Vanilla and Honey Ice Cream

While I was Pitlochry, I had a lovely vanilla and honey ice cream. It was a little sweet for my tastes but it was delicious nonetheless. I had bought some local Perthshire honey at the same shop and have attempted to recreate the ice cream to my taste preference.

The bought ice cream had swirls of honey running all through it like caramel. I tried to do the same thing but waiting until the ice cream was almost done churning before I put in the honey. I underestimated a bit as the ice cream was a bit softer than I had thought and the honey got churned into the ice cream. It was still really good. Being completely unbiased, I think the taste of my ice cream is better than the one I bought as it’s less sweet and the honey can be tasted throughout the ice cream instead of in swirls. Their ice cream did have a nicer consistency and was creamier. I think their dairy is much better though and I worked with what was available to me. I did use mostly organic ingredients though.

I love the way the vanilla bean speckles look throughout the ice cream. I bought the vanilla beans at Costco for $15 for 10 beans! =) I have them in the freezer as I hear they last longer there. I had bought some vanilla beans before that I put in the fridge and I was so stingy to use them that they ended up getting hard and when I finally did use them, it was difficult to scrape out the beans. So far the freezer has worked out for the beans.

The heather honey is very noticeable in the ice cream. It’s very floral and it tastes almost like a flower-flavored ice cream. I actually think I put in more honey than necessary. I think even less honey would’ve been better as it was still a bit sweet for my taste. Perhaps next time I would omit the sugar all together and just use the honey.

I was also thinking of trying either a creme fraiche and honey ice cream or gelato next time. I love having honey on my yogurt and I think it’ll have the same sort of taste.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here is my recipe for the ice cream.

Vanilla and Honey Ice Cream

3/4 cup whole milk*

3/4 cup heavy cream*

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise with seeds scraped out

2 tablespoons Perthshire Heather honey (Any type of honey will do but Heather honey is unbelievably floral)

Cook milk, cream and vanilla pods together in a saucepan over medium until it starts to bubble around the edges. Make sure you watch it carefully as it’ll bubble over easily. Take it off the head and allow to steep for 10 minutes.

Put saucepan back on the heat and mix eggs and sugar together. Whisk a little of the milk mixture into the eggs to temper and then pour the egg and sugar mixture into the saucepan, whisking continuously. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes until ice cream base is thickened and coats the back of a spoon.

Pour the base their a sieve and lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the base to prevent skin from forming. Chill in fridge overnight.

Next day, follow ice cream machine directions and pour honey into the ice cream while it’s churning. Pour into a container and stick in the freezer for at least overnight before eating. It’s better after it marinates in the freezer.

* You can also substitute for 1 1/2 cup half and half. You can pretty much use any ratio combination of milk and cream to make it creamier or less so. I think all cream is a little too rich for me and usually I did 2:1 cream to milk but I ran out of cream this time. All milk will give you gelato which is also nice. I often substitute all milk in ice cream recipes to make gelato.

This recipe makes one pint as I like to make small tubs but it can be easily doubled to make a quart.

 

Marshmallow-y Goodness

I bought gelatin a really long time ago so that I could make marshmallows but I never got around to it. I also bought Fluff so that I could make a fluffernutter sandwich but wasn’t ever in the mood for it. I finally made a fluffernutter panini and it was quite good though I think I still prefer a PB&J panini. Funny enough, I don’t even like marshmallows that much but I still wanted to try.

So I finally decided that I was going to make the marshmallows. When I told people I made marshmallows the first question I get is, “what is a marshmallow made of?”. So here is my recipe for marshmallows:

3 envelopes of unflavored Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
Confectioners’ sugar

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water and soak for 10 minutes. Mine turned into a wet sand looking texture.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup and bring to a boil until it reaches 240F on a candy thermometer. Take it off the head and pour the syrup into gelatin and start mixing at low speed. Add speed slowly so the syrup doesn’t splatter out and increase to high speed. Add the salt and beat for 10 minutes. Add vanilla and mix some more. The mixture should be really thick and fluffy. It should have hard peaks like beaten egg whites.

I wanted to try some coconut flavor and also some vanilla so I sprinkled part of the pan with the coconut. One cup of the coconut will be enough for an entire pan. I used unsweetened coconut because that’s what I had in the pantry but you can substitute the sweetened one. I also thought the sweetened would make it really sweet as the marshmallows are sweet enough as is.

Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with nonstick spray and then layer a sheet of parchment paper into it for easy removal of the marshmallow brick. Spread half of the toasted coconut into the pan & pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan and spread the remaining coconut on top.

Let the mixture dry overnight. Lift the parchment paper to lift out the marshmallow brick. I used a bench scraper that I wet to cut the marshmallow brick into pieces. You can also use scissors which also works well.

Toss the marshmallows into confectioners’ sugar to keep it from sticking.

 

Sauerkraut Pie Recipe

As many people were looking for the Sauerkraut Pie recipe that I used for my pie, I’ve decided to include my recipe for it. The only thing that I would recommend would be to not soak the sauerkraut in water three times as I did as it got rid of all the vinegary/salty taste. I think just draining it or maybe if you wanted, giving it a very quick rinse under water would suffice.

Disclaimer: I have only tried it soaked and it was tasty but didn’t have much vinegar flavor so I’m not sure how it will turn out if the sauerkraut is just rinsed but I think it’s worth giving it a shot as you’ll get the purpose of using the sauerkraut. Please leave your comments and let me know how it turned out. I’ve been meaning to try making the pie again but haven’t had the time to make more pie crust dough.

Anyway, here it is:
Sauerkraut Pie

3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour
1/4 stick butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup drained sauerkraut

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell (I used a homemade recipe but I can’t include that as it’s my friend’s grandmother’s secret recipe, which she made me swore never to give out)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl, blend together the sugar and flour.

Add the butter, eggs, vanilla and milk. Mix well. Stir in the drained sauerkraut.

Pour into the pie shell and bake for 30 minutes or until firm.