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frozen treats

s'mores ice cream

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s'mores ice cream

Summer may be disappearing into fall, but that's no reason not to have a big bowl of s'mores ice cream in your life. Top it with a drizzle of chocolate and a few pieces of graham cracker, and you're all set for the perfect dessert - no matter what the season! 

I'm pretty darn sure this recipe does the talking for itself, so I'm just going to go ahead and share these photos with you then get right to the recipe! 

The remnants of toasting marshmallows in the broiler is a glorious thing, I guarantee you'll be dreaming of evenings spent around the campfire! 

Layering the toasted marshmallow ice cream together with graham cracker pieces and chocolate ganache to create the entire s'mores experience. It's a glorious thing! 

ingredients: 

2 cups whole milk 

2 1/2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 cup sugar 

6 egg yolks 

20 large marshmallows

1 tsp vanilla 

1 cup dark chocolate chips 

1 sleeve graham crackers 

instructions: 

  •  Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, a hand mixer, or a really super strong arm - whisk together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar until it doubles in size, lightens to a pale yellow, and gains a silky ribbony texture. This should take a few minutes. 

  • Heat 2 cups of the cream, milk, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar - bringing it to a scald. It should be steamy but not yet simmering. 

  • With the mixer running, slowly pour the cream mixture into the yolks until fully combined to temper your eggs. Then pour the mixture back into the pot and heat over medium heat until your custard has thickened (if you don't feel comfortable knowing when it's ready, use a thermometer and look for 180 degrees). While it's heating, use a silicone spatula to gently scrape the bottom of the pan and stir slowly. Once cooked, remove from heat. 

  • While the custard is cooking, spread marshmallows out on a baking sheet and brown under the broiler. Keep a close eye on them, as the broiler works fast! Once the tops have browned, use a fork or small spatula to flip them over. Return to the broiler and let the other side brown. Easy - toasted marshmallows! 
  • Once the marshmallows are toasted and the custard has finished, scrape the marshmallows and all their gooey goodness into the custard and puree with a immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender, just put it all into your regular ole' blender and puree! 
  • Cool the ice cream base in the fridge for at least 4 hours. 
  • Before you churn the ice cream, make an easy ganache and let it cool to room temperature. Do this by combining remaining 1/2 cup of cream and the chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a glass or metal bowl set over a pot with a few inches of water in the bottom of the pot). Set over medium-high heat and stir occasionally until chocolate melts. Stir until fully combined then let cool. 
  • Churn ice cream based on your machine's directions. 
  • While the ice cream is churning, break up graham crackers into bite sized pieces. 
  • After churning, layer big scoops of ice cream in a container with graham crackers and chocolate ganache. There doesn't have to be much precision to this, we're just trying to get the good stuff to be distributed throughout the final ice cream! Work through this process as fast as you can, and get the container into the freezer to prevent melting. Save a little of the ganache in case you want to swirl it onto the ice cream as it's served. 
  • Freeze for at least 3 hours before serving to let the ice cream harden a bit! 

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sungold tomato ice cream

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sungold tomato ice cream

Holy tomatoes, batman! The tomatoes are piling high in the Portland markets, with endless varieties to choose from. So... one might go so far as to say that this is toot sweet's official tomato week. On Saturday, my monthly Awesome Mitten post went live, featuring none other than tomatoes! Three simple recipes for easy tomato-centric dishes, and a bonus recipe for basil oil... because, well, you can't have tomatoes without basil! 

After all those savory tomato dishes, I couldn't help but work some of these beauties into a little something sweet. Hence, the ice cream! 

Now, I feel I have to admit a little something about myself here. I don't actually like tomatoes that much... there. I said it! I used to really dislike them, but as I'm growing up a bit I'm learning to like them much more than I ever did before. Heck, I've even been eating them raw on the occasion (as long as they're paired with some cheese, of course)! 

Thankfully, tomatoes are just so awesomely beautiful, I'm always tempted to buy them and find something tasty to do with them. Year by year, I'll become more of a tomato fan! 

Of course ice cream surely isn't the first place you expect to see tomatoes, but they are a fruit ya know! Sweet and flavorful sungold cherry tomatoes cook down into a simple jam to swirl through a vanilla ice cream base studded with fresh tarragon. It might sound a little crazy, but I promise you - there's nothing but amazing flavors here! 

sungold tomato jam: 

This simple jam is going to be swirled throughout the ice cream to give it it's tomatoey flavor. I've included some optional spices in the ingredient list - they balance nicely with the tarragon and give the ice cream a really complex flavor. That said, they will mask a bit of the tomato flavor, so if you really want to focus on tomatoes - leave the spices out. 

ingredients: 

1 pound sungold tomatoes 

3 Tbsp lemon juice 

2 tsp apple cider vinegar 

1/4 cup brown sugar 

1/3 cup cane sugar 

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional) 

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional) 

instructions: 

  • Puree tomatoes in a blender until mostly smooth, then pour into a pot. Add all remaining ingredients, and simmer over medium heat for about an hour, until the jam thickens. The jam should easily mound on the back of a spoon when it's ready.
  • Once the jam is fully cooked, puree again with an immersion blender (or put it back into a regular blender), until nice and smooth! 

ice cream base: 

ingredients: 

6 egg yolks 

2 cups heavy cream 

2 cups whole milk 

3/4 cup cane sugar 

1/2 tsp ground vanilla, 1/2 a vanilla bean (scraped) or 1 tsp vanilla extract 

1/4 cup fresh tarragon, chopped finely 

instructions: 

  •  Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, a hand mixer, or a really super strong arm - whisk together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar until it doubles in size, lightens to a pale yellow, and gains a silky ribbony texture. This should take a few minutes. 

  • Heat the cream, milk, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and ground or bean vanilla (wait until later in the process if you're using the extract) to a scald, which is before a simmer but nice and steamy. 

  • With the mixer running, slowly pour the cream mixture into the yolks until fully combined to temper your eggs. Then pour the mixture back into the pot and heat over medium heat until your custard has formed (if you don't feel comfortable knowing when that is, use a thermometer and look for 180 degrees). While it's heating, use a silicone spatula to gently scrape the bottom of the pan and stir slowly. 

  • When you've reached 180 degrees, strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl, and set that bowl into a larger one with a bit of ice and water in it to create a cooling water bath. Spin the inner bowl with one hand, while holding your spatula in the custard like a rudder to help the mixture cool evenly. 

  • Chill custard fully in the refrigerator before churning, at least a few hours. Add the tarragon when the ice cream is just about finished churning, letting it churn for long enough to mix it in evenly. 

churning and swirling: 

Once you're jam and ice cream base are made and chilled, you're just a few quick steps from ice cream heaven! Work through this as fast as you possibly can, to protect your precious ice cream! 

  • Put the container you're planning to freeze the ice cream in into the freezer, to prevent melting while your swirl. A wide dish works best, I use a rectangular pyrex container with a lid.
  • Churn the ice cream per you machine's instructions, until it's nice and thick. With the ice cream churned, you're going to layer and swirl the ice cream and jam into a container and let it freeze. This is the best way to get a nice swirl into your scoops! 
  • Layer about one third of the ice cream into the bottom of your dish. Spoon a few thick lines of jam across the layer of ice cream. 
  • Layer on the next third of your ice cream, and create those lines of jam again. 
  • Finally, layer on the rest of your ice cream, and another few lines of jam. Using a chop stick or skewer and give the ice cream and little swirl to make sure every scoop will have a good bit of jam in it! 

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roasted plum ice cream with cardamom

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roasted plum ice cream with cardamom

What's with all the posts featuring cold treats lately you ask? Well... it's sweltering in Portland right now and while I have taken the time to cook a few hot meals, all I really want to think about is frozen treats - and lots of them! The struggle is real. 

While I hope you're not experiencing the same heat I am, I do know that there can never be too many recipes for frozen treats in the dog days of summer. never. never. never. 

So today, I bring you a roasted plum ice cream with a bit of cardamom to keep things exciting. But first, a confession. I actually made my ice cream with a mixture of plums and pluots (the cross between a plum and an apricot), because well, we didn't have pluots in Michigan and the produce guy at New Seasons let me taste some of the vast selection of varieties they were offering and I just couldn't turn them down. 

So, use plums, use pluots, heck - you could even use apricots! But if you want to maintain a beautiful color, I do recommend using at least a few plums in the mix. I used mostly yellow pluots, but the addition of a few strikingly red plums sure made a difference in the final color! 

You'll notice that this recipe has a more complex custard process than I've shared in the past, whipping egg yolks to a silky creamy texture rather than just whisking hot milk into them. I learned this base from Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune in making her brown sugar ice cream with a balsamic reduction swirl a few months ago and I've been hooked ever since. It creates the most perfectly silky ice cream which has been gawked over by everyone I've served it to. I promise, you won't be disappointed! 

Once the custard and fruit purees are made, you'll swirl the bright fruit into the creamy custard, and if you're anything like me smile as the two slowly swirl together into a consistent colorful pink! Then, after a bit of chilling, it's on to the churn! Don't forget to sample over and over again as it nears fully churned... the absolute best part of making ice cream in my mind! 

ingredients: 

6 egg yolks 

2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 tsp ground vanilla, 1/2 a vanilla bean (scraped) or 2 tsp vanilla extract 

10 cardamom pods, cracked 

2 pounds fresh plums or pluots 

1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

instructions: 

First, we'll create our roasted plum puree. Halve your plums, removing the pits, and place them on a baking sheet with the skin side down. Roast at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, until they're tender and the juices are starting to spill out on to the pan. Place the plums into a blender, taking care to scrape up any juices on your baking sheet and add those to the blender (you don't want to lose that condensed flavor magic!). Add ground cardamom and puree until smooth. Place your puree in the fridge to cool. 

Now, the custard! Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, a hand mixer, or a really super strong arm - whisk together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar until it doubles in size, lightens to a pale yellow, and gains a silky ribbony texture. This should take a few minutes. 

Heat the cream, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cardamom pods, and ground or bean vanilla (wait until later in the process if you're using the extract) to a scald, which is before a simmer but nice and steamy. 

With the mixer running, slowly pour the cream mixture into the yolks until fully combined to temper your eggs. Then pour the mixture back into the pot and heat over medium heat until your custard has formed (if you don't feel comfortable knowing when that is, use a thermometer and look for 180 degrees). While it's heating, use a silicone spatula to gently scrape the bottom of the pan and stir slowly. 

When you've reached 180 degrees, strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl, and set that bowl into a larger one with a bit of ice and water in it to create a cooling water bath. Spin the inner bowl with one hand, while holding your spatula in the custard like a rudder to help the mixture cool evenly. 

Once it has cooled significantly, stir in the plum puree (and the vanilla extract if you're using it) until fully combined and let chill for a few hours. 

Churn based on your machine's instructions. I have a Cuisinart 2 Quart ice cream maker, and this recipe filled it to the brim. If your machine is smaller, you may want to churn this in two batches, or cut the recipe by a bit! 

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