Week 25: All in the Family - Coconut Apricot Sorbet

I entered this year of blogging with the best of intentions. I wanted to start it off with a BANG, but it sort of fizzled. But I'll update you on the past weeks events and tell you whats ahead.

Well for starters I got engaged on NYE! I will figure out how to have ice cream at my wedding, don't you worry. The following week my cousin was supposed to make ice cream with me but the scheduling didn't work out. But she was here with me this weekend to make Oreo for her and we made Coconut Apricot Sorbet from the book. Both are really easy ice creams to get started with so I was happy that it worked out that way. 

For her reference and yours I'd like to go over the process.

Step 1: Make a sugar syrup. In a small saucepan, on medium heat, stir 1 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup water until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat to cool and refrigerate in a covered container. It lasts for at least a month in the fridge. 

Step 2: Mix 2 cups whole milk, 2 cups heavy cream, 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup sugar syrup in a bowl to combine.

Step 3: Pour into ice cream maker and run for 30 minutes or whatever your machine calls for.

Step 4: Put cookies (as many as you'd like) in a plastic zipper bag and crush them. This keeps the mess to a minimum.

Step 5: In the last 5 minutes of mixing add the cookies to the ice cream mixture. If you use a lot of cookies you may want to mix them in by hand after you have taken the ice cream out of the maker.

Step 6: Enjoy homemade Oreo ice cream!

See how easy it is! And if you have a KitchenAid mixer you can get the ice cream bowl attachment. So you don't have to have another appliance taking up space. It looks great. Direct from the manufacturer it is expensive but I have seen it retail as low as $35 on sale. So its a great investment if your just starting out with making ice cream. I must get one.

Aside from making Oreo we made Coconut Apricot Sorbet. It came out lovely. The coconut milk makes it slightly creamy and the apricot flavor is what you really taste. I couldn't find apricot juice so we pureed canned apricots. I didn't strain it because I like the chunkiness of having bits of apricot in it. It has shredded coconut in it as well which adds to the texture. There is a refreshing icy quality that I love about sorbet. On a day like today it might be a bit too cold to enjoy it but I'll certainly try.

A special thank you to my cousin. I am so happy that she was able to come and make ice cream. I think she really enjoyed it and was surprised by how easy it can be. She is welcome in my kitchen anytime. Maybe someday I will get her started with her own machine!

What Would You Do-oo-oo?

So I'm stepping it up a notch this week with homemade Klondike bars. But not just any Klondike bars, Triple Coconut Klondike bars. They have great coconut flavor and crunch from toasted coconut, sweetened flakes coconut, coconut milk, and I added cream of coconut to make it even more rich. So if you want to be technically correct its Quadruple coconut. Once I thought about the process it was really easy to make. You make the ice cream as usual, when it's still soft you spread it into a baking dish lined with wax paper (so the ice cream doesn't freeze to the pan). I used a 9x13 pan but if you had more ice cream you could use a deep cookie tray or sheet cake pan. I would just suggest that the mixture fill the container at least an inch high. Let it freeze until it's set enough but not too hard. Remove from pan with wax paper an cut into squares. My mom suggested that the new brownie pans that have inserts to make them precut would work great. I dont make brownies that often to need a pan like that, but they do seem neat. Once they are cut you can return the pan to the freezer if they thawed out too much, if not it's time to dip them in chocolate. I used magic shell! I love this stuff. I've used it before to make carvel-like ice cream cake. This stuff is amazing. I read online that you can make your own (see recipe below) by melting chocolate with coconut oil. Coconut oil is rather expensive, but maybe I'll try it sometime. You coat the bars in magic shell and then refreeze. It takes more magic shell than I thought, but it didn't solidify as quickly as I imagined. You have a little time to top it with nuts or cookie crumbles if you wish to add more texture or flavor. I meant to top some with almonds but forgot in the process of making them. You have to work somewhat quickly because if the bars get too soft the chocolate doesn't stick as well to them. The melted ice cream sort of seizes up the choclate a bit making it harder to get an even coating. But they're handmade, they don't have to be perfect. Mine certainly aren't but they sure taste like it. This is a great thing to try with any store bought ice cream too. You can come up with lots of different flavor combinations. The one benefit to making your own magic shell would be that you can make it with any type of chocolate. White chocolate would be beautiful with mint ice cream for Christmas. This is too easy and too good a treat not to try. It's one of those simple but fancy things that wow people. There's not much I wouldn't do for a Klondike bar, how about you?

Magic Shell Recipe:

1 1/4 Cups Chocolate Chips

1/2 Cup Coconut Oil (measured when solid)

Melt the coconut oil over very low heat. Slowly stir in the chocolate until completely melted and blended. Add a dash of salt. Store your topping in a jar or squeeze bottle. You don't need to refrigerate it, but if it does solidify, just nuke it for a few secs to make it all melty again.

Week 9: I Love Rocky Road

I was surprised to see that this flavor wasn't chocolate but vanilla based with chocolate chips. While I like this version, I think would have preferred the chocolate base. Maybe I'm a purist. But it was still very delicious. The rough "rocky" texture of the chips, coconut and almonds contrasts nicely with the soft marshmallow pieces. I will admit my jaw was a bit tired of chewing after this one. This made for some thick ice cream that had to be mixed by hand because the maker couldn't hold half of the final ingredients.

This one definitely warrants a chocolate vs vanilla taste test. Since I have left over ingredients I think I will see if I can make it happen for Tuesday. Since I'll be away next week on vacation maybe this can take the place of next Sundays post. I can declare the winner of the taste test on Sunday instead of starting a new flavor. We'll see what the ice cream gallery has to say at work.

a fork in the road

The title for this post came from the Wierd Al song, I Love Rocky Road, sung to the classic 80s anthem I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett.

I hear those ice cream bells and I start to drool
Keep a couple quarts in my locker at school
Yah, but chocolate's gettin' old
Vanilla just leaves me cold

There's just one flavor good enough for me, yah me
Don't gimme no crummy taste spoon
I know what I need

Baby, I love rocky road
So won't ya go and buy half a gallon, baby
I love rocky road
So have another triple scoop with me, ow

They tell me ice cream junkies are all the same
All the soda jerkers know my name
When their supply is gone
Then I'll be movin' on

But I'll be back on Monday afternoon, you'll see
Another truck load's comin' in for me, all for me
I'm singin'

I love rocky road
So won't ya go and buy half a gallon, baby
I love rocky road
So have another triple scoop with me, ow

(oh, make it talk)

When I'm all alone, I just grab myself a cone
And if I get fat and loose my teeth that's fine with me
Just lock me in the freezer and throw away the key
Sing it

I love rocky road
So won't ya go and buy half a gallon, baby
I love rocky road
So have another triple scoop with me

I love rocky road
So won't ya go and buy half a gallon, baby
I love rocky road
So have another triple scoop with me

Week 8: Loco for Coco-nut! Orange Pineapple Coconut Sorbet and Mango Coconut Ice Cream

I made two ice creams this week. One as a slightly belated birthday present for my mom (Mango Coconut Ice Cream) and the other for the usual gig (Orange Pineapple Coconut Sorbet).

First the sorbet. This was by far the easiest recipe yet! 3 ingredients, and it took practically no time to prepare. If it wasn't for letting the mixture cool overnight in the fridge, this could easily have been done in 15 minutes. I was pretty pleased with the outcome of this flavor combo but I would have preferred a stronger coconut flavor. The orange and pineapple juices overpowered the coconut milk. But the milk did add a creaminess that would have been lacking if it was just juice alone. I think if I try this one again I'll use cream of coconut instead of coconut milk, to make the coconut stand out more and make the mixture more creamy. Regardless this is refreshing.

Mom requested Mango Coconut ice cream for her birthday which was a few weeks ago. It just took me a while to get to it but it was definitely worth the wait. She found the recipe in the Hartford Currant living section. Very simple to make with little ingredients. A few mangoes pureed, coconut milk, whipping cream, and sugar ( I used sugar syrup to simplify the process - no heating the mixture to dissolve the sugar). Topped with fresh mango slices and toasted coconut; it really makes it amazing!!! The coconut adds crunch and the mangoes make the mango in the ice cream really stand out.

They are the perfect type of ice creams to make to start off a beach weekend. Fresh, bright, tropical flavors - perfect to cool off from the heat. Should Monday be another scorcher, the sorbet will certainly be appreciated.

Week 5: Deutsch Schokolade | German Chocolate

This week Caroline picked the flavor. Chocolate ...check, coconut ...check, nuts ...check, yep its going to be good!

I am constantly trying to perfect my technique with each recipe. I made sure my eggs were room temperature, got the milk up to the proper temperature before and after tempering the eggs. I let it thoroughly cool before putting it in the fridge overnight. With all this I expected the mixture to come out of the fridge with a medium bodied consistency, thin enough to then get thickened in the maker. Instead I ended up with soft serve before I even put it in the maker. This is a scary outcome as it is only going to get thicker once the mixture freezes. But fears aside I proceed with getting it churning in the mixer. It goes for half an hour then its time to put the coconut and nuts in. The minute I do, the motor stops. I'm thinking now I have to work fast before I end up with a melted mess. And is my machine broken?

I handle the first fiasco - getting this mass of ice cream out of the maker and into a bowl so I can mix it. Because the mixture got so hard in the maker, a lot of it froze to the sides of the cylinder and was soft in the middle. I was nervous about having chunks of hardened ice cream mixed within the soft base but the coconut and nut texture hopefully hide that. I get the mixture the the freezer as quickly as possible and check the maker. Motor starts up fine! It will live to see another week of ice cream making. I actually think its designed to shut it off if the cylinder cant spin, so you don't blow the motor. Lets hope anyway.

This whole process was a labor of love. The ingredients were somewhat pricey and more so because I doubled the recipe. This is definitely a treat worth spending money on. The richness of the chocolate is the star in this ice cream, and the Bakers's German's Chocolate is creamy and smooth, and just sweet enough. The coconut gives a a great flavor as well, I might even add some coconut extract next time to amp up the coconut flavor. The original recipe called for pecans but Caroline asked for macadamias. They add a rich, buttery crunch that makes this even more decadent. They are salted so you get the contrast in flavors which balance each other well. That seems to be the big thing in baking right now. You see salt topped cupcakes and pies with caramel and salt. I'm glad that people are looking at savory items for baked goods. I'm getting a bit off topic but. herbs go really well in sweet dishes too.

I think the only thing wrong with it is wanting to eat the entire batch in one sitting. I would advise against doing this, as it is so rich. This is the type of ice cream that is a delicacy, to be savored. It will be the perfect way to start a short week after this holiday weekend.

Have a wonderful 4th of July!