Monthly Archives: May 2014

Recipe: Alcoholic Butterbeer Ice Cream

I know what you are thinking, this must be another boozy ice cream recipe from the “Ice Cream Happy Hour” book. Well I hate to bust your bubbles but it is not. In fact, what I have in my stores is actually some butterscotch schnapps that I used for cupcakes that I purchased regularly after wanting to try my hand at baking.

In fact I loved the schnapps so much that I continue to purchase it whenever I run out at home. So one day I was trying to figure out what I had in my pantry that I could use to make ice cream and the idea of trying my luck with a butterbeer ice cream using what I already have on hand seemed to be the perfect idea!

So off to the internets I went, searching and researching, reading and comparing all sorts of recipes that would first tell me how to make butterbeer… and then ice cream related recipes of other people’s trials and what worked.

However, there were pros and cons and all the recipe were non-alcoholic. Well poo.

Finally I found a recipe that was
1) eggless
2) appeared easy to change around

So as thus came the long sequence of trials and errors.
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Recipe: Various Rum-Soaked Berry Ice Creams

Drooling yet?

Anyway before I go on the method used for these types of ice creams has stayed relatively the same:
1) let fruit soak in alcohol for at least an hour or more
2) puree fruit in food processor
3) strain the puree mix through a strainer and into a pot
4) cook the strained puree mix over medium heat until puree mix turns into a jam-like consistency
5) pour the jam-like mix into a container and refrigerate until ready to be mixed with an ice cream base

So what do I use for an ice cream base? Well… something relatively simply like…
– 1 and 1/2 cups of milk
– 1/2 cup honey powder
– 2 to 3 cups of heavy cream

Essentially any vanilla ice cream base just without the vanilla extract.

So how did I get started?

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Recipe: Disney Inspired Alcoholic Ice Cream

Yup. You read that right… ice cream flavors inspired by anything and everything Disney. Not just any ice cream mind you but alcoholic ice cream.

**evil cackle**

Drooling yet? Well my friends were, especially after the most recent Oscar Party, I decided to task myself with a dessert inspired by the latest Disney animated film: Frozen. And boy did it ever deliver.

But before I move on, I will admit that a lot of my inspiration is derived from the Facebook Page: Cocktails by Cody. Most (if not all) of the recipes below and any future ones are most than likely derived from one of his concoctions only made as an ice cream flavor.

Got that? Good. Let’s start with the first one that started it all:

“COLDFRONT”
– Coconut Ice Cream base
– White Chocolate Liqueur
– Peppermint (Schnapps or Extract, I used extract this time around)
– Coconut Flakes (Optional)

Why am I not putting in measurements? Because I’m lazy first off… and secondly because I rarely do, I just kind of add in what I think looked about right and hope for the best. 🙂 However, I will say that adding just enough peppermint to the mix would give that “freshness” that fallen snow would give. And as thus, a perfect addition. One thing I will say is that for the Coconut Ice Cream base, I used Cream of Coconut in addition to your usual heavy cream + whole milk. What I find happens is that by using Cream of Coconut as opposed to Coconut Milk, it provides a far better balance for the White Chocolate Liqueur and turning the ice cream mix into an ice cream consistency as opposed to harder / cheesier(?) consistency. Portions do change though.

So what’s next?

“MOUSE SLIDE”
– Crushed Oreo Cookies
– Cheesecake Ice Cream base
– Caramel drizzle

Actually this is similar to a dessert dish I created sometime in 2013 inspired by the telephone invention and as thus… not much thought went into this one when adapting it. However, one could never go wrong with Oreos and Cheesecake… so why not? And cheese = mice… so yeeeeaaaah.

ANYWAY…
I have made other ice creams, but nothing else Disney inspired… yet. Eventually I will though, I already have breakdowns written out and ideas floating around, but I probably need to expand my library of drinks first before going further… but that might take a while considering I don’t drink to begin with.

Ah well.

Recipe: Star Wars Themed Main Dish Inspired by Qui-Gon Jinn

May the Fourth Be With You

So for the Star Wars themed Chef’s Table I was originally tasked with a side dish inspired by Qui-Gon Jinn. As thus my original idea was have
– quinoa soaked and cooked in a gin / water mix
– strips of veal marinated in gin then seared

And that was it, nothing terribly fancy, just something sweet and short because when I think of Qui-Gon Jinn what comes to mind are:
– his connection with the “Living Force” meaning he was very much “in the moment”
– his calming presence for Anakin Skywalker

As thus my desire to use ingredients that would help people “de-stress” and as thus provide that “calming” effect that Qui-Gon Jinn had on young Anakin.

However when another member dropped out and with it the meat / pork course I decided to take that over as well and turned my side dish into the main dish and added more stuff. So what did I end up doing?

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