classic ice cream sandwiches

Boy, was I looking forward to making these Classic Ice Cream Sandwiches!

There were many steps to get to this final stage. First starting off with baking a super-thin cake on a cookie sheet. I took great care in using my offset spatula to get an even thickness. It baked up beautifully.

Then, instead of what the recipe suggests of using 2 pints of store bought ice cream, I decided to make my own. It took me a while to decide, but David Lebovitz's malted milk ice cream was my pick. It is something different that you can't purchase in the store, so I like the novelty of it.

Once I got the ice cream to the proper state of frozen, I slathered it on the two sheets of chocolate cake and felt like a total pro at this point. That's when everything fell apart. I might have attempted to slice into bars before they were quite frozen enough, but they really finished up messy. It might also have to do with making my own ice cream which doesn't have the same sort of freezing properties as regular ice cream which has chemical stabilizers. When I wrapped my eight bars in plastic they are so amateur looking. I guess it wouldn't matter much, but I was planning on bringing these to a mom meet-up tomorrow. I'm afraid that in travel they are sure to melt, so I'll have to bring something else instead.

Overall, this is a 100% on flavour and a fail on technique. These are so friggin' tasty it's a sin! The cake is so damn good that eating it in broken shards straight from the freezer is almost better than in a sandwich. I'm serious, I actually have a cracked batch in a ziploc bag for chocolate cravings. I was even thinking of making a batch of vanilla ice cream and dropping broken pieces of this cake into it for cookies and cream ice cream. For all the involved steps I'd say leave the sandwich making to Nestle. But for the experience, this is a really neat thing to try making on your own.

blueberry-yogurt smoothies and ice cream fun!

Every morning this week I've been feverishly working on a different ice cream & frozen yogurt. This past Monday I received my copy of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz at my doorstep. I'm totally inspired by these recipes because the amount of effort and ingredients are minimal and the results are awesome.

I'm up blending and pureeing and freezing while simultaneously making breakfast. It's super easy - like 15 minutes easy! If you asked me a year ago if I wanted to take out the food processor and make ice cream I'd never have agreed. But since it's my most used appliance right now (making Owen's meals) it fits right into my current lifestyle. Not only that - I'm at the local fruit stand every other day picking up short seasoned fruits (cherries, raspberries etc.). Making jams is VERY difficult with a little one to take care of, so my solution to preserving the fruit is to make ice cream and store them in the chest freezer.

The only part I dislike about making frozen desserts is straining. It's quite boring and painstaking having to slowly sieve the blended mixture but it is SO worth it. It produces the creamiest texture and is a step I just can't avoid.

This is Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt. This flavour is very evocative of cherry pie and is a total flashback to my youth.

This is Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream. This is so decadent! One and a half cups of whipping cream will do that but it's worth it! Nuno and I were both totally struck by the flavour. Not only is it over the top amazing, it's a flavour of a dessert we ate in the past. We think we've nailed it to a dessert we once had at a wedding, only it may have been a mousse.

I'm also really enjoying making Owen's purees from the amazing bounty of fresh fruit. Our current favourite is pureed apricots and apples. This is one combo I'll always taste test before feeding to him ;)

Now for yesterday's breakfast where I decided to make Blueberry-Yogurt Smoothies from Everyday Food for all of us. They were great, but I didn't like the temperature of mine so I threw it in the fridge to chill. I then moved on to making the frozen dessert of the day, Blueberry Frozen Yogurt. It then dawned on me that I could just take my uneaten smoothie and turn it into frozen yogurt. I strained it and voila - breakfast!

It really didn't feel like a healthy thing to eat, but it is. Banana, blueberries and plain yogurt - you don't get much healthier or delicious.

Yep, this $20 ice cream maker is a keeper. What an awesome investment!