THE ICE(CREAM) (WO)MAN COMETH.

This past Christmas, I received a lot of amazing gifts from my beautiful parents (HI MOM!) like this, this and this (among many other awesome things as well). But I think the present I was most excited for was the Hamilton Beach 4-Quart Ice Cream Maker! I had never made homemade ice cream before and I was so stoked to get it and make this dream come true.

I will back track and say that ice cream has never been my favorite dessert. Sure, I love it but not as much as a cupcake piled high with cream cheese frosting or a warm, buttery chocolate chip cookie. But I live with serious ice cream lovers and it has really grown on me as well, so I wanted to make this dream a reality. So far, I have made three different kinds of ice cream. One was this lemon recipe from Epicurious, espresso from Ina Garten via Food Network and lastly (and the most exciting) was the vegan Coconut Milk ice cream adapted from this recipe. I will briefly review each one and just let you know what I think about the ice cream making process and obviously the best part: eating the ice cream.

First off, I will review the ice cream maker. Since I have no frame of reference, I would say this ice cream maker is pretty bad ass. It is easy to manuever, easy to clean up and is pretty self-explanatory when you open it up. The only thing I would say that is unpleasant about it is the noise. It is REALLY LOUD. For me, I didn't mind so much because I put it on a blanket in my room and shut the door and let it do its thing. But if you have neighbors who already hate you or a baby sleeping, I would not suggest using this machine. Now moving on to the good stuff!

Ice Cream #1: Lemon

So I will start with my least favorite. And I only say least favorite because the other two were SO GOOD that this just happens to be third. It is fantastic ice cream so don't let me putting it in third deter you from making it. I am a lemon fiend so this was fantastic for me. It was so tart but still totally sweet and did not leave you looking for that lemon flavor. The only thing I changed about the recipe is that I used 1 c. of heavy cream instead of all half & half per reviewer's notes. I would say just stick with the recipe like it is. I made the espresso ice cream with all half & half and the texture was pretty stellar. I definitely used 1 c. of sugar because I was afraid to stray in fear of my lemon ice cream being way too tart. So yeah, basically stick with the recipe, that's my words of wisdom.

(I don't have pics of the ice cream, so deal with this cartoon that for some reason made me giggle. Who knew lemons were so funny?)

#2 Ice Cream: Espresso

So, I have severe problems with Ina Garten but that woman makes a damn fine ice cream. Or at least her underlings do and she just shows us how to do it on TV. The only thing I changed here was not adding in the chocolate covered espresso beans, which I'm sure is fantastic but would have been overkill in my eyes. And like, I didn't want to spend the money on them (let's be totally honest here). This had such a wonderful coffee flavor without being "too much" of a good thing. It smells weird once you cook it and strain it and let it sit in the fridge. I'm not sure why it smelled weird but I went with it anyway and it ended up being my favorite ice cream of them all. This one went the fastest. And since I still have half & half in my fridge, I will probably be making this again. (Ooooh, and another gift I received via Amazon gift card was instant espresso powder by Ferrara, so good.)

(Another photo that is not mine from Sugar Crafter)

#3: Vegan Coconut Milk Ice Cream

So yeah, the vegan ice cream is an elusive she-goddess. I know there are tons of awesome vegan ice creams out there (So Delicious, Tofutti, etc.) but I just haven't been really keen on any of them. As someone who still eats dairy, I guess I was looking for something that mimics the real thing. I realize how ridiculous that is but this Coconut Milk Ice Cream was like a godsend to me. So to start, I used one low-fat and one full-fat can of coconut milk. It's what I had on hand and it worked great. I left the banana out because I wanted pure coconut flavor and instead of arrowroot powder, I used cornstarch. And I wanted a "tropical" element (because we need it in Chicago in January) to my ice cream so I added fresh pineapple. I put it in a strainer for about an hour to drain the juices and then patted it dry with a paper towel. Okay, so everything went swimmingly when I made the base but note to everyone if you make this: DO NOT ADD IN THE PINEAPPLE UNTIL AFTER THE ICE CREAM IS DONE CHURNING. I stupidly put it in the canister with the coconut milk base and it froze up (from the residual water in the pineapple) after about 25 minutes. It churned enough where I could just put it in a container and freeze it and was still wonderful but learn from my mistake. Put your add-ins at the end, not the beginning. Despite that mistake, albeit a delicious one, this ice cream was off the charts. It had that silky mouth feel you get from dairy desserts and a wonderful subtle coconut flavor. I think next time I might throw in some toasted coconut at the end as well. So much better than store bought!

(Photo courtesy of The Whinery 2.0)

Whew! That's a lot of words. Thank you reading this all if you got through it. I know this may not pertain to all but it is worth checking out a cheapo ice cream maker to make these recipes. If you have recipe suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Beyond the espresso recipe again, I'd love to try a strawberry cheesecake or peach melba. Yum. Enjoy! And keep warm!

Red Velvet Waffles w/ Cream Cheese Maple Sauce and Toasted Coconut 4/5 Spoons

OK, so it is not the weekend anymore, but here I am!

I have this insane idea to make pancakes/waffles out of all of my favorite desserts and luckily people around this beautiful world have the same idea as well. I've made Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes and now Red Velvet Waffles (next will be Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes!) I served this with my standard tofu scramble (Thanks Kris Anne!) and some MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon.

(My picture of my 2nd waffle.... I was too hungry to take a picture of the 1st one! That is the cream cheese maple sauce and toasted coconut on top.)

Here are my notes:

-- I was astounded that someone would use 1 1/4 cups of sugar in these waffles. These made 6 big waffles for me, so that's like a little less of 1/4 c. of sugar in EACH WAFFLE. Sick. I used 1/2 c. and I think it was plenty. I wanted the cocoa flavor to shine through and I was putting sweet syrup on top, so I recommend you don't go above 1/2 c. unless you love really sweet things.
-- Make sure to have your buttermilk at room temperature. Even though my butter was melted and cooled, my buttermilk was cold so it kind of turned the fat in the butter into a weird flaky mess. I could whisk most of it out but you don't want to over-whisk waffles so just a note for y'all.
-- For my cream cheese maple sauce, I didn't use their recipe. I left 4 ounces of cream cheese out at room temp most of the day. I warmed up the cheese in the microwave for about 40 seconds and added about 2 T. confectioner's sugar, 3-4 T. pure maple syrup and a dash of milk to combine. Just mix with a fork until it is smooth and you are able to drizzle it on your waffles.
-- As for the coconut, it was kind of an after thought. I put about 1/2 c. of coconut in a pan and toasted it on low-medium heat and stirred it frequently. It takes about 10 minutes, just keep an eye on it, because it can burn quickly.

(Photo courtesy of The Spellbound Cafe)

These were really delicious. I wouldn't say they were perfect because I think they could use some tweaks. Not sure what but I'll mull it over and let you all know. They had a great cake like texture but didn't necessarily crisp up the way I wanted them to in the waffle iron. It might have something to do with my really old iron and not with the recipe though. Even though they were a bit floppy they had a really nice cocoa flavor and worked SO WELL with the cream cheese maple topping and toasted coconut. I will make this again with some minor adjustments. If you have fantastic waffle and pancake recipes you think I should try, please let me know!

Next up.... Spinach and Artichoke Spaghetti Bake! (My own recipe.... ooh la la.)

Vegan Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Toasted Coconut 5/5 Spoons

Finally back to review!

So I tried to make these ALL vegan but my local grocery store does not carry Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (jerks). I definitely have cut down on my dairy consumption in the last week or so and I'm pretty proud of myself for that. I'm avoiding cereal so I don't use skim milk, have been making smoothies with almond milk and soy yogurt and want to make dairy-free calzones this week.

(Photos courtesy of Everybody Likes Sandwiches)

It was my birthday on May 1st and I turned 29. I won't get into birthdays because I think I take a much more cynical view than I should. It has nothing to do with getting older, it has more to do with the pressure of doing something awesome on your "special day" and other things. Typically I would have made some chocolate concoction but as soon as I found these vegan coconut cupcakes, I was ready to rock.

Here are my notes:

-- I used 3/4 c. sugar instead of a full cup. I think next time I could cut down a tad to 2/3.
-- As any baker has done before, I forgot a major ingredient. THE SALT! I was so mad at myself when I realized it but honestly I don't think it was the worst mistake ever. It might have been nice with it but it was still nice without it.
-- Instead of white vinegar I used apple cider, it's pretty much what I always use.

This cakes were tender and chewy but I wouldn't necessarily say overly coconut-y. I think next time I will toast the coconut that is added to the batter but overall, these were totally wonderful. And heaven help me, I will remember to only fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way to the top. It is one of my bad habits.

Another wonderful thing that came out of this recipe was being able to finally perfect my cream cheese frosting. It is crazy easy but does something that you wouldn't expect! Here we go:

1 8 ounce container cream cheese, cold (Not room temp! It is a much firmer frosting that way. I used low-fat, you could really use non-fat or full fat, whatever you wish here.)
4 ounces unsalted butter, room temp (This definitely needs to be soft.)
2/3 c. confectioners sugar
1/2 t. vanilla

Cream the cheese and butter with a hand held mixer on low to start (don't get it all over yourself!). Up the speed until you get a nice cohesive creamy thick looking mix. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate. Then add the sugar 1/3 c. at a time until all looks well and it is nice and thick and well integrated.

That was easy, huh? Toasting coconut is even easier. Take about 1/3 c. of coconut and place it in a dry skillet over med-low heat. Do not crank the heat or you will have a gross burnt mess. Stir every 30 seconds until the coconut is almost all brown but specks of white still show through. It should take about 4 minutes. Let it cool before sprinkling on top of your cupcakes.

Obviously I think you know how to put a cupcake + frosting + toasted coconut all together. When these are finished they are so beautiful. I almost wanted to take all kinds of food porn pics of them but decided against it because the smell was too intoxicating.