Brown Butter Ice Cream

Brown Butter Ice Cream

This fall I've been to Alsace, again. Among other things, I brought home a pound of butter from Brittany which was used for this special ice cream, bookmarked since the day I bought Fat. It's a very rich, smooth ice cream tasting mainly of well... butter. The nutty element from browning didn't came out in the finished ice cream but it still was an interesting recipe to try. Next time I would definitely go with the salted caramel topping recommended in the book.


Brown Butter Ice Cream

Source: Fat by Jenifer McLagan

Ingredients:

1 cup / 250ml whole milk
1 cup / 250 ml whipping cream
1/2 cup / 100 g sugar
1/2 cup / 115 g unsalted butter, diced
1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 egg yolks
1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Method:

- Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan and add about half the sugar. Place the pan over meium heat and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

- In another saucepan, place the butter over low heat. When the butter is melted, increase the heat to medium. Watch the butter carefully, using a spoon to push aside any foam to check the colour of the milk solids. When they turn brown and you smell a sweet, nutty aroma, remove the pan from the heat, add the lemon juice, and transfer the butter to a bowl to cool until it is no longer hot to the touch.

- In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks, the remaining sugar, and the salt until light in colour and thick. Whisk in the cooled browned butter, adding it slowly and whisking vigorously so that the mixture is emulsified. Once all the butter is incorporated, slowly whisk in the cream and milk mixture.

- Pour the mixture into a clean pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Strain the mixture into a bowl and cool quickly by placing it in a larger bowl or sink filled with cold water and ice. Stir the mixture often. When it is cool, cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, churn the mixture in an ice cream machine following the manufacturer's instructions.

Sesame Spätzle

Sesame Spätzle

A little while ago, Rachael from La Fuji Mama posted about her Spätzle-making experiences and I developed a craving for this kind of pasta. By chance there was a recipe with a new twist in a current food magazine so I decided to go with that. The dish turned out quite yummy, but next time I would roast the sesame in a dry pan and add it with the parsley at the end. Also go easy on the garlic to avoid it dominating the overall taste.

I'm sending this to Ivonne's Magazine Mondays.

Sesame Spätzle

Source: essen & trinken Für jeden Tag 11/09

Ingredients:

150 g Spätzle
1 clove garlic
1 bunch parsley
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp sesame seeds

Method:

- Cook the Spätzle as per instructions on the package. Drain well.
- Mince garlic and parsley. (separately)
- Heat the butter in a pan, roast the garlic and sesame. Add the Spätzle and fry on medium heat
until golden brown. Fold in parsley prior to serving.

Green Tea Chocolate-Almond Clusters

Green Tea Chocolate-Almond Clusters

I made these as a dessert to bring along to an informal "roll'n'eat" sushi party. The taste of green tea and white chocolate are a nice combination, even if the colour tended a bit in the sickly-green direction instead of the Emerald-Isle pasture green I was hoping for. The clusters were a success with everyone after a bit of convincing ("What do you mean there is tea in the chocolate?").

Green Tea Chocolate-Almond Clusters

Source: Washoku by Elisabeth Andoh

Ingredients:

- 3 ounces white chocolate
- 2 ounces sliced almonds
- 2 tsp matcha (green tea powder)

Method:

- Melt the cocolate on top of a water bath. When the chocolate has turned into a thin liquid, stir in the matcha. *
- Fold in the almonds. Form little mounts on a sheet of parchment paper and let cool. **

* The original recipe uses a separate bowl and a small amount of melted chocolate to first dissolve the matcha. In my experience this doesn't work, because the second bowl is cold and the chocolate becomes thick again without being able to take up much of the matcha.
** It is better to aim for small clusters here. From one batch I got about 10 clusters, maybe try to mangle about 13-15 clusters from that amount.

Daring Baker October Challenge

Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.
This time the Daring Bakers tried their hands on one of the pinnacles of backing, namely french macarons. It was one of those occasions where being a Daring Baker gives you the opportunity to try something you would never have thought of doing on your own. (well, "thought of" maybe yes, but "actually done" absolutely not ;) ) I made run-of-the-mill almond macarons filled with a chocolate ganache. Unfortunately, I didn't get any feet at all, but I still liked the crunchy, moist and chocolaty macarons. Thanks Ami for this great choice.

One year.. ...older? ...wiser? ...well fed!

Apple Yoghurt Cake

One year ago I posted on this blog for the first time as a kind of practice run for my first Daring Bakers Challenge (Caramel cake. Oh, the (slightly over-hyped ;) ) horrors of making caramel at home and living to tell the tale.). So, after a whole year of bread baking, the odd scoop of ice cream, 10 Daring Bakers Challenges (I skipped once), joining the Washoku Warriors and quite a number of pasta recipes I thought I had deserved some cake. I made a apple yoghurt cake based on the recipe for apple and maple yoghurt cake by Chocolate&Zuchini, just substituting molasses for the maple syrup because mine had gone bad. It's a nicely moist cake,but next time I would also mix some apple slices into the dough.
Of course everyone reading or commenting on this blog deserves a piece of cake too. So, dig in. ;)

World Bread Day 09

Baguette / French Bread

Zorra from 1x umrühren bitte has invited all bread bakers and breadophiles out there to World Bread Day-Yes we bake. The fourth installment of its kind to celebrate the joy of bread in the food blogosphere.
Because some of my latest adventures in bread making were uhm.. interesting but not as tasty as I'd hoped, I decided to go back to the classics and made a French bread following the recipe given in The Bread Bakers Apprentice. (a detailed walkthrough of the recipe can be found at apple pie, patis & paté)
The recipe was easy to follow and it resulted in great (well, for my standards) bread. It's just a pitty it doesn't keep very well, or rather at all but gets stale very quickly. And I need to get a new blade for the carpet cutter which I used for slashing the loaves. ;)

Washoku Warriors - Vinegar

Tangy Seared Chicken

In their latest attempt at mastering Japanese cooking, the Washoku Warriors turned to vinegar as a key ingredient. No need to get your sushi matts out of the closet, yet. Sushi will get its own challenge sooner or later. The main dish was a tangy, seared chicken which is braised in rice vinegar, sugar and sake with some soy sauce added at the end. Not bad, but leeks (which were optional here) with soy sauce and rice are a frequent dish during winter in my kitchen.
Next there was an assortment of different sauces, relishes and the pickled red and white radishes on the picture below to choose from. The radishes are red on the outside and white on the inside at the start, but the red colour will leech into the vinegar and the whole radishes as time progresses.
I remember my grandparents having buttered bread with salted radishes and cucumbers as dinner during summer, so this was a new twist on an old favourite.

Red & White Radishes