Vanilla Ice Cream

After seeing the Daring Bakers make ice cream, I simply had to try my hand at it. It took a lot of research, and lots of running around and lots went wrong. But the ice cream was amazing. And it's all due to David Lebovitz! He's a genius :)

I changed his recipe around quite a bit. I tried not to, but I had to. We don't get vanilla beans here and so I had to substitute more vanilla extract. And we don't get heavy cream either (I just couldn't believe that!), and so I went with regular cream.

I also don't have an ice cream machine, and had to use DL's method for making ice cream by regular old churning. He said in his post that it should probably take 2-3 hours, but I first put it in the freezer at 7 pm and I did the last churn at 3 am! And I couldn't go to sleep because all my effort would have gone to waste.


Everything was worth it. Some fantastic vanilla ice cream (couldn't call it "plain, ol' vanilla", because it just ain't so)

Vanilla Ice Cream
(slightly altered from David Lebovitz's recipe)

1 cup Milk (I had to use part-skim!)
A pinch of Salt
3/4 cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups Cream
5 Egg Yolks

Heat the milk, vanilla, salt and sugar together.


In a separate bowl, whisk together the yolks. Gradually pour the milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly.


Pour the milk mixture back into the pan. On low heat, keep stirring while it thickens.

Meanwhile set up a large bowl with a 50-50 mixture of ice cubes and iced water. Set a smaller bowl into the large bowl. Empty the cream into the smaller bowl and let it chill. Set a small holed strainer over the smaller bowl.


The milk mixture will slowly begin to thick. Continue stirring until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. A good test would be to run your finger over the coating on the spoon - it should leave a mark without running.


Immediately pour the mixture through the strainer into the smaller bowl containing the cream. Keep stirring until the entire mixture cools down and is chilled.

When cold, pour the mixture into a large (shallow is good) plastic container. Put it in the freezer.

Now starts the not so fun part. Every 45 minutes to an hour, take the container out and give it a good churn with a metal spoon or even a hand-held mixer or stick blender (those make it all easier). Make sure to break up all the frozen parts from the edges in. The better you blend everything, the less icy the end result.

Keep churning until the entire thing is frozen. This took me a good 7-8 hours! But that could also be my freezer. Hopefully yours will freeze up sooner! Good Luck!

But don't you see how fantastic that looks? It's all worth it. Really, it is!

Nutella Brownies

There's absolutely nothing to say about these brownies except that they are in one word Un-Friggin-Believable! I am on a cookie/ brownie cooking spree of my bookmarks.

I have also been keeping my daughter occupied during her holidays. And today I made these with my nephew - he's so enthusiastic and excited about cooking - so let me just say they tasted even better!

I made a few alterations to the original recipe. My nephew doesn't like peanut butter, so we substituted 1/2 cup Nutella for the peanut butter - so now we have 1 cup instead of 1/2 cup nutella. And the chocolate chips were added on as a topping, but we mixed it right into the
batter.


Nutella Brownies
(recipe from Noble Pig, and originally from Culinary in the Country)

1 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 large Eggs
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1/8 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup Nutella
1/4 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

On a low heat, melt the butter and add in the sugar and vanilla while stirring to combine. Remove from heat and cool completely. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well to combine after each addition.

Add the flour mixture, a bit at a time, to the egg mixture until completely mixed in.

Heat the nutella in the microwave for a little bit until you get it to a runny consistency. Add the nutella to the batter and mix well. Now add the chocolate chips and mix to combine.

Pour into a square baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting. We couldn't wait and that was a mistake. Parts of it were still warm and so a little like melted chocolate in the center (sigh - can't go wrong with some molten chocolate, can you?!). It did eventually all firm up. And the kids walloped it with some strawberry ice cream (I would've chosen vanilla, but hey, it's all for the kids!).

As I said before Un-Friggin-Believable. Truly Death By Chocolate!! And what a good way to go!

Sara's Brownies

A dear friend, Sara, recently had a baby. She had gestational diabetes which meant she couldn't have any sugar for over 8 months, while she was pregnant. When I went to visit her and her beautiful baby, she had baked up a storm of brownies and cakes!


I begged her for her brownie recipe and made it on the weekend. It was ooey, gooey and completely decadent. She couldn't find baking chocolate and had substituted the cocoa and butter mixture.


Sara's Brownies

4 Eggs
A pinch of salt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups Caster Sugar
1 cup All-Purpose Flour + 1/4 tsp Baking Powder, sifted together
12 tbsp Cocoa, sifted + 4 tbsp Butter
1/2 cup Butter
100 g Walnuts

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Beat the eggs, salt, vanilla together. Add the cocoa and 4 tbsp butter and beat together. Now mix in the rest of the butter and beat well.

Fold in sugar, flour and baking powder and walnuts. Pour the entire thing into a buttered tray and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Brownies

How would you describe a perfect brownie? Chewy, chocolate-y and scrumptious? Then I've found THE perfect brownie at Cooking with Amy. In her words:

In my preferred purist version I don't want them too dense and fudgy and I don't want them too cakey and fluffy.

I couldn't have said it better. I wanted a chewy cocoa brownie.


Perfect Brownies Every Time
(adapted from here)

1/2 cup Butter, melted
3/4 cup Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
6 tbsp Cocoa
2 tbsp Oil
2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Beat sugar and butter together until well blended and then add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition until the mixture looks smooth.

Now add the cocoa powder, vanilla essence and the oil. Mix well.

Mix the flour and the salt together. Add about 1/4 cup of the flour mixture at a time and mix well after each addition. At this point you could add about 1/2 a cup of chopped walnuts, but thats optional, and I personally want just the plain fabulous brownie.

Pour the mixture into a greased pan and bake for 20 minutes or so. Remove from oven and let it cool completely for 10 minutes. Slice into squares and serve warm with ice cream.


Life doesn't get much better than this.

Thank you, Amy. My friends and family thank you as well (can you hear the applause and cheers? :-) )

Yogurt Cake with Berries

I've had this recipe bookmarked for a very long time. When I was doing a bit of "spring cleaning" yesterday, I found this and almost sprinted to the kitchen, wondering why I hadn't bothered to make it all this while. Its one recipe where you will almost definitely have all the ingredients on hand and it promised to be delicious.


Yogurt Cake with Berries
(original recipe from here)

2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
a handful of mixed berries

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C.

Combine yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil in a bowl until completely mixed.

Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually until well combined. Sprinkle the berries on top - they will gradually sink into the cake as it bakes.

Pour into a round tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.


Absolutely perfect, soft and delicious.

This is also off to dear Siri for her Yogurt event - can't wait for the round-up!

Apple Crumble

For the Open Sesame riddle (and I love DK and Siri's riddles!), I was sent this one:

A moniker in my name for a city
A phrase with me will make you cherished
I am so good for you in my utter simplicity
In Medical dictionary the fact so furnished

I am so famous in the world of bytes
Known for many aspects of usage
I am fat and rotund and make crunchy bites
My fame known from many religious traditions - right from the old age

Am, I forbidden? Or mystical ?
or the eternal giver of Youth
I consist of five internal carpels
Am good for good health of your mouth

I am as basic a fruit as you can think of
Or as hard if you don't try enough
If You eat me on a day to day basis
Then you don't have worry about anything - be it cold or dry cough

.....
Easy enough? I guessed Apple and I was...ahem...right.

I eat fresh apples quite a bit, but don't cook with them very often. The one time I loved apple as dessert was an Apple Crumble that my friend's mother used to make many years ago. I remember sitting at their dining table, sipping tea and eating crumble while it rained outside - rain is the perfect accompaniment for crumble!

I went to their house, learned how to make it and came rushing home to try it. And soon in my house there was the glorious aromas of home baked crumble! There's really nothing better!


Apple Crumble

4 apples, peeled and sliced into large chunks (choose firm, crunchy apples - green or yellow)
3 oz all-purpose flour
1.5 oz cold butter
1.5 oz brown sugar (I used Demerara)

Butter a baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Fill the baking dish halfway with the apple slices


Add the butter to the flour, and blend in to resemble bread crumbs (try not to use your fingers to do this, as the butter tends to become warm - if you can, use a fork. If you have cold hands, no problem!). Blend it in quickly and lightly - just till combined.

Add the sugar to the flour mixture. This is what it will look like.


Scoop the crumble onto the apples.


Bake for 20-25 mts, until slightly browned on top.



Enjoy.

DK and Siri, you know you rock! :-)