Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I know I said that the Mint Oreo Ice Cream was my most bestest, favoritest flavor yet, but I think I've changed my mind or at least this brown sugar vanilla bean ice cream may be a close second.

Mint Oreo Ice Cream

I was going to blog about some yummy pancakes I had made the other day but once I sampled this Mint Oreo ice cream, I pushed that thought aside. Also, now that cold weather has taken over many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, I felt it best to share this recipe before it gets even colder.

Daring Bakers: Swiss Roll Ice Cream Bombe Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – Life and Food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I was finally able to take decent photos of my cake. I know I'm super late, but at least I posted this before August! HAH! So, I bet you're wondering my cake doesn't look a Swiss roll ice cream cake. I will give you three seconds to guess why. . .just think about my sausage buns, and you'll figure it out.

1 segundo.

2 segundos. .

3 segundos. . .


Yep, you guessed it. My overheating oven apparently isn't too fond of sponge cake, so it ruined the first one completely and almost ruined all of the second one as well. I managed to salvage most of the cake, but I was unable to make Swiss rolls out of it. So, I slathered on the vanilla bean whipped cream (which is just "genious-ly" good!), cut the cakes into circles and rectangles, and placed them into two ramekins and one loaf pan.

I used the leftover hot fudge from my Chocolate Sybil Cake. I still have more left for chocolate milk. YUM!

This one looks more like an elaborated s'mores cake than a bombe ice cream cake.

Although my ice cream cakes are not nearly as pretty as the other daring bakers' cakes, at least they still tasted pretty good, and I completed the challenge.

For the ice cream portion, I made coffee ice cream and chocolate ice cream. I used different ice cream recipes from those on the challenge because I wanted egg-based ice cream, which tends to be creamier. Everything tasted fantastic except for the sponge cake, but I think that is because of the egg-white flavor and my oven's performance (or failure to perform well).

TWO THINGS I LEARNED DOING THIS CHALLENGE:

1. Whole eggs can expand big time! I thought that with the addition of egg yolks, eggs couldn't expand that much, but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know why, but I was.

 

2. That there exists such a thing as vanilla bean whipped cream that doesn't require the removal of the seeds. This whipped cream was AMAZING!!

 3. That there really are foods that can stick unmercifully to Silpat despite what the company claims.

TWO THINGS I KNEW ALREADY BUT SOMEHOW FORGOT:

1. My oven sucks even after being "fixed" twice. 
2. Ice cream melts quickly and can be frustrating so set up everything for your photo shoot ahead of time.

 3. That I love ice cream cake!

I apologize to all my fellow DBers for being so late. A lot of things are going on in my life that I will let you know about later. I enjoyed this challenge despite the moments of frustration while taking photos of the melting ice cream haha. Now, I need to find volunteers to eat up all this excess ice cream and cake! Anyone interested? :)

Here is the recipe for the cake.
Here are the recipes for the coffee and chocolate ice creams I used.  
Note: For the chocolate ice cream, I used half-n-half instead of milk for a creamier consistency.

 Mmmmmmmmmm!

Blackberry Cobbler w/ Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

When strawberry season was well underway, I wanted to go to a berry farm near where I live. I saw a link to all the picking farms in the United States (and many other countries) and found 2 places that sounded promising. Then, after I saw photos of some beautiful, enticing strawberries on Monica's photo site, Natural Lighting, I had to ask where she got the berries (actually, I just found out that strawberries are NOT berries. Read more about it here.). She told me that she got them from Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, Texas.

Because I don't like to go to public places by myself (yeah, I have issues), I waited for my mom to arrive to go to the farm. Well, rain happened; my mom didn't want to go to the farm at first; and then, finally we went the day before she left....and guesss what?! We came the very day after the strawberries were in season there!! ARGH! I was so disappointed. I had been wanting to go for so long. Next time, I will have to get over my fears and go alone haha.

My mom washing her hands after berry picking. Her box was empty because we were going on our second round to look for any leftover strawberries. We were unsuccessful in our quest. :(

Anyway, even though the strawberries were no longer in season there, the blackberries were coming in with fury. So, my mother and I grabbed a box each and picked a bunch of these dark beauties. I thought I'd add that I picked the most berries*.*sidenote: Ignore the comment my mom is going to make about her picking the hard-to-get-because-they-were-deep-behind-or-in-the-middle-of-a-bunch-of-thorns blackberries for me. Don't believe her! She was just delirious from the hot sun! LOL!

So, what did I do with these luscious berries?! I made the only type of fruit cobbler I like - the one with a pie-pastry-like topping as opposed to cobblers with biscuits on top of the fruit.

I searched everywhere for the right recipe for a pastry-topping cobbler. I remember finding the perfect one over a year ago that I had made with peaches two or three times. Since I have a new laptop (I'M STILL A PC AND AM DARN PROUD OF IT! WOOHOO!), I no longer had that website bookmarked. Fortunately, I found the site again because the recipe is popular even though it was posted in 2006. In addition to his recipe, I picked and chose other ingredients and methods from three other recipes to end up with the one that is warm and settled in my tummy right now as I type. YUM!

This cobbler was amazing. My only mistake was not mushing up the berries. I think it is definitely a personal preference, but I didn't like tasting the less-hot interior of the berries after the first two bites. I think it would have been a better balance of crunchy, butter pastry taste and sweet, sour, berry taste if I had mushed them a bit. Nevertheless, it was still amazing.

I had run out of butter *GASP THE HORROR!* due to a 3-STICK ERROR (it still makes me sad to know I wasted that much butter) in a chocolate frosting I made, so I had to use butter-flavored shortening in the crust. I think the shortening caused the crust to be harder to handle. It still worked out in the end.

If you would like to use another pie pastry recipe, feel free to do so. I doubled the pastry recipe and used 2 extra cups of fruit because of the size of my dish (I will be blogging about this dish very soon). I like the double layer of pastry because you get a good amount of contrasting, yet complementary flavors.

Don't forget to make some vanilla bean ice cream to go with it!

Blackberry Cobbler - The Pie Pastry Variation
adapted from Stephen Cooks and other sites

Yield: 6 - 8 modest servings

Pastry (I doubled this for an 11" oval dish):
1-1/2 C flour
6 T butter
3 T shortening
1/2 tsp salt
3 T ice water
1/4 C sugar

Fruit Filling:
6 C blackberries
3/4-1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup AP flour
2 T cornstarch
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 T melted butter

To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, shortening, salt and sugar in the processor bowl with the steel blade. Pulse a few times until the mixture is like cornmeal. Add the ice water and pulse a few times, just enough to mix the water into the other ingredients. Turn the mixture out into a plastic food storage bag (it will be crumbly, not yet like dough) and quickly knead it through the bag a few strokes, till it just starts to hold together. Refrigerate for an hour or more.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 475º. Combine the blackberries, sugar, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Stir mixture until you see mostly the color of the berries.Taste and correct seasoning and sugar content. Stir in the melted butter (I didn't have butter, so I added the 1/2 Tbsp left of COLD butter to the top of the filling right before baking. See photo below).

Reserve and keep cold 1/3 of the dough. Roll out the rest to the approximate shape of your dish. (I used an 11" oval baking dish with double the pastry, but with the recipe as is, you can use a 5" x 9" oval baking dish about an inch and a half deep or a 6" square dish or 7" round dish). Butter the baking dish and spoon in half of the fruit mixture. Lay the pastry sheet over the fruit.

Bake about 12 minutes in a preheated 475º oven, until the pastry is just starting to brown. Spoon in the rest of the fruit mixture.

Ooops! I messed up on the collage of process photos. Just ignore the first and last photos.

Roll out the reserved dough, cut in strips and lay in a lattice pattern over the fruit.

Sprinkle with sugar and bake about 15 minutes more, until the fruit is bubbling and the lattice is browned.

Allow to cool for a few minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream.

Gelato al Limone

When I went to Italy a few years ago, I was able to try my very first gelato al limone (Lemon Gelato). It was a hot, dusty day in Firenze (Florence) and gelaterie were everywhere. I stepped up to the nearest one and asked for un gelato piccolo al limone (small Lemon Gelato). I don't know why I asked for a gelato void of chocolate or vanilla, but the hot weather was most likely a major factor in my decision.
I dipped the plastic spoon in the already-melting, icy, fruity, acidic, milky concoction and brought a rounded, soft portion of gelato to my eager, dry lips. What happened after that is now a blur. The only next thing I remember is walking up to another gelateria for another gelato al limone. The only difference? I ordered a gelato GRANDE the next time. LOL! This chain-gelato-eating continued a couple more times that day. I was so full off of gelato that I didn't get to eat hardly any savory items like pizza and pasta! You would think I would have learned my lesson or would have gotten tired of eating gelato, but I ended up doing the same thing on my first day of arrival in Venezia (Venice).

Ever year around this time I think about those gelati (the plural of gelato) and weep silently to myself that I'm too poor of a graduate student to just fly to Italy at a moment's notice just for more. This year, however, I decided to remedy my gelato problem by looking for authentic recipes written in Italian and stumbled on Federica's beautiful blog, La Cucina di Federica.
You would think that I would have made the gelato immediately after finding the recipe, but I waited a few weeks before I started juicing the lemons. After churning the gelato mixture, I transferred it to a lidded container, and placed it in the freezer. I tasted a bit of the mixture before I put it in the freezer, and it didn't impress me much. I was starting to get wary...and disappointed.

HOWEVER, after it had frozen and after I took these photos, I took my first taste of this already-melting, icy, fruity, acidic, milky concoction and brought a rounded, soft portion of gelato to my eager, dry lips. Whoa! Didn't we already see this line before? Yep. Because this gelato brought me back to that day in Firenze when I tasted my first gelato al limone. It was absolutely perfect that I almost cried. I have to say grazie mille to Federica for sharing such a perfect recipe.
This gelato has a perfect balance of acidity and milky flavors, and the bits of lemon zest are a nice, subtle contribution to the texture. I still want to jump on a plane to Italy at a moment's notice, but not just for the gelato, but also to try out more of the savory items I had missed out on on my first trip!! You've got to try out this gelato. It's easy to make and doesn't have any eggs, yet it is still luscious with a lovely texture. Lastly, just like the gelati in Italy, this gelato melts a lot faster than ice cream, so take your photos quickly!

Gelato al limone
translated from La Cucina di Federica (no adaptations were necessary)
Use the ml/litre section in your liquid measuring cup for accurate measurements

juice of 3 lemons (~1/2 cup (120 gr/ml)) including the zest of 1 lemon
~3/4 cup (150 gr/ml) granulated sugar
~1 cup (200 gr/ml) milk
1+ cup (250 gr/ml) heavy cream

Juice the lemons over a strainer or sieve, and remove the seeds.

With a mixer (I used a whisk), mix the sugar, juice, and milk. Cover and allow the mixture to rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker and pour in the heavy cream as it churns. Then transfer the churned mixture to a covered container and freeze for at least four hours. Now gobble the gelato all up before it melts!

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

I apologize for giving you all another ice cream post right after the CCC dough ice cream, but I made a this a while ago and have been debating on whether I should blog about it since I didn't like it and didn't like the photos of the ice cream due to the low light.
Anyway, I thought that this was going to be so good. It was full of Callebaut milk and semi-sweet chocolate, cream, egg yolks, vanilla, and milk. What could be wrong?
For some reason, the taste was flat. I wouldn't normally blog about a recipe that I didn't like, but I did for two reasons:

1. To show off the new knife I got for my birthday!!! Woot! Thanks, mom!!
   
2. To ask you all what I could do to this recipe to make it taste better.

It yielded only a little, which I'm now happy about. Once I perfect this recipe, I will double it to get a normal amount of ice cream. So, I'm opening the floor to you all for ideas. Help! I want to love this recipe haha. It's full of good chocolate!

*UPDATE* Here are the adaptations I made: I think I used espresso powder b/c I try to use it in all of my chocolate recipes. I also added vanilla extract.

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream
adapted from Ice Cream!

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
2 large egg yolks (I accidentally used 3)
1/4 cup (50g) extra-fine sugar (just grind sugar in a food processor; I reduced the amount of sugar b/c of the semi-sweet chocolate, then I added more sugar (total 1/4) b/c it wasn't sweet enough for me)
3 1/2 oz (100g) good-quality milk chocolate, chopped (I used Callebaut)
1 3/4 oz (50g) bittersweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet b/c I don't like bittersweet)
1-2 Tbsp espresso powder
2/3 cup (150ml) heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the milk in a medium saucepan, and heat gently to near-boiling point. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl, using a regular or electric whisk, until thick and pale. Gradually beat the milk into the egg mixture.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and continue stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove the bowl from the heat, and stir in the chocolate pieces, stirring until smooth. Allow the custard to cool completely. Cover the surface directly with plastic wrap or waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight (I did the latter).

Once cool, stir in the cream, and churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately, or transfer to a freezer container. Cover the surface directly with waxed paper or foil, and put in the freezer.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Thank you for the little bowls, Lydia!!

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. That is my motto for this ice cream flavor. I'm not a fan of cookie dough and cookie dough ice cream, but for some reason, I decided to set aside a block of the Triple Chocolate "Chunp" Cookie dough for this ice cream.
I started with a base vanilla ice cream recipe from Dorie Greenspan. I rolled up the reserved cookie dough into a small thin log and refrigerated the log along with the vanilla ice cream custard base. After churning the custard the next day, I cut up the log of dough into small pieces (you could cut them in bigger pieces, if that is what you prefer), and then added them to the churned ice cream.
I was surprised at how good this ice cream was since I'm not crazy about CCC dough. It was beyond FANTASTIC. The vanilla flavor was very pronounced and meshed well with the chewy pieces of dough and chunky pieces of rich chocolate.
So, reduce your trips to the store for store-bought cookies and ice cream. Reuse your cookie dough in this ice cream. Recycle the container you used for the ice cream for another batch haha. Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip/Chunp Cookie Dough Ice Cream

found on CafeLynnlu & adapted by Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 moist, plump vanilla bean, split and scraped (or 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract)
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
Chocolate Chip Cookie dough (I used about 80-100 grams of dough; go based on your preferences, but don't use too much, or it will interfere with the base flavor)

Bring milk and cream to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. If you are using a vanilla bean, put the seeds and pod into the pan, cover and set aside for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, bring the milk and cream back to a boil before continuing (I turn off the heat right before it's about to boil). If you are using vanilla extract, wait until later to add it.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until very well blended and just slightly thickened (until it looks pale). Still whisking, drizzle in about one third of the hot liquid-this will temper, or warm the eggs so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining liquid (I usually just pour in half the hot liquid, whisk, and pour egg mixture into the pot). Pour the custard back into the pan, and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. If you run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not run into the track (about 5 minutes). The custard should reach at least 170°F, but no more than 180°F, on an instant-read thermometer. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and strain the custard into a 2-quart measuring cup or clean heatproof bowl. Discard the vanilla pod (I left the pod in while it refrigerated to intensify the vanilla flavor); or if you are using vanilla extract, stir it in now.

Refrigerate the custard for 4 hours or overnight before churning it into the ice cream (I always leave my custard in overnight.).

Remove the pod. Scrape the chilled custard in the bowl of an ice cream maker, and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Meanwhile, cut up the log of cookie dough into small pieces. Pack the ice cream into a container, and drop pieces of cookie dough into the custard. Stir the mixture well to evenly distribute the dough. Freeze the ice cream for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Revisited

One of the benefits of having a blog is seeing how much you've changed over time. For instance, the first time I ever made ice cream, I ranted on and on about how much I had to do just to produce a decent vat of ice cream custard. I chuckle at my complaints now.

My first ice cream attempt was vanilla bean from David Lebovitz. Since then, I have made many other flavors of ice cream (9 to be exact), and I now consider the process very easy to do.
Now, I'm going to back to my favorite flavor - vanilla bean. This time I'm using a different recipe that I feel is richer and tastier than the first one I made. I made it one other time before, and my colleagues devoured it gleefully. One of them did not even want to share the rest of it with the others, so she found a way to hoard it for herself haha.

In order to make this ice cream even better, I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the custard even after infusing a vanilla bean and its seeds. It is so creamy and has a yellow hue to it. Please make this cold, smooth, "vanilla-ful" concoction muy pronto.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

adapted from Ice Cream! (thanks, mom!)

1 1/4 (300ml) whole milk
1 vanilla bean (if none, add 1 more tsp of vanilla extract to below amount when you add the cream)
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (100g) vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)
1 1/4 (300ml) heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Put the milk, vanilla seeds, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan, and heat gently to near-boiling point. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and allow the vanilla to infuse for 15 minutes.

In a separate, heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar, using a whisk or electric beater, until thick and pale. Gradually beat the milk into the egg mixture.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and continue stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (book's instructions)
OR
Pour the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan, and stir the mixture until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. (this is what I did). This took about 5-10 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the heat, and cover the surface directly with plastic wrap or waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming. Allow the custard to cool completely by refrigerating mixture for 4 hours to overnight.

Once cool, stir in the cream and vanilla extract (if using), and churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately, or transfer to a freezer container; cover the surface directly with waxed paper or foil, and put in the freezer.

Crockpot Dulce de Leche *UPDATED* with extra tips

I'm sure you've seen many people in the blogosphere making dulce de leche (pronounced [DUEL-say deh LEH-chay] based on U.S. English pronunciation) by boiling or baking condensed milk. I'm sure you've also heard the warnings they've made about the chance of the can exploding when boiling condensed milk. In order to simplify things, I decided to try making dulce de leche via a crock pot or slow cooker. I searched online to see if this was feasible, and it was.

So, the night before I needed the dulce de leche, I placed the can in the crockpot (place a can on top of a saucer to avoid getting a ring at the bottom), filled it with water until it covered the can, turned the crockpot on low (high if you have an older crockpot, or if it tends to run a true low), set the timer for 8 hours, and went to sleep. I woke up, turned off the crockpot, and allowed the water and can to cool. Then, I poured out the water and opened the can. After getting over my amazement, I started taking photos of my newly-acquired dulce de leche to share with you all.

So, if you don't feel like paying a few extra cents for already-made dulce de leche, try making it in a crockpot. The process is a lot less dangerous and worry-free. I didn't get any decent photos of the apple pie I made with this dulce de leche, but you can see beautiful photos of it here. *UPDATE* Also, you can see additional photos of the dulce de leche apple pie and the source of my new go-to pie crust here and here.

Here is a small snapshot of my pie at night. This was my first attempt at making a classic, lattice top apple pie!

Espresso Ice Cream

When I was staying with my mother over the holidays, she asked me when I was going to make ice cream for her. I asked her to tell me what kind of ice cream she wanted, and she said she wanted one with coffee in it. Well, even though I had placed the ice cream bowl in the freezer and made my own chocolate-covered espresso beans because we couldn't find any in Small Town, Arkansas, I never got around to making the ice cream for her. Sorry, mom!

She wanted to try out this espresso ice cream, and I finally made it...here...at home...far away from my mom. For the espresso beans, I just dipped them in melted chocolate. I didn't temper the chocolate since looks were not an issue because the beans were just add-ins. I then flashed froze the beans and transferred them to a Ziploc bag for later use. In my opinion, the beans distract you from the delectable ice cream base. However, if you still want to include them, I suggest grinding them finer than I did. Even other commenters who tried this recipe said the same thing. I thought I had ground them fine enough, but I guess I didn't. Alternatively, you could grind up some chocolate chips or chocolate bars.

I will be making this again with different add-ins. It is fantastic and has a smooth mouthfeel. Enjoy! For you non-drinkers out there (like me), mix espresso with hot water to substitute for the coffee liqueur.

Espresso Ice Cream

adapted from Ina Garten on Foodnetwork

3 cups half-and-half
6 extra-large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
2 1/2 tablespoons ground espresso coffee beans, decaffeinated or regular
1 tablespoon coffee liqueur (recommended: Kahlua) (I used 1 tsp espresso with 2 tsp hot water)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 ounces (1/2 cup) chocolate-covered espresso beans, chopped

Heat the half-and-half until it forms bubbles around the edge of the pan and steam starts to rise. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until mixed. Slowly add the hot half-and-half until combined. Wipe out the pan and pour the mixture back into the clean pan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 10 minutes (if your mixture is already thick from the beginning like it was for me, only cook the mixture for about 2 minutes), until it's thickened and the cream coats the back of the spoon.

Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl. Add the ground espresso beans, coffee liqueur (or espresso/coffee mixture), and vanilla and refrigerate until completely chilled.

Pour the espresso cream into an ice-cream freezer and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions. Mix in the chopped espresso beans, spoon into a container, and allow to freeze for a few hours. Soften slightly before serving.