Toffee, Coffee Hom Nom

I really loved how my coffee oreo ice cream turned out, so I wanted to try it again but with a different flavor. What to do what to do? I researched and found out that toffee is a great addition to coffee. Ah-ha!

By now, you should know the drill...

Instant coffee

Skor bars! I thought about getting heath bars, but I haven't had Skor in years so I figured I'd use this one instead.

Break up the pieces into chunks so they are ready to whirl in!

The final result was a total crowd pleaser...this might have been everyone's favorite!

Coffee Toffee Hom, Nom!

• 1 cup whole milk, well chilled
• 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp. espresso powder
• 2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. chocolate extract
• 2 Toffee bars, such as Skor, or Heath. I chose Skor for no particular reason

In a medium bowl, mix the milk, sugar and espresso powder with a hand mixer until the sugar and espresso dissolves.

Stir in the heavy cream and the vanilla and chocolate extract.

Pour into a chilled ice cream maker and churn away (about 30 minutes).

In the meantime, break the toffee bar into small pieces. In the last 5 minutes of the chilling process, slowly drop the toffee pieces in.

I let this one sit in the fridge for a while after I churned it, instead of eating it ASAP.

Dulce De Leche Ice Cream

My widdle baby sister went to Buenos Aires for the summer and came back with all kinds of goodies, such as boots, macha and DULCE DE LECHE!!

Why didn't I think of buying this when I was there? You can technically make your own, but its not as exciting as getting a sweet treat from South America!

Whisking the milk, heavy cream and dulce de leche...

Quick chilling the mixture

I've gotten to be a pro at this ice cream making stuff!

Absolutely delicious! Thanks sis!!

Dulce De Leche Ice Cream, borrowed from Smitten Kitchen:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 2/3 cups dulce de leche (so, basically that entire jar plus some)
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and whisk in the dulce de leche until it is dissolved. Whisk in the vanilla and transfer to a metal bowl.

Quick chill by putting the bowl in a larger bowl with water and ice cubes, stirring occasionally until cold (probably 20 minutes-ish). Freeze in your ice cream maker. You might want to let it sit for an hour in the freezer.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Ganache

I was attempting to be creative with my ice cream. I also discovered, shockingly, that I prefer a vanilla base with chocolate accouterments instead of chocolate base with chocolate mix-ins to create a chocolate craziness. Yes, I said it. I discovered this at my beloved Shake Shack, when after multiple tastings, it dawned upon me that I prefer the Shack Attack with vanilla ice cream and not the chocolate.

My sister made me these nom nom brownies for my birthday once that had a layer of ganache on top. I love that ganache. So, my plan was to make a nice vanilla ice cream with ganache swirls.

Vanilla ice cream getting ready to roll (ha)

So much chocolate, so little time

To help the chocolate melt faster, it is best to break it into pieces

Well, this is chocolate ganache...let's make this MORE chocolatey!!

Melt away! (as I say to the roll I've developed from all the ice cream I've been eating...)

Melted away, that was fast!

Ready to eat and totally to die for! Of course it's delicious, it's chocolate!

I can't quite remember where I pulled the ganache recipe, but it was pretty standard:

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, broken into chunks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp. chocolate extract

Very simple to make. Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add the chocolate. Let it melt and stir away. Then add the chocolate extract. Try not to lick straight out of the bowl before adding to your recipe. Note: because this is all heavy cream and fat, if you eat more than 3 tbsp. on a Tuesday morning before work, you will likely feel nauseous.

The ice cream recipe was adapted the Philadelphia style ice cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz:

• 3 cups heavy cream (or, 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. chocolate extract

So I ran into a problem while mixing. My ideal ice cream was going to be vanilla with ganache swirls. Something happened and it didn't quite make the swirl design I was hoping for. It became vanilla mixed with ganache and then random pieces of ganache. I think maybe the ganache was too liquidy? In any case, as I was layering in the ice cream into the container, I poured ganache in over each layer, so it kind of created a "ribbon". sort of.

Delicious recipe. I would totally do this again!*

*I may or may not have licked the plastic container that I stored this ice cream in clean after I finished eating the ice cream.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Round 1

I was really craving peanut butter ice cream. Weird, because I usually crave chocolate ice cream.

Chunky peanut butter...Yes, the jiffy kind. Not the "only has peanuts" kind that I always buy from TJ or WF. I figured if I'm blending it with whole milk and heavy cream, then I can also throw in some high-fructose corn syrup to boot. Because, why not?

Blending it up

In goes the heavy cream!

Voila! Super chunky peanut buttery ice cream!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream, courtesy of here

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix the peanut butter and sugar until they are both smooth. Add the milk and blend until the sugar is dissolved.

Stir in the heavy cream and the vanilla extract. Pour into your pre-frozen ice cream canister. I'd recommend letting it freeze for a while in the freezer before you eat it.

Now, this wasn't my favorite recipe. I thought it was too crunchy. Wayy too peanut buttery. I think I just don't like crunchy peanut butter. I should have gone with my instincts and tried the smooth jiffy kind that I love (but never eat anymore).

I did try another peanut butter ice cream recipe of which I will share shortly.

Vanilla Oreo Ice Cream Fail

I really liked my coffee oreo ice cream recipe and I wanted to see what it would taste like as vanilla oreo. I also did not have any heavy cream, only whole milk. I didn't feel like going out to buy more heavy cream. "How bad could it be without heavy cream"? I thought to myself.

It was the same old easy recipe that I used for my coffee oreo ice cream. I used vanilla and chocolate extract:

Whole milk only!

The final result:

So, it was good, but a little icy sorbet-ish. Marisa mentioned that it kind of tasted like diet ice cream. Ew, I don't eat diet ice cream. I go big or I go home! Clearly, the vanilla oreo ice cream needed some extra oompf from the heavy cream.

Would I try it again? No. But, it's a good FYI for myself to see what happens when you leave out a key ingredient. Let's just say August has been a month of recipe fails...

Adventures in Birthday Cake

Asmi's birthday was around the corner. And she loves pink. And so do I. So I wanted to make the most OBNOXIOUS PINK SPARKLY GLITTERY GIRLY pink cake I could find. I searched far and wide for anything glittery hot fuchsia magenta sparkly pink. Poor me. The only caveat: Asmi doesn't eat eggs. So I had to find a good recipe that was also good egg-free.

Something like this but only PINKER. Something like this but only HEART SHAPED.

My genius plan was to take the recipe from the family spice blog and adapt to be Asmi (and Lavina) friendly. So I preheated my oven to 350 degrees. I applied non-stick spray to my 9" heart-shaped pan. I used my mixer to mix 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of butter

I pureed 3/4 cup of frozen strawberries

In another large bowl, I whisked 1 1/2 cup of cake flour, roughly 2 tsp. of baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. of salt

Now came for my ingenious substitution. Since we know from Martha Stewart that you can mix vinegar and baking soda to make an "egg substitution" I decided to follow the pink lady cake recipe but only with baking soda and vinegar. (note that the original recipe calls for 8 egg whites, 2/3 cups milk and red food coloring at this stage).

Well, this is why I'm not a dentist. I forgot basic chemistry of how I should mix dry ingredients first and then move to wet ingredients. So basically something went on chemistry wise and RUINED EVERYTHING (in short, non-descriptive terms).

There are no photos of the end result for various reasons.

So recipe #1 was a fail on Jyoti's end.

Then I had the genius idea to try the same Martha Stewart Recipe I used for Lavina's birthday cupcakes, only omit the dutch processed cocoa and add red food coloring so the cake would be pink.

This time I had fresh strawberries so I used these instead...

And, the final result....

It was very spongey and not very cake tasting...Epic Fail #2.

Then, I decided to stick to the tried and true "gluten free" recipe from Martha Stewart (see the entry about Lavina's b-day cupcakes). In the heart shaped tin. Okay, so the cake was chocolate. Now I had to make up for the extra pinkiness SOMEWHERE!

FROSTING!

A whole lot of sugar and butter = yummy goodness. PINK yummy goodness that is!

My make-shift frosting bag...

Me attempting to frost a cake

VOILA!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (courtesy of something I found on all recipes):

3 cups confectioners sugar

1 cup butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp. whipping cream

red food coloring (if you are going for the pink look)

A hot pink glittery mess of yum town fun

Coffee Oreo Ice Cream

Mai hosted a lovely ice cream social event last Thursday. She made many yummy flavors (including chai masala, green tea, honey lavender and coffee oreo) and had cute serving glasses...both of which inspired me to 1) make more ice cream and 2) buy cute serving bowls.

My most favorite from her party was the coffee oreo ice cream. I normally don't like coffee flavored dessert all that much, but for some reason, it was love at first nom nom.

I was gonna say that I haven't had oreos in years, but then I remember that I probably had them in the pantry at work maybe a month ago.

Mai donated her remaining quart of whole milk to the coffee oreo ice cream cause. I already had instant espresso powder from the previous entry (frosting).

I know Halloween is coming up shortly, but that doesn't stop me from indulging in whole milk and heavy cream. Princess Jasmine ate ice cream, right?

Enter glass of skim milk here.

Nice and frothy!

Overflowing with coffee oreo ice cream

Better than Baskin Robbins...

These are my new dishes/spoons from a store in Union Square. Ice cream for two! <3>

Coffee Oreo Ice Cream

• 1 cup whole milk, well chilled
• 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp. instant espresso or instant coffee
• 2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. chocolate extract* (or, just use 1 tsp. vanilla extract)
• 3/4 - 1 cup oreo cookie crumbles (depending on your taste preference)

In a medium bowl, mix the milk, granulated sugar and espresso powder with a hand mixer until the sugar and espress powder are dissolved, about 1-2 minutes on low speed.

Stir in the heavy cream and the vanilla.

Pour into the chilled ice cream maker. Prepare according to your ice cream maker's directions. I chilled mine for about 30 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of the chilling process, slowly sprinkle in the oreo cookie crumbles.