Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I love making ice cream, but I don't love eating it. I blame it on my brother. He hit me in the face with a Coke bottle when I was about 7 or 8 and broke my front tooth. It was so sensitive and I still think about it whenever I eat ice cream. So, when I make ice cream, I play with it a bit, and love making ice cream sandwiches. These ones are thin brownies. Brownies are cake's first cousin. Cake is my favourite thing to make. All that cancels out phantom tooth pain. Enjoy! I used the cherry ripple ice cream to fill these, but you could use any flavour you like. I'm thinking coconut for next time...

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

From Chatelaine Magazine, August 2011

Makes 16

84 grams/3 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped

⅓ cup unsalted butter, cubed

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 litres ice cream of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease a rimmed 11"x17" baking sheet and line with parchment. Melt butter and chocolate together in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring. Remove from heat. 
2. Stir salt, sugar and vanilla into chocolate mixture, then whisk in eggs one at a time, until blended. Gently stir in flour, just until combined. Scrape onto prepared baking sheet and level with an offset spatula to make a thin, even layer.
3. Bake in centre of oven until brownie appears shiny and is firm, but slightly undercooked, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in pan on rack. 
4. Run knife around pan edges to loosen, then cut brownie in half lengthways, making 2 long rectangles. Peel off parchment and place one brownie top-side down on work surface. Now, if you were clever, you froze your ice cream in a shallow rectangular container. I wasn't, so I sliced mine 1" thick and laid the slices on the brownie and sandwiched it with the other, top-side up. Wrap in plastic and freeze for a few hours, until very firm.
5. Unwrap and trim edges if desired, then cut into 16 rectangular bars. 

Cherry Ripple Ice Cream

Can you resist giant baskets of cherries at the farmers' market? If so, you are a stronger person than me. I bring home as many as I can carry and mostly eat them fresh, as I prefer raw cherries to cooked, unless they are sour cherries. That's a whole other story for next year, as I missed them at the market this summer. Anyway, to use up some cherries, I made this ice cream and it was a big hit. And it was much better than the photo indicates, trust me!

Cherry Ripple Ice Cream

Adapted from delicious. magazine, July 2011

Makes about 2 litres/quarts

500 ml/2 cups milk (I used 2%)

6 large egg yolks

375 g sugar

450 g/1 pound cherries, pitted and quartered

30 ml/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

500 ml/2 cups whipping cream

almond extract to taste, I used a scant ½ teaspoon

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Meanwhile, beat the yolks and 200 g sugar together until pale and fluffy, a few minutes. Gradually stir in the milk, then return the mixture to the saucepan and stir constantly over medium-low heat until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Pour into a bowl, cool, cover and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.
2. Combine the cherries, lemon juice and remaining sugar in a saucepan over low heat and let the sugar dissolve to make a syrup. Simmer for 25 minutes, or until the cherries are very tender. Scoop them out and boil the cherry liquid for a few minutes to thicken and reduce it. Add the cherries back in and chill. It should be thick and jammy.
3. Add the cream to the ice cream base along with the almond extract. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker. Once ready, transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Dollop the cherries on top and swirl in with a spoon or spatula. You can decide how much rippling you want. I didn't swirl too much, as it was so hot the day I made this that it was melting incredibly quickly. Place in the freezer for a few hours to firm up.

Coconut Ice Cream with Passionfruit Caramel

Remember those passionfruit caramel filled chocolates from my last post? They might have been a bit of a disaster, but the very happy outcome was that I got a great recipe for passionfruit caramel sauce. Not that this sauce was immune to the struggles I had that day. The recipe stated 'dark amber caramel' and I thought my caramel was amber but the end result was much too thin and pale. I used golden syrup instead of corn syrup, giving it a darker colour to start with, so this may have been the problem. However, golden syrup has so much more flavour than corn syrup, so it was worth having to boil the caramel for another 10 or 15 minutes after adding all the ingredients. It still wasn't thick enough at room temperature. Oh well. It was so delicious that I was really happy to have almost 500 ml left after making the chocolates. Even though I tested it almost every day, there was still enough left to do something with. I decided to make ice cream and stuck with tropical flavours to make a knockout combination. This is a simple and tasty ice cream, but it makes a very small batch. 2 cups was perfect for me, but you may want to double it.

Coconut Saffron Ice Cream
Source: Delicious Days by Nicole Stich, via David Lebovitz
1 cup coconut milk
⅔ cup whipping/heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
scant ½ teaspoon saffron threads

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small bowl and chill thoroughly.
3. Churn in an ice cream machine, transfer to a sealable container and place in the freezer to firm up. 

Passionfruit Caramel Sauce
Source: Adapted from CandyBarLab by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives
Makes 3+ cups!

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon (210 ml/7 oz/200 gm) passion fruit puree
1½ cups (360 ml/12 oz/340 gm) sugar
½ cup + 2 Tablespoon (180 ml/5 oz/140 gm) corn syrup (I used golden syrup--yum)
1¾ cups (420 ml) whipping/heavy cream
6 tablespoons (90 ml/3 oz/90 gm) unsalted butter

1. Place the sugar, golden syrup and enough water so it’s like wet sand in a medium saucepan. Set over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until dark amber in color, about 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush, dipped in water, to wash down sides of pan to prevent crystallization as the mixture boils. Remove saucepan from the heat and gradually whisk in the passion fruit puree, heavy cream and butter. Transfer to a medium bowl and let cool.
2. Serve warm or at room temperature with just about anything you can think of! I found this caramel sauce had a greasy mouthfeel when refrigerated, so I may skip the butter next time, and there will be a next time.

Pumpkin ice cream with maple tuiles

I'm happy to report that I survived my move and am mostly unpacked. Thanks to some lovely friends and my family, it was quite easy and stress-free. I really like my new place, even if the kitchen is tiny and the oven is older than me (and that's no easy feat). I can't decide what I should bake first, though, so any suggestions are more than welcome. I've already done most of my TWD baking for the month, so it needs to be something else. Something special. But maybe not too special in case the oven is demented.

I made this ice cream last week, when it was unseasonably hot. I love pumpkin, and wanted to make something besides pie. Don't worry, I will be making a pie or two for Thanksgiving, which is on Monday. I thought about pumpkin bread, but it was too hot to turn the oven on. Pumpkin creme brulee sounded good too, but all the recipes had so much more cream than pumpkin. So, pumpkin ice cream it was. I adapted the recipe by doubling the pumpkin, as it was still too creamy for me. I hate eating ice cream and getting that greasy layer on the roof of my mouth. Aren't you glad I told you that? I found it a bit disturbing that the spice-infused custard tasted like pumpkin pie all on its own, showing how much it is the spices that tend to take centre stage. Oh, and I know many people swear by canned pumpkin and say it's just as good as fresh, but that's a lie. The colour of fresh pumpkin is a brilliant orange, while what comes out of the can is a muddy colour. It's fine for winter, if you haven't got a freezer full of your own pumpkin puree, but while they are in season I urge you to make your own. You may never go back to canned... I am very lucky that my aunt and uncle grow pumpkins on their farm and I always get at least 6   every fall. Some I use fresh, in pies, cakes, soups and more. Some I puree and freeze.

The tuiles were delicious: buttery, crisp, and full of maple flavour, but they were a giant pain in the ass! The recipe recommended baking them on a bare baking sheet and then removing them while warm to a rolling pin (for curved cookies), or to a rack (for flat cookies). I got lumps when I tried that. So, I put the batter in the fridge and thought I'd try another day. Next, I used a silicone liner and put 6 in the oven. I wandered out to the front porch, and wondered idly if I'd be able to hear the oven timer from there. The answer is no, but the smoke alarm was easily audible! When I pulled them out of the oven, the 6 cookies had gathered in the centre of the mat to form a giant black, lacy disc. Hmpf. Okay, time for one more try. This time I used parchment and stayed in the kitchen. I only baked two, and let them cool on the baking sheet. Perfect!

Pumpkin ice cream

Adapted from Craft of Baking, but found here

1½ cups (375 ml) milk
1 cup (250 ml) cream (I used whipping cream, but would go lighter next time)
⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons (95 g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly-grated ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large egg yolks
¼ cup packed (60 g) dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum (optional, but keeps the ice cream a bit softer)
1½ cups (350 g) fresh pumpkin puree (instructions follow recipe)

1. In a medium saucepan mix the milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar, ginger, ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, and salt.
2. Warm the mixture until hot and the edges begin to bubble and foam.
3. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl and gradually whisk in about half of the warm spiced milk mixture, stirring constantly.
4. Scrape the warmed yolks back in to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.
5. Strain into a bowl and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.
6. Whisk in the vanilla, rum, and pumpkin puree. Press the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Fresh pumpkin puree


Preheat oven to 400℉. Wash and halve or quarter pie pumpkins, depending on size. Scrape out seeds and strings, and make sure you roast the seeds for a snack. Place pumpkin pieces in a large baking dish and add water to a depth of 1cm or ½". Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until pumpkin flesh is tender and easily pierced with a knife. Cool. Scrape flesh from skin and put through the finest blade on a food mill. Drain in a sieve over a bowl to get rid of excess water.

Translucent Maple Tuiles

From Baking from my Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, sifted

1. In a small bowl, using a sturdy rubber spatula or a hand mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup together until light in color and texture. Gently stir in the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated. Cover the bowl, pressing a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or for up to 1 week.
2. Getting ready to bake: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Have two unlined baking sheets at hand and, if you want to curve the cookies into their traditional tile shape, a rolling pin or a slender bottle.
3. Roll small scoops of dough between your palms to form balls the size of small cherries or hazelnuts, and put the balls 2 inches apart on the unbuttered baking sheets (I recommend parchment). Bake for about 7 minutes, or until the cookies spread and are golden coloured and honeycombed.
4. Immediately remove the baking sheets from the oven, let the cookies rest a few seconds and then, using a wide metal spatula, lift them from the sheets: The best way to do this is to carefully work the spatula under a cookie edge, then push the spatula beneath the cookie with a quick jerk. If the cookie crumples a bit, as it might, don't worry -- it will straighten out on the rolling pin or rack. For curved cookies, moving with alacrity, lay the cookies, a few at a time, over the rolling pin. Transfer the cookies to a rack after they have set -- under a minute -- or, if you want flat cookies, just cool them on a rack. If the cookies cool and stick stubbornly to the baking sheet, slide the sheet into the oven for another minute to warm them. I didn't try curved cookies with the parchment, but I bet laying the whole sheet of parchment could be draped over something curvy. If you want flat tuiles, just let them cool on the sheet and parchment and then peel them off. They are pretty delicate, and don't keep well, especially if it's humid.

 

Torview Toronto's colour of the month is orange. Wouldn't you know that it's my favourite colour? 

Roasted marshmallow ice cream sandwiches

Oh my! These were pretty amazing. I've had roasted marshmallow ice cream on my mind for a few years now, as it's one of the more popular flavours at Greg's Ice Cream in Toronto. I don't live in Toronto any more, but I always go to Greg's when I'm in town. Their sweet cream ice cream is my favourite--it's like vanilla without the vanilla. Cardamom is another fave, though both these seemed like they'd be fairly easy to reproduce. The roasted marshmallow, on the other hand, is the subject of much speculation on Toronto food sites. I had to experiment.

When I made the Baked Alaska I noticed the toasted Italian meringue tasted very much like roasted marshmallows. So, I decided to use that, as I was too lazy to make my own marshmallows, and the store-bought ones are a bit scary. The recipe worked out nicely, as the custard used the egg yolks and the meringue the whites. I took the sugar from the custard and used that in the meringue so the ice cream wouldn't be too sweet. Can ice cream be too sweet? The labour intensive part of this recipe was the browning of the meringue 'marshmallows'. I put tablespoon-sized blobs on a baking sheet and used my torch, but next time I might spread the meringue thinly and broil it. The more browned bits, the better. I added the browned meringue to the hot custard and whisked to blend. I decided not to use the blender, as I liked the tiny dark specks. The meringue didn't totally deflate, making this ice cream seem light.

Roasted marshmallow ice cream

Source: me!

2 cups milk

1 cup whipping cream

4 eggs, separated

about 1 cup sugar, divided

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon rum

¼ cup water

Combine ⅔ cup of sugar and ¼ cup water in a small saucepan. Stir until sugar dissolves, then heat, without boiling, until the syrup reaches 236-244℉. While you are doing this, heat milk and cream to near boiling. Whisk eggs yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar together till thick and pale. Whisk hot milk/cream mixture in and return to pot. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula. Keep an eye on the syrup! If you are not comfortable doing all this at once, make the custard first, and cover the pot while you complete the meringue. When the syrup is at about 230℉, start whipping the egg whites and cream of tartar. When they reach soft peaks, add the remaining sugar and whip till stiff peaks form. Still whipping, add the hot syrup in a thin stream and beat till cool. Blob this mixture on a baking sheet, or spread thinly. Broil or use a torch and brown well. Whisk into hot custard, then chill thoroughly. When chilled and ready to churn, whisk again, adding vanilla and rum. The rum is to prevent it from freezing to hard. Churn in an ice cream maker and then transfer to a freezer-safe container to firm up. If you want to make ice cream sandwiches, put ice cream into a parchment lined 9"x13" pan to a depth of 1" or so. Freeze.

For the cookies, I took a gluten-free, coconut oil biscuit from here and put the gluten and butter back in! Here's the version I used, adapted from Tartelette:

8 tablespoons (110gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Lower the speed and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
In a separate medium bowl, combine the cocoa powder, the flour, baking powder, and salt. Still with the mixer on low speed, at the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until the dough starts to come together. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
On parchment, roll out the dough to about 1/4-inch thick. Use your preferred cookie cutter to cut out as many pieces as you can, removing extra dough. Slide parchment onto cookie sheet and gather and re-roll the scraps if necessary. Make patterns on cookie with a fork or other tool if desired. Place on lined baking sheet and bake 8 - 10 minutes. Cool completely before sandwiching them with ice cream.

Are you still reading? Try this ice cream! The flavour is mild, but so good. I think these would be amazing with the graham crackers. They are my favourite ice cream sandwich cookies, as they soften up a bit more than these chocolate ones. Maybe chocolate dipped, for a s'morewich? 

The Daring Bakers Bake Alaska

No, this is not a post about global warming, but it probably should be. Have you always wanted to make Baked Alaska but thought it was too difficult? Too many components? Too much like something your parents' generation would have served at a dinner party? It is, but it's pretty tasty anyway.

When I was a teenager, I really wanted to make Baked Alaska and had an ice cream maker and my dad's  torch, but I never got around to it. Then, who knows what happened, but I kind of forgot about it. Now, all these years later and I got the perfect opportunity to make one. This month's challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. She's 18 now and takes amazing photos of her culinary creations.

The brown butter pound cake had the most delicious batter, but the baked cake didn't really work here. It was dense and became dry and unpleasantly hard in the freezer. If I do this again I'll make a genoise, as I think the texture will be better frozen. The other components were great, though--I made a honey-peach ice cream to fill this random act of piping, and covered it in Italian meringue, before getting a bit torch-happy. Well-browned Italian meringue tastes just like roasted marshmallows, doesn't it? More on that in my next post...

Blog-checking lines: The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Link to full challenge PDF here.

Honey-Peach Ice Cream (from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my Home to Yours)

4 large ripe peaches
1/4 cup honey
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1 tablespoon rum

1. Chop the peaches into 1/2 inch chunks and place them in a small saucepan. Add the honey and bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook until the peaches are soft (about 10 minutes). Scrape the mixture into a blender or food processor and puree. Cover and chill.

2. Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar together until blended in a heatproof bowl. Drizzle in a bit of the hot milk mixture to temper the eggs, whisking. Slowly add the rest of the milk mixture. Pour the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan and heat ove medium-low, stirring until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat, pour into a heatproof bowl, and chill. When all components are thoroughly chilled, stir in the vanilla, rum and peach puree.

3. Scrape into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  When the ice cream is ready, pack into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours until it is firm enough to scoop.

Gingered carrot cookie dough in cream cheese ice cream

This week's recipe was chosen by Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farini. She's got the recipe--go say hello! I had never noticed the recipe in the book, but it sounded intriguing. Even more intriguing, because I was away on a business trip and had to wait awhile before I got home to look at the recipe. I love carrots and coconut in any form, so I knew I was going to love these. I don't like raisins, though, so I left those out, and replaced the pecans with cashews. The only thing I was worried about was the possible homeliness of these cookies. There was no picture, and they didn't sound pretty. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I don't like an ugly cookie. I just have to doctor it up somehow, as I did with the Dulce de leche duos from last year. I thought about a cream cheese filling, but word on the TWD discussion board said they were a bit lumpy for that. So, I thought about making a cream cheese ice cream and putting the crumbled cookies in that. Then I tasted the cookie dough...

Do you ever eat the raw cookie dough? Do you ever like it even more than the baked cookies? Yes and yes for me. I always try everything I bake before I cook it, and I usually prefer it to the baked version. Or maybe it's that I feel slightly nauseous by the time things come out of the oven. I've always been like this, and I can remember eating huge gobs of whatever my mother was making while her back was turned. I don't just mean desserts: bread dough and raw ground beef were things I couldn't keep my grubby little fingers off. I also ate raw potatoes and turnips and bacon out of the package if nobody was looking. Despite my mother's dire warnings, I never got sick. I know some who won't eat batter because of the raw eggs, but salmonella is rarely if ever in the news here. Is it possible to build up a tolerance to it? Living in Japan was fabulous for the abundance of raw food. Sushi, of course, but raw beef dipped in raw egg yolk? I'm there. Chicken sashimi? It was pretty good too. Now that I've grossed you all out, let's talk about these delicious cookies, shall we?

I made this cream cheese ice cream from Epicurious, adding some vanilla. It basically tastes like frozen cream cheese icing, which is a very good thing, I think. I put small blobs of the cookie dough in after I had churned it, meaning after 4 searches of my storage area, and a very long wait till the canister was sufficiently frozen. Then I had to wait again for it to firm up. This is a yummy and easy ice cream, and I think you could taste the carrot and spices, along with the coconut more in the dough than in the baked cookies. YUM!

I did bake some of the dough, and these were very yummy cookies, especially hot out of the oven. I wonder what they'd be like with zucchini, since I am drowning in the stuff. More on that in my next post. 

TWD: Burnt sugar ice cream (sandwiches)

I usually only eat ice cream a couple of times a year, when I'm visiting Toronto. That's the home of Greg's, where you can find fabulous flavours such as cardamom, roasted marshmallow, and sweet cream. Sweet cream is my favourite: it's so fresh-tasting, and is like vanilla without the vanilla. Anyway, even though I'm not a big ice cream fan, I was excited about this recipe. I have an ice cream maker I bought when I was a teenager (I was weird like that), and I haven't used it since I moved away from Toronto in 2006. In fact, I've probably only used it a dozen times in all the years I've had it. The last ice cream I made was corn, with the freshest corn from my aunt and uncle's farm. And, yes, it was delicious.

This ice cream was simple in flavour, with no Dorie mix-ins, which I really liked. It was just sugar, caramelized, eggs yolks, milk, cream and vanilla. The custard tasted fantastic, with a slightly bitter undertone from the burnt sugar, so I knew the ice cream would be good. I decided to sandwich it in between some graham crackers, mostly because I loved the graham crackers I made in January, and was looking for a reason to make them again. They have a slight burnt sugar taste of their own, from all the honey and brown sugar, so I thought they'd go nicely together. Oh, and while I may never go for a bowl of ice cream at home, I can't resist those cheap ice cream sandwiches. There's always a box in the freezer at my brother's, at least when I get there, if not when I leave.

This week's pick was chosen by Becky of Project Domestication, so she'll have the recipe for the ice cream posted. You can find the graham cracker recipe here. I wouldn't advise using the pastry flour, as the dough is soft and sticky with all-purpose. Oh, and they certainly don't take 25 minutes to bake in my oven. 10-15 is more like it, especially as I didn't want them too crisp.

UPDATE: The graham crackers got a bit soft and cakey after being in the freezer overnight--perfect! Oh, and how did I make them? After churning the ice cream, I froze some of it in a shallow pan lined with plastic wrap. I used the same cutters to cut the ice cream, then I just sandwiched it between 2 frozen graham crackers and wrapped them with some waxed paper and origami paper. I froze them between each step, but this ice cream melts really quickly, and it was a warm day. They were at their best after at least 24 hours in the freezer, as they were impossible to eat before the crackers softened a bit. Once they did, though, they were perfect--very caramelly!