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!