I Scream For, Well, You Know....

My favorite foods are the ones that are the worst for me: bread and ice cream. Good bread only please--you can keep your supermarket white. But I kinda like all ice cream, even the stuff with carageenan and polysorbate-80. (Mmmm...Baskin-Robbins Jamoca Almond Fudge!) Sadly, not only is ice cream a bunch of empty calories with a ton of sugar, it's also made with milk and cream. And no, I'm not a vegan...I am severely lactose intolerant. 

It came upon me suddenly last year. One day I could consume dairy products with no problem. The next, well, let's just say shit happened. And now the really great (I think) recipes for dairy ice cream here on Minxeats will need to be recreated in a non-dairy format. In the meantime, please enjoy them as is. Some early recipes include eggs, but after discovering Jeni's secret I now choose to dirty a couple more small bowls in order to avoid the potential disaster of scrambled eggs in my custard. (Egg drop ice cream isn't a thing.) 

Does anyone have suggestions for dairy substitutes in ice cream? Of course coconut milk is always an option, but the taste of coconut might not work for more delicate flavors like chamomile tea. I've tried some non-dairy ice creams, and while some are good, others don't quite hit the mark. Van Leeuwen's can be a bit dense, particularly when eaten side by side with a dairy flavor. (I know--I shouldn't do that.)

On with the show.

Apple Pie Ice Cream even has crust pieces in it!

Apricot Cardamom Pistachio Ice Cream So many great flavors together!

Cardamom Carrot Ice Cream is my favorite Indian dessert, gajar ka halwa, in ice cream form.

Chamomile Honey Tea Gelato Will it surprise you when I say this is my all-time favorite ice cream? (Technically, it's a gelato.) It's infused with a very specific brand of now-discontinued tea bag, and I might have enough of them left to make another batch. One can use regular chamomile tea, as long as it's of high quality. It won't have the honey flavor, but a drizzle over the top, sundae-style, will get you close. Celestial Seasonings, Twinings, and Bigelow make chamomile honey tea with vanilla that might also work, as long as the vanilla isn't too obvious. If you find another honey chamomile tea out there, please LMK about it.

Cracker Toffee Ice Cream This ice cream is also infused with tea and includes the crunchy delight of cracker toffee bits. If you don't want to make the toffee, just throw in handfuls of Heath bar bits, which will be different but still delicious.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Everyone's favorite dessert, in ice cream form. Or just make the pie. lol

Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Ice Cream Please make sure your poppy seeds are fresh! The little buggers get rancid quickly, and rancid poppy seeds will ruin your day. And your ice cream.

Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream Some people put chile crisp on vanilla ice cream. I put it in ice cream. I thought it was super delicious, but Mr Minx was not convinced. No problem. More for me! (I ate the entire quart, apart from a couple tablespoons.)

Pudgy Partner Ice Cream  This is my version of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby. Tasted at least as good, maybe better. 

Sour Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Sweet cherries are fine, but I prefer sour cherries. Pitting them is a pain in the butt though.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Apricot-Cardamom-Pistachio Ice Cream

Last summer, we made a lot of frozen desserts. We had borrowed a friend's ice cream machine (which we still have - oops!) and were cranking out a new flavor every weekend. Now we have our own fun little Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, and we hope to start using it regularly.

This summer's inaugural batch used up a selection of apricots that had been purchased at the farmers' market across from my office. I bought them on Tuesday for Mr Minx to eat, but he kept forgetting. By Saturday, one of them was rotten, and I needed to do something with the rest so as not to lose my investment (they weren't cheap). I also wanted to involve one or more of the Runamok Maple syrups that I picked up at the Summer Fancy Food Show in June. One of them is infused with cardamom, and I knew cardamom and apricot went well together. I also wanted to add a bit of texture to the ice cream and knew pistachios would work with both of the other players. The next question was how best to use the cardamom syrup so it didn't get lost in all that cream.

The answer was pretty simple: I used it to candy the nuts. While I did add a big pinch of ground cardamom to the ice cream itself, it was subtle. The candied nuts supplied stronger hits of the sweet spice, which made each bite more interesting.

It might seem like there's a lot of sugar in this ice cream, but apricot puree is tangy. You can probably reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup, but don't go any further than that, as less sugar will affect the way the ice cream freezes.

Apricot-Cardamom-Pistachio Ice Cream

For the nuts:
1/2 cup pistachio nutmeats
2 tablespoons Runamok Maple Cardamom Maple Syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons butter

For the ice cream:
6-8 fresh apricots (to make about 1 cup of puree)
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

To make the nuts: Prepare a sheet pan with a piece of parchment or a silicone baking sheet/Silpat.

Heat the Runamok Maple Cardamom-infused maple syrup and butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until bubbly. Add the nuts. Stir the mixture constantly until the nuts are glazed and most of the moisture is evaporated. Don't cook much beyond this point - you don't want the caramel to be hard, otherwise it will be hard and potentially tooth-sticky once frozen.

Remove the nuts from the heat and immediately spread out onto the sheet pan, separating them with a fork. Allow to cool. They should still be tacky to the touch when cool.

To make the ice cream: Wash the apricots thoroughly. Cut in half, discard pits and stems, and whiz the flesh in a food processor to make a puree. Strain to remove skins, if desired (I left them in). Refrigerate puree until ready to use.

Place the milk and sugar in a sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat until just starting to bubble around the edges. Do not let come to a boil, and definitely don't let it burn.

While the milk is warming, whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl. Using a ladle, dribble some of the hot milk into the eggs in a thin stream, whisking constantly. After about half the milk has been whisked in, pour the egg and milk mixture back into the pot with the remaining milk. Cook over medium-low heat until thick enough to coat a spoon, whisking all the while.

Strain the custard and stir in the heavy cream. Refrigerate until cold.

Combine the cold custard with the cold apricot puree. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Once the consistency starts to visually resemble soft serve ice cream, start dropping in the nuts, a few at a time, until all are incorporated. Scoop the ice cream (it will still be quite soft) into a covered container and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Parsnip Hummus

Once again the end of the month showed up and that meant another stitch-n-bitch get-together with friends. Regular Minxeats readers know that I like to make both something dippy and something sweet for the ladies. Dippy, because it keeps the hands relatively clean, and knitters need clean hands. Sweet, because we all seem to have a sweet tooth.

This month's dippy component was homemade hummus, as it often is. I wanted to try something really different this time and leave out the beans completely. I had a bag of parsnips without a purpose in the fridge, so decided to use them. They were already hummus-hued, so why not?

It's best to par-cook the parsnips until they are quite soft, so the food processor doesn't have a hard time breaking them down (especially if  you use a Cuisinart mini-prep, like me). Parnips are denser and dryer than beans, so you'll need to use a bit of water to help in the processing, as well.

The resulting texture is much smoother than a hummus made with beans, but the flavor was somehow quite hummus-y. I was too lazy to cut up vegetables so I served it with Wild California brand Twice Baked Apricot Ginger Crisps. I had picked up a bag at the fancy food show in July and was waiting for the perfect occasion to serve them. Parsnip hummus seemed to be it. The light sweetness of the crisps worked well with the light sweetness of the hummus. The chips are also quite nice on their own, or eaten with cheese. If you've tried the Trader Joe's brand of crackers with fruit bits in them, then you already have an idea of what the Wild California ones are like.

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of hummus. We put a dent in it, but we absolutely demolished the bag of crisps.

Parsnip Hummus

1 lb parsnips
Extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons almond butter
Lemon Juice
Garlic powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Harissa powder or cayenne

Peel the parsnips and cut into chunks. Put into a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until parsnips are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain parsnips, but reserve some of the cooking water.

Allow parsnips to cool to room temperature and put them into the bowl of a food processor with a few tablespoons of cooking water and a glug of olive oil. Process to a fairly smooth texture, adding a few more spoonsful of water or olive oil, if needed, to move things along. The consistency should be thick, not runny. Add the almond butter and process until completely incorporated. Season with a fair amount of lemon juice, plus garlic powder and cumin to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon each). Salt and pepper, of course, also to taste, and if you want a bit of heat, add a bit of harissa powder or cayenne.

Scrape into a bowl and drizzle on some olive oil. Serve with crudite of your choice, crackers, pita, whatever.



Posted on Minxeats.com.