Maple Oatmeal Raisin Ice Cream

At Elon we have a local ice cream placed called Smitty's that makes a killer oatmeal ice cream. So of course, immediately upon tasting it for the first time I knew I had to try and make it at home. I also happen to have developed an oatmeal addiction this year and have eaten it almost every day for breakfast since August...no idea how I haven't gotten sick of it yet, but there it is. I finally got around to making this ice cream and - i'm not exaggerating - this is hands down the BEST ice cream I have made so far. It's amazing; not too sweet, perfectly creamy and just downright dope. UGH it's just...too good. like jeez louis my mouth is watering just thinking about it. AND once again, its pretty dang easy to make too and could potentially involve ingredients that you already have lying around...apart from the heavy cream - that's a zinger. 

Also this is random, but for some reason I have never been able to make 1/3 look like ¼...why is that? It has been annoying me for YEARS. If anyone knows that the deal is with that PALEASE help a sistah out...

Oatmeal Raisin Ice Cream Base 

Ingredients 

2 cups milk 

4 tsp. cornstarch 

1 ¼ cup heavy cream

1/3 cup white sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons maple syrup

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ tsp. and one pinch salt 

3 tablespoons cream cheese

½ cup toasted rolled oats, lightly processed 

*sweetened raisins 

Sweetened Raisins:

½ cup raisins 

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons sugar

For the Ice Cream base: 

In one small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of milk and the cornstarch

Place the 3 tablespoons of cream cheese in a bowl and set aside.

Open plastic bag with edges folded over set over an ice bath

In a 4-quart saucepan, add the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugars, maple syrup and salt. Whisk together until somewhat incorporated

Over medium high heat, cook the mixture until it comes to a rolling boil. Then let boil for 4 minutes.

Pour in the cornstarch slurry and the oatmeal and mix well. Bring back to a boil and cook for 2 more minutes then remove from heat. Stir frequently so the oatmeal gets fully incorporated.

With your small measuring cup, scoop out about 1/4 cup or more of the hot mixture and pour into the cream cheese bowl. Mix very well and then pour it back into the main pot. Stir well until thick.

Pour the hot cream into the plastic bag over the ice bath. Let sit for at least 30 minutes or until completely cold. If you don't want to freeze right away, you can also put the plastic bag in your fridge for up to 3 days.

To prepare the sweetened raisins: 

Soak the water and raisins in the unheated saucepan for about 15 minutes. Add the sugar and cook over medium-low heat. Stir frequently to prevent burning, until most of the water/syrup has been absorbed - about 5-7 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain out remaining liquid and let cool. 

Freezing the ice cream:

freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions and add the raisins 2 minutes before it's finished. I had to break them apart with my hands first so they wouldn't form a big raisin clump.

Rich Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)

Chocolate ice cream is really difficult for some reason. When I was working at Sucre, it was always the one that had the most problems. After making it a couple of times several different ways, I understand why that was the case. Maybe it's just me, but it always seems to make the biggest mess. Actually, anything that involves melting chocolate is a mess. Probably because the chocolate gets all over your hands, which in turn gets all over everything. But store bought chocolate ice cream doesn't even come close to this stuff. It's the real deal. After I took it out of the refrigerator to pour into the ice cream maker, it looked like pudding. Actually, I bet it could have passed for pudding. Maybe I should try just putting plain ole puddin' in my ice cream maker and see what happens....If i'm lucky the low fat stuff will work so I can trick myself out of making this amazing semi-frozen sin again....

Rich Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)
This recipe is from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home 

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 cup evaporated milk

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt 

First, get everything in place before attempting to start cooking. Trying to make the slurry and prepare the ice bath etc. while trying to watch the pot is too difficult and it leaves you incredibly flustered and overwhelmed.

• In a small bowl, whisk together two tablespoons of the milk mixture with the cornstarch and set aside. 
• Have the chocolate (you can use disks or chopped. I used dark chocolate disks from Whole Foods)
• Fill a large bowl with ice and set a smaller bowl on top with a plastic bag open and ready to go 
• In the sauce pan, combine all of the ingredients, excluding the salt, before turning on the heat. (The recipe says to wait until the milk mixture is boiling before adding the cocoa, but that made a big mess when I did it and the cocoa didn't mix properly. I had to use a, immersion blender and strainer to get most of the chunks out, so I think adding it before is probably the better choice.)

Once everything is in place, NOW you can start cooking your ice cream!

1. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil over medium high heat. Once it has reached that point, reduce the heat so the milk mixture doesn't boil over and make a huge mess. (*hint* if you put a wooden spoon on top of the pot, it prevents the mixture from boiling over. It can only work so well, though, so I ended up adding two wooden spoons towards the end.)
2. Boil the mixture for 4 minutes. 
3. Remove from the heat and pour in the cornstarch mixture.
4. Bring the pot back to a boil, stirring constantly, for about a minute or until it has thickened slightly. 
5. Remove from the heat and pour about a half a cup or so over the chocolate disks. When the chocolate is melted, pour it back into the milk mixture and whisk to combine. 
6. Pour the ice cream into the plastic bag set over the ice bath. At this point the ice should have melted a big, but if not, you might want to add a touch of water. 
7. Chill over the ice bath until completely cool. The plastic bag can be completely submerged into the ice bath like the book suggests, however I think its easier and cleaner to place a second bowl on top to prevent water accidentally getting into the bag and ruining the consistency of the ice cream. 
8. Refrigerate for at least an hour or preferably over night before freezing. 

Homemade Blackberry Gelato

It has been so long since my last post, I feel like I can't even call myself a blogger anymore. I've just been so lazy recently and haven't had the energy to spend any time in the kitchen. Summer school is only an hour and a half a day during the week though, so I don't understand why I have been so incredible tired and unmotivated - And I had so many plans for my culinary endeavors this summer too! Perhaps I'm just getting off to a late start. Maybe i'll kick it into gear once summer school is over.

After I finally got the coveted ice cream maker I had been wanting for Christmas, all I can think about these days is gelato - and ice cream - and sorbet - and frozen custard - and anything else remotely viscous that I can possibly freeze up during these incredibly hot summer days. I find myself drifting off at work as I lean over the gelato machine, dreaming and scheming of endless flavor combinations - Pear and goat cheese gelato; tiramisu ice cream with a marscarpone base, swirled with a rum coffee syrup and chunks of pound cake, blueberry crisp gelato, red velvet cream cheese ice cream, raspberry coconut sorbet.....the possibilities are endlless. But before I start making these exotic flavor combinations, I need to become a master of the basics first. You can't just toss a bunch of ingredients together and hope they freeze to that perfectly smooth and creamy texture we know and crave. Frozen desserts are an incredible science, and one simple mistake can turn your creamy gelato into an icy mess with a less than pleasant mouth feel.

For one of my first attempts, I made a simple blackberry gelato using a recipe from the book Making Artisan Gelato. It's a really great book because it breaks down and explains every step in a very easy to follow way. The first few I made turned out fantastically, but my most recent attempts have left me far from satisfied. I've been following the recipes to a T though, so I still need to figure out what it is that I have been doing wrong....that I wasn't doing wrong before.

The best tips I can give for a beginner (that I had to learn the hard way) are the following:

1. make sure you thermometer is an instant read thermometer NOT a candy or meat thermometer. The second the thermometer touches the liquid, you should have an exact temperature, s it should probably have a digital reader. I was using both a meat and and thermometer at the same time at one point and couldn't figure out why they told me completely different temps.

2. Read the recipe at least three times before getting started.

3. Weigh out all of your ingredients first.

4. Set up all of your stations before you begin cooking. You should have a milk/custard station over the stove, an egg yolk/ tempering station, and a straining/ ice bath station.  Towards the end, everything happens pretty quickly so it is better to have everything set up beforehand so you can work without stopping.

5. make sure all of your ingredients are room temp (like your egg yolks for example). I don't know the super scientific reasons for this, but I know its important. so do it.

that's all I got fa now....hopefully as I get better I'll develop my own foolproof routine.

Homemade Blackberry Gelato
I adapted Kopfer's raspberry gelato recipe from her book and used blackberries instead (they are my favorite). I also excluded the use of the jam because for some reason it caused my milk to curdle (twice)....

Ingredients 

1 ¾ cup (410 ml) whole milk

1 ¼ cups (295 ml) heavy cream

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (226 grams) granulated sugar

4 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons (10 ml) fresh lemon juice

1 cup (232 g) strained blackberry puree (made from about 3 cups of fresh blackberries) 

Directions
Mise-en-place: medium sized bowl with the heavy cream set over an ice bath, with a strainer resting on top of the heavy cream bowl. Egg yolk station, right next to sauce pan station (stove).

1. Pour milk, 1/4 cup (60 ml) of heavy cream, and 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (175 g) of the sugar into a heavy bottom sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thermometer reaches 170 degrees (F).

note this is NOT an instant read thermometer (I think it's actually for meat....)

2. While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup (50 g) of sugar together in a small bowl until foamy. When the milk has reached the required temperature, temper the egg yolk mixture by pouring about 1/4 of a cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Make sure to stir constantly as you do this to prevent the hot liquid from cooking the yolks.

3. Pour the yolk mixture back into the sauce pan and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until thermometer reaches 185 degrees, or is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. (make sure not to boil the milk during this process)

4. When the custard is ready, strain over the heavy cream and then gently stir the heavy cream and custard (make sure no water from the ice bath gets into this mixture, otherwise ice crystals will form in your frozen gelato).

5. Mix together the lemon juice and blackberry puree and then pour into the custard set over the ice bath. Stir occasionally for about 30 minutes, or until the custard has cooled.

6. After the gelato base has cooled completely, pour into an airtight container or cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

7. After it has chilled, freeze the custard according to your machines specifications.
 

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Brownie Sundae

For the longest time, brownies were the one thing I refused to make homemade. Brownies from the box are just so perfectly delicious and all of the homemade brownies I have ever tasted didn't even come close to the box. But out of the blue, I felt an overwhelming urge to bake brownies - homemade - not from a box. And as an added bonus, I just happened to have all of the necessary ingredients (which is actually extremely rare these days). I probably did at least an hours worth of research for the most appealing recipe, and let me tell you, when 1,086 people think a recipe is amazing, 9.999 times out of 10, they are right!

Yet even with so many killer reviews, I still had my doubts. I always thought that perfect sheen on top of brownies - you know that glossy, flaky layer - was only achievable if you used a box. Well I was wrong. so so so very wrong. These are probably the best brownies I have ever had. They are melt in your mouth, fudgy perfection and can be eaten in an endless amount of ways.

One bite and ahhh ...chocolatey brownie bliss...