Nutmeg Ice Cream

This holiday season, I wanted to make a unique ice cream flavor to go with our molten chocolate cakes. I decided on Nutmeg and then everyone stared at me skeptically. Well, it was fantastic! It had a smooth back of the mouth flavor that reminded me of Christmas and winter. It was almost warm! Great with anything or alone! It is a slightly subtle flavor so it could be hard in a sundae to detect it. 

Recipe from Savuer:


Ingredients
2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups half-and-half
1 whole nutmeg, cracked (use a nut cracker)
3⁄4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

 Toast grated nutmeg in a skillet over medium heat, 1-2 minutes. Remove pan from heat; set aside. Heat half-and-half and cracked nutmeg in a 4-qt. saucepan until it just begins to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep for 10 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together sugar and yolks. While whisking, slowly pour in half-and-half mixture. Return mixture to pan; cook, stirring, until mixture thickens, 8-10 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into a large bowl. Whisk in toasted nutmeg and cream; cover custard and chill. Freeze custard in an ice cream maker; transfer to an airtight container. Freeze until set before serving.

Gemma Stafford's No-Churn Ice Cream

We make ice cream all the time and it is really delicious. However, this time, I decided that instead of using the regular churn method with cream, milk, sugar and eggs I would use Gemma Stafford's recipe. Gemma has a cooking show on youtube that I watch. You can check her out here. Her no churn ice cream recipe looked so easy I knew I had to try it and see how close it was to the real thing.

Have you ever had marshmallow ice cream? I have, we made s'mores ice cream once and it was great BUT it had a weird texture...not weird bad, just silky and marshmallowy. This no-churn ice cream has the same texture but it's still great. I brought it to my Mommy & Me class potluck and it was well liked so I think you will like it too. The best part? You can make whatever flavor you can think of  all with the same base AND you can do it in the 15 minutes your baby is occupied in a bouncy chair.

Watch the video!

Ingredients for the base:
2 Cups heavy whipping cream
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk, cold (place it in the refrigerator overnight)

Directions:
1. Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. I did this in the stand mixer but if you want to get some exercise do it by hand!
2. Once stiff peaks form, turn down the mixer speed and add the condensed milk and combine together.
Yields 3 1/2 pints of ice cream with flavoring/mix-ins added

And now make it fun! I made two flavors, Blueberry Pie and Chocolate Candied Orange.  Both were good but the chocolate one was AMAZING.  This is what I did:

Blueberry Pie Ice Cream
2 slices blueberry pie
4 cups ice cream base

Directions:
1. Put the 4 cups of base in a large bowl.
2. Add pie and break up with a fork or potato masher
3. Stir together until well combined
4. Put in containers and freeze for a few hours or overnight before eating

Chocolate Candied Orange Ice Cream
2 T chopped candied orange peel (we made our own...)
1 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate roughly chopped
scant teaspoon butter
zest of one orange
remaining ice cream base

Directions
1. In a microwave proof bowl place chocolate and butter. Melt on half power for 30 second increments until mostly melted. Then stir to melt completely.
2. pour chocolate into the base
3. Add the zest of one orange and the orange peels
4. Stir together until combined. Put in containers and freeze for a few hours or overnight - if you can wait!

S'mores Ice Cream

Earlier this summer, I found a recipe for s'mores ice cream and I knew I had to make it. I immediately went out and bought all the ingredients. And then summer happened. And this weekend, when it was reaching over 107, I decided it was time to turn on the broiler and make some ice cream.

The original recipe is not that informative. It gives measurements but is a bit vague about the instructions. If you don't make egg-based custards all the time you might not know how to follow this recipe. Also, the measurements for the mix-ins were way off for me (we have so many extras!)

I haven't tasted the ice cream yet, but I've eaten the mix-ins dipped in the churned melty leftovers and it's fantastic! I can't wait to eat the ice cream when it's frozen and fully mixed.


Ingredients:
6 graham cracker sheets
3 C mini mashmallows
6 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 C half & half
1 1/2 C heavy cream
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 t salt

Directions:
1. Whisk together egg yolks and half and half until combined, set aside
1A. Prepare an ice bath, take a really big bowl and fill it with ice and water, but not too high, you will be adding another bowl or your pan on top and you don't want it to overflow all over your counter (trust me.)
2. Turn on the broiler. Place 2 cups of marshmallows in one layer in an oven-safe saute or frying pan with slightly higher sides.
3. Broil 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. DO NOT WALK AWAY OR YOU WILL START A FIRE. Watch the marshmallows occasionally opening the oven to see how brown they are. It's okay for a few to get burned but most should be mid-to dark brown
4. Remove from the broiler, turn off the broiler, add heavy cream to the marshmallows and whisk over medium-high heat until all the marshmallows are melted. Do not let it boil, if it starts to look like it's going to boil turn down the heat.
5. Pour a little of the hat marsrhmallow cream into the egg mixture. Whisk vigorously! Pour a little more hot marshmallow cream in. Whisk vigorously!!
6. Pour all the tempered egg mixture into the pan with the hot marshmallow cream. Whisk vigorously! Whisk 3-4 minutes or until you dip a wooden spoon into the custard and then you run your finger over the spoon and a line stays in the custard.
7. Remove the pot from heat and place in the ice bath. If it's too big, transfer custard to another bowl and place into the ice bath.  Whisk until cool, or let cool to room temperature without excessive mixing.
8. Once cool, stir in vanilla and then pour into a tupperware and refrigerate several hours or overnight
9. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 3 graham crackers on the sheet. Cover with 1 cup of mini marshmallows.
10. Melt chocolate in the microwave 1-1 1/2 minutes on half power. Stir and microwave 30 more seconds on half power until fully melted
11. Turn on the broiler. Broil 1-2 minutes until marshmallows are golden, DO NOT WALK AWAY OR YOU WILL START A FIRE. Open the oven occasionally to watch.
12. Remove the pan from the broiler, turn off the broiler. Immediately top marshmallows with 3 remaining graham cracker sheets. Spread melted chocolate over the top. Freeze on the cookie sheet until set.
13. Chop frozen s'mores into 1 inch or smaller pieces, eat some, freeze in a ziploc bag.
14. Later, churn your ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Pour churned ice cream into ice cream container and mix with frozen s'mores pieces. Freeze until set.

Note. The frozen s'mores pieces are really tasty. If you happen to make a little too many, don't feel sad. This could be your favorite new summer snack!

Note 2: We think that some graham cracker crumbs and chocolate shavings might be delicious in addition to the larger pieces of s'mores--but this is before tasting it.  Can't wait to taste it!

Note 3: We tasted it, and it's good but rich. I might consider using classic milk chocolate for this recipe and having smaller bits. Still delicious though. And rich.

Maple Bacon Ice Cream

Bacon is starting to fall off the popularity scale but it is still high enough on our list to make something crazy with it.  We chose to make some maple bacon ice cream for our recent Game Night.  The ice cream recipe called for a bacon brittle, but we had a little trouble with the brittle and decided to omit it altogether and add just the bacon.  If you are afraid of bacon but love a good maple flavor, I recommend making this same ice cream base and adding some crunchy brittle or chocolate chips or something like that.  Heath bars perhaps?


Maple Bacon Ice Cream  adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:

• 
  
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup maple syrup, preferably grade B
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 slices bacon, cooked crisp and chopped (fry in a skillet 5 min/side on medium high heat)

Directions:

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a bowl until pale yellow. Transfer to a saucepan and whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until almost simmering (the mixture should be thick enough to coat a spoon). Stir in the maple syrup. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes or up to overnight.

Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker instructions. At the very end add the chopped bacon and mix in.  Freeze until ready to serve.  (We churned this less than usual and it resulted in an incredibly soft ice cream which is advisable).

Simple No-cook 25 mnute Vanilla Ice Cream

Today I was having my nephew over and thought it would be a fun activity to make ice cream. The problem is that most ice creams that we make take lots of time and I knew that that is more time than most 5 year olds can stand!  But I knew that there are ways to make no-cook ice cream so I asked around and checked our cookbooks.  I found a recipe in the Ben & Jerry book to make a quick ice cream base but it notes that it doesn't last long in home freezers.  No problem!  My brother in law is an ice cream hound and I figured they'd be able to finish off a pint in no time!

This recipe is so fast and easy it takes about 5 minutes to mix and then the regular 20 minutes to churn.  My nephew loved watching the clock and the machine churn.  He really enjoyed seeing the mixture get thicker and thicker.  He was also a big help with all the measuring and mixing.  And, as luck would have it, vanilla ice cream is his favorite flavor!

Simple No-Cook Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 Cups Heavy Cream
2/3 C Half & Half
3/4 C sugar
2 t vanilla extract (I used tahitian)

1. In a medium bowl with a spout if you have it, pour in the heavy cream. Slowly add the sugar one quarter cup at a time while whisking vigorously.  You want to dissolve all the sugar in the cream before moving on.
2. When the sugar is dissolved, add half & half and vanilla and mix a little more
3. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn 20 minutes or according to the directions
4. Serve immediately with chocolate sauce or freeze.  It will be soft like frozen yogurt when it first comes out of the machine but if you have a patient child with you, serve right away and freeze the rest for later.

Vanilla

We made a complicated ice cream pie on the 4th of July. We made chocolate chip ice cream for that pie and it was good--but it wasn't amazing. It wasn't Fosselman's. So we set out to find out why. I started off by doing a little web research on the Fosselman's website and learned that they use Tahitian Vanilla to make that flavor. We couldn't imagine that that would make a difference but we wanted to try it anyway. After doing a few web searches and finding that Tahitian Vanilla is even more expensive than regular extract I put the project out of my mind.

Surprisingly, Joey did not. And on my birthday, I opened a damp amazon box with a few gifts soaked in Tahitian Vanilla. A little rough handling managed to shatter a bottle of the delectable ingredient soaking everything in its path. I smelled like vanilla for days.

Luckily the good people at Amazon understood their folly and sent us 3 new bottles of vanilla and we didn't even have to return the two that survived! Now just 5 jars of vanilla richer, we decided to set out on our quest and try to make the chocolate ice cream.

We followed the same directions as our first batch with the only difference being the Tahitian vanilla vs. Pure Vanilla Extract standard, usually Madagascar. Luckily, since ice cream lasts forever (unless you eat it all) we had some of the original batch left to compare.

The results floored us. The two ice creams taste completely different. The original chocolate chip ice cream tastes like your average one. The one with the Tahitian vanilla is almost a bit sweeter with a strong vanilla flavor but not the kind of vanilla you've been having all your life--a new kind of taste that's really hard to place. That Tahitian vanilla is definitely the Fosselman's missing flavor. We think that they use a tad more of the stuff though, and next time we'll add a bit more. We kind of want to make a bunch of plain vanillas now. We never want to make vanilla.

The Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 C half & half

1 C cream

4 egg yolks

1/2 C sugar

3 t Tahitian Vanilla (this makes the difference in it, but if you want plain jane vanilla then use it)

3 oz bittersweet or dark chocolate finely chopped

3 T vodka, optional (for softening)

Ice Bath

1. In the top of a double boiler heat half & half over simmering water until steaming.

2. Meanwhile, separate eggs and whisk the yolks. Whisk the sugar in with the eggs.

3. When the half & half begins to steam pour half of it into the egg mixture slowly and whisk vigorously so that the eggs don't cook.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the remaining half & half and cook stirring about 10 minutes or until custard coats the back of a silicone spatula and when you run a finger through the spatula the line stays.

5. When the custard is done place the pan in an ice bath and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

6. Pour the custard into a container and add vanilla and cream. Stir and refrigerate until cold, 6 hours or overnight.

7. When your custard is cool, add vodka if using and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufactures instructions, about 20 minutes. In the last minute of churning add the chocolate chips trying not to poor them directly on the dasher. Either eat as soft serve or store in a container in the freezer to harden.

Makes 1 quart

Double-Layer Ice Cream Pie

For the 4th of July this year we made double-layer ice cream pie. Some said it was the best ice cream pie they've ever had--even with Fosselman's! This is quite an achievement for us! Our pie had an oreo cookie crust, a hot fudge layer, a layer of chocolate chip ice cream, and finally a layer of English toffee ice cream. We were planning to serve it with hot fudge on the side but we forgot when it came to serving. But it would be a nice decadent touch!

This time we used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for hot fudge but as many of the comments suggested had a lot of trouble with separation after the fudge cooled so we followed a commenter's suggestion and added a bit more sugar and water and folded the mixture and when it cooled it was actually a great consistency for spreading on pie--don't know about pouring on ice cream but we have enough to try! The fudge was not that sweet even with the additional sugar which was a nice contrast to the ice cream.

The oreo cookie layer was a little thicker than we normally make it but it came out of the pan well so it was fine. The English toffee ice cream was a bit of a stronger flavor but the chocolate chip added a nice contrast. This pie was pretty delicious.

To assemble:

1. Press oreo crust into a buttered glass pie plate. Freeze until set.

2. Spread the hot fudge over the oreo crust and freeze until set.

3. When crust and fudge is set, scoop and spread just less than 1 qt ice cream into the shell. Work quickly so it doesn't melt and freeze immediately when it is finished.

4. When the first layer of ice cream is firm so that ice cream can be spread on top of it, usually 2 hours, spread about 3/4 quart of ice cream over the top, trying to mound in the summer to look like a full pie.

5. Freeze and serve.

English Toffee Ice Cream

Joey loves the English Toffee Ice Cream he gets from our favorite ice cream shop Fosselman's. This weekend we decided to embark on a hands on project of an Ice Cream Pie for 4th of July dessert. As we have done twice before, we make all the ingredients homemade for our ice cream pies which makes them pretty time consuming. This time was no exception and we decided to go all out and make a double layer pie with two different ice creams. We chose English Toffee Ice Cream--which proved to be a really hard flavor to find a recipe for; and chocolate chip which tastes a little too vanilla-y but we aren't sure why. Fosselman's, we want to recreate your chocolate chip too! We'll just have to get a job there...

Anyway, after much searching we found a recipe for Butter Toffee Ice Cream. I guess technically this would be more of a butterscotch but it was the closest we could come. Thinking about it anyway, I looked up toffee recipes and they called for basically cooking brown sugar, so adding brown sugar to our custard I surmised would help make that toffee like background to the ice cream.

After lots of waiting and the churning I found this ice cream to be absolutely delightful. I love the caramely toffee background and the hint of cookie dough (aka brown sugar). The toffee bits mixed in add a nice texture and more flavor. This may be my new favorite! The original recipe that we borrowed this from calls for a dulce de leche swirl and if you are so inclined I bet that would make a lovely addition!

English Toffee Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1 cup whole milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 pinch sea salt

4 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (we used 1 t double strength vanilla)

3 Skor or Heath candy bars, finely chopped (we used Skor)

3 T vodka, optional

1. In the top of a double boiler heat 1 C heavy cream, 1 C milk, sugars and salt until sugars have dissolved and mixture is steaming.

2. In a small bowl whisk eggs together until combined.

3. Poor a small bit of the hot milk into the eggs and whisk vigorously to avoid scrambling the eggs. This is a good job for two people! When you are sure the eggs have been tempered, poor the mixture back into the top of the double boiler. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Cook custard until thick and coats back of a spoon, about 10 minutes stirring constantly. You will feel the thickness change as you stir.

5. While the custard is cooking prepare an ice bath (ice and water in a bowl large enough to hold the pan, and that won't crack with the heat/cold).

6. When custard is cooked, remove immediately to the ice bath (watch out! there's water on the bottom of the pan! Don't drip it on your toes)

7. Let cool, stirring occasionally. When the mixture is room temperature, poor it into a container and add the remaining 1 C cream. Refrigerate for a few hours until completely cold.

8. Churn mixture in the ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. In the last minute of churning add Skor or Heath pieces.

9. After churning is completed, scoop ice cream into a container and add vodka if you so desire. The vodka is supposed to keep the ice cream from becoming too hard--but if you are serving it to children or pregnant women just omit this step and take the ice cream out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before you serve it.

Double-Churned Ice Cream

I have learned a lesson--if you haven't used a small appliance in a while, you should double check that you have all the parts before you start.

We haven't made ice cream in a couple of months and when I pulled out the ice cream maker to churn I didn't realize I was missing the lid. Everything looked fine so I poured and started the clock for 20 minutes. I returned to the kitchen when the timer dinged ready to add the mix-ins and was extremely disappointed to see frozen edges and liquidy middle. What happened I wondered? I knew the custard was good--but what happened with the machine? Did we need a new one?

I scraped out the semi-liquidy ice cream and put it back in the fridge to melt back to original state. I had to defrost the ice cream freezer completely to clean off the frozen edges. A few days later, I checked my custard and it was still good and totally a custard again (not half frozen). So I re-churned. But before I did I found the clear plastic lid that holds the whole contraption together.

The result? Thick churned ice cream ready to eat immediately after the second churn. If you're adding mix-ins add early. The downside is that this ice cream is in the freezer and now as hard as a rock. Churn twice, eat immediately.

*Update* After heating the ice cream in the microwave for a few seconds it was once again soft like regular ice cream but the double-churned texture was by far the best.

Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream Float

I have a problem. Every summer Saturday I head over to the Farmer's Market and buy whatever fruits and vegetables strike my fancy. Recently, I have been buying peaches and nectarines every trip to the market. The thing is, I can't possibly eat all this fruit and Joey only likes them when cooked. So I end up with loads of peaches and nectarines at the end of every week.

Last week I made a crisp. This week, I stumbled upon a recipe for ice cream--buttermilk peach ice cream. As luck would have it, I had some buttermilk in the fridge!

This recipe actually takes 2 days--but if you are a regular ice cream maker, you know that most ice cream takes time due to cooling the custard. But get this, this recipe doesn't even use a custard base! So all you have to do is let the peaches set for awhile to soak in the delicious sugary flavors, puree, and mix. The Homesick Texan lets the peaches sit overnight. I was going to just do all day but then decided I didn't want to make it until the next day.

This ice cream is good but not sweet as you would expect. It reminds me more of yogurt--not the frozen kind. However, it is pretty tasty the more and more I try it. The mixture was a little big for our ice cream maker and nearly overflowed since there is so much liquid involved in the original recipe, however, it froze more solid in the freezer after.

I have been trying to devise a way to make this ice cream be better-- a sweet topping perhaps? However, I found a way by turning it into an ice cream float. I highly recommend this use of the ice cream--or you could eat on it's own...or with cake...or pie or something of that sort.

Ingredients
3-4 scoops Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream
1/2 can lemon-lime soda
tall glass
straw (I didn't have a straw and really missed it)
long spoon

Directions
1. Fill tall glass with scoops of ice cream, push down on the ice cream to make sure you leave no holes.
2. Pour lemon-lime soda into the spaces left by the ice cream scoops until it fizzes all the way to the top.
3. Top with thin curls of ice cream (if your ice cream is really hard, you can do this by scooping a very thin layer of ice cream and setting it carefully atop the bubbles.
4. Add spoon and straw and enjoy on the veranda for a cool & refreshing snack

Ice Cream Pie

We had some friends over this weekend and decided to make this dessert, Kona Coffee Ice Cream Pie. We've made it before but now with pictures! This is a simple dessert we make complicated by making all the layers ourselves. The easy way is to buy a chocolate cookie crust, 1 quart of ice cream (any flavor), some hot fudge and some whipped cream and layer it all together. What we did was make our own cookie crust, hot fudge and ice cream and then layer it all together and it tastes fantastic--maybe a little too coffee flavored for some but hey, you don't have to use coffee ice cream. Try it with peanut butter ice cream or mint or a dulce de leche instead of hot fudge...the possibilities are endless, the flavors are amazing and your guests will be thrilled.

Chocolate Ice Cream

What do you do when you have a cup of cream and two cups of half & half that all expire today? Make ice cream of course! I decided to not go to the store and chance it that I had all the ingredients at home to make a simple chocolate ice cream based off this recipe from William Sonoma.

So I got home and happened to have a few minutes before dinner to whip up the custard. I scrounged the kitchen and found Baker's Semisweet Chocolate, a hazelnut IKEA chocolate bar, 5 eggs and the cream and half & half.

This ice cream is super creamy and very delicious and honestly I think you could do any variation on this and still make it great. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what would happen when I cut up the hazelnut bar and realized it had nuts in it and then used the bakers chocolate...but it all worked out! (you strain the custard so the nuts drop right out before you cool it.)


Chocolate Ice cream

Ingredients
1 C heavy whipping cream
2 C half & half
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla
pinch of salt
3 oz Semi Sweet Bakers Chocolate
3.5 oz IKEA hazelnut bar
5 egg yolks

Directions
1. Heat cream and half & half in the top of a double boiler until bubbly on the sides or steaming. Meanwhile, chop chocolates into small pieces.
2. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar and salt in a separate bowl.
3. When the cream is hot, remove from heat and stir in chocolate until it melts, make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom.
4. Pour part of the hot chocolate cream liquid into the eggs and whisk. Then pour the whole thing back into the top of the double boiler and whisk, stir in vanilla.
5. Heat over simmering water 10-12 minutes stirring occasionally until you can scrape a finger across the spoon and liquid is thicker.
6. Meanwhile, make an ice bath. Strain the hot custard through a sieve into the bowl over the ice bath. Cool and stir for 30 minutes. Then, cover the custard and place in the fridge for 4 hours or until completely cool.
7. Later, freeze in an ice cream maker 20 minutes (or whatever it says for that machine). Transfer ice cream to a covered container and freeze until ready to serve.*

*This ice cream was ROCK HARD when I took it out 8 hours later, it could be that our freezer is ice cold--but just microwave it on the defrost setting for 30-60 seconds until scoopable.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I volunteered to make Easter dessert. I hemmed and hawed over it. We were having a casual Easter so I didn't want to fancy it up with something like lamb cake. I was set on making something lemony but then I had a change of heart because chocolate is oh-so-good. Then I recalled that coconut is a popular springtime flavor. I decided to make my mom's favorite ice cream flavor--coconut chocolate chip. Then I decided to top it all off with Grandma's Lakeside Sandwich Cookies. Dessert turned out to be a grand success--and the ice cream didn't even melt on the 1 1/2 drive to Ojai*!

I used the Williams-Sonoma coconut ice cream recipe and then added chocolate chips at the end. It looked at first like it was a lot of steps but it was well worth it. This is probably the creamiest ice cream I have ever eaten, ever.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

• 1 1/4 cups packed sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 3/4 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (this turned out to be the whole can for me)
  
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3.5 oz of your favorite dark or bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces
  

1. Toast coconut in a medium heavy saucepan for 7 minutes until it begins to brown. Add half & half. Bring to a simmer then remove from heat, cover and let steep 30 minutes.
2. Strain the coconut/half&half mixture and return half & half to same saucepan, discard flakes. Congratulations, you have just made coconut milk!
3. Place coconut milk over medium-high heat. Add the cream of coconut and bring to a simmer, remove from heat.
4. In a heatproof bowl whisk eggs and sugar until well blended. Add the coconut milk mixture slowly while whisking so as not to cook the eggs until well blended. Pour mixture into the same saucepan.
5. Return pan to medium-low and cook stirring slowly and continuously about 5 minutes or until custard leaves a path on the back of a spoon when scraped by a finger.
6. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl. Add the cream and stir well. Nestle the bowl into another bowl half-filled with ice water to cool to room temperature.
7. Cover the mixture and refrigerate until completely cold, probably a few hours
8. Freeze in an ice cream maker 20 minutes, add chocolate to the mixture in the final minute of churning. Place in freezer in a covered container.

*To make a long trip with ice cream in the car, fill gallon sized ziplocs with ice. Place ice cream container in a bonified cooler and surround with ice cube bags. Be sure all sides are padded with ice. Place the cooler in the trunk away from sunlight and internal cabin temperature shifts. Place in the freezer immediately upon arrival at destination.

Chocolate Cream Pie Ice Cream

What's the difference between Chocolate Cream Pie Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream you say? Well, the difference is that I took a chocolate cream pie mishap and turned it into ice cream 2 days later. The result? Fantastic!

On Saturday I was making a chocolate cream pie using the Homesick Texan's delicious looking recipe for a dinner party we were having. Something happened in the custard-thickening process and it just never thickened. I thought it was good when I saw a top film that seemed thick enough, but boy was I wrong when I poured it into the pie shell. It was like chocolate milk! The meringue which I knew I did wrong came out correctly, go figure. I baked the pie in hopes of some kind of thickening in the oven. No luck. So I threw it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Again, no luck on the custardy filling even getting to the pudding stage! Needless to say, I did not serve dessert to my guests.

I tasted the runny pie and deemed it a delicious soup. Then today I decided I'd buy some heavy whipping cream and see if I could turn it into ice cream. It had all the right ingredients and I thought it just might work. I scraped off the meringue and threw it away. I poured the chocolate filling into a pyrex, added a cup of whipping cream and stirred. I poured the whole mess into the ice cream maker and viola! 20 minutes later I had a creamy light chocolate ice cream. I added pieces of pie crust at the very end for a little hint of what it used to be. Delicious! I highly recommend it--the one thing--you have to mess up the pie in order to get this to work.

Chocolate Cream Pie Ice Cream
4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cups of sugar
5 tablespoons of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of whole milk
2 egg yolks, beaten slightly
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 tablespoon of butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 pie crust

Directions (I think)
1.Mix together all ingredients through eggs with whisk. Heat over medium until it thickens slightly to coat the back of spoon.
2. Meanwhile, poke holes in pie crust with fork. Bake pie crust for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or according to package directions
3. Remove chocolate mixture from heat, add butter and vanilla and stir until butter is melted.
4. Place chocolate mixture in the refrigerator and chill until well cooled.
5. Break pie crust into bite-sized pieces, set aside.
6. Prepare ice cream maker. Mix 1 C heavy cream with the chocolate mixture and pour into ice cream maker. Freeze for 20 minutes. With two minutes remaining, add pie crust pieces.
7. Scrape ice cream into container and freeze until ready to eat.

Kona Coffee Ice Cream Pie

Joey and I decided to try our hand at making an ice cream pie now that 31 Flavor's prices have soared. Joey looked through the ice cream book and decided on Kona coffee ice cream, an Oreo cookie crust, and hot fudge. We thought it would be fun to just make all the elements from scratch...it turns out, it is actually pretty expensive to make your own ice cream pie...but I dare say, tastier. I don't have a picture because it was all melty by the time i thought of it...but just picture delicious and try it yourself, or, stop on by and we'll make one for you.

Joey basically made the pie himself. Meanwhile, I made baked beans.

Kona Coffee Ice Cream
Ingredients:
2 C half & half
6 T coffee beans (we used Kona)
4 large egg yolks
2/3 C sugar
1 C heavy whipping cream

Special Equipment: Ice cream maker

Directions:
1. In a double boiler, heat half and half and coffee beans over simmering water until steaming. Remove from heat and steep for 40 minutes.
2. In a bowl whisk the egg yolks until blended. Add sugar and whisk until combined.
3. Prepare a large ice bath that will hold the top of the double boiler pot.
4. Whisk half the hot half & half into the yolk mixture and then pour the whole mixture back into the pot and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until custard coats the back of a silicone spoon.
5. Remove from heat and place in an ice bath immediately, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches room temperature.
6. Strain through sieve into container (to remove beans), cover, and place in refrigerator to chill at least 3 hours.
7. Once the mixture is chilled, mix in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions, place in container and freeze.
Yield: 1 qt.

Oreo Cookie Crust
Ingredients
20 oreos
5 T butter

Directions:
1. Melt butter.
2. Mix melted butter and oreos. Press into a 9inch pie plate on the bottom and up the sides.
3. Place in refrigerator or freezer for later.

Hot Fudge
Ingredients:
6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped or 1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 C half & half
1/4 C light corn syrup
1 t vanilla extract
1 T grand Marnier, brandy or cognac (optional)

Directions:
1. Combine chocolate, half & half, and corn syup over a double boiler and heat, stirring, until smooth.
2. Stir in vanilla and grand mariner, if desired. (we happened to have cognac on hand and put it in but we thought it smelled like alcohol and didn't love the flavor, we might use another fudge recipe next time).
3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Ice Cream Pie Construction
Ingredients:
1 1/2 qts ice cream
1 recipe hot fudge
1 cookie crust
whipped cream in the can

Directions:
1. Remove pie crust from freezer. Spread with half the hot fudge. Freeze.
2. Remove ice cream from freezer and let soften so that it is spreadable.
3. Remove pie crust, spread ice cream on top of the hot fudge until it fully covers. If it starts to get too melty and moveable, Freeze for about 10 minutes.
4. Continue spreading ice cream until all the ice cream has been used or the pie looks full. Freeze.
5. Remove from freezer and top ice cream with a layer of hot fudge. Freeze.
6. Pipe whipped cream around the edges and one dollup in the center.
7. Freeze for at least an hour before serving.

Ok fine, here's a picture but it is terrible...it has melted, and been devoured and it doesn't look half as good as it did when we made it.

Cheese Ice Cream

At the local pizza joint, they have hundreds of old magazines for customers to read and enjoy while waiting for their pie. I always love to read Gourmet--a magazine I wouldn't order but love to read. These are old magazines, so I can't pinpoint the issue, but I can tell you that this one summer issue talked about a Watermelon Sundae. Apparently, if you pair this special ice cream with watermelon, it makes watermelon taste even colder on the hottest of days.

Instead of going the watermelon route though, I decided to just make the ice cream. The ice cream was good with chocolate sauce, and is probably great with fruit--but by itself it is a little bit too gritty I think. But try it for yourself!

Cheese Ice Cream (I'm sure there is a better name for this)
Ingredients
1 15oz container cold whole milk ricotta (1 2/3 C)
3oz Cream Cheese
1 C cold whole milk
1 C sugar
2 T dark rum (you can buy little bottles at the liquor store)
1 t lemon zest
1/2 t vanilla
1/8 t salt
1/3 C heavy cream
Ice Cream Maker

Directions
1. Blend cheeses, milk, sugar, rum, zest, vanilla and salt in the blender until smooth, about 1 min (I used the food processor and it took about 30 seconds)
2. Add cream and blend until just combined, about 5 minutes (With the FP it took about 1 minute).
3. Freeze in the ice cream maker (it takes 20 minutes in ours usually but it was done in about 15). Freeze in an airtight container for 3 hours before serving (honestly you could serve it right away it was so thick and delicious).

Tip1 - The ice cream gets really cold and hard, leave it out before you serve it.
Tip2 - If you want to serve a Watermelon Sundae, cut slices one inch thick and serve ice cream next to the watermelon on a long plate, shave chocolate onto the ice cream.
Tip3 - I liked this ice cream with warm hot fudge which softened the ice cream