08.18.08
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Fruits, Ice Cream at 10:40 am by julie
Since we had to suffer through several straight days of 100F+ weather, I was determined to make a batch of ice cream to combat the heat. The Orange Popsicle ice cream from The Perfect Scoop was the perfect candidate for several reasons: It gave me a means to use up a big bag of sweet little clementines I’ve been trying to eat singlehandedly for several weeks; it called for half-and-half and sour cream, both of which I was able to run to our little corner market and pick up in a matter of minutes (they don’t carry whipping cream); it is a blender recipe, which is awfully convenient for chilling and later pouring into the running ice cream machine; and most importantly, it isn’t a custard-based recipe, which means no heat required!
I was a fan of orange creamsicles growing up, and with my addition of vanilla extract (the original calls for orange liqueur, which is not my thing), this recipe matches that flavor beautifully, with a creamy texture and refreshing hit of citrus. I predict that this ice cream won’t last the weekend in our fridge. But I have to admit that I actually liked the textural contrast of crunchy orange popsicle and creamy vanilla ice cream in the original treat, so I’m also tempted to make plain vanilla ice cream sometime and top it with orange granita to get that citrus crunch.
Creamsicle Ice Cream
2/3 C sugar
Grated zest of 5 clementines
1 1/4 C freshly squeezed clementine juice
1 C sour cream
1/2 C half-and-half
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a blender, pulverize the sugar together with the zest until very finely ground. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until the sugar is entirely dissolved. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator before churning in your handy-dandy ice cream maker.
Source: Slightly adapted from The Perfect Scoop
, by David Lebovitz (p. 50).
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08.04.08
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Foodblog Events, Nuts, Grains & Legumes at 5:53 pm by julie
The first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week, an event designed, as the name implies, to promote breastfeeding on a global scale. As you may have noticed from my previous posts, breastfeeding is a big part of my life right now, even though I have to come at it a little sideways. Nolan has had latching issues from Day One, so I’ve been exclusively pumping for him since Day Two. It is a huge time investment—I just did some quick math, and estimate that I’ve spent at least 360 hours attached to that pump since Nolan’s birth 19 weeks ago (that is a conservative estimate, based on 8 20-minute sessions per day… it sometimes takes 30 minutes per session, and I pumped 9-10 times per day the first month or two, while establishing my supply). With all that effort, I produce just barely enough for Nolan on a daily basis, with perhaps a few ounces to store in the freezer against future need. But it is such a worthwhile investment, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have both the supply and the time to pump for my son.
I realize that breastfeeding may not be an option for every family, but it is so incredibly beneficial for both mother and baby that it is certainly worth attempting, even for a short period of time. I am bound and determined to at least reach 6 months, and a year or more if possible.
In case you were wondering what set off this little discourse on my foodblog, you can thank Linda at Make Life Sweeter! for hosting an event called Got Milk? in honor of World Breastfeeding Week, for which this post is my entry. Anyway, off the soap box and on with the food.
I had some praline paste leftover from the filbert gateau even after whipping up a batch of praline ricotta pancakes. It didn’t amount to much, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out, so I used it to flavor some vanilla pudding instead. I adapted a recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, using 1% milk rather than whole milk. It worked out alright, but I imagine the texture would be a bit creamer and less gloppy with a higher fat content. I’m not convinced that her method of using the food processor to make the pudding was worth the extra dishes, however; the stove-top tempering method has always worked just fine for me.
Praline Pudding
2 1/4 C 1% or whole milk
6 T sugar
3 T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
2 T butter, room temperature
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C praline paste/powder
Bring 2 cups of milk and 3 T sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, blend remaining 3 T sugar and egg yolks for 1 minute. Add remaining 1/4 cup milk and pulse just to mix. Then add cornstarch and salt and pulse a few more times.
With the machine still running, very slowly add hot milk mixture. Process for a few seconds more, then pour everything back into the saucepan. Whisk without stopping over medium heat until the pudding thickens and some bubbles pop on the surface. Do not let it boil completely, so if it hasn’t thickened yet, turn down the heat. Scrape the pudding back into the machine (avoiding any scorched spots) and pulse a few more times. Add butter, vanilla, and 3 T praline paste, and pulse until evenly blended.
Pour the pudding evenly into 6 4-oz ramekins or cups. Press a piece of plastic wrap over each surface. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Serve with a sprinkle of praline powder or some caramelized nuts.
Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (p. 384).
Praline Paste
1 C (4 ½ oz.) hazelnuts, toasted/skinless
2/3 C sugar
Line a jelly roll pan with a silpat, or lightly buttered parchment.
Put the sugar in a heavy 10-inch skillet. Heat on low flame for about 10-20 min until the sugar melts around the edges. Do not stir the sugar. Swirl the pan if necessary to prevent the melted sugar from burning. Brush the sides of the pan with water to remove sugar crystals. If the sugar in the center does not melt, stir briefly. When the sugar is completely melted and caramel in color, remove from heat. Stir in the nuts with a wooden spoon and separate the clusters. Return to low heat and stir to coat the nuts on all sides. Cook until the mixture starts to bubble. Remember – this is an extremely hot mixture. Then onto the parchment lined sheet and spread as evenly as possible. As it cools, it will harden into brittle. Break the candied nuts into pieces and place them in the food processor. Pulse into a medium-fine crunch or process until the brittle turns into a powder. To make paste, process for several more minutes. Store in an airtight container and store in a cook dry place. Do not refrigerate.
Source: Great Cakes by Carol Walter
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05.29.08
Posted in Cuisines, Dairy, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Italian, Meats, Pastas, Poultry at 9:34 am by julie
I was looking to make something a bit more interesting than plain old spaghetti for dinner the other night, working with limited time and ingredients. My usual quick fancied-up spaghetti sauce, which I’m not sure I’ve ever posted here, adds a bit of cream to jarred sauce. Since I didn’t have any cream on hand, I was looking for something else to provide a similar effect, and came across a tomato-mascarpone sauce that fit the bill. With a little sauteed chicken for protein, it was a very tasty meal that didn’t take all evening to put together. The leftover mascarpone gave me the perfect excuse to make banana-Nutella pancakes for breakfast the next day too, and you can’t beat that!
This post marks my return to Presto Pasta Nights, hosted by the lovely Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. Hopefully it won’t be quite so long before my next entry!
Angel Hair with Chicken and Tomato-Mascarpone Sauce
2 T olive oil
1 T unsalted butter
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1/3 C white wine
Salt and pepper
1/4 C onion, diced
1 14-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes, chopped, with juices
1 tsp dried basil
4 oz mascarpone cheese
1/2 lb angel hair pasta
Heat the olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat; add garlic and saute until just beginning to turn golden brown. Add chicken, season with 1/4 tsp kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper, and saute until just cooked through. Add wine and stir to bring up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet, then turn heat to medium high and reduce liquids.
Remove chicken from pan and add onion; saute until just translucent, then add tomatoes with juices, and basil. Simmer for several minutes to combine flavors, then cool slightly while you boil water for the pasta. Using a blender, puree the tomato-onion sauce with the mascarpone until homogenous, then return to skillet with chicken, adjust seasonings if necessary, and keep warm until the pasta has finished cooking.
Drain cooked pasta, and toss with the sauce. Top with shredded parmesan cheese and serve.
Source: Adapted from The Cookmobile
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01.09.08
Posted in Chocolate, Cuisines, Dairy, Dessert, Ice Cream, Italian, Nuts, Grains & Legumes at 11:33 am by julie
I think I was just meant to make gianduja gelato last week. When we ate through that tin roof ice cream so quickly, I had Jeremy take a gander through the book and pick out our next flavor. He couldn’t decide between roasted banana ice cream and gianduja gelato, but I thought the choice had been made for us because I definitely had bananas but only a small stash of hazelnuts. We had a rough day on Thursday, so I decided that some fresh roasted banana ice cream was in order for a pick-me-up. I took the book in the kitchen to start gathering up ingredients, and it fell open right to the gianduja, which has a pretty mouthwatering photo. I ended up digging around in the baking cupboard to find out how many hazelnuts I actually had, just in case; it turned out that I had precisely the 1 1/2 cups needed for the recipe, no more, no less. That sounded like fate to me.
The recipe was one of the more complicated that I’ve made from The Perfect Scoop, but the results are infinitely worthwhile. First you toast, skin, and chop the hazelnuts, then soak them in a mixture of warm milk, cream and sugar for an hour. The nuts are then strained out and squeezed to retain every last drop of hazelnut-infused milk, which is transformed into a custard base on the stove. Finally, you combine it with a mixture of warm cream and melted milk chocolate, chill it with an ice bath and a trip to the fridge (and/or freezer, if you want to expedite the process as I did), and churn it up into hazelnut heaven.
This gelato came out perfectly smooth and creamy, with a pronounced flavor of hazelnuts and just the right amount of subtle support from the milk chocolate. If there were any more—or darker—chocolate, the hazelnuts would have been lost and all that careful steeping pointless. If you wanted to make a plain hazelnut gelato, I think you could leave the chocolate out entirely with no detriments: I found myself scraping dribbles of hazelnut creme anglaise from the cooled saucepan with my finger because it was so delicious. Another option that I believe would work equally well is substituting toasted and ground almonds or pistachios for the hazelnuts, with or without chocolate.
I have to wonder if this should really be called gelato, however. David Lebovitz certainly has more first-hand experience with the stuff than I do, but I’ve always thought that the primary difference between gelato and ice cream was that gelato had less fat and frequently no eggs at all. Fat coats the tongue and can consequently mute flavors over time, and I thought part of the reason that gelato is so intensely flavored is because it is by nature lower in fat, sometimes even using corn starch as a thickener instead. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I was surprised to see a gelato recipe calling for more cream than milk and a custard base involving 5 egg yolks. It’s a minor point, because gelato or ice cream, this gianduja stuff is absolutely heavenly, and I don’t think we’ll be able to resist making it again and again.
I won’t provide the recipe here. You can find it reproduced on Serious Eats. However, to be honest, even if all the other ice cream I’ve been churning out over the last year wasn’t enough to tempt you, this gelato is definitely worth buying the book for, and an ice cream maker too if you don’t have one already. I’m just sayin’.
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12.29.07
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Ice Cream at 6:23 pm by julie
If you ever have a surplus of egg yolks, I would highly recommend making ice cream. My problem is generally the opposite, but I found myself with a little bowlful of yolks leftover from making the yule log, thanks to its Swiss meringue buttercream and meringue mushrooms. I gleefully handed the ice cream book to my dad and asked him to pick out something custard-based to take care of that little problem, and he put his finger down on Tin Roof Ice Cream, a delectable concoction of French vanilla ice cream layered with fudge ripple and chocolate-covered peanuts. It lasted us all of two days.
My adjustments included using vanilla paste instead of a bean and 1% milk instead of whole in the custard. The resulting ice cream was nevertheless incredibly creamy and pleasantly perfumed with flecks of vanilla bean. I think, in fact, that it may have been my best vanilla ice cream effort to date. I cut the recipe for chocolate-covered peanuts in half to get the right amount for the ice cream, but I didn’t halve the fudge ripple and I have quite a bit of that leftover. Since polishing off the tin roof ice cream, we’ve already been eyeing the gianduja gelato, and I have a inkling that a fudge ripple would not be an unwelcome addition.
Tin Roof Ice Cream
3/4 C 1% milk
3/4 C sugar
Pinch salt
1 1/2 C heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla paste
4 large egg yolks
3/4 C Chocolate-Covered Peanuts (recipe below)
Chilled Fudge Ripple (recipe below)
Warm the milk, sugar, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan (I added an extra splash of cream to bring the fat content closer to that of the original recipe, which called for whole milk).
Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Mix in the vanilla paste, then pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream to cool. Stir this bowl until cool over an ice bath, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Before freezing, make and chill the fudge ripple, then make the chocolate-covered peanuts and allow to harden. Freeze the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While the ice cream is freezing, chop the chocolate-covered peanuts into bite-sized pieces, and fold the pieces into the ice cream as you remove it from the machine, layering it with Fudge Ripple. Start with a puddle of Fudge Ripple in the bottom of the storage container and then alternate layers of ice cream with layers of sauce.
Chocolate-Covered Peanuts
2 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
Put the pices of chocolate in an absolutely dry heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to melt th chocolate, stirring until smooth. In the meantime, stretch a piece of plastic wrap over a dinner plate.
Once the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat and stir in the peanuts, coasting them with the chocolate. Spread the mixture on the plastic-lined plate and chill in the refrigerator. Makes 3/4 cup.
Fudge Ripple
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C light corn syrup
1/2 C water
6 T unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture begins to bubble at the edges.
Continue to whisk until it just comes to a low boil. Cook for 1 minute, whisking frequently. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and let cool. Chill in the refrigerator before using. Makes 1 cup.
Source: Slightly adapted from The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz
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09.08.07
Posted in Dairy, Snacks at 10:53 am by julie
When we were first exploring Whole Foods in the spring, we decided to try a bunch of different types of yogurt. Jeremy tried out Greek Gods and Fage Greek-style yogurts, and I picked out a variety including goats-milk and water-buffalo yogurts. The Greek-style yogurts were winners: we can find Greek Gods locally, and now use that frequently as a snack drizzled with honey, or in various sorts of recipes. Fage makes a better Greek yogurt, though, and we always get some when we visit Whole Foods.
I thought the goats-milk yogurt was alright, but it was too thin for my tastes, and on the gamey side. After that I didn’t have high hopes for the water buffalo yogurt, but I had purchased several containers of it and Jeremy wouldn’t touch it, so I gave it a shot. It was a revelation: naturally thick and creamy as cheesecake, and brilliantly white because any carotene is processed into vitamin A by the buffalo. It’s also naturally much higher in protein and calcium, and lower in cholesterol than cows-milk yogurt. It’s made in Vermont by Woodstock Water Buffalo, and the line of flavors is locally inspired. Our Whole Foods doesn’t carry the full range of flavors (I’d love to try chai, honey, strawberry, and black currant), so I’ve been sticking with vanilla and maple, and they’re both delicious, just sweet enough to balance that yogurt tang without tasting like pudding.
So be sure to try some of this yogurt if you see it in the store! I picked mine up as a novelty, but I’d always keep some in the fridge now if we didn’t have drive so far to get it.
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07.04.07
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Fruits, Ice Cream at 9:47 am by julie
Frozen yogurt, and bring it right here!
Maybe that song is a little out of season, but fresh fig frozen yogurt is right on the mark. I know fresh figs have an on-and-off season through the summer, but I’ve never seen them for sale in Salem before. So imagine my surprise when I walked in to LifeSource looking for Napa cabbage and maybe some cherries, and found a few precious baskets of fresh Black Mission figs. A pint jumped in my basket almost before I had time to think.
Later in the evening, as I was pondering what to make with my figgy treasure, Jeremy reminded me of the fig ice cream recipe in The Perfect Scoop, accompanied by a impossibly beautiful, shockingly violet photo of the stuff. I hadn’t purchased enough figs for the full recipe, but I decided to go for it anyway, with a few modifications. I pulled in the flavors of honey and Greek yogurt, which are both classic pairings with figs, and at the same time they helped bulk up the yield.
I should note at this point that, having never found them at the market, I’ve never eaten a fresh fig before, and the small amount I had to go in the ice cream meant that I only sampled a small bite. I have to admit, although I like the taste of dried figs pureed into baked goods, I was a little put off by the fresh ones, which were simultaneously squishy and full of crunchy little seeds. If I see them again, I’ll try broiling them or something, but I wasn’t really that thrilled. It’s also entirely possible that they weren’t as ripe as they should have been.
The fig frozen yogurt, that I made was a different story, however. It was silky smooth thanks to the honey, and very creamy despite the seeds. The fig flavor was very subtle and almost floral, and the honey taste came through beautifully, almost more than I intended. Honey frozen yogurt, all on its own, would be sublime, by the way, and I will definitely remember that for future batches. The only thing I found vaguely disappointing about this experiment was the color, which was a paler, mauvey pink than David’s glorious violet. But with half the figs and more white dairy products, it was to be expected. Ah well.
Honeyed Fig Frozen Yogurt
14-16 oz very ripe Black Mission figs, stem removed and cut into eighths
¼ C water
½ tsp dried lemon zest
¼ C blackberry honey (the honey flavor was pretty strong; I might scale this back next time)
½ C sugar
½ C heavy cream
½ C Greek yogurt
Lemon juice, to taste
Place the cut-up figs in a medium saucepan with the water and lemon zest, and bring to a steady simmer over medium heat. Cover and allow to cook for 8-10 minutes or until figs are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove heat, add sugar and honey, and continue cooking until figs have reached a jam-like consistency, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Place fig mixture in a food processor or blender and add the cream and yogurt, and a splash of lemon juice. Process until thoroughly pureed, or to desired consistency. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator before churning in the ice cream machine.
Source: Adapted from The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz.
Update 7/5/07:
Jeremy suggested that this frozen yogurt would be ideally paired with something like an oatmeal crumble, and I agreed that would be lovely. I ended up finding a Maida Heatter recipe for crispy Oatmeal Wafers, which she claims were a favorite of Norman Rockwell’s. That was all I needed to hear. The recipe has very little flour, which makes a delicate cookie that must be cooked for an exact amount of time so that it neither burns nor clings desperately to the foil-lined baking sheet. With my oven’s track record, this was a tricky proposition, but I told myself that since they were really just for ice cream topping, sheetfuls of demolished cookies would really not be a disaster so long as they taste good. Actually, they came out just fine, releasing from the foil with just a bit of reluctance and a few breaks. They tasted great too, buttery and carmelized, with a good chew from the old fashioned oats and walnuts. They didn’t stay crisp for long, but that’s what I get for baking this sort of recipe in the summer. No matter—the important thing is that they tasted fantastic with the fig ice cream.
Norman Rockwell’s Oatmeal Wafers
These cookies were Norman Rockwell’s favorite, according to Maida Heatter. I’ve never made one of her recipes before, but I will certainly do so again. They were very easy to make, and came out looking and tasting just as I had hoped.
1/2 C sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 lb butter
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/2 C light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T water (measure carefully)
1 egg
1 C old fashioned oatmeal
3/4 C walnuts, chopped medium fine
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut aluminum foil to fit cookie sheets. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda, and then set aside.
In a small bowl cream butter with electric mixer. Gradually add both sugars and beat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vanilla, water, and egg and beat well. On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until smooth. Stir in the oatmeal and nuts. Use a rounded tablespoon of dough for each cookie, and place them 3 to 4 inches apart on the foil. With the back of a wet spoon, flatten each cookie to 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick.
Bake for 13 minutes or until evenly browned. These must be timed carefully; if underbaked, the bottoms will be wet and sticky and difficult to remove from the foil; if overbaked, they will taste burnt and bitter. Slide foil with cookies off baking sheet and let cool. Then carefully and gently peel the foil away from the cookies. The cookie bottoms will look glassy and smooth. Turn them upside down on a cookie rack to cool 5 to 10 minutes and then store airtight. Humidity will take away the delicate crispness of these cookies.
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06.27.07
Posted in Chocolate, Dairy, Dessert, Fruits, Ice Cream at 10:56 am by julie
After making banana pancakes last weekend, I still had a surplus of bananas to use up. Three of those are destined for banana bread, but there were still a few undesignated bananas, quickly moving past the brief yellow-ripe phase into mushiness. I also had half a tub of mascarpone cheese left from the pancakes, and the combination of the two was ringing a little bell in my head. Where had I seen that pairing recently?
Back in May, Helene of Tartelette posted a recipe for banana and mascarpone mousse parfaits, perfect little pyramids of creamy banana goodness topped with a waterfall of ganache and a sprinkle of chopped pistachio. As it turned out, I had all the ingredients for the frozen mousse on hand, so I decided to give it a go.
The mousse was not at all difficult to make, although the number of separately whipped ingredients meant dirtying a few bowls. I very gently folded everything together and scooped servings gingerly into my silicone muffin pan, which I thought would make a decent pinch-hitter for pretty pyramid molds. I still think it would have worked out beautifully…except that I couldn’t fit the muffin pan into my freezer. It’s not even that big, and I put it on my smallest baking sheet, but we have a vertically oriented freezer with a door that opens against a wall, and the #!@&% freezer door shelves were blocking the way. I tried transferring the pan to a plate, but no dice. Even the plate wouldn’t fit without serious angling, and meanwhile the mousse was sliding all over the top of the muffin pan and getting all over the undersides of the freezer door shelves.
Rather miserably, I admitted defeat and scooped the mousse from the muffin pan into the few ramekins I have, putting the overflow into some skinny juice glasses. So much for unmolding them for presentation, and so much for the fluffy texture I had so painstakingly worked to achieve. I was at least able to get the plate into the freezer by itself, and then added the ramekins one at a time; but when I turned around to put the glasses on another shelf, the plate tipped and one of the ramekins belched its contents all over the inside of my freezer before splatting on the floor. Now sobbing in despair, I stormed around the kitchen cleaning up the mess, and then retreated to the bedroom to drown my sorrows in a re-read of Harry Potter Book 6 (I wanted a refresher for next month).
The next day, I grudgingly peered at the surviving mousses in the freezer, and decided that I might as well finish the job. Since I used up the last of my cream in the mousses themselves, I decided to make the lean chocolate sauce in The Perfect Scoop rather than a chocolate ganache, and topped the parfaits with toasted sliced almonds because they caught my eye on the shelf.
The chocolate sauce was easy to make. I used Droste cocoa and Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips, and made a half batch because that was all the corn syrup I had. It still made plenty and we will be happily topping our ice cream with the leftovers, which did thicken up gloriously in the fridge as promised, almost to pudding consistency.
The finished parfaits were actually really tasty. The mousse itself is a sort of semifreddo, and for all my concerns about rock-like consistency, they came out tasting remarkably like banana ice cream. To be honest, we hardly even minded the lack of a fancy presentation. I’ll be very happy to move on to the next batch of ice cream, though…
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06.17.07
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Fruits, Ice Cream at 10:54 pm by julie
It’s June in Oregon, and that means one thing: strawberries. Their season, and that of cherries, is unmercifully short, so we have to take advantage of it while we can. We went to the Saturday market with Freyja again this week, and came home with a half-flat of juicy little jewels for $15. I got a pint of cherries (which look like Rainiers, but are not as sweet) and a pint of raspberries (which I don’t really care for, but keep trying), but the real treasure was four pints of Hood strawberries.
Our introduction to Hoods was two summers back, and once you’ve tried them, no other strawberry ever measures up, in color or sweetness. But once you bring them home, they don’t last more than a day or so fresh. In past years, we’ve sometimes macerated them with sugar and balsamic in order to keep them a few days longer and pour over slices of pound cake. This year, after eating a pint or two right out of the box, I whipped up a fluffy batch of strawberry-sour cream ice cream, pink as bubble gum.
I don’t care for store-bought strawberry ice cream, which can be so artificial tasting, but this—from my favorite ice cream book—was something else altogether. Aside from a fleeting wish that I had pureed the sugared strawberries by themselves and strained them before mixing in the heavy and sour creams, it was perfect: just the right level of sweetness, and a pure strawberries-and-cream flavor. It had more overrun than any other homemade ice cream I’ve tried, and matched up perfectly with some cacao nib meringue nests I made a few days before. Thank goodness for strawberry season!
Strawberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream
1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3/4 C sugar
1 T vodka or kirsch
1 C sour cream
1 C heavy cream
1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Slice the strawberries and toss them in a bowl with the sugar and vodka or kirsch, stirring until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour, stirring every so often.
Pulse the strawberries and their liquid with the sour cream, heavy cream, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor until almost smooth but still slightly chunky.
Refrigerate for 1 hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Source: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.
Update 6/18/07: We had a small scoop of strawberry ice cream as an afternoon refresher after getting back from Silver Creek Falls today. After dinner, Jeremy said that although he’d never much cared for strawberry ice cream in the past, he’d rather have that for dessert than the LifeSource German chocolate brownie or some squares of chocolate that I had suggested. I think that makes us converts!
Update 7/10/07: Another batch of this ice cream was called for to commemorate the end of strawberry season 2007. It’s not going to be easy to wait until next year for another batch!
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06.02.07
Posted in Dairy, Dessert, Ice Cream at 8:45 am by julie
When last we met, I was forlornly resigning myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to roll, cut, chill, bake and cool a batch of homemade graham crackers inside the space of an hour. The next day, I returned to the kitchen after work, already wilting from summer heat, and got to it.
The dough was easy to work with. I kept the counter sprinkled with flour and had very few issues with sticking. I ended up getting 17 sandwich cookie-sized crackers (about 2.5″ x 5.5″, but I wasn’t really measuring) out of the batch, and I think I could have stood to roll the dough out thinner. I popped the prepped cookies into the fridge (where the baking sheets they were on only just barely fit into my fridge…whew) and we went out with the pup for a walk and a frisbee session. When we returned, the cookies were ready to go in the oven. They baked up just right according to the recipe, so if I do roll them out thinner next time, I would reduce the bake time by a few minutes. I gave them just enough time to cool, and loaded them up with ice cream.
I think my ice cream sandwich technique needs work. First off, next time I will definitely have the cookies ready before I make the ice cream, because the texture is just right for spreading fresh out of the machine. That was initially my plan, but a heat-related emergency (read: our house was warm and we were uncomfortable) required an ice cream infusion, stat. As a result, the ice cream was really too solid for spreading, and melted all around the edges of the container because of the warm kitchen. Also, my first sandwich was made from a whole cracker, and Jeremy complained that the ice cream to cookie ratio was off. He was taking a bite, and all the ice cream squished out the back end. After that, I broke my cookies in half along their handy-dandy break line, tried hard to mound some (still rather solid) ice cream in between, and immediately got the finished cookie back into the freezer. I did six this way, and I think the size is more user friendly—the ice cream doesn’t quite melt before you finish eating one.
While they were freezing, I sampled the cookies with a scoop or two of ice cream on the side, for garnish, as it were. They’re very good: crisp and brown, just like a graham cracker should be, with a subtle sweetness and touch of cinnamon. If we finish off the ice cream before we get through them all, I’ll have to blitz them up for crumbs and make a key lime pie or something. Ooh, or I could make some homemade marshmallows and do S’mores with good dark chocolate. That would be fun! Oh, the possibilities!
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