Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

I have a lot of very specific PMS cravings, and the craving of this month was ice cream sandwiches. These things are so random and it's quite baffling at times. So anyway, I tried to resist this craving with all the willpower I could muster because when I have PMS cravings I tend to eat a large amount of that particular food, and who needs to eat a case of ice cream sandwiches? But my willpower only lasted so long, and after fuming about this for more time than I should have spent fuming about it, I popped down to the end of the block to the locally overpriced convenience store (henceforth known as LOCS) to purchase an ice cream sandwich. Or two.

Well, I'm not used to convenience store prices and one particular ice cream sandwich, made by Klondike, was $3.99. No way was I going to pay that, so instead I went with the more affordable Oreo option for $2.49. I bought two.

I heartily enjoyed both sandwiches - on different nights, I assure you. But while I eating the first one, I thought, man, I can make an ice cream sandwich myself and not have to put up with LOCS pricing at all! It does not take a brain surgeon to make an ice cream sandwich. You need cookies, you need ice cream. I can make both. So I did.

In the March 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine, there were a bunch of chocolate chip cookie recipes, and one looked like it would make good ice cream sandwich components: the cakey chocolate chip cookie.

I made this recipe. I wanted good, hearty chocolate chip cookies, but also soft ones that would be easy to bite into. I made the cookies very large - we would call these "bake shop size" in culinary school. I portioned them out using my #16 cookie scoop, which is approximately 1/2 cup in volume. I got about 12 cookies. I didn't refrigerate the dough as the recipe specifies, but I did stick it in the deep freeze until it was firm.

They were monstrous! But I didn't care because I wanted monstrous ice cream sandwiches.

While the cookies were baking I made vanilla ice cream with my trusty Cuisinart ice cream maker and my usual egg-less recipe that I've had a lot of success with:

2 cups whipping cream (35%)
1 cup whole milk (3%)
3/4 cup sugar
vanilla, to taste

Once the cookies were cooled and the ice cream set in the freezer for a couple of hours, this is what I got:


Pretty big, eh? Well, I wanted big and hearty, and that's certainly what I got.

And man, did it ever hit the spot! Excellent!

In fact, I'm going to go and have one now...

Latest Coyote's Kitchen Column!

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? Um...I have lots of material...just not a lot of motivation right now. We'll see what the next few weeks brings me in terms of energy levels.

In the meantime, here is my latest food column in Bread 'n Molasses Magazine. Ice cream - just in time for summer.

Cadbury Mini Egg Ice Cream

In a fit of premenstrual pique last weekend, I purchased a 1kg bag of Cadbury mini eggs. It felt so evil, but they are so good! I just finished the bag off now, and let me tell you, it took considerable will power on my part to not inhale the whole bag within a day of purchase.

I didn't eat them all in their natural state, however. I had a brain wave during my PMS craziness: ice cream! Why not? I am out of store-bought ice cream and it's so frakking expensive here for the good stuff and the stuff I like that I'm not going to buy it. But it's cheap as hell to make, so make it I did! And the results were excellent!

Cadbury Mini Egg Ice Cream

2 cups whipping cream (35%)
1 cup whole milk (3%)
3/4 cup sugar
3 vanilla beans (I have a package I'm trying to use up because they're getting dry, so that's why I used this many)
1 cup chopped Cadbury mini eggs

This is my typical ice cream recipe (minus the mini eggs, of course). I just combine the cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla, really well in a large measuring cup, and pour it into my ice cream maker. Close to when the ice cream is ready to come out of the machine, I added the chopped mini eggs. Freeze till firm. And Bob's your uncle!

The shells turned the final product a bit of an odd colour, but that's OK. It tastes great!


I may need to buy another bag...

Magazine Monday #58...On Tuesday...Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake

What do you do when you are viciously premenstrual and you just HAVE to have a chocolate, peanut butter, pudding, cake fix? You come across a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake in Canadian Living, while looking for another, unrelated, recipe, and you go for it!

The recipe is here.

I didn't use my slow cooker, but rather my nice old oven. Worked great. Here are the results:



And...I couldn't just serve it nekkid, could I? No! I happened to have the perfect accompaniment: Blue Bunny Peanut Butter Panic ice cream, purchased during recent cross-border shopping trip! As if there wasn't enough peanut butter & chocolate already!


This hit the spot, babies! Totally! The sauce created as this dessert baked could have been a tad thicker, but otherwise, this was a really, really awesome dessert. And half of it was gone 15 minutes after it came out of the oven...

Birthday Breakfast

Yep, it's a day to throw all dietary silliness out the window - I'm having ice cream cake from the other night for breakfast!


When I'm done this, I have to get cracking & pack for the lake, do some grocery shopping, hit the liquor store, etc.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Magazine Monday #43: Sour Cream Ice Cream

One of the best things about having a heat wave is that I can eat ice cream with less guilt. Currently, I have two ice creams chilling in my freezer: Island Farms Black Forest Cake (amazing, like all Island Farms ice creams are) and this homemade sour cream ice cream I made the other day, after the recipe for it caught my eye in the July issue of Gourmet.

The recipe is here.

I love sour cream. It's one of these things I could eat by the spoonful right from the container, but don't because that's not socially acceptable. Mexican food, for me, is a really good excuse to eat sour cream. Same with perogies.

So, how could I possibly go wrong with sour cream ice cream? Lightly sweetened, frozen sour cream that I can eat a bowl-full without any social repercussions or feelings of weirdness.

This is so delicious I can't even describe it - it's just too good for words. And it's really simple to make, providing you have an ice cream maker, which I do.

Just whiz everything in a blender, add to your ice cream maker, then let that miraculous machine work it's magic, and voila!
I used light sour cream, the 7% fat one, instead of full fat, and got a really good result.


To make mine a little more interesting, I added some chopped fresh cherries I had kicking around. Um, not my best idea ever. The cherries just froze and when I ate a spoonful of the ice cream, it was just like having chunks of frozen fruit to chew on, and this also affects the flavour of the cherries. So, I won't do that again.
Chocolate sauce was a nice addition, though, and I think the next time I make this ice cream, I'll add cocoa powder to it because chocolate & sour cream are really amazing together.
Enjoy!

Ode to Island Farms...

I'm generally not one to go on and on about the specific products I use, apart from cookbooks and chefs I might like, but I thought I'd break my own mould a bit and wax poetic about one of my favourite things, Island Farms ice cream.

When I was in university, I fell in love with all things Island Farms, beginning with their frozen yogurts, specifically their chocolate frozen yogurt. I also fell in love with their yogurts, especially the "vanilla plus" line (to this day, Black Cherry is still my all-time fave). From there, I fell in love with their line of orgasmically brilliant ice creams, my favourite being Moose Tracks.

There was an IF plant right in downtown Victoria, and I loved the fact that I could see where some of their products were being made, and it was obviously local. Drive up-island towards Nanaimo, which I did often, and you could see IF dairies - all local.

I moved to Ontario upon graduation from university, but when I came back to the coast to visit, I always coveted IF products. When I went to culinary school in Vancouver four years ago, I was thrilled to see that T&T carried IF dairy products, and I immediately stocked up on chocolate milk and yogurt. Our culinary school used IF Victoria Style Cream Cheese, and I loved the tartness of it compared with the competition's (I never gave it much though in uni, but in culinary school my tastebuds were just starting to become more refined). Access to IF was one thing that screamed "home" to me.

I came back to BC to live in 2006, and luckily, everywhere I've lived since then, I've had access to IF dairy products. IF was taken over by Agropur, a Quebec dairy company, and I've heard that not all of IF's dairies and plants are on the Vancouver Island now. I can't taste a difference, however.

But let's get back to ice cream, because IF ice cream of any flavour is the stuff of the gods. As mentioned, my favourite flavour is Moose Tracks, which is vanilla with peanut butter cups and a fudge swirl. Any flavour in the Denali Premium line is outstanding, though. The Tin Roof Sundae is also fabulous, and at one ice cream stand in Victoria, I even had...oh, man, this sends shivers up my spine...Nanaimo Bar ice cream! Nanaimo Bar ice cream! I can't describe how good it was! But, I have yet to see this flavour make it to my local overpriced grocery store. IF has also brought out a Chocolate Plus line, and I have nearly polished off a container of Coffee Truffle Delight. It was stunningly rich and chocolaty, with just a hint of coffee in it.

Drooling much? I have yet to find a brand of ice cream I love more (I used to buy Cadbury's Dairy Milk ice cream, which was to die for but they discontinued it and I haven't seen it in any new incarnation around my local places at all), though I do make a wicked chocolate & Bailey's ice cream myself. Actually, most ice creams I make are pretty awesome, but even I can't beat my old favourites from IF.

Waxing done!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I cannot say enough about my Cuisinart ice cream maker: it's easy to use, makes wicked ice cream and frozen yogurt, and it's just plain cool.

During our recent run of really ridiculously hot weather, it seemed only natural to get out my little machine and make myself some ice cream - even though my favourite flavour was on sale at my local overpriced grocery store.

I decided to make mint chocolate chip, my perennial favourite.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp pure mint extract (or to taste)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 (100g) bar of your favourite chocolate (I used a bar of Ghirardelli baking chocolate I had on hand), chopped up
green food colouring, optional

I have a large (1L) glass liquid measuring cup that I mix the cream, milk and sugar in to begin with. Then I add the flavouring, tasting and adjusting as necessary. I start the machine up and pour it all in, adding the chocolate chunks closer to the end of the process because you just need to mix them in. Easy peasy!

Some other frozen desserts I've made with this machine:

lemon ice cream
grapefruit sorbet
lemon-ginger frozen yogurt

Lemon-ginger Frozen Yogurt

So, my camera died a couple of weeks ago, and though a new one is on the way, I'm reluctant to post anything here until I can take a photo of it! Ah, well. I'll give you something simple to tide you over. I made this amazing frozen yogurt recipe today. I subscribe to both Bon Appetit and Gourmet, having been lured with a screaming "professional" deal. I've never regretted it.

Lemon-ginger Frozen Yogurt

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt (I used 2% because I hate fat-free yogurt)
1 cup low-fat buttermilk (I used whole buttermilk)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel (I used twice this amount)

Preparation:

Bring water, sugar, light corn syrup, and grated ginger to boil in medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil 2 minutes. Strain into medium bowl and chill until cool. Whisk in yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions; cover and freeze. (Don't discard the strained ginger; it'll make a pretty garnish.)

I have this Cuisinart ice cream maker:












Man, do I love this machine! I've used it for so many things, including this lemon ice cream recipe, which is do die for. This is a really great appliance, and it's simple to use and makes fantastic products.

FYI, I've been using a web site called The Daily Plate to track my eating. If you haven't already heard of it, check it out - I highly recommend it. You can plug in a recipe of your own and create a nutritional label for it. According to TDP, this frozen yogurt recipe (which makes approximately six 1/2-cup servings) has 93 calories, 16.75g total carbs, 1.83g total fat, and 14.88g sugar. Not bad, eh?

Enjoy.

Lemon Ice Cream

LemonIce
Originally uploaded by wanderingcoyote.

Anita found this recipe yesterday in one of Richard's cookbooks. I'd been looking for a lemon ice cream recipe, actually, and this was absolutely fantastic! Anita, upon tasting it, thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She, like me, is a lemon fanatic. Aside from being delicious and refreshing, this also is a great palate cleanser.

My ice cream maker is a Cuisinart and it has a drum with a freezing liquid in it, and so you just freeze the drum over night, then plug the machine in and attach the drum, add your mixture, turn it on, and about 20 minutes later, you have ice cream. You put the ice cream into the actual freezer for a bit just to firm it up.

Here is the lemon ice cream recipe.

zest of 2 lemons
juice of 3 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups whipping cream (35% only!)
1 cup whole milk

I whisked this all together in a clear glass measure and away I went. Like I said, it was great.

You don't have to worry about the lemon curdling the milk and cream because the citric acid won't curdle anything with a fat percentage above 35%, so make sure you use the full whipping cream. Don't cut corners or calories by using half and half because this just won't work.

I used the zest and juice of one lime because I was down a lemon, and it worked fine.

My basic ice cream recipe is the following.

2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar

To this you can add pretty much whatever your heart desires. I usually add about a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Also try cocoa powder to taste (sift it in), chocolate chips, mint & chocolate chips (about a tsp or two of mint extract but use your own judgement), or Grand Marnier or Bailey's Irish Cream to taste. But beware: adding alcohol will affect the freezing of your ice cream, so add it at the very end when the ice cream has already done it's freezing so you won't get a slushie!

Homemade ice cream is the best because you can use all natural ingredients and you know exactly what goes in it. Store bought contains all kinds of nasty chemicals and crap you really don't want in your body. My ice cream maker cost me about $80 Canadian, and I've gotten a lot of use out of it. A great investment, I must say.

Enjoy!