Thursday, May 29, 2008

homemade ice cream and snickerdoodles

my friend joy and her family are coming to dinner tomorrow night. joy loves snickerdoodles and i have been wanting to break out the ice cream maker. i went nuts and also made another batch of my famous tricked out, better than levain bakery cookies cause joy is pregnant and i want to indulge her cookie cravings. the two cookies couldn't be more different. the chocolate chip, coconut, pecan cookies are almost gluttonous compared to the simple snickerdoodles. but those puppies are deceptively decadent and simple enough the you can really taste the subtle flavors of the ingredients. the ice cream is a super rich tyler florence recipe, of course vanilla, to go with the cookies, but there are some delicious variations! warning: its a pain in the butt but worth it :)
the snickerdoodles are out of some old cookbook i have with no cover but its a great recipe :( the ice cream is still firming up but here is a pic of the snickerdoodles and i'll post more tomorrow when we eat it after a fabulous dinner.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Base
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence



10 cups heavy cream
5 cups whole milk

Pinch salt
3 cups sugar
3 vanilla beans
24 large egg yolks

Variations:
Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream:
3/4 cup whole milk
16 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped in chunks

Strawberry Cheese Cake Ice Cream:
1 1/2 cups strawberry preserves, no sugar added
1/2 frozen strawberry cheesecake, cut in large chunks
10 large fresh strawberries, halved

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream:
1 tube ready to bake peanut butter cookie dough, cut in large pieces

To make the vanilla ice cream: Combine the cream, milk, salt, and 2 cups of the sugar in a large pot. Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a paring knife; add them to the pot and toss in the pods for added flavor. Place the cream mixture over medium heat, and bring up to a simmer; stirring with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar. Ideally, the temperature should reach 175 degrees F (just below scalding) for a smooth-textured ice cream; this should take about 15 minutes. Shut off the heat, cover the pot, and allow the cream mixture to steep for 15 minutes to further infuse the vanilla flavor.

In the meantime, combine the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and blend them lightly with a wire whisk. Gradually add the remaining 1 cup of sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved and the eggs are thick and pale yellow; about 6 minutes.

Using a large ladle or measuring cup, temper the eggs by gradually whisking in about 4 cups of the hot cream mixture. Return this back to the rest of the cream in the saucepan and turn the heat to medium-low. Stir constantly until the custard thickens and leaves a path on the back of a spoon when you run your finger across it, about 10 to 12 minutes (do not let boil.)

Pour the vanilla custard through a fine strainer into another pot* and chill completely in a sink full of ice, stirring here and there; this should take about 1 hour. Ideally, let the ice cream base "age" overnight in the refrigerator before churning in an ice cream maker to improve the flavor and texture of the final product – but it is still good if you decide to process it right away. Divide the ice cream into quarts** and churn each in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. When done, the ice cream will be the consistency of "soft serve." ***To harden the ice cream fully, freeze in plastic covered containers.

Flavor Variations:
*To make the Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream: Heat 3/4 up of milk in a pot over medium-low heat. Add 12 ounces of the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted. Pour 1 quart of the strained hot vanilla ice cream base into the melted chocolate and stir until very well incorporated. Chill and process as directed in the master recipe. Fold in the remaining 4 ounces of chopped chocolate after churning while the ice cream is in the "soft-serve" stage. Churn another 1 to 2 minutes just until combined.

**To make the Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream: Mix the strawberry preserves into the vanilla custard just before you start churning in the ice cream maker. Add the pieces of strawberry cheesecake and fresh strawberries after churning while the ice cream is in the "soft-serve" stage. Continue to churn for an additional 5 minutes or until combined but still chunky.

***To make the Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream: Add the pieces of cookie dough after churning while the ice cream is in the "soft-serve" stage. Continue to churn for an additional 1 to 2 minutes until combined but still chunky.



Snickerdoodles
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

12 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus 3 tbsps for rolling
2 large eggs
1 tbsp cinnamon for rolling


1. preheat oven to 375. adjust oven racks to upper and lower middle. line cookie sheets with parchment.
2. whisk all dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. by hand or with mixer, cream butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar until fluffy. and eggs and beat until combined.

4. add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined.
5. mix remaining sugar and cinnamon on shallow plate. using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of dough, roll dough into
balls with hands then roll in cinnamon sugar and place on baking sheet.
6. bake reversing position of baking pans halfway through baking to ensure even top and bottom browning until edges are set and cookies are puffy in center, 9 to 12 minutes. let cookies cool on baking sheet 2 to 3 minute before you very carefully transfer to rack to cool.







3 comments:

Chelsea Elizabeth said...

I love snickerdoodles!!!!

TSpats said...

Ice cream. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm.

edandbrooke said...

I made the cookies and they are delicious. Thanks for this blog! I love it.