Whimsy is one of my favorite things about Modernist cuisine. When I nostalgically described my childhood Seder dinners to our culinary team, two themes emerged: matzah and Manischewitz. matzah is an incredibly humble yet important food—I like mine sandwiched with a generous portion of haroseth, which my mother made with walnuts, wine, and apples. I always looked forward to each symbolic dip and drink of Manischewitz that we would take throughout Seder. But, growing up in a relatively small southern town, we didn’t have many options when it came to Passover-friendly goods and usually struggled to make it through the week despite my mother’s adept skills. I loved her apple cakes, made with matzah meal and flourless chocolate cakes, but I (very) secretly longed for something new.
When it comes to desserts, for me, good ice cream trumps all. When our head chef suggested using matzah as an ice-cream base, I knew he had stumbled upon the Passover dessert I always wanted as a kid. Here, matzah is transformed into a delicately sweet ice cream, and the sugary Manischewitz makes perfect sense as a caramel to complement the ice cream. Matzah and Manischewitz work together in a new way but still retain notes of the original ingredients, adding delightful layers of whimsy and surprise to this dessert.
Ingredients:
- Whole milk 1kg
- Matzah Sheets 400g
- Matzah-steeped milk 690g
- Heavy cream 210g
- Milk powder 40g
- Sugar 120g
- Glucose powder 135g
- Ice-cream stabilizer 5g
- Manischewitz wine 500g
- Heavy cream 150g
Preheat the oven to 160°C/ 320°F.
Place the matzah in a single layer on a sheet pan, and toast in the oven until it turns amber.
While the matzah is toasting, bring the milk to a simmer in a medium-sized saucepan.
Add the toasted matzah to the hot milk. Turn the heat off, submerge the matzo in the milk, and steep for 1 hour.
Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl.
Pass the milk through a fine sieve into a medium-sized bowl, and then place the bowl in the ice bath.
Reserve the matzah-steeped milk in the refrigerator, or proceed directly to the next step.
Prepare an ice bath to hold the ice-cream base.
Combine the matzah-steeped milk and heavy cream in a small pot. Whisk together the milk powder, 114 g of sugar, and glucose powder.
Warm the mixture on a stove top over medium-high heat. Combine separately the remaining sugar and ice-cream stabilizer, and then add them to the steeped milk.
Heat it to 85°C/ 185°F, turn the heat down, and whisk for 3 minutes.
Transfer the ice-cream base to a metal bowl, and place it in the ice bath. Whisk the ice-cream base as it cools, and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.
Churn the ice cream in an ice-cream machine. Cover it with plastic wrap, and reserve in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
Reduce the wine by one-fifth (100 g) in a saucepan.
In a separate saucepan, warm the heavy cream on medium heat to just below a simmer.
Slowly whisk together the hot cream and reduced wine. Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the resulting caramel into a metal bowl, and allow it to cool at a room temperature.
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