IMBB 11: Fried Azuki Bean Ice Cream

Before I had even started, I knew that this dish could easily turn into an absolute disaster.  On Saturday I made azuki bean ice cream, and today my plan was to coat scoops of the ice cream with panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and deep fry them in hot oil.  Two outcomes seemed likely.  Either the ice cream would instantly melt into a puddle of purplish muck and cause the oil to pop and explode, or the panko would insulate the ice cream enough to form a shell, and keep the scoop of ice cream intact.

As it turns out, my results were somewhere in between the two.  While I waited for the panko to brown, the ice cream began to melt, and everything barely remained in one piece.  It did, however, taste quite good - good enough to use it as my entry for the eleventh edition of Is My Blog Burning? hosted by Cathy of My Little Kitchen.  The theme for the event is Beans, Beans, the musical fruit.

I had heard about, but had never eaten fried ice cream, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  The recipes I had read prior to starting suggested that the key was to freeze the ice cream until it was very hard, and to cover it with a thick coating of pastry.  Originally, I had wanted to make ice cream tempura, but this proved to be difficult since there wasn't enough friction between the ice cream and the tempura batter to prevent it from sliding off.  Freezing an even coating of batter onto the ice cream was also difficult, so breading the ice cream seemed to be a better alternative.  Of the different breading mixtures I tried, a flour,egg,panko mix worked best.  Next time (if I ever try this again), I'll add an extra layer of flour and egg to give the ice cream more insulation.

The taste was very good.  The hot, crisp panko crust, contrasted nicely with the cold, creamy azuki bean ice cream.  A thicker crust - perhaps wrapping the ice cream with sponge cake before coating it with batter - would probably work better.  Because my recipe is very much a work-in-progress, I've only given the recipes for the ice cream and sauce below.  If you do try frying ice cream (at your own risk) please be careful, and let me know how it goes.

On an unrelated note, I will be hosting the February edition of Sugar High Fridays on February 11th.  The theme will be puff pastry, and you're welcome to either use pre-made puff pastry dough, or make your own.  Everyone – whether you're a novice baker or a skilled professional – is invited to join in on the fun!

Azuki Bean Ice Cream

Sweet Azuki Bean Paste (Anko)
(adapted from The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo)

Sweet Azuki bean paste serves as the foundation for many Japanese desserts, and is used in this recipe to flavour the ice cream and the sauce.  The paste has a smooth texture and a chestnut-like flavour.

- 1 cup (7 ounces) dried azuki beans
- 8 1/3 cups water
- 1 cup granulated sugar

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the azuki beans and 4 cups of water.  Bring to a boil.

Drain the beans and discard the water.  In the saucepan over medium heat, combine the beans with 4 cups of fresh water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 60 minutes, or until tender. Add water during cooking as necessary.  At the end of cooking, the water should be barely covering the beans.

Transfer the beans and liquid into a food processor and blend until smooth.  Pass the mixture through a sieve or tamis.  You should have about 2 – 2 ¼ cups of purée.

Fill a large bowl with cold water.  Transfer the purée into a cheesecloth, leaving enough room to tie the cheesecloth securely into a ball.  Plunge the purée-filled cheesecloth into the water, and rinse the purée by squeezing the ball of cheesecloth.  Remove the ball from the water, discard the water, add fresh water to the bowl and rinse again.  Squeeze the ball tightly to remove any excess water.  Remove the purée and discard the cheesecloth.

In a medium saucepan, combine purée, sugar, and 1/3 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat while stirring constantly.  Cook the mixture for 20 minutes, or until it reaches the consistency of soft peanut butter.  Refrigerate the paste until required.
azuki bean sauce

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Azuki Bean Ice Cream

- 4 cups milk
- 7/8 cups heavy cream
- 10 egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup sweet azuki bean paste

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is thick and pale yellow.

In large saucepan, bring milk to a boil over medium heat.  Add the cream, bring mixture to a boil, and reduce heat to low. 

Temper the egg mixture by whisking in about 1/3 of the milk mixture into the egg mixture and transfer the entire mixture into the saucepan.

Over low heat, cook the mixture until it reaches 180F, or until it coats the back of a wooden spoon.  Remove from heat and stir in the sweet azuki bean paste.  Add additional paste to taste.

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl sitting atop an ice water bath.  When cool, transfer into a container and refrigerate overnight.

Transfer the mixture into an ice cream machine, following manufacturer's directions.  Freeze ice cream until solid.

Makes 1.5 L.

Azuki Bean Sauce

- sweet azuki bean paste
- condensed milk
- milk

In a small bowl, mix together equal parts of sweet azuki bean paste and condensed milk.  Adjust to taste.  Add milk to adjust to desired consistency.

Serve ice cream with sauce

Comments

[santos]

hello clement

while i've never had deep-fried ice cream, i've deep-fried many items that should never have been immersed in hot oil. anthony from spiceblog seems to have a corner on the market, as he has successfully deep-fried wine. he might have some tips.

i do suggest, however, that if you try this again, perhaps phyllo might be the way to go--its texture suggests it would fry lightly, and might accentuate the delicate nature of the azuki bean ice cream. architecturally, it could be quite stunning--you might even be able to give it an origami-like flair. or, maybe try the shredded variety...kataifi, i think it's called.

[gwenda]

hey love your entries as always because your writing is succinct and the photos are fantabulous..

with regards to the fried icecream, over here we dip the ice cream in a batter and fry it before sending it straight to the freezer. at this point the icecream has probably melted, but it remains encased in the batter (or breadcrumbs) cocoon, which gives us the opportunity to freeze it, and then flash-fry it very quickly when it has frozen. in this way, the surface is hot but the icecream remains cold.

[Derrick Schneider]

My friend does deep-fried chocolate truffles. He makes them by making the filling, freezing, coating in one layer of breading, freezing and then coating in a second layer of breading (and then freezing again). Might help.

[Zarah Maria]

As always a stunning entry Clement! I think I have to try and get my little paws on some azuki bean-thing soon, you've all made it sound like something one has to try...
Looking forward to SHF!:-)

[Jessica]

Nice job! Rachael Ray from 30 Minute Meals has a shortcut for "fried" ice cream: just roll ice cream balls in crushed corn flakes. I haven't tried it, but I bet it'll be less messy than heating a vat of oil. I wonder how it would turn out if you coated ice cream with toasted panko crumbs.

[chika]

Hi Clement,

I hate anko for as far as I can remember, but then, when you make it even anko looks great...

A lot of time when they make ice cream tempura in Japan, they batter and deep-fry ice cream in puff shell (pate a choux / choux pastry). Ice cream in puff shell can be made by "injecting" soft ice cream into a shell and freeze it, but this way you will have to make choux pastry too, so it might be a bit too much trouble... just FYI.

[Reid]

Hi Clement,

Interesting and it looks good too. I like azuki bean ice cream and think that your creation has lots of merit. I have had fried ice cream before, but it was encased in a pastry shell rather than coated in panko flakes.

[Clement]

Thanks everyone for you terrific suggestions..

Santos - Great idea - phyllo would probably work very well. A few layers should provide enough insulation to prevent the ice cream from melting into the oil (which ruins the oil). I had completely forgotten about Anthony's famous fried wine - fried ice cream seems safe and easy in comparison!

Gwenda - Good to hear that you've had success making it yourself. I refroze the ice cream after breading it, but it still began melting fairly quickly once it was in the oil. I tried frying it at temperatures ranging from 350F to 400F, but the panko crumbs just couldn't brown soon enough. I can only guess that I need to use a thicker egg-flour batter underneath the panko to better insulate the ice cream. Any ideas?

Derrick - Thanks for the idea - two layers of breading sounds like it would help insulate the ice cream much better and also provide a crispier shell. Deep fried truffles sound incredibly delicious too.

Zarah Maria - I chose azuki beans because it was one of the few beans I could think of that are normally used for sweet, instead of savory dishes. It actually tastes quite similar to chestnut paste for some reason.

Jessica - That was my backup plan :) My last ditch attempt would have been to either brown it with a blowtorch or to just coat it with toasted breadcrumbs. I guess the main difference in Rachel Ray's version is that there wouldn't be thin pastry shell underneath the breadcrumbs, and a hot-cold temperature contrast between the outside and inside. It would definitely be much less messy though... burnt breadcrumbs and melted ice cream don't exactly mix well with hot oil.

Chika - That's a great idea. It certainly sounds like a much more consistent and cleaner way of doing it. Would I just bake the choux puffs, inject the ice cream, freeze it, and give it a quick fry to crisp it up just before serving? This sounds similar to the way jelly-filled donuts are made.

Reid - I really enjoyed making the azuki bean ice cream. It tasted great, and at least I knew what I was doing during that part of the dish :) I've read so much about fried ice cream, so I hope I can try it out somewhere.

[Cathy]

Hi Clement - you are so brave in the kitchen! I can't imagine even attempting fried ice cream myself - though the azuki bean ice cream and sauce are another matter... Like Zarah, I'm anxious to give those little beans a try in something sweet very soon! Thanks so much for participating in IMBB 11!

[chika]

Hi Clement,

According to what I've heard, the ice-cream puffs should be dipped in tempura batter before deep-fried (a single layer of puff pastry might not have enough protection against hot oil, I imagine) and like you guessed, they'd usually be served straight away like any tempura, just with cold ice cream inside.

[coolbeans]

hello

I heard of this post from a friend of mine and she relayed it to me. There's a recipe that I've repeated time and time again that gives me great results...though it might not appeal to some since it involves dipping the frozen ice cream ball in egg before rolling in crushed cornflake. It makes for a more thicker shell, but its proved successful in preventing ice cream from leaking out. You could use this method with panko also though the crust might not be as sweet. Nothing a few drizzles of chocolate sauce couldn't fix.

For myself, I've found that the key to my ice cream not melting is long periods of freezing. After dipping the ball in egg and rolling in crushed cornflake, I freeze the ball overnight. This makes for having to prepare a day ahead, but it will help to alleviate the problem with the ice cream melting too fast and save your oil. If you don't have this kind of time, a couple hours of freezing might do if you use the egg wash.

Good luck in your next adventure in ice cream deep fry!

[Clement]

Cathy - Thanks so much for organizing IMBB 11 and doing an incredible job with the write-ups. The quality of the entries and the number of entries really speaks to the success of IMBB and your terrific theme!

Chika - Thanks for the advice. I originally wanted to make tempura ice cream, so your recipe is perfect. I'll definitely give this a try.

Coolbeans - Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm glad to hear you've been able to successfully fry ice cream. I did freeze the ice cream for about 20 hours after coating it with the breadcrumbs, egg, and flour, but the ice cream still began to melt out after about 20 seconds of frying. My guess is that I should have either coated and froze it again for more insulation, or toasted the panko beforehand, so I wouldn't have to wait for it to brown. I played around with different temperatures to try to speed up the browning, but it still seemed to take too long at 400F. One last possibility is that my freezer might not be cold enough. Although the ice cream was very solid, my fridge freezer only goes to -10C/14F, so perhaps it would help to freeze it at a colder temperature. Thanks again for your suggestions!

[Sammy]

Hi,

I was wondering what exactly was the mixture of flour, egg, etc. that you used? I would love to try this myself.

[Finna]

Regards from Indonesia. :) your blog is very beautiful..^^ and the food oh..looks yummy..:) it is great!! please update moreeeeeee food..:)

[Clement]

Hi Sammy - I dredged the ice cream with a thin coating of flour, then dipped it in egg, before coating it with bread crumbs and putting it back into the freezer. If you try, I'd recommend giving it another coating of flour, egg, and bread crumbs to better insulate the ice cream. Let me know how it goes - good luck!

Hi Finna - Thanks for visiting - I'm finally back and I hope to update much more often!

[Dai]

Hio!
I actually tried tempura ice cream once and have stuggled trying to make it. You're the only one who has any sort of recipie for it and I thank you. Apparently the one I tried had yellow cake in it, but I can't find out how to fix it.. I've tried coating it with batter and feezing it. Then I tried to add a coat of tempura batter to it and freeze it, but that also failed. My next attempt is to wrap the baked cake around the ice cream and freeze it. Then I could dip that in the batter and fry it then. Do you think that would work? Sorry for the long post. I appreciate your time!!

[Clement]

Hi Dai, it sounds like you're doing the right thing. Freezing the batter helps give the ice cream more insulation, but I found that my freezer wasn't cold enough to prevent the ice cream from melting and leaking out before the batter browned.

The easiest and possibly the tastiest way to do ice cream tempura might be to follow Chika's suggestion of making choux puffs, injecting them with ice cream, coating them with batter, freezing them, and then frying them.

Good luck, and please let me know how they turn out!

[Dai]

Hio Clement.
It seems that the batter had also fell apart.. So I tried baking the cake, coating the ice cream with it, then freezing it. Take it out, layer it with flour and egg, freesing it again. When I fried it, it was still together, which was the good thing. Though when I cut it open, all this melted ice cream came pouring out. x_x So I'll try the other way you suggested. May be a while until I do though. Thanks again!!

[Neil]

Just ran into this page while looking for a recipe for azuki-bean ice-cream. Neat! I've had deep fried ice-cream many times, mostly at mexican or thai restaurants, but haven't dared try to make it yet. But perhaps I will sometime.

One thing I remember is that some of the batters (usually tastes like a bread or corn-flakes based batter) have cinammon in it, which is really awesome. Perhaps try that. I have asked the restaurants before, and they recommended very hot oil so it fries quicker. My guess is that a thick coat of batter could be worse since it would need to be in the oil longer. But even if the ice cream melted a bit on the inside, it shouldn't be a problem to re-freeze it, as long as is does not leak out.

Cheers,
-Neil.

[nox_lumen]

hi. i came acrost this page trying to find out what to do now that i have azuki beans. most recipes i find tell me to buy a can of sweet bean paste rather then telling me how to make it at home so thank you for the directions on that part. however i don't understand the section that tells me to rinse the puree. this may be because most of my cooking is self-taught, but it seems to me that i would loose most of the puree to the water i rinsed it in. i would appreciate it if you could explaine this step in more detail for me. ps. thank you for posting a recipe for red bean paste i never would have thought to try. it sounds realy tasty.

[Michael B.]

I'm a few years behind here, but let me offer a suggestion for the Tempura Fried Ice Cream.

This was the most unusual desert I had ever had at Hana Sushi on Wilshire in Santa Monica. Not sure if they are still open, but they had this desert down to a perfection.

Their secret...........pound cake wrapped around the frozen ice cream ball and then pu back in the freezer.

They took the frozen concoction of pound cake and ice cream, gave it a quick Tempura dip and into the deep-fryer for about 30-45 seconds.

Theirs was the best in LA, and many many copied them afterwards.

If they are still open.......go to Hana Sushi on Wilshire.......if for the fried green-tea ice cream.

[Michael B.]

Just an update to the Pound Cake idea.

Hana Sushi used to use about a baseball sized ball of frozen ice-cream, but you can use smaller golf-ball sized scoops.

The ice cream has to be rock hard just about........not just out of your typical freezer..........really get it cold.

Cut this slices of Sara Lee pound cake (for instance).

Lay down a Saran Wrap or Glad-Wrap onto the cutting board.

Lay the 1/8" or 1/4" pieces of cut pound cake onto the Saran Wrap. 2 pieces top-to-top and then another 2 pieces side-by-side and top-to-top........so you kind of have an amount of area that would look like you have laid 2 pieces of bread side by side next to each other.

Place about 3 golf ball size scoops of frozen ice cream into the middle of the 4 pieces of pound cake.

Take the Saran Wrap and pull the edges up into a ball, so that the pound cake is wrapped around the ice cream.

Tighten the Saran Wrap tightly..........no loose areas, and just wrap your hands around the Saran Wrap and kind of squeeze the pound cake into the frozen ice cream balls.

You can now either dip this mixture into your Tempura batter and cook, or you can place the balls into the freezer until you are ready to coat and fry.

Use traditional Tempura instructions when determining how hot to get the oil for cooking.

Some say 30 seconds, some say 20 seconds, just keep your eye on it until the Tempura is light and crispy.

Take out with a netted, slotted spoon and let dry drain for a second or two and then serve.

If Hana Sushi is still open........for those of you living in LA..............get over there for that alone.........although their Sushi and ambiance of fun and rock n roll sushi was a great experience for me when I lived in LA.

Hana Sushi used to have a phone # of 310-473-6828