Zeke’s favorite ice cream flavor is cake batter. Whenever I drag him to Carvel, he gets the same flavor – sometimes he gets it in a milkshake, though. So for his birthday, I decided to surprise him with a second birthday cake! A colorful ice cream cake that tastes like cake batter. It was awesome. Continue reading
Or, the best ice cream base ever.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? I’m sure we can make it work…
May is ice cream season! Of course, that means that summer is around the corner and baby and I will be frequenting the Lighthouse for soft-serve strawberry ice cream. But it also means that I can serve ice cream for dessert whenever I have company. And although I love going out for ice cream (even though Zeke doesn’t, despite his love for cake batter ice cream), homemade ice cream often tastes better, especially when you use as many egg yolks as I did in this recipe. Plus, I know exactly what the ingredients are. That’s always a plus for me. Continue reading
Quick, what’s the best part about a Meatless Monday dinner? It’s got to be that you can have ice cream for dessert!
You already know we love making ice cream, and David Lebovitz is one of the best sources for no-fail ice cream recipes. He served his white chocolate and fresh ginger ice cream with nectarine-cherry compote, but I just served it plain, and still got rave reviews. The ice cream was so creamy and the ginger flavor was perfect – not too strong, but still present. So if it’s winter and you still want to make ice cream but don’t want to pay $10/lb for cherries and nectarines to put on top, just skip them!
For some reason, I decided I really wanted to make butter pecan ice cream. I bought the pecans. I had the cream, milk, eggs, and brown sugar that I needed. I had some butter in the freezer. I just didn’t have the recipe. I searched and searched and finally came up with one that seemed okay. I didn’t use it. Instead I combined some of my own ice cream knowledge and came up with this recipe. It’s awesome.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. Place pecan on baking sheet and roast for about 7 minutes, until they turn brown and fragrant.
2. When the come out, immediately add the butter and salt to them. Mix. Set aside.
3. Heat the milk over medium heat.
4. While the milk is heating, combine the eggs yolks and brown sugar. Whisk until combined.
5. Add the half milk to the egg mixture slowly, bringing up the temperature. Then, add the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Heat over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens a bit.
Caramel is one of my favorite ice cream toppings. I also love it in coffee and in candies. I just love caramel! So when I saw a recipe for caramel ice cream, I knew I had to try it. This is actually one of the best ice creams I have ever made (and we make a lot of ice cream around here). It was rich and creamy. Definitely had a great caramel flavor, and with some caramel sauce mixed in and salty peanuts on top, my friends thought it was gourmet ice cream.
The thing about making amazingly creamy ice cream is that you need a lot of egg yolks. That doesn’t mean you’re going to waste the egg whites, it just means you’re going to have to do some more baking. How about some meringues, pavlovas, or angel food cake? You’re also going to need an ice cream maker.
Side note: has anyone seen the new Cuisinart ice cream maker? How different is it than the older version that we have?
Caramel ice cream, adapted from Thomas Keller:
Directions:
1. Make sure your freezer bowl is in the freezer.
2. Put 1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan and add the water. Stir to moisten the sugar so that it resembles wet sand.
3. Bring to a simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until the sugar melts into a rich amber color. If any sugar crystallizes to the sides of the pan, use a wet pastry brush to brush it off.
4. Remove from heat and slowly add the milk and cream. If they are warm, the caramel should dissolve. If not, add back to the heat and stir to dissolve the caramel.
5. Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and egg yolks in a medium bowl until slightly thickened.
6. While whisking, add 1/2 cup of the hot liquid to the eggs, then add the remaining liquid.
7. Set a mesh sieve over a saucepan and strain the liquid into the pan.
8. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, over medium heat until the custard thickens enough to coat the spoon.
9. Pour into bowl and refrigerate until cold, preferably overnight.
10. Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions. Place in freezer to harden.
It’s blueberry season! Even though I can eat whole pints of these plain, I love to experiment with them and see what great desserts I can make. This time, I decided on ice cream. I love strawberry ice cream, so why not try to use blueberries instead? This would be amazing over a summer peach tart. Continue reading
It was a hot weekend, and David wanted to make ice cream. I didn’t tell him that after we make the ice cream we would have to freeze it and not be able to eat it right away until it was too late. But he wasn’t too mad at me, because we conceived a pretty awesome ice cream flavor: chocolate hazelnut banana. We used an existing chocolate ice cream recipe and added our awesome twist! Continue reading