Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Unfortunately, I am not spending the holiday at home, waiting for trick or treaters.  I guess I will have to check with the boys to see if any kids show up.  I have been stuck in DC for the last few days due to Hurricane Sandy.  At least I got plenty of use out of my Pumpkin Shirt while I have been here!

At least a few days inside led to some super tasty treats.  I made homemade ice cream sandwiches Sandy-wiches for my friends who let me stay with them while I waited until I could get a flight.  I used the regular old Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but halfway through baking I took the tray out of the oven and banged it on the open oven door to flatten the cookies out and make them extra crispy.  It's my mom's college roommate's trick and the key to her amazing cookies. (Although mine never come out quite as good as hers).

My friends don't have a standing or hand mixer, so I actually made the dough totally by hand (don't worry, we didn't lose power from Sandy, but I would have been prepared!).  In a bit of kitchen trickery, I used a lemon juicer (like this) to cream the butter and sugar.  It actually worked amazingly well!  While the cookies were still a little bit warm, I put blackberry ice cream between 2 cookies and wrapped them in Saran then threw them in the freezer for an hour or two.  They came out perfectly!



We finally escaped the storm on Tuesday night and made it to the restaurant where the Monkey Scientist and I had our first restaurant date - Nam Viet - for some delicious Pho.  It hit the spot on a cool, rainy evening.

It's been great being back in DC - I had missed it (and my camp friend) a lot - but I'm ready to head back to Chicago.  Cross your fingers that I make it back tomorrow!

Have a great Halloween!

White Chocolate Strawberry Chunk Ice Cream

I finally did it!  I've been talking about making ice cream for well over a year now, and finally I made the move.  Despite the fact this is not a cost saving way of eating, I don't think I can ever buy ice cream in a carton again.





I stole my ice cream maker from my parents house when they moved up to the lake.  They bought it at a yard sale from our old neighbors when they moved from their house.  It had never been used until I made this ice cream, but it's far from new.  It's even hand crank...but honestly it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it'd be.




I saw this recipe a while back and it definitely peaked my interest.  Have I mentioned my love of white chocolate?  Strawberry ice cream is pretty suburb as well. The Monkey Scientist encouraged me to finally go ahead and make this, and even lent me a helping hand.  It took a long time, but none of the steps were really that difficult.




The ice cream was really amazing.  The base was so silky and sweet.  The strawberries got a little bit icy, but I think if we chopped them a little bit smaller they may have been fine.  My new ice cream scoop, on the other hand didn't quite make it.  It wasn't fancy ($1 at CVS) but I figured it'd least give me one scoop before it snapped....not so much.





I'm totally hooked on homemade ice cream...what kind should I make next?



White Chocolate Strawberry Chunk Ice Cream
from day dreamer desserts

Ingredients:
1 lb finely diced strawberries
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 c heavy whipping cream
1 c whole milk
6-7 tbsp white chocolate hot cocoa powder (I used World Market Dulce de Leche White Hot Chocolate + 1 tbsp malted milk powder)
3/4 c granulated sugar
pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3.5 oz high quality white chocolate, chopped

Instructions:
1. Place diced strawberries into a medium bowl.  Spring 2 tbsp sugar over strawberries and toss to coat. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, pour 1 c of heavy cream, and place a large strainer on top.
3. In a medium saucepan warm remaining 1 c of the heavy cream, milk, white chocolate hot cocoa powder, sugar, and pinch of salt.
4. Crack eggs into a small bowl and whisk lightly. Temper the eggs by slowly pourinng about half of the heavy cream mixture in a thin stream into the egg yolks while whisking constantly to warm the egg yolks. Then return the egg yolks back into the sauce pan. Over medium heat, stir the ice cream base with a wooden spoon making sure you scrape the bottom of the pan while you stir until the ice cream base thickens and coats the back side of the wooden spoon.
5. Pour ice cream base through the strainer and stir it into the large bowl with heavy cream.  Add vanilla extract and diced strawberries. Stir well to combine. Cool ice cream base over an ice bath then finishing chilling in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.
6. Pour ice cream base into your ice cream maker and follow your manufacturer's instructions.  About 5 min before the ice cream is done churning add in white chocolate chunks. Transfer ice cream into a sealable plastic container, cover and place in the freezer until thoroughly frozen approximately 4 hours.