Mascarpone Raspberry Ice Cream

Mascarpone Ice Cream (Makes about 1 1/2 quarts)

2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
16 oz mascarpone
1 cup cream or half & half
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the mascarpone until the mixture is smooth and airy.
Blend in the cream, milk and salt with a whisk. Refrigerate overnight. Meanwhile make raspberry sauce.
Freeze the mix using an ice cream machine. Pour raspberry sauce in at the very last and swirl around. Pack into a freezable air tight container and let sit in freezer until sufficiently hard.

Raspberry Sauce
1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup sugar

Bring to a boil and simmer 5 mins. Let cool in fridge overnight.

Caramelized pear ice cream

My parents brought me some asian pears and I had been itching to try caramelized pear ice cream. It didn't turn out quite as caramel-y as I would have liked and I have ideas for next time but this is what I did this time around:

2 ripe pears chopped fine
1/4 water
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 cups heavy cream warmed
1 Tbs pure vanilla extract

Place water and sugar in a heavy skillet over medium low heat. Let sugar dissolve then added the pear choppings. Let the sugar and pears cook for a few minutes then raise the heat to caramelize the sugar. When it's bubbling and a dark amber color, pour in the heated heavy cream. Keep stirring the mixture until all the caramel dissolves into the cream. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract. Chill mixture well and freeze in ice cream maker.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Saturday was a fun day spent with my roommate D. We wanted to go and study in a coffeeshop but crazy Delaware seems to close down at 5pm on Saturdays. Luckily, the "Farmer's Market" was right across the street so we hopped over there to browse. I say "Farmer's Market" in quotes because that is the name of the place but it's really more like a flea market with a Mexican/Asian/even cheaper than Trader Joe's grocery store in the middle. D and I both wandered around with glazed eyes dropping ridiculous things in our shopping cart. Not being one to resist baking ingredients, I gathered up about 5 different boxes of bulk nuts in my arms and went over to D to make sure that I wasn't going overboard buying so many nuts. But at that moment, she was slipping a gigantic case of ramen noodles into the cart as well as cilantro bouillon cubes so I knew we were a lost cause. As you can imagine, we ended up buying lots of ridiculous, but probably yummy in the future, foods and were as happy can be. We also had a great time with "Farmer's Market boy" who we were pseudo-eyeing and whose car, jacket and glasses we are familiar with. Someday we'll find you.

Anyways, they were giving away free strawberries at the farmer's market (!) so we came home with 2 lbs of fresh red happiness. That was made into the following ice cream. I also tried to make a balsamic reduction to drizzle over it but got distracted watching a movie and ended up caramelizing (ie. burning...) the vinegar so it wasn't great but the concept was good.


Adapted from epicurious

1 c heavy cream
3/4 c half and half
1/8 t salt
3 two inch long strips of lemon peel
2 eggs
1/2 c + 1/4 c sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
1 lb fresh strawberries
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Combine cream, zest, and salt in a saucepan and bring just to a boil. Or just bring it to a boil like I did (oops). Remove from heat and fish out the zest.

Whisk eggs with 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl, then slowly add hot cream 1/4 cup at a time whilst whisking. Pour cream/egg mixture back into saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Don't let it boil.

Fill a big metal bowl or deep baking pan halfway with ice cubes and water and set the custard in the ice water until chilled, stirring occasionally.

While custard is chilling, purée strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice and vinegar in a blender until smooth. Stir purée into custard.

Freeze in ice-cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Fresh pumpkin, frozen blueberries

Over the summer we grew a small patch of pumpkins and what better time to reap the seeds we've sown. I made a little pumpkin pie with one of our fresh pumpkins. It began with the making of a crust:


The pie still survived even though I accidentally put the oven on broil for half the bake time. It was good! Sweetened with honey and full of eggs.


Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

So simple and so good.

2 cups half and half (maybe I'll try some heavy cream next time)
2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup cane sugar
3 oz cream cheese softened

Throw all ingredients in a blender and whizz until smooth. Pour into ice cream maker and churn.

Catch up

Whoops, work took over for a while. It was good though, making progress towards that paper that'll proclaim me PhD and set me free to finally become the cheesemaker I always wanted to be.

Anyways, I've also been making some stuff in the meantime. I took pictures and am finally posting them.

First off:

Honey Lavender Ice Cream (adapted from epicurious)

1 1/2 c. cream
1 1/2 c. half and half
1/2 c. honey (light clover is probably good. I used dark wildflower honey and it was a bit much)
2 T. lavender flowers
2 large eggs
1 t. salt

Put cream, half and half and honey in a pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add lavender flowers. Cover and let steep for an hour. Strain lavender flowers from cream. Reheat cream to hot but not boiling. Turn off heat. In a bowl, whisk egg and salt in a bowl. Sloooowly add 1 cup of hot cream, whisking all the while. Then pour egg-cream mixture back into saucepan full of cream. Heat over med-low heat and stir with a spoon until the cream coats the back of the spoon. Cool your custard either in the fridge or by carefully dunking the pot in a big bowl full of icy water. Then break out your ice cream maker.

It was yummy and one of those ice creams that stay creamy when you freeze it.


I also tried the Caramel ice cream that was posted on the Amateur Gourmet. Instead of using all cream, I accidentally used all half and half. Plus I burnt the caramel a little. Did you know that taking a pan of boiling sugar off the burner does nothing? The sugar just keeps boiling and turning darker and darker as you watch frozen with horror. I finally collected myself and put out the boiling sugar with the half and half. Then I chopped up some fine 65% chocolate and the toasted pecans. The ice cream, with all its mishaps, was still divine.

This is all I wanted to eat for about three days straight.

Basil Ice Cream

Recipe from Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/230779

It was creamy and good. One of the better ice creams I've made so far. There's the mind contradiction element - wow, this is savory but in a deliciously sweet frozen cream form. A bit like desserts made with rosewater.