So Long, Summer: Almond Butter Ice Cream Bread

 

Do you have leftover ice cream in your freezer that you don’t know what to do with now that summer is ending? Do you have five gallons of custom-made almond butter ice cream that your significant other gifted you?  Well, have I got the recipe for you. 

You can make bread out of ice cream!

I first learned about this from Rasa Malaysia’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bread.  The recipe calls for two ingredients: ice cream and self-raising flour, so I was a little skeptical at first.  Wouldn’t it just out to just become a puddle of warm melted ice cream? How would this work?  But since I had tons of almond butter ice cream left, I didn’t have much to lose.  I didn’t have self-rising flour, so I followed the tips from the recipe and used a mixture of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Turns out ice cream makes great bread!  This bread was so moist and rich, you could never tell that it was made out of ice cream. I sliced up the bread and brought it to book club, where it was a hit.  (Here’s a tip, when bringing a loaf of bread or cake, or other dessert that involves slicing, to a party, slice it up at home and arrange it aesthetically on a plate, preferably a disposable one, cover it in foil, and bring it to the party.  This way, no one will notice that the slice you ate to “test” it, is gone!) Next time, I’m going to make these into muffins – who says you can’t have ice cream for breakfast?

Almond Butter Ice Cream Bread

Adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 cups almond butter ice cream (or any flavor), softened* See note
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix softened ice cream and flour mixture until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour batter into an 8” x 4” loaf pan.  Bake for about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Note:

I did not wait long enough to soften the ice cream.  (What can I say, I’m impatient.)  So when I mixed the 2 cups of ice cream  the recipe called for, I found the batter was dry and crumbly.  So I kept adding more and more ice cream.  Then the ice cream melted a little, and the batter was probably too wet, which might be why it took so long to bake.  So I recommend starting with two cups of softened ice cream, and adding more bit by bit until you get the sticky bread batter consistency. 

Kahlua Brownies

Last weekend, I made these Kahlua brownies for a wedding reception.  The reception was a very relaxed and laid-back celebration at the beautifully scenic Washington Crossing State Park.  A couple weeks before the event, the bride asked some of us if we would be interested in contributing a dish for the dessert table.  And since I will jump at any occasion to sample raw brownie batter share baked goodness among friends, I happily agreed.  I chose to make Kahlua brownies, since what's a wedding without a little booze in your dessert?  

I used this recipe from Recipe Girl.  I kept most of the ingredients the same except I used a lot less powdered sugar in the icing (about 1 1/4 cups).  Of course, since I was making these on the Friday night before the wedding, after a few cocktails, so my method went something like this:

1) Preheat oven at 350 degrees. 

2) Spray 9" x 9" pan with cooking spray.  Read instructions again and realized I was supposed to line the pan with foil first.  Oops...

3) In a large bowl, stir flour, baking powder, and salt with a fork (since I don't own a sifter)

4) Set up makeshift double-boiler using one big pot with a couple inches of water in it, with a smaller one balanced rather precariously over it.  Bring water to a low boil, melt butter and chocolate in the smaller pot. When smooth and melted, remove from heat and set aside.  

5) Crack eggs into medium sized bowl. Use expletives when accidentally cracking egg all over the counter.  Wipe up egg from the counter.  Add sugar and Kahlua to the bowl.  Take a shot of Kahlua, because, heck, I deserve it.  Mix contents of the bowl as fast as I can with a fork because I don't own an electric mixer. 

6) Pour buttery chocolate mixture with sugar and egg mixture.  Curse self for not using a bigger bowl. 

7) Read directions again and realize that I supposed to pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Curse self again for not using a bigger bowl for the wet ingredients. 

8) Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and hope for the best.  Mix as fast as I can with a fork.   

9) Pour batter into pan. Lick spatula used to scrape the batter at the bottom of the bowl.  Put pan in the oven.  Have a glass of wine.... and then another.

10) After about 40 minutes, remove pan from oven.  Brush  2 Tbs of Kahlua onto the brownies.  Have another glass of wine.  Contemplate whether the brownie pan is cool enough to go in the fridge.  Take another sip of wine, and think, screw it, I'm putting it in the fridge and going to bed. 

Next morning, prepare the icing:

1) Melt butter in saucepan until brown, watching it like a hawk so it doesn't burn. 

2) Remove from heat and  stir in Kahlua and heavy cream.

3) Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth. 

4) Spread on to cooled brownies. Place back in the fridge to cool. 

5) Go for a run to burn off calories consumed from brownie batter, icing, and copious amounts of alcohol. 

6) Return home, only to find that brownies are rock solid.  Have J. slice brownies with the biggest knife I own. 

J. hacking the brownies with my chef's knife.

7) Carefully lift brownies out of the pan.  Pack brownies in pretty box, ready to be served! (Don't worry the brownies softened once they were brought to room temperature.)

These babies are ready to be eaten!

So now you what really goes on in my kitchen! It's far from perfect, but I get by without what some may consider key appliances (like an electric mixer).  But the brownies were a hit at the reception, so it works!

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

"I love almond butter,"  I said to J. as I am licking a heaping spoonful of the stuff in our kitchen.  

"Really? I hadn't noticed," he responded sarcastically,  referring to the fact that I have been eating spoonfuls of it nearly on a daily basis.  

"You know what would be really awesome?  If they could make almond butter ice cream.  I bet it would be delicious."  

Fast-forward to this week, my birthday. 

I got home from work, and ran up the two flights of stairs to our apartment in anticipation of the birthday presents J. has for me.  I was a little out of breath when I got to the top (ask any of our guests, our stairs are steep!), but I was excited for what ever surprise J. had in store for me.  

I opened the door and find a single birthday card on the table. I ripped it out of the envelope and found...

 

At this point, I was getting skeptical about my gift! But then this message caught my eye...

I opened the freezer, and saw this!

A giant tub of almond butter ice cream!

It turns out J. went to Torico's Ice Cream, a local ice cream shop in Jersey City that is near and dear to our hearts since we personally know the family that owns the business, the Berrios family.  Torico's is well-known in Jersey City for their creamy homemade ice cream, and their unique variety of flavors.  So J. asked the Berrios's if they could make a special order of almond butter ice cream for my birthday.  He paid them for the ingredients and their efforts, of course.  

But it turns out that in order to make it with their commercial equipment, they had to make  A LOT of ice cream.  In fact, we have not just one, but two of these huge tubs of ice cream.  Here it is in our freezer to give you an idea of how big they are!

Totally worth it though, this stuff is SO GOOD! It tastes just like almond butter, only icy cold and creamier!  Plus, there are sliced almonds in their for texture.  

So instead of ordering dessert at the Lighthorse Tavern, where we went to dinner to celebrate, we came home and I made myself an almond butter banana split!

Not a bad way to celebrate! Special Thanks to J. for this awesome gift and to Torico's for making this special order.  If you are in the Jersey City area, I highly recommend stopping by for their ice cream! Unfortunately, they won't be serving almond butter ice cream, but they have a great selection of other flavors! (Suvarna took a picture of their menu in her guest post here.)  My favorites are the Banana Peanut Butter swirl and the Blueberry Cheesecake!  

(P.S. For those of you wondering, this was not the only gift J. got me for my birthday. I also got much needed gift cards to Macy's,  Another Man's Treasure, and E. Tittlemouse and Co. The last two stores are very cool vintage stores in J.C.  Time to go shopping!)

Christmas Cake Pops

For my birthday, approximately seven months ago, I got a Cake Pop Maker from my friend, La (Thanks, La!). While a gracious gift, it was also around the time I was moving to a new apartment, so the cake pop maker and accessories went into a box and got stored away into a closet. (Sorry, La.) But they were not forgotten! Last week, J. and I hosted a Secret Santa exchange among a few friends in town, and I thought, what better time to finally make use of my cake pop maker? Who wouldn't want little white "snowballs" festively dotted with green and red sprinkles?

For those of you have never seen a cake pop maker, imagine a waffle iron, with plates that have these little round indentations instead of the "waffle" shape.  Or look at the picture here. It comes with a cake pop stand to use for cooling the cakes and to hold the cake pops after frosting them. And La was generous to also get me the "chocolatier" for dipping in the frosting (essentially it is a miniature crock-pot).

This actually turned out to be a fun project. Although one downside of the cake pop maker is that it only makes 12 cake pops at a time, and the recipes all make about 36 cake pops, so that means you have to bake them in batches.

I used the vanilla cake recipe and the vanilla frosting dip recipe from the cake pop maker manual.  The manual also has some handy tips in there.  For example, I learned that it was easier to freeze the cake balls for five minutes before dipping them in frosting made the process easier.  And dipping the stick in the frosting before jabbing them into the cake balls helps to keep the cake from falling off the stick.  I've never tried making cake pops without a cake pop maker, so I couldn't tell you if it was any easier.  I do like that it only took about four minutes to cook each batch.

I decorated the pops with red and green Christmas Sprinkles and crushed candy canes.  A note on the cake pops with candy canes - the red dye on the candy canes will start to run if you make the cake pops too far in advance.  They still taste good, but I recommend serving them the day of so they stay crisp and pretty when you serve them to guests, and don't look like mangled eyeballs.  (Though something to keep in mind if we ever serve them at a Halloween party!)

I'm looking forward to testing out the other recipes in the manual (I read somewhere it is better to use the recipes in the manual when using the cake pop maker since they are especially formulated for it).  Next I hope to make the apple cider doughnut holes or the red velvet cake pops.

The New York Chocolate Show

While the rest of the food blogosphere is inundated with Thanksgiving recipes, I've decided to post (although a bit belated) about my trip to the New York Chocolate Show two weekends ago with three lovely friends.

Rosann and I (Yup, the same Rosann from here), have been meaning to go to the Chocolate Show since 2007, but every year it seemed the fates would have it, something would come up, and we would not go. But this year was the magical year in which the planets were aligned and we finally were both able to go along with two other friends. And magical it certainly was. The Chocolate Show was jam packed, wall-to-wall with vendors boasting their fine chocolates, and samples. lots of samples. Also on display was the "models" from the chocolate fashion show earlier in the week. Yes, a chocolate fashion show in which the clothes are made entirely from chocolate! Some were very elaborate, like the one you see in the lead picture. Some were very detailed and intricate like this one here:

All that threading is made of chocolate!

Other models were New York themed like this Broadway girl...

And some were just funny:

We also went to a cooking demonstration in which renown pastry chef Kathryn Gordon, showed us how to make these macarons.

Did you know that macarons are very sensitive to moisture that humidity in the air while the batter is made can affect its texture? That's a little tip I learned at the demonstration. So it was an educational trip as well.

I also found some fun chocolate products like these:

Doesn't it look fun to smash a slab of chocolate with a mallet? I bet it would make a great stress reliever!

With so many vendors and samples, (there were A LOT of samples), its hard for me to choose my favorites, but I've narrowed it down to a few, in no particular order

1) Most interesting product - Chocolate enrobed bacon from Co Co Sala - They are based in DC - I just wish they had a location in New York!

2) Yummiest - Salt of the Earth Bakery - Their cookies and brownies are to die for, I can't wait to find their products in the city

3) Best alcoholic beverage - Chocolate Creme de Cocoa from Chocolate Shop Wine - it's chocolate and wine, it needs no explanation

I can't wait to go again next year! What are the chocolate shows in your area?

Homemade Vanilla Pudding and a trip to the dentist

Two nights ago, I came home with half my face numb. I was not a happy camper. It was a prescheduled trip to the dentist. I knew what I was getting myself into. I even made a crockpot full of crab and corn soup to eat when I got home. (Which by the way, I forgot that corn, even when slow-cooked for eight hours, still involves chewing!) So after I slurped as much as I could with the functional side of my mouth, I was still hungry. My sister, with whom I was chatting with online since I couldn't really talk, suggested yogurt or pudding. I wasn't in the mood for yogurt, but pudding sounded amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't plan for a pudding craving, so I didn't have any pudding packs in the fridge, or instant pudding mixes in the pantry. So I did a little searching on the internet, and it turned out that I had the makings of homemade yogurt right in my cabinet. I picked this recipe from Allrecipes, because it seemed the least complicated to make. After doing a little more digging in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, I learned that this recipe, which does not contain eggs, is more like a blancmange. Whatever you call it, it was tasty.

So the next time you find yourself craving pudding (or half your face is numb), you may have the makings of a nice homemade pudding right in your kitchen cabinets.

Cheesecake-swirled Brownies

As promised, this was the dessert from our "Cooking with Suvarna" adventure. We used the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen, with a few minor uhh... let's call them "adjustments." Now, this recipe provides that you prepare the brownie batter, and then the cheesecake batter, and then swirl the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie batter. Easy, right?

Well, the brownie batter whisked up perfectly...

But when we made the cheesecake batter was when the cooking wheels started to fall off. First, we didn't use "well-softened" (i.e. room temperature) cream cheese as the recipe calls for. Apparently, nuking it in the microwave for 10 seconds did not cut it. Then, instead of just using the egg yolk, we accidentally cracked the whole egg, white and yolk, into the batter (oops!). The end result was cream cheese batter that had little lumps of cream cheese in it that looked like this.

But we were not discouraged - we are, after all, soon-to-be attorneys, here! First we tried using an electric mixer to smooth out the batter. When that didn't work, we tried using the masher thingy that you see in the picture here, but to no avail. So then we tried letting the mixture sit at room temperature to see if the lumps would just "melt" away. Wishful thinking. That's when we contemplated just trashing this batch and whip up a new batch of cream cheese mixture. But, since I am not one to waste perfectly good ingredients, I insisted on trying to use the lumpy cream cheese goo and poured it right on top of the brownie batter in the pan and swirled it around. (Which became a little harder to do since the brownie batter started to congeal a bit from sitting at room temperature for so long). Nonetheless, the brownies still came out wonderfully gooey and chocolatey, the way brownies are meant to be, cold cream cheese and egg white be damned.

See, I'm eating one right here!

Click here for the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

My First Cheesecake (Ricotta Cheesecake)

Last week was my week of freedom between my last final and before bar review began. So I had many ambitions to cook and bake things that I've had bookmarked such as, Paula Deen's Cheesecake cookies, and Penne with cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and goat cheese. So at the beginning of the week, I went to the supermarket, and bought, among other things, cream cheese for the cheesecake cookies, and ricotta cheese for the penne and goat cheese dish. Ricotta cheese, you ask? Well, I couldn't find goat cheese at the supermarket, so I thought ricotta cheese would be a good substitute.

Needless to say, neither of these dishes materialized between running errands, seeing friends I wouldn't get to see during the summer, and graduating from law school. Many of the other ingredients, such as the cherry tomatoes and asparagus, got eaten up by my parents, leaving me with a lot of ricotta and cream cheese. One google search later, and I had a recipe for "Heavenly Cheesecake" - which calls for both ricotta and cream cheese.

Now, this was the first cheesecake I have ever baked, so it's not so pretty. But don't be fooled by its appearance. This cake turned out to be a light and fluffy custard, like eating a cloud in a crust. The topping adds a sweet tangy flavor, but it's good even without it. I used a store-bought crust since I was pressed for time, but making your own as the recipe describes seems easy enough. Plus, it's low-fat! All in all, I would call this a success and I would make this cake again. Except next time, I will work on folding the egg whites into the batter better, which I believe is what caused the brown blotches.

For the recipe, click here.