Recipe Repost: Apple Cider Cider Donut

I posted this recipe out of season, and now since it is smack dab in the middle of apple season, I thought it was time for a relink.

Apple Cider Cider Donut Ice Cream. Enjoy!

King Arthur Flour (and Ice Cream?!)

When I think of King Arthur Flour, I think "baked goods" more so than "frozen goods." But I guess I also think "sweets, sweets, sweets," so I guess this awesome King Arthur post shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

My friend Marsha at First Things First sent this awesome link from King Arthur Flour: Cool! Easy homemade ice cream. In particular, I was taken by recipes for Tart Cherry Ice Cream and Pineapple-Coconut Gelato (Pina Colada, anyone?!), but whether you like fruit or chocolate, sorbet or ice cream, they've got you covered!

They also discuss ice cream makers, and have a strong (positive) opinion for the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker: "We’ve tested other brands, and other models; and we’ve found the Cuisinart offers the best balance between performance and price." Of course, at first I thought, "Of course they do, because they sell it and want us to buy it," but then it occurred to me that they aren't the manufacturer and they probably did test a lot to figure out just which one they wanted to sell at their store. 


I've always loved King Arthur Flour (can I just tell you how fun -- and dangerous to my wallet) it was when Jenn and I took a pilgrimage to The Baker's Store last year? And thank you Stacey for introducing me to it all those years ago. Anyway, this post and their dedicated section to ice cream making supplies and ingredients made me love them a little bit more (if possible)...


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

No Ice Cream Maker? No Problem!

We write a blog about frozen treats. Unfortunately, many of our recipes require special equipment: an ice cream maker. While an ice cream maker can be quite affordable, it still takes up space in the kitchen and it's still something else to buy.

Tina and I would probably be lost without our ice cream makers, but that's not to say you can't make your own frozen (and delicious) treats without one. Popsicles can be as simple as juice and a stick in a cup placed in the freezer. Granitas are often frozen in a shallow dish and scraped every so often. 

Ice cream too, can be made without an ice cream maker. Sure, it's a bit more time consuming, but as David Lebovitz says in his great article about ice cream without an ice cream maker, "People have been making ice cream far longer than the invention of electricity so there’s no reason you can’t make ice cream and sorbets at home without a machine."

Just the other day my fabulous sister forwarded along this recipe for Lemon Ice Cream without a machine with a note: "sounds delicious & refreshing!" While neither of us have made it yet, it sounds great.

While I am busy creating a bunch of ice cream for an event I'm having at the end of July, making ice cream without a machine right now isn't an option time-wise. But it's something I'd like to try. I'm curious. Have you ever done it? Was it good?

I'll hopefully test some of these recipes in the future.

Red Velvet Ice Cream

Red Velvet Cake reminds me of Valentine's Day, so maybe that's why I was insistent on making Red Velvet Cake when I got together with my art school girls the day after Valentine's Day. I used Jennifer Appel's recipe for Red Velvet Cake from The Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook: More Than 80 Recipes for Irresistible, Old-Fashioned Treats, but used the recipe for her Cream Cheese Icing rather than her Red Velvet Icing. I made cupcakes instead, and reduced the cooking time to 30 minutes. I got about 28 cupcakes from the recipe, and lots of extra frosting -- bonus!

With any good cake comes ice cream, and therefore, I felt it necessary to make a Red Velvet Ice Cream. I have had a Red Velvet Ice Cream before -- I am a big fan of Stone Ridge Creamery's Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream. But, I wanted to try my hand at it.

Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 2 red velvet cupcakes, frozen, then diced into 1/2 cubes
• cream cheese frosting
• red sanding sugar

How to:

1. Heat cream, cocoa powder and sugar in a medium sauce pan, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a rolling boil.
2. In a small bowl, mix together whole milk and lemon juice to make "buttermilk".
3. Transfer hot cream mixture to a large bowl and add milk and lemon juice mixture and vanilla extract. Stir until combined.
4. Chill mixture thoroughly in fridge.
5. Freeze ice cream in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. During the last few minutes of churning, add in the diced cake. Then add a few shakes of sanding sugar (as desired). Finally, swirl in three heaping tablespoons of cream cheese frosting.

Voila.

The reviews are in. I liked it. Husband liked it. Four art school friends liked it. One nine year old and one six year old liked it. No one disliked it.

The ice cream was not too sweet but just sweet enough. Though I have had disagreements with buttermilk in ice cream, in this case, the "buttermilk" gave it just what it needed to give it the Red Velvet kick.

My one complaint? The cream cheese frosting. I love cream cheese frosting. Love it. However, when eaten in the ice cream, the cream cheese seemed to coat the roof of my mouth, which I wasn't a huge fan of. What to do? Leave it out? Try a lower fat version of the icing? Any thoughts? Right now, I'd say leave it in (maybe add less) until I find a cream cheese swirl replacement.

Still haven't gotten your Red Velvet fill? Head over to CakeSpy's where she recently compared the cake to Marilyn Monroe. It's quite a treat and chock full of history.

Or visit Krista of In the Kitchen with Krista where she made Rich Red Regale Red Velvet Ice Cream Cupcakes for last year's Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup.

Vote For Your Favorite Eagle Brand Ice Cream Recipe!

As Tina mentioned, I was a bit tied up lately (thanks for the good wishes -- we are totally enjoying our time with Violet!), but at the same time, I am told I can't move around too much so it's a good time to catch up on the blog while I also catch up on LOST. (Yep, Kevin pulled me and now we are addicted!)

Anyway, it's time now to vote for our entries in the Eagle Brand Ice Cream Recipe Contest. Scroll to the bottom of this entry for the ballot and please be sure to vote by Tuesday, August 31st, 11:59 PM EST.

In alphabetical order, here they are (please follow the links below the images to read more about the flavor and the recipe):

Coffeehouse Ice Cream

Decadent Dulce de Leche Ice Cream 

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

Summer Berrilicuious Ice Cream

Whiskey and Blueberry Ice Cream

Thanks to everyone for their fabulous entries! Once things calm down a bit here, I hope to try them out. Yes, Violet is going to be a huge ice cream fan just like her mom -- we need to get her started early, and these will probably do the trick!

Ice Cream in an Instant

Growing up I always loved vanilla Pudding Pops which, as I was just reading, have a habit of disappearing and then reappearing from the market.

I don't know why it just occurred to me to freeze pudding in my ice cream maker, as I have never seen pudding NOT on the shelf.

Since I always keep milk in my fridge and an ice cream machine canister in my freezer, I am going to start keeping a large box of Jell-O Instant Pudding on my shelf for last minute desserts. What's super cool while visiting the Instant Pudding link is all the possibilities of 30 minute ice cream (or should we call it ice pudding/ice milk?) we could be making!

The process was simple:

1. As directed on the box (I used the large size), using a whisk, mix 1 package of pudding into 3 cups of milk. (I used whole milk.)
2. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and churn according to the ice cream maker's directions.

Voila! In less than 30 minutes, a creamy cold dessert, perfect for this 99.6° weather here in the Boston area!

Note, I don't know how this will ripen in the freezer, since I just put it in the freezer about a half an hour ago, but I can tell you right out of the ice cream maker it was pretty darn good and creamy!

Don't have an ice cream maker? Enter our Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup for a chance to win. In the meantime, make your own pudding pops -- but a warning -- these take five hours to freeze.

Spice Dish Saturday {January}: Chocolate-Almond Sorbet

We are so spoiled to have Spice Dish and her wonderful recipes, since I haven't made ice cream in quite a while. Thanks, Spice Dish! What a treat your recipes are!

This is a post-holiday gorge-fest recipe. It not only uses leftover chocolate from your Christmas stocking but is on the lighter for all those resolution makers.

Chocolate-Almond Sorbet
2 cups of cold water
1 1/8 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
8 oz semisweet chocolate (chopped or chips)
Small pinch of kosher salt
1/2 tsp Amaretto
1/2 cup toasted almonds

Whisk together 1 cup of the water, the sugar, the cocoa powder and salt together in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and whisk it for about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate until it is melted completely. Add the Amaretto and remaining cup of water. Use an immersion blender (a standing one will work fine too) and blend the mixture completely. Chill completely. Once chilled freeze in your ice cream maker. Just before serving, top with the almonds for a great crunch!

Thanks again, Spice Dish! We ♥ you!

Grandma's Black Forest Cake Ice Cream

When I was little, my grandmother used to make a lot of things: soft sculpture murals, cookies shaped like Santa, an Easter ham carved into the shape of a bunny...this is only a small listing of her accomplishments. She was quite a talented woman, my late grandmother, and my parents suggest this is where I get my artistic talent.

What does Grandma Schlegel have to do with this ice cream blog? The inspiration I found from her Black Forest Cake: chocolate cake with canned cherries and whipped cream.

When I got a sample of Amy's Organic Cake in the mail, I thought of a perfect way to use the cake...Black Forest Ice Cream. I have always been a fan of Bruce Weinstein's Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream recipe, so I churned up a batch of this and added crumbled Amy's Organic Chocolate Cake to the mix in the last five minutes of churning. I probably used about a cup of crumbs, which left me with a good amount of cake just to eat on my own, so I really could have my cake and eat it too!

While Amy's Cake was moist and delicious on it's own (see Tina's post from last week) it also blended in wonderfully with the ice cream and saved me from making a chocolate cake.

While I would make this ice cream again in an instant -- it was one of my favorites from I Scream 2009 -- I would also serve this cake on it's own. Both it's presentation and taste, texture, and moistness put it on my "emergency guests" list of foods -- that's assuming 1. I don't eat it first and 2. I remember to take it out of the freezer in time!

Spice Dish Saturday {September}: Cream Green Apple Ice Cream

Spice Dish escaped to Europe this summer, and lucky us, we get a perfect fall treat as a result! Bon Appetit!

This flavor was inspired by my recent trip to Paris. One morning for breakfast, I happened across some apple flavored yogurt. Simple, but completely divine. Unlike anything I’ve ever tasted in the US. Maybe it’s because French dairy products, are well, actually made of dairy. Not a collection of chemicals and preservatives. Whatever the reason, I was in love. I couldn’t stop thinking about that yogurt and decided I hate to recreate it at home. This is rich, creamy, speckled with vanilla and perfumed with a hint of tart, green apple. Enjoy!

Creamy Green Apple Ice Cream

1 lb tart green apples
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean (split lengthwise)

With a cheese grater, shred apples (including the peel) into a medium saucepan. Stir in lemon juice. Pour 1 cup of the cream into the pan. Add sugar & salt. Stir. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean and add to the mixture. Then drop the bean in. Warm the mixture until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add rest of cream and milk. Let steep, covered, for one hour. Strain into large bowl and chill completely. Churn in your mixer. For a caramel apple effect, top with a creamy caramel sauce.

Thanks, EB!

Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day!

Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day! There are two kinds of favorites I am going to write about here...when I have time to make it and when I don't...

When I have time to make it, I use this recipe:

Vanilla Ice Cream

• 4 cups heavy cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste if you prefer)

1. Pour cream into saucepan and heat to just before it begins to simmer.
2. Meanwhile beat the egg yolks and sugar until thickened.
3. Slowly add the hot cream into the egg mixture while beating them together.
4. Pour mixture back into saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon.
5. Strain mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl. Allow it to cool slightly and add the vanilla.
6. Refrigerate overnight (or until completely cooled).
7. Pour in ice cream maker and churn.

If I don't have time to make it? Brigham's French Vanilla all the way. They told me they discontinued it (and I still can't find it on their site), but I keep finding it on the shelves. I'm not complaining!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Ice cream image by ctechs at stockxchng.

On the Rebound: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

I have one book in my collection of hundreds of books (ice cream and otherwise) that needs to be rebound: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More by Bruce Weinstein. This book is my bible, my go to book...Seriously. I mean, the binding is cracked and the pages are falling out. I'm not saying they did a poor binding job -- I just think it has been overused! I need to take it to Kinko's to have them put a spiral binding in it!

If you go to Amazon and do a search on ice cream it is currently number three on the list. I'd say it should be number one, but I have to put it at number two since you can't use it without an ice cream maker!

Anyway, I was just thinking as I used it the other day about what a great investment it was and if there was ever a book more loved...So I thought I would give it a little shout out!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Spice Dish Saturday {July}: Blueberry Apricot Sorbet

EB of Spice Dish is off to Europe for the summer, so we'll have to savor this recipe for a while. Won't be hard as it looks amazing. Thanks, EB and have a safe and wonderful trip!

This is the perfect summer sorbet. Light, refreshing and perfectly sweet.

Blueberry Apricot Sorbet

1 lb fresh apricots
1 pkg blueberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp Amaretto


Cut the apricots into small pieces. Cook the apricots, blueberries and water over medium heat until they have the texture of mush. Stir frequently. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. Add the Amaretto and puree the mixture in a blender until smooth. Chill the mixture until completely cold. Freeze in your ice cream maker.

Recipe Friday: Rice Krispie Treat Ice Cream

I have been busy busy making ice cream this month, and wanted to share with you a new one I made.

Honestly, it wasn't what I had hoped it to be, even after my second stab. It's still good but the Rice Krispies turn out a little soft. Maybe this is okay to those who like their cereal with milk, but I really don't like milk in my cereal for the very reason that it turns the cereal soft.

First off, I made Rice Krispie Treats ®. This was a bit dangerous because I was home alone that weekend and it was a great temptation to eat them all -- I didn't, but that's not to say I didn't eat a lot of them! If you are going to eat a lot of them like I did, be sure to reserve about 2-3 treats (out of the 12 they say it makes) to incorporate into your ice cream. (As a side note, when I went to get this recipe from the Rice Krispie ® site, I read a comment from a woman who incorporates bacon bits into her Rice Krispie treats...interesting...)

Then came the ice cream. I wanted to go for a marshmallow base. A Google search lead me to this one from the Blue Ridge Mountain Ice Cream Store. I made it, but personally, without any eggs, I found the recipe to be too much like frozen milk. That's not to say other people wouldn't like it -- I just prefer my custard based ice creams.

Then I tried altering a vanilla based ice cream with advice from Gail Damerow in Ice Cream!: The Whole Scoop. This created a lovely marshmallow flavored ice cream.

Here's the recipe:

Heat:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 (7 1/2 oz) jar of Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Stir occasionally, until the mixture is warm (not boiling though).

Whisk:
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Slowly add warm milk mixture to the whisked egg mixture, and whisk until mixed. Return entire mixture to the stove, and heat until the mixture begins to coat the back of the spoon. Do not bring to a boil or you will have scrambled eggs. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl -- discard the solids that remain in the strainer. Chill overnight.

Pour chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to the ice cream maker's directions.

I then broke my reserved Rice Krispie Treats into bite sized pieces and added them to the ice cream maker during the last five minutes of churning.

The ice cream was good. Again, my only complaint is the sogginess of the Rice Krispies. Surprisingly I didn't find it too sweet.

My husband liked it, but he said it wasn't as good as the coconut. (See yesterday's post.) He also said it tasted like vanilla. When I asked about the Rice Krispies, he said he hardly noticed them -- well, then I guess they didn't bother him, anyway!


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Ice Cream Recipe Swap on Swap-Bot

I know Tina and EB and I share some good recipes on this site, but as I am a huge fan of Swap-Bot, I thought it would be fun to exchange some recipes via snail mail.

It's very simple:

Visit this link by May 15. You will be assigned 5 partners and need to send a postcard to each with your favorite ice cream maker recipe by June 6.

Mail and new ice cream recipes...what could be more fun?

SpiceDish Saturday {April}: Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

It's time for April's SpiceDish Saturday. I'm particularly excited for this one. It's an exotic flavor and just so beautiful looking. It reminds me of those Brach's Jelly Nougats I used to LOVE when I was a kid. I recently rediscovered them at Chutter's (home of the longest candy counter) in Littleton, New Hampshire. But, I digress. Back to the subject at hand -- SpiceDish's amazing looking ice cream...

The world is thawing, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and new fresh flavors are everywhere. I was gifted with a large stash of lemons so perfect, they looked like plastic. Their fragrant, oil packed skin called out to be blended with rich cream an a little something special. I found the perfect something special at Bi-Rite the other day. Candied rose petals! This recipe would work fantastically with candied violets too.

Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

3 Large lemons (zested & juiced)
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups ½ & ½
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
4 tbs candied rose petals

Warm the ½ & ½, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a saucepan until just simmering. Remove from heat and let sit for1 hour. Re-warm mixture. While it warms, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Add several tablespoons of the cream mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk. Repeat procedure until the two mixtures are completely blended together. Return mixture to the saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly. The custard is cooked when it thickens and coats the spoon.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into your mixing bowl. Chill the mixture in the freezer for 20 minutes. Stir thoroughly and put into mixer. While the ice cream churns, crush 2 tbs of the rose petals (or lavender, or violet). 5 minutes before the mixture is finished churning add both the crushed and whole candied rose petals.

SpiceDish Saturday {February}: Cocoa-Sour Cream-Blackberry Ice Cream

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's time for another SpiceDish Saturday. Without further ado...


This is one of those staring into the depths of your fridge "I have ½ tub of sour cream left over from tacos and the blackberries from the corner market were 99 cents but I have to eat them today or freeze them, man I am craving chocolate... agggghhh" type of recipes. It was born out of that exact conversation in my head. The sour cream adds a nice tang to the super sweet choco-sugar mixture and the berries are a nice (aha! Healthy!) surprise. A bit unexpected.

There's no custard base so it's really very easy and all the richness comes from the sour cream. Enjoy!

Cocoa-Sour Cream-Blackberry Ice Cream

1 ½ cups sour cream
1 cup sugar
4 tbs dutch cocoa
1 ½ cup frozen blackberries


Heat the sour cream, cocoa and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisking until it comes to a low simmer. Pour mixture into bowl and add blackberries. Cover and place in refrigerator until cooled completely. Once cooled, use a handheld immersion blender to blitz the mixture (if you don't have one a blender works just as well).

Pour into mixer and chill following directions.

Thanks, SpiceDish!

Recipe: Pomegranate Buttermilk Sorbet

So lucky for me that Lisa doesn't read my blog that much, because then maybe she won't know that dessert tonight is made up of leftovers!

I made my favorite carrot cake on Sunday, followed that by a quick bread, and I was still left with two cups of buttermilk. I don't know why they don't sell it in smaller quantities, because I don't know of one recipe that uses more than a cup of it at a time! So I looked up buttermilk recipes and came across a lot for buttermilk ice creams and sorbets. So I decided to follow one of the recipes from Cooking Light -- which was basically two cups of buttermilk, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of corn syrup.

I mixed and tasted it, and while thrilled I wasn't wasting any buttermilk, I wasn't so thrilled that it reminded me a lot of Pinkberry (and you know my feelings about that!). Should I add lemon extract? Orange? Then it hit me...I had a lot of homemade grenadine leftover from when I tried my first stab at Shirley Temple Ice Cream. I added 1/4 cup, but thought it needed more, so I added another 1/4 cup for a total of 1/2 cup of grenadine.

The sorbet froze up nicely, with a muted wine color. It still tasted a little yogurty to me, and with my sweet tooth, even though I love yogurt, when I am after frozen treats, I much prefer sweet sweet sweet!

What was nice about this recipe was that it was easy and quick. There was no stove prep, which was a nice break.

Lisa and I both liked the sorbet. As Lisa put it, "I feel like I shouldn't like it, but I do!" I know that sounds crazy, but I understand what she meant. It was very refreshing (I think it would be a great summer treat!) and at the same time, the sourness of the buttermilk was balanced by the sweetened grenadine.

Would I make it again? Not just for me. But it most definitely is a contender for I Scream 2009!

(Apologies for the photo quality -- had to use the iPhone because the sorbet was melting so quickly!)

We've got a new friend in the ice cream blog world!

It looks like EB of Spice Dish did all our work for us when she wrote about a fabulous collection of ice cream accessories. Not only that, but I think I have a new blog to subscribe to...her love of ice cream is clear with her previous entry being Triple Threat featuring a strawberry sorbet and the following one titled Sorbetasitc! Um, why can't I be that creative with my titles? Here's to you EB and your fabulous site (and P.S. now I love your mom too), and to Jessie, the fabulous Cakespy, for hooking us up.



<-- I want that wallet.