Ginger Ice Cream with Chai-spiced graham cracker dough

Dear me! It has been ages since my last post. And to make things worse, I made this ice cream way back on March 31 - my birthday! This was my own special birthday treat (along with a lot of pie), and I haven't remembered to post it until now. I will be sure to update more often from now on, even as I try to get my beach body on!

This flavor really came out of nowhere. I was sent this post from a friend of mine, and it looked to delectable to ignore. I had a pile of scraps leftover from the graham crackers, and have been waiting for an excuse to make ice cream with cookie dough! Add some ginger in there (one of my favorite spices) and I had myself a project.

I was unsure as to how to approach add the ginger flavor. Use fresh ginger? and if so, how? Ginger candy bits? Ground ginger? For my first attempt at ginger ice cream, I wanted it to be as natural as possible, so I opted to slice real ginger bits and brew them in the milk.
I'd like to try make ginger ice cream again, even go so far as to perfect a recipe for it. Maybe add ground ginger to the fresh next time to kick up the flavor a notch?

Ginger Ice Cream with Chai-spiced Graham Cracker Dough

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
knob of fresh ginger (see pics for how much I used)
handful of dough bits (again, see pics, and also make sure to check out this link if you missed it above)

Instructions

Chop your ginger into desired bit size. 










Pour two cups of milk into a small saucepan on the stove on med/low heat, add the sugar, and stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Then add the sliced ginger bits and continue to simmer for about twenty minutes.

While this is happening slice the dough into desired bit size. Throw these into the fridge to keep cool and firm.

After the milk is finished simmering, let the mixture sit on the stove (burner off) for about an hour to continue to steep, then place the saucepan into the fridge to cool down.

Once cooled, sift the ginger out and combine the cream with the milk mixture and whisk until combined. Throw this into the ice cream maker, add the chopped dough bits, and let churn for twenty minutes. Scoop the ice cream into a container and then into the freezer to harden a bit.

Now where I screwed up is watching my friend play Dark Souls too long. About 4 minutes too long. By the time I remembered to check the ice cream it had turned into a fluffy cloud! Which is too bad because while this may be someone's cup of tea, it certainly isn't mine. I also could have chopped the dough bits more finely. And don't forget about the ginger note above - the spicy flavor was too subtle for me. It's so subtle that, if I had tasted it blindfolded, I only would have been able to discern that there was a flavor added, but not be able to pinpoint what it is.



P.S.

Sorry about the lighting in the pictures. A) it was getting on in the evening when I was making this. B) the lightbulb in my kitchen is dangerously close to dying.

Crashed and burned

So I've already fallen off the wagon. A couple days ago actually. Damn I really thought I might make it, or at least to the halfway mark.

sigh

Back to posts soon!

Taking a break!

As much as it pains me to say this, I will be taking a 30-day break while I cleanse my body.

At the beginning of 2012 I started having chronic aches in my right shoulder whenever I used it, and an MRI revealed I have bursitis. Doc told me to let it rest for up to 3 months, and these orders have greatly impacted my ability to retain my muscle mass.

On another note during the past 4-6 weeks my significant other's work schedule has been the most hectic it has ever been, and has greatly impacted my sleep schedule. I don't know about you guys, but when I get very little sleep, especially when it's over the course of several consecutive nights a week with no chance to catch up in between, my body screams FEED ME SUGAR. And do I obey? Of course. This coupled with my body being messed up (I am still religious to my lunges, squats, leg raises, and tabata drills!), has left me feeling very sluggish. Often I find myself starting a drill, completing 1-3 sets, then quitting to eat because I feel too tired/lazy to continue. THIS. HAS. TO. STOP. Especially with warmer days approaching! Hell, it's already been 70 degrees here this week, but I expect another cold snap soon.

I'm hoping this cleanse will reset my body's sugar addiction, help me achieve higher-quality sleep (even though the quantity, for now, won't be what I'd like), help me shed a little fat and water weight, and increase my energy levels.

Damn it. I just made some sweet buns last night too.

Even though this is an ice cream blog, I'll probably post a few updates on this hellish road to recovery. It starts with dinner tonight! I wrote out all the dos and don'ts and put a timestamp on the same paper - Wednesday, March 14, at 5:50pm.

Wish me luck! Trust me, I'm gonna need all I can get.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

The only reason I made this ice cream was to finish off a bag of chocolate chips I had in the pantry. Now that isn't to say I don't love cookie dough ice cream, because I do. While in search of a dough recipe, I came across David Lebovitz's in his book The Perfect Scoop, and looked no further. Everyone who loves dessert recipes knows his name. 

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Ingredients: 


Dough -

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup flour (I added a couple spoonfuls)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used 1/8 of almond instead)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I have no idea how much I used! 

Ice Cream - 

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

Instructions: 

I went ahead and made the dough a couple days prior to making the actual ice cream since I had time on my hands. After mixing all the ingredients I froze the dough. I figure it'd be easier to work with this way. As you saw from my ingredient substitutions above, I changed quite a bit. A) I think there is too much butter in this recipe. Before I added the extra bit of flour my dough was sitting in a grease pool of butter. B) I don't have any vanilla extract. C) I just used what was left of my chocolate. I don't think I had 3/4 cup. It was probably closer to 1/2 cup. I'm glad I didn't have any more to use because there was way more chocolate than dough. 

I made the ice cream with the usual method - stir sugar in milk in a small saucepan over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the sugar fully dissolves. Whisk in the cream. Refrigerate. 

While the batter was refrigerating I pulled the dough from the freezer to hack into chunks! They had a pretty distinct butter flavor. It isn't my cup of tea, but might be someone's. I did enjoy it though. 

Look at that dough vs batter ratio! That's how it should be. Not like Breyer's or Haagen Dazs where you get flecks or only a few small chunks. No way. 

mmm mmmm! Look at that chunky goodness. Churned for about 20 minutes and the base came out nice and fluffy too. 

Spiced Earl Grey with Candied Orange Peel Ice Cream

I absolutely love a good Earl Grey with cream and sugar; it has to be my favorite tea flavor. I know it isn't original, but it's just so darn good! I've seen plenty of Earl Grey tea ice cream concoctions on food blogs, but I wanted to do something different with mine. One of my favorite spices is cardamom, and it pairs quite well with black tea and with citrus flavors. I thought what the hell?! Might as well give it a whirl. I also wanted to enhance the citrus notes from the bergamot in the tea. I considered simply adding some orange zest, but I thought it might be bitter or not freeze well with respect to its texture. Then I thought of candied orange peels. They are quite delicious, and while I'm not sure how their texture will fair in frozen cream, I'm gonna throw them in anyway!

Finding the orange pieces was not easy. Well, finding them was easy. Getting to them wasn't. The closest place to me that I could probably have found them was Dylan's, and the hell I'm gonna pay $12/lb for them. That means heading all the way down to the LES for them, which takes about 45 minutes one-way. sigh
And for the tea I just used Bigelow because it was on sale for $2 at the grocery store. Now I have no problem with this brand - in fact I find it tasty. However, I do long to try the Earl Grey Provence from Mariage Frères, but at around $25 a pop I just can't do it.

I had a few different friends weigh in on this combination. One person immediately said 'yum!', another was hesitant (she doesn't like Earl Grey. gasp!), and another said it sounded good, but the combination of flavors might end up being overwhelming. I'll let you know who was right at the end of the post.

Spiced Earl Grey with Candied Orange Peel Ice Cream


Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
3 earl grey tea bags
1 tbsp ground cardamom
handful of chopped candied orange peels



Instructions

Combine the milk and sugar into a small saucepan and heat over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the sugar fully dissolves. After the sugar is finished dissolving, put the tea bags into the milk, and continue to heat over low for another 5 minutes, or until you see the tea beginning to steep (aka my milk started to turn light brown). Remove from heat and let sit for 15-20 minutes with a lid over it.

This is what color mine was before I proceeded. 








(sorry it's a little blurry!)

Next I whisked in the heavy cream and a tablespoon of ground cardamom. Now, I love cardamom. It is hands down one of my favorite spices, and I can never get enough of it. I always say the more the better! So digest that for a moment and then take into consideration the fact that I'm telling you that maybe one tablespoon of it might be a little too much. I probably should have scaled back the measurement to two teaspoons.


....still can't believe I think there is too much of it.

As this batter chilled in the fridge I chopped the orange peels. I don't mind orange peels, but sometimes they are a little too bitter for me. I briefly considered just putting some orange zest into the batter when I was feeling too lazy to go across town for the candy.




What's crazy is that this batter took twice as long as the Spiced Plum, and it still wasn't finished! I left this to churn for 16 minutes, and once again it looked finished but had some liquid stored at the bottom I couldn't see till I had already unloaded the ice cream maker into some tupperware for storage. I don't understand why this batter took nearly as long to churn as a full recipe. :/

Anywho, is still finished with a strong flavor. Though, the cardamom did lend a slight texture to the otherwise creamy treat. It wasn't gritty, but was almost chalky. It was weird. I guess that since cardamom doesn't necessarily dissolve that it would leave behind a texture, but I've had cardamom ice cream before that was very creamy. Hmmm I wonder what that company did. I'm sure that be decreasing the amount by a third would help somewhat with that issue. Also, the orange peels added absolutely nothing to the product. I even caught myself scooping out bites around the peel chunks. Would zest have been better? I'm beginning to believe that no citrus additive is probably the best thing for it.

Overall it's a solid ice cream, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Oh and I ate too much of it before I remembered to take a picture of it. Hence why there is no picture! teehee

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl Brownie Ice Cream (now that's a mouthful)

This flavor, once again, came from me having too many sweets in the apartment and not knowing how best to consume them. Perhaps for my next flavor I'll actually consult my ever-growing list of ideas.

For Valentine's Day, I made my sweetie some of these brownies. They were damn good. However, because I am incredibly cheap, I used a full 8 ounces of cream cheese and only 4 ounces of goat cheese. Doing the recipe by the book would have involved me spending $10 on goat cheese! No way dude. I also managed to find a decent-looking 6 ounce container of fresh raspberries for $2.50! Very strange for this time of year. And that's another change I made to the recipe - I put the full 6 ounces of berries into the cheese swirl and just put an extra handful of chocolate chips into the batter instead of adding berries to the brownie batter. I just didn't see the point. The chocolate flavor would have overwhelmed the berries.


Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cheese Swirl Brownie Ice Cream

Ingredients


2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
a ton of chopped brownies

Instructions


Man these instructions are beginning to sound redundant!

I heated the whole milk and sugar in a small saucepan on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar was fully dissolved. Next I poured that mixture, along with the cream, into the KitchenAid for another 5 minutes to combine.

After the batter was mixed, I poured it into some tupperware and threw it into the freezer to chill for a few minutes while I chopped the brownies! These had been in the freezer prior to chopping in hopes that they wouldn't crumble in the ice cream the same way the carrot cake did. I like my chunks!

You may think this amount looks like overkill, but I think it's just right! The more chunks, the better the ice cream.

I put in so many chunks they wouldn't all incorporate into the batter! Now that's what I like to see :D

Well isn't this not the pretty picture I was hoping for?
So I only let this churn for about 16 minutes instead of the full 20 as I should have. It looked done! Anywho, that's the last time I go on looks instead of numbers. I suppose I could have put this slushy pile back into the KitchenAid to churn for a few minutes, but I was feeling lazy. So I ended up with part ice cream, part icy slush, which didn't make for the fluffiest ice cream :/
Still turned out pretty tasty though! And the chunks were awesome.

Spiced Plum Tea Ice Cream

My inspiration for this flavor was brought about by an accidental run-in with a Harney & Sons flavor while eating brunch one day about three years ago. My cousin and brother were visiting me and we grabbed a table at Sarabeth's on the UES (overpriced but overall good food). Now this is the ONLY place in the city I've been able to find this specific flavor of tea. I've checked every coffee/tea shop I can think of, grocery stores, department stores, other restaurants, etc. Nothing. Nada. ZIP.
Now don't be getting this tea confused with the Passion Plum. While it's a fine tea, it nowhere compares to the rich flavor of the Spiced Plum. I've been able to find the Passion Plum in almost every establishment where I've found Harney & Sons tea. It's quite common, and normally found in bag-style. The Spiced Plum, which I was only able to find once Harney & Sons opened a store in SoHo, is only available in loose-leaf form. Actually, it's finer than that - almost like it's been ground. Better have a super fine-sieved tea infuser for this one! As for why I never bothered to order online, I just...didn't.

Putting this ice cream together required a little innovation on my part. My main problem was how to infuse the milk with tea. I have two tea infusers, both of which are not super-fine and both would not sit well in a pot of milk. So what did I use? A coffee filter and a chip clip. Not the prettiest, but it worked. Sort of. The ice cream itself turned out a little bland. What's weird is when you eat it, you know it's flavored with something, you just don't know what. Don't get me wrong - it's quite tasty and has good texture. I just don't think I added enough tea, which is funny because almost every tea ice cream recipe I've seen uses ~4 tbsp/teabags for a full recipe. I halved my milk and sugar, so naturally I halved the amount of tea. I wouldn't mind trying this one again because the idea of this flavor sounds really good. I'll just use 3-4 tbsp next time.


Spiced Plum Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients


*note - I'm halving all the amounts from now on in order to save on materials and cost. And my waistline.


1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp tea

Instructions


First I heated the milk and sugar in a small saucepan on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next I made up my little "teabag" and placed it in the milk for about 5 minutes before turning off the gas and covering the pot with a lid. I left the milk to sit for about an hour or so in order for the tea to infuse.

Afterwards, I added the cream and whisked the mixture for 1-2 minutes making sure everything was incorporated before pouring the batter into the KitchenAid.

This batch only took about 8 minutes to churn completely (on low), and was put in the freezer to harden for a couple hours before eating.

The texture of this was superb :D

Carrot Cake Ice Cream

This creation happened by accident. A few days prior I had whipped up a sheet of this. Overall it turned out to have a nice texture, but even after adding more spices (along with the 2 t of cinnamon I added 1 t nutmeg, a pinch of ginger, and a pinch of cardamom), it still turned out a little bland. When I make something, especially something involving such potent spices, I want the flavor to jump out of the pan and smack me in the face. But hey, I like spice! Perhaps a bit too much.

To top the cake I made this cream cheese frosting recipe instead of the one provided with the cake recipe. This is the absolute best cream cheese frosting I have ever made and will be the only cream cheese frosting I will continue to make until something better comes along, and I highly doubt something will. The flavor was so subtle yet at the same time incredibly rich. The texture was beyond smooth and silky, and at the same time heavy as you would expect from cream cheese, yet it wasn't dense. Instead of vanilla extract I scraped half a vanilla bean pod, a move I suggest you do should you make it in the future. I also very much appreciate the amount of sugar in it. Only one cup of regular sugar! Normally frosting calls for multiple cups of confectioner's sugar, something I really hate.

Because I ended up with more cake and frosting in my kitchen than I knew what to do with, I ended up tossing some into the ice cream batter! I figured what the hell - now is when the real experimenting begins!


Carrot Cake Ice Cream


Ingredients


2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
carrot cake bits
a few dollops of cream cheese frosting

Instructions

This time I started a little differently. I poured the two cups of whole milk into a small saucepan and stirred in the sugar while it cooked on medium heat. (Please ignore my ghetto stove. It was old when I moved in and it's dirty from a stew I made the night before :/ )

After stirring for about 3 minutes, I turned off the stove and poured the milk into the KitchenAid,

added the cream,

and left them to mix on low for about 5 minutes.

While the dairy was going, I chopped off a block of cake and set to work cutting it into little chunks.

I actually only ended up using half of those chunks, something I sorely regret. Should've used all of them!

And this cream cheese frosting! I really can't stress enough how much I love it. Never again shall I mix cream cheese and butter. Never again shall I use 3+ cups of confectioner's sugar. What a waste of calories and sugar! Not to mention that all the butter and extra sugar do is mask the wonderful flavor of the cream cheese. 

This stuff is so good I sit down with it and a spoon just like I would with ice cream. I should have added more than the 3 dollops that I did. I just didn't know how it would turn out so I erred on the safe side of not overloading it. Learned this one the hard way!

Added the goodies!

Churned the goodies for about 20 minutes. 

And it's done! Look at those chunks :D I'm a huge fan of chunks. 

Unfortunately most of the chunks did not survive. Not sure how! Maybe next time I should try freezing whatever goodies I'm adding so they can stand up to the churning process. Anywho, still turned out super tasty! There was a nice hint of a cream cheese flavor and the cake chunks added yummy flavor. I thought about adding carrot cake spices to the sweet cream ice cream, but it probably didn't need it. Not saying it wouldn't have been a good addition though. 

:D

Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Vanilla beans are expensive. Really expensive. I'm talking around $10 for two beans, which is a lot if you think about it. Fortunately Fairway sells two beans to a tube for $3.00, and the store is a godsend for doing so. Downside is there isn't a convenient location for me to visit, so when I go I buy 10 tubes (20 beans) in one go. Because my last batch of ice cream was subpar and I used an entire bean in it, I made the decision to only use the beans when necessary and not until I perfected the sweet cream base. Seems logical, right?

In fact, I'm making my own vanilla as I type from used vanilla beans. I hate waste! Especially when it comes to money. I plan on never buying vanilla extract again.

See that brownish-clear goodness? Just a couple more beans and I'll be set!









Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar

Instructions

As before I mixed the whole milk and the sugar in my KitchenAid mixer for approximately 5 minutes before adding the cream.

After letting this mix for another 5 minutes, I removed the batter from the mixer and put it in the fridge for a few hours. I wanted it to chill for a while before putting it in the ice cream maker. 

This is what it looked like after churning for about 10 minutes. 

And this is what it looked after 20 minutes. It's thickening!

Yummers! This is after a total of 25 minutes. 

Again I scooped the ice cream into a container to put in the freezer for just a bit to give it time to harden some more. This ice cream turned out pretty well, but it wasn't 100% to my liking. Because I churned it for 25 minutes, the texture was a little more airy, a little more whipped than I prefer. Don't get wrong - it was still delicious! I liked it very much. And no weird ice crystals or fat globs in this batch. 

Overall I like the progress I'm making! I think my next batch may prove to be even tastier :D

Vanilla Ice Cream

My first attempt at making ice cream did not go so well. I chose to ignore the directions that came with my ice cream maker and follow some random blog's instructions (blog shall remain anonymous), something I will never do again. Maybe this works for some people, but it did not work for me.

And for the record, I'm using the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker that I received this past Christmas! It's super easy to use and I highly recommend it.



Vanilla Ice Cream



Ingredients

2 cups of whole milk
1 cup of heavy cream
3/4 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean









Instructions

*the KitchenAid ice cream maker needs to be placed in the freezer the night before making ice cream!

First I combined the whole milk and sugar into my mixer, put the speed on low, and mixed for about 5 minutes. It isn't easy mixing sugar into cold milk!

After the sugar mixed and with the mixer still going I added the scraped vanilla seeds and cream, and left it to mix for another 5-10 minutes, and turned off the mixer once I saw the milk start to froth. I was on the verge of making whipped cream! Something that wasn't on the agenda for the afternoon.

Now here is where the plan deviated and that other blog failed me. I emptied the ice cream batter into some tupperware and put it in the freezer to freeze overnight. The next afternoon I pulled the frozen mix from the freezer and left it on the counter for about 45 minutes so it could soften enough for me to pour it into the ice cream maker. I had a few issues with the ice cream maker trying to churn slushy mix. It simply did not want to do it! I ended up cutting all the chunks into bite-sized pieces so it would not get caught in the churner. I left it on for about 30 minutes, used a rubber spatula to scoop the dessert back into the tupperware, and placed it in the freezer again for a couple hours before tasting.

I'm not sure what exactly happened during the pre-churn freezing process, but I do know that the final texture was very icy. Also, while tasting, I noticed there were small, chewy globs of...something. They tasted like the ice cream so it wasn't entirely bad. Maybe during the pre-churn freezing process some of the fat leeched from the cream?

Just a note: unless I'm specifically going for some super-creamy Haagen Dazs or french vanilla (which would require egg yolks), I intend to keep the cream and milk ratio as it is in this recipe. I'm going for more of a Breyer's texture. Don't get me wrong - I love all ice cream and all sorts of textures and I do intend to branch out and try different kinds eventually. 

An introduction

So I know what you must be thinking - "what the hell does bready goodness have to do with ice cream?!". And the answer is absolutely nothing. The bottom line is I love bread! Anything from sliced bread to pastries, stuffing and pudding, rolls, muffins, bagels, etc. I don't discriminate. My love for this delightful creation runs deep, and I jump at any chance to try the bread basket at a new restaurant or a pastry from a new bakery. In fact, when I first moved here for graduate school I had a lot of time on my hands and not a lot of people with whom to spend it. So what did I do? I developed my own food tours! I researched different categories (coffee, cupcakes, japanese, etc.) and tried as many places as I could. A bakery tour just so happens to be on that list. A tour I never actually finished...

Anywho, another note I feel is worth mentioning - my blog cannot provide you with food porn. It shames me to say this, but it's true. I wish I had the equipment and capabilities to do it, but alas I am but a novice photographer. I know nothing of lighting, F-stops, shutter speeds, placement, angles, or anything else one might learn in a photography class. Not to mention my apartment faces northwest and I'm on the bottom floor. As you can imagine, these do not make for great natural lighting inside my kitchen. I hope you can bear with me as I try to deliver the best photographs I can.

Well, my first actual ice cream post is not far behind this one. Ciao for now!