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!

Perfect Lemon Bars 5/5 Spoons

They really are perfect.

Perfect enough for me to be the only one eating this entire pan of lemon bars all by myself over the course of 4 days. I don't even care if no one else likes them, I LOVE THEM. I wanted something much more tart than the Buttermilk Lemon Bars I made previously (which are amazing in their own way). Baking Bites never fails to offer me a slew of lemon desserts. As I was eating these I kept imagining making them with oranges and limes and just salivating at the mere thought.

(Photos courtesy of Baking Bites, and they look way prettier than mine turned out!)

Although there aren't many, here are my notes:

-- I used 1/2 t. kosher salt instead of 1/4 t. table salt.
-- Once again, I didn't measure the zest, I just completely zested one whole lemon and added it in.
-- I used about 4 lemons and almost got a cup of juice. To supplement the little bit I was missing, I just added water. I wouldn't advise doing that if you have 1/4 c. or more missing. You can substitute orange juice if you have it, that would work awesomely.

My lemon bars weren't exactly "pretty" but whatever, they tasted amazing. I didn't bother putting confectioner's sugar on top because I wasn't serving them to anyone and I didn't want the added sugar. Speaking of sugar, I'm sure we all know by now that I'm notorious for downplaying sugar in desserts when I feel like it is just too much. Not this time. I am glad I put the whole 1 1/3 cups in because there is so much lemon juice to counterbalance it all. The nice thing about these bars is that you can have a small one (or three or four, not like I would do that) and be totally satisfied. So if you are a normal person who eats normal portions of desserts (nope, not me) then this will take you a long way. It was super easy to make and just tastes so phenomenal. The tartness of the lemons really plays nicely with the buttery shortbread crust underneath. They are a match made in heaven.

Up next, not sure! I haven't been cooking much since we have an out of town guest staying here but I will be back and ready to rock next week with all new recipes. Take care!

Tuscan Lemon Muffins 5/5 Spoons

.... and I come back with an awesome dessert. Whew! Scared? So was I.

My roommate told me the other night when I was making the totally average vegan brownies that I rarely ever make the same dessert twice. And he was right. I like to think it is because I want to try new recipes and techniques. The thing is, there are a few desserts I do make often enough to say they are in my repertoire. Vegan Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Poppyseed Loaf and Vegan Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls come to mind. So really, I have a theme here. I love pumpkin and lemon desserts enough to make them more than once. And this new dessert, Tuscan Lemon Muffins*, is no different. I've made these twice in the last week and they just go so fast. They are tender without falling apart. They have a nice lemon-y kick without being overpowering. The only fat added in is 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Wow! Here are my notes:

-- I cut the sugar down to 1/2 c. to make it more muffin and less cupcake like.
-- I would say I use about 1/2 t. kosher salt instead of 1/4 t.
-- When I zest the lemon, I just use as much as I can get off. I don't measure it. Since the zest has the most flavor, I use as much as I can get. And I don't measure the juice, I just use a whole medium size lemon.

(Photo courtesy of MyRecipes)

Really, I barely deviated from this recipe. IT IS THAT GOOD. It has a nice lemon flavor but with a hint of creaminess from the ricotta. They are so insanely tender that I can't even really believe it. I would love to make this into a tiered cake sometime and see if it works out. So if anyone wants a fancy Tuscan Lemon cake with Lemon Buttercream frosting for their birthday/wedding/bar mitzvah/everyday "I need cake" use, I can do that for a price. ; )

* Thanks to my lovely friend Megan for showing me this recipe. I now owe you one. ; )

Buttermilk Lemon Bars 5/5 Spoons

I LOVE LEMONS.

LOVE LOVE LOVE. I can never get enough. It hasn't gone far enough where I would just eat a straight up lemon (unless it had sugar on it and came with a shot of vodka) but I won't rule it out in my lifetime.

Making these Buttermilk Lemon Bars seemed like an obvious choice and since I had 2 leftover lemons and some buttermilk in the kitchen, the fates were calling me.



Before I get into the recipe, I want to say how much I love the Baking Bites website. I would say I'm much more of a baker than a cook (although I love to do both) and this website is just chock full of recipes I've kept in my bookmarks to try. Like Salted Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Chocolate Mint Cookie Squares and Samoas Bars. She has a cookbook too that I am interested in buying in the future. But enough of that now....

I didn't change a thing with this recipe. I followed it exactly because it didn't seem like it needed any tweaking at all. The only thing I would say is that they took longer than 20 minutes to fully cook through. Once they were done I put them in the fridge to cool overnight. I pulled them out this morning, dusted them with powdered sugar and cut it into 16 squares. They are tremendous. They are tart and sweet and the base is crumbly, buttery but cohesive.

So yeah, go make these. But only make them if you plan on sharing because I've had 3 already today and I plan on having 3 more and I even have two roommates!

I give this recipe:

5/5 spoons!

I don't have anything planned coming up, but trust me, I'll think of something and be back in the next few days. Love ya all!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins 5/5 Spoons

(photo courtesy of Joy the Baker, recipe link below)


First post! Welcome my loveys.

So I decided to make these muffins (actually I made a loaf) at like midnight on Sunday night. It was cold outside and I had the Christmas lights on and I felt like warming up the apartment with the oven.

I baked the loaf almost exactly as is except a. I used sour cream instead of buttermilk b. did not put the glaze on top and c. only used 1 T. of sugar to dust on the top before baking.

This recipe is a total knockout. Like... when I tasted it, I felt like it melted in my mouth but still retained it's crumbly loafness. The only thing I would change after making it is adding more lemon zest. It had a nice light lemon flavor but I'm always looking for more of a punch.

So I'm starting a precedent here and doing a cliched spoon rating system. I give this recipe:

5/5 spoons! (The only thing I would change is the zest thing and that's just because I like my food super zing-y!)

Until I figure out how to do a picture with little adorable spoons, you will have to read the spoon ratings.

Thanks for reading, and more will come soon!