Im Sorry, I never Introduced Myself

I've been a member here for a couple years now.

I'm sure some of the regulars recognize my posts but I've never formally introduced myself..and I've been quiet lately as I have been getting a new ice cream business off the ground this summer.

My name is Dan. After working for years in investmemt baking and as a geologist, I returned home and I am now pursuing a life long dream of serving people my food (on the weekend aside from my day job...for now). I am still new to ice cream making but business has been great and we've been getting amazing feedback. We change the menu on a weekly basis based on what's in season. We also ezplore with aome pretty adventerous flavours - we've done Bourbon Cornflakes, Sweet Corn with a Blackberry Swirl, Salted Caramel India Pale Ale, Basil with Sweet Tomato Jam, Carbonated Rootbeer Ice Cream and a Spicy Hongy Ginger Chilli ice cream, to name a few. I'm really exited to debut Pumpkin Pie and Pear Riesling Ginger this weekend.

Anyways, owe Chefsteps and the members of this board a big thank you for helping me up my game and inspire me to take the plunge.

I hope you will follow us on Facebook and Twitter @FrozenWolfHFX

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Comments

fisher23

Welcome Daniel, nice to see you again. It sounds like your business has been doing well, congratulations.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Hola!!

Jack_Mayer_85396

Hi Dan, welcome! Great to have you here!

tangma27

Hi Daniel!

LETS HEAR MORE ABOUT HOW ONE BECOMES AN INVESTMENT BANKER AND A GEOLOGIST?

dancurren

Not a terribly exciting story - I had a passion for finance and investing from a very early age an always planned on becoming a banker. I happened to pick up a few geology credits in my final year of school to fill out my electives (the Canadian economy is dominated by natural resources so it seemed like it could be useful knowledge). After working banking for nearly five yearss, I was downsized into a terrible, post-crash market. I decided to return to school where I studied geology and engineering and wound up in Calgary as a petroleum geologist before making my way back home on the east coast.

dancurren

Thanks John. We couldn't be more thrilled with how the early results are coming in. Sales have been stronger than anticipated and, more importantly, we have been getting incredible feedback. We've had a number of customers buy our ice cream, head downstairs to shop in the market (we have been selling on the roof top of the local farmer's market with incredible views of the harbour) and then make their way up e flights of stairs again just to compliment us. That is an amazing feeling.

tangma27

That sounds...really exciting HAHA. It's cool to hear about people with many different careers. Investor, geologist, and ice cream maker?

coryhansen78

Welcome! (Sorry, I just noticed your post.)

Congrats on the business. Very cool. Sorry about the lame pun.

I am a fellow ice-cream aficionado. If you don't mind me asking about the pumpkin pie ice cream - I'd appreciate any insights you care to share... I've been thinking about an ice cream with pumpkin pie inclusions for a while now, but when I've tried adding diced-up pie pieces into an ice cream base during churning, the texture of the pieces suffers (they are icy in the finished product).

I assume i'd need to reformulate the pie (more sugar/solids), but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet. Just curious what your ice cream is like and if you ran into any problems like that...

dancurren

I make a pumpkin pie filling by stewing and pureeing sugar pumpkins. As I am stewing the pumpkin I add the same stabilizers I would for a sorbet - a mix of locust gum, guar gum, iota carageenan and lamda carragennan. I find these help with the icy texture. I season the filling as I would I pie and I cook a plain ice cream base with pumkin pie spices. I then add the pumkin sorbet to the ice cream base (I use a french style egg base) at the beginning of churning. I get a rich, smoothy and cream ice cream that tastes just like pie.

To give a bit of crunch in lieu of crust I add dried maple cream in small pues which is cuite crisp and crumbly. If you ca 't find this, I find a dry ginger or cinnamon cookie crumbled in also works well.

coryhansen78

That sounds really good!

I hadn't even considered stabilizers, but that makes total sense.

Good stuff. Thanks!!