Spice Dish

Amen to Basil!

I know I haven't posted on a Perfect Scoop recipe lately. I haven't been slacking, I promise. Many, many flavors have been made. Most were delicious, chock full of summer fruit and trotted out for backyard bbq's. Then the other night.... there wasn't just a good flavor, or even a great flavor, but a revelation. Not kidding, no joke, nobody believed me how amazing it was until they tasted, then fought over, it.

So where was this revelation revealed to me? In basil. Yup Basil.

Basil. I don't love it. I like it alright, but I'm not gaga over it, which made this flavor even more of a happy surprise. The flavor is light,crisp and floral. This was unexpectedly and immediately proclaimed one of the best flavors of all that I've made from David's collection, by those who have tasted them all. For those of you doubting... Basil is everywhere right now. Grab yourself a handful and get to it! ASAP! Basil most certainly is a dessert flavor. An amazing one at that.

Basil Ice Cream
Adapted From David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop

1 cup basil leaves
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups 1/2 & 1/2
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
Zest of 1 organic lemon

Put the basil, sugar and 1 cup of the 1/2 & 1/2 in the blender and blitz until the leaves are in very tiny pieces. Pour half the mixture into a large bowl and place a mesh strainer on top. In a medium saucepan heat the other half of the mixture with the rest of the 1/2 & 1/2 and the salt. In another bowl whisk the eggs. Whisking constantly, slowly add the warmed mixture into the whipped yolks. Return mixture to the saucepan. Stir the mixture over medium heat until the mixture coats the spatula or spoon. Pour the custard mixture into the cream mixture through the strainer. Add the zest and stir to mix. Cool mixture completely then churn in your ice cream maker.

Enjoy!

EB

Best Ice Cream Ever

Confetti Cupcake Goodness

Ok folks. I have an ice cream recipe for you today. This may be the best ice cream I’ve made so far, for two reasons… 1.) I created it in honor of Designated Eater Mimi’s birthday and 2.) it’s friggin’ over the top, sugar blasted, fun (oh and it’s super tasty).

This recipe has been brewing in me for quite some time (long before I started the Perfect Scoop project). One day, many moons ago, bored and staring at my cubicle walls, I found myself on Ben & Jerry’s website playing with the Flavor Generator. 

I chose my base: Cake Batter
My mix-ins: Rainbow sprinkles
And my swirl: Cake batter

As I recall I named the concoction Kiddie Kake. Did they love it? Did they make it? No… but I’ve always had the idea for it in the back of my head. So in honor of Mimi’s big day, I pulled out all the stops.

Warning: Sugar Coma Ahead

This is cake batter ice cream with not only sprinkles, but chunks of cupcake!

Mimi’s Birthday Cupcake Ice Cream
This makes a large batch, very good for parties.

1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake mix (I like strawberry for the color)
2-3 pre-made and frozen cupcakes, chopped up
Candy sprinkles

 
Whisk milk and sugar until dissolved
Stir in cream and vanilla
Stir in ½ cup of the cake mix until well blended
Freeze in your ice cream machine according to directions.

Halfway through freezing, pour the remaining ½ cup of cake mix into top of machine (it will mix in and make a ‘swirl.’)

Five minutes before completion add cupcake pieces and sprinkles.

This tends not to freeze fully hard in the machine so you will need to put it in a container and ‘ripen’ it in the freezer for about 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Erin

This is My Life

The new project? Well... I was inspired by Victoria of Vic's Recipes, Cooking Zuni and now A New York City Minute. She's been urging me to get out and take more pictures, and she's right. I really need to and and I've been wanting to. The idea of documenting the day to day while practicing my (very limited) photography skills? Brilliant.

So here it is. Week one of the This is My Life project. A diary in 5 photos, each week...

Monday: Glorious Labor Day at The Marshall Store in Point Reyes Station. Oysters, friends, water and warm weather? Couldn't have been better.

Tuesday: Fresh, hot, homemade tostones made with the tostonera I picked up in Puerto Rico.

Wednesday: On the walk home from work I stopped by the corner market and grabbed a basket full of small, but perfect lemons.

Thursday: The lemons became Super Lemon Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop.

Friday: My perfectly luscious breakfast.

Have a great weekend all!

Enjoy-

Erin

Perfect Scoop Project Roundup

It’s official. Summer is over. Back to school, Labor Day has come and gone. Finis. So how did my Perfect Scoop project pan out? Did I manage to make every, single recipe in it this summer? Um… no. Did I make a whole bunch and make those around me very, very happy? Oh yeah.

 

Here’s the roundup:

Ice Creams: (20 out of 73)

Vanilla (added chocolate chips, amazing)

Vanilla, Philadelphia Style

Chocolate (most perfect ice cream ever)

Chocolate, Philadelphia Style

Aztec “Hot” Chocolate

Milk Chocolate

White Chocolate (had strange cookie dough texture)

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (added brownie pieces, yum)

Toasted Almond and Candied Cherry (LOVED it)

Roasted Banana (so, so, so good)                                                                     

Pear-Caramel

Fresh Fig (too figgy for me… I know, I know)

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

Peach

Fresh Apricot

Peach Frozen Yogurt

Plum

Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt

Strawberry-Sour Cream

Fresh Mint (added organic chocolate mints… it was maybe the best one)

 

 

Sorbets and Sherbets: (8 out of 39)

Pear Sorbet (amazing)

Cantaloupe Sorbet

Watermelon Sorbetto (chocolate chips make this)

Pink Grapefruit-Champagne Sorbet (so refreshing)

Strawberry Sorbet

Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet

Banana Sorbet (loved it)

Pineapple Sorbet

Granitas: (0 out of 18)

I didn’t make any of these! I guess I was too enthralled by the ice cream maker.

 

Sauces & Toppings: (5 out of 27)

Whipped Cream

Creamy Caramel Sauce (I love me some caramel!)

Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

Candied Pineapple (so unexpectedly good)

Sour Cherries in Syrup

 

Mix Ins: (1 out of 21)

Candied Cherries (quite yummy)

 

Vessels: (3 out of 13)

Cakelike Brownies

Blondies

Crepes

So just because summer is over does this mean the ice cream making is over? Not by a long shot. I still adore ice cream and I love making it. I love getting all those ingredients together: cream, fruit, sugar, lots of chocolate—and seeing the magic that happens when they get together and dance around in a very cold bowl.

 

 I’ve just accepted that summer is officially over and that it’s time to move on to other things. I’ll still work through David’s recipes and let you know how it goes but there will be lots of other things going on too. I’ve already got another project in the works that I’ll let you know all about in the next few days. Stay tuned.

 

Enjoy!

Erin

Brownie Redux

More ice cream musing while I'm sucking down umbrella drinks in the sand:

This may be the easiest recipe ever. David’s recipe on pg 49 is for a simple (SOOO simple SOOO good) Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. The ingredient list? Yogurt. Sugar. Vanilla. Period. The directions? Mix. Chill. Freeze. Sounds great… but remember those brownies I made? Well I had extra. Lots extra. Stroke of brilliance? Chop up the brownies and stir them in. Mmmmmm.

Designated Eater Mimi has declared that with the brownies this flavor should be renamed "Brownie Cheesecake" which I think I have to agree with. It really, really tasted like cheesecake! But it's yogurt... so guilt free yeah? Sure! More brownies!

Enjoy!

Erin

 

 

 

 

Cherries n' Chocolate

While I'm off on my tropical vacation I thought I'd leave you with some cooling ice cream thoughts:

Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt

This recipe found on pg 73 of The Perfect Scoop is actually inspired by Adam of Amateur Gourmet. It is really very simple and calls for few ingredients. It does call for fresh sour cherries but I had to use frozen because I decided to make this at about 1 AM and needless to say the market was not open. The frozen fruits worked just fine and cooked up juicy and plump. 

 

After cooking and pureeing, David says to chill the yogurt mixture for 2 hours. Why? I don’t know he just says so. But I didn’t have that kind of time (I did want to get to bed at some point). So I didn’t. I can’t say how it effected the fro-yo cuz it came out just peachy (or cherry-y as the case may be).  The
color is a dark magenta with dark specs of cherry. It’s rich, creamy, tangy and sweet. It’s really refreshing actually.

 

I liked the Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt but I felt that it would be improved by chocolate. Although I think stirring in dark chocolate chips for a dark chocolate/cherry combo would be fantastic, I was also craving something cakey so I decided to make the Cakelike Brownies on pg 220. Just to reiterate. I am not a baker. I like to try it but for whatever reason things just don’t come out. I do enjoy the process though. Especially when baking with chocolate. I always feel like Charlie as I carefully unwrap the foil on my Wonka bar.

David offers up a straightforward brownie recipe. Straightforward… but clearly not foolproof. As I am clearly, a baking fool. The batter turned out just fine but the brownies got burnt on the bottom. They tasted really great though. The top halves at least were moist and rich with a deep chocolate flavor. And they really are cakey. I’m not a huge fan of the fudgey, dense style brownies so these definitely did in my cake craving. I have to say that the sweet rich, cakey brownie topped with the tangy cherry yogurt was everything you could want in a dessert... or breakfast.

Enjoy!

Erin

12 Stepper?

 

Hi my name in Erin and I love caramel. Caramel sauce, caramel candy, caramel in a can, caramel… well caramel. There. I said it. It’s all out in the open. Now you know I love ice cream… but when caramel sauce is involved… the ice cream simply becomes a vehicle for the caramel. Unless it’s chocolate ice cream. David’s chocolate ice cream.

 

This is his recipe for Philadelphia Style Chocolate Ice Cream (pg 28). This is not the custard based kind. I was concerned that it would be less creamy and rich than I would have liked, but the fact that I was out of whole milk (the recipe calls for a cup) and I substituted whole cream (which I appear to always have stocked on hand) made for a texture that, right out of the machine, was like the thickest, richest pudding I have ever had.

 

I added David’s ridiculously simple Creamy Caramel Sauce (pg 170) over the top and BLAMMO! Perfection. Well except because you’re me and you don’t realize until it’s melted into pieces that the spatula you were using really wasn’t heat proof so you have to toss the whole batch of burnt sugary goodness and start over. Starting all over was well, well worth it. This was gorgeous, chocolatey, caramely, sugary and absolutely wonderful.

I won't lie. Almost as good as sex. Seriously people.

Enjoy!

Erin

 

Tastes of Summer

It’s summer. Summer sun, summer fun, summer fruit. What’s a girl to do? Make ice cream of course. Well Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet (pg 129) and Fresh Apricot Ice Cream (pg 76).

This was another one of those back-to-back batch days. The second the ice cream maker bowl was refrozen I plopped the second batch in. First batch? Fresh Apricot. I had a birthday dinner to go to that night and I was (of course) charged with bringing the dessert. I mean really…. who wouldn’t want fresh, homemade ice cream for their birthday?

David starts off his recipe by acknowledging that people who live where fresh apricots are available are ‘lucky.’ I am one of the lucky indeed. I actually grew up amidst apricot orchards. We had an apricot tree in our backyard. My dog used to jump up and eat the thick, juicy fruits off the tree while I sat on the back steps and split open heavy fruit after heavy fruit.

 

This recipe just called to me. It just screamed ‘childhood.’ The recipe does call for almond extract, but I substituted (a very non-childhood ingredient) brandy. Why brandy? Cuz hey… it was a birthday! The result was rich, creamy and gone in a flash. As soon as that bowl hit the table… drunken birthday goers had at it.

 

The next batch I made was an iffy one. It was Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet. For starters, I hadn’t had rhubarb since I was a kid (a friend’s mom made it into desserts… unsweetened) so I wasn’t super excited about it. Getting Designated Eater Mimi to eat it wasn’t going to be easy either. While I was up for giving rhubarb another go, I had to sneak the rhubarb into her. She’d never tasted it, and its strange red-celery looks gave her ‘the icks.’ I told her it was plain old strawberry and handed her a spoonful to which she proclaimed ‘mmm it’s good’ to which I did my ‘ha ha you like rhubarb’ dance.

 
Oh you rhub!

I followed David’s advice and chose the brightest, reddest stalks in the bunch. He advises this so that your sorbet will be ‘enticingly colored’ and oh my, was it ever. The resulting sorbet was delightfully tart and somehow very sweet at the same time. It's earmarked for a neighbor and a coworker but I really think  I may make  this again to keep some for myself. I'm sure the next batch won't require any trickery to get D.E.M. to eat it either! 

 

Enjoy!

Erin

As always, all recipes are available in David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop.

Simple Pleasures

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. This girl… well her outlook on life is pretty infectious. For her July POP project she asked us to write up a happiness list. Why? Because, as she reminds us “it's so helpful to have at hand a reminder of what means the world to you.” Especially during a season that is “all about simple pleasures.” As you know, a picture is worth more than any essay I could write on the simple pleasures in my life. So… in pictures… I give you my Happiness List.

Watching my huge “manimals” curl up together like little mice.

 
Digging through dusty stacks of old cookbooks looking for a handwritten note left by a woman maybe a little bit like me.

Photo by Greg Westfall
Watching my students have ‘light bulb moments’ in class.

 
Tickling my nephew until he crumples into a pile of giggles.

Making ice cream!

So that's it. My summer '08 POP inspired Happiness List.

Enjoy!

Erin

 

Mission: Watermelon

Watermelon rocks my world. It’s one of those things I wait for with bated breath each summer. You add vodka to that watermelon and well… I’m putty in your hands. David’s Watermelon Sorbetto recipe had been calling me for weeks. It’s such a simple recipe. Watermelon, lime juice, vodka…. man… how did I not make cocktails while I was at it? Add a mint sprig? How fantastically ‘summer’ would that be?

 

I had initially intended to make popsicles (like the luscious ones shown on pg 112) but the one mold I own is being monopolized by some truly awesome pineapple popsicles that I am slowly savoring. I had snagged half a watermelon at the market for a few coins and realized that I had to make the watermelon sorbetto ASAP. The popsicles would have to come another time. I was so excited to make this that I didn't read  as carefully as I should have and I boiled a bit too much juice with the sugar... but it still came out cold, soft on the tongue and absolutely delicious. The 'adorable' touch here? There are little chocolate chips  that act as 'seeds'!!!

 
See the seeds?

I of course have overworked myself to the point of sickness again this week and let me tell you… vodka soused watermelon sorbetto with little bites of chocolate happiness? Best sore throat salve ever. I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite flavors so far. It's just so.... so.... damn good!

Enjoy!

Erin