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.

Cardamom Carrot Ice Cream

Ever since I discovered the book, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, I've been somewhat obsessed with making ice cream. I prefer a custard-based ice cream, made with eggs, to the so-called Philadelphia-style (without eggs) because it has a smoother texture, but hate having to use so many eggs. Egg yolks, rather, which leaves 5 or more whites to use in something else. Yeah yeah, egg white omelets, meringue, yadda yadda. Still - it makes more work for me to think of another application. Jeni's recipe is just as smooth and creamy as an egg custard based ice cream, but is thickened instead with cornstarch and cream cheese. A pack of cream cheese lasts long enough in the fridge to make several batches of frozen treats, and can always be put into service as a bagel schmear.

Of course, me being me, I haven't made any of Jeni's recipes, but I have used her technique several times already. The Key Lime Pie ice cream I made in August was a huge success. Last month I made a Peanut Butter Pie ice cream, upping the cream cheese and adding both peanut butter and peanut powder. This time, I wanted to do something with cardamom. Cardamom is an underutilized spice, at least in this country, but it's popular in both Scandanavia and India. I wanted to make an ice cream that was flavored only with cardamom, but with some sort of textural interest. There's an Indian dessert that I love called gajar ka halwa, made with carrots and milk and seasoned with cardamom. I thought adding some of that to the ice cream, along with crushed cashews, would work nicely.

And it did. It was rich and cardamom-y, tasting a lot like kheer, an Indian rice pudding, which made me think I should have added some basmati rice as well. But we're not making frozen rice pudding here....

Cardamom Carrot Ice Cream

For the ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons softened cream cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom, or to taste

For the carrots:
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
2 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons milk
6 tablespoons sugar
Big pinch cardamom

To finish:
1/2 cup cashews, lightly crushed

For the ice cream: Mix 2 tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Prepare a shallow ice bath: in a large bowl or baking pan, place an inch or two of cold water and several ice cubes. Set aside.

Cook the remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and cardamom in a large saucepan until it comes to a rolling boil, Boil for 4 minutes, watching carefully so it doesn't boil over (stir when it starts to expand), remove from heat, and slowly whisk in the slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Blend a few tablespoons of hot milk mixture into the cream cheese to loosen it, then pour the cream cheese mixture into the pan of milk. Whisk well until smooth. Taste for seasoning and whisk in more cardamom if you would like a stronger flavor. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and place the container into the ice bath until cool, ensuring that the water level doesn't come up as far as the lid. When the mixture seems mostly cool, refrigerate until completely cold.

For the carrots: Combine all ingredients except cardamom in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook over medium-high heat until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the carrots, about 10 minutes. Season with cardamom. Scrape into a lidded container and refrigerate until ready to use.

To finish: Freeze ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Once ice cream is mostly done, start adding the carrot mixture a little at a time. It will have chilled into a mass, but you can crumble it with your fingers into the ice cream maker. Once the carrots are combined and the ice cream is done, scoop some into a lidded storage container. Layer on some of the cashews. Continue to add ice cream and cashews to container until both are used up. Press a piece of wax paper onto the surface of the ice cream. Seal container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.



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.

Blue Chair Bay Rum

Country singer Kenny Chesney has a brand spankin' new line of rums inspired by his island life. Yeah, the man's got it hard! Barbados-made Blue Chair Bay Rum comes in five flavors, including coconut spiced rum, which is the one we've tried so far. It's gooood. Mr Minx isn't even a fan of rum and he finds it to be a quite tasty sipping spirit. Me, I'm a sucker for coconut rum, so this was right up my alley.

Chesney will be at Merriweather Post Pavilion on May 27th for his Big Revival tour, so in honor of his visit to Maryland, we've concocted a special drink in his honor.

Presenting the Blue Chair Bay Coconut Chai.

Blue Chair Bay coconut spice rum has the flavors of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg in addition to coconut, and it put us in mind of a cup of chai tea. So we blended it with some strong black tea and a wee bit of creamy horchata-flavored rum and a dash of cardamom to make this easy-drinking creamy beverage.

Blue Chair Bay Coconut Chai

2 parts Blue Chair Coconut Spiced Rum
1 part horchata-flavored rum
3 parts cold strong black tea
1/2 part agave nectar
Dash ground cardamom

Combine both rums, black tea, and agave nectar in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a low-ball glass, then spoon over some of the foam from the shaker. Dust with ground cardamom.

Now I want to make a rhum baba with the stuff. Or maybe with the banana rum, which also has a whiff of coconut to it.

* 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.