Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

This is so three months ago, but I'm trying to catch up. For my hubs birthday, I made an almond cake and chocolate almond ice cream. This ice cream is his mom's recipe, and his favorite in the world. It's easy and quick- no cooking or eggs involved. Just mix everything together and throw it in the ice cream maker!

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

makes 1 pint

1 c granulated sugar

1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 c evaporated milk

2 c half & half

1 1/3 c heavy whipping cream

1/2 t almond extract

Combine all ingredients and stir well until combined. Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

So, we were leaving town and we had a bunch of cream, eggs and milk in our fridge. What does that equal? Ice cream!

I made Dorie Greenspan's Dark Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream. This ice cream is chocolate ganache and a custard mixed together and frozen in an ice cream maker.

Rich and creamy. And REALLY chocolatey. I'm still in chocolate shock.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients6 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup of heavy cream
1 1/4 cups of whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar

MethodPut the chocolate in a 2-quart liquid measuring cup or a large heatproof bowl. Bring 3/4 of the cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit a minute, then, using a rubber spatula, and starting in the center of the mixture, slowly stir the cream into the chocolate in ever-widening concentric circles. When the ganache is smooth, set it aside.

Bring the milk and the remaining 1/2 cream to a boil in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until well blended and just slightly thickened. Still whisking, drizzle in about one third of the hot liquid-this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle, Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining liquid. Pour the custard back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon: if you run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not run into the track. The custard should reach at least 170 degrees F, but no more than 180 degrees F, on an instant-read thermometer. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and slowly and gently stir the custard into the ganache. Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

TWD- Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

I love ice cream. Have I said that? I love homemade ice cream. Although, for some reason, whenever I make it, it's really icy. Never very creamy.

Except this time.

This week's TWD is Burnt Sugar Ice Cream- burnt sugar mixed with milk and cream and eggs cooked until rich and thick. Pop into the ice cream maker for under a half hour.

Yum.

I think my husband put it perfectly- this tastes like creme brulee. I only made half the recipe and it's gone.

Make it. The recipe is here.
And Like my Facebook page!

TWD- Vanilla (Egg) Ice Cream

I love homemade ice cream. I personally haven't perfected the process, but whenever I have someone else's, it's heavenly. The last TWD ice cream was pretty good- nice and creamy and rich. So I had high hopes for this one, especially since the P&Q had nothing but good things to say. This recipe, chosen by Lynnylu, is basic- hot milk and cream is added to egg yolks and sugar and cooked until it reaches the specified temperature. Somewhere I went wrong because mine just tasted like eggs. I used high quality vanilla extract, but it didn't mask the eggy flavor.Sad. I was so looking forward to some creamy vanilla ice cream. Not even root beer could save this! Although, I may try....

TWD- Honey-Cherry Ice Cream

When we got married, one of the first things on our registery was a Cusinart ice cream maker- the one with the dual cannisters so you can make 2 quarts at once. It's been one of my favorite (and my husband's) gift. There's nothing like good homemade ice cream to celebrate summer.
This week's recipe for Honey-Peach Ice Cream was chosen by Brown Interior. I'll admit that while I was excited to make ice cream, I wasn't excited about the honey part. Just about the only thing I like honey on is toast with peanut butter. But I decided that I should stick somewhat to the recipe. Since we didn't have peaches and I didn't plan far enough in advance to buy them in time for them to ripen, I used cherries.The cherries were boiled with honey until soft then pureed for the custard.The ice cream was pretty heavy on the honey flavor. I think if I ever made this again, I would cut way back on the honey. Or omit it completely because the custard mixture made the ice cream really creamy and rich.
Check out Tommi's blog for the recipe!

Daring Bakers- Flourless Chocolate Cake

For some reason, when I first heard of flourless chocolate cake, I thought it was healthy. Maybe it was because of the whole low carb thing- I thought, oh no flour? Maybe it's healthy. Well, it is not. But we shouldn't expect such nonsense from something as wonderful as chocolate cake.
This month's Daring Bakers challenge was chosen by Wendy at wmpesblog (Arizona) and Dharm at Dad - Baker and Chef (Malaysia). They chose a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. The cake was really easy and quick, with only 3 ingredients. I made little ones in cupcake tins so we could try them tonight before tomorrow night when we'll have guests. Perhaps I baked mine a little long; I thought the cake was a little dry and definitely needed the ice cream. I didn't have too much time to get fancy; we just got back from being out of town last night. Thanks to Wendy and Dharm for a great pick! Check out their blogs for their ice cream recipes!Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Carmel Toffee Chocolate Bars

We had some friends over for dinner the other night and I saw these in Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours and I thought, hmm, that's a lot of things I like just in the title! And then the picture in the book is these cute ice cream sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper. I had to try them.

The cookie is like a shortbread- buttery and crumbly (no eggs or levening) with flecks of chocolate mixed in. The recipe says to bake it until it's percolating like coffee, which it surely does. Topped with chocolate and toffee bits- what's not to love?

I then paired it with my husband's favorite Burnt Almond Fudge ice cream that his mom makes. The name is deceiving; since none of us like nuts in ice cream, it's really just chocolate ice cream with almond extract. I tweeked it a little since I didn't have evaporated milk. I love homemade ice cream, but always have a difficult time with the consistency. No matter what ingredients I use, it always seems to be too icy. Any suggestions?

Burnt Almond Fudge Ice Cream

2 c whole milk

2 c heavy cream

1 can evaporated milk

1 c sugar

1/3 c cocoa powder, sifted

2 t almond extract (you can use less; we like a lot of almond flavor)

With a whisk mix ingredients well. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Makes 2 quarts.

TWD- Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

I'm finally back to TWD! This week Amy of Food, Family, and Fun chose the Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte. Let me just first say I'm out of town and I'm without the following luxuries:

• 8" springform


• food processor


• plates and forks from this century- just kidding, mom! (kind of)

Anyway, this was fun and easy to make. Without the smaller pan, my layers were thinner. And without a food processor, my arm did a lot of beating. And without attractive plates... well, you'll see what that resulted in. I did mine this morning so it was ready to unmold before dinner, and ready to be eaten after dinner.

I made the raspberry ice cream as described in the recipe for one of the ice cream layers, and a chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered peanuts and fudge ribbon for the other. I'll admit that I rushed putting on the second ice cream layer, hence the uneven layers (hey, we were going to eat lunch at my favorite Mexican place!!).

I used a warm towel to unmold; apparently, I took too long cutting the other pieces before taking a pic of the slice- this baby melts fast!

We ate the torte with this view:

A very yummy, easy dessert! I'd love to try it with coffee ice cream or vanilla ice cream with Heath bar chunks. Click here for the recipe. Happy Tuesday!