Everyone has seen freeze-dried ice cream, a.k.a. astronaut ice cream. We thought, why not make ice cream with freeze-dried fruits? We can focus and intensify flavor without adding additional water, and there is no need to cook the fruit. We started today. We used freeze-dried strawberries and buttermilk to flavor our base. The strawberry flavor is vivid. The buttermilk is clean and tangy. The addition of guar gum will thicken the base and give it a slightly chewy texture without adding egg yolks. The base will rest for 4 hours, giving the flavors a chance to meld and the guar gum time to fully hydrate. Then it’s churning time.
Freeze-Dried Strawberry Ice Cream
– 56 grams freeze-dried strawberries
– 965 grams buttermilk
– 180 grams sugar
– 4.5 grams fine sea salt
– 1.4 grams guar gum
– 300 grams heavy cream
Put the freeze-dried strawberries, buttermilk, sugar, and salt into a blender. Turn the blender on low and increase the speed to high. Puree the mixture until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and sprinkle in the guar gum. Increase the speed to high and puree the mixture for 30 seconds. Turn the blender off and add the cream. Turn the speed up to medium and puree for 10 seconds to blend in the cream. Strain the base and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 12. Freeze the base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.
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