Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook Hardcover – April 30, 2019

I had Salt & Straw in LA for the first time a few months ago. I’ve been thinking about it ever since! Fast forward to just a few weeks ago when I discovered that this book. Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes, because let’s be real — some of the books we get from restaurants and bakeries with their recipes tend not to be exact, especially since they’re producing at larger quantities and some recipes just don’t scale well. I decided I’d at least give it a try, so I bought this book, along with an ice cream machine and some other gadgets/tools and got busy. The recipes are straight forward and easy to make. My first batch was the caramel ribbon ice cream. Whoa! It was an exact match of what I remember from the ice cream shop in LA. And then I had to try to snickerdoodle — while a bit more effort is involved in this recipe (making the cookie), it’s definitely worth the time. Just do it! What I also liked about this book is how it got my creative gears going. I’ve already envisioned using the base recipe and pairing it with other things to come up with my own flavors. Highly recommend this book. I own about 45-50 dessert recipe books ranging from baked goods to other ice cream books. This would def be in my top 5 and I know that I’ll use it again and again.

the xantham gum suggested in the book changed the ice cream making story. works very well. this book has a lot of bizzaar flavors that not sold in store, but worth trying

This book has a great base recipe to make ice cream. Also it includes several recipes for all kinds of ice cream! Highly recommend this book if you have an ice cream maker!

I always thought ice cream was good, but then I had Salt & Straw. It made me realize that ice cream can be incredible. Ice cream can embody complex flavors that evolve across your palette has you eat them, and they don't have to revolve around what combinations of sugary treats you want to add to them. Sadly, I don't live in a state that has salt and straw, and after trying every highly rated local ice cream shop, I was disappointed to find them all to be uninspired sugary nonsense.So I set out to make my own ice cream, and though I am only a week into my journey, I am already making better ice cream than anything I have found locally. This book is full of tons of recipes (listed below), and while some of them sound strange, much of the strangeness is certainly not a novelty. The flavors are complex and mind blowing, thing's you'd never expect to be delicious are so. Anyways, this is an eye opening book, and Tyler talks a lot about what he learned from making these different flavors within the book as well, which is great for educating yourself for future experimentation.The flavor recipes in this book are as follows:The Bases:Ice Cream BaseSorbet (or Gelato) BaseCoconut Ice Cream Base (Dairy Free)The Classics:Arbequina Olive OilStumptown Coffee and Burnside BourbonFreckled Woodblock ChocolateChocolate Gooey BrownieXocolatl de David’s Bacon Raleigh BarDandelion Chocolate’s Roasted Cacao Bean GelatoCinnamon SnickerdoodleSea Salt with Caramel RibbonsAlmond Brittle with Salted GanacheStrawberry Honey Balsamic with Black PepperPear and Bleu CheeseDouble Fold VanillaRoasted Strawberry & Toasted White ChocolateSalted Caramel Bars & Coconut CreamThe Brewers Series:India Pale AleSmoked HefeweizenHopped Farmhouse AleHopricot GelatoImperial Stout Milk Sorbet w/ Blackberry-Fig JamThe Flower Series:Wildflower Honey w/ Ricotta Walnut Lace CookiesHoney LavenderRose City RiotGrand Poppy-Seed SherbertDandellion Bitters Sorbet with Edible FlowersThe Berry Series:Meyer Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk CustardBlack Raspberry Cobbler Fro-yoGoat Cheese Marionberry HabaneroForaged-Berry SherbertStrawberry-Cilantro SorbetThe Farmer’s Market Series:Caramel Corn on the CobCauliflower Garam MasalaGreen Apple & Mayo SherbertRoasted Parsnip & Banana SorbetAquabeet SorbetThe Student Inventor Series:Olde PeopleThe Kail CreeasheonChocolate SardinesSkittles Rainbow SherbertStop, Guac, & RollThe Spooktacular Series:Amortentia SorbetEssence of GhostCreepy Crawly CrittersGrandma Dracula’s Blood PuddingThe Great CandycopiaThe Thanksgiving Table-to-Cone Series:Sweet Potato Casserole with Maple PecansButtered Mashed Potatoes and GravyCranberry-Apple StuffingSalted Caramel Thanksgiving TurkeyPumpkin Custard & Spiced Goat CheeseThe Holiday Series:Peppermint Cocoa with Homemade Peppermint PattiesGingerbread Cookie DoughApple Brandy & Pecan PieButter-Roasted ChestnutFennel Five-Spice Eggnog

This has got to be the strangest ice cream book I own. I own a lot of ice cream books, and I've made a lot of ice cream, and I like daring and unusual flavors, but this one takes the cake (pun absolutely intended). I've read through it pretty carefully and tried a caramel sauce from the book, though not any of the ice creams yet, and well ... it's weird. It's not bad by any means, just unexpected.Not because of its unusual flavors (of which it has many), but in its combination of flavors. Most ice cream cookbooks include recipes for three things: 1) classic flavors, 2) house specialties, and 3) mix-ins and toppings.Every ice cream shop is going to have the classics: vanilla, chocolate, mint, caramel, strawberry, coffee, etc., and most ice cream cookbooks are going to include the author's take on those. S&S on the other hand has only one, a recipe for double-fold vanilla. All the other house specialties utilize classic flavors (examples: strawberry-honey balsamic with black pepper ice cream, or salted sweet cream ice cream with caramel ribbons).In other words, this book leans extremely heavily on the house specialties (which I kind of like), and I love trying new combinations and unusual flavors. But ... ice cream happens to be something that is reliably vegetarian (if not vegan), and this book is no exception. As a long-time mostly-vegetarian, that is also something I appreciate, but as a pragmatist, I'm fine with the fact that most ice cream books are going to have at least one recipe that includes candied bacon, and there is one such offering here (bacon caramel).But it doesn't stop with bacon; the irony makes me giggle a little. It has recipes for/including turkey (turkey skin/stock/boullion/fat), chicken (stock/boullion/fat/skin), gelatin, and …. pork blood. Take a gander:Xocolatl De David’s Bacon Raleigh Bar Ice Cream (gelatin and bacon)Chocolate "Sardines" Ice Cream (gelatin)Creepy Crawly Critters Ice Cream (candied bugs)Grandma Dracula’s Blood Pudding Ice Cream (pig blood)Buttered Mashed Potatoes & Gravy Ice Cream (chicken stock and bouillon)Salted Caramel Thanksgiving Turkey Ice Cream (turkey stock, bouillon, and skin)Some of the omnivorous recipes actually sound pretty good, and if I still ate meat, I'd happily give them a try (the Xocolatl one is salted sweet cream ice cream with chocolate-covered pecans, caramel infused with bacon, and chocolate marshmallow nougat, and the "Sardines" recipe is chocolate with chunks of Swedish Fish-infused jello). There is one I might learn to like if I could get past the crunchy chitin from bugs (the creepy crawly flavor is tequila, orange, and matcha ice cream with chocolate-covered crickets and coconut-toffee candied insects). But the last three kinda turn my stomach (brandied chocolate pig's blood, mashed potato ice cream with white chocolate/chicken bouillon ripple, and turkey ice cream with turkey skin brittle). I don't think I'd like those even if I were still omnivorous.But those recipes aside, 51 of the 57 recipes are vegetarian, and there are many that sound great, in particular Stumptown Coffee & Burnside Bourbon Ice Cream, Almond Brittle With Salted Ganache Ice Cream, and the Honey-Lavender. There are many others that sound delicious as well.As for the mix-ins, they are pretty standard, including the usual chocolate sauces and brittles, cookies, and brownies. The caramel sauce is really quite excellent - it remains pliable when frozen (kitchen chemistry to the rescue!), instead of turning hard like stiff taffy the way most caramels do when cold.It uses a philosophy that I really like, providing three different bases to which you add flavorings: an ice cream base, a sorbet base, and even a vegan ice cream base.The vegan base is another area where they get weird. First of all, the presence of a base suggests that it's neutral-flavored and easily adaptable, but they only use it in a single recipe, and they give zero instructions for using it with other flavors. In fact, their vegan base probably cannot be widely used as it is STRONGLY coconutty, and the coconut would overshadow most other flavors. So, this feels (particularly in the context of a meatier-than-usual offering) almost phoned-in, only included so they can claim it's vegan-friendly when it really isn't.So: if you are looking for vegan desserts, look elsewhere (it doesn't even include sorbets which are typically vegan). But if you are interested in interesting flavors, this might be a fine choice. So, 4 stars because it's got lots of exciting flavors for me to try, losing one star for lack of dairy-free options.