TWD: Burnt Palm Sugar Ice Cream

It has been way too long since I've made ice cream. Every time I make it, I wonder why I don't do it more often, it's really so easy! I was really happy that the TWD bakers were tasked to churn some this week, because it forced me to pull out my ice cream maker for the first time in a very long time.

This is basically a caramel ice cream. First you make a simple caramel out of sugar and water, then add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, resulting in your ice cream base. Couldn't be easier!

This is a delicious, rich, deeply flavored creamy treat. One that even my little ones got to enjoy, since I used palm sugar in place of cane sugar.

Thanks so much to Becky of Project Domestication for this fun pick, the recipe can be found on her blog.

Also, my business is having a great giveaway on our Facebook page, enter here!

TWD: Vanilla Ice Cream (one week late)

First of all, my apologies to Mary of The Food Librarian she chose Dorie's classic banana bundt cake for this week's recipe, but after my husband's birthday party this past weekend - where I made a sweet and salty cake, an agave-sweetened ricotta cheesecake, blondies and browned butter shortbread (recipe tomorrow), I just couldn't make any more sweets. I will make this cake at some point, but for now, I have the vanilla ice cream from last week's TWD.

I wasn't able to make this for last tuesday, but after reading rave reviews on so many blogs - many said it was the best ice cream they had ever had. I was anxious to give it a shot.

I finally had a chance to make it one night last week. I started to heat my cream, I had all of my other ingredients ready, all was going well. I looked over at my pot to check on my cream, and what should be floating there but a moth, its wings disintegrating into the liquid. I had to toss it all, and I had no extra cream to start over with.

A few nights later, I tried it again, and this time I was successful!

The only change I made to the recipe was to sweeten it with agave. I used 1/2 cup for the full recipe of ice cream, and it was plenty sweet.

This was really yummy ice cream, but not the best vanilla I've ever had. Actually the brown sugar vanilla we made for SMS several weeks ago was probably the best. This wasn't nearly as creamy, and I honestly felt it was a bit of a waste of a vanilla bean... Vanilla extract would have worked just as well (which is actually what I used for the SMS ice cream). I'm sure it's a great base for all kinds of fun add-ins, though.

Thanks to Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu for selecting last week's recipe, and thanks to Mary of The Food Librarian for hosting this week. I promise I'll give the bundt a chance soon! I'll be out of town next week, but I'll try to bake in advance so I can keep up with the group.

Basil Ice Cream

As promised, here is my post on basil ice cream.

I wanted to love it. I love basil, I love ice cream, so I should love basil ice cream, right???

After seeing a couple renditions here and here, I knew I had to give it a try, but honestly I was disappointed. I thought it the basil flavor was too strong, and I liked it best when it was served with things such as a blueberry compote. I may try it again with less basil - I think it should be more of a subtle flavor rather than in-your-face. That could have been the fault of my basil, though, because it was rather strong. I think it is also a bit of an acquired taste, as I did like it more over time, but I never loved it. I'm fairly determined to love this ice cream, so I will probably take another shot or two at it.

I used the recipe from Baking Obsession as a reference, but tweaked it here and there. Actually, looking at that recipe again, I tweaked it a lot. The recipe was more of a loose guide. I also see that there was a tablespoon of lemon juice that I omitted - I think I just forgot to add it, because I almost always have lemons around. Maybe that would have made a difference in my opinion of it, I don't know. Here is what I did:

Basil Ice Cream

15g basil (about 1 cup, pressed down, but not tightly packed)

1/3 c agave syrup

3 c heavy cream

3 large egg yolks

1/8 tsp salt

Blend basil and agave in food processor until the basil has been chopped into very small pieces.

In a large saucepan with the burner on medium, heat the heavy cream until it is almost boiling. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks and salt. Using a measuring cup, pour the hot cream 1/4 cup at a time into the eggs to temper them, whisking constantly. When you've poured in about 1 1/2 cups, return it all to the saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Immediately pour into a quart-sized jar with lid, and leave out to cool to room temperature. Then, place the jar in the refrigerator for several hours - or overnight - to chill completely. When mixture is chilled, blend with immersion blender for about 1 minute, then pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions to churn.

SMS: Brown Sugar Vanilla Affogato

Affogato is one of my all time favorite desserts, and it is a wonder that it isn't served in more restaurants. Given the simplicity of it, perhaps the various pastry chefs feel that it doesn't showcase their talents enough... 

Affogato means "drowned in coffee" and is simply a scoop of ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it. Heaven...

Not the easiest thing to photograph successfully - as you can see from the soupy mess above -but what it lacks in beauty, it more than makes up for in taste.

For Sweet Melissa Sundays this week, Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More chose the brown sugar vanilla ice cream for all of us to make this week. 

Honestly, I wasn't excited. I've never been much of a vanilla ice cream person, and I put this off until the last possible minute. 

The recipe contains nonfat dry milk which is something I would normally skip if I saw it in a recipe - we drink raw milk fresh from the farm, so dehydrated dairy isn't really my cup of tea - but in the recipe notes, Melissa says that this is the secret ingredient. She states that it absorbs some of the moisture in the mixture and allows the ice cream to be extra creamy. 

I don't know if it was the dry milk, the 5 egg yolks or something else, but this was some of the most unbelievably creamy ice cream I have ever had. I even loved it on its own, which says a lot about how amazing it is. I think it would be a great base for all kinds of flavors.

I was going to post a few scoops of this creamy goodness naked in a bowl, when I noticed some coffee from breakfast still sitting in the French press, and I knew exactly what was to become of the ice cream.

Thanks to Karen for picking this surprisingly amazing recipe, please visit her blog for the recipe, and visit the SMS bakers page to see everyone else's yummy ice cream.

Roasted Plum Ice Cream

I was reading a blog not long ago that mentioned roasted plum ice cream, and I was intrigued. I bought plums in anticipation of making it, but I couldn't find the post for the recipe when I looked for it again. Then a week or so ago, Nancy of the wonderful blog The Dogs Eat the Crumbs posted plum ice cream, based on a David Leibovitz recipe, so I got right to work. 

This ice cream was fantastic. Slightly tart from the plums, light, so creamy and delicious. It was so easy to scoop even after being in the freezer for several hours. Unlike the peach ice cream I made a few weeks ago, which was quite difficult to scoop. 

I can see using this recipe for all kinds of fruit, and I will certainly be trying many out over the coming sweltering weeks. 

Best of all, this recipe is so easy because it isn't a custard base, and there is very little actual work involved. Also, it is free from refined sugar. My son loved it. 

The original recipe that Nancy linked to is here, but I made few changes. This is what I did:

Roasted Plum Ice Cream

8 plums, quartered with the skin on

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 400. Rub oil into 8x8 baking dish, just so there is a light coating. Place plums in baking dish and pour 1/4 cup maple syrup over them. Toss with your hands until all plums are coated and place baking dish in oven. Keepp plums in oven for 30-35 minutes - stirring every 10 minutes - or until they have softened and the edges are browned and slightly caramelized. Remove from oven, cool for 15-20 minutes, then pour entire contents of pan into a 1 qt jar. Place lid on jar and refrigerate overnight or until completely chilled. When chilled, pour cream, water and the remaining 1/2 cup maple syrup in the jar, and blend with an immersion blender until plums are completely pureed. Put back in fridge while you ready your ice cream maker. Pour mixture into ice cream maker, and follow manufacturer's instructions. When churned, transfer to container with lid and place in freezer for at least 2 hours before eating. Enjoy! I know we did!

Food blogger in the making?

TWD: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

I was pretty excited to see this recipe in the June TWD line-up. Peaches are just coming into season, and it gave me a chance to pull out my all-too-infrequently-used ice cream maker.

Luckily, I planned ahead for this recipe better than I did for the cobbler of a couple weeks ago, and bought peaches early enough in advance so that they would ripen in time to make this ice cream. I am so glad I did. The ice cream is amazing.

Peach is not a flavor of ice cream that I ever buy at the store, or order at an ice cream parlor, but it is so delicious when homemade, so quintessentially summery. It was one of my grandfather's favorite flavors, so making and eating it made me think about him, wish he could be eating it with me... 

I made a few changes to the recipe:

- I cooked the peaches in maple syrup instead of honey - I grew up ascribing to the ancient Indian system of health called Ayurveda, in which the heating of honey is said to have negative health effects.

- I pureed all of the peaches after reading the P&Qs - people commented on the chopped peaches becoming icy chunks that weren't too pleasant

- I omitted the sugar from the custard and used a couple tablespoons of maple syrup. After tasting the peach mixture, I felt it was sweet enough, and without the sugar my 2 1/2 year old - who has never had sugar - would be able to eat it. 

I loved this ice cream. It was smooth, creamy, fresh, light, subtle, refreshing, amazing. Seeing as this is just the beginning of peach season, I think this ice cream will be making a few more appearances this summer.

Thank you to Tommi of Brown Interior for picking this wonderful recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see everyone else's ice creams.

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