Too Much Food » Frozen Desserts

Ice Cream in Winter: Peppermint Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Pinjing — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:47:03 +0000

Busy busy busy! Sister is home and family and friends are visiting, half of the family is sick with the flu and cough (first it was my mom and me during Thanksgiving, now it’s my Dad and my sister’s turn), so between the coughs and the visits I’ve hardly had time to cook or bake. I have been browsing all the fabulous holiday creations my fellow bloggers have been putting out and I want to try to make them all!

However, I did manage to have enough time to put this delicious ice cream together. I had bought a pack of MimicCreme vegan cream substitute and was itching to try it out and figured an ice cream was the best way to put it to the test. I was so happy after the freezing process that my ice cream was scoopable and creamy straight from the freezer (though putting in 3 tablespoons of vodka couldn’t hurt, I guess). For me, that is vegan ice cream success. This recipe is a Philadelphia-style ice cream (which means it doesn’t use egg yolks), so it doesn’t require cooking and comes together really quickly if you have all your ingredients chilled at the time you’re ready to make the base. If you’re not lactose intolerant or vegan, feel free to substitute heavy cream for the MimicCreme in this recipe and for more lusciousness, you can convert it to a custard-based ice cream (you probably can omit the vodka if you do this), but keep in mind that would require you to cook the ice cream base first.

Peppermint Cookies and Ice Cream
Makes approximately 1 quart

What you’ll need:

2 cups unsweetened plain MimicCreme vegan cream substitute (or, 1 16oz. aseptic package)
50g sugar (or more, to taste. I prefer my ice creams on the less-sweet side)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
3 tablespoons vodka
3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 peppermint oreo cookies (I used Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joes, which are delicious by themselves), crushed

The procedure:

Using a blender, blend the MimicCreme, sugar, vanilla, extract, salt and vodka until smooth. Chill the base thoroughly, at least 4 hours or overnight, preferably.

Churn the ice cream base according to your ice cream maker manufacturer’s directions. During the last minute of churning, add the crushed peppermint oreo cookies.

Pour into container and freeze thoroughly. Scoop and enjoy.

Whatever you celebrate, I hope you have a relaxing holiday season and a happy new year!

It’s Been A While (and an ice cream recipe)

Pinjing — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:53:46 +0000

I’ve been horribly lax in my postings here (last post was about Halloween cookies!), but I’ve had good reasons. In an effort to alleviate some health problems I’ve had since my university days, I’ve been seeing an acupuncturist. Along with the acupuncture treatments, my doctor had me changing my diet from week to week in order to try to pinpoint some food allergies (at one point I was only allowed to eat potatoes, white rice, cauliflower, cabbage and chicken broth and drink water for a week).

I guess all the diet changing put my body at a weak point and I ended up developing shingles the week before Thanksgiving. I could barely move my left side and was infected with a horrible rash and stabbing pains in my muscles for a couple of days. After an emergency run to the doctor’s office on Thanksgiving morning, a doctor was able to diagnose it and prescribe some medication. Thankfully, I caught it at an early stage and I’m slowly on the mend.

My appetite has been kind of poor lately, which is a bit depressing (I’ve been reading food blogs and there are so many holiday recipes I’d love to try), but I was able to make this super-easy coconut taro ice cream recipe for guests on Thanksgiving. Combining full-fat coconut milk (the good stuff), sweetened condensed milk, and prepared sweetened taro chunks, this ice cream combines two of my favorite asian-inspired flavors, coconut and taro. It was really well-received and when asked how I made it, I felt almost guilty about claiming I came up with this recipe . . . it was just a lucky result of throwing a couple of languishing cans I had in the pantry together.

Coconut Taro Ice Cream

What you’ll need:

1 can (13.5 oz.) full-fat coconut milk
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 can (15 oz.?) prepared sweetened taro chunks (can substitute homemade sweetened taro if wary about purchasing the canned variety . . . perhaps a future experiment)

The Procedure:

Combine all ingredients in blender and pulverize until well-blended.

Chill thoroughly.

Freeze according to ice cream maker manufacturer’s instructions.

Easy!

A Frankenstein Matcha Ice Cream

Pinjing — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:06:29 +0000

What do you do when your mom makes an angel food cake and kindly asks you to dispose of seven eggs yolks? Since I was gifted with an ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for my birthday this year (something that I was eyeing for a VERY long time, trust me), the first thing that came to my mind was some sort of ice cream.

I was planning on making David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Ice Cream, but it only called for five egg yolks; faced with this sort of dilemma, I did what I normally do: throw caution to the wind, modify the recipe and pray for the best.

Pulling out several tupperware cups worth of heavy cream and milk out of the freezer and defrosting them, I realized I only had 1 cup of heavy cream and 1.5 cups of whole milk; at this point, I just thought “to hell with it” and soldiered on with the custard preparation. I remembered there was a jar of matcha powder languishing in the pantry, and at the last moment, decided to throw two tablespoons into the cream mixture to turn it into a matcha ice cream.

1) Sister scooping ice cream after lunch. 2) Dad’s portion, in a paper dixie bowl and topped with slivered almonds, cause that’s how he rolls.

Despite all my changes, the ice cream froze and scooped wonderfully. Even after a few days in the freezer, it was still scoopable; the matcha taste was definitely there but not overpowering. My dad, who loves super fatty-creamy ice cream, deemed this my best ice cream yet. I’d like to think I was just lucky.

Frankenstein Matcha Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart.

What you’ll need:

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons matcha powder
1.5 cups whole milk
7 egg yolks (but can probably decrease this to five with no ill effects)
3/4 cups superfine sugar (I just take granulated sugar and pulverize it in a coffee grinder)
1 vanilla bean or, in a pinch, 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

The procedure:
Whisk together the matcha powder and heavy cream in a bowl. If using the vanilla extract, stir this in now. Set aside.

Heat the whole milk, salt and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk. (If using vanilla extract, do not add it at this point; you would have added it to the cream mixture).

Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. (This tempers the yolks so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs). Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream mixture. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.

Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.