Salted Ganache Ice Cream, and the Honey-Lavender. There are many others that sound delicious as well. As for the mix-ins, they are pretty standard, including the usual chocolate sauces and brittles, cookies, and brownies. The caramel sauce is really quite excellent - it remains pliable when frozen (kitchen chemistry to the rescue!), instead of turning hard like stiff taffy the way most caramels do when cold. It uses a philosophy that I really like, providing three different bases to which you add flavorings: an ice cream base, a sorbet base, and even a vegan ice cream base. The vegan base is another area where they get weird. First of all, the presence of a base suggests that it's neutral-flavored and easily adaptable, but they only use it in a single recipe, and they give zero instructions for using it with other flavors. In fact, their vegan base probably cannot be widely used as it is STRONGLY coconutty, and the coconut would overshadow most other flavors. So, this feels (particularly in the context of a meatier-than-usual offering) almost phoned-in, only included so they can claim it's vegan-friendly when it really isn't. So: if you are looking for vegan desserts, look elsewhere (it doesn't even include sorbets which are typically vegan). But if you are interested in interesting flavors, this might be a fine choice. So, 4 stars because it's got lots of exciting flavors for me to try, losing one star for lack of dairy-free options.

Wow. I have to say I’m not a avid reader. I really don’t like to read much. But this book is so interesting, so full of ideas that I’m actually reading it! Kudos to them! I’m loving all the new ideas -like roasting the strawberries! I also was pleasantly surprised in the thickness of the book. Lots of different recipes I can’t wait to try. I especially like the page where they have doubled and tripled and even more-the bases! I plan on making up a supply of bases I will keep in the freezer alongside my cylinder for making ice cream. My grandkids are gonna reap the rewards from this book! Love it Ps. I made 4x the ice cream base. And I made the strawberry balsamic. OMG. The most intense strawberry flavor ever! I did up double of the roasted strawberries so I used half of it for the jam part. It was the deepest red ribbons in the ice cream I have ever seen. The flavor with the balsamic. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t sell that combination. Just that one recipe alone was worth the whole book! My ice cream was thick. And lush. And no ice crystals like I’ve always had with past homemade ice creams. This was spot on! Family raves about it. I should have taken a picture. Maybe I will of the last little bit. Ps. I added a photo.

Buying this cookbook was the best and worst decision of my life. Best because now I can make Salt & Straw’s legendary ice creams at home. Worst because I am making them at home. Constantly. And I think my freezer is now legally classified as a dessert bar. The recipes are wild in the best way. Who knew Pear and Blue Cheese ice cream would slap? But let’s not kid ourselves. The real reason this book should win a Nobel Prize is the chocolate ice cream. It’s not just good. It’s not just top tier. It is the frozen embodiment of joy. Other ice creams taste like they tried. This chocolate tastes like it knows it’s better than your childhood memories and isn't sorry about it. Reading this cookbook is like flipping through a food magazine edited by a mad genius who thought, “What if dessert were emotional?” And the best part? You actually can make these at home. No degree in pastry arts required, just a decent whisk and a willingness to risk becoming your neighborhood’s weird ice cream person.

There are a lot of books in the marketplace trying to teach the enthusiastic amateur how to make ice cream. Some are scientifically complex and require lots of ingredients. Some are wickedly innovative (I’m thinking here of the Jenni’s ice cream book) and then there is this amazing book from Salt & Straw in Portland. Innovative flavors abound (smoked bacon caramel with cocoa nougat and chocolate covered pecans, anyone?). Meyer lemon with blueberries is stunning, but so are many others like cinnamon snickerdoodle and another that uses the almond brittle from a recipe of the grandmother of the owner. There are two things in particular I love about this book. One is a base recipe that is dead simple - you can put it together in five minutes - coupled with easy to follow coaching on how to churn the ice cream (or sorbet, gelato or the Vegan option). The other is the sheer variety of flavor combinations along with the coaching for how to make mix-ins that work in a frozen dessert. For example, a regular caramel will freeze rock solid, so this book shows you how to make a caramel that stays soft even when frozen. I’ve already made half the recipes in the book and everyone is a success. There are some I won’t bother with - the beer based don’t speak to me and I can do without the blood sausage version (seriously), but it’s safe to say there is something here for everyone and the success rate is extremely high.

This is the best ice cream recipe book I've ever used. It's taught me so much about the basics and chemistry of making ice cream. I've made about 10 recipes so far and each one is fantastic. There's a bit of a learning curve but I'd say the level is still easy. Once you know how to make a good ice cream base, the sky is the limit. I've now even taken some of the ideas and made my own variations. Highly recommended.

The base ice cream recipe in this book is widely available without purchasing the book , but this book offers far more than that. I have over a dozen ice cream books and this and the other Salt and Straw ice cream, book have become my go-tos. Some of the recipes are very involved and take a lot of time, but are completely worth the effort.

Really nice book from what seems like a good company. Simple to follow recipes so far that produce great results having made 6-7 in a Kitchenaid ice cream stand mixer.

I already know how to make gelato and didn't love how measurements are only in cups and spoons. It opens a great margin for error in ice cream making. The recipes are creative, but I was overall a little disappointed

Lovely cookbook, lots of recipes and very inventive. Unfortunately the whole book is based on 3 types of ice cream and the all of the range - ice cream,sorbet and coconut (dairy free) uses corn syrup and xanthan gum. I dislike the use of corn syrup, maybe as I live in Australia and can't source easily, and its use in all things American. I would have appreciated more variety in the types of ice cream base.

Algumas receitas não se aplicam em nada ao paladar do brasileiro mas todo o resto vale muito a pena.