TWD - Vanilla Ice Cream

In the past couple of months I have made a few different ice creams, different bases, etc....and I have to say...I love a custard base ice cream. It is so rich and sticks to your tongue. It may be a bit more work, but it is so worth it. I didn't realize how easy it is to make ice cream without a maker - believe me, I wish I had one, and hope to get one soon - but you can make these delicious treats without one. Just check out how to here.

Dorie's Vanilla Ice Cream is yummy. She gives options of either using vanilla extract or a vanilla bean. GO WITH THE BEAN. Scrape out the seeds and boil the bean - get that flavour out. It makes a difference. Seeing all those little specks makes me smile too!

Be sure to check out the TWD blog roll and see what other's made with this week's recipe. And check out Lynne's blog, Cafe Lynnylu, for this week's recipe.

Take Care,
Tania
Love Big, Bake Often

Sundae Sunday.....Cherry Lime

I love Cherry and Lime together. Sonic does it right - they made a mean Cherry Limeade....but I don't get there often enough (which is probably a good thing!). I think it is a great combination.






So today when I was thinking about what to make to go with my TWD Vanilla Ice Cream, I looked in the fridge and found a lot of limes and some dark cherries. So when the fridge gives you limes, what do you do? You make Lime Curd! And I thought about mixing it directly into the vanilla ice cream but I wanted to keep it pure. And then with the cherries I decided to just chop them up and cook them into a sauce with some sugar and water....it is so dark and rich. I hope I please my Twitter friends who said they would like to see something with fruit!





When I served it up I decided to just pour the warmed cherries over the ice cream and dolloped the lime curd on the side. Delish. I have already posted Dorie's recipe for Lemon Curd, and just changed the juice to lime....you can find it here.

And you will not be getting the recipe for the Vanilla Ice Cream - though I know you want it! I mean, LOOK AT THOSE VANILLA SPECKS! It's for Tuesdays with Dorie this week and I will be sure to link you to the host with the recipe.

Take care,
Tania
Love Big, Bake Often

Sundae Sunday

Chocolate is my favourite food in the whole wide world. I would take chocolate to any deserted island any time! But after chocolate, when it comes to ice cream comes CARAMEL. I love it....the luscious richness of it and that sweetness gets me every time.

Oh - did I mention that today is National Ice Cream day? So I made some ice cream to go with the salted caramel sauce I made. I still don't have an ice cream maker so I made it the old fashioned way like I did here....

Today I made David Lebovitz's Philly Style Vanilla Ice Cream. I had heard good things about it via Twitter....so I gave it a whirl. It is delicious. I love all the little specks of vanilla running through it....it's awesome. A great way to use a vanilla bean! Can you see those specks?

Salted Caramel Sauce

I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe and added some fleur de sel....

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp light corn syrup

3/4 heavy cream

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 - 2 tbsp fleur de sel

Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir just to combine. Heat over medium-high heat, without stirring, until the caramel turns deep amber, 5 - 10 minutes, depending on the size of your saucepan and the intensity of the heat. As the sugar is caramelizing, wipe down any splatters on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. To test the colour of the caramel, drop a bit on a white plate. Don't be timid about the colour - if it's too pale, it won't have much taste.

Lower the heat, stand back from the saucepan - because the caramel will bubble and spatter - and add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to smooth and calm down the caramel. Remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the caramel into a heatproof jar and cool until it is slightly warm and still pourable before using, about 1 hour.

I added the salt after the cream and butter....I should have let it dissolve a little more...as I was pouring it out I had some salt sitting at the bottom of the pan.

This caramel sauce will keep in a covered container for about a week...if it lasts that long. The recipe says that it makes 1 cup - I ended up with more than 1 cup!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer....and eating lots of ice cream...especially today!

Take care,
Tania

Love Big, Bake Often

Not So Peachy Ice Cream

Unfortunately I am the only one in the house that likes peaches. Jason and Jakob don't really like all things peachy....and I think they are trying to turn Aiden to the dark side! I brought up the subject of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Honey Peach Ice Cream, with the boys and both said "no thanks!". So I put on my thinking cap, and then realized I had lots and lots of blueberries in the fridge just waiting to be eaten. Honey Blueberry Ice Cream was approved by all and the process began. I was a little apprehensive to attempt this as I don't own an ice cream maker! But some great friends on Twitter (I love my Twitter friends!) sent me this link to David Lebovitz's website with great instructions on how to do it without one! It went fairly well, a little time consuming and meant that I couldn't go anywhere or nap for a few hours in the afternoon but it was so worth it. I actually said that we may never buy ice cream again. But I really still want an ice cream maker....maybe the ice cream fairy will bring me one.

I switched up the peaches with 2 cups of blueberries....but that is all I changed. I did not save any for the end of the recipe - I boiled them all with the honey and pureed them all.....made for a lovely purple shade of ice cream!

A huge Thank You to Tommi, of Brown Interior, for choosing this recipe - it got me to try to make my own ice cream...something I had been to intimidated to do before now! Be sure to stop by Brown Interior for the recipe and check out the Tuesdays with Dorie Blogroll to see all the other creations.

Oh, and I made a small batch of Lemon Sugar Cookies to go with the ice cream...a perfect match!

Take care,
Tania

Love Big, Bake Often