I've been fiddling with a recipe for pear-ginger ice cream. It's good ice cream, but it keeps overflowing my ice cream maker. This time I kept a close eye on it and bailed out some before it overflowed. Naturally we ate the results. And ... it was flat. Doug pointed out that I'd used ginger root that had been in the fridge for a couple weeks, so it didn't have the expected amount of fire. So, he suggested adding some cinnamon. The result is substantially different than the original pear-ginger, but good enough that I figured it was worth writing down. Plus it's a tasty way to use up a couple of very ripe pears and a chunk of stale ginger root.

Don't be afraid to try new things. Even if you don't get what you expected, sometimes the results are good in a different way. Don't be afraid to discuss and brainstorm and critique. Somebody else may come up with a good idea that you would've missed by settling for "not bad." My suggestion was to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and use the ice cream as a base for liberal amounts of bittersweet chocolate syrup. I think that would've worked, but it was easier to test the cinnamon by sprinkling it on top of the samples. That was good enough to convince me to flavor the whole batch.


Cinnamon Ginger Pear Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 very ripe pears
1-inch piece of stale ginger root
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon

Directions:
Peel pears and cut into chunks. Peel and grate ginger. Combine pears, ginger, and lemon juice in a bowl; mash thoroughly. Stir in cream and milk. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze for 25 minutes. Add cinnamon and continue to churn until thoroughly blended, about 2 minutes. Transfer ice cream into container and store in freezer.

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