Latest news with #Salt&Straw
Forbes
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Taking A Deep Dive Into The Power Of Vanilla With Salt & Straw Founder
Known for its ever-changing rainbow of inventive flavors, this Portland, Ore., based ice creamery also shines a well-deserved light on vanilla in a recently re-launched cookbook. We got the scoop from founder Tyler Malek about his enthusiasm for that not-so-basic flavor. When Salt & Straw launched in 2011, its mission was groundbreaking. Calling itself 'the biggest small-batch ice cream company in the world', Salt & Straw founder Tyler Malek and his cousin, Kim, cooked up the business plan over a cup of coffee. Of course. In the book's intro, he writes of the fairy tale-type origin story: "I had just quit my job as the world's kindest and least effective car salesman (don't ask) and convinced Kim to consider me for the position of head ice cream maker for the shop she planned to open in Portland. Minor detail: I had never made ice cream in my entire life. So an hour later, I walked into a Goodwill in Seattle, bought four $4 ice cream makers, and started experimenting. After a week of maxing out the machines, I had recipes for thirty flavors and sent them to Kim. Because of (or perhaps despite) the unlikely inspirations I dreamt up—grapefruit with sage, coffee with bone marrow—she agreed to give me a shot." Coffee with bone marrow? Yes, those kind of crazy combos have garnered a whole lot of attention in the nearly 15 years since the Salt & Straw launch. But it's the chapter on vanilla that steals the show in this inspiring, deeply informative cookbook co-authored with James Beard Award-winning food writer JJ Goode. Malek is a self-described flavor nerd and it all begins with vanilla. 'I love the idea of using something people think of boring as jumping off point,' he said in a recent phone interview. Because, let's face it, the majority of most ice cream is vanilla based. 'It's so under-appreciated, but maybe that's because we all grew up with artificial vanilla flavoring.' The chapter on vanilla explores the bean's beginnings as a commercial crop. 'There was a lot of frustration in trying to grow the pods without fruiting them until one kid, an enslaved person, figured out what a native bean was doing.' By the way, there are 220 flavor compounds in vanilla. Far from boring. For Malek, his vanilla curiosity was piqued when he connected with a geneticist working on project to bring vanilla production to Florida. 'Hawaii has had success growing vanilla and building agritourism around it,' he said. Turning back the clock to the bean's early appearances in this country, the government mandated that just two types would be allowed as imports, Tahitian and Madagascar. But the rules weren't strictly enforced and those designations were watered down. The key to growing quality vanilla is time, the plants develop complexity and depth of flavor as they age. A process that's similar to vinifera grapes, with the plants picking up characteristics of the soils and surroundings. In wine tasting terms, that's called terroir. Like wine, coffee and chocolate, there's a new effort to highlight the growing practices used in production of vanilla beans, Malek said. 'There are new efforts to designate how it's sourced. Fair trade is better for the economy.' And beans that are grown using sustainable agricultural practices ultimately leads to better-tasting vanilla. But let's not forget about all those amusing flavors from the brilliant creators that keep Salt & Straw in the must-try ice cream conversation. If you're fortunate enough to live near a Salt & Straw scoop shop, there's a good chance you're going to hit it on a new flavor drop Friday. Hello, Summer Pie series! Including a Gruyère and Tomato Tart creation. But even if you're nowhere nearby, the producer also offers up the option of home delivery across the U.S. Also, Malek will be making appearances during a book tour, with dates coming right up in at various venues around Los Angeles, June 14-22.
Time of India
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Not My Cup of (Matcha) Tea
When a long California queue flatters to deceive There are few things in life more suspect than a long queue of students outside an ice cream shop – except perhaps a professor starting class on time. Yet there I stood, hypnotised by the serpentine line outside Maruwu Seicha, a Japanese tea specialty store on University Avenue, Bay Area, famed for its Matcha ice cream and even more for the number of selfies clicked in front of it. The aroma of exclusivity was thick in the air. After 20 minutes of pondering life, love, and lactose, I reached the counter and asked the fatal question: 'Is this gluten-free?' The cashier, clearly trained in the ancient art of customer discouragement, stared at me as if I'd asked her to explain quantum physics in iambic pentameter. With a weary sigh, she barked, 'Hey, anyone know if there's flour in the ice cream?' Several heads nodded vaguely – either in agreement or early signs of fatigue. I took that as a 'probably safe'. Ordering was a bit like investing in cryptocurrency – you don't understand it, but everyone else seems to be doing it, so you throw caution (and cash) to the wind. My order was punched in without knowing what it was, only that it wasn't sold out. We were united in ignorance, the cashier and I – two souls adrift in a sea of Matcha. The wait stretched on like a Tolstoy novel. Around me, young scholars buzzed with the vigour of finals-week caffeine. Their devotion to Maruwu's green swirl suggested that either the tea had magical properties or tuition didn't buy much else. Finally, my prize arrived: a dainty spiral of jade-green mystery, perched atop a cone like a temple offering. One lick in, I paused. Was this dessert or penance? The second confirmed my fears – it tasted exactly like a bitter tea gone cold, frozen in time. I passed the rest to my unsuspecting family, murmuring with poetic resignation, 'Not my cup of tea.' They nodded with pity. I had been Maruwu'd. To be fair, this may be a delicacy for those who enjoy their dessert with notes of ancient philosophy and powdered austerity. For the rest of us, Salt & Straw exists – and with flavours that don't double as dissertations. Moral of the cone: sometimes FOMO leads you to enlightenment; sometimes, it just leads you to a very cold green regret. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer This article is intended to bring a smile to your face. Any connection to events and characters in real life is coincidental.
Japan Today
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
The innovative ice-cream makers at Salt & Straw serve up secrets and recipes in a new cookbook
By MARK KENNEDY If you're intimidated by the idea of making ice cream at home, just think of it as making soup. That's advice from Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw, the innovative gourmet ice cream maker known for its ever-changing lick-able treats. 'Making a pint of ice cream is very similar to making a pot of soup where if you have a good stock recipe — like chicken stock, vegetable stock — then you start just adding to it until it tastes good,' he says from his kitchen in Portland, Oregon. 'If you have really good stock base recipe, you could blend strawberries into it and make strawberry ice cream. You can drizzle chocolate into it and make chocolate ice cream. You can do really anything.' That ice cream base is also at the heart of Malek's latest cookbook, ' America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook.' Just as another summer beckons, he and co-author JJ Goode teach the fundamentals, which then can be built on to make all kinds of delicious treats. That means learning the bases for gelato, custard, sorbet, coconut and ice cream. Only down the road can you confidently turn them into awesome flavors like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, or Banana Parsnip Sherbet. 'My dream, at its heart, is that someone can take this book and they just pore through it and have so much fun and then it ignites this Pandora's box of imagination,' Malek says. The cookbook focuses on 10 iconic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, green tea, pistachio, cookie dough, salted caramel, cereal and rum raisin. Once you've mastered their 'core principles in flavor, in technique,' Malek says, "you can just go wild.' And wild it gets in the cookbook, with flavors like Toasted Sourdough, Chocolate and EVOO, and Lemon Earl Grey Shortbread. 'We wanted it to feel like you were imported into our R&D test kitchen and you could feel like you're writing recipes beside us and understanding why we're testing this and adding more salt or adding more sweetness,' he says. Take salted caramel, which most people think is salty and sweet. 'They're completely wrong,' Malek says, laughing. 'It's salty sweet and bitter. Once you get that flavor trinity, you start understanding that the combination of salty, sweet and bitter can completely open your eyes to different combinations. ' Malek and his cousin, Kim, became ice cream entrepreneurs in 2011 when they opened a small food cart in Portland. Since then, they've expanded to over 40 stores in seven states, becoming known for their refreshing and off-beat approach and rotating menu, with new flavors added every month. Other flavors have included Malted Potato Chip Cupcake and Black Olive Brittle and Goat Cheese. For Thanksgiving, they once offered Caramelized Turkey & Cranberry Sauce. 'I've written 2,500 recipes and maybe 20,000 fails,' says Malek. Salt & Straw leans on xanthan gum, which Malek uses to combat 'heat shock,' when ice cream melts and freezes again into bigger crystals. ("It's as innocuous as cornstarch or baking soda," he writes.) He also harnesses the power of acids, like citric, malic and tartaric, calling them 'an ice cream maker's secret weapon.' 'I think he is part scientist — maybe a mad scientist — and part artist,' says Clarkson Potter editor Francis Lam, who with Susan Roxborough helped craft the book. Lam first encountered Salt & Straw when he ate their prosciutto ice cream at an event in Portland. At another event, he had their sea urchin flavor and felt compelled to meet Malek. 'He's one of these people who doesn't shut down an idea before he runs with it for a little bit,' Lam said. Salt & Straw is part of an artisanal ice cream boom in recent years that includes companies like Van Leeuwen, Gelato Fiasco, Lick Honest Ice Creams, Morgenstern's and Wanderlust Creamery. Malek has leaned on partners for innovations; he and a doughnut maker in Florida, for instance, created a cream cheese ice cream with glazed brioche doughnut chunks and guava curd. He has interned at breweries to learn the ins and outs of beer making to incorporate it into his desserts. 'My passion is in learning and storytelling. If I weren't making ice cream, my dream job was always to be a travel writer," says Malek. 'I had no idea when we first started the company that ice cream is like the coolest medium to channel that through because it really is like writing a story through every single ice cream.' He learned that different regions of the country have their blind spots; when Salt & Straw opened in Los Angeles, few knew what rhubarb was. At the same time, he didn't know there were different types of avocados. Another tip borrowed from soup: As with soup bases, Malek says, home cooks should make big batches of different ice cream bases, separate them into containers and freeze them. 'Then when you're ready to make ice cream, defrost it in your microwave real quick and blend in your strawberries that you got fresh from the farmer's market and make strawberry ice cream,' he says. 'That's the trick: to make ice cream within a day or literally within hours of finding a really special ingredient.' Here's a recipe from the new cookbook 'America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook' by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode: Makes about 2½ pints 3 cups 17% Butterfat Base (see separate recipe below) 1½ teaspoons molasses (not blackstrap) 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal salt 1 cup packed Malted Cookie Dough (recipe follows), frozen ¾ cup Malted Fudge (recipe follows) In a medium bowl, combine the ice cream base, molasses, vanilla and salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn on the machine. Churn just until the mixture has the texture of soft serve, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine. Alternate spooning layers of the ice cream and generous dollops of the cookie dough and fudge into freezer-safe containers. Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or for up to 3 months. Makes about 3 cups ½ cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I'm easy to find!) 1 1/8 cups whole milk 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 1/8 cups heavy cream, very cold In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum. In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and immediately whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring often and reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer, just until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the cold cream and stir until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours, or for even better texture and flavor, 24 hours. Stir well before using. The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw completely and stir well before using. —- Makes about 1 ½ cups 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 tablespoons granulated sugar ¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 teaspoon molasses (not blackstrap) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ½ cup all-purpose flour, toasted 2 tablespoons malt powder ¼ cup finely chopped (chip-size pieces) dark chocolate In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter, both sugars, and the salt on medium high speed, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the butter takes on a lighter color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the cream, corn syrup, molasses, and vanilla, then mix on medium-low speed until the mixture is just combined, about 1 minute more. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and malt powder. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed, scraping down the bowl once, until there are no more clumps of flour (specks of malt are just fine!), about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate to the stand mixer and mix on low speed until it's well distributed. Pack tightly into an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to use or for up to 2 months. —- Toasting flour note: Our cookie dough excludes eggs for some just-in-case food safety assurance, since as you've probably heard, consuming raw eggs carries a minor but real risk of salmonella. What you might not be aware of is that eating raw flour does, too. So if you're someone who avoids sunny-side-ups or carbonara, consider playing it extra safe and cooking the flour for this recipe: Spread it on a sheet pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. Makes about 2 cups 1/3 cup malt powder 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 teaspoons cocoa powder 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 3/4 cup chopped (chip-size pieces) good dark chocolate In a small saucepan, combine the malt powder and 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until most of the lumps are broken up. Add the corn syrup, cream, and butter and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, add the cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and salt and continue to whisk until the cocoa powder is dissolved and the mixture looks glossy, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces, and let them sit for a minute. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and combined. Let cool to room temperature and then use immediately or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Reprinted with permission from 'America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook' by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter, 2025). © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
San Francisco Chronicle
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
The innovative ice-cream makers at Salt & Straw serve up secrets and recipes in a new cookbook
NEW YORK (AP) — If you're intimidated by the idea of making ice cream at home, just think of it as making soup. That's advice from Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw, the innovative gourmet ice cream maker known for its ever-changing lick-able treats. 'Making a pint of ice cream is very similar to making a pot of soup where if you have a good stock recipe — like chicken stock, vegetable stock — then you start just adding to it until it tastes good,' he says from his kitchen in Portland, Oregon. 'If you have really good stock base recipe, you could blend strawberries into it and make strawberry ice cream. You can drizzle chocolate into it and make chocolate ice cream. You can do really anything.' The base is the base That ice cream base is also at the heart of Malek's latest cookbook, ' America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook.' Just as another summer beckons, he and co-author JJ Goode teach the fundamentals, which then can be built on to make all kinds of delicious treats. That means learning the bases for gelato, custard, sorbet, coconut and ice cream. Only down the road can you confidently turn them into awesome flavors like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, or Banana Parsnip Sherbet. 'My dream, at its heart, is that someone can take this book and they just pore through it and have so much fun and then it ignites this Pandora's box of imagination,' Malek says. The cookbook focuses on 10 iconic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, green tea, pistachio, cookie dough, salted caramel, cereal and rum raisin. Once you've mastered their 'core principles in flavor, in technique,' Malek says, "you can just go wild.' And wild it gets in the cookbook, with flavors like Toasted Sourdough, Chocolate and EVOO, and Lemon Earl Grey Shortbread. 'We wanted it to feel like you were imported into our R&D test kitchen and you could feel like you're writing recipes beside us and understanding why we're testing this and adding more salt or adding more sweetness,' he says. Take salted caramel, which most people think is salty and sweet. 'They're completely wrong,' Malek says, laughing. 'It's salty sweet and bitter. Once you get that flavor trinity, you start understanding that the combination of salty, sweet and bitter can completely open your eyes to different combinations. ' New flavors every month Malek and his cousin, Kim, became ice cream entrepreneurs in 2011 when they opened a small food cart in Portland. Since then, they've expanded to over 40 stores in seven states, becoming known for their refreshing and off-beat approach and rotating menu, with new flavors added every month. Other flavors have included Malted Potato Chip Cupcake and Black Olive Brittle and Goat Cheese. For Thanksgiving, they once offered Caramelized Turkey & Cranberry Sauce. 'I've written 2,500 recipes and maybe 20,000 fails,' says Malek. Salt & Straw leans on xanthan gum, which Malek uses to combat 'heat shock,' when ice cream melts and freezes again into bigger crystals. ("It's as innocuous as cornstarch or baking soda," he writes.) He also harnesses the power of acids, like citric, malic and tartaric, calling them 'an ice cream maker's secret weapon.' 'I think he is part scientist — maybe a mad scientist — and part artist,' says Clarkson Potter editor Francis Lam, who with Susan Roxborough helped craft the book. Lam first encountered Salt & Straw when he ate their prosciutto ice cream at an event in Portland. At another event, he had their sea urchin flavor and felt compelled to meet Malek. 'He's one of these people who doesn't shut down an idea before he runs with it for a little bit,' Lam said. 'My passion is in learning' Salt & Straw is part of an artisanal ice cream boom in recent years that includes companies like Van Leeuwen, Gelato Fiasco, Lick Honest Ice Creams, Morgenstern's and Wanderlust Creamery. Malek has leaned on partners for innovations; he and a doughnut maker in Florida, for instance, created a cream cheese ice cream with glazed brioche doughnut chunks and guava curd. He has interned at breweries to learn the ins and outs of beer making to incorporate it into his desserts. 'My passion is in learning and storytelling. If I weren't making ice cream, my dream job was always to be a travel writer," says Malek. 'I had no idea when we first started the company that ice cream is like the coolest medium to channel that through because it really is like writing a story through every single ice cream.' He learned that different regions of the country have their blind spots; when Salt & Straw opened in Los Angeles, few knew what rhubarb was. At the same time, he didn't know there were different types of avocados. Another tip borrowed from soup: As with soup bases, Malek says, home cooks should make big batches of different ice cream bases, separate them into containers and freeze them. 'Then when you're ready to make ice cream, defrost it in your microwave real quick and blend in your strawberries that you got fresh from the farmer's market and make strawberry ice cream,' he says. 'That's the trick: to make ice cream within a day or literally within hours of finding a really special ingredient.' ___ ___ SALTED MALTED CHOCOLATE CHIP DOUGH Makes about 2½ pints Ingredients 3 cups 17% Butterfat Base (see separate recipe below) 1½ teaspoons molasses (not blackstrap) 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 1 cup packed Malted Cookie Dough (recipe follows), frozen ¾ cup Malted Fudge (recipe follows) Directions In a medium bowl, combine the ice cream base, molasses, vanilla and salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn on the machine. Churn just until the mixture has the texture of soft serve, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine. Alternate spooning layers of the ice cream and generous dollops of the cookie dough and fudge into freezer-safe containers. Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or for up to 3 months. ___ Salt & Straw's 17% Butterfat Base Makes about 3 cups Ingredients ½ cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I'm easy to find!) 1 1/8 cups whole milk 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 1/8 cups heavy cream, very cold Directions In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum. In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and immediately whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring often and reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer, just until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the cold cream and stir until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours, or for even better texture and flavor, 24 hours. Stir well before using. The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw completely and stir well before using. —- Malted Cookie Dough Makes about 1 ½ cups Ingredients 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 tablespoons granulated sugar ¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 teaspoon molasses (not blackstrap) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ½ cup all-purpose flour, toasted 2 tablespoons malt powder ¼ cup finely chopped (chip-size pieces) dark chocolate Directions In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter, both sugars, and the salt on medium high speed, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the butter takes on a lighter color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the cream, corn syrup, molasses, and vanilla, then mix on medium-low speed until the mixture is just combined, about 1 minute more. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and malt powder. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed, scraping down the bowl once, until there are no more clumps of flour (specks of malt are just fine!), about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate to the stand mixer and mix on low speed until it's well distributed. Pack tightly into an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to use or for up to 2 months. —- Toasting flour note: Our cookie dough excludes eggs for some just-in-case food safety assurance, since as you've probably heard, consuming raw eggs carries a minor but real risk of salmonella. What you might not be aware of is that eating raw flour does, too. So if you're someone who avoids sunny-side-ups or carbonara, consider playing it extra safe and cooking the flour for this recipe: Spread it on a sheet pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. ___ Malted Fudge Makes about 2 cups Ingredients 1/3 cup malt powder 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 teaspoons cocoa powder 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 3/4 cup chopped (chip-size pieces) good dark chocolate Directions In a small saucepan, combine the malt powder and 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until most of the lumps are broken up. Add the corn syrup, cream, and butter and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, add the cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and salt and continue to whisk until the cocoa powder is dissolved and the mixture looks glossy, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces, and let them sit for a minute. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and combined. Let cool to room temperature and then use immediately or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Hamilton Spectator
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
The innovative ice-cream makers at Salt & Straw serve up secrets and recipes in a new cookbook
NEW YORK (AP) — If you're intimidated by the idea of making ice cream at home, just think of it as making soup. That's advice from Tyler Malek of Salt & Straw, the innovative gourmet ice cream maker known for its ever-changing lick-able treats. 'Making a pint of ice cream is very similar to making a pot of soup where if you have a good stock recipe — like chicken stock, vegetable stock — then you start just adding to it until it tastes good,' he says from his kitchen in Portland, Oregon. 'If you have really good stock base recipe , you could blend strawberries into it and make strawberry ice cream. You can drizzle chocolate into it and make chocolate ice cream. You can do really anything.' The base is the base That ice cream base is also at the heart of Malek's latest cookbook, ' America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook .' Just as another summer beckons, he and co-author JJ Goode teach the fundamentals, which then can be built on to make all kinds of delicious treats. That means learning the bases for gelato, custard, sorbet, coconut and ice cream. Only down the road can you confidently turn them into awesome flavors like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, or Banana Parsnip Sherbet. 'My dream, at its heart, is that someone can take this book and they just pore through it and have so much fun and then it ignites this Pandora's box of imagination,' Malek says. The cookbook focuses on 10 iconic flavors: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, coffee, green tea, pistachio, cookie dough, salted caramel, cereal and rum raisin. Once you've mastered their 'core principles in flavor, in technique,' Malek says, 'you can just go wild.' And wild it gets in the cookbook, with flavors like Toasted Sourdough, Chocolate and EVOO, and Lemon Earl Grey Shortbread. 'We wanted it to feel like you were imported into our R&D test kitchen and you could feel like you're writing recipes beside us and understanding why we're testing this and adding more salt or adding more sweetness,' he says. Take salted caramel, which most people think is salty and sweet. 'They're completely wrong,' Malek says, laughing. 'It's salty sweet and bitter. Once you get that flavor trinity, you start understanding that the combination of salty, sweet and bitter can completely open your eyes to different combinations. ' New flavors every month Malek and his cousin, Kim, became ice cream entrepreneurs in 2011 when they opened a small food cart in Portland. Since then, they've expanded to over 40 stores in seven states, becoming known for their refreshing and off-beat approach and rotating menu, with new flavors added every month. Other flavors have included Malted Potato Chip Cupcake and Black Olive Brittle and Goat Cheese. For Thanksgiving, they once offered Caramelized Turkey & Cranberry Sauce. 'I've written 2,500 recipes and maybe 20,000 fails,' says Malek. Salt & Straw leans on xanthan gum, which Malek uses to combat 'heat shock,' when ice cream melts and freezes again into bigger crystals. ('It's as innocuous as cornstarch or baking soda,' he writes.) He also harnesses the power of acids, like citric, malic and tartaric, calling them 'an ice cream maker's secret weapon.' 'I think he is part scientist — maybe a mad scientist — and part artist,' says Clarkson Potter editor Francis Lam, who with Susan Roxborough helped craft the book. Lam first encountered Salt & Straw when he ate their prosciutto ice cream at an event in Portland. At another event, he had their sea urchin flavor and felt compelled to meet Malek. 'He's one of these people who doesn't shut down an idea before he runs with it for a little bit,' Lam said. 'My passion is in learning' Salt & Straw is part of an artisanal ice cream boom in recent years that includes companies like Van Leeuwen, Gelato Fiasco, Lick Honest Ice Creams, Morgenstern's and Wanderlust Creamery. Malek has leaned on partners for innovations; he and a doughnut maker in Florida, for instance, created a cream cheese ice cream with glazed brioche doughnut chunks and guava curd. He has interned at breweries to learn the ins and outs of beer making to incorporate it into his desserts. 'My passion is in learning and storytelling. If I weren't making ice cream, my dream job was always to be a travel writer,' says Malek. 'I had no idea when we first started the company that ice cream is like the coolest medium to channel that through because it really is like writing a story through every single ice cream.' He learned that different regions of the country have their blind spots; when Salt & Straw opened in Los Angeles, few knew what rhubarb was. At the same time, he didn't know there were different types of avocados. Another tip borrowed from soup: As with soup bases, Malek says, home cooks should make big batches of different ice cream bases, separate them into containers and freeze them. 'Then when you're ready to make ice cream, defrost it in your microwave real quick and blend in your strawberries that you got fresh from the farmer's market and make strawberry ice cream,' he says. 'That's the trick: to make ice cream within a day or literally within hours of finding a really special ingredient.' ___ Here's a recipe from the new cookbook 'America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook' by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode: ___ SALTED MALTED CHOCOLATE CHIP DOUGH Makes about 2 1/2 pints Ingredients 3 cups 17% Butterfat Base (see separate recipe below) 1 1/2 teaspoons molasses (not blackstrap) 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 1 cup packed Malted Cookie Dough (recipe follows), frozen 3/4 cup Malted Fudge (recipe follows) Directions In a medium bowl, combine the ice cream base, molasses, vanilla and salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and turn on the machine. Churn just until the mixture has the texture of soft serve, 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the machine. Alternate spooning layers of the ice cream and generous dollops of the cookie dough and fudge into freezer-safe containers. Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or for up to 3 months. ___ Salt & Straw's 17% Butterfat Base Makes about 3 cups Ingredients 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (yes, I'm easy to find!) 1 1/8 cups whole milk 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 1/8 cups heavy cream, very cold Directions In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, milk powder, and xanthan gum. In a medium pot, stir together the whole milk and corn syrup. Add the sugar mixture and immediately whisk vigorously until smooth. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, stirring often and reducing the heat if necessary to prevent a simmer, just until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the cold cream and stir until fully combined. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 6 hours, or for even better texture and flavor, 24 hours. Stir well before using. The base can be further stored in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw completely and stir well before using. —- Malted Cookie Dough Makes about 1 1/2 cups Ingredients 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1 teaspoon molasses (not blackstrap) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, toasted 2 tablespoons malt powder 1/4 cup finely chopped (chip-size pieces) dark chocolate Directions In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter, both sugars, and the salt on medium high speed, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the butter takes on a lighter color, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add the cream, corn syrup, molasses, and vanilla, then mix on medium-low speed until the mixture is just combined, about 1 minute more. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and malt powder. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed, scraping down the bowl once, until there are no more clumps of flour (specks of malt are just fine!), about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate to the stand mixer and mix on low speed until it's well distributed. Pack tightly into an airtight container and store in the freezer until ready to use or for up to 2 months. —- Toasting flour note: Our cookie dough excludes eggs for some just-in-case food safety assurance, since as you've probably heard, consuming raw eggs carries a minor but real risk of salmonella. What you might not be aware of is that eating raw flour does, too. So if you're someone who avoids sunny-side-ups or carbonara, consider playing it extra safe and cooking the flour for this recipe: Spread it on a sheet pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes. ___ Malted Fudge Makes about 2 cups Ingredients 1/3 cup malt powder 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 teaspoons cocoa powder 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt 3/4 cup chopped (chip-size pieces) good dark chocolate Directions In a small saucepan, combine the malt powder and 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until most of the lumps are broken up. Add the corn syrup, cream, and butter and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, add the cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and salt and continue to whisk until the cocoa powder is dissolved and the mixture looks glossy, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces, and let them sit for a minute. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and combined. Let cool to room temperature and then use immediately or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. ___ Reprinted with permission from 'America's Most Iconic Ice Creams: A Salt & Straw Cookbook' by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode. (Clarkson Potter, 2025).
