Blackberry Sorbet (dairy free)

This had so, so, so much flavour and I don't think there's anything more to say about this other than that.

Oh, and...Part II of my impromptu blackberry-like berry series.

Recipe from Williams-Sonoma

Ingredients

3 C. Water

2 C. Sugar

6 C. Blackberries

6 Tbsp. Lemon Juice 

Directions

~In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar, and heat until sugar dissolves.

~Add in berries and cook until rendered down.

~Push mixture through a fine sieve, saving the juice and discarding the seeds and pulp.

~Chill mixture (I sped this up by placing in freezer for ~1.5 hrs).

~Proceed according to ice cream maker instructions.

Enjoy! So delicious and fresh!

Now this picture doesn't really do this justice. Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, topped with this sorbet, some fresh whipped cream and chocolate sauce (can be found in here)

Fudge Brownie Ripple Ice Cream - 100th Post!!

My 100th Post!!

I remember when I couldn't believe I had two pages of posts. With seven entries displaying per page, it was a big deal for me to have to click to see older posts. I didn't know how I was going to do it then, and I still really don't know how I'm doing it now. All I know is that my motives haven't really changed. 100 posts in and I'm not trying to get everyone and their dog reading my blog. A few people are great, but I really don't want to dedicate the time to having thousands of hits a week. I'm happy with the pictures I have, they show what the dish is. Sure they aren't the prettiest or have the best lighting or whatever but they do the job. At the end of the day I enjoy it. I have fun making new things and searching for new recipes, and I realize I have a lot to say about the adventures that go into making each dish. This blog has done it's job though as it is a place to store things I have made and my notes on what worked and what didn't and I can honestly say that I enjoy referencing back to a recipe that is written up by me. It follows a procedure for how my brain works and my kitchen and equipment operate. And really, that's enough for me.

Now I know it's kinda cold out for ice cream (but we are going through a pretty mild spell here), but one of the ladies I work with just got back from Hawaii and she kept raving about these milkshakes she had that she was sure were made with homemade ice cream, etc. So I left work and headed to the store to buy cream. I was making ice cream in February, even if I had to eat it wrapped in a blanket. The plan started out with making brownie batter ice cream, but as I was sitting in the grocery store parking lot on my phone trying to find a recipe I knew I had seen before, I decided to go in a different direction because I have to be honest, I'm not much of a chocolate ice cream fan. It's kinda like blueberries and strawberries. I love the real thing, but don't you dare put them as an ice cream base.

Ice cream is a fair bit of work and it takes a bit of time but it's fun to make. The only problem is that there is two smells guaranteed to turn my stomach and that is warm milk and eggs cooking. Unfortunately, those two smells combined don't make it smell any better and it took a long time for the custard to cook so I was all too familiar with the smells. It amazes me though that something that smells so bad (in my opinion) while it's cooking can taste so amazing after it cools. It's magic.

The fudge sauce is not as bitter as the chocolate sauce I made recently which is a good thing in my eyes.

Fudge Ripple recipe is displayed on epicurous.com, but is actually from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. 

Ingredients

Fudge Ripple
1/2 C. Sugar
6 Tbsp. Cocoa
1/3 C. Light Corn Syrup
1/2 C. Water
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 Batch Vanilla Ice Cream
2 1/2 C. Brownies, cubed & frozen

Directions

Fudge Ripple

~In a small saucepan mix sugar and cocoa. Add in corn syrup and water and heat until it reaches a boil, stirring constantly.

~Allow it to bubble and thicken for about a minute then remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir.

~Place in fridge to cool completely before adding to ice cream.

Ice Cream
~Make ice cream custard, when cool freeze in ice cream maker

Ice Cream Assembly

~In container place a layer of vanilla ice cream. Top with a generous drizzle of fudge (don't mix it in).

~Place layer of ice cream on top. Topped with brownie cubes.

~Repeat layers until you run out of ingredients.

~Finish the top with a drizzle of fudge and gently swirl it in to the top layer of ice cream.

~Sprinkle the edges with some crumbled bits of brownie.

~Place ice cream in freezer to set.

Enjoy

Vanilla Ice Cream

I've posted this recipe before as part of my Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream, but I just wanted to post it again by itself because I know I'm going to be referencing back to it in the future many times as it was so good and will probably be my base for most ice cream recipes I try. So bear with me, because the next post is going to be so, so worth it. Even the 'chocolate disliker' said yum!

Recipe is David Lebovitz's

Ingredients

1 C. 2% Milk (for very creamy ice cream, use half-and-half)

Pinch of Salt

3/4 C. Sugar

2 C. Heavy Cream

5 Egg Yolks

2 Tbsp. Vanilla

Directions

~In a medium saucepan, heat the 2% milk, salt & sugar.

~In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

~Pour about half of the warmed cream mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly

~Place yolk & cream mixture back into the saucepan.

~Cook over med-low heat, while stirring constantly & scrapping the bottom of the pan with a spatula.

~When the mixture thickens and coats the spatula, strain the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl.

~Add in the cream & vanilla. Stir

~Refrigerate mixture to chill thoroughly.

~Place cold custard into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

~Place ice cream into a container and put in freezer to freeze completely.

Enjoy

Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream

My poor dog. She may have had to experience a bit of a spill in the kitchen. Now typically that wouldn't be a problem. Either she would quickly clean it up, or one of the humans would be mean and shoo her away and then clean it up themselves. No, this time clean up was not easy. You see I spilt hot custard on my beautiful dog's back. Luckily her furs so thick I don't think she felt anything (plus it wasn't like I dropped the whole pot on her, it was more like a quarter size dollop that dropped off the sieve as I moving it to the sink.) If she hadn't been in her usual spot (the mat right at the sink) she could have avoided this accident but hello, have you tried to keep a dog out of the kitchen? I mean, there's food in there, come on.

Unfortunately for Kona, the custard landed on a part of her back that she was unable to reach to lick away. I swiped at it with a towel but all I managed to do was spread it around. So now she has a lovely crusty patch on her back. Oh well, it's experience (or maybe that's when there's mud on a truck). She sheds so much that it really doesn't matter. I'm sure she has about a three day turn around time on fur, so I'm sure by the weekend she'll be back to her pretty little self.

By the way, this vanilla ice cream recipe is AWESOME! I was so happy with the way it turned out, because it actually resembles ice cream (unlike the ice milks that I've made in the past).

I used David Lebovitz vanilla ice cream recipe and the blueberry sauce was adapted from Dollface Delights (a blog name that makes me think of my pup who's given name by her breeder was called Kinkel Delight).

Ingredients:

For the ice cream

1 C.Half & Half

A pinch of Salt

3/4 D. Sugar

2 C. Heavy Cream

5 Egg Yolks

2 Tbsp. Vanilla

For the blueberry swirl  (Cut these measurements in half if you don't want any leftover sauce.)

2 C. Blueberries

2 Tbsp. Orange Juice

3/4 C. Sugar

2 Tsp. Cornstarch

Directions

For the ice cream

~In a medium saucepan, heat the half & half, sugar and salt.

~In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

~Pour about half of the warmed cream mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly.

~Place yolk and cream mixture back into the saucepan.

~Cook over medium-low heat, while stirring constantly and scrapping the bottom of the saucepan with a spatula

~When the mixture thickens and coats the spatula, strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl.

~Add in the cream and vanilla. Stir

~Refrigerate mixture to chill thoroughly.

For the blueberry swirl

~Place berries, juice and sugar in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until berries burst and mixture cooks down. Stir constantly as to prevent burning.

~If too liquidly scoop a couple spoonfuls of the liquid into a small bowl and add in the cornstarch (or a ratio of the cornstarch) and whisk to get rid of the lumps. Pour back into saucepan and stir.
~Refrigerate sauce until it is cooled through.

Assemble the swirl

~Place ice cream custard into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.
~When ice cream is done, place a layer of cream in a container and place blueberry syrup by the dollop on top. Layer more cream and gently spread it out, making sure not to mix the two layers too much then repeat with more syrup. Continue until you run out of ice cream and syrup.
~Gently swirl with a spoon the top two layers together.
~Place ice cream in freezer.

Enjoy

Banana Soft Serve

Yes, I finally had to try this and I'm really glad I did because it's a dairy-free, vegan friendly, diet worthy ice cream (or yogurt). It was so, so simple. The only problem was I've discovered (and so has my dog) that we actually like frozen banana chunks better than normal banana. When frozen they are so incredibly creamy. Yum. It's amazing we had any left over for the actual 'ice cream'.

Then when I finally got around to putting the frozen chunks in the food processor, I was really glad that I'd read somewhere that it will take quite a bit of time for the bananas to whip. If I hadn't have read that, I may have just given up because all the bananas did for a long time was crumple into course chunks. Eventually though it miraculously (or maybe it was just because the chunks melted slightly) stopped being crumb like and whipped up into this beautiful, fluffy soft serve. You want to know what was even more amazing? It tasted that much better than I had thought it would. I was expecting it to just taste like banana (which it did), but it was more of a lighter taste, like a banana flavoured ice cream would taste like. I'm telling you, it tasted like there were other flavours and ingredients at work here, but there weren't. It's hard to explain.

I've seen this 'recipe' on many, many blogs, so I'm not going to post a link to credit one blog in particular.

Ingredients

Banana

*Optional* 

Chocolate Chips

Nutella

Peanut Butter

Chocolate Sauce

Caramel Sauce

Nuts

Sprinkles

Granola

Fruit / Berries

Directions

~Peel bananas and slice into chunks

~Freeze chunks.

~Process frozen banana in a food processor until a crumb forms then keep processing until banana begins to whip.

~If you wanted any mix-ins, add them and pulse briefly to combine.

Enjoy

Cookie, Cookie Dough Ice Cream (Dairy Free)

A couple of months ago I finally got my ice cream maker that had been the reason why I bought my KitchenAid in the first place. Unfortunately, my first attempt at making ice cream went horribly wrong, and it was not the machines fault in the slightest. Instead of following the written recipe, I substituted out the heavy cream / half-and-half / 2% milk for plain old almond milk. Then on top of making ice milk instead of ice cream, I also added in almond extract. Now my experience with this flavour of extract is very limited. I'm typically a vanilla fan (and by that I mean I always increase the amount that the recipe calls for by 50-100% usually), but I decided to give the almond a go this time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how strong this extract was and I may have put a slight bit too much in (and by slight I mean way, way, way too much). Yup, it was awful, and so I stayed clear of the ice cream maker until today.

Today I decided to do it right though. I made a custard base, whereas last time the recipe I used boasted that it didn't require a custard base (so I thought 'oh great it's healthier because there's no egg yolks'), and I used a combination of almond milk and soy milk just because. The original recipe called for 2 cups heavy cream and 1 1/2 cups whole milk. I used 2 cups almond milk (vanilla) and 1 1/2 cups low fat vanilla soy milk (full fat would probably be better but I used what I had). While this means that the ice cream isn't as creamy as it should be, I did it so the lactose intolerant in the house could enjoy this ice cream. Another note, I subed out the heavy cream called for in the cookie dough recipe for the same low fat vanilla soy milk. I think next time I'll get the regular vanilla soy milk and use 3 1/2 cups of that and completely eliminate the almond milk in an attempt to get this ice cream a little less icey.

The neat thing (yes I did just say neat) about this ice cream base is that it actually tastes like chocolate chip cookies. It's not just some vanilla or chocolate ice cream with cookie pieces in it. It is truly a double chocolate chip cookie ice cream. And it is absolutely AMAZING! Actually it's beyond what even my wildest imagination could have suspected it would be. And the smell when it was cooking in the sauce pan = heaven. This will definitely be a make-again. But as more a note to myself, don't use all the cookie dough balls in the ice cream. Save a few for later, eat a few now, I don't really care, but I put them all in and it was a little too much dough and not enough ice cream (seeing as the ice cream is so good). I'd suggest about 3/4 of the dough should be used.

After making this, I do realize why Ben & Jerry's is $7 for a small, small container. It's a heck of a lot of work to make ice cream. 

I adapted the ice cream recipe from Annie's Eats and the cookie dough recipe from Brown Eyed Baker.

Makes ~ 1.5 L

Ingredients

For the Ice Cream:

2/3 C. Brown Sugar

4 Egg Yolks

3 Tbsp. Margarine

2 C. Vanilla Almond Milk

Pinch of Salt

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 C. Vanilla Soy Milk

For the Cookie Dough:

1/2 C. Margarine

1/2 C. Brown Sugar

1/4 C. White Sugar

2 Tbsp. Vanilla Soy Milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 Pinches of Salt

3/4 C. Whole Wheat Flour (AP would work fine too)

3/4 C. Mini Chocolate Chips

1/2 C. Milk Chocolate Chunks

Directions

For the Ice Cream

~In a medium sized bowl, combine the egg yolks and brown sugar and whisk well to dissolve the sugar.

~In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter and continue to heat (stirring continuously) until the butter browns.

~Whisk in the almond milk and heat mixture until it begins to simmer.

~Add a small amount of the hot cream mixture into the yolk bowl and whisk to combine. Add in the remaining cream mixture and whisk.

~Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and heat until it begins to froth and boil (temperature reaches 170-175 F on a thermometer).

~Transfer the mixture back to the bowl, running through a fine sieve first.

~Add in the soy milk and vanilla. Mix.

~Place mixture in the fridge to cool. (At least 3 hours). Proceed with making the cookie dough.

~When the mixture has cooled thoroughly, transfer to ice cream maker and mix according to manufacturer's instructions. 

~As ice cream is churning, roll cookie dough into bit sized balls.

~Add in the cookie dough balls and chocolate chunks in the last couple of minutes of mixing or after mixing is done (depending on your machine - For the KA I found it best to add in after the mixing was done to keep the cookie dough as balls and not have them squashed to pieces by the mix attachment).

~Place ice cream in the freezer to set (about 2-4 hours).

For the Cookie Dough

~As the ice cream base is cooling in the fridge, combine butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer and cream until well combined.

~Add in the soy milk, vanilla and salt and mix well.

~Pour the flour in and mix again until well incorporated.

~Finally add in the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.

~Cool dough in refrigerator until ice cream is churning.

~While ice cream is churning, remove the dough from fridge and roll into bite sized balls. Return to fridge to keep cool until ready to incorporate into ice cream.

Enjoy! this Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream (or to make it Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, simply place a scoop of ice cream between two chocolate chip cookies. Mmm)