Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

Sometimes great recipes come about by accident. I was experimenting with making cinnamon ice cream using a mimiccreme base and the custard turned out tasting very egg-y with almost no cinnamon flavor. Never one to throw out food that could be salvaged I threw in pinch of this and a few ounces of that.  The end result was an ultra delicious mexican chocolate ice cream with the spice of cinnamon, heat of chile, and the sweet creaminess of chocolate. We absolutely loved it, and I knew I wanted to be able to make it again. The way I made it the first time was kind of like reaching all the way around the back of your head in order to scratch your nose, so as I made the recipe again I streamlined it. And this time measured as I went so I would have a recipe to use in the future.  The ice cream has a bit of graininess which I loved because it is a similar texture to mexican chocolate, the main inspiration for the recipe. Chile powder can vary greatly in strength depending on age and other factors, so start with the smaller amount and add more to taste.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cups sweetened mimiccreme
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2-1 tsp ancho chile powder
1 oz chocolate, melted and cooled.

Combine the mimiccream, cocoa and spices in a small sauce pan and heat, stirring, until dissolved and warm. Pour the mixture into a blender, add the chocolate, and blend until smooth.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. If the mixture seems too thick after chilling in the refrigerator a few good stirs should make it pourable again.

Heavenly Bakers: Pumpkin Cake

I am very excited to announce that I have joined the baking group Heavenly Cake Bakers. We are going to be baking through Rose Levy Beranbaum's new book Rose's Heavenly Cakes. As an avid baker I knew that there was a serious gap in my baking library since I didn't own a book by the esteemed Rose Beranbaum, so joining this group gave me the excuse I needed ask Amazon to send the beautiful book my way (so dangerous to have the Amazon app on my phone, it makes it too easy). This book is amazing! Every recipe looks outstanding and the pictures are unbelievably beautiful. I can't wait to try them all!

Having never seen the book before signing up, I didn't realize quite the challenge it will be to make many of the recipes parve without using unnatural ingredients, but I am planning on doing the best I can. I can't post the recipes in their entirety but will be posting the substitutions I used to make it parve, and am always happy to answer any questions.

Because of a variety of other baking commitments this week (not to mention all the other things in life that fill the day) I didn't have time to make the complicated Burnt Orange Buttercream that accompanies the pumpkin cake, but I was so excited about the bake along that I wanted to at least make the cake so I could get started. I will step up and make the recipes in all their complicated glory in the future, but I just couldn't wait to start. Also, I love pumpkin and it is already November and I haven't made one pumpkin dessert yet this year so it is high time.

Well I am glad that I made this cake. The original cake was parve, so it required no tinkering on my part. (The buttercream, however, is a whole different story). In the interest of pawning the cake off on the people I work with, I baked cupcakes with half the recipe instead of making a single bundt cake. I absolutely loved them! The texture is light and lovely, and the pumpkin flavor shines with the warmth of the spices. In trying to keep with the original flavors I glazed them with an orange glaze and loved the combination of pumpkin and orange. I am sure that with the buttercream they would have been out of this world, but even without they sure were a tasty way to start November. To see what all the other Heavenly Cake Bakers have made this week click on the widget in the sidebar.

SoHo Globs

In my ongoing effort to bake more from recipes I have collected, rather than always seeking out new ones, I decided the time had finally come to make these cookies. I needed something sweet and chocolatey to take to a friend and these seemed like they would fit that bill. I got the recipe from Fresh Direct several years ago while shopping for groceries, and for some reason never got around to making them.  That was a mistake. These are a great easy cookie to fill an intense chocolate craving. The cookies are a cookie's answer to a dense, chewy brownie, with a noticeable mocha flavor that makes them just a bit more interesting than plain chocolate. Although I'm not sure you can call something with two kinds of nuts and two kinds of chocolate chips plain, even without the coffee. 


Soho Gobs (adapted from "Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book" by Judy Rosenberg) 

Makes 20 cookies

5 ounces semisweet chocolate

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted margarine, at room temperature

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon instant coffee

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup white chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them lightly with vegetable oil.

Melt the 8 ounces semisweet and unsweetened chocolate and the butter in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water. They can also be melted together in a microwave at 50% power, stirring at 1 minute intervals until mostly melted. Remove from the microwave and stir until fully melted. Allow chocolate mixture to cool slightly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs, vanilla, and coffee in a medium-size mixing bowl until they are mixed together, about 10 seconds. Add the sugar to the egg mixture and blend it all until thick, about 1 minutes. Scrape the bowl. Add the melted chocolate and blend 1 minute more. Scrape the bowl. Add the flour mixture on low speed and mix until blended, 10 seconds. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts by hand or with the mixer on low speed.

Drop the dough by generously rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies until they rise slightly and form a thin crust, about 13 minutes. Immediately remove the cookies from the cookie sheets and place them on a rack to cool. This is most easily done by sliding the whole piece of parchment paper onto the racks with the cookies still on it.

Roasted Pear Amaretto Trifle

Trifle is one of my favorite desserts. Basically a layered dessert consisting of sponge cake, fruit and pastry cream there is something both elegant and comforting about it at the same time. I love the interplay of textures and flavors, and the beauty of layers in a clear glass bowl gets me every time. Until recently I had been known to make a dairy meal just so that I could serve a trifle for dessert, and this Roasted Pear Amaretto Trifle is one of my all time favorites. Sweet roasted pears complimented by the crunch of almond cookies and creamy amaretto pastry cream is truly enough to make me swoon. All the components can be made the day ahead and assembled up to 10 hours before serving. That makes it a good choice for a busy day with a lot of last minute cooking. I am very pleased that with a bit of tinkering I was finally able to create a parve almond pastry cream that is delicious and luscious enough to use in any application. This trifle was the first thing I made with the parve pastry cream but I am sure I will be making it often for a wide range of pastry uses.

As you can see from the picture this batch of pastry cream came out a bit runny. That is because I didn't cook it long enough, but didn't feel like wasting the ingredients to make it again since it tasted good anyway. If cooked according to the recipe it will firm up and have the consistency of regular pastry cream.

Roasted Pear and Amaretto Trifle (adapted from Bon Appetit)

Yield: Makes 8 generous servings

Amaretto Pastry cream (adapted from Tartine)

3 cups unsweetened Mimiccreme

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 Tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup + 1 1/2 Tablespoons (6 oz) sugar 

3 large eggs

2 Tablespoons Amaretto liqueur

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

6 Tablespoons (3 oz)margarine

Have a bowl ready to cool the pastry cream and set a fine mesh strainer over it. In another bowl mix together the sugar and cornstarch, then whisk in the eggs. Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth. 

Heat the Mimiccreme and salt until hot, just under a boil. Slowly pour about one third of the hot mimiccreme into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. (This is easiest if you set the bowl with the eggs on a damp kitchen towel which will hold the bowl in place leaving one hand free for pouring and the other for whisking.) Pour the egg mixture back into the hot mimiccreme and continue whisking over medium head until the custard is as thick as lightly whipped cream, about 2 minutes. Make sure to whisk all the way to the bottom and around the sides to make sure the custard cooks evenly. In order for the cornstarch to cook and thicken fully, the mixture must come just to a boiling point. Remove the pan from the heat when you see a few slow bubbles and immediately pour it through the strainer into the bowl. Stir in the extracts and amaretto. 

Let the pastry cream cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to release the heat and prevent a skin from forming on top. Cut the margarine into 1 tablespoon pieces. When the pastry cream has cooled for 10 minutes (it should be about 140F) whisk the margarine into the pastry cream 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until smooth between each addition. Cover the cream with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming, and chill until cold. Pastry cream will keep, well covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Roasted Pears

8 firm but ripe Bosc pears (about 3 1/4 pounds), peeled, halved lengthwise and cored

1/3 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400. In a medium bowl combine the sugar and lemon juice. Add the pears and toss to combine. Place pears cut-side down on a heavy rimmed baking sheet and scraping any remaining sugar mixture from bowl on top of them. Roast until tender and golden brown in spots, turing occasionally, about 40 minutes. Let cool then cut the pears into 1/2 inch pieces. Transfer them to a bowl and add any juices from the pans. (Can be done 1 day ahead, cover well and refrigerate.)

For Assembly

42 (about) day-old soft ladyfingers (from about three 3-oz packages). Let them sit out open overnight to firm up. (If you cannot find soft ladyfingers, any sponge cake cut into strips and left out over night will work.)

1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed amaretti cookies, almond macaroons (not the passover coconut kind) or crunchy almond horns 

3/4 cup apricot fruit spread or preserves

4 tablespoons brandy

4 tablespoons amaretto

Arrange 13 to 14 ladyfingers in the bottom of an 8-inch, 3-quart trifle bowl, trimming to fit tightly. Sprinkle 1/2 cup crushed cookies over the lady fingers. Dot with 1/4 cup fruit spread. Top with 1 cup roasted pears. Drizzle 1 tablespoon brandy and 1 tablespoon amaretto over it. Spread one cup of pastry cream on top. Repeat layering 2 more times. Use any extra remaining pastry cream on the top layer. 

Cover and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours. If desired garnish with toasted slivered almonds right before serving.

Cornmeal Pound Cake with Rosemary Poached Pears

A few weeks ago someone emailed me asking if I had any good "plain" parve pound cake recipes. I wasn't much help since I had never made a parve pound cake, but it did make me realize I needed to remedy that situation. I tend not to make simple cakes like pound cake, which is a shame because they can be delicious satisfying desserts that don't take all day to make. 

Doing a search of Epicurious I came across this recipe for cornmeal pound cake with rosemary poached pears. I knew that this was the recipe I needed to try. I have a bag of fresh cornmeal that came directly from the mill and I have been trying to find great uses for it. Also I have been a bit obsessed with herbs in my desserts, so I was intrigued with the idea of rosemary poached pears. Basil is my new favorite ice cream flavor. Seriously. And no, I am not crazy. It is absolutely delicious with lemon macerated strawberries. Just ask David Lebovitz.

Well, the dessert was both a success and a failure. The pears were amazing. The rosemary flavor is subtle and gives them an intriguing flavor that makes you want to savor each bite. I will absolutely be making these again. The pound cake, however, was a complete failure. It came out of the pan exactly the same size it went in, hardly rising at all. It tasted like very dense overly sweet cornbread rather than tasting like cake. I probably did not beat it for long enough, but I wonder if using margarine instead of butter was part of the problem too. We also didn't like the relationship of the cornmeal flavor with the pears, the cake flavor overwhelmed the pears in a way that didn't quite work.

I plan to keep experimenting with parve pound cake until I get it right, but anyone as a tried and true parve pound cake recipe please share.

An Ice Cream for Any Season

For my birthday a few weeks ago my wonderful husband got me a new ice cream maker. And not just any ice cream maker. This one has a built in compressor so I can turn it and make ice cream any time I want without having to have freezer space for the canister at all times, an important feature if you have ever seen my freezer. Even better, now I can make more than one flavor of ice cream in the same evening which opens up endless serving possibilities. I am very excited about my new toy and have been making quite a bit of ice cream lately.  

Now I recognize that ice cream isn't the first thing pops to mind when thinking about fall desserts, but I think that this cinnamon ice cream is a wonderful flavor for fall. The spicy cinnamon pairs perfectly with many fall desserts. Apple tarts, pumpkin pie, or a warm fruit crisp all go well with this ice cream. But it is awesome with brownies too. I know I will be making this ice cream often this fall. It may seem strange to add vegetable oil to ice cream, but trust it. The oil is what gives the ice cream the richness that is so often missing in ice cream recipes that do not have heavy cream.

Cinnamon Ice Cream
3 cups almond milk (I used Almond Breeze unsweetened original)
1 cup soy milk powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
10 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up
6 large egg yolks

In a medium saucepan whisk together 2 cups of almond milk, soy milk powder, oil, sugar and salt. Add the cinnamon and heat the mixture until warm. Remove the saucepan from the heat, cover it, and let it steep for 1 hour.

Reheat the mixture until warm and whisk it to recombine the oil that will have floated to the top. Strain out the cinnamon by pouring the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Return the mixture to the pan and place the egg yolks in the bowl, whisking to combine. Place the remaining cup of almond milk in another medium bowl and set the strainer on top.

Slowly stream the warm mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed yolk mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with the spatula while stirring. Cook until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer into the remaining almond milk. Place the bowl over an ice bath and stir until cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator and then freeze in a ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Note: The ice cream will get harder as it sits in the freezer so if not serving it freshly churned let it sit out for 10-15 minutes to soften it before serving for the best texture.

Marshmallow Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

When I saw the recipe on Brown Eyed Baker this week for Marshmallow Crunch Brownies on the Brown Eyed Baker this week I knew that I had to make it. Immediately. And I am sure glad that I did. As my husband said the minute I walked through the door from work today "those bars are awesome!" A layer of dense fudgy brownie covered in marshmallow and topped with a chocolate peanut butter crunch layer. Seriously intense and seriously delicious. These are the perfect treat to keep everyone's energy up while dancing the night away.

I had a little bit of trouble with the marshmallow layer squishing out to the side when I added the peanut butter layer which may have been because of the difference between kosher marshmallows and standard marshmallows. Next time I will let the marshmallows cool a bit more before adding the top layer and see if that helps. It turns out, though, that we actually liked the edge pieces with the extra marshmallow the best, so I think next time I might add some more marshmallows.

The original recipe says to cut a 9 x 13 pan into 24 bars, but I made a half recipe and cut it into 16 bars and I thought they were plenty big because they are quite rich.

Marshmallow Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies (adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody via Brown Eyed Baker)
Ingredients

Brownie Base
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs,  room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Toping
1 bag (10 1/2 oz) minature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup smooth peanut butter (don't use natural peanut butter)
1 Tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan or line it with a sling of parchment paper extending 2 inches over each side.

For the brownies melt the unsweetened chocolate, margarine and 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally while it is melting. Once melted set the pan aside and cool for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl whisk the eggs thoroughly then whisk in the sugar and vanilla. Whisk until well combined. Stir the melted ingredients into the egg mixture and mix well. Stir in the dry ingredients, then fold in the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the surface with a spatula. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the corner of the pan comes out with moist crumbs. Remove the brownies from the oven an immediately sprinkle the marshmallows over them. Return the pan to the oven for 3 more minutes.

Meanwhile place the remaining chocolate chips, peanut butter and tablespoon of margarine in a medium saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring constantly, until completely melted. Remove from the heat, add the Rice Krispies and mix well. Allow to cool for 3 minutes.

Spread the mixture over the marshmallow layer. Let the bars cool then refrigerate until chilled before cutting.