Barbra Streisand’s Retro Ice Cream Hack Is Incredible
From an aesthetic point of view, my home is what you would call “decorated by a horny granny.” I love vintage stuff, gaudy stuff, and gaudy vintage stuff, which is why I paid almost $70 for a new cookbook called Singers and Swingers in the Kitchen: A Scene Maker Cookbook .
It’s pretty cool, although some of the recipes are a bit rough. Jars are plentiful, and conspicuously lacking in seasoning other than salt and pepper, but there are some slightly unsettling ” Don Adams’ peanut butter thoughts “.
But the most intriguing recipe and the only life hack to be found, at least on the surface, comes from EGOT winner and universal icon Barbra Streisand.
If you’re into the little things about Streisand, you probably know that she’s somewhat of a coffee ice cream lover , so this recipe fits in with the overall Babs narrative. Like Streisand, I love the taste too, so I decided to make her an instant coffee ice cream that uses a mixture of marshmallows melted in milk, whipped cream and instant coffee.
I followed the instructions pretty closely. I heated the milk over medium heat, then added five or so marshmallows at a time, stirring until they were completely melted. From this, the kitchen smelled of marshmallows, a very pleasant smell.
I then added the instant coffee and stirred until the mixture was light brown and no visible streaks, then set it aside to cool for about 15 minutes.
Finally, I whipped the chilled cream, then folded in the marshmallow mixture, being careful not to blow the cream off. It retained its shape remarkably well, thanks (at least in part) to the stabilizing action of the gelatin in marshmallows. (This, my friends, is a life hack. Marshmallows is a life hack.)
I then dispense the mixture in an ice cube tray, which is the only direction I would like to ignore. It set quite quickly – in just a couple of hours – but never hardened to the point where I could pull them out of the tray, so I had to scoop out each small portion with a spoon, which was a little annoying.
Once I managed to get some of the ice cream out of the ice cube mold, I crushed a few pretzels on top and took a big bite.
It was really good, very creamy and very sweet, like a cup of coffee made by someone who doesn’t really like coffee much but loves cream and sugar. This flavor was enhanced by the gooey sweetness of the marshmallow, which also helped structurally, allowing the artificial ice cream to hold its shape while preventing ice crystals from forming.
I would do it again, thought I might add a little more instant coffee and maybe some vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. I think it would make an exceptional ice cream sandwich, especially between two Biscoffs. Barbara just doesn’t miss.
Barbra’s instant coffee ice cream
Ingredients:
- 24 marshmallows
- 1 glass of milk
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee
- 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
Turn on the refrigerator to the coldest point. Pour milk into a saucepan, heat, and then gradually marshmallows. Mix until the mixture is homogeneous; add instant coffee. Let it cool down a bit. Whip cream to peaks; mix the cream and marshmallow mixture and pour into an empty ice cube tray.* Freeze.
Believe it or not, Barbara loves it with pretzels.**
* Use a bread pan to make scooping easier.
** I believe. In this, Babs was ahead of her time, adding pretzels to ice cream even before Chubby Hubby. (Ben and Jerry? We don’t know them!)