Magic Chocolate Ice Cream

A recent freebie issue in the mail from Cook's Country, one of the publications from the charming and oh-so-scientific folks at America's Test Kitchen, arrived at La Casa Errant Cook not long ago, and I've begun working my way through some of the supremely delicious-looking recipes.

Naturally, when I came upon the recipe for Magic Chocolate Ice Cream, promising rich and creamy chocolaty decadence without the need for churning in an ice cream machine, I knew that I had found my first test subject. 

My husband and I normally eat chocolate ice cream with shovels rather than spoons, but even we were floored by the richness of this stuff.  Small servings won't leave you disappointed.  You and your waistline have been warned.

Magic Chocolate Ice Cream
Adapted from Cook's Country
Makes about a half gallon

2 tsp. instant coffee or espresso powder
2 tbsp. hot water
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch salt
2 1/2 cups cold heavy cream

Combine the coffee powder and hot water in a medium bowl and let it sit for about 5 minutes, until the powder is dissolved.  Add the chopped chocolate and sweetened condensed milk and microwave until melted, about 2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so.  Stir in salt and vanilla and set aside to cool.

Whip the heavy cream in a large bowl or in a stand mixer until soft peaks form, about 5-7 minutes.

Whisk about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture until incorporated.  Stream the chocolate mixture into the remaining whipped cream and fold gently with a large rubber spatula until combined.

Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze 6 hours or overnight.

The inspiration.

The chocolate.

If you don't have sweetened condensed milk, you can use evaporated milk and sugar- one 12 oz. can to about 1 2/3 cups of sugar, heated gently in a saucepan and stirred until the sugar is dissolved.  Measure what you need out of the pan and put the rest in a glass jar with a lid in the fridge to use later.

Chopped chocolate.  Try not to eat too much of it.

Chocolate is combined with coffee powder, hot water, and condensed milk before being melted in the microwave.  Try not to eat too much of it.

Whip the tar out of the cold heavy cream until soft peaks form.

About 1/3 of the whipped cream is whisked into the chocolate mixture.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the rest of the whipped cream.

Be careful.  You too will make stupid faces like this once you taste what you've created.  Try not to eat too much of it.

The completed mousse-like mixture, ready for the freezer.  An old sherbet container serves me well in this instance- it's the perfect size and it's a good way to reuse!

OH SWEET LORDY, YES.

Cashew Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My adorable kitchen assistant, Eva, is sadly allergic to peanuts.  Fortunately, she is able to eat tree nuts.  She will eagerly scarf down pecans, cashews, walnuts, almonds- you name it.  I happened upon a marked down brand of salted cashews at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago and picked up 2 boxes.  One was eaten as snacks, and the other was destined to become cashew butter for cookies.

While cashew butter is often available on grocery store shelves, it's usually unsalted, and in my opinion, a bit bland.  I tossed the whole container into my food processor, held onto the handle (the processor has a tendency to dance around), and blended them until I got the smoothest consistency I could manage.  You could always stir in some chopped cashews after blending for a chunkier consistency.

I used my old standby peanut butter cookie recipe out of my red and white checked Betty Crocker cookbook and substituted an equal amount of cashew butter for the peanut.  I am impatient and was baking with an almost 4-year-old kid, so we skipped the dough chilling portion of the instructions.  I'd recommend you go ahead with it- the cookies will be pretty flat if you don't.

After scooping balls of dough, I flattened each one slightly with my fingers and let my kiddo push chocolate chips onto the top of them.

You could also substitute soy nut butter or almond butter. Delicious!


Betty Crocker Cookbook Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (or cashew butter)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.

Heat oven to 375ºF.

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped into sugar.

Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

Dough was portioned with a spring-handled ice cream scooper.

Sampling the dough for texture and consistency.

More quality checks.  She goes the extra mile to ensure that our cookies are the best!

The finished product.  Yummy!

Date night! (BONUS = Local chocolate!)

As we stay-at-home moms know all too well, it's not common enough that we can get out of the house for dinner with nice clothes, makeup, and good hair.  I treasure every single date night that my husband and I can manage.  Thankfully, I have awesome (childless) siblings who are always up for niece-sitting.  On this eve in particular, my sister was home without her business-tripping husband and graciously provided her services.

Our night out was fantastic.  We started off with dinner at a local Mexican joint, Compadres Mexican Grill and Cantina, where we scarfed down chips and queso before enjoying fajitas and carnitas tacos.  We polished it off with the best flan this side of the Pecos and a couple of sopapillas that were to die for.  Sure, the food was good, but our waiter was out of this world.  His name was Samuel, and if you ever make it to the south Tulsa location of Compadres, make sure you sit in his section!

After dinner, we took a drive, meandering north toward downtown.  A leisurely drive through the Brady Arts District took us past a glowing window that looked to me like a chocolatier.  Cody drove around the block for a second look, and sure enough, that's what I saw.  (Does this tummy have GPS or something?)

We walked into a charming small chocolate shop, Glacier Confection, with the most gorgeous hand-crafted candies I've ever seen- glossy jewel tones, domes of silky chocolate, intricately painted truffles, and artisan chocolate bars from exotic locales.

We wound up buying a selection of truffles and a dark chocolate bar.  The truffles were fantastic- my favorite was the amaretto.  And the lemon.  And the dark chocolate.  We scarfed down all nine of the truffles while standing in the dining room.

Owner and Chief Chocolate Officer Bill Copeland was wonderfully friendly and helpful, explaining all about the bean-to-bar chocolate he offers from Askinosie Chocolate.

Askinosie's mission is small batch chocolate making that allows the purchaser to know where the beans themselves came from- there's a photo of the farmer on the bar's package!  If you're looking to know more about the origins of your food, this chocolate is a good place to start.

All in all, this was a freaking awesome date night.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Every little kid likes cookies, and my kid is no exception.  I recently decided to make a batch during daylight hours (daytime baking is a rare treat for me- most of it is done well after dark).  So I got my mini helper in the kitchen with me for some tasty treats.

My go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies comes from the ever-trusty Alton Brown, of the Food Network show Good Eats.  Alton is my culinary crush (nerdy, cute, a killer cook- what's not to love?) and his recipes are at the top of my list when I'm looking for something new to try.

Alton's recipe uses melted butter instead of softened.  An article in my local paper got me thinking.  The article described a chocolate chip cookie made with browned butter- a simple but significant tweak in the flavor of that baking standby, by which the butter is melted in a saucepan and gently cooked until the butter solids turn golden brown.  This imparts a nutty, toasted flavor to the butter that is a great complement to many baked goods.

Since Alton's recipe has more brown sugar than white, I figured that the browned butter would go nicely to further the caramel-y flavor of the cookies.  I was right!

I didn't make any alterations to Alton's recipe, with the exception of browning the butter.  Make sure you are patient with the dough chilling portion.  I'm always scooping the dough while it's still soft, and my cookies are always too flat.  But they manage to wind up in my tummy anyway!  :)

First, get yourself an assistant-slash-taster.

Melt the butter gently in a saucepan.

It will foam quite a bit.  You can sorta see the solids browning.

Nope, that's not beer.  It's butter, baby!

Cute assistant sold separately.

Ghirardelli bittersweet chips are *the best tasting* chocolate chips for baking.  America's Test Kitchen told me so, and they were right!

Gotta make this kid earn her keep somehow.  Lookit those guns!

A one-ounce ice cream scoop works well for measuring out the dough.  It's also useful for meatballs.

Lumps of happy goodness waiting for the oven.

If you aren't impatient like me, your cookies won't be so flat.  Let the dough chill completely before scooping.

Flat or not, they taste frickin' awesome!

Day Fourteen: German Chocolate Cake

Day fourteen of Operation: Expand Horizons was a bit of a cheat. We had dinner plans at a restaurant to celebrate my brother's Master's degree completion, so I wasn't going to be cooking. Additionally, I was tapped to provide a cake. When my bro requested German chocolate, I decided to try a version from America's Test Kitchen that I had not used yet.

ATK hasn't failed me yet with their über-tested recipes, and this cake was no exception. It was delicious! The recipe says it serves 12-16, but I cut thin slices of this 4-layer monster for about 15 people and had cake left to spare.

Normally, German chocolate cake only has frosting between the layers. The outside chocolate frosting is my addition to pretty it up for a party. The "Perfectly Chocolate" frosting on the side of a box of Hershey's cocoa is a great basic recipe, and it's what I used. I added additional powdered sugar to make it stiff enough for piping.

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen

Serves 12-16

FILLING:

1 ½ cups pecan halves, toasted in a 350º oven and cooled

4 egg yolks

1 – 12 oz. can evaporated milk

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed

¼ cup light brown sugar, packed

1 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. table salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Whisk egg yolks and evaporated milk together in a medium saucepan. Add butter, sugars, and salt. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until bubbling and foaming. Pour into a bowl and add vanilla and coconut. Let cool to room temperature, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool and thickened. When ready to fill the cake, chop the toasted pecan halves and fold into cooled filling.

CAKE:

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup boiling water

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

¾ tsp. table salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¾ cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray two 8” round cake pans with nonstick spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper and spray again. Coat the bottoms and sides of pans with flour, tapping out excess.

Combine chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Pour boiling water over the mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Whisk together flour and baking soda.

In a stand mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt for about 4 minutes until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down mixer bowl and blade in between. Add vanilla. Whisk chocolate mixture and add to creamed mixture. Blend well.

With mixer on medium-low, alternately add flour mixture and sour cream. Don’t overbeat. Finish incorporating by hand. The batter will be very thick. Divide evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula.

Bake in 350º oven on the center rack for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Cool cakes in pans for about 5 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks that have been sprayed with nonstick spray, peel off parchment paper, and allow to cool about 1 hour.

Split layers in half horizontally and spread about 1 cup of filling between each layer and on top.

Leftover Chocolate Cake Trifle

Baking my cousin's groom's cake left me with an extra 9" square of chocolate stout cake, but no frosting. On a whim, I decided to turn the cake into an easy dessert.

I used about 3/4 of the cake and cut it into 1" cubes, and whipped and sweetened some heavy cream. If you've never made homemade whipped cream, WHY THE HELL NOT? It's super easy and much tastier than the frozen artificial crap in the tub, or the greasy stuff in the aerosol can.

Chill a small glass bowl and the beaters from an electric mixer in the freezer for about ten minutes. When they're icy cold, deposit about half a cup of heavy cream, a tablespoon or so of sugar, and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract into the bowl, attach the beaters, and beat the ever lovin' tar out of it. Taste it halfway through and adjust sugar if needed. You don't want to add sugar after it's fully whipped, or the sugar won't dissolve. When you can hold the bowl sideways or even upside down without spilling, it's done.

Once I had my sweet whipped cream and cake cubes, I put a layer of cake pieces on the bottom of a small round casserole. I drizzled some cold leftover coffee over the cake, spread on a layer of whipped cream, generously drizzled on some Hershey's chocolate syrup, and repeated with a second layer of cake, coffee, whipped cream, and syrup.

I chilled the whole mess for about 20 minutes before scooping some out into bowls. Delicious!