Denali Daybreak
Sweet cream base + lingonberry curd + almond hazelnut oat clusters
The vision for this flavor began in December, when lingonberries and hazelnuts seemed like a most delightful holiday pairing.
In our kitchen we love any reason to showcase the delicious berries of Alaska, including the often overlooked tundra lingonberry (low-bush cranberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea). These little gems are tart, a touch bitter, and bursting with flavor! This year we decided to make them into a lingonberry curd. Halfway between a jam and a custard, curds are a delicious, creamy, fruit-forward way to use nearly any fruit. Given the very tart and bitter nature of these berries, this curd went through a few layers of development, each adding more sugar, until we had a result with the flavor and texture that we wanted for our ice cream.
Next, we wanted a slightly crunchy complement to pair with it. We love hazelnuts, and decided to adapt our oaty streusel (from Rhubarb Crumble!) recipe to include almonds and hazelnuts. This process took a few tries to get enough of the delicate hazelnut and almond flavors to come through, but we are really happy with the rich nuttiness that they bring to this flavor!
We wanted a name that evokes the tundra and Alaska's wild spaces. The bright red streaks from the lingonberry curd reminded us of the red sunrise glow on Denali. We hope you enjoy this unique Alaskan flavor as much as we do!
(As a fun bonus, we are linking to this Alaska Wild Berry Infographic that we stumbled upon. We learned that AK lingonberries have the highest antioxidant score of ALL the berries listed!!! Point being, you should feel great enjoying this healthy flavor ;-D
Allergens: almond, egg, hazelnut, milk, wheat
Ancho Brownie
Ancho pepper base + AK barley brownies
Long-time Club members might detect that this flavor was inspired by a 2017 flavor, Holy Molé, but for this iteration we switched up the add-in and streamlined the production process.
Dried peppers have always intrigued me (Elissa), especially the milder ones where the mellow spiciness lets the rest of the flavor profile shine through. Ancho peppers, another name for dried poblano peppers, are known for their earthy sweetness with notes of plum, raisin, chocolate, and tobacco. It seemed like a profile that would pair perfectly with our homemade brownies (which we make using AK barley flour from Alaska Flour Company).
Believe it or not, this flavor went through 6 trials! For a while, we were using guajillo peppers (characterized by a sweet fruity berry flavor) and strawberries, then we played around with only powdered peppers (which yielded more spice but a flatter flavor), but we finally ended up on a process that involved rehydrating dried whole peppers, blending into a puree, and then adding to our cream the same way we would add other fruit purees.
We love the terra-cotta color of this ice cream, and we hope it doesn’t scare you! We served this flavor to a visiting tour group of elementary students, and 16/18 enjoyed it (with several begging us to make it way spicier). But we didn’t want this flavor to be too spicy; we were going for just a lingering touch of heat. Ancho peppers only rate as 500-3,000 on the pepper-spiciness Scoville scale, compared to cayenne peppers (30,000–50,000 Scoville Heat Units) or habanero peppers (100,000–350,000 SHU),
Allergens: egg, milk, wheat
Bonus: Sunny Garden Sammie
Lemon shortbread + Herbes de Provence ice cream
This savory delight comes to you from our Baking Coordinator, Sam. Here’s what they wrote:
“When trying to come up with new flavors to try and incorporate into Adventure Club I tend to gravitate towards savory, herbal, or tart flavors, as many traditional ice cream flavors are too sweet for my palate. I have long enjoyed Herbes de Provence in my home cooking in soups and on roasted veggies.
Herbes de Provence is a descriptive name for a blend of herbs common in that region of southern France and has no set combination but it usually combines thyme, rosemary, savory, and marjoram, and sometimes lavender or fennel. We used the blend from Summit Spice and Tea which uses all of the above. I wanted to try a variety of different herb flavors in ice cream and I thought this blend would be a great pick for its combination of herbal and floral flavors.
I really liked how the base turned out, but I wanted to pair it with something a bit tart that would add a different texture. Lemon is often combined with Herbes de Provence and I had also been wanting to develop a lemon shortbread recipe so we decided to make it a sammie. I really wanted a tart lemon flavor in the cookie that would stand up to the bold flavor of the ice cream.
I ended up adding lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract to the recipe to achieve this. To shape the cookies I used the method we used for our lavender shortbread sammies from a few years ago where you portion the dough into logs and then slice them into round cookies. This was very labor intensive to do for 500+ cookies and I probably wouldn’t do it again! But, I think they turned out well! I hope you enjoy them, they remind me of sitting in the afternoon sun in Provence and smelling rosemary and thyme on the breeze.”
Allergens: egg, milk, wheat
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