Gastronomic McFlurry?

Top pastry chef Hidde de Brabander (the man behind the most delicious nougat, with his own show on 24Kitchen and formerly employed at 3-star restaurants De Librije and Parkheuvel) tastes a McFlurry for the first time in his life and doesn’t think it’s bad at all. So he took on the challenge of elevating the iconic ice cream to a gastronomic level. The result? The Hidde(n) McFlurry.

In the video below, you can see how Hidde works in the kitchen, but first he goes looking for the origin of the dairy used to prepare the McFlurry ice cream for inspiration. To do so, he visits dairy farmer Anton Stokman. At Stokman’s farm, the cows get to decide for themselves what they do. Lying in the grass, cooling off in the ‘jacuzzi’ or enjoying a massage indoors. What a life.

The result? An enviable dessert with choux pastries, crispy milk, ice cream, fudge and caramel sauce

At the dairy farm, Hidde learns that the milk first goes to the milk and cheese factory, and that the cream and skimmed milk from the milk and cheese factory are used to prepare the McFlurry ice cream. What other ingredients are used? Cream, sugar, glucose and natural binding agents with vanilla flavouring.

Getting to work

Hidde gets to work with these ingredients. Are they ingredients he normally works with too? “They’re actually the same things I use, including the natural binding agents. The only difference is that McDonald’s uses vanilla flavouring, while I prefer natural vanilla pods,” says Hidde. In the food challenge, he is allowed to add two more products. Those will be flour and eggs. He also adds a splash of olive oil to give the ice cream a distinctive grassy flavour.

The result? An enviable dessert with choux pastries, crispy milk, ice cream, fudge and caramel sauce.

Want to see how Hidde transforms the McFlurry into a magnificent star dessert? Check out this video

https://youtu.be/tCjjSk1ugA0?feature=shared

This post was created in collaboration with LifeHunters.

Text: Marieke Migchelbrink
Image: LifeHunters