cinnamon banana rum ice cream

Anyone who's interested in making homemade ice cream must read this article on Serious Eats. My family has two small ice cream makers (the freezer version that doesn't use salt or ice) that we've used the past few summers, but I wanted to find a good no-machine recipe and see how it worked out. I learned some fascinating stuff from the Food lab article (linked above) and got all inspired to try the recipe that was included at the end of the post. Since I'm not too enamored with plain vanilla ice cream (unless toppings are involved, you know...) so I knew I wanted to add something. I chose cinnamon. Perfect.

Anyway, I followed the vanilla recipe. When it came time to put the ice cream into a food processor, I added 1 very ripe frozen banana and a decent amount of cinnamon. The mixture went back into the freezer for a day. It was delicious.

Did I mention the two tablespoons of rum?

I feel so lucky when my mom hands me a bottle of rum. If you ever hear about a tv show involving teenagers, alcohol, and KitchenAid mixers, I'll probably be on it. Do not skip the rum in this recipe. It just completes the ice cream.

This is the finished product:

Making ice cream isn't hard. If you can read and have the patience to stand at the stove stirring custard, IT'S POSSIBLE. Since school's been out, and there's been a Death Cloud of Grass Pollen hovering over my town, I've been experimenting in the kitchen more than I normally would. (It's also a good chance to use kitchen equipment before it gets packed up for the move...)

4th of July is next week and I'm planning on making a new flavor to accompany the explosives show that's going down in my cul-de-sac. I'm thinking chocolate. And a hose.

Now for the failure report: waffle cones. I tried making them in a skillet and they turned out like dense pancakes and I couldn't get them thin enough to role into cones. From my point of view, homemade- waffle cone makers are in the same league as cake log artists. Have fun with that! (But my friend Sarah gave me a Tulipe recipe, so I'm going to redeem myself!)

 Vanilla Ice Cream Without a Machine

• 8 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 cups heavy cream

for banana/cinnamon/rum version:

• 2 tablespoons of gold rum
• 1 (very ripe) frozen banana
• however much cinnamon you feel like adding

1. In large bowl or stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whisk egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and salt until pale yellow and mixture falls off of whisk in thick ribbons, about 5 minutes. Set aside. Stirring constantly, heat evaporated milk in medium saucepan on stovetop until it comes to a simmer. Slowly add hot milk to egg mixture, whisking constantly, until fully incorporated. Transfer mixture back to saucepan and heat, whisking constantly, to 180°F (it should become thick and custardy). Do not overheat, or eggs will scramble. Chill mixture completely.

2. Whip 1 cup heavy cream with whisk or in stand mixer until doubled in volume. Add whipped cream to egg mixture and fold with whisk just until no lumps remain. Pour mixture into ice cube trays and freeze for 4 hours, or until solid. NOTE: I actually don't have an ice cube tray, so I just used muffin tins. Read the article if you're curious why the mixture should not be frozen in a large bowl.

3. Combine frozen cubes of ice cream (and banana, rum and cinnamon) and remaining heavy cream in food processor and process until smooth, about 30 seconds, scraping down sides and breaking up lumps as necessary during process. Transfer mixture to quart container,  I used an empty plastic yogurt container and freeze for at least 4 more hours before serving. I found that the ice cream needed to be frozen for much longer than 4 hours. I actually kept in the freezer for at least 24 hours so it would be really hard.

This is a photo of an ice cream shop on Bainbridge Island. I thought of it yesterday because I had cinnamon ice cream there one summer:

Please tell me about your ice cream making escapades in the comments!

color

A few images from the last four weeks that inspire me today:

studies in black and white II

Crème brûlée

Just a week ago, I made Crème brûlée for the first time. (Is it necessary to add those accents?) Anyway, it worked! I'm still working on my (very poor) torch skills, but I actually succeeded in hardening the tops. I'm of surprised they turned out, because I kind of randomly dipped into the Allrecipes Abyss and used the first recipe I saw. Yeah, I've done that before...

Creme brulee isn't hard to make, it just requires paying attention to a bunch of little directions. You don't need a torch, so I've heard- but my broiler wouldn't harden the sugar properly. So I used my feeble torch.

I can't make up my mind about this dessert. It obviously doesn't contain any chocolate or fruit, and everyone knows that the whole concept of baking desserts would be pointless without chocolate or fruit. Still, the layer of vanilla custard under the sugar shell makes it worth it.

Note: Stir the hot cream into the egg mixture SLOWLY otherwise the eggs might start cook in reaction to the almost boiling cream.

ingredients

6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

prep

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
3. Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture SLOWLY WHILE STIRRING; beat until combined.
4. Pour cream mixture into the top of a double boiler. Stir over simmering water until mixture lightly coats the back of a spoon; approximately 3 minutes. Remove mixture from heat immediately and pour into a shallow heat-proof dish.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.
6. Preheat oven to broil.
7. In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons white sugar and brown sugar. Sift this mixture evenly over custard. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes. Watch carefully so as not to burn.
8. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until custard is set again.

weekend

Happenings:

•  Successfully made creme brulee for Fathers' Day (we celebrated on Friday). I'll post about that soon! Also made yogurt cinnamon waffles.
• Rode my bike in the pouring rain with Autumn Saturday morning to get frozen yogurt.
• Experienced an eye blister. Thank you allergies. And yes, that's pretty much as fun as it sounds.
• Hung out with Andre and Jerome, the only siblings who were in town then.
• Laughed at silly movie trailers and watched Psycho with friends Saturday night.
• Was very late to church.
• Taught Jerome how to take pictures on my iPhone. Completely hilarious and adorable. (I now have pictures on my phone of random strangers...)

For now here's a lovely photo of an avocado that was sacrificed for a salad on Friday:

I'm off to make a to-do list! I have some stuff to edit and print this week, and I need to start running again (I'm planning on doing a 10K on the 4th of July). Out of desperation, I'm seriously considering wearing swim goggles because of the pollen....

Cascades, Antelope, Shaniko, Condon

More recent Oregon photos:
Fossil, Oregon
Fossil Park

sidewalks and blue sky

Sometimes you have to disregard the rule of thirds to capture a unique image.
The sky in the first image below makes everything look small. It's OK, though, because this was a deliberate image. I wasn't able to get any closer to the mountains at the time this photo was taken, but I wanted to draw attention to them. If I had used the rule of thirds, the lower part of the picture would be cluttered with fields, bushes, trees, animals, and roads.

It's not the best photo I've ever shot on my dslr, but I like that you can see how expansive the sky is. Breaking the rules won't always result in stunning images, but it will make any point-and-shoot travel photos more interesting.

Edward Weston once said: “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection.”

Still, because photography is an art it's very possible to float off the sidewalk up into that blue sky.

happy birthday

My little sister, Susanna Jubilee, turned 8 yesterday, but the real celebration happened today. So far, her birthday has involved a trip to the mall yesterday afternoon, a breakfast date with dad, a piñata, lots of candy, and a cute new outfit my mom picked out. (Also some new journals from my dad because unbeknownst to most of my family, she has been recording her daily activities on sheets of copy paper and stuffing them behind her bed.)
And the day isn't over yet!

verde

Clarkston, Washington

I spent a Saturday last month in Clarkston with two of my brothers and my dad. We spent most of the day outside with our friends boating, having a mini bbq picnic on the river shore, and exploring the fields. There was also a climbing expedition (up that huge hill you see behind me in the first picture) that I passed on because hiking through dense underbrush in flipflops didn't sound appealing to my insect-hating self.

Just a few blocks away from our friends' house is a huge field (you can see evening pictures of that same field here) that suddenly drops away. In the following pictures you can see the boys walking towards the edge of the cliff. Lewiston Idaho is in the distance.