Apple Cake
Going through my cookbooks has revealed some great new recipes, including this one.
I believe it came from the November 1999 issue of Bon Appetit but it is nowhere to be found on the world-wide web! But I will share it with you here, starting with the introduction to the recipe: “This cake, a recipe from family friend Arlene Cherner, is a Thanksgiving tradition in the Van Fossan household.”
It includes a Carmel Sauce and Bourbon Whipped Cream which I served with the cake for my dinner guests, making it very elegant. But it can also be served as is, more in line with a coffecake. I just gave my husband a slice this morning with a cup of cappuccino. Yum.
I did not make the caramel sauce from the recipe because I actually had some that I forgot to serve at our Family Party! I don’t know whether I was being virtuous for using what I had or just plain lazy! The one I had and used came from David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop: sugar, heavy cream, salt and vanilla. You may like the brown sugar version, I have made other recipes like this before, they are a bit easier than the traditional. I encourage you to try it!
Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce and Bourbon Whipped Cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sour cream
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons orange zest (from 2 oranges)
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (from about 1-1/2 medium oranges)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 medium Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and quartered to make 4 cups of diced apples
1 cup chopped walnuts (I did not use the first time, so it’s optional. both versions are yum.)
Powdered sugar
Caramel Sauce (see recipe)
Bourbon Whipped Cream (see recipe)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 12 cup nonstick Bundt pan.
Ok, so I have a confession. My cake stuck a bit to the bottom of the pan, as you will see in the picture below. I made it a second time and it did almost exactly the same thing. I used Pam Baking spray, which includes oil and flour together. After talking to my daughter, who only uses butter on her baking pans, I strongly urge you to butter the Bundt pan. The cake to me, is still presentable, even with the little stuck part. Back to the recipe:
Dicing the apples: take one-quarter of the apple, and slice it in half lengthwise. Keeping the halves together, slice lengthwise into 4 sections. Then slice again horizontally to make perfect little 1/2 inch cubes. 4 medium apples should yield 4 cups of diced apples.
Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl and set aside.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl and whisk together.
Whisk 2 cups sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla in a large bowl to blend (you can use the whisk attachment on your mixer as well).
Stir in flour mixture and whisk together until completely blended.
Pour half of batter into prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle half of apples over batter, then half of chopped walnuts and half of cinnamon/sugar mixture. Spoon remaining batter over. Sprinkle remaining apples, walnuts and cinnamon/sugar mixture over.
Bake cake for 55 minutes. Cover pan loosely with foil and continue baking until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely. Transfer to a cake platter. (Can be made one day ahead: cover cake and keep at room temperature.)
Right before serving, dust cake with sifted powdered sugar. Serve with warm Caramel Sauce and Bourbon Whipped Cream.
Caramel Sauce
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium high; boil until reduced to 2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Whisk in vanilla. Cool. (you can make this ahead, refrigerate, and re-warm VERY gently either in a saucepan or microwave.)
Bourbon Whipped Cream
3 cups chilled heavy cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup bourbon
Beat cream and sugar in large bowl until soft peaks form. Add bourbon and beat until stiff peaks form.
This is my very reduced version of the above because I felt it was way too much whipped cream. I also do not like to whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks. I enjoy it more when the whipped cream is soft.
1 cup chilled heavy cream
3 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon bourbon
Beat cream and sugar in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Add bourbon and beat until just combined.
You also can reduce or eliminate the bourbon, depending on your taste preferences.
cut the quartered apple lengthwise, in half:
1/2 inch apple dice:
mise en place:
sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, orange juice and orange zest:
flour mixture added:
1/2 the batter, with 1/2 the apples and 1/2 cinnamon-sugar and on top:
ready for the oven:
cooling:
almost perfect looking but very delicious (I did not put the confectionary sugar on until right before serving):
with caramel sauce and bourbon whipped cream:
unadorned but equally yummy!
Pasta and Sausage Bake
This is a great recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs. Perfect for this cool weather we are having: comforting and hearty without being too rich.
Instead of the suggestion of using 1-1/2 times the bechamel and cheese to get more sauce, I halved the amount of pasta. I do this frequently with pasta recipes that I make because I always like them on the saucy side rather than firm. Broccoli rabe was also not available at Shoprite and the broccolini looked terrible, so I used brocolli, the other suggestion from Deb. Besides these two things, I followed the recipe exact.
Pasta and Sausage Bake (adapted from Baked Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage)
8 ounces of Campanelle pasta
8 ounces of brocolli florets, cut into skinny florets
1 pound of italian sweet sausage, casings removed (I really like Hannaford Nature’s Place All Natural Sweet Italian Pork sausage)
2 ounces of parmesan cheese, grated (Stella is my favorite brand)
6 ounces Mozzarella, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
pinch of ground nutmeg
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Canola oil spray, a glass 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Bring a large pot of water to boil, adding about 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. Remove pasta with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl. Add broccoli to the same pot of water and boil for 4-5 minutes. Remove broccoli with a slotted spoon to the same bowl with the pasta. Drain water from pot and dry pot.
Place about a tablespoon of olive oil in the same pot you cooked the pasta and broccoli, over medium heat. Break up the sausage with 2 forks and cook sausage until browned. Remove sausage with slotted spoon into bowl with pasta and broccoli. Clean out fat from pan with paper towels.
Melt butter in the same pot over medium heat. Add flour, whisking together until smooth. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add about a 1/4 cup of milk to flour/butter mixture, whisking constantly until smooth. Then gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring constantly. Add salt, garlic and nutmeg. Bring the mixture to a very low simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.
Add the sauce to the bowl with the pasta, broccoli and sausage. Add mozzarella and parmesan cheese and stir gently until thoroughly combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes until slightly browned.
Serve immediately.
this is how small the broccoli should be:
pasta, broccoli and sausage in large bowl:
mozzarella and parmesan cheeses:
melted butter and flour, cooking for one minute:
after adding the milk and cooking:
putting everything into the bowl and stirring to combine:
into the baking dish:
ready to serve:
yum!
Pecan Spice Cake
This is a lovely cake, moist and full of rich spicy flavor. Really good on its own with a sprinkling of powered sugar and even better with Vanilla Ice Cream or whipped cream.
I really have no idea where I got this recipe. I ripped it out of a magazine and I baked it in 1991 but there is no reference to a magazine or date. I wanted to give credit to the magazine it came from but my search on the internet resulted in ALOT of pecan spice cakes but not this one.
It has quite a list of ingredients but nothing out of the ordinary. It does require you to whip egg whites and fold them into the batter. This might be a bit intimidating, if you’ve never done it before. But the key is to be gentle. I like to break my eggs right out of the refrigerator when they are cold. The shells don’t shatter as much when cracked, so you are not left with bits of egg-shell to deal with. Do one egg at a time, breaking them over a small bowl and then putting egg yolks and eggs whites each into larger separate bowls. Do not whip the egg whites until the recipe tells you to. If you do them ahead of time, they can separate and will tend to weep, or get watery.
Take 1/2 your whipped eggs whites, placing it on top of the batter. Cut through the middle with your rubber spatula, and slide it along the bottom of the bowl, bringing the batter over the whipped eggs. Turn your bowl a 1/4 of a turn and repeat until all the whipped egg whites are incorporated. There are plenty of videos out there to watch if seeing the technique will help. Just plug-in “folding whipped egg whites into batter”.
Pecan Spice Cake
2-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1-3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
4 large egg yolks
1-3/4 cups grated carrots (about 2 very large or 4 medium)
3 ounces pecans, finely ground
5 large egg whites
pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Canola oil spray and flour or use Pam Baking Spray (available at your supermarket) a 10 inch diameter Bundt Pan (this is what I have) or 2, 6 cup Mini Bundt Pans.
Place the first 9 ingredients, from flour to allspice, in a sifter over a medium bowl. Sift gently to incorporate everything and set aside.
Place milk and vanilla in a 2 cup glass measuring cup and set aside.
Beat butter and sugars together in mixer until thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes. Add yolks and beat until incorporated. Stir in half of flour mixture and beat until almost incorporated. Add half of milk mixture. Repeat with the rest of the flour mixture and milk mixture. Mix in carrots and pecans for about 30 seconds.
Whip egg whites and a pinch of salt with clean, dry beaters (I use my hand mixer for this) until stiff (soft peak) but not dry. Fold into batter in 2 additions.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for 55 to 60 minutes for large bundt cake and 20-25 minutes for mini-bundt pans or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Then turn out cake onto rack and cool completely.
mini bundt pans, sprayed with Pam Baking spray:
10 in. diameter bundt pan sprayed with Pam Baking spray:
I like this brand of pecans. I’ve tried others but this has the best flavor and is always fresh:
I like to grind the nuts finely, I don’t like big chunks of pecans in my cake:
I use a box grater to grate the carrots:
mis en place:
the batter, it’s quite thick:
whipped egg whites, note the soft peak:
folding egg whites into batter:
folding done:
I used 1/2 cup of batter in each cavity but it turned out to be too much. Next time 1/3 cup:
I needed to cut away some of the edge of each little cake:
once out of the pan, they looked good, just a little rough on the bottom:
batter in the bundt pan:
out of the oven and then out of the pan after resting for 10 minutes:
a little dusting of confectionary sugar:
delicious!
–
Tomato and Basil Bake
I found this recipe on Pinterest and it’s from the EveryDay magazine by Rachael Ray. It is absolutely delicious and so simple and versatile.
I recommend tomatoes from a farm stand, your back yard or a farmer’s market. The taste will be far superior than what you get at the supermarket. They are still out there now, so don’t waste another moment and get a pound of cherry tomatoes, red or yellow, it doesn’t matter, and make this recipe!
Tomato and Basil Bake (Tomato and Basil Bake from EveryDay with Rachael Ray)
1 pound of cherry tomatoes, halved
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup panko
2 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil
Set your oven at broil.
In a small bowl, stir panko and melted butter together and set aside.
In an 8-9 inch glass baking dish (no need to spray with canola oil), toss tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. Broil for 12 minutes, stirring tomatoes 1/2 way through.
Remove from oven, and sprinkle panko/butter mixture on top and broil for 30 seconds.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with basil.
We served this over capellini spaghetti. Delicious.
We also had fresh pole beans from the garden, so I served it over the beans as well. Delicious.
The next day, I took what was leftover (not much!) and put it on 2 pieces of a sliced baguette and sprinkled mozzarella cheese over the top. Then I toasted it in the toaster oven for about 1-2 minutes. Delicious.
Cooking the tomatoes brought out more of their sweet flavor. It was amazing!
one pound of cherry tomatoes, from our garden (Sungold and Sweet Baby Girl:
tomatoes tossed with olive oil and garlic:
ready to go in the oven:
panko/butter mixture and basil, ready to go:
after 12 minutes:
panko/butter mixture sprinkled on top:
finished cooking and basil sprinkled on top:
over capelinni:
over green beans:
on slices of baguette with melted mozzarella:
Vanilla Ice Cream
According to a survey done by the International Ice Cream Association, vanilla ice cream is still the most popular.
This recipe is super easy and absolutely delicious. I have made it both ways: with regular milk and heavy cream and with all heavy cream and they are both yum.
The best part about vanilla ice cream is that you can add in all sorts of delicious treats: crushed Oreo cookies, or any cookies for that matter, nuts, chocolate chips, fruit, cookie dough (egg free of course), anything you like. And then of course vanilla ice cream goes great with pie, cakes, sandwiched between two cookies! So you need a good vanilla ice cream recipe and this one is it.
Vanilla Ice Cream (adapted from the Cuisinart Instruction and Recipe Booklet and inspired by The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
1 cup whole milk (or 1 cup heavy cream)
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2-3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
In a medium bowl, add 1 cup whole milk (or heavy cream) and sugar and whisk for 2 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved.
Whisk in the 2 cups of heavy cream and vanilla. Place bowl into freezer for 30 minutes.
Pour into Ice Cream Machine and freeze according to the manufactures directions.
When ice cream is finished, if desired, fold in add- ins. Then scoop ice cream into a 1 quart container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.
ingredients:
into the ice cream machine:
after 25 minutes:
into a 1 quart container:
delicious!
Tacos
This is a really, really good taco. Much better than the one I’ve been making all these years with ground beef and a jar of salsa! I had most of the ingredients on hand and it went together quite simply.
The recipe calls for crisp taco shells but we had them with soft flour tortillas tonight. Either way is great.
I also halved the recipe because we are a small family but you could make the whole amount and have plenty of leftovers for lunch. 🙂
For the filling, below are the halved amounts I used but I really followed the recipe exact (except for the chili powder, I reduced that a bit and the tomatoes.) The only real difference was , the simmering times were less because of the smaller quantities.
The lime sour cream I followed exactly except I did not include the cilantro. I am afraid I agree with Ina Garten, who does not like the herb at all. But you must make the sour cream sauce, I think it makes the taco complete! I cheated a little and only refrigerated it for a 1/2 hour but it was still excellent!
Tacos (from Bon Appetit, September 2013, Sloppy Tacos)
Lime Sour Cream
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest (from 2 limes)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from the 2 limes above)
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt or to taste
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
l pound of 85% ground beef
half of one small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 of a 14.5 ounce can of Hunts Petite Diced Tomatoes
1/2 of a bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of ancho chile powder, chipotle chile powder (which is what I used) or chili powder
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1-1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
6 crisp taco shells or 6 flour tortillas, warmed
shredded cheddar cheese (I like Cracker Barrel brand), chopped tomatoes
Lime sour cream: whisk all ingredients together in a medium glass bowl and refrigerate for at least a 1/2 hour or more.
Filling: Heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking up meat, until cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl.
If there is too much fat left after cooking the ground beef , throw it out. Then reduce heat to medium and add 1/2 tablespoon of oil to skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally for about 2-3 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add tomatoes to skillet and cook until most of the juice has simmered away, about 5 minutes. Add beef, chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, spices and brown sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes. Pour into an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish, sprayed with canola spray. Bake for about 30 minutes until a crust forms.
Spoon filling onto warmed flour tortillas or crisp taco shells, sprinkle with cheese and tomatoes and drizzle with sour cream sauce. Serve immediately.
sour cream sauce:
mis en place:
beef cooked and set aside, cooking onions and garlic:
cooking tomatoes:
adding the rest of the ingredients and simmering:
into the baking dish:
after 30 minutes in the oven:
delicious!
Pork with Apple Cream Sauce
This is a dish that could easily be served to guests and it really isn’t that difficult.
Pork, apples, cream, it’s almost dessert! the sauce is just delicious!
The original recipe has Calvados brandy and apple cider. Calvados brandy is quite expensive and though I tried the recipe with a less expensive apple brandy, I was happier with my version. And I don’t like apple cider, so I didn’t even try.
I was able to substitute both using concentrated apple juice. Yes, I know that sounds a little strange but try it. I have included the link to the original recipe, too (which by the way has rave reviews) so that you can decide which one would be better.
Pork Tenderloin in Apple Cream Sauce (adapted from Pork with Apples, Calvados and Apple Cider, Bon Appetit, May 1994)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound pork tenderloin
2 tablespoon butter
4 medium Golden Delicious apples, about 1-1/2 pounds
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
2 large shallots, diced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup concentrated (straight from the can, no diluting) apple juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup concentrated apple juice (again, straight from the can, no diluting)
Trim pork tenderloin of any excess fat. Cut into 1 inch thick slices. Pound each slice gently with a heavy mallet (or rolling pin) until about 1/4 inch thick. It does not take too many whacks to get the medallions flattened.
Peel, quarter and core apples then slice 1/3 inch thick. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add apples and sugar to skillet and saute until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes. Set aside in a bowl. Clean skillet.
Melt 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in same large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Lightly salt and pepper each side of pork. Place pork into skillet and saute about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate.
Melt 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of butter in same skillet, over medium high heat and add shallots and thyme. Saute for 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of concentrated apple juice and simmer for one minute. Add heavy cream and the other 1/4 cup of concentrated apple juice. Simmer one minute. Remove from heat.
Add the pork to the sauce in the skillet, coating each piece with sauce. Then add the apples back in, nestling them around the pork. Serve immediately.
1-1/2 pounds of Golden Delicious apples (almost 4):
cutting and pounding the pork:
mis en place:
sauteing apples:
my new range!
sauteing pork:
shallots and thyme and concentrated apple juice:
heavy cream and concentrated apple juice:
adding pork and apples back into pan with sauce:
enjoy!
Chocolate Ice Cream
I had a favorite chocolate ice cream until I tried this one. It is super chocolatey and very smooth! The addition of cocoa powder is what makes the flavor intense.
Even though putting the mixture through the food processor seems excessive, it is absolutely necessary. After making many chocolate ice creams in the past, I know from experience that this step assures a smooth texture.
And a month after the Family Party, which this was made for, it is still creamy! Usually the non custard base ice creams (no eggs) last only a couple of weeks before getting sort of icy crystalized (I still enjoy them though :)). But this particular ice cream seems to be unaffected. Have not figured that one out yet.
Chocolate Ice Cream (adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
2-1/4 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped, preferably Ghiradelli
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
In a medium saucepan, add the heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, finely chopped chocolate, milk and vanilla. Place over medium heat and whisk constantly until mixture is slightly warm and the chocolate has just melted. Remove from the heat, pour the mixture into the food processor and blend until smooth. Then pour into a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours until completely chilled.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers directions.
finely chopped chocolate:
heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar ,salt, finely chopped chocolate, milk and vanilla in medium saucepan (I try to use local milk products whenever I can. Hudson Valley Fresh is my preferred choice for where I live.):
whisking mixture until chocolate just melted:
into the food processor:
mixture smooth and ready for the refrigerator to cool completely:
yum!
Raspberry Ice Cream
This was an incredibly delicious and intense raspberry ice cream! Another winner adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.
I love the combination of dark chocolate and raspberry, so adding in semi-sweet mini chips, or pouring on dark chocolate sauce would be absolutely lovely additions! Or sandwich the ice cream between chocolate chip cookies or serve it together with mint ice cream! We were doing all of these things after our Family Party! There are no wrong combinations, in my book.
Raspberry Ice Cream (adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
6 cups or 750 grams of frozen raspberries (when processed, will make 1-1/2 cups raspberry puree: see instructions)
1-1/2 cups of half-and-half
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon of lemon juice, from 1/2 large lemon
Thaw the frozen raspberries according to the directions on the bag. Puree the raspberries in a food processor and then press the mixture through a sieve over a medium bowl, using a rubber spatula. Throw out the seeds left in the sieve and clean the sieve. Repeat, pouring the raspberry mixture through the sieve again, over a medium bowl. This should get out most if not all of the seeds. The result should be ~ 1-1/2 cups of raspberry puree. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, pour in half-and-half and sugar. Stir with a whisk for 2 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved. Add heavy cream, raspberry puree and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours until thoroughly chilled.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s directions.
pureed raspberries in sieve:
1-1/2 cups raspberry puree:
mixing half-and-half with sugar:
adding heavy cream and lemon and raspberry puree:
pouring into ice cream machine:
enjoy!
Mint Ice Cream
Or peppermint vs. spearmint.
My favorite ice cream growing up was mint chocolate chip but this mint ice cream is little more subtle in flavor but oh so delicious! Pair it with chocolate brownies or add dark chocolate chips or drizzle with chocolate sauce, you get the idea.
I was inspired to make this from The Perfect Scoop and made my first batch last year for our Family Party. I added chopped up peppermint patties (another idea) and it was a very popular choice among my family members.
Last year, I had both peppermint and spearmint plants to choose from for the mint. I looked up to see whether there was any culinary difference and really could not find anything substantial. People seemed to interchange them both in their cooking and baking.
So I decided on the spearmint and after the leaves sat in the milk/cream mixture, the color was exactly as David Lebovitz had stated in his book: “a lovely shade of emerald”.
Unfortunately, our mint plants did not survive the winter. When I was plant shopping with my husband this year, I knew I needed some mint and decided just to get the peppermint variety.
Earlier this week I was ready to make the mint ice cream for our second annual family party and picked the mint and proceeded with the recipe. After soaking the leaves in the milk/cream mixture and waiting the specified one hour, lo and behold there was no green color. Hmmmm. I proceeded with the ice cream and the taste was good but I was very disappointed about the color. It was just a white cream color.
Two days later I woke up thinking or woke up thinking in my dream (really couldn’t tell) and said to myself, “Eureka, I know why there was no green color: I should cut up the leaves!”. So that’s what I did and after the soaking, I looked and there was still no green color. Oh boy. Did I imagine the green color? No, he said it right in his book “a lovely shade of emerald”. What was going on here?
So after giving it some thought during the day, I was almost positive the spearmint was the answer.
Today, my husband and I decided to go bike riding up in the Amenia, New York area and I explained to him on the hour long car ride my thoughts about the mint. He said to me, “Really this is just theory and you haven’t really proven that the spearmint makes the ice cream green. You really need to make it again with the spearmint.” How many husbands would actually discuss with you your theories on cooking and baking? I have one in a million, thanks honey! So he said that he would search for some spearmint plants in his travels and if we planted them soon, they would be ready by the fall so I could make the ice cream again. But really I wanted to make it now.
When we were finished with our bike ride we decided to stop at McEnroe Organic Farm Market to see whether they had any spearmint plants. No luck. But they had a little Discovery Garden and of course being the horticulturist that we are, we decided to take the walk. Up the little hill and to the left we saw rows of herbs and took a peek and there was a large clump of spearmint! Wow, would they let us pick it? I was so excited!! So we went back down to the market stand and the woman said to ask Suco, the young woman who was up there. So we trotted back up the hill and asked (with our fingers crossed) “Would it be possible for us to pick some of your Spearmint?” and Suco delightedly said “Yes, of course!” and handed us two pruning shears. I could not believe our luck. So we picked about 40 stems of really nice spearmint and went back to Suco to ask how much. My husband piped up and told her I was making mint ice cream and then I told her my dilemma about the peppermint and how I thought it might be the spearmint that made the ice cream green. And then of course I mentioned I would be writing about it on my food blog. Her eyes lit up and she took our picture holding the mint.
As soon as we got home, I started on the first part of the mint ice cream. Soaking the leaves in the warm milk/cream. And to my delight, after the leaves had been immersed for one hour, the milk/cream mixture was a “lovely shade of emerald”!!
Thank you Suco! If I had found plants, it would have probably taken me 2 months for them to get large enough for me to harvest. But thanks to you, I was able to prove my theory in 2 hours!
Mint Ice Cream (adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups (80 grams) fresh spearmint leaves
Place the milk, sugar, 1 cup of heavy cream and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir for 1 minute to dissolve the sugar. Add the spearmint leaves and stir with a heat proof rubber spatula until the leaves are immersed in the milk/cream mixture and the leaves wilt, about 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let sit for one hour at room temperature.
Using a medium strainer, strain the spearmint infused milk/cream mixture into a medium bowl, pressing down on the leaves to get as much mint flavor as possible. The milk/cream mixture “will be a lovely shade of emerald”. Discard the leaves. Add to the bowl, the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream and stir together. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours until really cold.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s directions.
the spearmint, from McEnroe Farms, preserved in our cooler:
80 grams of spearmint leaves (quite a bit of spearmint!):
wilted spearmint leaves in milk/cream mixture:
after one hour of steeping:
straining the mixture and pressing on the leaves:
the result: “a lovely shade of emerald”:
adding the rest of the heavy cream:
yum!
Perfecting Deliciousness 