Happy birthday to my dearest husband! (Still doesn't feel real saying that...) To celebrate, we're having a delicious ice-cream cake with a brownie base!
Simon absolutely loves hot brownies with ice-cream on top, so this year I thought I'd mash the two concepts together by making an ice-cream cake. However, I learnt a few things in the process.
I made this by cooking up an 8 inch (20 centimetre) fudgy chocolate brownie and popping it in a deep 8 inch tin lined with non-stick paper. I emptied about 2 pints of good quality vanilla ice-cream on top of it and froze the whole confection together. However, this led to a rock solid base. So, in future renditions, I'll probably freeze the ice-cream into a cake shape independently of the base, then pop the two together for serving so the base is soft enough to cut without the ice-cream thawing too much.
I decorated the top with swirls of whipping cream, vanilla filled wafer rolls, and a dusting of drinking chocolate powder for visual interest! It was greatly enjoyed, but the next one will be better with the added steps.
Once again it's time to experiment with ice-cream creations as July, which is International Ice Cream Month, rolls around.
This year's trials have been broad and involved a lot more research and experimentation that in previous years, because nowadays as the Internet grows and information is more widely and readily available, research is easy to conduct from the comfort of your own living room.
The biggest research resource these days is YouTube, where you can find a video on nearly anything you can imagine and there are hundreds of thousands of aspiring cooking-show hosts who have taken the brave step of setting up a camera in their kitchen for the whole world to see.
Unfortunately, pointing a camera at what you're doing is as good as useless if you don't thoroughly and adequately explain what you're doing, and this is something I've discovered on my educational travels around YouTube.
Here are a few things I tried from online videos, and what the results were like for me. Spoilers: only one of them worked, and I already knew it worked.
Homemade Salt and Ice Churn
I found this video by an Italian man and it was very convincing and I gave it a try, but when I actually did I found that there was a lot of missing information:
In the video, the presenter:
Makes a simple vanilla custard in the traditional way with cream, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla
Chills the custard to be frozen later.
Prepares a bowl full of ice and salt in a rough proportion of 1 part salt to 4 parts ice
Places a metal bowl on top of the ice and adds in the custard
Mixes the custard with a wooden spatula as it freezes from the coldness of the ice
Now, making ice-cream with ice and salt is nothing new—kids have been doing this for as long as I can remember, including when I was a kid myself—but there are several things missing from this video:
How long does the whole churning process take?
Does it have to be fine salt, or will any salt do?
Does the ice and salt mixture need refreshing at any point in the process?
Can this ice-cream be stored in the freezer in a tub, or must it be eaten immediately?
When I tried this myself, these are all problems I encountered and my ice-cream never actually froze and all the ice melted before anything happened. I used coarse salt, and maybe that was an issue, but it was all very disappointing.
Food Processor Trick
Another trick I see frequently online is using a food processor to make ice-cream in a similar way to an ice-cream churn. Most people have a food processor, and this means you don't need to buy another kitchen gadget when you already have one that'll do.
In this video, the presenter:
Takes an ice-cream base and freezes it into a thin sheet in a freezer bag
Breaks up the frozen sheet
Blitzes the frozen pieces into a smooth soft serve ice-cream
Pours it into a tin to freeze for 2 hours before eating
This one works quite well, however the ice-cream freezes into a solid lump the longer it stays in the freezer: not enough air is incorporated to keep it fluffy over long storage times. Also, I found that pouring the ice-cream base directly into the food processor bowl, popping that into the freezer, and taking it out and blitzing it every 30 minutes in the same way an old fashioned make-at-home ice-cream would be made worked a whole lot better. It was still a big frozen lump after 5 hours, though.
Semifreddo, not Ice-Cream
This one has no video, but I remember seeing Nigella Lawson do this kind of thing on one of her programmes once. In this recipe, you mix eggs and sugar into a fluffy sabayon before folding with softly whipped cream and freezing into a loaf. This loaf is then sliced up and served with fresh fruit and sauce.
I tried this and it was quite tasty, but definitely not ice-cream: it's mouthfeel was more like a frozen mousse, and as it thawed and melted it produced a thick bubbly mixture all over the plate. Like the food processor ice-cream, it too freezes completely solid if left for too long.
Cream and Condensed Milk Old Favourite
This method is the one I have used on here for about 4 years at this point, and it still works fabulously. My only tiny issue is that if you over whip the cream the resulting butter-fat can leave an oily film on the roof of your mouth that makes for quite an unpleasant mouthfeel. In comparison to the other methods, however, that's only a tiny gripe.
It has the richness of a luxury ice-cream, like Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry's, so if you're looking for something a little lighter like a French ice-cream or a gelato this really isn't the recipe to use. That's why I was experimenting with the other methods to see if I could make something a little lighter and a method that could be used to make sorbet too.
In conclusion, I really think if you want to make traditional ice-cream, you need a churn, or you've simply got to accept that no-churn ice-cream will be fiddly, time consuming, and hard to store longterm. Happy ice-creaming!
For my final Ice-Cream Month offering, I present to you my finest frozen achievement: Arctic Roll!
I will admit I've been dying to share this one with you, because it was a big challenge. I've been waiting for the moment the calendar turned up the July 26th so I could make this for my companion's birthday and show it off on my blog.
My companion says he remembers eating this as a boy and how much he enjoyed it, so I said I'd make him one for his birthday at his request. This birthday was full of DIY projects: I made him a die earring (which he's wearing), some cherry schnapps (which I'll probably make again at some point, and then blog about it), and this cake.
Happy birthday, my lovely!
I decided I'd research this one quite heavily: I watched a lot of videos, and read a lot of recipes online. I decided to turn to a trusted resource: I watched a Jamie Oliver video on YouTube, and the woman who is demonstrating makes it look fussy as Hell. In the video, she spreads the ice-cream directly onto the cake like you would do with whipped cream and makes a valiant attempt to wrap it up. It's a mess, and I thought I could do that better!
Spoiler alert: I couldn't. My advice: do a Rich Harris and ROLL THE ICE-CREAM INTO A LOG FIRST (but ignore the rest of the video: he makes it look far more difficult than it actually is). Don't be a hero and try and roll it up like you would do with whipped cream in a rolled cake; it's possible but it's messy.
So the roll you see pictured here has had a few issues: it froze as an oval from the ice-cream being too soft, the jam mixed into the ice-cream a bit, and to add insult to injury I froze it upside down so the seam was on top.
However, the family enjoyed it, and my companion loved it: they didn't seem to think there was a single thing wrong with it. Maybe I'm just my own harshest critic! But, even though mine turned out very nicely despite the faffing around, I've written the below recipe instructions to include the proper and less messy way to do it.
So, here's what you'll need to make it.
INGREDIMENTS For one cake that serves about 10 people
3 eggs, separated
3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) sunflower oil
3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) whole milk, or milk alternative
3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour, or gluten free flour mix
3 to 4 tablespoons (45 to 60 millilitres) seedless raspberry jam
2 pints (1·140 litres) good quality vanilla ice-cream, preferably one with visible vanilla seeds, or dairy-free ice-cream
Icing sugar, for dusting
METHOD
Take the ice-cream and let them sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes. You'll need to shape the ice-cream into a log before you wrap it. Don't make the same mistake I did and try and roll the swiss roll with soft ice-cream in it: it won't work.
Take a big piece of non-stick paper and mark out the short width of the cake tin you'll be using for the swiss roll cake: this will be the length of your ice-cream log. I used a 9x13 inch (22x33 centimetre) rectangular tin, which would have made my ice-cream log about 9 inches (22 centimetres) long. Turn it upside down so the pen is on the outside.
Place the ice cream in a pile at one end, then roll it up in the paper, leaving a little for holding onto while shaping. Use the paper to squish the ice-cream into a log shape as wide as your guidlines, making sure it's the same thickness all the way through the log. If the ice-cream is getting too soft, just pop it into the freezer for 10 minutes, then continue working on it.
Roll the ice-cream log up completely in the paper, then twist the ends. Wrap in cling film, and place in the freezer to freeze solid, about an hour.
Line the bottom of the cake tin you're using with non-stick baking paper. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4), with the rack in the centre.
Prepare the cake to these instructions, using the ingredients listed above. Bake for 17 or 18 minutes, until golden on the surface and springy to the touch. Any longer, and the cake will be too dry to roll; any less, and it will squish when you roll it.
Using another piece of non-stick paper. Trim and roll up in the paper as directed and allow to cool completely. Carefully unwrap and spread the surface with the jam.
Take the ice-cream log out of the freezer and let it sit for about 5 minutes to soften ever so slighyly. Place the ice-cream log at one end of the cake, and roll up. Twist the ends of the paper like a sweet wrapper; discard the paper used to roll the log.
Freeze for a full hour at least before serving (make sure you freeze it seam side down, like I didn't), then allow to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving. The cake insulates the ice-cream, so it won't melt as quickly.
This one is admittedly quite experimental, but I want to share with you my no-churn real vanilla ice-cream adventures.
No churn ice-cream made with condensed milk is very tasty, but it's got nothing on vanilla ice-cream made with a good custard. However, these kinds of custard ice-creams are almost impossible to make nicely without an ice-cream machine.
I decided to do some serious research, and this brought me to Serious Eat's own experimentations with no churn ice-cream. In their article on how best to make traditional ice-cream without a machine, they came up with this method: essentially, you make the custard without the cream, freeze it into cubes, then use the cream to blend the ice cubes into an ice-cream with the food processor.
It's a neat trick, but I wanted to try and get back to an even more basic method, without any machinery. I took inspiration from their recipe, and came up with something that's somewhere between a semifreddo and a traditional ice-cream.
So, read below how I did this experiment. I think it turned out surprisingly well: it was a little bit icy, but that'll always happen with no-churn traditional ice-creams. INGREDIMENTS
2 medium eggs
4 ounces (115 grammes) sugar
½ UK pint (285 millilitres) whole milk
½ UK pint (285 millilitres) whipping cream
1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) vanilla essence
METHOD
In a bowl over a pan of simmering water, beat together the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl until the sugar has dissolved and they have doubled in volume to make a pale, moussey mixture.
In a separate mixing bowl, whip the cream to firm peaks. Fold in the egg mixture, being very careful to maintain the airiness.
Gently fold in the milk to get a thin moussey mixture. Pour into a shallow glass or metal dish, and freeze in the coldest part of your freezer for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, take out of the freezer and beat vigorously with a balloon whisk to break up the frozen parts and mix them back into the unfrozen parts. Pop back into the freezer for another 30 minutes, and repeat the process 5 more times.
After the sixth and final agitation, transfer to a plastic container with a lid and freeze solid, for about 2 hours.
Before serving, allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Granted, this isn't actually proper gelato, but I love me some tiramisù! I've made a few tiramisù inspired desserts on this blog, mostly involving cheesecakes, because it's one of my favourite muses: the combination of cheesecake-like cream, sponge cake, coffee and chocolate is just right for me. It's a decadent creamy treat, with a kick.
I first made tiramisù inspired ice-cream about four years ago for a Dutch friend, but it never made it to the blog because we ate it all. So, in honour of Ice-Cream Month, I thought I'd make it again.
This one went a bit pear shaped because the cream didn't whip up right for me this time: I think my ingredients were too warm. It still tasted amazing, but didn't layer and swirl as well as I might have liked. As such, I will reiterate that it's imperative that your ingredients are all cold! That way you'll get lovely fluffsome ice-cream that'll stay super soft in the freezer.
This also uses some yoghurt for sourness, and mixed in equal proportions with icing sugar it can replace some of the condensed milk in your recipe. Although, to maintain the silky texture, never replace more than half of the condensed milk. INGREDIMENTS Makes about 2 pints (about a litre) of ice-cream
For the ice-cream base
16 UK fluid ounces (455 millilitres) whipping cream
10 UK fluid ounces (285 millilitres) condensed milk
Instead of making sponge cakes, you can just use shop-bought trifle sponges. I make my own because I can't buy wheat-free trifle sponges in Ireland.
METHOD
First, make the sponge cakes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.7), and line a flat tray with non-stick baking paper.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add in the sugar while beating until you have a glossy meringue that holds stiff peaks.
Beat in the yolk and oil, then switch to a metal spoon to fold in the flour. Be sure to fold it in completely.
Spoon little blobs of cake mixture onto the baking paper, tap the tray on the work surface a few times, and then bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes. The cakes will be done when they are an even golden brown, and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool completely before assembling the ice-cream. If you like, you can sprinkle them gently with some white rum, but this is completely optional.
Then, make the ice-cream base.
In a measuring jug big enough to hold a UK pint (570 millilitres), mix together the Greek yoghurt and icing sugar until it becomes flowing and smooth. Top up the yoghurt mixture up to 12 UK fluid ounces (340 millilitres) with condensed milk. You might have some condensed milk leftover, so use that for another project.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold in the yoghurt and condensed milk mixture and the vanilla essence, then continue to beat until it hold medium peaks.
Divide the mixture in two: leave one part plain, and into the other part fold the espresso powder.
Now, assemble the masterpiece.
In a two-pint (1 litre) pudding basin, layer the ice-cream bases with crumbled cakes and chocolate syrup as you want. Once layered, swirl with a knife to marble the layers, and then decorate the top with more crumbled cake and chocolate syrup.
Cover with the lid or some cling film and freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
Fancy something exotic and fruity? Try out this strawberry and coconut ice sundae!
In this recipe of the series, I took my inspiration from the traditional sweet shop favourite: coconut ice. I have done a few renditions of coconut ice, like the traditional version, and a version inspired by neapolitan ice-cream, and each version is as tasty as the next! But in my ice-cream adaptation, I had to decide what the pink flavour would be, as the white flavour would obviously be coconut. I decided to settle for the good old favourite: strawberry!
Strawberry ice-cream is super easy, and made in exactly the same way as my raspberry ice-cream using a combination of jam and condensed milk. The result has a deep fruity flavour.
To make the coconut flavour, I thought it would be as simple as making a condensed milk substitute with coconut milk instead of evaporated milk. But, that wasn't the case. I had a few issues with developing this particular flavour: sometimes it wouldn't whip up properly, sometimes it froze too hard. After about four attempts, this version worked the best: it's best to whip the cream before adding the coconut condensed milk, rather than whipping them together.
It has a lovely mild coconut flavour, and it's a sweet treat that's best enjoyed in small doses.
To further emphasise the coconut ice image, I made some little coconut wafers. This uses a new and improved wafer recipe, which I will be trying out in future to make full ice-cream cones.... (watch this space)
INGREDIMENTS
Makes 4 sundaes, each with a scoop of each ice-cream
Coconut ice cream
8 UK fluid ounces (230 milliltires) whipping cream
One 14-ounce (400 millilitre) can of full-fat coconut milk, cold
4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar
A few drops of vanilla essence
Strawberry ice-cream
8 UK fluid ounces (230 millilitres) whipping cream
3 UK fluid ounces (85 millilitres) condensed milk
3 UK fluid ounces (85 millilitres) good quality strawberry jam
To serve
1 medium egg white
1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar
1 tablespoon (15 grammes) butter, melted
1 ounce (30 grammes) white spelt flour
1 ounce (30 grammes) dessicated coconut
A few drops of red food colouring
Strawberry syrup
METHOD
First, make the coconut ice-cream
Open the can of cold coconut milk, and scoop out the solid cream that has set on the top. Measure out 4 ounces in weight (125 grammes) of the cream. You can use the rest of the coconut cream, and coconut water left in the can, for another project.
Take the coconut cream and place in a saucepan. Add in the sugar and cook over medium heat until the cream has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil for 1 minutes. Set aside to cool completely, then chill for an hour.
When the coconut syrup has chilled, whip together the whipping cream, and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl until it reaches firm peaks.
Gently fold in the syrup mixture thoroughly, making sure to keep all the air. Transfer to a one-pint (580 millilitre) pudding basin, cover with the lid or some cling film. Now, prepare the strawberry ice-cream.
Then, make the strawberry ice-cream
In a jug, mix together the condensed milk and strawberry jam until completely combined.
In a mixing bowl, whip the cream to medium peaks. Add in the condensed milk and jam mixture, and continue to beat until it holds medium firm peaks. If you like, mix in some red food colouring to intensify the pink colour.
Transfer to a one-pint (580 millilitre) pudding basin, cover with the lid or some cling film. Freeze, along with the coconut ice-cream, for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
Early on the day of serving, prepare the wafers
Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F, Gas Mk.2). Line a flat baking sheet with non-stick baking paper.
Take half of the coconut and tint it red with some food colouring. Use your fingertips to rub it in well.
In a mixing bowl, beat the egg white until it becomes frothy. Add in the caster sugar and beat again until it looks like shaving foam. Beat in the melted butter, followed by the flour, until you have a smooth batter.
Take a teaspoonful of the mixture and smooth out into a very thin circle, as thin as you dare. Sprinkle one half red, and one half white.
Bake on the centre shelf for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Allow to cool completely.
Now, assemble the masterpiece
Place a scoop of each flavour in a bowl, top off with strawberry ice-cream syrup, and serve with a coconut wafer.
Looking for a decadent treat? Try out this rich pistachio and chocolate brownie sundae, completely with chocolate syrup and pistachio nut praline.
When my companion and I celebrated our anniversary a few weeks ago, we went to a restaurant a few miles from his house in the countryside. We enjoyed a nice dinner, and then turned to the dessert menu: the first thing that leaped out at me was a 'pistachio and chocolate parfait': it was a dessert with little squares of firm-set chocolate mousse, with a scoop of pistachio ice-cream, little brownie squares, sprinkled with praline.... with a random scoop of mango sorbet.
The dessert itself was mostly uninspiring, but what hurt my feelings most was the pistachio ice-cream: it tasted like someone had bought some vanilla ice-cream, added in some chopped nuts and almond essence, then coloured it green. It certainly didn't taste of pistachio.
So, inspired by that dessert, I came up with this decadent treat, except you get an entire brownie, and no weird out-of-place scoops of mango sorbet. I'm really pleased with the flavour of this pistachio ice-cream: cream is really easy to infuse with flavour! And using the nuts leftover from infusing to make praline means not one of those super-expensive nuts goes to waste.
INGREDIMENTS To make four sundaes, each with one scoop of ice cream For two-thirds of a pint (370 millilitres) caramel ice-cream,
8 UK fluid ounces (230 millilitres) whipping cream, plus a little extra for correction
6 UK fluid ounces (170 millilitres) condensed milk
3 ounces (85 grammes) roasted salted pistachio nuts, without shells
The night before you want to serve the sundaes, make the ice-cream.
Roughly chop the pistachio nuts, and wash them under running water to get rid of any excess salt.
Pour the nuts into a medium saucepan, and add the whipping cream. Place the saucepan over medium low heat, and bring to boiling point. Once it begins to boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before chilling for at least an hour. The cream needs to be good and properly cold.
Strain the cream through a fine sieve to remove the chopped pistachio nuts; set the nuts aside for later. In the process of straining, you may lose some cream, as such you might need to top the cream level back up to 8 fluid ounces (230 millilitres).
In a large bowl, beat the infused cream, condensed milk, the colouring, and the essences together until it becomes light and moussey; this can take up to 5 or 6 minutes.
If you want, add more essence or food colouring, but start out small: you can always add, but you can't take away.
Pour into a one-pint (580 millilitre) container and freeze overnight, or for at least 6 hours.
Next, make the praline,
Lightly grease a flat metal baking tray.
Take the reserved pistachio nuts and rinse them once more to wash off the cream. Once rinsed, dry lightly in a tea towel, then toast them in a dry frying pan until nice and dry and fragant. Remove from the heat.
In a saucepan with a pale interior, cook the caster sugar with a splash of water (roughly a tablespoon, or 15 millilitres), stirring constantly, until the sugar begins to turn brown.
Add in the nuts and stir well. The mixture will become crumbly, and when this happens add in the butter and stir until it all comes together.
Pour the praline out onto the tray and allow to set completely.
Now, assemble the masterpieces
Take the praline and break it into pieces, or bash up with a pestle and mortar (or plastic bag and rolling pin).
Heat up the brownies in a warm oven, or in the microwave.
Place each brownie on a plate or shallow bowl, and divide the ice-cream among the brownies.
Happy Ice-Cream Month, everyone! July is recognised as the month where we celebrate his delicious frozen confection, which is what I plan to do, starting with this delectable offering: Mint Toffo sundae!
Ice cream has been eaten in one form or another in Europe since the 17th century, but its only since the end of the 19th century that it became available to the regular Joe Soap, both in Italy and England. Since then it has done nothing but expand in popularity, helped along by the introduction of the domestic freezer in the 1950s.
Over the years I've run this blog, I've dabbled in ice-cream making, but this month will be taking it to the next level: from simple no-churn ideas, to designer ice-cream flavours, to sundaes, to cheating at "churned" ice-cream with a food processor, this month will be epic!
So, let's start with the aforementioned Mint Toffo Sundae.
The inspiration for this recipe lies in childhood nostalgia: when I was a little girl, you could buy a brand of chewy caramel sweets called "Toffo", produced by Mackintosh (and later Nestlé), and they came in plain vanilla and mint flavours. The sweets were individually wrapped in red or green waxed paper, then wrapped up in a roll of gold foil, then packaged in a paper label.
These are one of the things that made my childhood.
I absolutely love the combination of toffee and mint, and I thought it would translate well into an ice-cream sundae. I wasn't wrong! I also gold-dusted a wafer fan with some fondant dust, and it looked great! I make my own wafers with a new updated recipe, which I'll be sharing later in the week.
I'm really enjoying designing sundaes. I think I got the sundae bug last year when I went to the Creams ice-cream parlour in Maidstone.
INGREDIMENTS Makes four sundaes, with one scoop of each flavour For two-thirds of a pint (370 millilitres) caramel ice-cream,
8 fluid ounces (230 millilitres) whipping cream
3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) condensed milk
1 tablespoon (15 grammes) butter
1½ ounces (45 grammes) caster sugar
For two-thirds of a pint (370 millilitres) mint ice-cream,
8 fluid ounces (230 millilitres) whipping cream
6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres) condensed
Up to ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) natural peppermint essence
¼ teaspoon (2 millilitres) vanilla essence
Two drops green food colouring
To serve
Caramel ice-cream sauce
Wafer fans, or follow the directions at the end of the article to make your own
Gold dust fondant colouring
METHOD
The night before serving, prepare the ice-creams, starting with the caramel.
To make the caramel ice-cream, mix the caster sugar with a teaspoon or two (5 to 10 millilitres) of water in a saucepan with a pale interior. Heat over medium heat, stirring consistently, until it begins to turn brown.
When it browns, turn the heat down to low to continue cooking the sugar to a deep, dark brown. If it burns, don't worry: sugar is cheap, and burnt caramel comes off with hot water and soap.
Once it comes to the right shade of brown, remove from the heat and mix in the butter and condensed milk. Return to the heat and cook gently until everything is dissolved together.
Add in the cream, and stir until the mixture is smooth and consistent in colour. Remove from the heat, and cool completely to room temperature.
Once it comes to room temperature, transfer to a mixing bowl big enough to whip the ice-cream, and then pop into the freezer for 20 minutes.
After chilling, beat with an electric whisk until it reaches medium-firm peaks. Transfer it to a one-pint (580 millilitre) pudding basin, cover with the lid or some cling film. Then, prepare the mint ice-cream.
For the mint ice-cream,
In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients, except the peppermint essence, with a wooden spoon. Add a few drops of peppermint essence, give it a taste, then decide if you want a stronger flavour: peppermint essence is intense, and you can always add more, but you can't take it out once you've added it.
If the bowl fits into the freezer, chill in there for 20 minutes. If not, chill in the fridge for an hour.
After chilling, whip with an electric whisk until it holds medium-firm peaks. Transfer to a one-pint (580 millilitres) pudding basin, cover with the lid or some cling film, then pop into the freezer, along with the caramel ice-cream, and freeze overnight, or for a minimum of 6 hours.
Paint the wafers, then assemble the masterpieces,
Using a nice soft paint brush, brush the wafers with the gold dust until to the gold-ness you like.
Serve the sundaes with one scoop of each ice-cream flavour, a gold wafer fan, and some caramel sauce.
I'm sure throughout the four years that I have been blogging, and you have all been reading and supporting, I have mentioned my trips to Germany often. In 2008 and 2012, I visited North and East Germany, travelling to Lübeck, Ratzeburg, Magdeburg, Hamburg, Leipzig, Berlin, Bernburg, and many other villages in the mountains whose names I never knew. Both times were to visit my good friend who I met in secondary school, whom I've known ever since.
I will admit it has been way, way, way too long since I was in Germany, and I often find myself missing it dearly. My companion and I hope to go over this year for the Christmas markets in Berlin, and I want to promise myself that from hereon in I'll go at least once every two years. Hell, if I could afford to, I'd divide my year between living in Ireland and living in Germany.
There are many flavours of Germany I miss—from their delicious meat dishes, like hamburgers and sausages, to their incredible doughnuts and cream cakes—but of all of them it's the ice cream I miss the most.
When I was last in Germany, I was in Berlin on what was possibly one of the worst holidays I've ever had: I went with my companion at the time, and our relationship was cracking. It wasn't long after we returned that our partnership dissolved. We both wanted very different things out of life, and we especially wanted very different things from that holiday!
The only thing that made that holiday bearable was the ice-cream: at pretty much every corner in Berlin was an ice-cream stand that sold scoopable ice-cream of many flavours. Not only was it delicious, but it was also very cheap: even in the capital, which was more expensive on the whole, a cone with a scoop of ice-cream was €1.50, and each additional scoop ranged between 80c and €1. Here in Ireland, ice-cream parlours charge a hefty €2.60 per scoop!
When I was there, I always got any nut flavoured ice-cream—hazelnut and pistachio are particularly tasty—or coconut; and also a German speciality, Waldmeister!
Since then, I have tried to recreate some of my favourite flavours, but to no avail. Nut flavoured ice-cream always alluded me, until now! This is my take on a no-churn hazelnut flavoured ice-cream, that isn't Nutella.
I still have to work on getting my Waldmeister ice-cream right. Keep your eye out for any upcoming attempts!
INGREDIMENTS
Makes about 2 UK pints (1 litre) of ice cream
16 UK fluid ounces (455 millilitres) whipping cream, about 35% fat, plus extra if needed
12 UK fluid ounces (340 millilitres) condensed milk, cold
3 to 6 ounces (85 to 170 grammes) hazelnuts, to taste
2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) vanilla essence
Generous pinch of salt
Roughly chopped hazelnuts, to decorate
METHOD
In a food processor, or with a large plastic bag and a rolling pin, crush the hazelnuts to a fine powder. 3 ounces (85 grammes) will give you a mild nutty flavour, whereas the full 6 ounces (170 grammes) will produce an intense nutty flavour. Grind as much as you think you'd like.
In a dry frying pan, gently toast the ground hazelnuts over medium heat. Cook only until the nuts become fragrant and take a little bit of colour. Be careful, because nuts burn easily.
Pour the hazelnuts into a medium saucepan, and add the whipping cream and salt. Place the saucepan over medium low heat, and bring to boiling point. Once it begins to boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before chilling for at least 2 hours to steep. The cream needs to be good and properly cold.
Strain the cream through a fine sieve to remove the ground hazelnuts; discard the ground hazelnuts. In the process of straining, you may lose some cream, as such you might need to top the cream level back up to 16 fluid ounces (455 millilitres).
In a large bowl, beat the infused cream, condensed milk, and vanilla essence together until it becomes light and moussey.
Pour into a 2 pint (1 litre) container and decorate the top with hazelnuts, if you like. Freeze overnight.
What's that? One ice-cream recipe for May wasn't enough for you? Well in that case, have another one: chocolate ice pops!
These ice-pops are styled very much in the vein of an HB Mini Milk, which is essentially a milky water ice flavoured with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. I absolutely loved them as a little girl, but due to the indecorous manner in which I ate them, my Dad nicknamed them 'maxi mess'.
These were a bit of an experiment, it must be said. I will say, these turned out very much like those lollies you get when you freeze Angel Delight, but nicer (which wouldn't be hard). For those of you who don't know what Angel Delight is, it's essentially a sachet of instant pudding powder, and when I was young there would always be a recipe to try on the back of the packet, like how to make ice lollies or milkshakes.
When I revisited Angel Delight as an adult, I realised how truly disgusting it was, and vowed never to buy it again. So, to make these, I basically used a good old fashioned English custard recipe with some chocolate added to it. You could add a milkshake powder to make a strawberry or banana flavoured one, or you could leave it simply with vanilla essence.
Here is my sister Nixie Pixie holding one that she's nibbled, just to demonstrate the texture: it's kinda ice-creamy, kinda water icy, but it was mostly very tasty!
I used a four-hole ice lolly mould to make these, but used ice lolly sticks instead of the handles that were provided with the mould; they never work anyway.
FREE FROM ☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin) ☑ Yeast ☑ Gluten ☑ Wheat ☑ Eggs ☑ Nuts CONTAINS ☒ Dairy, but dairy alternatives are in italics ☒ Refined sugar products ☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)
INGREDIMENTS Makes 4 moulded lollies
Half a pint (285 millilitres; 1 US cup plus 3 tablespoons) whole milk, or milk alternative
2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar, or sugar of your choice
2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cornflour
1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) cocoa powder, or hot chocolate powder of your choice
1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
Optional: 1 tablespoon (15 grammes) butter, or butter alternative
HOW-TO
In a cup or small bowl, mix together the sugar, cornflour, cocoa powder, and salt. Make sure it's well mixed and all lumps of cocoa powder and cornflour are broken up.
In a saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla essence until it just begins to bubble and steam. Remove from the heat, and add a few spoons of the heated milk to the powder mixture. Mix into a slurry, stirring until completely smooth.
Pour the slurry back into the saucepan, stir thoroughly, then return to medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened into a custard.
Once cooked, remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Make sure to stir it every so often so a skin doesn't form.
When it is cooled, divide between the lolly moulds. If you don't have lolly moulds, you can use plastic cups.
There are a few ways to put the sticks in:
Clip two clothes pegs to each stick, and balance them on the rim of the mould. Make sure the stick is at least two-thirds of the way into each mould.
Line the tops of each hole with foil, and pop the stick through the foil.
Put the lollies in the freezer for about an hour and a half, then put the sticks in while they're half frozen.
To release them from the moulds, run under the cold tap until they become loose, then pop them out. Don't be tempted to use hot water, as it will melt the lollies and ruin their appearance.
It's May, which means in Ireland it's finally summer! And nothing says summer like some lovely, rich, ice-cream!
I was inspired to make some cookie dough ice-cream because I've been trying out some American style stuff recently, and also my brother and sister really like it. But, I had some challenges. (And also, I've been feeling quite sorry for myself over the past few days, as this time last year was a time where my companion and I were enjoying his birthday, so I wanted something to challenge me and take my mind off it.)
The thing is raw cookie dough is pretty, well, raw tasting. There is a very distinctive taste off raw flour: it's quite acidic, and burns a little bit; raw bicarbonate of soda tastes like soap; and raw egg is a bit of a no-no in frozen things. So, I did some research about how to make edible 'raw' cookie dough, that's actually been cooked.
After looking around a few blogs, I was particularly inspired by Ann Reardon's approach to making a roux-style cookie dough. So, I cooked the dough in a saucepan to get rid of the raw taste, but I used my own recipe, just scaling it down.
So here is the final thing! It's pretty much just my go-to ice-cream base with some 'raw' cookie dough in it. But it's pretty tasty!
FREE FROM ☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin) ☑ Yeast ☑ Gluten ☑ Wheat ☑ Eggs ☑ Nuts CONTAINS ☒ Dairy ☒ Refined sugar products ☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)
INGREDIMENTS For the ice cream base.
8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content, well chilled
6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk, well chilled
1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
For the cookie dough,
2 ounces (55 grammes) white spelt flour
1 ounce (30 grammes) light brown sugar
1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) milk
1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
3½ ounces (100 grammes) milk chocolate chips, or milk chocolate cut into small pieces
HOW-TO First, make the cookie dough:
Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper, or use a silicone tray.
Mix the milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla essence together in a small saucepan. Heat together over low heat until the butter and sugar have melted, but don't boil.
Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir until completely mixed with no lumps of flour remaining.
Return to medium heat and cook until it becomes a thick paste. While still hot, thinly spread out on the tray and allow to cool completely.
When the dough is cool, mix with the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) to make a cookie dough. Congratulations! You now have edible raw cookie dough.
Then, make the ice-cream:
Using an electric hand mixer, beat the cream and condensed milk together until light and a soft-peak consistency. It wants to look like a soft whipped cream. For best results, put the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for about 15 minutes beforehand.
Pour a third of the mixture into a 2 pint (560 millilitre; 2½ US cup) container, then break up about a third of the cookie dough over the top. Mix a little to distribute the dough chunks.
Repeat with the remaining two thirds of ice-cream and dough, finishing with a sprinkle of dough.
Cover with the container's lid -- or clingfilm, directly touching the ice-cream's surface -- and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.
Yes, you read that correctly: an ice-cream interpretation of the delicious combination of caramel, biscuit, and chocolate. And here she is, in all her fatteningly glorious splendour!
I'm not exactly sure how this came to mind. I like translating desserts, and last year I made a delicious tiramisù ice-cream (which I will hopefully recreate for an upcoming blog), and I thought doing a dessert mashup for millionaire's shortbread would also be delicious.
This recipe is incredible simple. I used my caramel ice-cream recipe, adding an extra few pinches of salt to give it that salted caramel flavour that's so in vogue at the moment, and swirled some broken up shortbread and chocolate syrup through it.
For the shortbread, I baked a very small batch of the traditional 1:2:3 (sugar:butter:flour) shortbread recipe, using half an ounce per part (if that makes sense...), making it very flat for crumbling.
For the chocolate sauce, I melted together one part dark chocolate to four parts golden syrup, adding in a little salt for flavour. It goes fairly firm on freezing, but is absolutely delicious served warm over the ice-cream.
To make the swirl, I filled the freezing tub as follows: layer of ice-cream, layer of crumbles, layer of ice-cream, layer of chocolate sauce, etc., until I ran out of ice-cream. Excess sauce and crumbles can be used for decorating on serving the ice-cream. I then swirled it all up with the blade of a table knife. I popped it in the freezer to freeze overnight.
As with any ice-cream, it needed to be left on the kitchen counter to temper so it was scoopable, but it is absolutely delicious. I still have some in the freezer, and I'm permitting myself a scoop every few days. I've been so good over the last two weeks: I've lost 5 and a half pounds!
As I'm sure you can imagine, this ice-cream was inspired by a very popular kind of chocolate bar made of malted chocolate nougat, topped with a layer of caramel, and enrobed in chocolate; you guessed it, a Mars bar.
Let me explain how I came to conceive of this ice-cream in my mind:
Over the course of my life I have come to learn that there are a few kinds of food products that are specifically enjoyed by English people, and it only dawned on my recently - being made more aware of my immigrant nature through talking to a Polish friend - that in Irish supermarkets you have the "English immigrant" foods. Examples of these products are crumpets, Marmite, Ovaltine, iced fingers and steak and kidney pies in tins, and I remember trying to explain to my peers why I was so excited when Cherry Coca Cola was eventually made available in Ireland. Now, generally speaking I consider myself and Irish person, but sometimes I get the little reminder that I also half belong to another race of people.
Within the last six months, however, one of these English interest products has vanished from Irish shelves: white Ovaltine. Ovaltine is a malted hot chocolate drink that is sold in powder form, which is mixed with hot milk and drunk as a bedtime drink. Due to my allergy to chocolate, I developed a taste for the white version, which is basically malt powder without the chocolate added. This version has sadly been discontinued here. Horlicks is similar, but nowhere near as nice, and also contains wheat. So, I went on the search for something that could replace my beloved white Ovaltine.
The other day I went to the local health food shop to get my usual spelt pasta and flour, and I spotted on the shelf a jar of pure barley malt extract, and my mind went BINGO! I had found the replacement for white Ovaltine. Barley malt extract is in syrup form, however, not powder. Since then, I've kind of been baking it into everything (including some really delicious malt granola that tastes just like Shreddies), and decided to make a flavour of ice-cream inspired by a malted milkshake, like the ones you can get in American style diners.
First I thought of making malted strawberry ice-cream, which would also be awesome, but I didn't have any strawberry jam. Instead, my mind wandered down the road of malted chocolate things, and finally it arrived at the doorstep of the Mars bar.
So, Mars bar: this is my ice-cream tribute to you!
I do understand that barley malt is unsuitable for coeliacs, but for those of you who can eat it, I recommend you give this a go.
FREE FROM ☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin) ☑ Yeast ☑ Wheat ☑ Eggs ☑ Nuts CONTAINS ☒ Dairy ☒ Gluten ☒ Refined sugar products ☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)
6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) cocoa powder (see notes below)
4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) barley malt extract
You could also replace the cocoa and malt extract with 4 tablespoons (60 millilitres) of original Ovaltine
Pinch of salt
For the caramel swirl
2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) condensed milk
1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
2 ounces (55 grammes) soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cream
HOW-TO
To make the caramel sauce, melt all the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Once the caramel sauce has cooled, make the ice-cream following the instructions here, but adding the malt extract (if using) to the condensed milk and cocoa mixture.
Pour a third of the ice-cream mixture into the freezing container, then drizzle over half the caramel sauce. Pour another third of the ice-cream mixture over it, then drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over that layer. Finish with the final third of the ice-cream mixture.
Using a knife, gently swirl all the layers together by zigzagging the knife through the container once. Decorate the top with sprinkles, if you like, then freeze for a minimum of 6 hours of overnight.
