inner pickle

Make your own UNBELIEVABLE icecream

HA!

Did you think it was safe to drop by here on a Tuesday?!

It's not a slice of Wednesday day. It's not even Friday night dessert night! It'll be OK. She might just post a photo of a goose. 

 

HUZZAH!!!

Now let's talk for just a minute. We are all about healthy eating over here. Truly. Truly rooly. 

It's all homemade organic meusli and healthy light sandwiches and lean protein salads. Mostly.

'Cept on Wednesdays, but I have explained I give the slices away. And you could too, I'm not intending to torture you here. 

But after the week I've had (did you really say it's only Tuesday?) WHAT is a girl to do except have half a minute after dinner, after bathtime storytime teethtime bedtime, to sit and enjoy a small scoop of something awesome. 

You can buy icecream. Yeah I know. But THIS STUFF ROCKS.

I am deeply COMPELLED to blog it because it is so totally fabulous. If you'll please excuse all the capitals. 

It's not my recipe. It came from the lovely wife of this lovely dude. She gave it to me from memory as she stood in my kitchen and Adam and I ate spoonfuls of the vanilla version that she'd brought for us. 

I've reduced the sugar a tad after I made it the first time and I reckon this is my perfect icecream. 

Please make it. It makes the world a better place.

 

Chocolate Icecream to change the world

INGREDIENTS

½ cup hard packed brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 cup cocoa (the unsweetened kind)

1½ cups milk

600ml cream

METHOD

The easiest and best way to make this is to whizz it all up well in a blender. Wait till it's thick and creamy then put in fridge for at least 20 minutes.

I've found that if you thoroughly chill your icecream mix before you process it, it's lighter and fluffier and processes up easier. 

Once chilled, put into an icecream maker if you have one, and churn for at least half an hour. If you don't have one I reckon put one on your Christmas list if you can. Or just partially freeze in a container, then scrape into a big bowl and whizz with a hand blender. Put back into freezer to fully freeze.

Note 1: I have triple checked this recipe.

Note 2: I can't vouch for non-icecream-maker icecream texture I'm afraid.

Note 3: When you are lying on your deathbed in many years time, you will not remember the virtuous sultana muffin you gave yourself as a treat today. Or the righteous omission of treats altogether. THIS, though, this you will remember. 

Note 4: You're very welcome.

xxx

buttermilk icecream

Had enough of the dairy yet?

No, me either. 

 

My first caveat would have to be that the kids did not like this. They're a bit spoilt with homemade vanilla icecream and I thought this would be similar just with a higher fat content, but it does taste different, a bit tarter, and freezes really solid so isn't as pliable. 

I invented this because I had fresh buttermilk in the fridge and after making buttermilk pancakes I thought, what's next? How 'bout icecream? 

The kids really didn't like it. Have you ever even seen a child spit out icecream?

Adam and I however thought it was totally delicious! So if you're not six or four and are prepared to wait to let it soften on the bench after freezing I reckon this is a starter!

 

Buttermilk Icecream

INGREDIENTS

1.5 cups cream

1.5 cups buttermilk

3 egg yolks

half cup castor sugar

pinch salt

 

METHOD

Heat the cream and milk in a saucepan until it almost boils. In a seperate bowl beat up the yolks with the sugar and salt. Stir into teh milk /cream mix and keep stirring until it thickens. 

Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours (this bit is important not to skip or it won't whip up) and then either process in an icecream maker until the desired consistency, and freeze, or, whip with hand beaters or food processor, partially freeze, then whip again with hand beater or food processor, and completely freeze. 

Normal icecream whips up really quickly but the fat content in this means it doesn't really froth. Just like using raw full fat milk in the coffee machine, it doesn't froth well either, but skim milk froths up like a dream. 

It means this icecream freezes hard, and you'll need to soften it before serving. 

Awesome flavour though. 

Goes nicely with this:

 

Apple pie (uncooked), recipe over here (from the days I still bought tinned apple! Not any more. Sometimes I wonder if I set out to make things hard for myself...)

Hope there was something bright and tart and apple-y in your day today. 

We are getting our heads blown off in high winds down here. SO windy! Am worried I'm going to find the trampoline on the farm next door tomorrow morning. Holding tight. Wearing a knitted cowl discarded by Henry as too itchy and smelling sourdough just out of the oven.

Did you get a chance to make anything today?

xxx

 

recipe for frozen yoghurt

So we have a bit of yoghurt here - I've kinda gotten into making it in a big way. Once you get the hang of it it's dead easy and makes itself, mostly. Culture and all that.

Anyway, we were out of icecream so I thought - wonder what happens if you churn yoghurt? 

I have an icecream maker (wedding present) but you could do it with beaters just as easily. 

This is the first one I made:

Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt

500g strawberries (2 x Australian punnets)

half cup sugar

2 cups yoghurt

 

Stir the sugar through the strawberries and leave for an hour to soften the fruit.

Then stir through yoghurt and put into icecream maker and churn for half an hour or so. 

Alternatively, whizz up with handbeaters (or a whisk if you are totally insane and have stronger arms than me) and semi freeze then whizz again. 

The yoghurt I use is my homemade stuff but any nice thick yoghurt would work. I'd go greek-style rather than natural and steer clear of low fat. (Too icicle-y I'd guess.)

So simple. So yummy.

Here was number two:

Photo hurriedly taken before someone scooped up the last scoop!

Passionfruit frozen yoghurt

2 cups yoghurt

half cup sugar

pulp of 4 fresh passionfruit

 

Mix all ingredients and churn in icecream maker for about half an hour. Freeze. Enjoy. Hide from children and husband. 

I reckon it's better than icecream. 

xxx

all in the name of research

OK so the David Lebovitz icecream was very good, but a little fiddly. 

Having a dedicated tendency to err on the simpler side of things, I remembered a friend talking about icecream made with condensed milk. Mmmmm, condensed milk. Another good reason to have it in your pantry, right!

So I tried this: 

BASIC VANILLA ICECREAM

1 x 400g tin condensed milk

1 x 600ml pot of thickened cream

1 x tsp vanilla extract

THAT'S IT!!

And oh my goodness, here it is:

Apart from being dead easy to make, it's so creamy and delicious, and you know exactly what's in it. No hidden "natural" colour 160b (careful one that little one.)

I poured the three ingredients into a big bowl and used a hand beater to whizz up well first. Then put in into an icecream maker and pulled it out after three hours or so and beat it again. You really don't need an icecream maker for this - but you do need to re-beat it once it's partially set to get that whipped up icecream texture. Handbeaters will do the job or a wooden spoon and some good elbow grease. Think about those burning calories. Or not. 

Store it in the freezer (obviously) - mine's just in a plastic container with a lid on it. You don't need anything fancy. And damn it tastes fancy. You'll LOVE this. 

xxx

Homemade Vanilla Icecream

Yuuuuuummmm. 

Ever made your own icecream? I've made it a few times, including a semifreddo phase I went through in the early nineties. THAT one was bad for my bum.

But I've never made a 'custard' based icecream. I wanted to try this because being pregnant I can't eat anything with raw eggs in it - which most homemade icecreams have.

This recipe is based on the AMAZING David Lebovitz's vanilla recipe here, with, I admit, a few steps skipped out. He's the king of the scoop, David Lebovitz, and I wonder if I'd stuck to his method, if it really could have been any more sublime. Truly. This stuff rocks. 

I served it for lunchtime dessert to a bunch of friends on Sunday (with this pavlova) a pairing which conveniently uses up all the whites of the yolks you used in the icecream! 

SO good. 

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Icecream (Recipe by David Lebovitz - with a couple of minor adjustments (*cough*, short-cuts)

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup (250ml) whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup (150g) sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups (500ml) heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

METHOD:
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover and remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

4. Stir the custard into the heavy cream, add the vanilla extract and remove the vanilla bean.

5. Either put into an icecream maker (which has a pre-frozen bowl and freezes the mix quickest) or a container with a lid or foil over it, in the freezer. Needs at least 8 hours to really freeze through. If you're using an icecream maker make you would usually pull it out and blend it again when semi-frozen (after 3-4 hours). I don't think this is necessary though. Still the creamiest, vanilla-y, most delicious icecream I've ever tried. 

There's about 2 small scoops left. Which I think Ad and I might polish off shortly with a small slice of this (even though it's not Friday night dessert night!!)

A new chocolate cake recipe with 4 eggs in it! (I only ever use 2.) Will try it and if it's any good, will blog it!

(All in the interest of recipe testing, of course. The things my bum and I do for you gorgeous people.)

xxx

 

food for mothers

Perhaps if I hadn't had the two days I've had, I'd write a lovely metaphorical "food for mothers" post about soul food, about what nurtures those who nurture, yada yada. 

 

Nope. THIS is what I'm talkin' about:

I judge people on the icecream they serve. Unashamedly. 

Maybe it comes from growing up on a dairy farm and having access to awesome creamy icecream out of our local dairy coop as a kid. I have low tolerance for dire crappy icecream. GOOD icecream, though? Food of the gods.

This (above) is not homemade. Sorry. No icecream recipe today. If I'd had time to make icecream in the last two days, I wouldn't have had time to:

- Spend at least four complete hours hanging out in the bathroom with one or other child. Waiting to wipe someone's bum. I'm doing something wrong here;

- Have a meeting with a potential new client who told me she didn't want to know about my needing to make childcare arrangements to be able to come and do her bookkeeping in school holidays next week, and was I going to become just one more thing she had to worry about? (I politely declined the job. You'd be proud at how effing polite I was);

- Administer antibiotics to a 2 yo with a marvellous ear infection;

- Smile happily when lovely husband returned home from unauthorised interior furnishing shopping spree with a lamp I'm really not sure I can live with. (Eek);

- Chuck the cleaning and the tidying and watch Little Mermaid on the couch with both kids this afternoon; and 

- Do the grocery shopping tonight, after 8pm, no kids, at my favourite funky Leichhardt supermarket, listening to my ipod. 

See, if I'd MADE the icecream and not bought it I would have missed out on so much. 

Connoisseur Vanilla, by the way, pretty damn delicious. Not quite Ben and Jerry's, (i.e. top of the food chain in icecream magic and sadly not available in Australia - a business opportunity singing out to us?!) but still very very good. 

Hope you're all wonderful.

xxx