Cookbook Review:

Frozen Heaven: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas and Much More

July is national ice cream month.  So city cooks -- do your part and make your own.  What?  You've never made your own ice cream?  You're in luck because David Lebovitz's cookbook, The Perfect Scoop (Ten Speed Press, $24.95) will quickly turn you into a master.

Here's the thing about making your own ice cream:  if all you do is put flavored chilled cream or fruit purée into your ice cream maker, sure it will be refreshing and an occasional treat, but it won't convert you from the store-bought brands.  But if you let Mr. Lebovitz teach you the grace notes, technique and essential wisdom of making frozen desserts, you will insist on home-made ice cream in the same way you now use your own vinaigrette instead of bottled dressing.

David Lebovitz lives in Paris and writes an alluring and delicious food blog that The City Cook lists as one of our favorites.  More telling, he's also a masterful pastry chef who learned chocolate in Belgium, pastry in France, and quality and excellence from 12 years at Chez Panisse.  With chops like these, the man knows his sweet ingredients and in The Perfect Scoop he adds the science and art of working with them to produce extraordinary frozen results.   His lively wit, clear writing style and 50 gorgeous photographs make this cookbook an absolute triumph.  At a time when bookshelves can get crowded with redundant cooking topics, The Perfect Scoop stands out as a future classic.

The Science

Before getting into the recipes, Mr. Lebovitz sets the foundation with a clear and useful section called "Basics" in which he teaches technique and know-how.  He offers a fail-proof primer on making the perfect custard -- essential to achieve real ice cream -- including clear and useful photographs.  Next are guidelines for the ingredients he uses in the recipes, including alcohol, berries, chocolate, eggs, nuts and others, some of which have unexpected traits when used frozen.  And finally, he includes an extremely useful section on equipment. 

The Recipes

The book has 164 recipes for ice creams, sorbets, sherbets, granitas, frozen yogurts and gelati, as well as for sauces, toppings, mix-ins and what Mr. Lebovitz calls "Vessels," meaning cookies, brownies and other sweets to serve with ice cream.  For most of the recipes he also adds a note called "Perfect Pairing" with suggestions for a sauce or a mix-in, helping you make the most of any effort.  There are also some lengthy tips that will make you smarter and more skilled, such as how to do marbling, the basics of gelato, and working with yogurt.

The 73 recipes for ice cream and frozen yogurts include both the simple and the unexpected.  For example, there are two types of vanilla ice cream (one with, one without eggs), 8 chocolates including one eggless, one with peanut butter, another with raspberry, and still another with Guinness stout adding hearty flavor to milk chocolate.  Some of the unexpected flavors include basil, super lemon, pear-pecorino, and orange-Szechwan pepper, and there are scores of other ideas to use the best of in-season tastes like cinnamon, eggnog, fresh apricot, strawberry-sour cream, toasted coconut, and prune-Armagnac ice creams.

The "Sorbets and Sherbets" section offers 39 ideas for mostly fruit-based treats.  Mango, blackberry, pineapple-Champagne, and grape sorbets and pina colada or mocha sherbets -- their names alone are refreshing.  He fine-tunes his technique depending upon the ingredients so to get the most flavor out of each fruit, like adding a bit of sparkling cider to a green apple sorbet, making the case why this is no ordinary recipe book. 

Granitas are a great choice for city cooks who don't have an ice cream maker because they only require a dish, a freezer and a fork to make.  Despite their simplicity, Mr. Lebovitz gives us 18 recipes, mostly fruit-based but including ones for expresso and chocolate, as well as the potent mojito granita.

Knowing that frozen treats don't always stand alone, the book includes 27 sauces and toppings (the "Classic Hot Fudge" recipe is alone worth the book) and 21 mix-ins including buttered pecans, candied cherries, and Belgian speculoos (you'll have to get the book to find out what these spicy treats are).  The 13 recipes for "Vessels" are like a bonus book because Mr. Lebovitz, a gifted pastry chef, has added his flawless versions of brownies (cake, chewy and blonde), oatmeal cookies, profiteroles, meringues and more which you'll love even if you're not making anything frozen to go with them.

Frozen Regrets

I have only one regret with The Perfect Scoop:  that I didn't review it sooner than early July.  But summer is far from over and you still have weeks of warm weather ahead to enjoy this masterful book.  Also keep in mind that frozen desserts are wonderful year-round.  Come some chilly day in January, make his "Chocolate-Tangerine Sorbet" to follow a hearty winter stew and salute this author who has made it possible for each of us to have ice cream -- really, really good ice cream -- every day of the year.