Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ice Cream

It is February, the month of paper valentines, chocolate kisses, and long stem roses. In honor of "The Love Month", Justin and I made this post together. We did it all: went shopping, cut the strawberries, tempered the eggs, churned the ice cream, added the swirl, together. All in honor of "The Love Month".

In my mind, nothing says "I love you" on Valentine's Day quite like a big box of chocolate covered strawberries. It is such a simple combination that makes everyone come back for one more bite; the crunchy chocolate shell, the soft stawberry that is half sweet half sour...they are the perfect compliments to each other.

These little gems were of course on my mind when I was thinking of the perfect Valentine's Day recipe to share with all of you, and, just in case you couldn't guess, so was ice cream. Here is the result of all the things Justin and I love. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

 

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ice Cream

Yeild: 1 1/2 quarts

For the Puree:

1 pound Strawberries, tops removed

1/2 cup Sugar

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

For the Custard:

2 cups Heavy Cream

1 cup Milk

3/4 cup Sugar, divided in half

1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Salt

For the Chocolate Ganache:

6 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate

6 fl oz Heavy Cream

Directions:

1. In a small pot, combine the cream, milk, vanilla, salt and 1/2 of the sugar. Bring to a light boil. While this is heating, fill a large bowl with ice and water.

2. In a heat safe bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar.

3. Slowly stream in 1/3 of the boiling cream mixture to the egg mixture, while whisking constantly.

4. Now do the reverse. Pour the, now warm, egg mixture back into the pot with the cream. Again, whisk constantly until both of the mixtures are combined together.

5. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir the custard continually until the mix coats the back of a spoon and a line can be drawn through it, or 160 degrees on a thermometer.

6. Immediately pour the custard through a strainer, into a clean bowl, set inside the earlier prepared ice bath. Stir occasionally until cool.

7. In a blender, combine the strawberries, sugar and lemon. Puree until smooth. Strain to remove seeds.

8. Once the custard is cool, stir in the strawberry purée.

9. Refridgerate at least 8 hours.

10. While the mix is chilling, bring the remaining cream to a boil.

11. Pour over the chocolate. Wait 10 minutes and then stir to make a creamy ganach. Place in a ziplck bag and refridgerate.

12. Churn the ice cream base according to manufacturer's directions.

13. While packing the soft ice cream, alternate layers of strawberry cream and layers of ganache swirls.

14. Freeze until firm, about 6 hours. Scoop and fall in love.

 

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A Taste of Home: Berger Cookies

Every region has something unique, an item that only the locals know about. In central Maryland that secret, aside from Old Bay, is Berger Cookies. I remember going to The Farm Store as a little girl with my grandparents and getting a fountain soda and a pack of these delicious cookies coated in a thick layer of ganache. And although their recipe is a secret, I think I have concocted something pretty darn close to the original.

Without further ado:

 

Berger Cookies

Yield: 16 cookies

Ganache

3/4 pound Milk Chocolate

1/4 pound Dark Chocolate

1/2 pound Butter

1 cup Heavy Cream




Cookies

1/2 pound Butter, softened

4 oz Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla

10oz All Purpose Flour

For the Ganache:

• In a small sauce pot combine the butter and the cream over low heat.
• Cut up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat safe bowl.

• Once the cream and butter boil, pour over the chopped chocolate. Do not stir the mixture for 7 minutes.
• After the 7 minutes has passed, stir the chocolate and cream mixture, with a spatula, until silky and smooth.

• Pour into a shallow baking dish and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Do not stir during this process, it will make the chocolate lose its shine a smooth texture.

For the Cookies

• Cream the sugar and the butter together.

• Once light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla.
• Slowly stir in the flour until the dough comes together in a ball.
• On a greased cookie sheet, place rounded tablespoons of the dough.
• Press the centers of the balls down, creating a button shape.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes or until slightly brown. These cookies are very light in color, naturally.
• Once baked, allow to cool on the cookie sheet until room temperature.

Assembly

• Flip the cookies upside down.

• With an offset spatula or a spoon, spread the ganache on the under side.

• Refrigerate for another hour before serving.
• Enjoy!

 

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Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Christmas is quickly approaching and just in case you didn't know what that means, let me remind you: COOKIES!

To kick of this sugar coated holiday, I thought what better cookie to make than these peanut butter kiss cookies. Justin and I both have childhood memories of this super delicious, super simple cookie, so making it was like bringing a piece of home to Florida.

Lets get to the recipe!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cooies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1/2 cup Peanut Butter, room temperature

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Granulated Sugar, divided

1 Egg

1 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 Tbsp Milk

36 Hershey Kisses, unwrapped

 

• Whip the butter and the peanut butter together until smooth.
• Add the 1/2 of the granulated sugar and all of the brown sugar. Whip until fluffy and light.
• Add in the egg, the vanilla, and baking soda.
• Once combined, slowly fold in the flour by hand.
• Scoop the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the remaining sugar.

• Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet and make a small dent in the center of each ball.

• Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and press kisses into the center of each cookie. Return to the oven for 2 minutes.

• Allow to cool completely before enjoying!

 

 

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I remember the first time I ever had Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. I was in high school, taking my culinary tech class, when Chef handed out this recipe for chocolate chip cookies. At first glance I was disgusted. "Why would you make cookies healthy?" I thought.

Who am I kidding? I now know that simply adding a fruit to something does not make it automatically healthy...it makes it delicious!

So here is an amazing recipe for some amazing cookies. Oh and the best part is that they stay super soft for a long time.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 5 Dozen 

1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
8 oz Butter, softened
2 Eggs
1 cup Pumpkin
3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (check out my recipe for it here)
1 tsp Salt
2 cups Milk Chocolate Chips

• Cream together the sugars and the butter. 
• Once light and fluffy add the eggs, vanilla and pumpkin. 
• Gradually fold in the flour, salt and baking powder. Reserve a 1/4 cup of the flour. 

• Toss the chocolate chips in the reserved flour and then fold the dusted chips into the batter. 
• Spoon rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. 

 

• Allow to cool and store in an air tight container.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Fall is in the air, even here in South Florida. So you know what that means--bring on the pumpkin! I am willing to bet that most of your beloved pumpkin infused recipes call for some variation of pumpkin pie spice. So why buy something you will only use once a year when you can make your own?

 Here is my recipe for pumpkin pie spice. It makes about 1/4 cup so use some now and save the rest for later.


Pumpkin Pie Spice
7 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Nutmeg, fresh grated
2 tsp Allspice, fresh ground
2 tsp Cloves, fresh ground

Simply grind all of the spices together in your spice grinder and voila! Pumpkin Pie Spice. Store it in an air tight container and you are all set for Fall.  

Mango Madness

One of the perks of living in Florida is all of the lovely (and reasonably priced) tropical fruits. This past week our local grocery store had mangoes on sale. I bought ten and brought them home. After having them as snacks and packing some in a picnic beach lunch, I still had so many left over.

What to do except the obvious: make sorbet!

Mango Sorbet
Yield: 2qt when frozen

6ea Mangoes, peeled and rough chopped
2 cups Water
3 cups Sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Combine all of the above ingredients.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes.
Allow the mixture to cool down slightly.
Blend in a blender, in small batches, until smooth.
Pass through a strainer.
Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
Turn in an ice cream machine until frozen and delicious. 

Refrigerator Berry

So after everyone had left to go back to their homes, I realized that I had a whole refrigerator full of berries: strawberries, blueberries, and cherries.

Despite my best efforts, I could not eat them all before they were going to spoil. So I did what any normal person would do and whipped up a batch of Refrigerator Berry Sorbet (I think this is the best recipe name I have made up thus far!).

The best part of this sorbet is that you don't need to use the exact same berries as I did; improv as you see fit.

Just like in my last sorbet recipe, Honey Orange Peach Sorbet, you will need an ice cream machine. If you do not have one and are refusing to buy one ( a thought that is beyond me) you could do this like a granita-- pour into a shallow pan, freeze for 30 minutes, scrape with a fork, and repeat until frozen.





Refrigerator Berry Sorbet
Yield: 1 quart of frozen delicious-ness

1/2 pt Blueberries
1 pt Strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 pt Cherries, pitted and halved
1 c Water
1 c Sugar
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pot.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Cool.
Blend in a blender until smooth.

Strain through a fine strainer, if desired. I left all the pieces in mine.
Chill overnight.
Freeze either in your ice cream machine or granita style.
Eat in bed and enjoy!

Now that I'm a grown-up I can eat in bed :)

Allentown Farmers Market

These past couple of days have been so busy, but so fun!

On Thursday, Justin graduated from The Culinary Institute of America.

After the ceremony Krissy and I went to Apple Pie for lunch and, of course, dessert.

I had the Cavatelli Carbonara with Spring Peas and Ramps.

And then this is what I had for dessert.

No it is not an egg in a can! It's a Mango Sphere with Coconut Panna Cotta and a Cookie Crumble in a Chocolate Sealed Can.
It was delicious! Panna Cotta is my favorite dessert, ever, and this coconut flavored one was so so delicious. I would love to make it at home. And serving it in a can was so cute!

Friday, Justin, his mom and I went to the Allentown Farmer's Market.

It was huge! And they had everything; produce, meats, baked goods, cheese, prepared foods. They even had things wrapped in pretzel dough. I had chicken, bacon and ranch in mine. Oh. My. Gawd. It was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture!

We bought a ton of delicious produce and meats and made dinner for everyone. The menu was:
Chicken Fines Herbs with Pancetta Roasted Brussel Sprouts and  Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

For Dessert I made a Peach and Blueberry Tart with Diplomat Cream Filling.

Crème Brûlée

You know how sometimes you manage to learn 99 ways how not to make something? Welcome to Amanda vs Crème Brûlée. Sounds easy right? 5 ingredients, a little time and a blow torch...In the past four days I have heard 101 ways to make the perfect Crème Brûlée and none of them have produced perfect results yet, but let me tell you, I am getting very very close.

Lets talk about eggs and science. Crème Brûlée, being a cream and egg custard, is very temperamental. When heating the cream, notice that only half of the sugar is incorporated. The other half is whipped into the egg yolks before tempering. This is like a seat belt for the yolks for when the hot cream is added, lessening the chances of them curdling. But do not add the sugar to the yolks too early! Add this right before tempering as sugar is hydroscopic and will suck the moisture out of the eggs, leaving a layer of hard yolk on the surface.

Justin's Crème Brûlée

If the eggs are not tempered properly in the beginning, they will scramble and give the dessert a sulfur taste and smell, as well as an undesirable texture. Once they are placed in the oven, there is another chance of overcooking, resulting in, in extreme cases scrambled eggs, or brûlées with oil droplets on the surface. The first should be discarded while the latter is still delicious, it will just take some finesse to brûlée, as egg proteins brown before sugar.
Here are a few tricks I have learned so far that will help you get closer to the perfect crème brûlée:

1. Do not scramble the eggs when tempering them.
2. Portion them out to the exact level that you want, they will not rise. They won't shrink, so aim accordingly.
3. Blowtorch the bubbles out. Yeap, take that blowtorch to the top of each little dish before baking so that all of the bubbles come to surface and pop. This makes for a perfectly smooth top.
4. Watch them! Close! They go from perfectly custardy to overcooked in a flash. That is not to say that you cant eat them if they are a tad over. Unless you cook them over by 15 minutes, they will not be scrambled, instead the eggs begin to squeeze out all of their oil, which float to the surface, making brûlée-ing way more complicated.
5. Cool them to room temperature, then refrigerate them until cold.
6. Dab the tops dry with paper towels until dry. Any excess moisture will cause the sugar to burn.
7. The sugar varies with the doneness of the crème brûlée. If you happened to overcook them, which is evident by tiny oil drops on the surface of the brûlée when you take them out of the oven, use coarse sugar, like Sugar in the Raw. If they are perfect, do a happy dance, and use Superfine Sugar. Note: this is not powdered sugar.
8. Don't hold the torch too close to the crème brûlée, and don't keep it in one spot. Keep it moving!

So, after all that, lets get to the recipe!

Springtime Strawberry Flambe

One of the most exciting things about dining at a white table cloth establishment is table side service. Nothing makes a guest go wow more than a waiter catching something on fire right next to you. So, I've decided to share this with you so you too can impress everyone at your next gathering, but please do this with caution. I wouldn't recommend flambeing the berries of you do not feel comfortable-- the flambe can always be omitted and the strawberries will still taste delicious, without the flame.

There is a few cautions, though, before you go lighting things on fire all willy nilly.

1. Do not pour alcohol onto the pan when it is on the burner. A fireball is likely as well as the flame traveling up the stream, into the bottle, spraying hot alcohol and broken glass everywhere.
2. Keep the hairspray to a minimum that day, it is flammable.
3. Make sure the fan is on over the stove.
4. Lastly, make sure everyone is aware of what is about to happen. The last thing you need is pandemonium breaking out mid show.

So lets get to it. Here is the demo that professor gave us in the dining room:

Here is the recipe we use to create the Strawberry Flambe with Olive Oil Cake and Basil Gelato. Aside from the cake and gelato, the recipes are for 2 portions.