Ice Cream by Coco Cake: An Ice Cream Blog From Vancouver, BC

Chocomint Cookie Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches

2011-12-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

I made some crazy dark chocolate peppermint cookies with milk chocolate chunks yesterday, and left a few without chunks for the purpose of ICE CREAM SANDWICHING. Wow, I went from Summer to Winter on this here blog - sorry for the lack of ice creamy posts! I guess I've been darn busy with Cake Land and Food Blog Land and Bake O'Clock, among other things!

But wait, here's a recipe for you! Dark chocolate peppermint cookies with pale green peppermint ice cream, all just a real breeze and a half to make, if you have a teensy bit of time and inclination. The cookies are rich, fudgey and minty. The ice cream is cool-in-your-mouth minty and creamy. Together, well, you'll want to eat with a tall glass of frosty milk or peppermint (!) tea! A beautiful holiday treat and your guests will be super surprised if you pulled these fan-favourites out of the freezer after a holiday dinner party.

Go here for the cookie recipe: CHOCOMINT COOKIES! but omit the milk chocolate addition, because the milk chocolate chunk won't freeze well. The cookie recipe will yield 2 dozen cookies, enough for 1 dozen ice cream sandwiches (Yay Math!).

{Peppermint Ice Cream}

You will need:

1 cup of 10% milk
2 cups of heavy cream (33% milk fat)
1 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Make it!

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine the 2 types of milks with 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (300 ml)
2. Whisk in 3 teaspoons or pure peppermint extract and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add a teensy touch of green food colouring if so desired for minty cute greeny colour.
3. Power-chill mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes until mixture is ice cold but not frozen.
4. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to ice cream maker instructions, I churned mine for about 25 minutes or so until thick and creamy.
5. Transfer finished ice cream to an airtight container and chill in freezer until harder in consistency.
6. Scoop some ice cream onto one chocolate cookie, and sandwich with another. Squish down a bit but not too much.
7. Wrap each individual ice cream sandwich in saran wrap, then place in an airtight container in the freezer to chill for at least an hour to set.
8. Bring out your ice cream sandwiches and party down while you chomp into delicious pepperminty madness!!!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

xo Lyndsay

Coconut Milk Lime Raspberry Pops

2011-08-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Feeling a little bit hot and lazy, anyone? Sunshine summer just makes me want to jump in a cool green lake, dry off, put on my oversized sunglasses and an old hat, read some trashy magazines and eat snacks and drink a cool drink, get hot again then jump right back in. You can be extra lazy but still enjoy a beautiful, icy, rich and tangy homemade popsicle with this super simple recipe. You can also substitute the coconut milk for some rich, plain yogurt. The consistency of this pop is a bit on the ice-milky side. The coconut milk is pretty rich but the acid from the lime and raspberry gives it a tang. You can play around with the amount of sweetened condensed milk too - I prefer not-too-sweet. These popsicles are so darn easy they should really be called Lazy Pops... whisk 'n pour into molds...!

{Coconut Milk Lime Raspberry Pops!}

In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine 1 can of good quality coconut milk with the juice of 1 lime, 3 tbs raspberry jam, 8 cut-up raspberries, a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk.

Pour mixture into ice pop molds and freeze until solid. Run under hot water briefly to loosen before pulling out your pops!

Enjoy the rest of your summer, everyone! ^__^

VICTORY FEI FEI ICE CREAM PIE

2011-06-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly sure how this victory fei fei ice cream pie idea got started but I do know the VANCOUVER CANUCKS are the reason behind it!

Not only am I close to my dear sisters in my immediate family, but we are also close with all of our super duper cousins... and my cousins Mike, Ryan and Christopher, known as the Sung boys, are all maniacally crazy hockey fans... especially VANCOUVER CANUCKS hockey fans!

There is something so absolutely endearing and cute and adorable when I see people of all shapes, sizes and colours proudly wearing their Canucks jerseys. I admire those people because I'm too uncool or maybe trying to be too cool to fully admit my reinstated hockey craziness. I have hockey craziness in my blood, obviously ... my mom's been a Canucks fan since 1982, when she went to her first hockey game - the Canucks vs. the New York Islanders! Canucks hockey mania has fully gripped me in its ridiculously exciting power - and with that comes an excruciating wish for our team to carry that giant silver Stanley Cup over their heads, confetti falling like blue and green snow and a blur of white screenprinted terry-towels whipping madly around in an arena full of screaming hockey fans...

Hockey players and fans alike are superstitious. My mom buys the same tortilla chips and guacamole and apparently we win when these exact chips are eaten. My cousin Mike is no different - unwashed jerseys and all - don't want to wash away the luck! After each win during this Canucks playoff madness, my cousin Mike has religiously treated himself to "victory ice cream"... his birthday was in May, mid-playoffs, and his lovely wife Sarah made him an ice cream pie, which he superstitiously only ate one slice of after each Canucks win... so when he and the rest of my cousins flew in to Vancouver this past week to catch the madness of a city emotionally tormented by the hope of the Cup, I of course had to make a VICTORY PIE of my own! So here it is... fei-fei means fat in Chinese... and eating this whole pie will make you exactly that... but who cares... 'cuz the Canucks are in the Stanley Cup!!!!

{Victory Fei-Fei Ice Cream Pie!}

You will need:

- An Oreo or chocolate wafer cookie pie crust
- Peanut butter ice cream
- Dark cocoa chocolate fudge topping

(recipes below!)

to make the crust:

Combine 1 1/4 cups Oreo or dark wafer cookie crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes until set. Let cool on wire rack.

to make the ice cream:

1. In a food processor, combine 2 2/3 cups heavy cream (33% milk fat), 3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter (I used Kraft brand), 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and half a can of sweetened condensed milk. Blend together until smooth and incorporated.

2. Power chill the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes! Careful not to freeze it!

3. Pour into ice cream maker and churn according to ice cream maker's instructions. I found this churned for a much shorter time period than my usual ice creams - check on it after 15 minutes, mine took about 16 to get to a very ice creamy consistency!

4. Pour peanut butter ice cream into the cooled pie shell, spreading with an offset spatula to create an even layer! Place in freezer while you make the...

fudge sauce! to make:

On stovetop in a small pot, combine 1/3 cup of dark or high quality cocoa powder with 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup of heavy cream, and 3 tablespoons of butter. Whisk gently to combine. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, whisk until smooth. Pour into bowl to cool. I power-chilled my fudge sauce in the freezer for 20 minutes!

Once fudge sauce is cooled, pour on top of peanut butter ice cream layer. Again, it's important to cool the fudge sauce first, otherwise it will melt all up into your P&B ice cream layer.

Place back in freezer and chill for 1 hour uncovered until fudge sauce is set. Then wrap with plastic wrap and chill until completely set - 4 hours or overnight!

This pie is pretty rock solid when you bring it out for serving - so leave it at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften it up before slicing in!!!

Note: the P&B ice cream is crazy delicious on its own, so feel free to just make the ice cream when you're having a P&B hankering!

My fingers are crossed so hard for our Vancouver Canucks... and I can't wait to make THE ULTIMATE VICTORY pie... ^__^

Go Canucks!

xo Lyndsay

Matcha Green Tea Cream Pops

2011-05-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

Another fantastically easy/lazy-times recipe to follow:

Matcha green tea frozen cream bars! Last summer I spent a long time googling the heck out of ice cream bar molds. There are crazy expensive ones out there, and at the same time there are excellent D.I.Y. ways to make em: how about pouring your treat recipe into shot glasses, freezing them for 15 minutes then jamming a wooden stick in there, then letting them set til ready? Orangette has a lovely tutorial on it.

Or, do what I did ... on a trip to DAISO, which is one of Richmond's excellent dollar-store-esque emporiums,I found the cutest little 4-pop popsicle molds for $2/each. Problem solved! Now, what to put in them??

I combined 3 cups of cream (33%), 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk (my favourite ice cream "creamifier" and sweetener), a pinch of salt, and 2 heaping teaspoons of matcha green tea powder in a medium sized pot on the stovetop, whisking over medium high heat until everything blended together. I then poured the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to strain out any gunk, cooled it for 20 minutes in the freezer, then poured directly into my ice pop molds.

You will want these to freeze overnight for maximum popsicle-ness! I was trying to make these less-sweet than usual, but you can feel free to play around with the condensed milk amount.

Enjoy being lazy in putting together this simple but deliciously creamy and green tea-ey cream pop! Ahhh, the magic of frozen stuff!

Next up for ice cream pops: fresh raspberry frozen yogurt pops! Stay tuned! ^__^

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream & Cake!

2011-05-07T21:02:00.001-07:00

Strawberry ice cream... Summery, right? Today was not so summery in Vancouver - pouring torrential rain mixed with hard cold granules of hail... all day! And the teensiest sun break in the clouds around dusk.

Oh man, I cannot wait until it's berry picking season here in British Columbia. Navigating prickly bushes on hot sunny days, plucking shiny blackberries from branches and filling buckets for freshly baked pies and general snacking. Whee, so fun!

This recipe is super simple, and it's taken from David Leibovitz's The Perfect Scoop. It's an interesting little texture straight out of the ice cream maker - super fluffy and airy, almost a mousse-like consistency, not hard like your typical scoop ice cream. You'll need to freeze it for a good 24 hours to solidify it. I used a pound of organic strawberries (I know they are more costly... but they taste sooo much better, amazingly sweet and complex and sour ... unlike their sometimes flavourless nonorganic brothers). The recipe calls for a technique called "macerating" your strawberries - sounds dangerous, right? Not at all! You just slice up those strawberries and mix them all up with your sugar and a teensy blast of vodka, and let sit for 1 hour. This little process helps to bring out the juiciness and sweetness in your berries. Fun, right?

And you get to use vodka.. so if you really wanted, you could take this opportunity to pour yourself a little icy delightful cocktail! I just love a cocktail that's cold and in a lovely glass. Glassware is so important to the enjoyment of my beverage.

Back to the ice cream... sweet, rich, creamy and tangy with that beautiful hue of soft strawberry pink.

{Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream}

You will need:

1 pound of strawberries (fresh, frozen, organic or non!)
3/4 cups of sugar
1 tablespoon of vodka
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of heavy cream (whipping cream - 33% milk fat)
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

to make the ice cream:

1. Slice the strawberries and place in a medium sized bowl with the sugar and vodka. Gently toss to combine. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Place strawberry mixture in a blender with the sour cream, heavy cream and lemon juice. Pulse to blend so some small strawberry chunks remain.
3. Pour into medium sized bowl and power-chill in freezer for 30 minutes, or chill in refrigerator until nice and cold (1-2 hours).
4. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to ice cream maker instructions, I churned this recipe for about 25 minutes. Freeze this overnight to get it to a hard-scoop consistency. To keep the mousse-like airiness, eat right away!
5. Enjoy your ice cream and marvel at how freaking easy that was! You feel like a genius!!

and now... the CAKE!

So the real purpose of me making this strawberry ice cream was to use it as a filling for a Mother's Day cake!

I made an 8 inch round vanilla cake, added a little pink food colouring and baked it. Then I was confused. I had never made a layer cakey thing with ice cream as a filling - how do I build it? Do I freeze everything? Do I build it last minute?? I ended up freezing the cake, and still building it last minute. So next time for the ease of cutting the cake (it was ROCK HARD and very hard to cut into, even after 15 minutes of being out! Holy!) I will build it right before serving it!

So here are the layers:

Bottom: pink vanilla cake, with strawberry preserves spread on top.
Middle: ice cream, poured into an 8 inch spring-release pan and frozen overnight to stay extra-set.
Top: pink vanilla cake, with more strawberry preserves.
Very top: fresh whipping cream and fresh sliced organic strawberries.
Extra very top: A little cake bunting I made using Japanese washi tape (colored masking tape) and wooden skewers, in matching pink and grey cuteness! My grandma said it looked like laundry hanging out to dry!

I loved how this cake turned out visually... so cute!

Bye for now Ice Cream Land!

xo Lyndsay

Milky Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

2011-04-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

I made this pie for my mother-in-law's birthday... I think I may be the luckiest gal to have the best mother-in-law ever.

I tried to low-fat this ice cream pie up a bit by using 10% milk fat milk instead of my usual heavy cream, in both the ice cream part and the fudge topping part. Though the fudge topping didn't turn out as rich and didn't hold together as well as the previous times I've made this, apart from the looks of it the result was, yes, still delicious! The ice cream filling was a tad more on the ice-milky side but still creamy and rich from the use of my favourite ice cream addition, sweetened condensed milk. The only bummer thing is that I threw this pie together too quickly after a day of shopping... and it didn't have time to properly set before serving. So I would say definitely chill this pie overnight before serving for maximum pie-shape. If you don't mind digging into a melty sundae-like icescreamsplosion, then feel free to chill for only 2 hours in the freezer! (which is what happened to me!)

If I made this again I would definitely make the fudge topping original style (ie with heavy cream vs. the lower fat milk), keep the ice cream component the same, and chill this overnight.

But... all you need to do now is sit back and relax and let your fingers do the simple work, as this is another easy-as-pie (heh) ice cream recipe!

{Milky Chocolate Ice Cream Pie}

You will need:

- An Oreo or chocolate wafer cookie pie crust
- Milk chocolate ice cream
- Dark cocoa chocolate fudge topping

(recipes below!)

to make the crust:

Combine 1 1/4 cups Oreo or dark wafer cookie crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes until set. Let cool on wire rack.

to make the ice cream:

1. In a medium sized pot on low heat, whisk to combine 3 cups of 10% milk, 1/2 cup of Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used 20-40% cocoa content), a teensy pinch of salt and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (300 ml). Heat until all components are combined.
2. Power-chill mixture in the freezer for 1 hour+until mixture is ice cold but not frozen. Open the freezer occasionally to make sure it hasn't frozen!
4. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to ice cream maker instructions, I churned this recipe for about 25 minutes.
5. Scoop ice cream into cooled pie shell, using an offset spatula to smooth it. Put in freezer, uncovered while you make the fudge sauce.

to make the fudge sauce:

On stovetop, combine 1/3 cup of dark or high quality cocoa powder with 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup of heavy cream (though I used 10% milk this time, but feel free to try either!) and 3 tablespoons of butter. Whisk gently to combine. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, whisk until smooth. Pour into bowl to cool. I power-chilled my fudge sauce in the freezer for 20 minutes!

Once fudge sauce is cooled, pour on top of milk chocolate ice cream layer. It's important that the fudge sauce is cooled otherwise it will melty-melt the ice cream and it won't look very pretty.

Place back in freezer and chill for 1 hour uncovered until fudge sauce is set. Then wrap with plastic wrap and chill preferably overnight until time to serve!!

Note: You can also just forgo the pie part and make the ice cream on its own... so fast, easy and VERY DELICIOUS! ^__^

Enjoy!!! xo

Greatest Korean Alive Ice Cream & Cake

2011-02-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

My good pal and cousin from another Asian mother Christa Min had her birthday this past week. So I sneaky-deakily (out of sheer love for the greatest Korean alive) created a super mini surprise party for Christa and all of her tight buds, with a surprise musical performance by the super excellent and undercover Joel R L Phelps.

We had a pizza party for four, which then expanded after a knock at the front door to ten guests... earlier I had made a dark chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, and to match, a lightly coffee-flavoured ice cream!

I think I am getting lazy in my ice cream making! All I did was brew 1 strong cup of dark French roast coffee, dumped in some 10% milk, sprinkled a dash of the ground espresso into it, a quick grind of my sea salt mill and mixed in a can of thick sweetened condensed milk. I whisked this all together, powerchilled it in the freezer for 1 hour and then poured straight into my ice cream maker!

It was a little more ice-milky than ice-creamy, so if you want a full creamy ice cream, I would follow the recipe I posted previously on Vietnamese condensed milk coffee ice cream. But if you want a lighter touch to go alongside a delightful rich cake, go light! Go frozen yogurt even! I want to try a coffee frozen yogurt next.

and Happy Birthday cousin C-Min!! xo

Nog Nog, Who's There? Egg Nog Ice Cream

2011-01-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Don't nog it 'til you've tried it. Nog town and egg boyz. Nog nog noggin' on heaven's (ice cream) door... how many bad puns could I come up with for egg nog ice cream?

I realize it's January, we're all on diets (not really!) or at least dead-sick of all of those rich, calorie-laden, seemingly endless piles of holiday shortbreads, chocolates, cakes, pies (it seems we are gluttonous pigs here in many parts of North America)... and exercising off the holiday fat layer is on our minds. No one wants to hear about another caloriexplosion ice cream -- they want to hear about frozen grapes and low-sugar fruit sorbets or nonfat frozen yogurt.

But still. I made this eggnog ice cream and I will tell you about it. Do with it what you will. Ie, wait until next holiday season to churn it up, eat it up and exercise it off only a few weeks later... I admit, it's well past Christmas and I am guilty of spooning the last scoop of it all up in my grill...

Extreme easy alert on this ice cream recipe! File under: super lazy!

{Ridiculously Easy Egg Nog Ice Cream}

You will need:

2 cups of full fat egg nog (from a store-bought carton, no less!)
1 cup half and half (10% milk fat)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
generous pinch of salt

1. Whisk all of your ingredients into a large bowl.
2. Chill mixture covered until good and cold, 1 hour in fridge or power-chilled in freezer for 30 minutes.
3. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to maker's instructions -- churn away! 20-25 minutes gave me a delightfully frozen, thick and ice-creamy consistency.
4. Marvel at how even a baby or a cat could make this recipe.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year... !

xo Lyndsay

Pep Pie!

2010-12-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Anyone out there remember Pep? Like an oversized After-Eight saucer, a tongue-cooling white peppermint "candy"-filled dark chocolate party puck in a crinkly, shiny green wrapper.

My husband Rich's favourite ice cream is peppermint chocolate chip, and I have been pretty exhausted with making cakes lately so when I get a chance to make something else I get quite excited! So for Rich's birthday, I made this Pep pie...

Ice cream pie made out of homemade ice cream, and it was truly simple and magical indeed. Crumbs of the Oreo cookie combine with melted butter and get pressed into a pie pan. Baked for just a few minutes until set, then left to cool. Ice cream is churned and piled into the pie pan, smoothed with an offset spatula and left to set in the freezer. A rich dark cocoa fudge topping is made on the stovetop, cooled, and poured on top of the ice cream pie. Back into the freezer it goes to set, uncovered, for an hour. Then plastic wrap covers it until the time comes to slice in.

Thus, I christened this my Pep Pie. I made the creamy cool peppermint ice cream filling using condensed milk, heavy cream, peppermint extract and a pinch of salt, and I just had to use the teensiest bit of green food colouring to trick the eye into thinking "peppermint". Not that you would have to trick yourself... one bite and the peppermint cools your mouth, a creamy smooth spoonful with flecks of dark chocolate folded into it.

To my honeybun Richie: Happy Birthday!!

{Peppermint Ice Cream Pep Pie}

You will need:
An Oreo or chocolate wafer cookie pie crust
peppermint ice cream
dark cocoa chocolate fudge topping
(recipes below!)

to make the crust:

Combine 1 1/4 cups Oreo or dark wafer cookie crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter. Press into 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes until set. Let cool on wire rack.

to make the ice cream:

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine 3 cups of heavy cream with 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (300 ml)
2. Whisk in 3 teaspoons or pure peppermint extract and 1 generous pinch of salt. Add a teensy touch of green food colouring if so desired.
3. Power-chill mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes until mixture is ice cold but not frozen.
4. Pour into ice cream maker and mix according to ice cream maker instructions, I churned mine for about 25 minutes or so until thick and creamy.
5. Fold in 1 cup of chopped dark chocolate pieces, or chocolate chips of any size.
6. Scoop ice cream into cooled pie shell, using an offset spatula to smooth it. Put in freezer, uncovered while you make the fudge sauce.

to make the fudge sauce:

On stovetop, combine 1/3 cup of dark or high quality cocoa powder with 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup of heavy cream and 3 tablespoons of butter. Whisk gently to combine. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, whisk until smooth. Pour into bowl to cool. I power-chilled my fudge sauce in the freezer for 20 minutes!

Once fudge sauce is cooled, pour on top of peppermint ice cream layer. It's important that the fudge sauce is cooled otherwise it will melty-melt the ice cream and it won't look very pretty.

Place back in freezer and chill for 1 hour uncovered until fudge sauce is set. Then wrap with plastic wrap and chill until time to serve!!

PS you will have leftover ice cream as the recipe above won't all fit into one pie shell! ^_^

You can serve with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings or chocolate chips. I meant to do this but I was also hosting a fondue party at the same time so I never got around to making the whipped cream... :)

Leftover Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream!

2010-10-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow ice cream crazy people! I went to Crazy Town today with an idea. Last week was Canadian Thanksgiving here in good old Vancouver, BC Canada and to celebrate, I made two pies from scratch: pumpkin pie with a ginger snap crust and maple syrup whipped cream, and classic lemon meringue pie with a fluffy toasted meringue. Side note to all pie makers: high fives all around to you guys. Pies can really take some time! But every moment was enjoyable and I look forward to making more and more pies in my baking future.

Because I tend to be a bit of an experimenter in the kitchen, measurements aren't always my strong suit-- I was combining a few different pumpkin pie recipes to make one pie so therefore I wasn't sure how much pie filling to make to fill my 9 inch ginger snap crust. So I went with doubling the pie filling recipe, figuring more is better... thus, I had leftover pie filling! About 3 cups of it, which I poured into a container and put in the fridge.

I'll make another pie with that later, I said.

But then today, I was struck with an idea: why not cook the filling like you would an ice cream custard, add some sweetened consdensed milk and whole milk, mix it up and throw it in ye olde ice cream machine and see what happens??

What happened was a total experiment, and an example of using up ingredients to make something else... no waste! Hooray! But sometimes crazy recipes come into fruition this way, right? This turned out to be a really smooth, creamy and delicious ice cream with a distinct pumpkin/spice/brown sugar flavour.

So here it is. A recipe for pumpkin pie ice cream! I recommend pairing it with some crunchy thin ginger snaps... either ice cream sandwich style or served on the side!

{Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream}

You will need:

3 cups of 1 recipe pumpkin pie filling (recipe right below. make a pie too!)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (300 ml) 1.5 cups heavy cream

(Pumpkin Pie Filling)

1.5 cups heavy cream
2 eggs, beaten
1 16oz can of pumpkin
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger

1. Mix all your pumpkin pie filling ingredients together. Put in a medium saucepan on stove. Cook on stove at medium-high for a few minutes until it thickens, stirring constantly. Remove pot from stovetop, let cool.

2. In a large bowl, pour in sweetened condensed milk. Whisk in heavy cream.

3. Slowly whisk in cooled pumpkin pie filling into milk ingredients. Whisk together to combine.

4. Chill pumpkin pie ice cream mixture until well-chilled, 1 hour in freezer or 3-4 hours in refrigerator!

5. Pour into ice cream maker and watch some pumpkin power churn up before your eyes, 25-30 minutes or until desired ice creaminess.

6. Scoop out and enjoy with a side of ginger snaps, or scoop between two crisp ginger snaps for a very delightful ice cream sandwich!

Happy Fall everyone! ^_^

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

2010-09-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Coconut question of the minute:

Can toasting coconut and steeping it in milk really make the ice cream difference? Can the darkened, crunchy and fragrant toasted coconut infuse the milk, á la cereal milk, and churn out the loveliest, coconutty-flavorful creamy spoon of ice cream? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Er, not really.

You may or may not have noticed but lately I've been REALLY into using something other than eggs to creamify my ice creams. Sweetened condensed milk and maple syrup have done tremendous jobs in this department, so I decided to experiment with sweetened condensed milk this time. I combined a few different ice cream recipe ideas: infusing milk with toasted coconut I culled from The Perfect Scoop, and using sweetened condensed milk and coconut I found online from a little bit of Googling. Actually it seems as though many Caribbean coconut ice cream recipes combine these very two ingredients: coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk! So I had faith in this little ice cream experiment.

The result? The loveliest, creamiest, smoothest texture and the most delicious fragrant-toasted-coconutty ice cream I've yet to make.

And here is the recipe for you to try.

{Toasted Coconut Ice Cream}

You will need:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (just about one 14 ounce can)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups shredded, sweetened coconut (or unsweetened if you prefer!)
pinch of salt
ice cream machine!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay 3 cups of shredded coconut on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Toast coconut until browned, watching carefully, about 10-12 minutes, stirring it around once to ensure overall toastiness. Remove from oven, let cool.

2. In a medium pot on medium heat, combine heavy cream and coconut milk until warmed and steam is rising, hot enough to steep the toasted coconut.

3. Remove pot from heat and set aside. Add 2 cups of toasted coconut, stir and let steep for 1 hour. Reserve 1 cup of toasted coconut for topping your ice cream later!

4. Come on back to your coconut milk party mixture. Strain mixture into a medium sized bowl, removing soggy toasted coconut.

5. Reheat coconut milk mixture in your medium pot. Slowly add the contents of one can of sweetened condensed milk and a pinch of salt until combined. Once combined, remove from heat, pour into bowl for chilling.

6. Chill mixture for 1 hour in freezer or 3-4 hours in fridge until well-chilled!

7. Pour into ice cream machine and churn it up for 25-30 minutes!

8. Scoop a lovely bunch of it into an ice cream bowl, top with toasted coconut and enjoy!

Note: texture will be quite soft (about the texture of soft serve ice cream). Scoop it into a container and harden it a bit in the freezer first before serving, or enjoy straight away.

Maple Syrup Ice Cream With Candied Walnuts

2010-08-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm a nut for nuts. I'm so happy I'm not allergic to nuts. I think Mr.Peanut is hilarious, I can eat peanut butter with a spoon. And walnuts are the healthy brainfood nut. I also love maple syrup. I've always loved maple flavoured things. Pour it into the little squares of a crisp homemade waffle that's covered in summer berries and plain Greek yogurt and I'm the happiest person on planet Earth.

Back to ice cream: I've decided to start a new project: Ice Cream Love. Makin' my favourite peoples' favourite ice cream flavours! I decided to start with my dear pal Amber, who is nuts for maple walnut ice cream. Whenever I meet someone I like, I can't help but ask them what their favourite food is. I feel like it can help define my relationship to that person, or how well I know them. For instance, I know my husband's favourite ice cream is mint chocolate chip, and he likes anything chocolate hazelnut, and he dislikes very much mushrooms, tomatoes and mustard (three things I love!). Amber's favourite ice cream is maple walnut. My friend Toni loves the combination of chocolate orange just as much as my friend Heather despises it.

Me, I try to like or at least attempt to like all flavours, or, rather, understand why other people like them. I like most things actually. One flavour I think that is super grody to the max though is black licorice. Even so, I will still occasionally try it (the allure of the shiny black salted licorice studded with tiny candies) to make sure I still don't like it. Who knows? Maybe my palette suddenly has changed and I've become a black licorice maniac!

My favourite flavours actually shift fairly often. I love lemon and citrus flavoured things, but I also love a beautiful piece of chocolate. I've always loved caramel in any way shape or form -- poured as a thick sweet syrup on top of ice cream, or eaten in individually wrapped squares in between bites of a granny smith apple. Maple syrup of course, and green tea flavour too, both thumbs up in my book. All these flavours are pretty varying and no rhyme or reason! Such is the strangeness of humanity!

Okay. So onto the recipe. I figured those walnuts had to have something goin' on besides just being thrown in all plainsies style. Pralined? Candied? Sugared? I flipped through The Perfect Scoop and saw a recipe for "Crouquant." Essentially, nut brittle. So I decided to make that! (Only after I made the croquant did I look at a few recipes for maple walnut ice cream and it called for walnuts that had been bathed, per se, in maple syrup at a high temperature, which I will try next time.)

{Maple Syrup Ice Cream With Candied Walnuts}

You will need:

1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk (10% milk fat)
3/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspooon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On baking sheet, lay a piece of parchment paper and sprinkle walnuts evenly. Toast walnuts in oven, 6-8 minutes, watching carefully so they don't burn.
2. Remove walnuts, let cool.
3. Place 1 cup of sugar in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat on medium high until golden, beginning to bubble and liquefying. Stir gently to ensure all sugar melts and liquifies!
5. Once liquified, add in toasted walnuts into melted sugar and coat walnuts completely. Mix 'er up. Pour mixture back onto same piece of parchment paper, spread out with spatula and let cool.
6. Once cool, place in food processor and pulse until pieces become smaller, or you can place brittle in a ziploc bag and beat it with a rolling pin...
7. In medium sized pot, heat 1 cup of heavy cream and maple syrup on low until combined. Add the rest of the heavy cream, milk, vanilla and salt and mix until combined.
8. Cover and chill mixture, 1 hour in freezer or 3-4 hours in fridge.
9. Pour into ice cream maker and churn it up according to ice cream maker's instructions. I churned it for 25 minutes. At the last minute, pour in candied walnut pieces and churn for 30 seconds or so until combined.
10. Scoop out and enjoy!

PS-- there are no eggs in this recipe -- but the sugar content from the maple syrup ensures a creamy dreamy delight! No jacket required! (er, no eggs required)...

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream

2010-08-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yep.

I am a coffee ice cream maniac. I think it all started with my mom's famous ice cream mud pie. My mom has made this since we were kids, and it's the one dessert all of my cousins and my sisters clamour for at Christmastime - even when there's a buffet of rich cakes and pastries and candies - it's the mud pie that gets the attention, our forks and spoons ready to tuck into the dark chocolate crust, creamy coffee ice cream middle and chocolate fudge topping.

Our family is also a mega huge fan of the Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant here in Vancouver called Phomn Penh, or PP as we call it (if you're not from Vancouver and happen to be visiting, it is an essential food stop!). We've been going there for well over 20-odd years (probably more) and it is here where I got my first initial taste of Vietnamese iced coffee.

A little silver thingie went on top of a glass cup with some sweet creamy stuff on the bottom. Dark brown hot stuff drip-drip-dripped out the bottom, splashing onto the creamy stuff. Once it finished dripping, everything got all mixed together with ice and it was like a liquid power dessert that zinged like a coffee rocket through your veins upon first sip.

On a recent trip to T&T Supermarket with my dad, I finally bought my own "silver thingie" -- in fact, a Vietnamese coffee press. Slowly over a crazy busy week I procured all of my ingredients to make the iced coffee: sweetened condensed milk, and today French dark roast medium-coarse ground coffee! (I bought the beans at a local coffee shop and had them ground). And now... I am so buzzed on this strong coffee. Here is a great tutorial on how to make it. After I made a glass of iced coffee for myself, it was time to move on to the main project: Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream.

This is the easiest ice cream ever and it tastes crazy-delicious creamy. It maintains an excellent texture straight out of the freezer, no setting out at room temp to warm up a bit! Next time I am going to try playing around with the amount of sweetened condensed milk as I like my ice creams not-too-sweet, but I wonder if it would mess with the perfect consistency, as there are no eggs in this recipe, thus the condensed milk gives it its thick creaminess...

{Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ice Cream}

adapted from David Leibovitz's recipe in the very excellent ice cream book
"The Perfect Scoop".

You will need:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups of French dark roast coffee, brewed strong!
1/2 cup heavy cream
a pinch of the dark roast coffee

1. Brew a very strong batch of espresso using French dark roast coffee.
2. Place sweetened condensed milk in medium bowl.
3. Whisk brewed coffee, heavy cream, pinch of dark roast coffee and sweetened condensed milk all together until combined.
4. Cover and set in refrigerator until well chilled, 3-4 hours. Or try power-chilling it in the freezer but watch carefully!
5. Pour into ice cream maker and churn it up according to maker's instructions. I churned it up for about 25 minutes.

Enjoy this simple and delicious recipe! And maybe use the buzz you get from it to power-clean your house or write a novel!

xo

Local Blueberries Ice Cream!

2010-07-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

Summer breeze... makes me feel fine... blowing through the jasmine of my minddddd... Ok. I had no idea that was the next line in the song. I had to google it. Man I've had a terrific summer so far. My baking premises got a beautiful kitchen makeover, I went to 5 lovely weddings, including an incredible one in the Bavarian countryside in Germany, traveling with two great friends. Now I'm back and makin' some ice cream on a day off. Not too shabby, I must say! I am a lucky gal!

Anyhoo... blueberries!! So many bright blue delightful little berries in our province of British Columbia right now! You can u-pick them, or people sell them on the side of the road in boxes along with fresh cherries or ears of sweet local corn, and the grocery stores are chock full of them... !

I dunno why but I always think blueberry ice cream or blueberry yogurt tastes like blueberry cheesecake. Perhaps that's why blueberry cheesecake is such a popular combination. This ice cream is no different -- mental blueberry mindgames?

{Blueberry Ice Cream}

You will need:

6 cups fresh blueberries (why not go local if you can!) to make 1.5 cups of puree.
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
food processor or blender
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1.5 cups half and half cream
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
fine mesh strainer, and ice cream machine!

1. You will need to make a blueberry puree. Blend the 6 cups of blueberries in the food processor or blender! Using a strainer on top of a bowl, pour blended blueberry mixture into the strainer and, well, strain the mixture using a spatula to push the puree through. Whisk in the lemon juice to prevent browning. Set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine the half and half cream (10% milk fat) with the sugar.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks. In another bowl, pour in heavy cream and add a fine mesh strainer to the top.

4. Slowly, while whisking, pour sugar milk into egg yolks and whisk it all together. Pour back into saucepan and turn up the heat - medium to high heat. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Watch carefully about 3-5 minutes!

6. Remove custard mixture from stove.

7. In the bowl with the heavy cream, slowly pour in the hot custard mixture through the strainer into the heavy cream, mix until combined.

7. Slowly pour in the strained blueberry puree (there should be 1.5 cups!) and

8. Whisk until combined.

9. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, place in freezer for 1 hour roughtly until chilled, or 2-3 hours in refrigerator.

10. Pour into ice cream maker and make according to machine's instructions! (20 minutes or so until thickened!)

11. Enjoy your blueberry ice cream!

Raspberry (& Strawberry) Beret: Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches

2010-06-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

The kind you find in a second hand store! Man, who doesn't love Prince? Prince is a serious genius. He lives in a purple mansion, for goodness sake. And he wrote Nothing Compares 2 U, which is one of the best songs perhaps ever.

Anyhoo, check out these nutty (ahem) little French almond macaron raspberry strawberry ice cream sandwiches I made! I followed the handy dandy Martha Stewart Baking Handbook version of these macaron and I think they turned out pretty good. Crunchy crispy chewy, and sandwiched in between is a homemade raspberry/strawberry ice cream.

I got the idea for the swirly-piped macaron ice cream sandwich from two places:

One, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, which exists very far away from Vancouver BC Canada where I live, in the state of Ohio, USA. Of course I've only ever seen pictures of her ice creams but she is one of my ice cream heroes. Two, I recently went on a fun trip to Los Angeles... you can read about my food adventures HERE... and had the most delightful macaron ice cream sandwich!! So... of course I had to try making some for myself!

These turned out lovely -- great texture and crunchy chewiness of the macaron, and the ice cream in the middle produced a really lovely double berry flavour! I was worried the strawberries might get overpowered by the raspberries but when I tasted the ice cream, I got strawberry first then raspberry... like a Willy Wonka meal-in-a-gumball! :)

Raspberry Strawberry Macaron
Ice Cream Sandwiches

Organic strawberries!

Piped out macaron discs, baked!

Do you know this lady, this crazy lady named Martha?

Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The French almond macaron.

You're doing a few things at once here: makin' ice cream and makin' macaron! And you're doin' it all with a Chinese soup spoon!

But it's worth it, all your hard work! Macaron ice cream burger!!

Crunch and munch. The photographer is also the food tester, as well as the food-maker.

Pretty in (slightly coral peachy) pink!

Mini ice cream macaron sandwich.

Okay, enough photo harassment. Here's the recipe! Enjoy, let me know how it goes!! Excited to try many many combinations of these in the future too... :)

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

{Raspberry Strawberry Ice Cream Macaron Sandwiches}

You will need:

1 recipe for French almond macaron, found HERE
1.5 cups strawberries, sliced (I used organic strawberries)
teensy bit of lemon zest
wedge of lemon
1/2 cup raspberry jam (you could also use real raspberries here!)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1.5 cups half and half cream
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
fine mesh strainer, and ice cream machine!

1. In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine the strawberries, jam, lemon juice from wedge of lemon and zest. Stir until bubbling. Remove from heat.

2.In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks. In another bowl, pour in heavy cream.

3. In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine half & half with the sugar and stir until sugar is melted and combined.

4. Slowly, while whisking, pour sugar milk into egg yolks and whisk it all together. Pour back into saucepan and turn up the heat - medium to high heat. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Watch carefully about 3-5 minutes!

5. Remove custard mixture from stove.

6. In the bowl with the heavy cream, slowly whisk in the hot custard mixture until combined.

7. Place strainer on top of same bowl. Pour in strawberry/raspberry jam mixture, reserving the strawberries in the strainer to be used later!

8. Whisk until combined.

9. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, place in freezer for 30 minutes until chilled, or 2-3 hours in refrigerator.

10. Pour into ice cream maker and make according to machine's instructions! (20 minutes or so!)

11. Fold in the strawberries left from straining! Freeze for 20 minutes before assembling macaron ice cream sandwiches to firm up the ice cream!

12. Scoop some ice cream into the center of one macaron. Top with another macaron of the same size. Squish down a little, and enjoy!! Can be kept in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Pistachio Ice Cream

2010-04-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've had a lovely bag of pistachios burning a hole in my cupboard for much too long. Sorry I've been missing in action in Ice Cream Land-- Cupcake Land has taken over my entire LIFE! Finally a day off and instead of lying around in bed... I got up for some Spring cleaning, which led me to open the cupboard and see my pal Pistachio Bag.

Must. Make. Ice Cream. I modified this ice cream between my David Leibovitz "Perfect Scoop" classic recipes and one I found on the Food Network made by Emeril Lagasse! The flavour is a nice combination of vanilla, almond extract and bits of pistachio... the lightest of green in color as well... Enjoy! :)

{Pistachio Ice Cream}

You will need:

3 cups heavy cream

3 egg yolks

1 cup shelled pistachios

3/4 white granulated sugar

1/2 tsp pure almond extract

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Blend half the sugar with the pistachios in a food processor until fine. Careful not to make pistachio butter.

2. Bring 2 cups heavy cream and the other half of the sugar to a low boil in a medium saucepan.

3. Slowly whisk in the heavy cream into the egg yolks.

4. Place back on stovetop, stir occasionally until custard coats the back of a wooden spoon (about 6 minutes on medium heat)

5. Slowly pour custard mixture into remaining 1 cup of heavy cream in medium bowl.

6. Mix in almond extract and vanilla extract, and pistachio/sugar combo.

7. Cover mixture with plastic wrap and chill for 60 minutes in freezer. Watch that it doesn't freeze mixture though!

8. Pour into ice cream maker and watch the pistachio nut magic unfold!!

Pink Raspberry Rose Cream

2010-03-21T15:12:00.001-07:00

Another Sunday ice cream experiment. Only this time... Last night I had stayed up til 3am dancing away at my friend Toni's birthday party. I had on a lovely purple vintage silk top that I bought in Portland on a recent trip, and let's just say by the end of the night it looked like I had been working out at the gym on hyperspeed. Sopped in sweat, I hung my silk top to dry at 330am with hopes that it wouldn't be horribly stained the next day!!

Yes, I danced for four hours straight. A rarer and rarer occurrence for a lady in her 30s, sadly! But it was super fun. Today I feel like I ran a marathon (ie, dance hangover) but it just felt like an ice cream making day. I decided to wing it with a made-up recipe for Pink Raspberry Rose Cream. It seems you just can't go too too wrong when experimenting with homemade ice cream. Unlike baking, you can really throw lots of stuff in there in varying amounts and still, the result is usually frozen goodness!

This turned out soooo creamy and yummy, with a pure raspberry flavour, pale pink in color with the tiniest hint of heavenly rose. The flavour gave me a nostalgic throwback to a raspberry mousse dessert my mom used to make in the 1980s. She would serve it in these special "mousse" crystal goblets which I thought were the fanciest things in the world... I think this mousse was made up of raspberry Jell-o and melted vanilla ice cream? I'll have to ask my mom!!

As usual, I turned down the amount of egg yolks (most recipes usually call for 5) and it still turned out great. :)

{Pink Raspberry Rose Cream}

You will need:

1.5 to 2 cups raspberries (I used frozen)
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
3 cups heavy cream (you can substitute lesser-fat milk here if you wish!)
2 egg yolks
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) of pure rosewater extract
fine mesh strainer, and ice cream machine!

1. In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine the raspberries and the sugar into a coulis of sorts. Set aside.

2.In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and 1 cup heavy cream. In a medium saucepan on medium to high heat, pour in egg yolk mixture and stir constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Watch carefully!

3. Remove custard mixture from stove.

4. Pour other 2 cups of cream into the same medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the hot custard mixture until combined.

5. Place strainer on top of same bowl. Pour in raspberry coulis mixture, using a spatula to mash all the precious raspberry juice into the cream mixture, leaving behind the seeds in the strainer.

6. Whisk until combined.

7. Add 1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) of pure rosewater extract. Careful, this stuff is STRONG! Whisk until combined.

8. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, place in freezer for 30 minutes until chilled, or 2-3 hours in refrigerator.

9. Pour into ice cream maker and make according to machine's instructions! (20 minutes or so!)

Enjoy!

till next time,

xo Lyndsay

Vanilla Bean Coconut Ice Cream

2010-03-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

The cool thing (heh) about this ice cream: easy breezy to make. Like a cool breeze on a hot day. Except, if you accidentally leave the mixture in the freezer for three hours when you only meant to chill it briefly. This is what happened to my vanilla bean coconut ice cream--so I mashed it all up with forks into a slushy mixture and I still tried to put it in my ice cream machine in vain. My poor Silver Ice Cream Machine chugged along, pretty much screaming in overloaded pain, so I had to quit. The mix had already formed ice crystals, and never recovered... but of course I'm still eating it anyway.

But since I've made this recipe before, I can tell you this is a creamy and delightful ice cream for the coconut megafan, fragrant too from the vanilla bean. So I'm sharing it anyway even though this particular batch did not work out for me because I forgot about my chilling mixture! This recipe is also great for vegans or those allergic to dairy, as it is completely dairy-free! It's quite rich and is nice served with fruit, as the acidity of the fruit is a nice contrast to the creamy richness of the coconut cream.

{ Vanilla Bean Coconut Ice Cream }

You will need:

1 can of nice quality coconut milk (it's best not to cheap out on coconut milk. Usually, unless it's on sale, the costlier the can, the more fat it will have in it, thus a creamier coconut milk and creamier ice cream).
2 cans of nice quality coconut cream
1/2 cup white granulated sugar (I like my ice creams less sweet- most recipes call for at least 3/4 cup, so use your own discretion!)
1 vanilla bean, split
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. In a medium saucepan over low to medium heat, combine coconut milk, sugar, vanilla bean innards, vanilla, salt and vanilla bean pod. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, cool slightly.

2. In medium bowl, whisk all of the coconut cream together until combined. (Sometimes coconut cream and coconut milk separates in its cans but just whisk back together and no prob.)

3. Slowly whisk in cooled coconut milk/sugar mixture into coconut cream mixture until combined.

4. Chill mixture, wrapped with plastic wrap, in freezer for 30 minutes, or in fridge for 2-3 hours until well chilled.

5. Pour cold mixture into ice cream machine, and make according to machine's instructions!

No need to serve with chopsticks... :)

Enjoy! Yay!

Green Tea Frozen Yogurt

2010-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Green tea frozen yogurt! Hooray! I would say this isn't the healthiest frozen yogurt ever. It's no Pinkberry unfortunately (ie, super low-calorie). But I really wanted to try out the Greek-style yogurt in a frozen yogurt recipe. Next time I'll make a lower fat version... or not... heh.

I just kind of made this up based on previous ice cream recipes but it turned out pretty delightfully! The texture is more on the ice-milky side rather than the creamy ice creamy-ness side, I think it's due to the lack of the cooked eggs/custard part. But it's bright and yogurty and refreshing and tart. You can play around with the amount of sugar in it too and see what happens.

Isn't that the cutest heart-shaped ice cream spoon? My mom gave my hubby Rich and I matching "Alessi" ice cream bowls for Christmas two years ago and they came with these perfect spoons... (my mom knows me well, eh?) I'll snap pics of the ice cream bowls in the near future no doubt, with future ice cream experiments inside. Er, you can also see my reflection snapping a pic in the spoon... heehee.

Let me know if you make this, and how it goes for you!

{ Matcha Green Tea Frozen Yogurt }

You will need:

1 tablespoon matcha green tea superfine powder
1 cup light cream (10& butterfat milk)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 cups Greek style 10% fat plain yogurt
1 cup of milk
tiny pinch of salt

1. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk the green tea powder into the 1 cup of light cream until well combined.

2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the green tea milk, sugar, plain yogurt, milk and salt until well combined.

3. Chill in freezer, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 minutes until well chilled, or in the fridge for 2 hours.

4. Pour into ice cream machine and make according to machine's instructions.

Enjoy!! :)

Cereal Milk Ice Cream: Frosted Flakes Sundae

2010-03-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

I think the first time I had cornflakes on my ice cream was in Japan in 2002. On that trip, any time I saw green tea "soft cream" (soft serve ice cream) I would get it. And it happened to be everywhere! I knew I would never have it this good for a long, long time (being the soft serve fanatic and a green tea ice cream maniac that I am). So, like, every day I would get a green tea soft cream cone.

In Japan I also had my first Asian-y sundae. The light and corny crunch of corn flakes or frosted flakes on ice cream is unbeatable. Add some mochi, some sweet red bean and you have an Asian sundae straight from the doors of Ice Cream Heaven.

Speaking of travel: It's been four years since my last visit to New York and I am dying to go back, to eat my way through the streets and to try all the places I've been reading about over the last few years... Momofuku for one! Momofuku Milk Bar has the best-sounding crazy person menu, and one of their feature items is their trademarked Cereal Milk ice cream! Yes!! I love cereal so hard--I can't even buy cereal because I will vaporize it in like two days. That's how much I love cereal.

Cereal milk ice cream, eh? I have fond memories of eating cereal as a kid. When we were kids, we rarely got the special cereals, ie the ones with loads of sugar. When we would go down to Seattle on special occasions, we could get to bring back the crazy "American" cereals-- Count Chocula, Fruity Pebbles, Cinnamon Toast Crunch... but in Burnaby, BC, it was Red River cereal on the stovetop for us! And sometimes Honey Nut Corn Flakes, or "Just Right." But the sugary ones were the ones to turn your milk pink, or chocolatey, leaving their sugar behind ready to be spooned up or drunk back with a tip of the bowl.

So back to the ice cream recipe. A few googles later, I found this blog and her take on the Momofuku cereal milk ice cream. A few modifications later and here it is, with the addition of Frosted Flakes sprinkled on top, it's a perfect little crunchy and creamy sundae.

{CEREAL MILK ICE CREAM with FROSTED FLAKES}

You will need:

1 cup heavy cream 2 cups whole milk 2.5 c FROSTED FLAKES 3 egg yolks 1/4 c sugar (or less... I used slightly less than this). Ice cream maker!

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream and milk with Frosted Flakes. Refrigerate for up to 30 minutes.

2. Strain cereal out and discard. Put mixture in saucepan with sugar (to taste) and bring to a simmer on Medium Low heat. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in another bowl.

3. Once sugar is melted into milk, remove from heat. Slowly whisk milk mixture into egg yolk mixture until combined. Be careful not to scramble your egg yolks with this step!

4. Place saucepan back on burner on medium-high heat, add mixture. Continuously stir until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Watch carefully!

5. Remove from heat, pour into bowl, cover with plastic wrap so the wrap touches the surface of the mix so no milky skin thing forms, and place in freezer for 2 hours, or refrigerate overnight. Mix must be cold before hitting the ice cream maker.

6. Place in ice cream maker and make according to machine's instructions. I mixed for about 22 minutes, it seemed about right... !

You can now eat this deliciousness right away or pack it into an airtight container, such as a yogurt container, to harden up. When you want to eat it, place on counter for 5-10 minutes to soften it up before scooping.

Scoop into a cute bowl, sprinkle generously with more Frosted Flakes, and enjoy a TRUE DELIGHT!!!

'til next time Ice Cream Land,

xo Lyndsay

Milky Tea Earl Grey Ice Cream!

2010-02-27T13:39:00.000-08:00

Doo doo doo... Saturday morning... la la la... husband's already up early, working on a project... I rolllll out of bed... think about going for a run... haven't put contacts in yet so a little blind.

Hmm. Ice cream. 830am.

Okay!!!

Yes, I started making this ice cream in my pyjamas. It's a little bit time-consuming but worth it, like most things, don't you agree? I just love milky tea flavoured things. Tea things in general. Bubble tea? Love it. Tea flavoured cakes? Love. I start every morning off with a heavily-steeped bag of tea with soymilk. Perfect. Pumps me up. Today felt like the right morning to make Earl Grey Ice Cream... I call it Milky Tea Earl Grey...

This is a modified version of the Black Currant tea ice cream from The Perfect Scoop...! My beef with the recipes in The Perf Scoop is that they are just a little too sweet for me, and also too eggy... so I decided to experiment with the proportions to see what would happen. Turns out... DELICIOUS DELIGHTS happen!!! Perf Scoop calls for 5 egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar. I used much less... see below!

{ Milky Tea Earl Grey Ice Cream! }

You will need:

3 cups 10% fat milk (called Half & Half in Canada)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
10 earl grey tea bags (I used "Twinings" brand)
Ice cream maker. I have a Cuisinart silver box-type one. I forget the model name...

1. In a medium saucepan, heat 2 cups of the milk with the sugar and the 10 tea bags on medium heat, until low boil. Once lightly boiling (6-8 minutes or so... keep an eye on it!), remove from heat, stir it up and let sit and cool for 30 minutes.

2. Whisk egg yolks in medium bowl.

3. Check on milky tea mixture: squeeeeeze out the tea-ness from the teabags (be careful not to break bags!) and mix up the cooled milk. Discard tea bags.

4. Slowly whisk in the milky mix into the egg yolks.

5. Return this mixture to the medium saucepan and cook until thickened. Have you ever made a custard or cream pie filling, and suddenly you can feel the mixture thicken, and then you see it? You want to stir with a spatula the mixture on medium-high until it begins to thicken.

6. Whisk this into a medium bowl that has that last cup of milk that's hanging around.

7. Chill in refrigerator until cold, 1-2 hours. Go for a run at this point, or exercise! Then you won't feel bad about scarfing the ice cream when it's ready!!

8. Once mixture is cold, pour into ice cream maker and make according to ice cream maker's instructions. I set my timer for 20 minutes, checking on it every so often. It went for about 25-30 minutes and became wonderfully creamy.

9. Immediately remove from ice cream maker and into a yogurt container or airtight container. Freeze for a few hours to firm, or eat right away! Woohoo!

This ice cream is so milky tea yummy and fragrant with bergamot and lavender... you can make this recipe with any teabags- chai tea, orange pekoe... etc! May as well experiment with whatever you have kicking around. Also, because I used Half & Half instead of cream, and 2 egg yolks instead of 5, it's lighter, lower in fat and less eggy than the regular recipe, yet still tastes perfectly creamy.

Enjoy!!

xo Lyndsay

Vintage Ice Cream Advertisements

2010-02-18T23:09:00.000-08:00

Raspberry, vanilla and orange-pineapple-- that is a bit bonkers, isn't it! Sounds delightful to me. Especially if it comes with some creepy "take me to your dealer" alien acid trip bunnies that are made from cut-out dyed pink slices of bread.

Simple, effective... baseball... orange... two cool stuck together party pops blasting reverse out of that paper Popsicle bag... my fave flavour when I was a kid was root beer popsicle. Or grape.

Keep those scoops coming, Sealtest! I could really tuck into that layered-with-strawberries parfait. And that blue milk-glass scalloped plate is cute too.

Food styling never looked so good! This could be sold at Aberdeen Mall in Richmond, BC at the fake food store. Too bad the fake food is like $200 for a plate of tempura.

The "striated skin flap" style of ice cream layering in this dish of chocolate Meadow Gold ice cream is slightly disturbing. Still, I would spoon into this, like, majorly hard.

{Aren't these the cutest and coolest ads? From Flickr user Christian. These will inspire me to create my next ice creams. }

Ice cream by Coco Cake flavours on deck, stay tuned:

Milky black tea ice cream
Earl grey ice cream
Thai iced tea ice cream
Matcha green tea frozen yogurt
Cereal milk ice cream with Frosted Flakes! (as inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar)

See you soon! xo Lyndsay

Mexican Flavours Inspired Ice Cream Sundae!

2010-02-05T11:50:00.001-08:00

We have the loveliest neighbors... we love our friends who live in the suites in our home, and our next door neighbors are just about the best you could ask for. Over the past few years we rock some serious food get-togethers-- Indian Food night (everyone makes everything from scratch!) and on more than one occasion, Mexican Food night!! We all love Mexican food and it's hard to find really good Mexican food in Vancouver, BC. Beautiful, fresh and abundant sushi, yes... amazing Chinese food, yes... but there aren't too many Mexican spots here... so we make our own...

For this particular evening, I wanted to use this Mexican pure vanilla extract which my friend Tara brought back from me on her recent trip to Mexico. It was fun experimenting with something other than my usual Madagascar pure vanilla extract... but to be honest I couldn't really discern a major flavour difference. In fact, I thought the Mexican vanilla extract smelled a bit like one of my childhood smell memories: New York seltzer vanilla soda.

ANYHOO... I made a Mexican Inspired Ice Cream Sundae, with Mexican Vanilla Extract and Madagascar Vanilla Bean ice cream, cinnamon chocolate fudge sauce and toasted almonds!

I followed the Philadelphia-style (no eggs) vanilla ice cream recipe in my book The Perfect Scoop, but used less sugar than called for. It still turns out quite sweet, even with less sugar! I also added two teaspoons of vanilla extract instead of the 3/4 teaspoon requirement... ! This may have contributed to the final ice cream ice-milky consistency... or was it that I substituted heavy cream for 10% milk fat cream? Heehee! I'm not afraid to experiment with a recipe... this is why I have churned out water muffins before (heh).

{For the Mexican fudge sauce}, I modified a recipe to create this:

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup (or more) freshly brewed strong coffee
16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (roughly 2 cups! I know it's not really weight-equivalent but it works in a pinch).
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to: Bring cream and 1/2 cup coffee to boil on medium heat, in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and cinnamon. Stir gently and slowly until chocolate is melted and sauce is smooth. Mix in vanilla extract.

For the almonds, you can buy dry roasted almonds and chop them up, or you can toast your own by buying raw almonds, laying them out on a cookie sheet and baking them for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool and they will crisp up, then chop.

This is a very rich sundae so I made small but just-enough portions in small drinking glasses... a perfect ending!

EASY ZONE: You can also just buy a good quality vanilla bean ice cream (I like Haagen Dasz Five), make the sauce (it's fast and easy!) and top with store-bought toasted almonds too...! You could also lightly dust the sundae with a pinch of cinnamon too..

Birthday Ice Cream!

2009-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

For RT's birthday, we were going to go snowshoeing... but it rained terribly and there was much to do for his grilled cheese and ice cream party... so instead we spent the day hanging out, shopping at Whole Foods for delicious items such as those sharp, super tangy crunchy mini cornichons-- go pickles! -- and cave aged gruyere cheese (again, strong but sooo good) and then... making our own waffle cones and two types of ice cream for the party! Mint ice cream with dark chocolate, and coconut cream ice cream. Yum...!

On my birthday I bought myself another ice cream machine AND a waffle cone maker with cone roller! I gotta say both machines RULE! The ice cream machine is a little loud, as the entire bowl turns and makes an awful racquet, but if you can stand it for 25 minutes or so it's well worth it.

The little waffle cone maker is a dream come true, makes perfect waffle cones and it's very easy to make the cones.

Waffle cone!

Dark chocolate chopped up to be folded into the mint ice cream!

A spoonful of ice cream... I made "Philadelphia Style" ice cream, without eggs-- Rich hates eggs so I didn't make the custard-style ice cream. This ice cream had a nice consistency, I used all heavy cream instead of part heavy cream and part whole milk for super creaminess. I also added a half teaspoon of cornstarch melted in warm water to give it a bit of hold.

Rich's ingenious little twist at the bottom of the waffle cone - no drips!!

The finished product... beautiful ice cream... I put it directly into this container and froze it for another two hours in the freezer to firm up. Though, before serving, I left out on counter for about 10 minute to soften. Seems backwards but you gotta freeze it to firm it then leave it out to soften for serving!

Ice cream cones, every bit from scratch! Hooray!

And a beautiful sundae for Rich with a sparkler... to celebrate the arrival of his 32nd year! :)

Ice Cream Partay! (for two)

2009-09-17T19:35:00.001-07:00

My good pal Rafael (incidentally I call him Shogodog) came over the other night for an ice cream making sesh! I've been wanting to churn up some frozen creamy party times ever since I got my awesome new book "the Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz in the mail! French style ice cream vs. Philadelphia style (or American style) ice cream. Did you know there was a difference? Yes, it's true! French style ice cream is a cooked custard style ice cream, resulting in a rather eggy (much to my husband's nose-turned-up dismay), very rich, smooth and creamy ice cream. Philly style has none of this egg business; it's like the recipes that came with my Cuisinart ice cream maker.

So often I lie in bed at night before going to sleep and I read baking books or cookbooks. Right now "The Perfect Scoop" is on the top of the pile-- so I decided I would start by making the very first recipe, the author's fave vanilla ice cream. This recipe has seeds from a whole vanilla bean in it so it's very fragrant, and the end product turned out very nice and creamy and SO full of flavour it was insane. I found it a little too eggy and too sweet though-- next time I will adjust the recipe! David Lebovitz has a cute and toothy smile on the book jacket, holding up proudly a lovely looking cone. You can tell the guy really digs food.

The joy and the excitement of peering into the churning ice cream machine and seeing it slowly thicken, rich and creamy in colour, with specks of vanilla beans! We ate a few spoons right after we thought it was done-- it took about 40 minutes of churning, actually! And then we carefully doled out half of the ice cream into one container and the other half into another-- our prized product outcome of an evening's work!! I scooped out a small ball of it the following day and was amazed by the texture-- could've been Haagen Dasz! How exciting!!

{David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop Vanilla Ice Cream recipe!}

You will need:
1 cup milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cups sugar

1 vanilla bean

5 egg yolks

2 cup heavy cream

A few drops of vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.

2. Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping. Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Beautiful Ice Creams!

2009-08-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Ice cream has always been a major favorite of mine, but now I am deeply interested in creating beautiful ice creams... ! Welcome to my new blog, Ice Cream by Coco Cake! This is my hobby blog, so when I have time to make ice creams or frozen yogurt or sorbets, I will surely post them here! I also want to try all sorts of ice cream sandwiches combinations...!

Stay tuned for ice cream party times!