Cherry Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt of light cream
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup
• 1 can of cherries in syrup
• 2 handfuls of toasted walnuts

Methods

1. Separate the cherries from the syrup and give the cherries a chop.
2. Heat the cream until nearly boiling, then add the maple syrup.
3. Allow the cream to cool to room temperature, add the syrup from the canned cherries. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator.
4. Once the mixture is cold, turn on the ice cream machine! Churn, churn, churn.
5. The mixture will thicken in 30 minutes or. Add the chopped cherries and the lightly crushed toasted walnuts. Harden the mixture in the freezer.

My cream mixture curdled slightly overnight in the refrigerator. I'm guessing it was due to the syrup from the canned cherries. This recipe actually really overflowed my ice cream machine so that it wouldn't properly mix the cherries and walnuts in. I ended up mixing those in my hand, which caused a bit of deflating. Interestingly, the maple flavor wasn't as strong once the ice cream hardened. You may want to increase the amount of maple syrup.

Basic Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 4 blocks of baker's chocolate, 100% cocao, unsweetened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 quart cream
• 3 shots of espresso

Methods

1. Using the double-boiler method, melt the chocolate.
2. Once the chocolate is melted, slowly add the cream. The chocolate will freeze up but continue whisking until everything is homogeneous. Keep the heat on.
   
3. When the cream is just about to boil, add the sugar and espresso. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and allow the mixture to cool.
4. If you don't like the skin that forms, you could get rid of it. Otherwise, it doesn't really harm anything. Add the mixture to the ice cream maker and churn away!
5. Harden in the freezer.

The coffee should help accentuate the chocolate flavor. Feel free to increase the amount of chocolate if you so desire.

Easy BBQ Rack O' Ribs

Ingredients

• Rack of ribs (I can't believe mine was on sale for $11!!)
• Pepper
• Onion powder
  
• BBQ sauce (leftover store brand works)

Methods

1. Heat up the charcoal! A chimney makes it really easy. Only one chimney's worth of coals is enough.
2. In the meantime, rinse the ribs and let it dry a bit. Season both sides with onion powder and pepper.
3. Once the coals are hot, dump them out towards the front of the grill. Then, place the rack of ribs on the back. Indirect heat! Sizzle.
4. Flip the ribs after 15 minutes. Then flip again after 30 minutes. Then flip after 1 hr. Then flip after another hour. Then flip after 30 minutes.
5. Apply BBQ sauce to the top of the rack and flip the ribs. Wait 15 minutes.
6. Apply BBQ sauce to the top side again, flip the ribs, wait 15 minutes.
7. Let the ribs rest on a sheet pan for 15 minutes before cutting.

This slow cooking method is so easy, it just takes lots of time. I also grilled some chicken breast directly over the coals during this time. Tim complained that the ribs don't quite fall off the bone, but I had no trouble eating mine. For the ribs to fall off the bone, the ribs might need another hour or so. The ribs shouldn't burn, though, if you do that since the charcoal heat is dying down. If your sauce has sugar on it, it may burn if you apply the sauce too early.

Easy Kheer

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup short-grained rice
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 2 cups light cream
• 2 cups 1% milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 good pinches of cardamom powder
• sliced almonds, pistachios, raisins (optional)

Methods

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Slightly toast the rice in the butter.
3. Add the cream and milk. Increase heat and wait for a boil. DO NOT LEAVE THE POT!! It will overflow on you when you're not looking. Stir often.
4. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer. Stir often to prevent the milk from burning at the bottom of your non-stick pot. Simmer for approximately 30 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid has reduced to half.
5. Turn off the heat and add the sugar. If you want to serve the kheer cold, add an extra tablespoon of sugar. Add the cardamom and anything optional that you would like.
6. Chill in the refrigerator if desired.

I based this recipe from this great video I found on YouTube. I had to adapt the recipe because I was craving kheer but didn't have all the ingredients. I'm not sure what Indian short grain rice is but I used regular Japanese/Chinese rice. Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the optional ingredients so I'm eating mine with just cardamom. And it's delicious. If it gets too thick after a night in the refrigerator, you could thin it out with a little milk.

Mango Sorbet

Ingredients

• 1 large can of sweetened mango puree
• 1 can of mango slices in syrup or nectar

Methods

1. Open can of mango puree. Pour it into the ice cream machine.
2. Open can of mango slices. Pour about half cup of the syrup into the ice cream machine.
3. Churn about 30 minutes or until you can see it thicken up.
4. Dice 4-5 large slices of mango into small pieces. Add it to the machine.
5. Churn enough to mix. Remove the sorbet and harden in the freezer.

Easy! There's so much sugar in this thing that the sorbet won't freeze into a giant ice cube. So delicious.

Pear and Gorgonzola Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 Anjou pears
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
  
• 1 shot of spiced rum
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup apple jelly
• 3 cups light cream
• 1/4 lbs gorgonzola cheese

Methods

1. Make the pear puree: Dice the pears into small pieces. Add the lemon juice to prevent browning. Add the rum and water and poach on medium-low heat until mushy. Approximately 30 min.
2. Puree the poached pears in a food processor.
3. Heat cream until almost a boil, typical ice cream soup heating as before.
4. Add apple jelly and stir until it dissolves.
5. Stir in the pear puree.
6. Crumble the cheese and stir into the cream. It won't completely dissolve and little chunks of blue from the cheese look nice.
7. Chill mixture, put it in the ice cream machine for 30-50 minutes until the volume increases significantly. Harden in the freezer!
   

Curry Ice Cream

I'm a little late in posting this, but this ice cream has gotten at least 1 good review already. I made a small test batch a while back, but unfortunately, small volumes do not do well in the ice cream machine. I ended up with an ice block. Below is the "full-size" version.

You might be surprised by the spicy aftertaste of this ice cream. Try it once, after which you may end up adjusting the spice factor of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 qt light cream
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 6 2/3 tablespoons (8 tsp) of curry powder
• 1 cup 1% milk

Methods

1. Heat cream until almost boiling. Turn down heat.
   
2. Add curry and brown sugar. Actually, you may want to add the cream to the brown sugar to try to avoid lumps. Eventually, however, all the lumps will dissolve in the cream. You can keep the heat on very low to help you along.
3. Refrigerate until the mixture is cold.
4. Add the milk before putting the chilled mixture in the ice cream machine.
5. Churn, baby, churn! Then harden in the freezer.
   

pear bread

thursday, 19 february, 2009 15:00 MAT

you can substitute pears for the bananas in banana bread and it makes pretty good pear bread. it's not as pearie as banana bread is bananaie, but it's still yummie.

,` )

Pumpkin Bread

This bread was super easy and turned out great. The raisins and walnuts are optional but the bread is sort of blah without them.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1 can 16 oz pure pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups sugar
3 eggs

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup green pumpkin seeds for decoration

Mix sugar with vegetable oil in a large bowl. Mix in pumpkin puree and eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add dry mix into wet in two batches. Fold in walnuts.

Set oven to 350 F

Grease two loaf pans and divide batter evenly between pans. Bake for about 1 hour; in the last 20 minutes, sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top.

Milk Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt of light cream
• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 7 tea bags (I used Lipton)
• 1 cup of 1% milk
  

Methods

1. Heat cream to 175 degF.
2. Turn off the heat and add sugar.
3. Steep the 7 tea bags in the hot cream. Stir and just let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags before removing them, if you'd like.
4. Add the milk to thin the mixture a bit.
   
5. Let the mixture chill in the refrigerator overnight or leave it in the freezer for an hour or so.
6. Churn it in the ice cream machine! Approximately, say, 45-50 minutes.
7. Harden in the freezer.

Note: I've been finding that the viscosity affects the amount of air that can be put into the ice cream. Longer churn time is better, too. There seems to be thickening really happening at around 40 minutes and the last 10 minutes is where lots of air gets incorporated.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt light cream
• 3 carrots shredded, about 1.5 cups
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional)
  

Methods

1. Gently heat cream, shredded carrots, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to about 150 degF.
2. Simmer until carrots are very tender and break apart easily, approximately 40 min. Let cool and add vanilla.
3. Chill overnight.
4. At this point, the mixture is quite thick. If put into the ice cream machine, it will be difficult for air to be churned into it. So, add the milk to reduce the viscosity of the mixture.
5. Put it in the ice cream machine until you can see a significant change in volume, about 40-45 minutes. Add walnuts during the last 10 minutes, if desired.
   
6. Let it harden in the freezer for several hours.
   

Coffee Ice Cream

Note: This recipe turned out to be too much for my 2-qt ice cream maker. It overflowed slightly, but the texture is amazing.

Ingredients

• 6 shots espresso (I used a moka. Yay!)
• 1 qt light cream
• 1.5 cup sugar

Methods

1. Heat light cream to 175 degF. In the meantime, make the 6 shots of espresso. You may use decaf beans if you want decaf coffee ice cream.
2. Turn of heat, add sugar and espresso. Stir
3. Let cool to room temperature, then chill in refrigerator overnight.
4. Pour into ice cream machine. Churn, baby, churn. This time, I let it go almost 45 minutes. So much air got churned in that it overflowed my machine. May need to cut down on liquids next time.
5. Harden the ice cream in the freezer for several hours. With all that great fat from the cream, it'll stay airy and creamy!
   

cookie recipe

thursday, 1 january, 2009 20:10 MAT

i made these cookies for everyone whilst we were in newcastle. i made them when brett's parents visited us for brett's birthday and was instructed that i must do so over christmas. i was led to believe that harry would love me forever if i did. =P


cookie recipe

ingredients:
1 packet cheapo (black & gold, homebrand, etc) butter cake mix
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 T vanilla
1 T brown sugar
chocolate melts disks (dark, milk, or white)
dessicated coconut (optional)

destructions:
1) mix together butter cake mix, oil, egg, vanilla, brown sugar
2) dough will be oily, so add dessicated coconut or more brown sugar until it is less oily (if you want or not), it shouldn't ever be not oily though
3) roll dough mixture into little spheres and drop on cookie sheets
4) press 1 chocolate melt disk into the centre of each sphere until it is sorta flattened
5) bake at 180 degrees centigrade for about 10 minutes or until golden brown

makes as many as you can make from the dough dependent on the size of sphere you choose to use (duh). i usually make rather big ones, but i have made smaller ones for larger gatherings so i get more to go around.

variations:
* instead of chocolate melt disks, use almonds or something else decorate the top (using almonds makes me think of my mum's famous almond cookies)
* use chocolate or vanilla cake mix instead of butter kind for chocolate or vanilla cookies

,` )