Refreshing Lavender Ice Cream

It just keeps getting warmer out there! It’ll be summer soon, and summer is time for beach, sun, sunburns (hopefully not), and ice cream!!! Sure, it’ll melt fast the minute you get it, but it is always worth it on a hot day. While most would reach for the classics, vanilla or chocolate (which I have provided recipes for), a personal favorite of mine is lavender ice cream because it smells amazing and tastes like vanilla with a refreshing twist. The procedure is the same as my other two ice cream recipes, but this time we add lavender to the party! I’ve also been told that adding toasted nuts definitely kicks this up a level, so if you want to add, add them to the ice cream during the last minute or so of churning.

Ingredients:

·      2 cups half and half

·      1 cup heavy cream

·      1 tbsp dried lavender blossoms OR 1.5 tsp fresh lavender blossoms

·      4 large eggs yolks OR 2 large eggs

·      ½ cup sugar

·      ¼ cup wildflower honey

·      ¼ tsp salt

Heat the half and half, heavy cream, and lavender in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches a simmer. At the same time, whisk the eggs, sugar, honey, and salt together in a large bowl until it lightens in color and doubles in volume. Slowly pour about 1 cup of the cream into the egg mixture and beat until combined, then pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and whisk constantly over medium heat until the custard is thick enough to coat a spoon, BUT DO NOT LET CUSTARD BOIL. Create an ice bath in a large bowl and set a smaller bowl in it. Pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the smaller bowl and stir until it cools. Refrigerate, covered in plastic wrap, until it’s very cold, from 4 hours to 3 days. Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and follow the ice cream maker’s instructions. Spoon the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, and it’ll last for about 3 days.

Enjoy your delicious ice cream and definitely spend some time outside enjoying the beautiful weather! ^_^

Checkered Cake

Hello! It’s the last week of classes for me, so it’s certainly been busy, but I cannot wait to go home and catch up on some kitchen time! One thing I want to retry (since I was too rushed I broke it) is making a checkered cake. It looks amazing when cut open, and it allows you to make two big cakes at the same time! In my opinion, the more baking you get to do, the more fun it gets, but don’t worry; it isn’t complicated to make.

Ingredients:

·      Two cakes, one vanilla/plain and one chocolate, that are roughly the same size

·      Frosting/Chocolate glaze for the top

Cut the two cakes into halves, or thirds if the cakes are tall enough to handle it. Stack the cake layers on top of one another, alternating between vanilla and chocolate. Cut out a circle of cake from the middle, about 1.5 inches from the edge, and do another cutout about 1 inch in from that cut. Remove those inner layers gently, making sure not to break them. Now look at which cake is the bottom layer on the largest ring, and place the opposite cake ring inside the large ring. Keep alternating the cake rings added until you’re back to having a full cake with alternating cake rings. Frost or glaze the outside of the cake, decorate as you’d like, cut yourself a slice, and enjoy your design!

It might sound complicated, but if you just keep in mind that the cake has to be checkered like a checkerboard, you’ll be fine! It’s very rewarding seeing your final product when you cook and bake, so definitely give this a try and have fun! 

Yes, I Love Piña Coladas~

Welcome to spring! The east coast has finally warmed up and now the temperature is just amazing. It’s so nice out that I started thinking about my couple trips to Hawaii and how much I loved drinking piña coladas while enjoying the beach (yup, it’s very classic), so today is piña colada day! To change things up a bit, I will not provide measurements for this recipe that may or may not even work so that you can experiment with what flavors you’ll enjoy for your drink. And as before, since I do not drink I will not include amounts for alcohol, but feel free to add as much rum as you’d like.

Ingredients:

·      Coconut cream

·      Pineapple chunks (about ½ inch cubes) OR pineapple juice

·      Ice cubes

·      Simple syrup (boil ½ cup sugar in 1 cup water until dissolved, but this is only to make 1 cup of simple syrup; you still have to add only as much as you’d want or it’ll be way too sweet)

·      Strawberries (optional – add to make a lava colada!)

Combine the ingredients above in a blender and blend until smooth. Continue to add more of each ingredient until the desired taste and consistency has been reached.

It’s really simple! Most people are intimidated by not following the instructions to the T, but we wouldn’t recipes if people didn’t experiment and make mistakes along the way. Cooking and baking are experiments, and you’ll never know what you’re capable of unless you try!

Hollandaise – The Clincher

The final part of our eggs Benedict is the hollandaise sauce! In my opinion, eggs Benedict would not be nearly as good without this key part because the creaminess and richness from the sauce adds beautiful flavor to the lightly poached eggs and dense English muffins. Keep in mind that when you’re making this sauce, it doesn’t keep its quality at most 2 hours after it’s made, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients:

·      3 large egg yolks

·      1 tbsp water

·      ¼ tsp salt

·      ½ tsp ground cayenne

·      3-4 tbsp lemon juice

·      8 oz cold unsalted butter

·      ¼ tsp sugar

Whisk the egg yolks, water, salt, and ¼ tsp cayenne in a medium saucepan. Put the pan over low heat and whisk constantly for about 3 minutes. Add a tablespoon of butter every 30 seconds while constantly whisking, and once half of the butter is added, add 1 tbsp of the lemon juice, and then continue adding the butter 1 tbsp at a time until it’s all incorporated. Add the remaining lemon juice, cayenne, and sugar, and whisk for a few minutes, tasting for flavor. Move the sauce to a thermos to keep for UP TO TWO HOURS (no more).

And that’s the last part! To assemble (in case you do not know), place half of an English muffin on a plate, place a couple slices of bacon or Canadian bacon on the muffin, slide a warm poached egg gently on top, and top with some hollandaise sauce. And that’s that! For those of you that are not a fan of runny eggs, you can fry or do sunny-side-up eggs if you must, but the runny poached egg really completes this dish. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do! Bon appetit~

Best Ap-poach for These Eggs!

Good morning! As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we’re building up the eggs benedict in three parts. Last week was the English muffins for the base of this beautiful brunch dish, and today will be the eggs themselves! So let’s get started!

Ingredients:

·      8 large eggs

·      ¼ cup white vinegar

·      1 tsp salt

Place four custard ramekins into a large pot and add enough water to cover the ramekins in the pot by at least ¼ inch. Add the vinegar and salt and heat the pot over high heat until the ramekins clatter on the bottom of the pot. Turn the heat down slightly to medium-high to prepare for cooking. Crack the eggs one at a time into a separate custard ramekin, or a ladle, and pour four eggs, one in each ramekin, and cook them for about 5 minutes each. Repeat with the remaining four eggs. Serve immediately or transfer the eggs to an ice bath to prevent them from cooking further. To reheat them, bring water to a simmer and warm the eggs for 1-2 minutes.

And that’s that! Poaching eggs isn’t too difficult, and with these easy tricks you’ll have no problems. See, this ap-poach is the best, right? :)