Wordless Wednesday - Amy's ice cream & Arboretum cows

Should you be dancing?

I'm running a little behind this week.  I started this post last night, but was too tired & unfocused to finish it.  And now I'm trying to get it done before I need to get to bed (early, since I have a very early start tomorrow).

Watching:  Well, at the moment Monday Night Raw is on--background noise for me, but J is watching it.  It's scary how much I've picked up by association. =)  J fully admits, it's basically a soap opera for guys.  I'm a little afraid to admit that my girls can recognize a remarkable number of wrestlers just by their theme music.

Reading:  168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam.  I was inspired to read it after reading my friend Anandi's review--which you can check out here.  I'm not done yet, so I'll have to report back on what I think of it next week.  But I figure it's worth reading, since I'm trying to manage my time/life better.

Listening:  Nothing special.  I've got a playlist of upbeat songs to get me--and sometimes the girls--moving.  One of the ones they really like is You Should Be Dancing, thanks to Despicable Me.  I got some other Bee Gees songs, thinking they'd like them, but I get complaints when I play anything else.  

Making:  The main thing this week was scones.  For the end of the week, I made some for the girls--Triple Chocolate, at G's request.  This particular KAF recipe doesn't call for freezing them like a lot of the others do, but I did it anyway.  I mixed up the dough and shaped the scones on Wednesday night, then popped them in the freezer.  That made it easy to bake them off on Thursday morning.  I made scones again Friday morning to take to work, though I only froze them for about 30 minutes while I showered.  Those were savory, with cheddar cheese and scallions.  I tweaked the recipe a bit, by subbing a little cornmeal for some of the AP flour.  I was also lazy and used my #16 disher to make round scones, instead of making triangles or squares.  

Ooh, and I made ice cream on Sunday, too.  Jeni's Salty Caramel.  I crumbled up some Biscoff cookies, being sure to leave some larger pieces, and layered them in with the ice cream as I packed it into its freezer container.  I was going for something similar to Haagen Dazs Spiced Caramel Biscuit.  I enjoyed that flavor, but thought it needed more, bigger pieces of cookies.  And I always like salted caramel better than unsalted.

Feeling:  Sore.  I went and got a massage yesterday, and had my massage therapist work on my lower back and right hip.  Not surprising that they were bothering me, since I was standing and running around all day on Friday.  (When the 1st of the month & Friday coincide, things are really crazy in banking.)  I've been trying to get better about getting a massage on a regular basis.  As long as I schedule my next appointment before I leave, I do okay.  My goal is to go every couple of weeks; any less and I undo all of the good that was done before I go in for another session.  Sure, it's a little expensive, but I don't spend a lot of other money on myself.  And it's kind of a healthcare expense, right?  

Planning:  I should be planning for my trip, but I'm too busy with work right now to think all that much about it.  I did tell the girls that I'm going out of town that weekend, and that they'd have to keep their father out of trouble.  G thinks for some reason that it's totally hilarious to ask me to bring her back a saxophone as a souvenir.  (Your guess is as good as mine where that came from.)

Loving:  Spending some time with my girls this weekend.  Nothing big, but we had lunch out together at Blue Baker in Austin.  Then we went to a book fair at Barnes & Noble, benefiting the girls' elementary schools.  As if we need an excuse to buy books... =)

Check out more Currently links at Kristin's blog.  

Inspiration

I love to make ice cream, but I do buy it occasionally.  Sometimes my girls wear me down, and I buy some because I don't feel like (or have the time for) making it.  That happened this weekend.  But while B&G were debating over what flavor to get, I had a chance to look for myself.  Haagen-Dazs had some limited edition flavors on the shelf that caught my eye.  I seriously considered the Salted Caramel Truffle, until I realized it was in a vanilla base.  If it had been chocolate ice cream, I probably would have stopped looking there.  But instead, a container (I almost said pint, but unfortunately these are a bit shy of that mark) of Spiced Caramel Biscuit jumped in my cart.  I've thought about putting crumbled Biscoff cookies into homemade ice cream, but haven't been able to decide what base to use.  I like the combination of cookies with caramel ice cream, though the Haagen-Dazs caramel is definitely sweet, not salty.  Overall, I do like the flavor quite a bit.  Plus I think I'm now inspired to fire up the ice cream maker this weekend and make my own version.

Al dente

One of the time-honored traditions of parenthood is feeling like an idiot when you finally figure out what's going on with one of your kids that you think you should have realized much sooner.  Case in point, Gillian being "not that hungry" all the time lately.  It seemed really odd, since she wasn't even eating some things that she really likes.  One of the things was this ice cream.  Last weekend, I asked the girls for suggestions on what kind of ice cream to make next.  Gillian--"Chocolate!"  Brianna--"Can you make cookie dough ice cream?"  We decided to have the best of both worlds and combine the two.  But once it was made, Gillian didn't want to eat it.  That's when I finally realized that she wasn't eating much because she couldn't, sort of.  Poor kid has two loose teeth in front and has molars coming in in the back.  No wonder she didn't want to eat big pieces of cookie dough that had really firmed up in the freezer!  Not to mention bagels, croutons, sandwiches with chewy bread...  It all makes sense now.  I made sure to stock up on lots of her favorite yogurt flavors, and she's been eating the raspberry sorbet since I made that.

Now back to the cookie dough ice cream.  I was inspired by this recent post from Michelle of Brown Eyed Baker.  I like cookie dough ice cream, but sometimes it's just too sweet for my taste.  For the strongest contrast, I decided to go with the Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World from Jeni's.  The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate in the 62%-70% range, so I went with 70% El Rey chocolate.  I've made the recipe before and was turned off by the strong underlying coffee taste (probably because I used Starbucks VIA).  This time I simply subbed water and a teaspoon of instant espresso powder for the half cup of coffee in the chocolate syrup part of the recipe.

For the cookie dough, I used the recipe that Michelle posted, with a small variation.  I didn't use the mini chocolate chips that she suggests.  I don't like regular chocolate chips in ice cream--they're way too hard when frozen.  I borrowed a trick from Alice Medrich and made my own chocolate bits.  I melted 85 grams (3 oz) of 60% chocolate and spread it in a thin layer on a small metal pan lined with non-stick foil.  I put the pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and once the chocolate had hardened, I chopped it into small pieces.  Because the chocolate is no longer in temper, it melts more readily (so work fast with the chopping), especially in your mouth.  I used a small scoop to make balls of the cookie dough and stuck them in the freezer while I churned the chocolate ice cream.  Once the ice cream was done, I layered it in the container with the chunks of cookie dough so that there would be lots of cookie dough in every scoop.

The verdict?  We're all sad that we finished this one off this evening (well, except for G).  I can't believe I didn't think to add cookie dough to chocolate ice cream before this.  I'll definitely make this one again, and am already thinking of other combinations to try.  Like maybe peanut butter cookie dough in chocolate ice cream. =)

As I mentioned before, Michelle has this great post where you can find the recipe for the cookie dough (as well as her version of the chocolate ice cream).  You can find the Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream recipe in Jeni's book or here at Saveur.  This is my final recipe for my friend Phyl's Ice Cream Week.  Be sure to check out his post for some links to other yummy flavors.

The most important meal of the day

Amazingly enough, here it is.  My second post in three days.  Thanks again to Phyl for getting me motivated.  Part of my blogging slump has been due to lack of time.  Work has been kicking my butt.  I get up a bit before 5:00 and spend the next 60 to 70 minutes getting myself ready for work, packing my lunch, getting breakfast/snacks together for the girls.  Then I attempt to pry my daughters out of bed (so they can start getting dressed, etc.) before I run out the door with my travel mug of tea in hand.  This morning was no exception.  I got to work just before 6:30 and spent the next half an hour getting things ready for the work day.  At about 7:15, it occurred to me that I was hungry and that I should get my breakfast out of my bag.  There was only one problem--my bagel was still sitting at home in the toaster, waiting to be toasted.  D'oh!

Maybe I should have had a whole serving of this sorbet at 5:30 this morning, instead of the single spoonful that I snuck as I was checking on it to see if it had firmed up overnight.  I made the base last night as I was feeding the girls dinner, and churned it as I was making mine & Jamie's.  Then it went into the freezer for the night.  I was intrigued by this recipe when I first got my July/August issue of Cook's Illustrated.  I've made sorbet recipes before, but this one promised to tackle a number of problems that you can encounter with sorbet--grainy or crumbly texture, being too hard to scoop, and melting too fast.  The ingredient list is pretty straightforward--raspberries (I used frozen ones that I thawed), sugar, corn syrup, salt, water and one slightly unusual ingredient, pectin.  I definitely encourage you to read the article that explains how they came up with the final method (here online, or better yet, in the magazine (check your local library)).  

The verdict?  Very, very tasty.  The tartness of the raspberries is one of my favorite things about them, and there's just enough sugar to sweeten without making the sorbet taste very sweet.  I'm not sure the texture is quite right, but it just occurred to me that I think I goofed.  The recipe calls for 20 ounces of raspberries.  I had two bags of frozen raspberries, and I was thinking that they were 10 ounces each.  However, I'm pretty sure that they were actually 12 ounces, so I had about 20 percent more puree than I should have.  I'm sure that would be enough to throw the texture off a bit.  I definitely want to make this one again, so I'll see if there's a difference once I correct that.  Just from my limited experience with the sorbet so far, it does seem like it doesn't melt as quickly as some I've tried, so the pectin is doing its job.  I have a whole bunch of the pectin left, so I'd like to try it in other sorbet recipes, like this chocolate one.  

If you'd like to try the sorbet for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  Phyl has a perfect-for-summer frozen wine slushy on his blog today, and will have links to other non-dairy frozen treats.  Check them out! =)

Sweet and sour

Welcome to Ice Cream Week 2012!  I did something along those lines in July last year, but this time around, Ice Cream Week is being hosted by my friend Phyl.  I'm indebted to Phyl for providing me with the push I needed to get out of my recent blogging slump.  I could blame it on a number of things--still getting adjusted to my new job location/hours, the parenting fun of ridding my children and my home of lice, the joy that is a Texas summer, being sucked into watching Olympics every chance I get...  But what it really comes down to is what one of my former bosses called "analysis paralysis."  I worry too much about what to write and how to make sure it's "perfect," when sometimes I really just need to sit down and do it.  And while I'm at it, stop being so hard on myself for everything that I don't get done and that isn't perfect. =)

First up in our themes for this week is Summer Fruit.  Since I haven't been able to spend much time in the kitchen recently, I started off by checking my archives for recipes that I made but never posted.  But I rarely make fruit ice cream.  I think the problem is that they never taste that fruity to me--the flavor of the fruit is muted by the dairy ingredients.  And one of the things I love about most fruit is its acidity. So instead of a fruit ice cream, I bring you a sorbet.  (That's actually our theme for Wednesday, so stay tuned for another one then.)  

This recipe comes from my favorite ice cream book, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  The recipes are arranged by season in the book, depending on when the ingredients are at their peak.  The way my tastes run, I've mostly made recipes from the Autumn and Winter sections, but this one is squarely in the Summer category.  The recipe is for Sour Beer Sorbets, and can be varied depending on the type of stone fruit you want to use or have available.  The sour beers are Belgian lambics, one of the few beers I'll happily drink.  I had a bunch of nectarines on hand, so I picked up a bottle of peach lambic and was all set.  The recipe is pretty simple--simmer pureed fruit with some sugar and corn syrup (which helps the final texture), chill the mixture, strain it if desired, add the beer, and churn.  I'm lazy, so I didn't bother to peel my nectarines before pureeing, so I did strain my mixture.  When I tasted the mixture after simmering but before adding the beer, it seemed a bit flat and overly sweet.  However, the acidity of the lambic beer took care of that.  I also added a pinch of salt to the mixture.  

The verdict?  This is very tasty sorbet.  The texture is smooth and not overly icy or hard to scoop.  There's a hint of alcohol taste, but it's certainly not overpowering.  I'd definitely like to try other flavors, particularly the Plum & Black Currant variation.  

I've got my work cut out for me, since I don't have any other ice creams ready to go for this week's festivities. =)  But I'm looking forward to the challenge.  Be sure to check out Phyl's blog; he'll have posts every day this week (I'll probably only manage 3 or 4 at most) and will share links to other friends who are participating.  His recipe for today is Citrus Beet Ice Cream.  You should check it out for the color, if nothing else. =)

One of those days (Cooking the Books)

I've been having one of those days.  Except that it's not the usual one of those days.  It started with me getting up at 5 because I was scheduled to work all day today.  That schedule usually means that I have to drop the girls at school and daycare before I go to work at 8:15 or so.  But things didn't go as planned.  Brianna was still complaining of a really sore throat when I went to wake her up.  She'd been telling me the same thing for most of the weekend.  I checked, and it was red.  But it didn't look that bad, and since she hadn't been running a fever I figured that she was suffering from a virus and not strep.  I could tell she wasn't quite herself, though, since she napped for about 3 hours on Sunday afternoon.  

So I had the always fun parenting dilemma...  B didn't seem that sick, but sending her to school probably wasn't a good idea.  At the same time, I was worried about leaving my coworkers shorthanded.  Jamie had already left for work, and it was doubtful that he'd be able to come home early to stay with B.  I just love it when the parenting guilt wars with the work guilt--nothing like having an unexpected day off that you can't really enjoy because you feel like you're supposed to be somewhere else.  I did get to take a nap, but it wasn't a very good one.  I ended up feeling sort of restless and out-of-sorts all day.  I did get some reading time in, but couldn't really settle on anything.  And writing was right out.  I've been trying to get this post done for my Cooking the Books event for two days, and just haven't been able to figure out what to write, which is why you're getting my sad story.  =)

Maybe some dessert would make me feel better.  We had Brianna's favorite soup for dinner, this chicken chowder from Cook's Country.  Naturally, since B loves it, Gillian hates it.  (I decided not to fight that battle tonight, and just made G a sandwich for dinner.)  I like it just fine, and soup is nice because it generally leaves room for dessert.  This particular one was inspired by the new book J got me for Mother's Day--Alice Medrich's new Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts.  The idea is that you can make lots of great desserts from simple, tasty components.  What I came up with first was sort of a mini ice cream tart/sundae.  

The base was a simple butter cookie.  Central Market has an event going on called Passport France, and they've had a lot of great French products and ingredients available.  I bought some Breton salted butter, and turned to Dorie's Around My French Table to figure out what to do with it.  Naturally, she didn't let me down, and I found a recipe for Sablé Breton.  I didn't want to do a full-size tart, but there was a Bonne Idée for making slice and bake cookies with a variation on the dough, so I went with those.  I didn't add any salt, since my butter was nicely salty, with noticeable crunchy crystals in it.  I did roll the log of dough in a combination of sparkling sugar and a bit of fleur de sel before slicing it up for baking.

Besides the great butter, I also picked up a package of dark muscovado sugar on my shopping trip.  My new Medrich book has several caramel-type sauces in it.  One is a simple mixture of muscovado sugar, cream, a bit of salt, and a splash of rum.  It was really easy to make.  For the final component of my dessert, I wanted something that would provide a contrast to the richness of the cookie and sauce.  I found what I was looking for in one of my earlier Medrich books, Pure Dessert--sour cream ice cream.  It's a non-custard ice cream, which really allows the sour cream flavor to shine through.  The technique for making it is similar to the one in my Jeni's ice cream book, and I tweaked the procedure just slightly to make it even closer (I added a bit of corn syrup to the milk/sugar mixture, and boiled it for several minutes before adding the cornstarch in a slurry).  

For the final dessert, I started with a cookie, topped it with a scoop of ice cream, and drizzled warm tropical sugar sauce over the top.  The verdict?  Yum!  All of the components are really tasty, and work well together.  There's a great contrast of sweet and salty, cold and warm, soft and chewy/crisp.  The cookies are also great with a cup of tea.  My favorite part was the ice cream.  We also ate some of it topped with fresh strawberries--the cold tartness of the ice cream is a great foil for fruit.  I can't wait to try it with peaches, too.

I definitely encourage you to check out all of the books that I mentioned.  Your local library might even have them!  To get you started, you can find the ice cream recipe here.  This is my contribution to our spring Cooking the Books blog event; you can find links to the other contributors in this main post.  If you'd like to join in, submissions are welcome anytime this week.  If you'd like to be notified of future events, send me an email at diskitchennotebook at gmail dot com and I'll add you to the list!  

Have your cake and ice cream, too

Well, it's back to work for me tomorrow.  On Friday, I stopped by work briefly, and several people asked me what I'd been doing with my time off.  The answer?  Absolutely nothing. =)  Or at least, pretty darn closed to that.  I did get to spend a couple days with Gillian (while Brianna was at school), which was nice.  At her request, we did a little shopping on Thursday.  Ah, to be 4-going-on-5 again--the days when all it takes to make you happy is some new socks and leggings and a 99¢ plastic pencil box.  Maybe it was the youthful company, but I did a little shopping for myself, and walked out of Office Depot with over a dozen colorful Sharpies.  I try to stay out of there, since I lack willpower when it comes to office supplies... =)

I also did lots of baking over the past week.  The most involved creation for the week was also one that would easily win the heart of any 4-year-old, not to mention most big kids.  I've mentioned before that I'm a DBCB.  The reason I went into work on my vacation is that Friday was the birthday of one of my employees, and another has a birthday tomorrow.  Fortunately, they're both old enough not too complain too much about having to share.  But just in case, I found a good solution--I made everyone a cake of his or her own.  My employee A has been nagging me incessantly about making peanut butter ice cream for her ever since I brought some to work for another event.  She even suggested that I make ice cream cake.  Normally that would be too hard too pull off, but since I was off, I could bring the dessert in at lunch time so it wouldn't have time to melt.  So I made a bunch of mini ice cream cakes!

The first thing to decide on was the cake.  I knew I wanted chocolate, and a cake that would be good cold.  One of the first recipes to come to mind was one from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours.  If you're familiar with the book, you'll remember the fabulous cake on the cover.  In the headnote for the recipe, Dorie says, "Freshly made or at room temperature, they [the layers] are moist and a little fluffy; chilled, they're still moist, but denser and firmer, very much like a super-fudgy brownie."  That sounded like just what I wanted.  Since I wanted thin layers, I used my quarter-sheet pans in place of the 8" rounds called for in the recipe.  (The bake time was 20 minutes, and I lined the pans with parchment to make it easy to remove the layers once cooled.)  For the ice cream layer, I used one of the same pans, and right after churning the ice cream, I spread it in the parchment lined pan and froze it until it was very firm.  

For the assembly, I used a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter (from this set) to cut out rounds.  I got 14 from each layer.  I stacked the layers--cake, then ice cream, then cake--and stuck the cakes into the freezer overnight to make sure they were completely frozen before I covered them in chocolate.  I debated what to use for a coating, but decided to go with the Chocolate Bombe Shell from my copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  (The peanut butter ice cream was also from that book.)  I put the cakes on a rack placed over a sheet pan lined with non-stick foil and spooned the chocolate mixture over them.  I did three at a time, keeping the rest in the freezer until I was ready for them.  Also, if you work fast, you can put sprinkles on top before the shell completely hardens so they stick well.  The nice thing about the chocolate shell mixture is that you can stick the sheet pan in the freezer for a few minutes and the chocolate will harden so that you can easily peel it off the foil.  Then you can just break it up and remelt it.  

The verdict?  Well, this is now the newest "best thing that you have -ever- made!" according to my co-workers.  It was a big hit here at home, too.  I'm already thinking of different flavors that I can put together, especially since Gillian wasn't a huge fan of the peanut butter ice cream.  I have lots of cake scraps left, too, so they may end up in some sort of trifle, unless I manage to just eat them all.    

If you'd like to try these little cakes for yourself, here's where you can find recipes for the components I used.  Or you can just have fun experimenting for yourself.  Enjoy!

Dorie's Devil's Food Cake

Jeni's The Buckeye State ice cream (I left out the chocolate bits & used Golden Syrup instead of honey)

Chocolate Bombe Shell (I doubled the amounts listed in this post)

Sourpuss

I had a conversation the other day with a friend who is thinking of starting a family.  He asked me, "Kids--they're worth it, right?"  My response?  "Most of the time."  I love my girls, and I can't imagine life without them.  But sometimes, like tonight, they just push all my buttons.  Awhile back I decided that Thursday is invariably the worst day of the week--prime time for some sort of meltdown.  Everyone is tired.  We're tired on Friday, too, but by that point, the end of the week is definitely in sight.  On Thursday, we're almost as cranky, and still have to find a way to get through another day.  

Fortunately there wasn't a homework meltdown from B this evening.  (That was last night.)  And at least G didn't wait until right before bed to have her every-other-day marathon bathroom session.  (Sorry, I know it's mostly a food blog, but anyone have any great solutions for 4yo constipation?)  But by now, I really just wish they'd finish up with the fooling around in the bathroom (they're supposed to be brushing their teeth) and go to bed already...  Though on the plus side, I did manage to feed them something for dinner that they both ate without complaint.  And it wasn't macaroni and cheese--there were actual vegetables involved. =)

Oddly enough, although I'm feeling tired and decidedly cranky, I have no interest in one of my usual stress remedies, chocolate.  (I know, crazy, right?)  I do, however, wish I had some of this frozen yogurt left.  It would really hit the spot right now.  It's lemon frozen yogurt with raspberry sauce, from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  

I've made about a dozen recipes from the book so far--some that I've posted, and some that I haven't.  (There's some Milkiest Chocolate with Marshmallows and Fudge Swirl in the freezer right now, for instance.)  But it really hadn't occurred to me to try any of the frozen yogurt recipes.  Then I went to a class that Jeni did here at Central Market last month.  She mentioned that the lemon frozen yogurt was her favorite, and we got to sample it at the class.  So I put it at the top of my list to try next.  

More than with Jeni's ice cream recipes, you have to plan ahead a little for the frozen yogurt.  The recipe calls for draining the yogurt for at least 6-8 hours to remove excess liquid.  I didn't have cheesecloth, so I improvised.  I lined my medium strainer with coffee filters, put it over a bowl, and added my quart of lowfat yogurt.  I covered the top with plastic wrap, and stuck the whole contraption in the fridge overnight.  By the way, can I just say that it's harder than I expected to find lowfat plain yogurt?  I saw plenty of nonfat, and several brands of whole milk, but not a lot of choices for lowfat.  I used Wallaby for the lemon.  I think I'm going to try Stonyfield for the next batch, and see which I prefer.  Another thing to note--you won't need all of the yogurt for this recipe, but the extra can be used for other things, like in place of sour cream in dips.

Besides draining the yogurt, you make a lemon syrup with lemon juice and sugar.  The zest from the lemons gets added to the milk/cream mixture, which is similar to the ice cream, but with smaller amounts to account for the volume that will be added by the yogurt.  Once the milk mixture is boiled and thickened with cornstarch and whisked into the cream cheese, the strained yogurt and lemon syrup are whisked in.  I did add a pinch of salt that wasn't called for in the recipe.  I also chilled my finished mixture in a regular ice bath rather than in a ziploc bag.  Once the mixture was thoroughly chilled, I churned it and then layered it with Jeni's raspberry sauce as I packed it into a freezer container.

The verdict? I think I have a new favorite flavor.  Much as I love chocolate, and the salty caramel (when I don't overcaramelize it), the lemon frozen yogurt is to die for.  I do want to try the Lemon Cream ice cream as well, for comparison.  What's actually up next is lime frozen yogurt with blackberry sauce.  I'll keep you all posted on how that goes.  Molly of Orangette says that she likes to eat this frozen yogurt from a teacup.  I'd have to say my favorite way to eat this flavor is in a cone.  You have the tart, refreshing tastes of lemon and raspberry with the crisp texture and browned butter-vanilla flavor of the cone.  Mmm.  I admit, I polished off most of the quart all by myself.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can find the recipe here at The Splendid Table.  But I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of the book, so you can try lots of other fantastic recipes as well.

Sundae Sunday - The round-up

Well, it took me a week, but I'm finally back with the round-up of all the delicious treats that my friends made for Sundae Sunday.  Ice cream month is just about done, but there's plenty more summer weather to come (especially around here--they're forecasting 107º for Tuesday!).  Check out all these tempting photos, then try to decide what to make first! =)

First up we have Mike of Living Out West.  He made what he referred to as "Plain Jim" ice cream.  What I'd call it is fabulous.  Vanilla, with both bean and extract, can be enjoyed as is, or become the perfect canvas for other things.  Check it out here.

Next we have a new friend, Elaine, invited by Mike to join in the fun.  She has a lovely blog, California Living.  She immediately won me over by mentioning one of my favorite restaurants from college, The Old Spaghetti Factory. =) She went all out and made three different flavors, which she then combined for some fantastic homemade spumoni.

I invited a fairly new friend as well.  Margaret of The Irish Mother is someone that I met through Adopt-a-Blogger.  She started her blog to share her collection of family and other recipes, and is doing a wonderful job of it.  In fact, she's about to celebrate her 1-year blogiversary next week.  For our Sundae event, she took a delicious-looking Chocolate Velvet ice cream recipe and made it even more decadent by adding cheesecake!  Go read all about it here.

Now we go from something totally decadent to something light and refreshing.  Leslie of Lethally Delicious shared this lovely mango sorbet with us.  She advises only using really good mangoes, and gives some great tips on finding them.  Check out her recipe!

Next up is more fruit and gorgeous color from Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs.  She has a couple favorite ice cream books, but was looking to try something new.  She searched her bookshelf using Eat Your Books, which is also a favorite tool of mine, and found a new recipe for Blueberry Ice Cream.  Read all about the service and the ice cream in her post.

Phyl from Of Cabbages and King Cakes continues our theme of fruity ice creams perfect for enjoying in a heat wave.  He went for a grownup concoction featuring Pimm's No. 1.  I've never tried it, but I definitely want to, now that I've read about Phyl's ice cream.  He uses it with lemon and lime curd to make a delicious citrus ice cream.  Read about it here.  

Margaret decided to borrow an idea from Phyl and feature Lemon Curd Ice Cream on her blog, Tea and Scones.  I'll be busy eating that with my friend Kayte, while everyone else can try the second ice cream she made....

...German Chocolate Pecan Ice Cream.  Sorry, we won't be making this one here, since no one likes coconut. More for the rest of you, right? =P  Be sure to head over to Margaret's blog for more about both of these great recipes.  

On to more chocolate!  Abby of Stir it! Scrape it! Mix it! Bake it! decided to take a break from playing with her new ice cream machine and made us these awesome Chocolate Pudding Pops.  I'm definitely going to have to make these for my girls, since chocolate pudding is a favorite dessert of theirs.  Having it in frozen form will definitely go over well.  You can find the recipe for these chocolate treats here on Abby's blog.   

If you want some delicious items to mix into Mike's vanilla ice cream up above, look no further than Mary's blog, Popsicles and Sandy Feet.  She gives us not one, but two yummy treats that are just perfect for dressing up some homemade or store-bought ice cream.  I don't know which to make first, the Maida Hatter Palm Beach Brownies or the Peanut Butter World Peace Cookies.  Maybe just make both?  Head over to Mary's blog for more, including links to the recipes.  

If you're looking for something to serve alongside your ice cream, Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake has a great idea.  She made Buttercrunch Toffee, and then topped her Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream with some Salted Bourbon-Caramel Sauce.  Sounds like a great way to beat the heat down here in Texas, where Jeannette and I both live.  She has all the recipes here.  

While Jeannette may be the closest to me geographically, this next treat comes from the person farthest away.  My blogging friend Marthe of The Baking Bluefinger sends us this lovely sundae all the way from The Netherlands.  She decided to make use of a gift from a Canadian friend, and made us a treat that features lots of maple syrup--Maple Syrup meringues topped with Maple Ice Cream, then topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of more maple syrup.  You can find out more on her blog (now that her internet is cooperating!).  

That brings us to my contribution, which also follows a theme.  Mine was caramel.  My sundae starts with a waffle bowl, which I filled with Salty Caramel Pecan Praline Ice Cream and topped with an amazing Butterscotch Sauce.  And don't forget some whipped cream and a cherry!  For more info and a recipe for the sauce, head over here.  

I hope you've enjoyed the showcase of our frozen favorites.  Next up will be an Autumn event--I'm still working on a theme--that will take place in late September or early October.  If you'd like to be part of the fun, you can email me at diskitchennotebook at gmail dot com and I'll send you the details when we get closer.  (I plan to contact all past participants unless you tell me not to.)    

We all scream for...sorbet?

Hopefully you aren't tired of ice cream posts yet. =)  This one is actually courtesy of Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon.  She's our hostess for Tuesdays with Dorie this week, and she picked Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet for us to make.  It could be debated whether this recipe is actually for sorbet, since it contains milk, and sorbet generally doesn't.  In fact, Dorie adapted this recipe from one by Pierre Hermé, which was made with just water, no milk.  The substitution of milk for part of the liquid is what makes this sorbet creamy.  The sorbet is pretty easy to make--you combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan, bring the mixture to a boil, and boil it for 5 minutes.  Then you thoroughly chill the mixture and churn it in an ice cream maker.  The result is a bit more "soft-serve" than usually, so it really benefits from several hours in the freezer (I left mine overnight) so it can firm up.  The only changes I made were to add a bit of salt, and to increase the recipe by a third.  I used a mix of chocolates, ending up with an average cacao percentage of about 62%, I think.

The verdict?  It's hard to believe that such a simple recipe can make something so delicious!  Chocolate ice cream is wonderful, but almost too rich sometimes.  This sorbet is extremely chocolatey, but refreshing at the same time.  I'm sure we'll be making it again very soon, since it's rapidly disappearing.  

Here's my ingredient list, since I scaled the recipe up by a third (easier to do after converting to metric) to make about a quart:

300 grams lowfat (1%) milk

300 grams water

200 grams granulated sugar

265 grams bittersweet chocolate

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the original recipe, head over to Steph's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of the sorbet, check out this week's Links.  

Sundae Sunday - Nuts about caramel

So what do you think makes a sundae a sundae?  Is it just having sauce on ice cream?  Is it adding whipped cream?  Is it the cherry on top?  Well, I have all of those today, so there's no doubt in my mind that this is a sundae. =)  I don't eat sundaes much.  I usually eat a single scoop of ice cream, plain, in a small bowl or ramekin.  Eating a small amount means I can get away with eating ice cream more often.  Occasionally I'll put some chocolate or caramel sauce on top.  But whipped cream?  Never.  And cherries?  I don't even like them. Jamie got to eat the one on this sundae; he's the one who bought the cherries in the first place, so I can make him some ice cream with roasted cherries.

But since this is Sundae Sunday, I went all out.  At the base is a waffle bowl, made from the same recipe as my cones, but sandwiched between a couple small bowls to give it shape.  The ice cream is salty caramel with pecan pralines.  (You can also find the salty caramel ice cream recipe in this Bon Appetit blog post. Thanks, Mike!)  It's topped with a sinfully sweet butterscotch sauce and topped with softly whipped cream and a cherry.

I added the pralines to the ice cream because I wanted something that wasn't too plain, and I thought they would be good with the caramel ice cream.  Initially, I was thinking of using hot fudge or some other chocolate sauce for the topping, but then I decided that I wanted to stick with the caramel theme.  Regular caramel sauce seemed too obvious; I wanted something with a little more character.  I consulted my bookshelf on Eat Your Books, looking for butterscotch sauce.  I was a bit surprised when it pointed me to my copy of Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman.  But sure enough, there was a butterscotch recipe in there.  Butter, dark brown sugar, cream, salt, vanilla, and the intriguing ingredient of cider vinegar were fairly quickly combined into a delicious topping.  As for the whipped cream, I made it by hand--I've finally learned that the best way to do that is to use a large bowl and my big balloon whisk, even for a relatively small amount of cream.  The whipping goes fast that way, and I can easily stop before the cream gets over-whipped.

The verdict?  Wow.  This sundae was totally decadent, and completely delicious.  I let the caramel for the ice cream get a little too dark, so the ice cream wasn't very sweet.  But that was okay with the pralines and sauce, both of which were quite sweet.  I don't usually go for nuts in my ice cream, but I like how the pecans were crunchy, while the praline coating melted into the ice cream.  The butterscotch sauce was wonderful--the additions of vinegar and salt really gave it an excellent flavor.

Butterscotch Sauce
(adapted from Ratio by Michael Ruhlman)


55 grams (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
115 grams (4 ounces, or a packed half cup) dark brown sugar
115 grams (4 ounces, or half a cup) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Place the butter and brown sugar in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Cook for 5 to 10 minutes over medium heat until the sugar has completed melted into the butter and the mixture is thick and bubbly.  Remove the pan from the head and whisk in the cream.  Let the mixture cool slightly--about 5 minutes--then whisk in the vanilla, vinegar and salt.  Makes about a cup.

For more info on making the butterscotch sauce, check out this article from Shuna Fish Lydon, with great how-to photos.

And be sure to check back later this week for my Sundae Sunday round-up!