I had been putting off making this recipe. I am not even sure what I was waiting for. So, today was the day. As I approached this flavor, I knew I did not want to make the dough using raw eggs or baking soda. Raw eggs seem like a bad idea, even in a small batch. And the stories of people eating too much raw dough only to feel it rising in their stomach afterward had me searching for alternatives. It did not take long to find several good egg-less cookie dough recipes. This is adapted from a few I found online.
1 Cup of Flour
1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup of Sugar
4 Tablespoons of Butter
1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla
4 Tablespoons of Water
1/2 Cup of Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
I didn't think there would be enough liquid to make this work. Not only is it moist enough that it comes out great in the mix, but it is really sticky as you are preparing it. Your fingers will be a tasty mess as you prepare the bite sized blobs.
The cookie dough recipe should produce you enough so that there is some in every spoonful.
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
3/4 Cup of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
1 Pinch of Salt
This is one of the Top 10 flavors in the US. I have already been told to get this out of the house as soon as possible as it is attracting attention.
If you grew up outside of the US, chances are you re familiar with hazelnut or, more so with the popular breakfast spread Nutella. A few years back when Kobe Bryant has his off-court issues that caused him to lose his Nutella endorsement deal, I was amazed to find out how few Americans knew what Nutella was!
For my fellow uninitiated Sons of Sam, Nutella is a great hazelnut spread, similar to peanut butter, that is very tasty and is also, sadly, very high calorie. While working on some peanut butter flavors a few weeks back, I knew I wanted to give hazelnut a try.
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
3/4 Cup of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
1 Pinch of Salt
2/3 Cup of Hazelnut Spread
Mix all of the ingredients except the spread until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Pour the ice cream mix into a blender, add the hazelnut spread and hit liquify. Once the mixture is blended, toss it into your ice cream maker and go!
Although Nutella is a popular brand name, I used a different store brand I got for cheaper with all natural ingredients - or so it seems, as you can never tell what GMO products may have snuck in. A small jar gives you almost all you need for this recipe.
The initial taste on the tongue is chocolate taken over by a wave of hazelnut. To me, it was similar to a hazelnut ice coffee, creamy and delicious! After the first taste by one of the boys I was told that "This one will go fast!"
Over the weekend I wanted something combining the Vanilla/Chocolate jones I was dealing with and made this classic. It went so fast that I have no photo evidence that it existed. Not the first time. You'll have to live with this pic of home made heath bars I grabbed from the internet.
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
3/4 Cup of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
1 Pinch of Sea Salt
18 Tiny Heath Bars Chopped
I tried a new flavor the other day that is OK but needs a tweak before I am ready to post. I have another cool new flavor for me that I will have posted soon along with a few other classics I have yet to try in addition to a few new flavors that are just out there.
I know I still have not posted an entry for Chocolate yet. I am honestly still working on variations while trying to come up with a recipe I like for straight up chocolate. I got into this flavor after playing with the Banana Pudding last week. Frozen Chocolate Pudding is somewhat popular in these parts so I figured I'd go for it.
1 Cup of Heavy Cream
1 Cup of Milk
1/2 Cup of Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Chocolate Pudding Mix 1/8 Cup of Cocoa Powder
1 Pinch of Salt
1/4 Cup of Chocolate Syrup
I originally tried this as a popsicle but it failed. Too much fake sweetener from the pudding mix for it to make it through my new popsicle machine successfully. I was warned about this when I bought the machine and again in the directions and I am amazed how true that really is! Once I got this out of the ice cream mixer, I knew it was a winner. Smooth, creamy, dark, something about the small amount of pudding you add to the mix gives this a very different consistency than a regular ice cream. I still plan on making some Fudgesicles and have a better recipe for that now. I need to get through these latest creations first! Enjoy!
Someone asked me if I have purchased special containers for my ice cream when comes out of the mixer and it goes for the hard freeze. I know they are available, but no. I use standard plastic containers you can get in any supermarket. I find that they are very affordable, big enough to mix in things like cookies and the like and they hold up well coming out of the freezer. Occasionally they do break if I am scooping too hard. But at only a couple of bucks for three, the price is right and I can always replace them or feel comfortable giving one away as a gift to a friend.
NOLA Grapefruit is a recipe I adapted from Emeril that was featured on Martha Stewart's site. The original recipe was called Black Pepper Grapefruit, which did not sound all that appetizing so I am taking the risk of using Emeril's restaurant's name instead.
2 Cups of Fresh Grapefruit Juice - 4 Grapefruits
1 1/4 Cups of Simple Syrup
1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
1/2 Teaspoon of Black Pepper
Bam! I like Grapefruit so I loved how this came out. The black pepper was a great contrast but I did see that after a few days in the freezer that the pepper did absorb the moisture and began to get soggy, eventually leading to a consistency of wet paper flakes on your tongue. The lesson here is to eat this while it is still fresh or make it without the pepper and sprinkle it on top after scooping.
I am now 1/3 of the way through the challenge with suggestions for flavors coming in every week. Some I am saving based on the seasonal nature of the suggestion and some I have lined up and are in the planning stages. Additionally, I have done a few flavors that have not come out how I wanted and did not post. I now have well over 100 recipes ready to go and will likely continue with this well past the initial challenge of 100 flavors in 365 days. I am still contemplating what I will do for flavor #100. Thanks for all the emails and Facebook messages. If you have a suggestion for a flavor, please send it along!
Traveling is a great way to experience new flavors. Over ten years ago, Alice suggested we hit this little place for lunch while we were in Savannah, Georgia, Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room. The place had been around since the '40's when Mrs. Wilkes' husband went off to WWII and she entered into the southern tradition of opening up her house to boarders. Once the war was over, her reputation for her food and lodgings was strong enough that they kept the place going. At some point, they opened the dining room to the public. The first time we went, Mrs. Wilkes was there! Although she passed away in 2002, the family has kept the dining room open. Lunch is the only meal served and is a must for anyone visiting this most unique southern city. The food is amazing and remember to get there early as there are no reservations and the line gets long very fast.
This was the line back in 2011.
The meals are served family style at large tables where you sit with other diners. There is no menu and it is all you can eat. Once you sit down, all these plates and bowls of classic southern dishes start coming your way. Which brings me to the Banana Pudding. Banana Pudding would not be the first thing I would ever order for desert. However, both times I have had it at Mrs. Wiles' it was nothing short of inspiring!
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
1 Cup of Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Banana Pudding Mix
1 Teaspoon of Lemon Juice
2 Ripe Bananas, sliced
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Cup of Chopped Vanilla Wafers - 18 Cookies!
Wow! I am not usually a fan of banana but this is some great ice cream. The pudding gives it a real fluffy texture. Then there is the sweet quality that you get when banana is mixed with the dairy to go along with the added sugar. The combination makes it very sweet without going too far over the top. And I would never typically buy Vanilla Wafers but they are add the perfect crunch to this flavor. It is also the cookie that Mrs. Wiles had in her Banana Pudding. The pudding and the cookies and definitely not within my standards when it comes to organics and chemical free ingredients. I am working on alternatives but I am pretty happy with this and I expect it go go quickly!
I have a confession to make. As a kid, I never liked Root Beer and I have never really enjoyed a Root Beer float, or any float for that matter. I know I am not alone on this. Root Beer does not even rank amongst the top 10 sodas in the US. When I worked at Haagen Dazs we rarely had anyone order a float of any kind. So why? First, I have developed my taste for Root Beer over the years. As much as I love soda, I rarely drink it. A nice cold coke in a 6oz bottle on a hot day, or a great microbrew soda on occasion. Mercury Soda is a personal favorite and they have a good Root Beer and it is made by the folks who brew Ipswich Ale. JP Lick's now have added this as a summer specialty flavor and I am sure they have their own way of making this. To make this recipe the way I wanted, I needed a Root Beer made with pure cane sugar. Luckily, there are quite a few good ones out there. As I was shopping for this flavor, there was no Mercury Soda around, so I grabbed some Capt'n Eli's Root Beer. Capt'n Eli's is brewed by Shipyard up in Maine and fit the bill perfectly.
1 Quart of Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Bottle of Root Beer
Simple to make but messy. Much lighter in flavor and texture as the carbonation fluffs up the ice cream! Take the quart of ice cream and place it in a large mixing bowl. Let the ice cream soften but not melt. Slowly add the root beer and fold into the ice cream. You will need a really big bowl as this will fluff up a lot at first. Once things settle down, put the mix back into a container and let it re-freeze for a few hours. I have found that eating it fresh will give you a lighter and creamier texture and that after a day or two, the mix gets a little icier because of the water content of the soda.
This may be a better as a popsicle and now that I have a machine I will try that out. The original recipe I used was modified from a popsicle recipe, but I like the way this came out and I have found myself getting cravings for the flavor and consistency now.
I got a new toy over the weekend. I kept seeing all these cool recipes for popsicles, recipes that seemed better as popsicles than in a bowl. So I bought a Zoku so I could have fun with some smaller batches. This model will make three popsicles at a time in just about 10 minutes. They say you have the ability to make three batches before the unit needs to go back in the freezer. As I am still playing with it, I'll let you know how far we get.
The Strawberry Pineapple was a fun way to start. Three quick popsicles in just 10 minutes. They were certainly hard enough, as getting them out of the machine was not easy. It is just the first time out and I am sure I need to work on my technique.
One cup of strawberry juice with one cup of Simple Syrup.
One cup of pineapple puree with one cup of Simple Syrup.
I am so used to a bigger batch of ice cream taking three times longer to get out of the machine, then another few hours for the batch to freeze. The popsicles are ready quicker and so much smaller. It will take some getting used to but I know these are going to be fun!
The past few days have put me in almost every New England state with the exception of Vermont. Ironic since that is where Ben & Jerry's are headquartered. I even made it down to New York for a moment. Good times, great weather and lots of time for flavor inspiration. I have been playing with different chocolate recipes lately and found a great one for a nice chocolate syrup. Combine that with some smooth chocolate shavings and some peanut butter cups and you have what most people know around here as Moose Tracks. Not being from Maine and since I have never spotted one of these creatures in the wild, I wanted a different name. Skid Marks was suggested and although it made me laugh, it was not the most appetizing name possible. Given the popularity of the band and that we hail from the same region, I give you Dropkick Munchies.
1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Cups of Milk
3/4 Cup of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
1 Pinch of Salt
2oz of Baby Peanut Butter Cups
2oz of shaved Belgian Chocolate
2oz of Chocolate Syrup
The Peanut Butter Cups go against my goal of all natural products as they definitely ave chemicals in them. They also don't do a hard freeze well, so my suggestion is to eat the batch soon after it comes out of the freezer. As for the overall mix, once the vanilla ice cream base is done, mix the shavings and peanut butter into the ice cream. Take out 2/3 of the batch and drizzle some of the chocolate syrup over the remaining third in the container. Add another third of the ice cream while trying not to mix the bottom third and the top third. If you do, the syrup with begin to blend the ice cream into a chocolate mess. Add most of the remaining syrup over the top of the middle third. Add the remaining ice cream and top off with the remaining syrup. Rather than trying to smooth out the top of the batch in the container as I usually do, place the top on the container and gently but firmly pound the container on the counter top to get the mixture to settle.
For those of you outside of Boston. The Dropkicks Murphys follow a tradition of great bands from this corner of the globe. Ken Casey was my on the scene reporter following every game of the Red Sox 2004 World Series on the WBOS morning show. This song was a big part of The Departed and is now played at virtually every Boston sporting event. They also had one of the best sets I remember from the 2002 WBCN River Rave, the first concert ever at Gillette Stadium - and we had a lot of great bands that year too!
It is strawberry season here in New England so there is no better time to bust out a few different strawberry flavors. I had done a sour strawberry in the past that went over well and wanted to see if I could soften that up a bit. Both variations are great. It just depends on your taste.
One small carton of Strawberries
Three Lemons
One cup of Simple Syrup
Take all the strawberries after cleaning and de-stemming and put them over a low heat with a tablespoon of sugar and a splash of water. After and straining the liquid you should have about two cups of strawberry juice. Transfer to a bowl and add the juice of three lemons and a cup of simple syrup. Chill the mix before putting it in the machine.
This was the new flavor at the family Christmas in July party over the weekend. traveling with six flavors on a two hour road trip up to Maine while trying to time the serving of the ice cream was a challenge. When we arrived, everything was still pretty solid in the cooler. By the time it was time to eat, things had softened up a lot! However, no one really seemed to mind and all of the flavors were gone amongst the 20+ people pretty quickly. Hurricane Arthur moved through pretty quickly later that night and really didn't effect us at all.
