Bit-O-Honey Ice Cream

On New Year's Day, my friend Kyle showed up to my pizza party with bottles of wine and bags of Bit-O-Honey. "I got a whole case of these for Christmas," he explained. "You should make something with them."

While we briefly considered putting a few on a dessert pizza, I knew I could rise to the BOH challenge. My initial idea was ice cream, but I had to figure out how to incorporate the candy. Chopped & mixed in to almost-frozen, churning ice cream would create little hard chunks...not good.  I didn't think they would melt very well, either. But then, after browsing around online, I had a BRILLIANT idea...freeze several candies for about 10 minutes, just until they are hard enough to blitz to a powder in the Vitamix, then slowly melt the powder into the hot custard as it thickened.

AND IT WORKED.

Damn, I love that VEETAmix.

Cherry Sploosh Ice Cream

St. Louis in July: With the heat index above 110 degrees, it's too fucking hot to cook. Hell, it's even too hot to eat. Or move. Or breath. So, I've been sustaining myself with fruit smoothies, salads, sandwiches, and ice cream. Here's my most recent creation:

Sour Cherry & Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

aka "Cherry Sploosh"

 For the cherries:

2 cups sour cherries, pitted & roughly chopped

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

• Mix the cherries, sugar & water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the juices are thick. Remove from heat & cool. Strain out liquid. Reserve both the cherries and the syrup.

For the ice cream:
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

• Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup cream in a medium saucepan just until the sugar melts & the mixture is steamy.
• Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl. 
• Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then add the custard back to the saucepan.
• Stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, heat over medium heat until thick enough to coat the spoon. 
• Strain into a bowl. Add the remaining 1 cup of cream, the vanilla, and the reserved cherry syrup. Cool in an ice bath or in the refrigerator until ready to churn.
• Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker.
• While the mixture is churning, melt the chocolate in a double-boiler. 
• During the last possible moments of churning, drizzle the melted chocolate in a very thin stream into the ice cream. 
• Remove the ice cream to a bowl and fold in the reserved chopped cherries.

Why "Cherry Sploosh"? A few reasons, actually...

1. Sploosh is a funny word.
2. You add a lot of stuff to this standard vanilla ice cream base. That is, you sploosh in some cherry syrup, melted chocolate, and chopped cherries.
3. This: 

Popcorn Ice Cream

A few weeks ago, my friend Stacy mentioned on Twitter that she had a bunch of egg yolks left after making macaroons for Easter & asked for suggestions on how to use them. My immediate answer was ICE CREAM! Stacy confessed that she'd never made ice cream, so I invited her (a few other foodies friends) over for an ice cream tutorial.

I wanted to try something new & thought that Popcorn Ice Cream over at Almost Bourdain sounded intriguing. We had to adapt the recipe though, since the original only calls for 1 egg and we had 6 yolks to use.

To make our batch of POPCORN flavored, we simply heated 1 1/4 cups EACH of whole milk & heavy cream with 1 cup sugar & a few big handfuls buttered popcorn (real popcorn with real butter, not that microwaved shit) in a medium saucepan until the sugar melted & the mixture just started to bubble.

Remove the pan from the heat & let the flavors infuse for 15-30 minutes. Then, strain the mixture through cheesecloth to remove the popcorn.

 

Meanwhile, whisk 6 egg yolks in a large bowl.

When the cream mixture is strained, slowly whisk it into the yolk to temper the eggs. Here, you are gently heating the egg yolks with the warm cream. GO SLOW. You don't want to scramble the eggs.

Return the mixture back the pan & heat over medium-low, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. As you stir, scrape the bottom & sides of the pan. Again, GO SLOW...if you heat the mixture too quickly, the eggs with curdle.

Strain the thickened custard into a clean bowl & chill until ready to freeze (we used an ice bath to bring the temperature down quickly). The key to making ice cream at home is to have your custard ice-cold before churning. When ready, churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

The finished ice cream was very yellow from the yolks, which was good because it looked like popcorn. It, surprisingly, tasted just like buttered popcorn, too. We ended up topping each bowl with a sprinkling of coarse salt & several kernels of popcorn for crunch. So interesting...but really quite good!

Thanks to my friend, the ultra-talented Corey Woodruff for taking pics at our little ice cream party!

Honey-Lavender Ice Cream

I taught a Girls Night Out cooking class last night that featured all recipes with lavender. Here was the menu:

Lavender Tangerine Mimosas

Garlicky Lavender-Curry Hummus with Baked Pita Chips

Spinach Salad with Baked Goat Cheese & Lavender-Lemon Vinaigrette

Lavender Crab Cakes with Creamy Honey-Mustard Sauce

Lavender Couscous with Artichoke Hearts & Pine Nuts

Lavender-Honey Ice Cream

Lavender Sugar Cookies

All recipes, except the cookies, came from The Lavender Cookbook by Sharon Shipley.  The crowd favorite was the ice cream (recipe below).

In a post from January, 2008, I admitted that I love eating lavender, thanks to my friend Sue, who introduced me to lavender "better butter" a few years ago. As I wrote in my Christmas Cookie post, if you've never eaten lavender-laced food, you must try it.
Lavender makes fragrant and tasty breads, drinks, and desserts like cookies, cakes, or custards. It goes particularly well with chocolate or green veggies. I like lavender mixed with melted butter then used as a dip for steamed artichokes and sprinkled on roasted asparagus or sauteed peas.

photo from Winding Brook Estate

According to What's Cooking America: Flowers and leaves can be used fresh, and both buds and stems can be used dried. Lavender is a member of the mint family and is close to rosemary, sage, and thyme. It is best used with fennel, oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, and savory.
English lavender has the sweetest fragrance of all the lavenders and is the most commonly used in cooking. [...] Lavender has a sweet, floral flavor, with lemon and citrus notes. The potency of the lavender flowers increases with drying. In cooking, use 1/3 the quantity of dried flowers to fresh. 
Note: Adding too much lavender to your recipe can be like eating perfume and will make your dish bitter. [...] A little goes a long way.

You can buy lavender from upscale spice shops like Penzey's or The Spice House.  I ordered a large container of dried lavender from Amazon, but when I searched there today, I didn't find any.  If you live in the St. Louis area, you can harvest your own lavender at Winding Brook Estate Farm in Eureka, Missouri. They are harvesting through October 25 and are open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10-4.

Lavender-Honey Ice Cream

photo from foodrambler

Makes about 4 cups

3/4 cup whole milk

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon lavender buds

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract or paste

10 large egg yolks

2/3 cup sugar

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the milk, honey, lavender, and 3/4 cup of the cream.  Heat, stirring often, until small bubbles start to foam around the edge. DO NOT BOIL. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks & sugar. Beat until the mixture is a lightly lemony yellow.

Slowly beat in the milk mixture.  Pour back into the saucepan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Strain into a medium bowl.  Stir in the vanilla & remaining cream.  Chill before freezing in an ice cream machine.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Honey Peach Ice Cream

This week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe was chosen by Tommi of Brown Interior. Here's a crappy, dark cell phone picture of the churning ice cream:


I wanted to take a better picture, but I can't find my camera. I looked for it last night when I dished up the ice cream. I looked for it again today but had no luck. It's difficult to be a food blogger with no freakin' camera! *sigh*

I've been losing lots of thing lately. A few weeks ago I lost a brand new cooler bag. I can't remember exactly when I last used it or where I might have left it. I THINK I left it at a friend's house after a party, but they don't have it. I hate to think that someone at the party picked it up.

This week, I lost the book I was reading. I had it at work on Thursday, then I couldn't find it at home the next day. I looked all over the house, then all over the shop at work on Friday. I asked my co-workers if they'd seen it. Then last night, I remembered that I left it at Jerad's parents' house Thursday evening.

This morning, I couldn't find my keys. Eventually, I found them in the middle of a stack of papers & mail in the dining room.

Sheesh. I must be getting old.

Anyway...

This ice cream is made by cooking peaches (I used nectarines because you don't have to peel them) and honey until soft. The fruit is pureed, strained, and mixed with a custard base. It's pretty yummy...and perfect for summer. Check out Tommi's blog for the complete recipe.

No Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

All of a sudden, it's cold here. One day, it was an unusually warm (80 degrees) day for November, and the next it was in the 30s and 40s. But, I'm ready for it. I've been craving warm, comforting foods and all else that autumn entails...fires in the fireplace, hot tea and cocoa, lazy weekend days, early-to-bed evenings, and the possibility of snow days.

Plus, I'm excited to see lots of fresh fall foods at the grocery store...apples, pears, squashes, cabbages, cranberries, chestnuts, and pomegranates.


I've eaten many a pomegranate in my day...my mom used to buy them all autumn long. We'd sit in the living room, in front of the television with a big bowl in our laps, tearing the fruits apart to get at the seeds.

This fall, I'm going to try several recipes that feature pomegranate seeds. The first is an easy ice cream recipe from Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express cookbook. All you do is juice, whisk, and freeze to create a "delicate pink ice cream [that] tastes like fragrant, sherbey heaven."

No Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

2 pomegranates
1 lime
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups heavy cream

• Juice the pomegranates and the lime and strain the juices into a bowl. You should have about 3/4 cup of juice. I plucked all the seeds & pulsed them in the food processor before straining.

• Add the powdered sugar to the juice and whisk to dissolve.
• Whisk in the cream until soft peaks form.

• Spoon & smooth the ice cream into the airtight container and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.

• Scatter with extra pomegranate seeds when you serve.

Spiced Apple Sorbet

It's the first week of October, but this weekend it's supposed to be 80 degrees here in the St. Louis area. That just isn't right. The leaves are just starting to change, barely. My internal clock is ready for long pants and cozy sweaters, comforting soups and casseroles, fireplace fires and cuddling under blankets...but Mother Nature isn't cooperating.

This state of seasonal schizophrenia inspired me to make ice cream at 9:30 last night. I had some apples left from the farmers' market a couple weeks ago and thought about making apple sauce. But, since it was fairly warm in my house (I refuse to turn my AC back on in October!) my apple sauce became...

Spiced Apple Sorbet

4 medium (or 6 smaller) red-skinned cooking apples, like Jonathan

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or more to taste)
juice of 1 lemon

• Quarter & core the apples (do not peel!), then slice them into eighths.
• Put the apples, water, sugar, spice, & lemon in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.
• Turn the heat to low & simmer, covered, until the apples are tender (about 15 minutes).
• Blend the apples and their liquid in a blender until smooth.
• Strain the puree through a sieve into a small bowl. Place the bowl in an ice bath to chill the apple puree (or chill in the fridge).
• Churn the sorbet in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Initially, the mixture is brown in color. As it freezes, it will become a pretty pink color

I topped the sorbet with caramel bits, and it tasted like a caramel apple!

Chocolate Sorbet

Speaking of food blog trends...

There's been a lot of buzz about chocolate sorbet lately. It must have been Smitten Kitchen's recent post about David Lebovitz's recipe from Perfect Scoop that got everyone so excited about frozen chocolate. Because, really, that's all it is...well, chocolate melted with water, sugar & cocoa powder and then frozen.

Chocolate Sorbet

2 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used Scharffen Berger.)
Pinch of salt (whoops, I forgot to add this!)
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• In a large saucepan whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the water with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Let it boil, continuing to whisk, for 45 seconds.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it’s melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining 3/4 cup water.
  
• Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds (I didn't do this either; I just made sure I whisked until it was smooth. I figured a rogue chocolate chunk or two wouldn't be the end of the world.).
  
• Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the mixture has become too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.

Whoa! For having no cream or eggs, this sorbet is unbelievably rich! I agree with Peabody: "This stuff is better than brownies. It’s awesomer than the fudgiest chocolate ice cream. It makes chocolate truffles taste like they’re not trying hard enough. It could send that brandied ganache home with its tail between its legs."

A couple suggestions:

• Since I never have room in the fridge to chill ice creams before churning, I simply fill my sink with some ice water and set the pan (or bowl) in it to cool. In this case, I took the pan right off the stove into the sink.
• Even after churning in the ice cream maker for 1/2 an hour, the sorbet was pretty soft. So, I just put the whole canister in the freezer. It's firmer after freezing overnight, but still easy to scoop out.
• The cocoa powder and chocolate are the key ingredients, so don't skimp on cheap shit (that means NO Hershey's!). Really. Buck up a few extra dollars for the good stuff. (Kitchen Conservatory in St. Louis sells the cocoa powder for $8.95 and Callebaut chocolate at $6.95 a pound.)
  

Blackberry Sorbet On A Hot Summer Day

I bought a quart of gorgeous, huge blackberries at the farmers' market on Saturday. Even at $7.50, I couldn't resist them.

But then came the decision of what to do with those gorgeous, huge blackberries. I considered cobbler (this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe), a white chocolate pie, & cheesecake. But, the weather the past few days has been too hot to bake.

It's that infamous mid-western heat wave...a muggy, humid, sticky kind of hot that makes it hard to breathe outside. It seems even more stifling because we've had a fairly mild summer so far. It JUST got hot, and now it's too hot to cook, to clean, or to move off the couch...because my upstairs AC (the only central air in this big, old house) is running overtime and barely keeping up. Therefore, not only is it unbearably hot outside, but it's also pretty dang uncomfortable inside, too.

So last night I used the gorgeous, huge blackberries to make a cooling sorbet...an easy recipe that only requires a few pulses on the food processor, a quick strain, and then some spoon lifts.

Blackberry Sorbet

adapted from Perfect Scoop

4 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen but thawed)
1 cup water
1/3 cup sugar (I reduced it from 2/3 because my berries were particularly sweet)
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• Puree the blackberries, water, & sugar in a food processor or blender. Press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds. Stir in the lemon juice.
• Pour the mixture in an ice cream maker and chill according to the manufacturer's instructions. (I have the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker, and it took about 20 minutes for the mixture to freeze into a thick, luscious dessert.)
  

Rhubarb Ice Cream

In his book The Perfect Scoop, David Lebovitz explains the difference between French-style and Philadelphia-style ice creams. French-style ice creams are custard-based, made by mixing heated milk, sugar, and cream with egg yolks. They are richer and smoother than Philadelphia-style ice creams, which are made by simply mixing milk or cream with sugar and other ingredients (typically fruit).

The first ice cream I made was custard-based, and I wanted to try the other style...and I needed to rescue the rhubard that had been dying in my fridge for a few weeks. So, rhubarb ice cream it was!

Philadelphia-style ice cream is lighter and fluffier than custard creams, and the fruit flavor came forward nicely without all the richness of egg yolks.

This was so good, in fact, that I made two batches! The second one was devoured at camp this morning.

Rhubarb Ice Cream

4 stalks rhubarb, about 1 1/4 lbs
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Trim the ends & peel the rhubarb stalks, then chop them into 1/2″ pieces.
  
• Place the pieces in a saucepan with the sugar & water and boil on high heat for about 10-15 minutes, or until the fruit is broken down.
• Remove the rhubarb & its liquid from the saucepan and puree in a food processor until smooth. Strain if needed (taste to see if it's stringy). Place the pureed rhubarb in the refrigerator to cool for at least 2 hours.
• Add the cream and vanilla to the rhubarb puree & churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

Inspired by Sugarlaws & The Perfect Scoop.

I MADE ICE CREAM!

I got an ice cream maker a month or so ago and finally made my first batch! It was so easy....just make the custard, chill it, then pour into the machine and let churn for 20 minutes. And voila! Homemade ice cream...

Vanilla Ice Cream with Raspberry Sauce
adapted from David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop

For the ice cream:
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the raspberry sauce:
1 1/2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vodka

• To make the ice cream, warm the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.
  
• Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the mixture back into the saucepan.
• Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as your stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.
• Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the cream.
• Add the vanilla ans tire until cool over an ice bath. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
• Freeze the ice cream custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

• To make the sauce, mash the raspberries (let thaw a bit if using frozen) together with the sugar and vodka until they're juicy but with nice-sized chunks of fruit. Chill until ready to use.

NOTES & SUGGESTIONS:

Lebovitz's original recipe calls for layering the finished ice cream with the raspberry sauce in a container to make a swirled ice cream.

You could, of course, substitute any berries in the sauce.

If you have the kind of ice cream maker that uses a frozen container (like the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Automatic Ice Cream Maker) it is imperative that the container is completely frozen (at least 24 hours in the freezer) and that it remains upright while freezing. You want the liquid inside the bowl's walls, the stuff that freezes the ice cream, to be evenly distributed.

You should also make sure your custard is cold before churning it in the ice cream maker. If it's too warm, it won't freeze and thicken properly.

I used pear-flavored vodka in the raspberry sauce, though you couldn't really taste the booze.

This ice cream and sauce was particularly tasty over warm, freshly-baked, gooey, dark chocolate brownies.

Semifreddo

I have been wanting to make homemade ice cream lately but not wanting to spend $50+ on an ice cream machine.

Then, I came across a recipe for pistachio semifreddo. It's an Italian "semi-frozen" custard. And it looked pretty simple, just 5 ingredients (egg whites, heavy cream, sugar, nuts, & vanilla) that you pour into a dish and freeze for a few hours.

I should have read the recipe a little closer. You have to whip the egg whites & cream into stiff peaks, separately. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem...but I don't have the whisk attachment to my Kitchenaid mixer, so I had to do all that whipping by hand.

Still, I did it.

I used a mixture of pistachios & almonds, then added lemon zest and chopped fresh basil. I ate it over strawberries macerated with lemon juice & sugar.

It's good...very thick & creamy, not as frozen as ice cream, more like gelato.