August 10, 2013 by Marios

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

I am very loyal to chocolate. My love for it is endless and my devotion to it is deep. When going over a dessert menu, I will always gravitate first to the choices that include chocolate. I love dark chocolate, mysterious and a little dangerous, but I also love milk chocolate, sharply sweet and creamy. On occasion, I’ll even enjoy white chocolate, the chocolate impostor.

There was only one time when my feelings for chocolate almost changed. I signed up for a 5-day, 30-hour course of chocolate making at the Institute of Culinary Education. It meant that every day for five consecutive days, from 9am to 4pm (with a 1-hour lunch break), I was in a kitchen making different kinds of chocolates. The first couple of days it was pure heaven. The third day it started to change. We all noticed that we avoided licking our fingers. By the fourth and fifth day, I started to feel an actual aversion to the smell and taste of chocolate. It was a little disturbing. Fortunately, after a couple of weeks of no chocolate in sight, my feelings for it returned.

But despite my undying loyalty to chocolate, there is one dessert for which I am always ready to change teams: key lime pie. If it’s on the menu, I don’t care what decadent chocolate concoctions are available, I will choose the pie. The sweet and tangy custard paired with the buttery graham cracker crust are a combination that is so perfect, so enticing, that I simply find it irresistible.

So the other day I saw some key limes at the grocery store and I had an idea: how about a key lime pie ice cream? I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to create the recipe, since the pie is already a custard. I just had to adjust the quantities and make it a little runnier than it is for the pie. So, I created a first draft of the recipe and I figured that it would need adjustments before I could post it.

But 24 hours after I churned the ice cream, I took the container out of the freezer and dug in with the ice cream scoop. I couldn’t believe it when the scoop just effortlessly slid through the ice cream. It was a perfect consistency, immediately scoopable (even days later, it was still the consistency of gelato). And the taste? Exactly what I was going for: key lime pie, pure and simple.

Let’s just say that the chocolate ice cream I’ve had in the freezer has been feeling a little ignored for a while.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

For crust:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon graham cracker crumbs (from 5 crackers; you can put them in a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them into crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For ice cream:
1 can (14oz sweetened condensed milk)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice (or regular lime juice)
4 large egg yolks

First make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix, using a fork, graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter and mix with fork until well combined. Press mixture evenly on bottom only (not up to the sides) of 8 inch square glass pan or 9 inch glass pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Break into small bite size pieces. Can be made the day before. Just store in airtight container until ready to use.

Make the ice cream:
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the key lime juice. Place a mesh strainer on top of a medium bowl and set aside.

In a saucepan, add sweetened condensed milk, cream, sugar, and pinch of salt. Heat, stirring frequently, over medium heat until combined and bubbles start to form.

Temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring about 1/3 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks, while whisking constantly. Scrape the tempered egg yolk mixture into the saucepan, again whisking constantly. You’ll notice that the mixture will immediately become thicker. Continue to cook over medium heat for another 4 minutes, stirring constantly with a spatula and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan.

Pour the mixture through the mesh strainer into the medium bowl. Let cool completely and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.

Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When it’s finished churning, layer it in a container with the graham cracker crust bits. Start with about one fifth of the ice cream at the bottom of the container. Sprinkle about one fifth of the crust bits. Layer another fifth of the ice cream, followed by another fifth of the crust bits. Continue this way until you finish with the last crust bits on top.

July 26, 2013 by Marios

Chocolate Orange Granola

The weather in New York has been strange this week. A few days ago it was so hot and humid that walking outside felt like having a dryer vent as a permanent escort. Then yesterday the temperatures suddenly dropped and it got cold enough that I needed a sweatshirt to walk outside in the middle of the day. And today we woke up to a dark and cloudy morning, as if it was the middle of November.

This suddenly cooler and fall-like weather has given me back-to-school anxiety. With only a month left before the end of the summer, it seems like it’s going by too fast. Every summer I go through this, until September comes and I realize that just because it’s no longer officially summer, it doesn’t mean it’s winter. In fact, we can have summer-like weather (or even better, beautiful indian summers) all through the end of October.

So, if you are like me and are already dreading the end of summer, take a deep breath and relax. Reward yourself by making (and eating) this chocolate orange granola. Have it for breakfast with milk or as an afternoon snack. Or eat it for dessert if you want. The summer is the time to bend the rules a little bit.

This is based on a recipe that appeared in the New York Times, called “My Favorite Granola.” Unlike the olive oil and maple granola recipe I posted a little while ago, this produces a sticky, chunky granola that comes out in sweet clusters. The original recipe combined orange and vanilla flavors but I found that too cloying and too reminiscent of a panforte. So, I changed it a bit, toned down the orange and added chocolate.

Chocolate Orange Granola – Adapted from the New York Times

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
2 cups cornflakes
1 cup steel-cut oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup of bittersweet or semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (or your favorite dark chocolate chopped into small pieces)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, cornflakes, steel-cut oats, almonds, salt and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.

2. In a small saucepan, combine honey, maple syrup, canola oil, and orange zest. Place over medium heat and boil for 1 minute. Discard vanilla beans, and pour hot liquid over dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, mix until well combined.

3. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread evenly with the granola. Bake until golden brown and evenly toasted, tossing once about halfway through, about 30 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and place on a rack to cool; mixture will be soft and sticky while hot, but will dry and become crisp as it cools.

4. When granola is completely cool and dry, break into bite-size pieces and mix with the mini chocolate chips. Store in an airtight container.

April 7, 2013 by Marios

Chocolate Sherbet

Have you every made your own ice cream or sorbet, put it in the freezer to set, and tried the next day to scoop it out, only to find out it is frozen solid and can’t be scooped or even drilled into? Sure you can let it sit out for 10-15 minutes but first of all, who has the patience, and second, usually the outside will have melted enough but the inside will be still frozen solid.

There are three ways to avoid that when making ice cream or sorbet. The first way (and this applies mainly to ice cream) is to displace as much of the water in your base with fat. So, the more cream (as opposed to milk, or god forbid, low fat or skim milk) you have in your base, the less your ice cream will become a block of ice.

The second way is with corn syrup. I know, I know. It’s the devil’s milk, that evil corn syrup. Actually, that’s high fructose corn syrup. That’s the really evil stuff. Plain corn syrup (Karo syrup) isn’t that bad for you. And in ice creams or especially sorbets, we’re talking a couple of tablespoons for a quart of ice cream. Since corn syrup doesn’t freeze, your frozen treat remains scoopable when you add some to the base.

The third way is alcohol. The higher proof, the better. Kirsch, for example, is a great addition to sorbets to keep them soft in the freezer. Again, we’re talking a couple of tablespoons, not a martini glass full of vodka.

David Lebovitz, who is my ice cream guru, posted a great recipe for a chocolate sherbet on his blog (which is one of my favorite food reads). A sherbet is like a sorbet, except it uses some milk instead of all water. In this case, it’s whole milk. Even though he says you can use low fat or skim milk I wouldn’t recommend it (see my point above about water vs. fat in your base).

The milk helps the sherbet stay a little softer in the freezer but it’s not enough. He also recommends two tablespoons of your favorite coffee-flavored liqueur. Though he says it’s optional, for me it’s essential in order for the sherbet to have great texture. The result is a luxurious frozen treat. The cocoa gives it an intense, dark chocolate flavor that’s not diluted by cream or eggs. We love to eat it with a little sea salt sprinkled on top right after we (easily) scoop it out of the container where it happily lives in the freezer.

Chocolate Sherbet – Slightly adapted from DavidLebovitz.com

2 cups (500ml) whole milk (I’ve also used coconut milk successfully, which turns this into a vegan dessert)
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup (50g) unsweetened cocoa powder (use good quality cocoa; my favorite is Valrhona)
4 ounces (115g) semisweet or milk chocolate, chopped (I usually prefer the Extra Rich Milk Chocolate by Scharffen Berger)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons coffee-flavored or chocolate-flavored liqueur

Put chopped chocolate in a heat-proof medium-sized bowl and set aside.

In a medium-sized saucepan, add 1 cup of milk, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. Over medium-high heat, bring it to a full boil, whisking frequently to dissolve the cocoa and prevent scorching in the bottom. As soon as it comes to a full boil (careful because it can boil over), reduce the heat and simmer it gently for 30 seconds. This will “bloom” the cocoa powder, intensifying its flavor.

Pour cocoa mixture over the chopped chocolate and stir with the whisk until it has all melted. Add the vanilla, the liqueur, and finally the other 1 cup of milk. Stir to combine.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.