Showing posts with label frozen desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frozen desserts. Show all posts
When I was growing up it was a real treat for my mom and dad to take us out for a cone of ice cream. It didn't happen very often. My parents didn't have a lot of money and so treats like that were very rare.
Mostly just in the summer time and on a really hot day and if we had gone to the beach for a swim. (again very rare occasions as my mom did not like being out doors!)
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
At some of the finer establishments you could get a dipped cone. Cones of soft ice cream dipped in chocolate which would harden like a magic shell around the ice cream.
Tucking into the very rare one of those was like opening a magic box! I can remember seeing Klondike bars advertised on the television which were ice cream bars covered in hard chocolate, but it was not something my mom ever bought for us to enjoy at home.
We had to save our allowances up for stuff like that and penny candy usually got in the way! No contest when you were getting three candies for a penny!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
Then when I was older (adult) I remember going with my cousin to an ice cream stand and they had not only vanilla soft ice cream but chocolate as well, and you could get a cone with both and you could have it dipped in both chocolate or butterscotch magic shell!
I mean wowza! Wowza!
My children were a bit luckier than I was. I had a deep freeze and we kept vanilla ice cream in it all the time, but there was no such thing as chocolate shell ice cream topping.
If they wanted a sundae my toppings were, strawberry jam, strawberry jam and . . . strawberry jam! I sure wish I had known how easy it was to make this chocolate shell ice cream topping back then. My children would have really enjoyed it!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
And it is so simple to make. It uses only two ingredients and can be put together in about 5 minutes time. It is just like the stuff you buy as well.
You spoon it over cold ice cream and it hardens into a chocolate shell, just as if by magic!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
And for parties and special occasions you can sprinkle cupcake sprinkles over top to dress them up! Magnifico!
So pretty. My children would have been over the moon! I will have to treat my grandsons to some of this when they come over from the Island in July.
Better yet, we will have to make it together. I know they will love doing that, and it is super simple to make.
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE CHOCOLATE SHELL ICE CREAM TOPPING
Only two simple ingredients, that's all! Its amazing!
- 3/4 cup (175g) good quality semi sweet chocolate chips
- 2 TBS extra virgin coconut oil
Cake sprinkles are totally optional. But I like the way they look!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
I am sure you could vary the flavors of this by using butterscotch chips, or mint chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, etc.
I have heard other people say only use good quality dark chocolate? But meh! I used semi sweet chocolate chips and it worked beautifully. There was no powdery taste or anything.
I think chocolate chips work just find, so long as you use a quality one. I used Kirkland, the ones you buy at Costco.
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
I haven't tried it, but I am pretty sure you could even use a sugar free. Spooned over sugar free keto friendly, vanilla ice cream, you would have a pretty tasty diabetic friendly and low carb dessert.
Just stay away from the sprinkles!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE SHELL ICE CREAM TOPPING
This is the simplest thing ever to make. A baby could do it. Well, maybe not a baby, but you get my drift!
Melt the chocolate in a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Alternately melt in the microwave in a bowl, stirring it at 30 second intervals until melted.
Stir in the coconut oil until melted and completely amalgamated.
Keep lukewarm until you are ready to spoon over ice cold ice cream. It will harden into a shell almost immediately so if you are using sprinkles have them ready to sprinkle on top right away!.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
This stuff hardens almost as soon as you spoon it over top of the ice cream. Within seconds literally.
Its great fun to crack it open and get at the ice cream underneath!! This would be a wonderful addition to any summer get together or children's party!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
You can see here how very hard it actually gets. It really is completely like magic!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
I have a few other frozen desserts in my kitchen that you might enjoy. Summer is the season for frozen delights!
FROZEN LEMON SOUFFLES - These were something I used to make often when I worked at the Manor. This is a fabulous dessert that is not only delicious but impressive. Perfectly light and tasty for after a heavy meal.
ICE CREAM CLOWNS - A birthday party confection that I remember my mother making for us once at a Birthday party. The cones were the hats for the clowns. Perfectly delightful!!
.JPG "Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping")
So what are some of your favorite summertime ice cream memories? I can remember biting off the end of the cone and sucking the melting ice cream through the hole. Messy but fun!
We used to sometimes get rainbow ice cream which was every color of the rainbow! Delicious!
Chocolate Shell Ice Cream Topping
Yield: 3/4 cup (good for 4 - 6 servings
Cook time: 5 MinTotal time: 5 Min
You won't believe how simple this is to make. You can do it in the microwave or in a bowl over simmering water. This chocolate topping hardens like magic when spooned over cold ice cream. Why not add some sprinkles and make it really fun!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (175g) good quality semi sweet chocolate chips
- 2 TBS extra virgin coconut oil
- cake sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate in a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Alternately melt in the microwave in a bowl, stirring it at 30 second intervals until melted.
- Stir in the coconut oil until melted and completely amalgamated.
- Keep lukewarm until you are ready to spoon over ice cold ice cream. It will harden into a shell almost immediately so if you are using sprinkles have them ready to sprinkle on top right away!
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, months, years? This year is turning into one set back after another! As you know my mother passed away in January, very suddenly.
That was really hard on all of us. Just the worst. We all know we are going to lose our loved ones one day, but somehow, when it happens, we are never prepared for it.
Then my oven broke, not once, but twice . . . and I was without a working oven for about 2 1/2 months altogether. After that somehow, its still a mystery to me, my stick blender disappeared. Not the whole thing, just the motor for it.
And now today my electric mixer has blown up. Right in the middle of making these lovely desserts. I apologise in advance for the crummy photos. They are not as pretty as they might have been had I not had to beat up the egg whites by hand.
I had no sooner got everything ready to go, went to plug in my electric mixer and there was a loud bang. Let me tell you I just about hit the ceiling!
Shocking to say the least! I near jumped out of my skin! Its a wonder I didn't drop something.
And in the meantime ice cream was starting to melt . . . I quickly threw them back into the freezer and then began beating furiously with my hand whisk.
It takes forever to whisk egg white stiff with a hand whisk. I don't know how our grandmothers did it. They must have been made from much sturdier stuff and had stronger arms.
We are so very spoilt! We truly are! Anyways I finally got it all stiffed up and went to spread it on my frozen cakes.
It was deflating as fast as I was spreading it. Blah . . . there is no comparison to electric whisked whites . . . but I did my best!
The end result was no less tasty, but not quite as pretty as I had envisioned.
I wanted to share them anyways, because this is a really solid recipe and with all your stars aligned will absolutely turn out beautifully! Its easy and quick and very delicious!
You can make as many or as few as you like! I made two, but you could make ten or even twenty if so inclined. Simple.
They work best if you cut the cake, cover it with the jam and ice cream and berries and freeze the night before. That way they are really cold when you go to spread the meringue over top and pop them into the oven.
If they are really cold when you go to bake them the ice cream won't melt in the oven. It will still taste good if the ice cream does melt a bit, but trust me when I say they won't be as pretty!
Yield: variable
Red, White & Blue Baked Alaska
You can make as many or as few of these as you like. I will give the quantities for two, but you can multiply them to make more. Quick, easy and delicious. You can cut out and top the cakes before hand, keeping them in the freezer until you need them, covering with meringue at the last minute prior to baking.
ingredients:
- 2 slices of pound type of cake (Madeira cake) 1/2 inch thick
- 2 tsp good quality strawberry preserves
- 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, or strawberry/raspberry ripple
- sliced strawberries
- Mixed berries to serve
For the Meringue:
- 3 large free range egg whites
- 2 1/2 TBS caster sugar
instructions:
How to cook Red, White & Blue Baked Alaska
- These preparations can be made the night before and then put into the freezer. Take your slices of cake and using a 2 1/2 inch round cutter, cut out two round circles from the cake. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay the cake slices, well apart on the lined baking sheet. Spread each with a teaspoon of strawberry preserves. Top with a scoop of ice cream and surround each scoop of ice cream with slices of strawberry around the bottom edge. Put in the freezer to get really cold. (You can do this the night before.)
- When you are ready to bake your desserts, preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7.
- Break your egg whites into a clean glass bowl. Whip with an electric whisk until they start to get foamy. Continue to beat, adding the sugar slowly until the egg whites are stiff and glossy.
- Remove your cakes from the freezer and working quickly with a small flat flexible spatula cover the cakes with the meringue, swirling it decoratively, and covering the top and sides completely.
- Pop the oven tray into the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes until light golden brown. Carefully remove from the baking tray with a large metal spatula and pop onto serving dishes. Serve immediately with an assortment of fresh berries on the side.
I have no idea how long I will have to wait until I can get a new mixer. It will probably be months, but in the meantime I reckon I am going to develop some seriously arm muscles. Every cloud has a silver lining!
The people at Rachel's sent me a couple of festive recipes a week or so ago and asked me if I would like to try them out. I took one look at these delicious Christmas Cupcakes and I said why not!
We've been suffering with a "Heat Wave" here in the UK over the past week. The temperatures have been downright almost unbearable. I am not a person that copes well with heat, especially when you combine it with high humidity. It just saps all of my energy and I don't feel like doing much of anything at all. On top of that we have had a really poor telephone connection these past couple of weeks and really bad internet connection all this week, which meant about two days ago it stopped working pretty much completely, only allowing us to get online for about 2 minutes at a time. Just long enough to tease you. Very frustrating to say the least. Happy to say an engineer was here for most of this morning and we are now back to snuff, telephone and internet.
The upshot of this is I was able to finish a commissioned piece of artwork, a new cook-booklet (Just Desserts) and I made no less than three different ice creams to tempt you with! Yes when the temperatures rise, I want ice cream! I never seem to crave it any other time of year . . . but during the dog days of summer, ice cream is my friend.
My ice cream maker never gets used near enough. Probably because it's one of those type that you have to freeze the churning bowl first. Half the time I never have room enough in the freezer to use it. This week I made room.
This first ice cream is Rocky Road. Not Rocky Road as it is known in North America, but Rocky Road as it is known over here in the UK, a delicious square made from chocolate, marshmallows, biscuit bits, cherries etc. (If you click on that link it will take you to my rocky road recipe)
This delicious chocolate ice cream incorporates all of those flavours. I have to say chocolate ice cream is not my favourites, but this went down a real treat! Probably because it has been so flippin' hot!
*Rocky Road Ice Cream*
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Where do I start, marshmallow, chocolate, coconut, candied cherries and peanuts. What's not to like!
450ml of double cream (2 cups)
450ml of milk (2 cups)
250g of bittersweet or dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (70% cacao, 8 ounces or 1/2 pound)
4 large free range egg yolks
100g sugar (1 cup)
30g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (1/4 cup)
40g roasted peanuts (1/4 cup)
45g candied cherries (1/4 cup
a handful of mini marshmallows (about 1/4 cup)
2 TBS shredded coconut
Heat the milk and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to the boil, then remove from the heat. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour in half of the hot cream. Stir until it is melted and combined. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and cocoa together in a medium bowl, until pale and creamy. Gradually pour in the remaining hot cream and the chocolate mixture, whisking to combine well together.
Return the custard to the saucepan and simmer over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the heat and let cool, about 30 minutes.
Pour the custard mixture into an ice-cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions as per your machine, until almost frozen. Add the peanuts, cherries, marshmallows and coconut. Churn for a further 3 minutes. Transfer to a freezer container, cover with baking paper and freeze until you are ready to serve.
Next I made coconut ice cream. I do love the flavour of coconut. Mounds bars are one of my favourite chocolate bars. If you drizzle chocolate sauce on this delicious coconut ice cream . . . well, it be just like a Mounds Bar! It's a very simple recipe which doesn't involve making a custard.
*Coconut Ice Cream*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe
If you love the flavour of coconut, this delicious ice cream is for you. It uses coconut milk and palm sugar for a real depth coconut taste! Coconut Palm sugar can be purchased via Amazon, or at health food shops.
100g of granulated sugar ( 1/2 cup)
100g of grated Palm sugar (1/2 cup)
180ml of water (3/4 cup)
400ml of coconut milk (1 1/3 cups)
225ml of heavy cream (1 cup)
shredded coconut or coconut curls to garnish (toasted)
Combine the sugar, palm sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Bring to the boil. Remove and stir in the coconut milk and cream. Refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturers directions for your particular machine. Transfer to a freezer container, cover with cling film and freeze until you are ready to serve it.
I have to say that one of my all time favourite desserts has always been Rice Pudding. So when I found this recipe for a Rice Pudding Ice Cream, years and years ago in our local newspaper I had to clip it out and save it. I can't believe it took me this long to make it! This was my absolute favourite of the three ice creams. Do make the chocolate sauce. It's just wonderful!
*Rice Pudding Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce*
Serves 4
One of your favourite pudding flavours in a delicious ice cream. Don't skip the chocolate sauce! It's great!
450ml of milk ( 2 cups)
150g of short grain or pudding rice (3/4 cup)
1 vanilla pod, slit open lengthwise
50g of sultana raisins (a generous 1/4 cup)
pinch salt
the finely grated zest of one orange
the finely grated zest and juice of one lemon
2 TBS honey
For the sauce:
250g of bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped (8 ounces)
374ml of milk (1 1/2cups)
2 scant tsp of corn flour (cornstarch)
50g of sugar (1/2 cup)
Combine
the milk, rice, vanilla pod, and raisins in a heavy bottomed saucepan
over medium heat. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat. Stir in the
salt. Simmer, stirring constantly, until the rice is tender and has
absorbed most of the liquid, about 15 minutes. Take off the heat and
discard the vanilla pod. (I rinse these off, dry them really well and
stick them in my sugar canister.) Let cool, stirring it from time to
time.
Stir in the orange zest, lemon zest,
lemon juice and honey. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and
churn according to the manufacturers instructions.
To
prepare the sauce the sauce, combine the chocolate and half of the milk
in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to the boil. Dissolve the
corn flour in the remaining milk and whisk this into the hot mixture
along with the sugar. Stir constantly over low heat until smooth and
thickened. Keep warm.
Spoon the frozen ice cream into serving dishes and drizzle with hot chocolate sauce to serve.
I hate to be a party pooper, but they say the heat wave will come to an end tomorrow, and I for one am welcoming the prospect of being able to sleep without feeling too uncomfortable!
What do you get when you cross a beautiful gift basket with a bit of cook's ingenuity and acumen? Well, I'll show you what you get. Hang on to your hats! You're in for a delicious ride!
I just have to show you what I recently received. This isn't a great photo of it because of the plastic wrapping, so I will show you the one from the gift site . . .
It is a lovely gift hamper from the people at Hampergifts, makers of gift baskets and luxury Christmas hampers. The one I received was their Wine and Cheese Feast, and it was chock full of lots of lovely goodies!
It was presented in a lovely wicker basket with wooden handles and everything was packed perfectly so as to make sure nothing got broken.
It contained a lovely assortment of biscuits, chocolates, chutney's, spiced nuts, crackers, a bottle of wine and two lovely cheeses.
With Graces Irish Shortbread Biscuits (shaped like shamrocks), Border's Black Forest Biscuits, a lovely box of Baronie Belgian chocolates, some Cairnsmhor Sea Salt Crackers, Cottage Delight Old English Chutney with Cider . . .
Edinburg Preserves Rosemary Biscuits for Cheese & Pate, Cottage Delight Spicy Mango & Ginger Chutney, Olives-et-al Chilli Harissa Almonds, some lovely chocolate caramels, again from Baronie . . .
EDinburg Preserves Quince Jelly and two lovely rounds of cheese from the Snowdonia Cheese Company, a Little Black Bomber Cheddar(with attitude) and a Little Red Devil (Red Leicester with Chilies and Crushed Pepper).
Also included was a bottle of Merlot from Kleine Zalze.
We were able to enjoy some of that cheese earlier this week as a traditional Ploughman's lunch picnic supper! I do so love a Ploughman's lunch/supper. They are so easy to throw together. All you need is some crusty bread, some nice pickle/chutney, a couple of good cheeses, some fruit (apple in this case), a bit of veg (cucumber and lettuce on this occasion) and some chunky bits of ham. You end up with a feast fit for a King or Queen!
Afterwards we feasted on some delicious Black Forest Cookies and Cream Sundaes! Oh boy were these really easy to put together and so fabulously scrumptious!
I quite simply crumbled several of those lovely chocolate biscuits that were in the hamper into the bottom of two dessert glasses . . .
dropped a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream on top of the cookies . . .
Drizzled over top some warmed cherry jam and a homemade chocolate sauce . . .
And topped them off with some squirty cream . . . and a couple of milk chocolate wands . . . the end result being something which was totally delicious, yet had taken me next to no time at all to put together.
*Black Forest Cookies and Cream Sundaes*
Serves 2
I did something totally delish with that bottle of wine too, but I'll save that for another day! In the meantime I would like to thank Sophie along with the people from Hamper Gifts for sending me this lovely Gift Hamper. This post was written in collaboration with Hampergifts, makers of gift baskets and luxury Christmas hampers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons