Anglaise Anyone?

If you been by to the Salt House lately, looking for some of Jen's yummy ice cream to cool down from the summer weather, you may have noticed there is none to be had. Jen's ice cream machine, the contraption at the center of such controversy, has been finicky since the day it came it. Its short history has included starting rivalries, requiring a 20-minute reset cycle, leaking lid, and shorting out electrical receptacles, and now it even electrocuted Jen's assistant, not too badly thank god. He is in good health and with all his hair not permanently spiky. With such a hazard, it has been taken out of commission for the time being to see if it will even be salvageable. Thus, Jen has reverted to a modified limited menu. Many desserts will be without ice cream and others will be replaced with anglaise.

Those of you who are not in the know may be surprised to learned that ice cream requires a machine. It's function is to whip the ice cream base, or anglaise, while it's being frozen. The whipping motion incorporates air and breaks up ice crystals to make a fine, pleasing texture for the ice cream. The anglaise sauce is simply the unfrozen, unwhipped, but beautifully flavored ice cream base. The same flavor concepts will apply to Jen's modified desserts, but the original intended textures (and temperatures) will be off.

Let's all cross our fingers, and hope that the ice cream machine will be fixed soon.

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Culinary Word of the Day: Crème Anglaise
The French term for a rich custard sauce that can be served hot or cold over cake, fruit or other dessert. Source: Food Lover's Companion

Note: Do check out the Culinary Word of the Day on July 2 for more about Custard.

Extra Note: On July 9, I posted Birch Molasses as the Culinary Word of the Day. I have since been corrected. Proper molasses is a byproduct of sugar refining process, and thus Birch Syrup, which is typically not ever refined down to a solid, cannot yield molasses. I've changed the July 9th CWotD to be Birch Syrup.