Raspberry chocolate ice cream

And there we go... once again, an entire month without posting! Oh the grad student life! 

Well, I've been so cramped with studying that I really don't have a ton to tell you. We're moving our lab to a new one (yay!) next week. The weather in Oregon is crazy hot, which doesn't help my daily running. But it invites you to eat some of this delicious ice cream. 

Today I have to keep it short, more studying needed for very important tests at the end of the month. But do make this ice cream please! you won't regret it! It's creamy and refreshing all at the same time. 

Raspberry chocolate ice cream

Adapted from 'The Perfect Scoop'

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

5 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

5 large egg yolks

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup frozen crushed raspberries (freeze them after picking and crush them once frozen so they break into the little red balls)

Warm the cream and cocoa powder in a medium sauce pan and whisk to blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and add the chocolate while whisking until you get a smooth mixture. Set it aside and let it cool. 

In another pot, warm up the milk and sugar to almost a boil and the mixture it to the beaten egg yolks slowly not to curdle them. Bring the mixture back to a pan and cook for about 5 minutes (to make sure the eggs are not raw). Remove from the heat and strain if necessary. 

Mix the cream and the milk blends together and let them cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions and right at the end of the process, add the crushed raspberries. 

Homemade caramel sauce

Yay! summer's here. And I'm still teaching, but I will have more time to post recipes that I made centuries ago and I just didn't have time to write about. Remember the ice cream recipes I posted... well, kind of long ago, but not really. Well, this caramel sauce goes perfect with it. 

But let's start by the summer story. What are you guys up to this summer? I have a giant list of books to read, just like last summer. So far I'm down 3 out of 15 on the list. I've definitely fallen in love with Paul Auster, just a bit more than I had so far. But I'm also working on the classics. The American ones. I wonder why noone ever told me that 'The catcher in the rye' was such a wonderful book. 

What are you guys reading this summer? Are you going on vacation? One of my old friends from Boston is visiting me soon. I can't wait for him to be here so we can eat our way through Portland. But I have promised him tons of ice cream, so I better start working on filling the freezer with new recipes. To pair with it, this amazing caramel sauce.

I bet you've read all over the internet how terribly hard it is to make caramel sauce. Not true! It's a matter of patience and you can master it quite easily. Plus, it only has 3 ingredients!

Homemade caramel sauce

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream 

Pour the water and sugar in a pot and heat at medium heat until it boils. DO NOT STIR. This is very important. If you stir, you'll evaporate the water before the sugar cooks and will end up with a white goopy paste that doesn't look like caramel. You are aiming to slowly caramelize the sugar (Grignard reaction, for the nerds out there). Let the water evaporate and the sugar cook and do not walk away from it or it'll burn. You can do this without adding water, but this way, the process is slower and the risk of burning it is lower. Once the sugar acquires an amber color, it is ready for you to pour the heavy cream. Now, there's very many tones of amber, you're aiming for something that looks like honey. Once you get to this stage, remove the pot from the stove and add the heavy cream. Do not panic if all the sudden you have a solid blob of caramel surrounded by liquid. And be careful not to splash yourselves with hot caramel. Once you've added the heavy cream, put the pot back in the stove and stir with a whisk until you have an homogeneous mixture. Basically, until the cooked sugar dissolves. You can cook the sauce as little or as much as you want, depending on how thick you want it. Take in account that it'll become thicker when it cools down. Pour in jars and store in the fridge for 2 weeks or the freezer for months (don't worry, it won't last that long).

Mint ice cream with andes chunks and a dear blogger friend

Today I'm gonna tell you about my dearest blogger friend. Her name is Maria and she's the author of Remena Nena. I met Maria over a year ago, when all we had in common was that we were both Spaniards from the same region (Catalonia). Nowadays, she's one of my best friends. 

It all started with a few e-mails here and there. Then a recipe together and lots of conversations on gmail talk. Packages sent back and forth from Boston to Vilanova (Spain). Constant facebook commenting and now our latest obsession, the 'whatsup' application. 

We talk about pretty much anything, congratulate each other on school progress, plot evil plans to feed our friends with tons of sugar, cream and butter and talk about boys (a lot). We laugh, cry, complain, tell secrets and share our stories. 

As I mentioned, there's quite a bunch of packages that have gone from Spain to the US and viceversa in the last year. They have contained things like hazelnuts, sprinkles, baking cups, cookie cutters and the last of Maria's crazy ideas, two ice cream cookbooks. She's a more than generous girl and once she heard I'd gotten an ice cream maker, she couldn't resist sending me 'The Perfect Scoop' and 'Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice cream and dessert book'. 

I obviously couldn't wait to use them and made mint ice cream from Leibovitz's book. But before I give you the recipe, let me try to convince you that you should check Maria's blog. Because she's just awesome.

Now for the recipe.

Mint ice cream with andes chunks

A bit adapted from 'The perfect scoop'

For the mint ice cream:

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves
3 large egg yolks

I also added a bit of peppermint extract, because after steeping the mint in the milk, I thought the mint flavor wasn't strong enough. I was wrong and it was plenty once frozen. But, I must say that, even though you wouldn't think so, the result of mixing the two, was quite awesome. The mint leaves gave the ice cream a fresh flavor and the peppermint has a minty aftertaste that makes it amazing to the palate. I added a teaspoon of the extract, however, you can omit this and I'm sure the result will be great. 

For the 'chunks':

8 Andes chocolate mints chopped 

To make the ice cream:

In a pan, warm up the milk, sugar and mint. Once the mixture is steaming, cover with a lid and let the mint steep in the milk for 1hr. I'm not sure you can appreciate it, but my milk was slightly green afterwards.

Strain the mint from the milk and bring it back to the pan. While warming up the milk, beat the three egg yolks in a bowl. Once the milk is hot, add the milk mixture to the eggs while continuously whisking. Then bring the mix to the pan and cook until it's thick enough to cover the back of a spoon (or a few minutes at 175 F). Add the heavy cream to the mixture and let it cool in the fridge for at least an hour before freezing. Freeze according to your ice cream maker manufacturer instructions. Once the mix is frozen, add the chopped andes and let the ice cream harden in the freezer.

Home made vanilla ice cream

I have a confession to make. I love making ice cream! You guys might remember me mentioning that I bought an ice cream maker. Well. I can guarantee you it's been put to use! 3 batches in a week and a half. Not bad huh?

I've always been an ice cream lover, which is dangerous enough. But home made product is so much better that I'm gonna start running daily again! The texture, the brightness of the flavors and the chance to make it to my own taste can't be beaten by any commercial ice cream.

And the best part is that I love the making. It's such a calming process. Slow, but steady. The flavors coming together. So far I've made vanilla and mint, which was also used for a chocolate, mint ice cream cake. The next batch will probably be pistachio. I honestly see no end to this. I want to try to make every flavor, with every topping, swirl, fruit and nut I can imagine.

Do you guys make ice cream at home? if so, what's your favorite flavor? I'm considering making a list of 'to do flavors'. I'd love your ideas!

Vanilla Ice cream
Adapted from 'The joy of cooking'

1 1/2 cups of milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar (or more if you'd like)
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons high quality vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips (optional)

If using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the milk, if not, just heat up the milk and the sugar in a pot, making sure it doesn't boil. In a bowl, whip the eggs. Once the milk mixture is hot, add the milk to the eggs. To avoid curdling them, add a bit of milk while mixing with a whisk, so you temper the eggs, then add the rest of the hot milk. Bring the mix back to the pot and cook at 175 F with constant stirring. You want to make sure your mixture cooks at, at least, 160 F for 5 min so your eggs aren't raw anymore (this is the safe egg cooking temperature according to McGee). Joy of cooking suggests cooking it at 175 F and that's what I did.  Continue cooking the mixture until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Get of the heat and add the heavy cream. If you are using vanilla extract, this is the time to add it. Let the mixture cool and freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.