Eggless Lemon Ice Cream

Whatever September, tell me when fall really gets here, I'm still making ice cream.



This is eggless lemon ice cream and it's ridiculous easy and quick because you don't have to heat the cream. I found it odd the recipe I followed instructs you to place it in the fridge after the sugar dissolves to let it cool down... My heavy cream just came out of the fridge...in fact that's the only way to keep heavy cream I understand... So maybe I missed something, but even if I did this came out great!

(Eggless) Lemon Ice Cream
Adapted from C&C Cakery

2 cups of whipping/heavy cream
1 cup of sugar
2 lemons worth of zest (about 1/4 cup)
4 lemons worth of juice (about 1/2 cup)

1. In a metal bowl, combine the cream and sugar.
2. Using a hand mixer on low, slowly dissolve the sugar (don't actually whip the cream, use a wire whisk if you have to instead)
   
3. Add zest and lemon juice while whisking slowly.
4. Process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions OR use this method if you don't have an ice cream maker!

Mexican Cocoa Ice Cream for Cinco de Mayo

I discovered a wonderful new shop, the Savory Spice Shop in Westfield, NJ. It's so much fun. The first time I went there I was overwhelmed and I walked out with only a few things, but I recently went back and bought a whole bunch of fun stuff!

Among my spoils was a bag of Mexican cocoa which I made Mexican cocoa ice cream in honor of Cinco de Mayo with!



I'm still learning how to make ice cream well. I have issues with my custard separating and that seems to make it freeze hard as a rock after processing. But this time I went very slow and I think it came out pretty good!



Mexican Cocoa Ice Cream
From Savory Spice Shop

Yields 1 quart
Note: If you don't have an ice cream maker you can use this method for processing!

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tbsp. Mexican cocoa
1/4 tsp. cinnamon extract
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together.
   
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, slowly heat milk to boiling point, stirring occasionally.
3. Slowly pour egg mixture into milk and thoroughly mix together.
   
4. Turn heat to low and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and forms a thick film on the back of a wooden spoon. (Do not let it boil or the mixture will separate)
5. Remove pan from heat and let cool to room temperature.
   
6. When cool, transfer mixture to a bowl. Add cocoa and mix in thoroughly.
   
7. Mix in extracts and cream.
   
8. Refrigerate until cold, 1-2 hours.
   
9. Process the ice cream in an ice cream maker for about 25 min, or make sure you have a lot of time and use this method

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Chocolate Irish Whiskey Ice Cream Cupcakes

This is the St. Patrick's Day treat post! Chocolate Irish whiskey cupcakes, filled with chocolate ice cream and topped with chocolate Bailey's Irish cream glaze. So good.



Chocolate Irish Whiskey Ice Cream Cupcakes with Baileys Chocolate Glaze
Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes and 500 Cupcakes
Yields approx. 2 1/2 dozen regular size cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups strongly brewed coffee (I used two packets of Starbucks Via in the 1 1/2 cup water)
1/2 cup Irish whiskey (Jameson, of course)
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate ice cream (I suggest Breyers)

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line regular size cupcake pan with wrappers.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
   
3. In a medium saucepan combine butter, coffee, whiskey, cinnamon, and cocoa powder over low/medium heat until melted. Whisking until smooth.
   
4. Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar. Allow to cool slightly.
5. In a mixer, mix together the eggs and vanilla.
6. Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture.
   
7. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Mixture will be very thin.
8. Pour into prepared cupcake pan until cups are around 2/3 full
9. Bake 15 - 17 until cake springs back when touched and cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out almost clean.
10. Set on wire rack in pan to cool for 5 - 10 min.
11. Remove from pan and leave on wire rack to cool completely.

Fill with ice cream!
A good photo tutorial can be found here where I used the same method making Boston cream cupcakes!

1. Once cooled to room temperature completely, put the cupcakes into the fridge for about 20 min or so. Meanwhile take the ice cream out of the freezer and let it soften slightly.
2. Remove the cupcakes from the fridge (they'll be easier to work with when they're cold) and use a knife to remove the center of each cupcake and cut the bottom portion of the "cone" off, keeping the "hat" of the cupcake intact.
   
3. Eat the cupcake cake insides you just removed! :oD mmmm...whiskey chocolate cake...
4. Spoon a bit of the softened chocolate ice cream into the center of the cupcake and replace the cupcake hat
5. Place cupcakes into the freezer until ice cream refreezes
   
   

For the Baileys chocolate glaze:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli will do the trick, accessible and tasty)
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons Baileys Irish cream

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the heavy cream
3. Stir in the Baileys
4. Allow to cool slightly
5. Remove the cupcakes from the freezer and spoon the glaze over each cupcake. Pop em back in the freezer

Once the glaze is set, store them in an air tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Before serving, remove from freezer to fridge for about 20 - 30 min or so.



Happy St. Patrick's Day kids!

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt - With or without an ice cream maker

In my baking excitement I never posted my sexy strawberry frozen yogurt.



Simple Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

1 2/3 cups milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 cups strawberry yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
About 3/4 cup fresh strawberries, cut up into 1/2 - 1/4 inch pieces

1. With a hand mixer, combine the milk and sugar until sugar is dissolved - be patient
2. Stir in the yogurt and heavy cream
3. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions for 20 - 25 minutes. OR if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can try the process I describe at the bottom of this post.
4. In the last 5 minutes of mixing, stir in the fresh strawberry pieces
5. Frozen yogurt will have a soupy soft serve consistency, but transfer it to containers to finish freezing and it will be PERFECT!
   

It was definitely refreshing, I can't wait for sorbet season. The fresh strawberries were a nice touch (pat self on back), plus they look sexy.

So I know when I came across any ice cream recipe that said "process in your ice cream maker" I immediately stopped reading. Which is pretty much all recipes... BUT if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can do it the slow and steady way. There weren't always ice cream makers you know!

How to make frozen goodies without an ice cream maker

1. Make room in your freezer for a blender pitcher.
   
2. When your recipe says to add it to your ice cream maker for processing, pour the whole thing into the blender and put it in the freezer for 40 min to an hour.
   
3. Every 40 min to an hour, take it out and blend it for a few moments, then return it to the freezer.
4. As it freezes, use a spoon to push the frozen parts off the side back into the blender and blend some more.
5. Eventually, you'll have to transfer it to containers while you can still get it out of the blender. ;o)
6. You can use a hand mixer to give it a good mix a few more turns after this

I did this with triple berry sorbet and it was magic. I think the recipe stated to do this process for the next 3 hours I gave up and went to bed and it was still fine! I had the same success with ginger ice cream, but I religiously processed that every 40 min to an hour since I worked from home at the time and, well, I could. :o)

If you don't have a blender either, you can do the same process with a big metal bowl (some sites recommend a baking dish of sorts, since shallow will be better) and a hand mixer. But the blender is just so much easier.

Happy ice cream making!

Frozen Treats

I know it's February and it's been 1 degree out (literally...), but Dave got me an ice cream maker for Christmas. I plan to embark on numerous, exciting ice cream adventures, hence the Ice Cream Adventures set in Flickr.

I've made frozen desserts before without an ice cream maker, so it can be done, but it's painstaking, as chronicled in my successes with triple berry sorbet and ginger ice cream.

First I tried some honey vanilla frozen yogurt.



It was semi-successful. Dave seems to want "healthy" desserts so I tried making it with less sugar. Which I know now is important to the freezing process. This one was a little too frozen... At the end I swirled in some honey so it was honey vanilla frozen yogurt! :oD A good idea, but should of made it with all the sugar. ;o) It's shown here with some caramel sauce drizzled over it

For Sunday dinner one night with my fam, my mom decided to have pumpkin pie, so I made this buttered pecan ice cream to go with it. :oD



I didn't know it would take almost 3 times as long as the frozen yogurt to simmer and whatnot so it was more like soft serve than ice cream, but here it is in its fully frozen state. Again, it was a bit hard to scoop but it tasted AMAZING. It was my first time using a real vanilla bean for anything and it smelled heavenly while cooking.

Look at the sexy vanilla seeds, it's delicious.



Keep your eye on the flickr set for more to come!

Fall baking round up

work has me stressed out, so haven't been keeping up with my little blogger or much baking/crafting for that matter. Flickr has been updated thought!

Here's some cool photos from the season!


Pumpkin muffins!


Apple cider mini donuts! Yes! I got a mini donut pan! <3
My first apple pie all by my big self. With apples we picked from the orchard.


Sexy apple pie slice with homemade ginger ice cream, without and ice cream maker. Still a success! Doesn't go as well with the apple pie as I thought but it's tasty. :oD


Homemade apple butter, would of been great except don't use black pepper in your all spice substitute, worst idea ever.


Vanilla and apple butter swiss meringue buttercream macaron. That's cinnamon on top, did it taste like apple cinnamon? No...just sugar. Still looking for a decent macaron recipe, baking instructions are all wrong for the ones I tried so far!


Ghost shaped Count Chocula cereal treats for a halloween party. They were awesome.