Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
Brittany wrote this on 25 May 2011
I know that this makes two dessert recipes in a row, but on the off chance that you aren’t going to just whip up a 6 layered birthday cake this weekend (although it would be an AWESOME pot-luck donation!) I wanted to post about the other half of the ‘cake and ice cream’ duo that we served at the party last weekend. And since it is Memorial Day weekend coming up-three days of BBQ’s, parades, giving thanks and hopefully some special treats and drinks-I wanted you to have this a few days before so you could gather the ingredients. But before we get to the recipe, lets chat a bit about ice cream makers, shall we?
The above picture was taken about ten seconds after I pulled the paddle out of the bowl and licked it clean whilst standing over the sink. Half melted ice cream was dribbling down my chin, and I may or may not have been making what I am sure were very unladylike grunts and groans of pure pleasure. The bowl in the picture is my ice cream maker and it is actually an attachment for my Kitchen Aid. I mentioned this briefly in a previous strawberry ice cream blog, also a winner to serve this weekend. The bowl is kept in the freezer so when you are ready to freeze your ice cream, you just take it out and it locks on to whatever model of Kitchen Aid that you happen to have. It comes with a special paddle attachment to churn the cream base and voila! Homemade ice cream! Quite spectacular if you ask me and not terribly expensive if you already own the mixer. But, obviously any kind of ice cream maker will work. There are the ones you toss around like a ball (I like the green ones) and they are inexpensive and fun, ice cream makers with a hand crank but are still electric, and then just your basic electric ‘plug-in and leave alone’ kind. So if you are looking for one, try this, or research and take your pick. You can find every kind imaginable.
And just in case you are thinking that they aren’t worth the investment, let me put your fears to rest. Unless you and your whole family are severely lactose intolerant, you secretly hate ice cream and would never make it for family and friends, or you have some kind of sickness that prevents you from ingesting food colder than 50 degrees (“Excuse me, but could you microwave my iced tea? Thanks.”) , you might want to consider it. There really is nothing like homemade ice cream. And you can’t use the excuse of time either! Yes, my last few recipes for ice cream include egg yolks and cooking and stirring over a stove and straining and cooling, but that is only because I prefer the rich custard-y taste of egg based creams. There are endless recipes out there that take no more effort than dumping a few ingredients together in a bowl. Sometime this summer I will post my recipe for cream cheese ice cream. No eggs, no fuss and it is Off. The. Hook.
So back to today’s recipe, my daughter refused to let me alter it. I actually had another recipe to test and then I was going to compare and adjust and tweak. But she put her foot down. This was the ice cream she wanted with her cake and she begged me to make it again, just how it was.
So here it is. Pretty darn tasty and I should mention that my favorite part is the fact that it doesn’t freeze completely firm. Usually with homemade ice cream you have to let it sit out for a bit before you serve it because it freezes so hard. This recipe is perfectly scoopable right from the freezer. Its a little thing, I know, but extremely handy when feeding a crowd. Or when you are desperate for a bowl of it covered in mini chocolate chips and you are in the middle of an Alias marathon and are frantic to find out if the Rimbaldi prophecy about Sydney Bristow is true and you just don’t want to take the time to fight with ice cream that is hard as a rock! You know. Hypothetically. Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted from Martha Stewart
2 c milk
6 large egg yolks
3/4 c plus 2 T sugar
2 c heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk until steaming and hot, but not bubbling. Meanwhile, with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed until thick and pale. Slowly pour a small amount of milk into egg-yolk mixture, beating on low speed until blended. Continue adding milk, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition. Return mixture to the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon over low heat until mixture is thick enough to coat back of spoon, 3 to 5 minutes. Custard should retain a line drawn across the back of the spoon with your fingertip. Remove pan from heat and stir in cream. Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl and chill in the fridge until cold, preferably overnight. Stir in vanilla. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
White Chocolate Rainbow Cake & A Party
Brittany wrote this on 24 May 2011
My daughter turns five this coming weekend and I am not only in serious denial, but so sad about the whole thing I just may get physically ill. You see, if she turns five, then that means kindergarten in the fall and I can’t even fathom the thought of what a wreck I will be then! If I inexplicably drop off the face of the earth somewhere around the end of August, it is because I am working on a secret formula that somehow allows children to grow-up without really growing up.
I let my daughter choose the menu for her party that was this past weekend and the first request was BBQ Pork-a girl after my own heart! I am so proud… I made coleslaw from this recipe and apparently (I don’t like coleslaw) it was outstanding, or so I was told! Grilled chicken, fried corn, panzanella salad, lemon-thyme orzo, and watermelon rounded out menu. And it was goooooood. Recipes this week will be from her menu so get ready for an influx of summer dishes that are perfect for the holiday weekend coming up! You will be all set for those Memorial Day bbq’s and potluck parties!
But in honor of this birthday (five is a big girl after all!) I made a very special cake for her. When I turned five I thought I was so old! I was convinced that people could tell just by looking at me I was a headed to school in the fall! So I wanted to do something special in honor of my big (sob sob sniff wail gasp sigh) girl. This is the cake pre-party when I had time to take its picture: This is the cake mid-celebration when I wasn’t manning the camera, children were everywhere underfoot and I was trying to cut the cake and make sure we didn’t run out of forks. As you can see, the birthday girl was excited to cut into the rainbow! While I am extremely sad to even acknowledge the fact that Evelyn is going to be five in a matter of days, I was thrilled to be able to make her the coolest cake she had ever seen. A white chocolate rainbow cake covered in fluffy stars of white chocolate buttercream. There wasn’t even one crumb left for me to photograph! Thank you to my devoted husband who snapped a few shots in between passing out plates so that I would have something to show for my hard work! Evelyn requested vanilla ice cream too but that will have to wait for another post! Thank you a million times over to my cousin who forwarded me this recipe. I can’t wait to make it again! Maybe in all ‘boy’ colors? Red, white and blue? Hmmmm…
White Chocolate Rainbow Cake
Cake:
4 oz white chocolate, chopped
1/4 c very hot water
1 c butter, softened
2 c sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c cake flour
1 c buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
4 egg whites
Melt the white chocolate in the hot water and set it aside to cool. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks 1 at a time. Add vanilla. Add cooled, melted chocolate. Sift flour and baking soda together and add to creamed mixture in three installments, alternating with buttermilk, ending with buttermilk. Blend just enough to incorporate ingredients, stirring by hand in the end if you need to. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites on high until peaks form. By hand, fold gently into batter. Streaks are just fine because you will mix more when you add the food coloring. Divide the batter into 6 bowls evenly, about 1 1/2 c of batter for each color. Color batter with gel food coloring, mixing it VERY GENTLY so as not to deflate the egg whites! Grease and flour the pans well. Bake in 9-in round pans at 350 for about 15-17 min. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then cool completely on wire rack.
Note: If like me, you don’t have six cake pans to bake them all at once, chill the separate bowls of batter until ready to use and bake them in shifts.
White Chocolate Buttercream
1 c of butter, softened
2 1/2 c powder sugar
6 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled in microwave in 30 second intervals
1T heavy cream
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add melted and cooled white chocolate and cream. Beat on high 3-4 minutes, scrapping sides of bowl. Add more powdered sugar or cream to achieve the desired consistency. 1 1/2 batches will do the filling and a thin crumb coat and 1additional full batch is perfect for a final coat using a star tip. Keep frosted cake cool, but not cold.
Shrimp Cobb Salad
Brittany wrote this on 22 May 2011
Eat with your eyes first and gaze upon this salad. Doesn’t this look good? I thought so too. So when I glanced at the cover of Cooking Light Magazine and saw it, I immediately added it to my menu for the week. Beautiful to look at and delightful to eat, the flavor of this salad won’t disappoint. It goes together quick and you can just omit the ingredients you don’t like. Don’t want the calories of bacon? Leave them out. Seafood turn your stomach? Substitute chicken. There isn’t any dairy to weigh you down and it is so beautiful to look at, I was thrilled to pause and take its picture. And my daughter was happy to eat it. Shrimp Cobb Salad
Adapted from Cooking Light
4 slices bacon
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 pkg romaine lettuce
cherry tomatoes
shredded carrots
frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
avocado, peeled and sliced
Dressing:
juice of half a lemon
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and crumble. Wipe the pan clean and drizzle in some olive oil and heat over medium to medium-high heat. Toss shrimp with paprika and just a bit of salt and pepper. Cook shrimp 2 minutes on each side or until done. While the shrimp cooks, mix dressing ingredients with a whisk. Build salad however you like and drizzle with dressing.