Week 12: Sweet Cream a la Irene

So I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to make this weeks selection. But thankfully we didn't really feel the effects of Hurricane Irene were we are. I put off making it thinking we were going to be out of power for a longer period of time. My ingredients survived so Sweet Cream was made today. Its simple and will go perfectly with the pistachio cake that a co-worker is bringing to work tomorrow. That is if she didn't loose power or was forced to evacuate her home like some people I know. This storm is crazy! I am amazed at how varied this storm is from one area to the next. My parents live half an hour away and they were without power since 6:30 this morning. There is flooding in a lot of areas and some trees are down, but I was really surprised that our area didn't get hit as much as they predicted. I'm so grateful for it. I am also grateful for another easy ice cream this week. Because of all the chaos surrounding Irene it was nice to have something uncomplicated. The taste is simple and light, the ingredients were basic (milk, cream and sugar syrup) and the taste is perfectly sweet. Tastes much like frozen whipped cream. It would be great with anything mixed in but is great on its own too.

I hope to all that had to deal with the stress of Irene today that they at least had one simple thing happen today. This was my simple thing. Hopefully if work is open tomorrow, everyone can share in it while swapping storm stories. I pray for all who didn't have a simple day today. Tomorrow is new, and may it be better. If you didn't have a great day I suggest you make something sweet and easy, like this. Go ahead...eat a chocolate bar. It is sure to brighten your soul.

Week 11: Cookie Dough

The sorbets are always easy as they are mostly fruit based, but this was one of the easiest ice creams so far. No tempering of eggs and no prior refrigeration of the mixture required. Just milk, heavy cream, sugar syrup, vanilla extract, and of course cookie dough.

The few things I can say is that if you are looking for a simple yet satisfying treat to serve up quick, this might be it. And if you have kids or company coming and you want to look cool, just make this simple vanilla base and put anything you want in it. It looks like you took a lot of time to prepare, but didn't. This is such a basic recipe that will please even the pickiest person. It may be very hard for me to go back to store bought ice cream. The ingredients used to make this were so inexpensive and it took very little time or effort. What I like most about homemade ice cream is that you don't have all the preservatives and processed ingredients. It's clean eating to me. I'm sure if you wanted to make it really healthy you could use agave syrup and organic milk. Not sure if this would change the texture. But it might be worth a try.

Some people may worry about the raw cookie dough in this, but I'm not. I've eaten raw cookie dough most of my life and I'm still here obviously. Knock on wood, it's never made me sick. Cookie dough is made with pasteurized eggs. It's probably the only way it could sit on the grocery store shelf for more than a couple days. Plus I kept it refrigerated the entire time.

Sometimes I wish every recipe was this simple. I think I am getting lazier as this goes on. I'll try not too. I would love to just make the ice cream and have someone write the blog part for me. But I'll try to make a conscious effort to make these posts more exciting.

Till next time.

Week 10: Just Peachy - Fresh Peach and Marcona Almond Gelato

Peaches are in season right now so I had to find a recipe in this book to utilize this wonderful fruit. The one chosen, Fresh Peach and Marcona Almond Gelato. In case you're wondering Marcona almonds are from Spain and they are sweeter, rounder, and have a more delicate texture than other almonds. I was pressed for time at the grocery store, so I settled for regular sliced almonds instead of searching. Some of these recipes get very specific and I'm not sure that it always makes a difference as to the end result. I will be the first to admit that better ingredients create a better outcome. But in this case The almonds add some flavor but mostly provide a crunchy texture. But let's get to the star of the recipe - the peaches. Thanks go to my Mom who gladly provided the peaches for this recipe. Since they originally came from my aunt, I thank her too. It pays to take advantage of fruits while their in season. They are sweeter, cheaper and of course more plentiful. I think I may take additional advantage of peaches this year and make peach cobbler - oh yum! I tend to like apples and stone fruits cooked more than raw. Since Rob is slightly allergic to them raw, I usually cook them anyway. This recipe uses uncooked peaches and because mine were so ripe they pretty much had the texture of cooked ones. Even though my fruit was ripe this ice cream isn't very sweet. I think I like it that way. I like when you can taste the flavor something has more than the sugar. What's nice about cooking and baking yourself is being able to change a recipe to suit your tastes. This just reminded me of something I heard on the Ben and Jerry's documentary. The reason why there is so much stuff in their ice cream is because Ben has weak taste buds and he kept saying he couldn't taste the flavoring. I think it would be awesome to have hyper taste buds. Being a taste tester would be a perfect profession. I always get a bit off topic at the end of these posts. Anyway this gelato is beautiful. Smooth soft peaches, creamy cool ice cream and crunchy almonds. What more could you want?!

Time to go.
Peach dreams :)

Two Roads Diverged in a Scoop

So the official Rocky Road chocolate vs. vanilla taste test starts tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is. Even though I thought the chocolate was going to win me over, somehow the vanilla has more "rockiness to it". Adrian! Yes I went there.

I like to root for the underdog but I realize that the purists may like the chocolate just because it's familiar. Maybe another taste will swing my vote.

I had to come up with my own recipe this time. It wasn't sweet enough or chocolatey enough at first so I added Magic Shell to it because that was all I had. That did make it harder but at least it gave it the much needed sweetness. The chocolate I used must have been semisweet.

On another note, I watched a biography on Ben & Jerry's today. It made me want to drive up to their plant and try to eat a whole Vermonster my myself! I don't know anyone whose tried it. That is a bucket list item for sure. My one regret while on vacation... I didn't eat enough ice cream! I'll have to make up for it this week:) Ha Ha