Easy No-Churn Strawberry Ice Cream

As a quick follow-up to the Chocolate Layer Cake with Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, here is the recipe for the strawberry ice cream that went with it.

We got a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment as a wedding gift, but the first few recipes I found using the attachment made mention of their attachment breaking and leaking “blue goo” as early as the first use!  I decided to try a simple recipe that didn’t require an ice cream maker.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 C cold heavy whipping cream (cold)
• 1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (not to be confused with evaporated milk)
• 1 pound of fresh strawberries or thawed frozen strawberries, mashed
• A couple drops red food coloring for a brighter pink color and few slices of strawberry for garnish (optional)

  

  3 Ingredients!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mash strawberries in a bowl and set aside. If using thawed frozen strawberries, drain the excess juices and water first, then mash the strawberries. If using fresh strawberries, keep the juices.
2. In large mixing bowl of stand-mixer or in a large bowl and using an electric hand mixer, add all the ingredients: heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk.
3. Whip the heavy cream mixture on high speed until stiff peaks form (to prevent massive splattering, start out at a slower speed and as the cream thickens, increase the speed). Be careful not to over mix or “break” the whip cream mixture. For a brighter pink color, add a few drops of red food coloring into the mixture if you like.

   

   Whipped Mixture

4. Pour the mashed strawberries into the mixture and gently fold with a spatula in until combined.
5. Pour the whipped mixture into a freezer safe container. We like to use a bread pan. Top with a few slices of strawberries for garnish (optional). Cover and freeze for about 4-5 hours. In about 3-4 hours you can have a “soft serve” type ice cream. If you prefer a more firm texture, freeze for at least 5-6 hours or overnight.

The verdict – I froze this overnight and could definitely taste the condensed milk.  The texture was also a bit icy.  There was no way around it.  It’s great for a quick fix, but an ice cream maker would make it so much better!

Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

For another Hirata family birthday potluck celebration last month, I made a birthday cake using my new go-to chocolate layer cake recipe, this time, with a classic vanilla buttercream that I stumble upon browsing Add A Pinch.  It was a triple celebration for Kevin, his mom, and his uncle:

Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

The great thing about buttercream is you can totally customize it to whatever consistency you want it to be – stiffer, creamier, the frosting world is your oyster!

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 C butter (2 sticks), softened
• 3-4 C confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 2 t vanilla
• Pinch of salt (sea salt is my preference)
• 2-3 tablespoons milk, heavy cream, or half-and-half

 INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer that has been fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer on a medium setting and cream the butter until it is smooth and has lightened in color, about 3 minutes.
2. Add confectioner’s sugar, half a cup at a time. After each cup has been incorporated, turn the mixer onto the highest speed setting and for about 10 seconds to lighten the frosting.
3. Add vanilla and a pinch of salt and combine until well-incorporated.
4. Add milk, heavy cream or half-and-half until the frosting has reached the preferred consistency. For a firmer frosting, add more confectioner’s sugar, 1/4 cup at a time. For a softer frosting, add more milk or cream, a tablespoon at a time.

I took a wee bit of the leftover frosting and added a few drops of red food coloring to make it pink.  I didn’t have a small enough piping tip, so I put the pink frosting into a ziploc baggie and snipped a corner to write the happy birthday, and then created the “flowers” using a closed star tip.  And yes, I am aware that I have had better cake decorating days.

Pre-Piping

The frosting was sweet, but not too sweet.  If you want your frosting to be a little less sweet, add a little bit more salt (another small pinch or two).  The salt really balances out sweetness in frosting, but doesn’t necessarily make the frosting salty by any means…unless you over do it.

Birthday Candle Blowout!

I made a batch of strawberry ice cream to go with the cake too.  Yup – I get things done! The ice cream recipe will follow soon!

Rustic Apple Tart

Kevin’s grandma turned 92 last Wednesday, so as a precursor to the birthday week, we had a little birthday celebration for her.  She can’t have nuts or chocolate, so I whipped up an apple tart.

Rustic Apple Tart

Here’s the recipe, as adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who never lets me down with recipes:

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

• 1 C unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/8 t salt
• 6 T (or 3/4 stick) COLD unsalted butter, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 1/2 T chilled water

Filling:

• 2 pounds apples (Golden Delicious or another tart, firm variety), peeled, cored (save peels and cores), and sliced thinly  [NOTE: 2 pounds is about 5 small apples, and I could only squeeze in about 3 1/2 apples in my tart pan laid out the way I had it]
• 2 T unsalted butter, melted
• 3-4 T sugar

Glaze:

• 1/2 C sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or food processor; add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Blend until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.
2. Dribble in cold water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. The easiest way to do this is tablespoon by tablespoon out of a glass of ice water.  Toss dough with hands, letting it fall through fingers, until it’s ropy with some dry patches. If there are a lot of dry patches, add another half tablespoon water. Keep tossing until you can roll the dough into a ball. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick.  Joe and Elsa got us this SWEET pastry mat that made it so much easier to roll out my dough to the right size around.  I don’t know about you, but my pie crust circles always end up more like an oval, so this really helped.

   

   Pastry Mat Lined with Parchment

4. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush.
5. Place the dough in a lightly greased 9.5-inch round tart pan, or simply on a parchment-lined baking sheet if you want to go galette-style with it. Heat oven to 400°F.
6. Overlap apples on dough in a ring 2 inches from edge if going galette-style, or up to the sides if using the tart pan. Continue inward until you reach the center. Fold any dough hanging over pan back onto itself; crimp edges at 1-inch intervals.

   

   Arrange Your Apple Slices

7. Brush melted butter over apples and onto dough edge. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over dough edge and the other 2 tablespoons over apples. You can use another tablespoon if you like your tarts really sweet.

   

   Before the Glaze

8. Bake in center of oven until apples are soft, with browned edges, and crust has caramelized to a dark golden brown (about 45 minutes), making sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes.
9. While your tart is baking, make the glaze. Put reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan, along with 1/2 cup sugar. Pour in just enough water to cover; simmer for 25 minutes. Strain syrup.

   

   Cook Down Sugar and Apple Remnants

10. Remove tart from oven, slide onto cooling rack, and let cool at least 15 minutes.
11. Brush glaze over tart, slice, and serve.  Vanilla ice cream pairs wonderfully with this!

I made the tart the night before the party (and glazed it the night before) and the tart wasn’t soggy or anything.  It’s a really delicious tart.  Next time I make this, I may add a wee pinch of cinnamon to in the melted butter that gets brushed onto the tart prior to folding the crust over.

“Ropy with Some Dry Patches”

Lined Pastry Mat with Parchment to Speed Up Clean-up

Arrange Your Apple Slices

Cook Down Sugar and Apple Remnants

Before the Glaze

Strain Solids from the Glaze

Rustic Apple Tart

Peach Shortbread

Back from a long hiatus – and married at that!

Stone fruit season is finally here again!  I’ve been waiting a long time to post this recipe until peaches were in season again.  I made these for Kevin and his mom’s family birthday celebration last September and they were a delicious hit.  Shortbread is absolutely delicious, but I generally find it a bit too rich and heavy during hot months.  The peach in this really livened up the shortbread flavor, as did the crumbly topping.  Loved these – and they looked pretty too!

Here is the recipe, as adapted from the ever-faithful Smitten Kitchen:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 C sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 3/4 C plus 2 T all-purpose flour (or you can measure 3 C and remove 2 T flour)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 C (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 ripe but firm peaches, pitted and thinly sliced (between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Brown the butter: Melt butter in a small/medium saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, foam, and then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly after it browns and the very second that you turn around to do something else. Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).  Note that once you freeze the butter, the brown bits will sink to the bottom.  That’s totally fine since they’ll be thoroughly creamed together with the flour mixture!

   

   Frozen Browned Butter

   [Side note: You don’t HAVE to brown the butter, but it does make a big difference in taste!  If you don’t have time for this, just add two more tablespoons of flour (making 3 cups flour total) and cut softened butter into the flour with a pastry blender.]

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan, or spray it with a nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender to blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly.

   

   Crumble Mixture

3. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you can see a little color around the edges. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.

Out of the Oven

According to Smitten Kitchen, these hold up really well in the fridge. She also reckons these would freeze well, between layers of waxed paper, with the container sealed well in plastic wrap.  I can’t vouch for any of that because there were no leftovers from the birthday gathering to test this out with!

Peach Shortbread Squares

Now go take advantage while peaches are still in season!

Molten Mocha Cakes for Two

I finally just watched Chef, written and directed by Jon Favreau, which I was super excited to watch when I found out it would premiere and screen at South by Southwest last year.  I didn’t get a chance to watch it there, and then I somehow just forgot about it during it’s actual release a few months later.  For anyone that hasn’t seen it that loves Jon Favreau’s overall writing/directing/humor, chef Roy Choi, great editing, or just good ol’ fashioned food porn, do yourself a favor and see this movie as soon as you can.  For those that have seen it, yes, this post is about the “dreaded” molten lava cake.  You can find the trailer here, aaaand then I’m done shamelessly promoting. Sort of.  With this movie top of mind and Valentine’s Day being less than a month away, it’s the perfect time to share this recipe.

And yes, this post is from last year’s Valentine’s Day.  It’s always dangerous baking for two because most recipes will make at least 12-15 servings, and when you have the snacking discipline that we do, that doesn’t last very long for two people.  When thinking about a Valentine’s Day dessert, what is more stereotypical than a rich and chocolate-y lava cake?  Fortunately, Kevin loves chocolate too, and since I was charged with making V-Day dinner last year, trying out Martha Stewart’s Molten Mocha Cakes for Two recipe was a no brainer.  There is something so delicious about chocolate and coffee paired together, and these mini cakes were no exception.

This recipe is perfect for two people, or for a small dinner party.  If you double or triple the recipe, just add a couple minutes to the baking time.  Be sure to keep an eye on the cakes in the oven, and make sure not to overbake or you won’t get that amazing gooey center.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 TBSP unsalted butter, plus more for ramekins (I don’t have ramekins so I used two 6-oz glass Pyrex containers)
• 1/3 C confectioners’ sugar, plus more for ramekins and serving
• 2 oz semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• Pinch salt
• 3 TBSP all-purpose flour

  

  Ingredients

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter two 6-ounce ramekins, then dust with sugar. Place butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high in 20-second increments, stirring after each, until melted. Let cool slightly.

   

   Whisk the Espresso Powder

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolk, sugar, espresso powder, and salt. Add chocolate mixture; whisk to combine. Add flour, and whisk just until combined (do not overmix). Pour batter into prepared ramekins. (Recipe can be made ahead up to this point.)

   

   Don’t Over-Baked the Batter

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted 1/2 inch from edge of ramekins comes out clean, and a toothpick inserted in center comes out wet, 10 to 12 minutes (Do not overbake – I can’t emphasize that enough!). Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Run a knife around inside of ramekins to loosen the cakes. Invert cakes onto serving plates. Dust with powdered sugar; serve immediately….preferably with ice cream!

   

   Molten Mocha Cakes a la Mode

I made a graduation dinner for one of my cousins a few months later and doubled the recipe to make 4 total (for three of us).  I didn’t have vanilla ice cream at the time, so I paired the cakes with some delicious matcha green tea ice cream that we had just bought.

Asian Version

Are molten lava cakes adventurous?  No.  But they were damned good.