Ice Cream Base or Smiling on the Inside

Ice cream is one of my most favorite things.  Let's be honest: it's fantastic.  My life was changed when my dear husband bought an ice cream machine for my birthday.  Yeah!  My life was changed even more when I went to composed frozen dessert class.  We made three kinds of ice cream from one base.  That times 4 students equals 12 ice cream flavors, one custard.  Brilliant.  

Now, I can make a batch of base, which I just did, portion it into 2 C. servings, which I will do in a moment, and freeze.  Then, I will have ice cream at my finger tips.  Just thaw, flavor, and churn. 

This recipe is a basic custard.  I always half it because I can't pour 2 quarts of liquid into a bowl full of eggs while whisking vigorously.  But, if you have a cooking buddy, or really strong arms, use the full.

Ice Cream Base

1 1/2 quarts whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
2 t. vanilla
16 egg yolks
20 oz. granulated sugar

Combine milk, cream, and vanilla in heavy saucepan and bring to boil.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

While whisking eggs, pour 1/3 of milk mixture into bowl.  Return saucepan to stove and add the egg mixture.

Cook over medium heat until slightly thickened.  It takes about 4-5 minutes.  Pour through fine mesh strainer into clean bowl.

At this point you can chill it and use immediately or portion and freeze.

Notes:
Don't whisk the eggs and sugar together before the milk is almost at a boil.  Doing so before will create dried pieces of egg that you don't want in your ice cream.
When thickening the custard don't cook high heat to make the process faster.  Doing so can curdle the eggs.

Food Styling

Chef Karima gave me a couple of books on food styling.  I've been looking at one of them, by Denise Vivaldi, who is basically the word when it comes to food styling.  I'm been amazed, but not really shocked while reading it.  I knew they did weird things with the food, but I didn't know how much work went into it.  I also didn't realize how much they do.  Like a bowl of cereal in a breakfast scene of a TV show was probably done by a food stylist.  That seems so easy.  So not necessary to pull in a professional, but they do.  Also, I knew fake food, or non edible stuff was used, but for her food is a minimum.  Most of the food isn't edible.  To me that seems weird.  I want to know when I look at a cook book that the piece of cake is actually the recipe that is on the page and that the author has made it before and that it will turn out for me when I make it.  But, it made me realize that cook books are made for different reasons.  Some people write cook books because they love food and want to share what they have with other people.  They take care in each recipe.  Other cook books are sold to make money because they know people will buy it.  For instance, I recently had a Philadelphia cream cheese cook book.  After going threw several recipes I was mostly dissatisfied and hated the fact that my food didn't look like the pictures.  After reading what I have, I now know that the pictures probably had little to do with the recipes.  The stylist was probably given a recipe, realized it didn't work, and made something that looked similar and that would photo well.  Most of it probably wasn't edible.  I think I'm more of a real food kind of a person.  I don't know, but it seems to make sense to me.  It's probably not as cost effective, but I think I like food more than styling.  

Sourdough and Sandwiches

Okay, so I've successfully made my first batch of sourdough bread.  It went okay.  I did a recipe I found on the fresh loaf, and I think next time I'll do a different recipe.  This one made three loaves, which is more than I need and more than my kitchen aid can handle.  Also, it's fairly wet, so doing it by hand wasn't the greatest experience ever.  Also adding to the fabulous nature of the experience was Cadance sitting on the kitchen floor bawling her eyes out because I wasn't giving her my undivided attention.  Apparently she doesn't understand that when my hands are covered in dough I'm not able to hold her. 


But, the end result tasted like sourdough bread.  I think that's one thing that I feel was a great accomplishment.  I feared that after all the work it would just taste like any other bread I made.  Not so, there was definitely a sourdough taste to it.  It wasn't too sour, but it worked.  It was weird because the recipe I used didn't have any commercial yeast added to it.  I think I'm going to add a little next time just to make it more stable.  I learned that without it time is really a factor.  It said to let proof in the fridge for 12 hours.  By the time I got to the third loaf it had been about 20.  So, it didn't rise at all. 

The one problem with sourdough is the time commitment.  I have yet to feed my started since I baked my bread.  Not that it takes that long, but I just haven't gotten to it.  

I decided, about 10 minutes ago, that I really like sandwiches.  I like their versatility.  I like that you can have a humble sandwich and also a gourmet sandwich.  I like that your personality and shows in what sandwich you order and what sandwiches you make at home.  I think I'm going to make more sandwiches, especially for summer they rock!

Sourdough

I started my first sourdough starter yesterday.  Wish me luck.  It's 1/3 C. rye flour to 1/4 C. filtered water.  I'm following the guidelines on thefreshloaf.com. 

Capstone Menu and Recipe

So I did my first test for my sun dried tomato bread.  It's interesting because I think when you own something like a recipe it's never going to be done.  I don't think I'll ever be satisfied.  Because it's mine, I can't just say, well that was good and never make it again.  This shows who I am as a baker.  This needs to be good.  It needs to be permanent. 

The menu for my capstone is okay... I think it's harder than I thought it was going to be.  I want it to be simple.  That's part of my mission: small scale.  I want it to be basic, but exciting.  It seems like there's too much to choose from but then I don't really like my choices.  Part of it is that I haven't made everything, which I think has to change.  I want to be excited about each item on my menu and know that I will be selling good product. Naming things is killer.  I don't want to say bread 10 times, so how do I made an item seem different and exciting and something I want to buy. 

Yesterday in class chef told me that I had a natural eye for putting things on a plate.  I was shocked.  It made me feel like I do have potential to actually do this.  I'm not an imposter.  It also made me want to continue more than I ever had before, and it made me want to do photography more than I ever had before. 

What's cooking in my kitchen?  I made this tortellini salad yesterday and Steve made the comment, "You always seem to make the bad stuff in large quantity."  We don't really like strong cheeses like gorgonzola in our house, but I put too much in and it overpowered and bitter.  I made my own tortilla chips for the first time tonight.  They were delicious.  Oh, and when something says tea cake you should take note that it's meant for dipping into tea and will be dry.  I'm not too excited about my dinners this week, but oh well.  And, pretty much all my baking will be for my capstone project in the next little bit.  Although, Steve bought me tart pans for my b-day and I've yet to use them and I think it's about time that I do, so I was thinking something with nuts and ricotta, berries? 

Cheesy Sun Dried Tomato Whatever

So when I made these muffins in class we were thinking about how to make them into a complete breakfast, like a breakfast sandwich.  Chef had the thought of doing them free form and crack an egg into the middle to cook.  So, I've been thinking about it.  I thought a yeast bread would be good, but maybe a danish?  I don't know.  The muffin batter isn't thick enough to do free form, but I love the idea.

Recap

So, the Ciabatta was fine.  I think making bread my hand is stupid, but I have this tendency to go exactly what the recipe says, so I mixed it by hand.  The salt was added last, of course, but it didn't get mixed in all the way because I was kneading by hand.  I like the crumb, although it could have been a little lighter.  But, I tend to think that about a lot of my bread.

The pistachio cake with apricots turned out well, expect for the sunken portion in the whole middle area :)  I need to believe myself when I think, "no, just a couple more minutes."  But, the apricots almost melt into the cake, giving it a pudding like texture.  The flavors marry very well and the sweetness of the cake is contrasted very nicely by the tartness of the fruit.  I like it by itself, although some whipped cream would be nice.  The whipped cream would definitely bring it to the dessert level, but the cake by itself would work as a breakfast cake. 

In class on Friday we did recipe development.  For reals, I created a recipe for cheesy sun dried tomato muffins.  They were so good by the end, but I think I need to do one more test.  Then, I'm going to publish  it on my family's blog because I think it's just that cool.  It definitely took some patience, and I don't think Steve would really be a fan because then we would be eating the same thing a lot.  It reminds me of Julia Child who was determined to cook every recipe until it was perfect.  I bet she spent a lot of time in the kitchen. 

This next week we're going out of town on Thursday, so I'm not going to bake for the sake of not wanting leftovers.  But, I got a new baking book and I want to make quite a bit of things before I bring it back.  Also, capstone.  OMG it's going to be intense.  But, I think it will be good.  I'll definitely be giving away a lot more stuff as I start working on recipes. 

This Week's Baking Stuff

This week I'm doing Ciabatta and a pistachio apricot cake.  I have the biga for the ciabatta mixed.  It needs to sit for 12 hours.  I thought tonight would be the perfect night to start bread, but tomorrow it's not a good day for baking, but I guess you just need to do it and work with it if you want to bake.  I have in the back of my mind that I've made Ciabatta before, but I don't remember.  It seems like it didn't turn out good.  But, I've never used a biga; I usually use a more liquid starter.  So, I'm excited to see how it turns out. 

I don't know when I'll make the cake, but I bought the apricots so it'll be this week.  I've had this recipe for over a year and I'm excited to finally make it.  Apricots have just come out and they're not bad in price, so I'm excited to use them over the next month or so.

I made jam!!!!!!  I just did it.  I went for it and followed some rules but not others and it turned out good.  Well, it set.  The flavor isn't as complex as I wanted it to be.  I did strawberry apricot with a shot of balsamic.  Mostly it just tastes like strawberry.  I definitely had the wrong ratio of fruit to make the apricots stand out, but I thought the balsamic would, but you can't really taste it.  Maybe if I put it in at the end it would be better.  Hmmm....

Sorbet and Sandwiches

The sorbet turned out okay.  I refroze it, but i think I stopped churning it too soon, it wasn't very smooth,  but maybe that was just the formula.  I decided I not really a fan of papaya; it smells funny, but I don't think I'll swear it off from working with it- it's just not my favorite.

The sandwiches were really good.  Ham and Havarti on a baguette with rosemary dill spread, lettuce and cucumber.  The spread could have used a little more kick from the herbs, but not much.  I like the chewiness of the bread, Steve drank water in order to chew it up enough :) 

One of the things I'm struggling with is creating a baking schedule.  I looked at The  Bread Bible again and realized how much good stuff is in it, but then I don't know when I'll do any of it.  I was pretty good last week about making stuff.  But, hearth bread takes time.  And then I don't know what I'm going to do with it.  I'm really in the mood for some good bread. 

A Tip

When you want to freeze ice cream the bowl of the ice cream maker needs to be completely frozen.  If you hear water don't think it's probably frozen enough to freeze your sorbet because it's not. 

Tropical Fruit Sorbet

I have the sorbet in the ice cream maker churning.  The papaya was succulent.  It cut like softened butter.  But, it smelled funny.  So, I don't know how I feel about it.  Of course, I didn't think to taste it before I started freezing it, so I hope it's okay.  I need to start tasting things.  I have an issue. 

Tomorrow Megan is watching Cadance while I'm in class.  I always like to bring something to say thanks because I can't pay, but I don't feel like baking anything.  I was going to buy some bread from Black Rooster, but I don't think I'm going to go until Saturday.

The Start

So today I had a thought, "You know, you've thought about doing a baking blog, but knew it wouldn't be that great or anything, but what if you did it as a journal."  I know that if I sit on an idea long enough it goes away so here I am.  So, this is a journal.  It's a place for me to talk about what's on my mind food wise and keep track of work I've done- good or not so good.  I was thinking baking originally, but I like to cook so there's no reason to force myself into only baking thoughts. 

What's on my mind: I'm going to do a pineapple papaya sorbet from Cooking Light magazine, which, speaking of, I need to put my ice cream freezer bowl in the freezer.  I've never worked with papaya.  I had no idea what I was looking for at the store, but it didn't seem to be rotting and it was slightly soft to the touch, so it can't be that bad.

I bought 4 pounds of strawberries and like 8 apricots from Sprouts.  I know we can't eat that much, but I get so excited in the produce section.  I think about how healthy I'm going to eat and all the things I can do with it.  Like strawberry apricot jam...with mint.  Why didn't I buy mint, or canning jars.  Also, I need an indoor grill so that I can do things like grill apricots or pineapple.

Ham sandwich with rosemary and dill spread.  Artichoke hearts? Cheese?  I'm going to buy bread from Black Rooster.