Lemon Ice Cream

Oh lemons, you are delicious. You make good things to drink, you spice up soup, you freshen up salad dressing and you make AMAZING ice cream.

I was inspired after making some blueberry preserves from a you pick day. I didn't know how I was going to eat a whole jar, so I decided to make some ice cream to go with it. Vanilla is boring so lemon it was.

The recipe combines both lemon zest and juice for extra lemony flavor.

Sometimes with citrus ice cream it can end up being not as smooth or more like a sorbet. I decided to sort-of-double it to make sure it was more creamy.

Also, I recommend using Joy's tip of combining the zest and sugar first to release the flavors of the zest come out more.

Besides that it's just like making a typical custard. Eggs, half and half, vanilla bean all combine and are heated over medium heat. Whisking constantly to make sure it doesn't get overcook or start to stick to the pan.

Let it chill overnight and you are in business to make your ice cream! Take out the vanilla bean first. 

Its good on its on or great with blueberry topping too. Adding some melted white chocolate chips to the top too would be extra delicious. Enjoy!

Lemon Ice Cream

(adapted from Epicurious)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 cup fresh lemon zest
• 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1 vanilla bean with seeds removed

To Make

1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and lemon zest to release some of the flavors. Then, whisk in lemon juice, 2 cups half-and-half, eggs and vanilla bean. 
2. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. Keep on heat just until it comes to a simmer, immediately remove from heat. Strain through mesh sieve into medium bowl and add vanilla bean.
3. Cover and chill overnight. When cool and ready to make ice cream, whisk in last cup of half and half and make according to ice cream maker directions. Freeze to desired consistency and enjoy!

I served it with blueberry preserves made from this recipe (without the final canning step)

Rhubarb Custard Ice Cream with Honey & Ginger Cookies

You should be thankful I had my eyes dilated at the optometrist today. 

Why you ask? It's barely rained in the last two or three weeks. And I just feel guilty for being inside when it's so nice outside. That's what Seattle has done to me. 

But today, I went to the optometrist to get a new contact prescription, because my last one expired two weeks before I tired to reorder contacts online so I couldn't...anyway. I'm at the eye doctor and before I know what's happening the doctor gives me those dilating eye drops. Makes me wait fifteen minutes, then finishes the exam and tells me I'm good to go.

Here's the problem, its still sunny and my eyes are totally dilated. I felt sort of blind and going outside still hurts my eyes. This is why I'm inside on a nice day sharing this amazing recipe with you.

This is fairly labor intensive and has a few steps but it is SO worth it. This ice cream is sweet, tart with cookie crumbles mixed in. And it really highlights rhubarb, which is just starting to get stellar. If you know someone who grows it go steal it from their garden, if not go pick it up at the grocery store. 

The pictures above show the steps for making the rhubard compote. Really simple and just involves chopping the rhubarb and letting it cook and break down with sugar.

Now we get to make the custard. Vanilla bean, eggs, sugar, whole milk and whipping cream combined to make a delicious, thick, rich custard base.

After you make the custard base you let it cool in the refrigerator overnight (I did two days) or set it in an ice bath to cool more quickly if you're making it for that day.

The final thing to make before combining the three parts is the ginger & honey cookies.

To make the cake flour for the cookies I used Joy's instructions found here. It gets a little messy but is easier than putting real pants on, going to the store and buying some.

Another not-so-pro tip, I also just used my coffee grinder to make oat flour out of regular oats.

It all comes together to make a slightly sticky dough that will be refrigerated for 30 minutes, rolled out, cut into cookies and baked. Yum. They're good enough to make on their own.

Finally, it all comes together. After you use your ice cream machine to make the custard, that is. Layers of the vanilla custard, rhubarb compote and crumbled cookies.

Frozen for a few hours and then served to anxious guests. Or yourself for a mid-afternoon snack.

Rhubarb Custard Ice Cream with Honey & Ginger Cookies

(from Goboroot) 

To Make Rhubarb Compote:

• 3 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1/4 cup cane sugar (regular sugar would be okay too)
• squeeze of lemon juice

1) Combine rhubarb and sugar in a small or medium sauce pan and turn heat on to medium. Let it cook until rhubarb looses its shape and mixture becomes textured and lovely. This took me about 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

2) When its done, squeeze lemon juice and stir to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use. About half and hour before finally combining ice cream put in the freezer.

To Make Custard:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean, cut lenthwise and scraped
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup cane (or regular) sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream

1) Bring whole milk, vanilla bean (and insides) to a gentle boil. Once it boils, remove from stove and let sit for 10 minutes

2) While that is cooling, whisk yolks and sugar together until light yellow and combine. Gently stir in 1/2 cup of milk, just to combine and prevent eggs from cooking when they're put on heat. 

3) Add egg mixture back to saucepan, bring back to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. It should begin to thicken after about 5 minutes. Once it's done, remove from heat and put through a fine strainer. Stir in whipping cream and refrigerate.

4) Let it cool completely before you'r making into a custard. Can stay in refrigerator overnight.

To Make Cookies:

• 1/3 cup butter, room tempreature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp ginger juice, from grated ginger
• 2/3 cup oat flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

1) Sift together oats, cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside

2) Mix together butter and sugar and creamy. Add in egg, honey and ginger. Next, using a spatula, add in dry ingredients all at once and fold in until ingredients are all combine. Batter will be sticky. 

3) Form into ball and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. When it's ready, preheat oven to 320. Roll out dough into sheet 1/3 inch thick and cut into 2 inch squares. 

4) Make on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then on rack until room temperature. Store in air tight container until ready to make ice cream.

To Make Ice Cream:

1) Prepare the ice cream according to instructions for your ice cream maker. Crumbled cookies, saving a few for serving. Take rhubarb out of freezer.

2) In container for freezing, add layer of ice cream, dollop with rhubarb and sprinkle cookies; repeat for 1-2 more layers depending on the size of your container.

3) Freeze for 2-3 more hours (or overnight) and serve with extra cookie on the side. Enjoy!

Greek Yogurt Ice Cream

I've made a pact with myself. No dessert unless I work out that day. On my days off this is cool, I'll go for a hike or to do yoga or bust out on my bike. Days I work this is a total bummer. Can I count the 4 flights of stairs I take to my floor so I can have another bowl of this Greek Yogurt Ice Cream?

You all know my slight obsession with Sprouted Kitchen by now. I've gone through their entire website and pinned my fair share of their recipes. This recipe for Greek Yogurt Ice Cream is another winner. It's cinnamony, a little tangy and the chunks of cookies make it oh-so-good. I know summer is over so it may not be "ideal" ice cream making conditions but I say forget that. Just crank up your heater and pretend.

Greek Yogurt Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups greek yogurt
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 & 1/2 cups sugar (divided)
• 1 tbsp ground Saigon cinnamon (or regular)
• 2 cups freshly baked cookies

To Make:

1) Bring the cream, milk and one cup of sugar to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Cook until sugar is dissolved and cream is just scalded. Turn of heat and let cool for a few minutes.

2) In separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until light yellow. Now, add half a cup of the cream mixture into yolks to temper the eggs. Add this mixture to the saucepan and stir to incorporate. Turn the heat back on, stir frequently until it coats the back of a wooden spook. This is the custard base. 

3) Put this back into mixing bowl. Add cinnamon and greek yogurt and whisk together. Let cool in fridge for at least half an hour or up to overnight.

4) If you're going to make your own cookies I do it right before I'm going to pour the custard into the ice cream maker. Bake your cookies until slightly underdone and still a bit gooey. Once baked, let cool on pan and cut into small chunks. Try not to let yourself eat four cookies. When they're cut into small pieces it's hard to tell. 

4) Give the custard a good whisk right before you pour it in the ice cream maker. Now follow your ice cream makers directions. Add the cookie pieces about 5 minutes before the ice cream is done.

5) Once the consistency you like, transfer to a tupperware and freeze. Give it a few hours to firm up and enjoy! 

Huckleberry Ice Cream

Don't get me wrong, I love Seattle (especially after our hike today), but I am missing a few things from this summer.

 1) Service like this:

2) The Firepit (the firepit! the firepit!)

3) This little man (who happens to be eating my ice cream with his fingers)

Common denominator between these things: huckleberry ice cream! (You had to know that was coming). I made this recipe after our hike to Huckleberry Lookout. It took 2.5 hours to get up and about 5 hours to get down. The extra time was because we were stopped for awhile picking our share of huckleberries. If you've never had one they taste like an amped up version of a blueberry, they're slightly more tart and crisper. We ended up with 3 Nalgene bottles full so they had to be used up!

This recipe is adapted from the Taste of Home and could easily be used for raspberries or blueberries.

Huckleberry Ice Cream

• 2-3 cups huckleberries
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

To make:

1) Blend the huckleberries. I simply put mine in a blender and went to town until they were smooth

2) In a small saucepan heat the milk and sugar together, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

3) Pour your milk/sugar mixture into a bowl and stir in whipping cream and vanilla. Next, fold in the huckleberries. Now, depending on the type of ice cream you want you could strain this mixture over a metal colander. I like the bits of huckleberry so I skipped that.

4) Let this mixture cool in the refrigerator.

5) Once cool make according to your ice cream maker directions. I always like mine extra frozen so once done in the maker, stick it back in the freezer for a few hours. 

Enjoy!

Brown Butter & Cherry Ice Cream

Generally, I'm not much of a creative cook. I find a recipe, follow it (usually exactly) and then move on with my life. Not much to it. However, I was inspired by the 11 pounds of cherries we picked the other day and thought of the cherry and brown butter combination for ice cream. I've never actually used brown butter before but I've heard good things. I didn't find any recipes after an extensive google search so I just decided to make my own using about four different recipes and inspiration.

 And I'm not one to toot my own horn but my family said this was the best ice cream I've made all summer. Its a bit labor intensive but so worth it. Make sure you have someone to share this with. Or not.

Brown Butter & Cherry Ice Cream

• 1 stick of butter (8 tbsp)
• 1 lb of cherries, pitted
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup regular sugar
• 2 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 5 egg yolks

1) Brown that butter! Cut your butter into pieces for more even melting, put into saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally and watch for butter to turn amber and have flecks on bottom of pan. Check out this simply recipes link for more detailed instructions. It took longer than I expected but oh boy is it worth it. Once it is browned, set aside and let it cool completely. (the picture is mid melt and it gets much darker)

2) While butter is browning or cooling, pit the cherries. If you have a cherry pitter, good for you. I don't so I just cut them in half and popped out the pit with my hands. After which it looked like I had murdered someone. See exhibit A. Now toss the cherries with the lemon juice and try not to eat all of them while you make the custard.

exhibit A:

3) Now mix the heavy cream, the butter and the brown sugar together. Put these in a saucepan over medium-low and heat until warm.

4) Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until well creamed, which may take a few minutes. Slowly drizzle the butter/milk mixture into the creamed eggs. This is done so you warm the eggs slowly instead of cooking them. Once it's all mixed put back into the sauce pan and stir slowly while warming the mixture until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon (your custard).

5) Once thickened, dump the cherries into the custard. I kind of smashed a few of the cherries while I stirred them in as well. Let this mixture sit for about ten minutes, or while you wash a few of the dishes.

6) Now blend the mixture in batches. If you have an immersion blender that also works. Once mixed/blended, strain the mixture into a bowl and cool for a few hours or over night.

7) Once cool turn into ice cream. I always like mine extra frozen so I leave mine in the freezer for a few hours after this as well.

Enjoy!

Not quite Sebasitan Joe's

Our family has a collective favorite ice cream store called Sebastian Joe's. This little gem, located in Minneapolis, has the absolute best ice cream flavor in the world: raspberry chocolate chip. I've never found it anywhere else either. The last time I was there, in December, I went up to the counter and stated "I'd like the biggest size you have" and the girl just looked me strangely.

Since this past Sunday was father's day and I've been making ice cream lately (like this honey walnut) I decided to surprise him with a homemade version of our favorite ice cream! I adapted it from the Dark Raspberry Chocolate Chunk recipe from Phoo-d. 

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of whole milk
• 2 cups of whipping cream
• 1 cup of sugar
• pinch of salt
• 6 cups of raspberries (I used frozen and thawed them slightly in the freezer)
• 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (I chopped up 2 Ghiradelli bars)

Now to begin: place milk, whipping cream sugar, salt and raspberries in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm.

Now, let the mixture steep for about 20 minutes (lets hope you're not making it at 11 at night and can really stay awake for this).  After it's steeped, strain through a fine metal strainer into a clean bowl. (I didn't have a fine metal strainer as I'm not in my own kitchen and it was okay but would be better if strained more effectively(. 

Now cool this mixture for 4 hours or overnight. The next morning (after your dad has left for work), or whenever its ready, place in ice cream maker. 

At the end of when it's churning stir in the chocolate chips (I simply fold them in while I'm pouring it into the container). Freeze until solid then serve! I garnished it with a few fresh raspberries and a square of chocolate to make it extra fancy. 

Honey Walnut Ice Cream

My bff got me the Joy the Baker cookbook for Christmas/when it was released. This week I made my first official JTB cookbook recipe. Bottom line: it was really good. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 tsp veggie oil (I actually used olive oil and it was fine)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 large egg yolks
• pinch o' salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream

1) Roast walnuts by preheating oven to 400 degrees. Toss walnuts with olive oil and salt, roast in oven for about 8 minutes. Let cool in a separate bowl. You may need to label these so your family doesn't eat them. 

2) In a heavy saucepan, mix milk and honey and heat until just boiling. Let it cool slightly while you whisk the egg yolks, salt and sugar. Do this until it is pale yellow. It took me about 6 minutes and I counted it as my arm workout for the day.

3) After this you need to slowly drizzle about half the milk mixture into the yolk mixture (this is apparently getting the eggs ready to be cooked). Transfer this back into the saucepan and place over medium heat. 

4) Make the custard by stirring constantly with a spatula until it coast the back of a wooden spoon (about 8-10 minutes). 

5) Now remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and cream. Pour this through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl. Refrigerate for about 2 hours (or while you drive to the nearest national Park). Finally you can now mix it in your ice cream maker according to your manufacturer's instructions. At the end add the walnuts. 

I found that I needed to put it in the freezer for a little bit to get it solid enough to eat like ice cream. We then ate it on a peach-blueberry crisp and it was delish.