Eggnog Ice Cream

I was going to try to write this blog before Christmas, but as usual, things got busy and I ran out of time. So hopefully you can file this away for next year. Or you can still make it now. I think you can still eat holiday food, listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies up until New Years. I always hated how the holidays were over December 26, so I allow myself to let it linger. This season I had a craving for eggnog ice cream. We've had it before, purchased from Schwan's I think. We don't get Schwan's anymore, so I set out to find it at the store. No such luck. I was disappointed at first, but then I thought, "Wait a minute, I have an ice cream maker, I'll make it myself!" Famous last words....

Well, it was a challenge and I almost messed it up, but it actually turned out great. I found what looked to be an excellent recipe for Eggnog Ice Cream on Epicurious.com. It is more of a frozen custard than an ice cream. I've never made custard before, so that was the challenging part. I would discover later how important it is to not be distracted while cooking custard.

First, get your ingredients ready. Seven egg yolks is a lot, but I just saved the egg whites and had them scrambled for breakfast later that week. You'll also need sugar, cream, rum (I used Captain Morgan Spiced Rum), vanilla and nutmeg.

Get your fine-mesh sieve ready. I set it up over the container that I was going to freeze the ice cream in. Just your standard Rubbermaid container.

Bring milk and salt to a boil in a saucepan.

Add 1/4 cup of the milk mixture to the egg yolks and sugar.

Then pour egg mixture into remaining milk while stirring constantly over low heat.

Now is the tricky part. Keep cooking and stirring until the custard reaches a temperature of 175°F.

So. What happens when the phone rings, a dog is scratching at your leg to go out, and the timer for the banana bread in the oven goes off, all when your custard is about to reach the optimal temperature? Ummmm.....scrambled eggs.........

Luckily, I was able to salvage enough of the custard so it wasn't a total waste. I learned a great lesson when making custard: Do Not Get Distracted! Once the temp hit 170°F, it started gaining heat really fast. It was over 180°F before I realized it!

So anyways, I strained all of the solids out and combined the liquid custard with the cream, nutmeg, vanilla and rum. Then off to the ice cream maker it went.

Several hours later I had my beloved eggnog ice cream! It was delicious. I liked it even more than just plain eggnog. I served it with Spiced Rum Sauce, the same one from my Gingerbread Pudding Cake blog.

Get Ready for Some Changes!

I recently decided to purchase my own domain name. While I like the current title of my blog, I thought of an even better one. This one is shorter and catchier, in my opinion, and I've been thinking of changing it for a while. I thought the new year was as good a time as any!

Don't worry, you will be redirected to my new site. But be sure to save my new address in your "favorites" and update any links you may have to my site. Thanks and Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

I ran across this article the today from the Huffington Post: The 10 Types of Foodies. Of course I clicked on it because I know without a doubt that I am a foodie, but didn't know there were subtypes of foodies! Well, I know I'm not a Snob or a One-Upper (a personal pet peeve of mine). I think I'm more in between the Made it Myself! and The Blogging Food Pornographer. I love trying new recipes, lots of times making things that people would buy already made, just so I can declare, "I made it myself!" Things such as ice cream and breads. I've even thought of trying to make my own cheese. And oftentimes I find myself in the midst of a huge mess in the kitchen, bawling, "Why did I think it was a good idea to try to make this myself? Why didn't I just buy it?"

I am definitely a Blogging Food Pornographer. While I don't have two lenses for my DSLR (yet), I am very much addicted to taking photos of food. More specifically "food porn." You know, those photos of food that absolutely make your mouth water just looking at it. Things with whipped cream, chocolate drizzles, berries of any kind, a sprig of parsley, a spoon positioned "just so." What can I say? I love food, and I only hope my love for food is apparent through my photography.

So here's some "food porn" for you. Gingerbread Pudding Cake with Spiced Rum Sauce. I made this for our Christmas dessert. I think I might have over baked the cake (that and I was a little short on molasses), so it wasn't very pudding-y. I then decided to make a sauce to serve over it. Oh yeah, much better. Just be careful to not overcook the sauce or it will seize up when it hits the ice cream (speaking from experience). The recipe says to simmer it for 5 minutes, I would only simmer for 2 - 3 minutes next time. We ate this pudding cake warm, with vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream) and drizzled with warm sauce.

December Cocktail: Eggnog Russian

Dear Reader,

Eggnog Russian

Since it's the holidays, I thought I'd take a more personal approach and write this blog post in letter format. Don't worry, this isn't one of those braggy Christmas letters. No, this letter is about my favorite things: Food and Drink! So let's get to the December cocktail. It's kind of a no-brainer. We always have to have eggnog around the holidays. The pretty glasses in this photo are from Arby's. Remember how you could get glasses from fast-food restaurants? We obtained these not long after my husband and I were married. I think we had to eat at Arby's twice to get a matching pair. Ahh, I remember the days when I didn't worry so much about what I ate. Now I know too much, and I haven't eaten fast food in ages.....Anyways, they have become our traditional eggnog glasses. We usually enjoy our eggnog with a little Captain Morgan spiced rum. This year I thought I'd try something different and found a recipe for an Eggnog Russian. It has Kahlua in addition to the spiced rum. It add a nice flavor.

Cranberry Eggnog Cornbread Scones

If you are looking for other things to do with your eggnog (I mean, who isn't?) you can try baking with it. Earlier this week, I found a recipe for Cranberry Eggnog Cornbread Scones. I thought it looked like a great recipe, but I knew I would need to drizzle them with a glaze. I was inspired by the eggnog and came up with the following for the glaze: I combined 1 1/2 Tbsp. melted butter, 1 tsp. corn syrup, 1/2 tsp. rum flavoring, 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 Tbsp. eggnog (add more or less eggnog to get the correct drizzling consistency). I then just put the glaze in a baggie, snipped off the corner and drizzled in a zig-zag pattern, letting the glaze run over the edges of the scones. These are very nice served warm. It helps to bring out the eggnog flavor.

Yesterday was the winter solstice, so it's brighter days ahead! I would like to thank you all for reading my blog and I wish you the merriest of holidays.

Cheers and Peace,
Dianne

Banana Gingerbread with Vanilla Glaze

About a month ago, I got a great idea for a new recipe: Banana Gingerbread. I figured I'd take my favorite banana bread recipe, replace some of the sugar with molasses, add some spices, and I'd be good to go. Not so fast! It turns out the molasses makes things a little more complicated than that. The first time I made it, the flavor was great and it was moist, but it sank in the middle. Darn! I thought maybe I should buy some new baking soda and baking powder (they loose their effectiveness when they get too old) or increase them, to make sure they were giving the bread enough lift. Or maybe I should reduce the amount of molasses. I tried doing both those things, but I still wasn't getting it to rise in the middle. The whole loaf was rising, but not the middle.

I decided to do a little research. The key was in the baking soda and baking powder, but not in the way I originally thought. Now it's time for a little science. Baking soda reacts with acidic ingredients (buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) to produce bubbles, which then causes the baked goods to rise. Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and a solid acid (cream of tartar). It turns out that molasses is more acidic than sugar. I was using baking powder, which already has an acid, and it was causing the loaf to rise too much and too fast. So basically, I had too much leavener. My solution was to use only baking soda and reduce the temperature so ensure a slower, more gradual rise. Reducing the temperature also helped because the molasses causes baked goods to brown faster.

I made those changes and it worked! The loaf rose in the middle (only slightly, but I'll take it) and had a great flavor. I love this bread and it's layers of flavor. When you first taste it, you are hit with the banana bread flavor which slowly turns into gingerbread. I knew a glaze would be the perfect finishing touch. I decided on a vanilla glaze, much like the frosting you would find on a gingerbread man cookie. It's my husband's favorite part of the bread. I'll admit, I love it too and save it for last when I'm eating a slice! This is a very cozy and satisfying banana bread, perfect for wintertime.

Here's a quick tip: To make mashing bananas a breeze, I use a pastry blender. Mash them right in the mixing bowl you will be using to make the bread to lessen the amount of dirty dishes!




Banana Gingerbread with Vanilla Glaze
makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

Bread:
2 large ripe bananas
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Glaze:
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. milk
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325º F. Prepare a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Mash bananas in a large bowl with a fork. Add brown sugar, molasses, vegetable oil, eggs and milk and stir until combined.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, baking soda and salt.
4. Add flour mixture to banana mixture and stir just until flour is incorporated. Pour in prepared pan and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until it tests done with a toothpick.
5. Cool completely, and then turn out of pan.
6. To make the glaze, combine the melted butter, corn syrup and 1 Tbsp. milk. Add the confectioners’ sugar and stir. Add the vanilla and additional 1 Tbsp. milk or enough to achieve a drizzling consistency. Pour over cooled loaf.

Spritz and Cookies Across America



Mom's Almond Spritz with Frosting

As part of the Allrecipes Allstars/Brand Ambassador program, we were asked to participate in Cookies Across America. Cookies Across America is a program to make a difference in your community by donating cookies. While I didn't have time to host a cookie decorating party, I was able to make a few different cookie recipes last week, some old ones and some new ones. I brought them to my husband's Multiple Sclerosis support group meeting and they were very well recieved and appreciated. I also gave some to my family members that I saw this past weekend, as well as sending some to my parents.

Iced Big Soft Ginger Cookies

This season's cookie haul includes Buckeye Balls, Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies, Iced Big Soft Ginger Cookies and last, but not least, Spritz. Spritz are my husband's favorites and the only request he ever makes, so I love to make them for him. I use my mom's recipe (shared below) and then a simple butter frosting. Frosting Spritz cookies is something new to me. You see, Spritz are made by using a cookie press, which gives them a pretty shape and design. My mom always sprinkled some colored sugar on them before baking and called them good to go. But then I found out that my husband's grandma always frosted them and he loves them like that, so I gave it a try. So good! Just a dab of frosting on top and you can still see the pretty design the cookie press makes. I add a little almond extract to the frosting, like the cookies, and they are delicious.

Just makes sure you have a cookie press that actually works! Mine is crapping out on me, so for the past few years, I've only been able to get the diamond shape to work. This year I got a few trees and a couple of flowers, but ultimately I got too frustrated and went back to the diamonds. I'm thinking it's time to invest in a new press (this one looks awesome). I had some fun with the leftover dough and made a snowman. His hat got a little toasted, but I think he's pretty cute. I wish you success in your cookie baking endeavors this year and have a Merry Yule!

Mom's Almond Spritz with Frosting

Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Frosting Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 Tbsp. cream or milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º F.
2. To make cookies, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour and salt and mix until blended. Using a cookie press, press out cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, just until light golden brown on the bottoms. Remove to cooling rack.
3. To make frosting, combine melted butter, cream or milk and the extracts in a mixing bowl. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar while beating. Beat until fluffy and smooth. Frost cooled cookies. Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles if desired.

My Favorite Fudge Recipe

This isn't a very long post. I just wanted to quick share my favorite fudge recipe. For years I made an old marshmallow creme recipe and I always loved it. Then I tried a recipe from Nestle for Peppermint Fudge and was really impressed with it. It was made very similarly to my old recipe, but with no marshmallow creme. Instead, marshmallows are stirred in with the chocolate chips. It seems to make the fudge more glossy and fluffy. It also has less sugar, which is great because I find a lot of fudges are too sweet. I make both the peppermint fudge and the plain fudge. Here's a photo and the link for Carnation (R) Famous Fudge. Enjoy!

Tips for Beautiful Buckeye Balls

I was recently asked how I got my Buckeyes to look so beautiful, so I thought I would write a post to share my secrets. Buckeyes are named after the nut they resemble from the Buckeye tree, which is the Ohio state tree. The nuts (actually seeds) are named because they resemble the 'eye of a buck.' These little chocolate-peanut butter confections do look like eyeballs because the top part of the peanut butter ball is bare. And that is the best part, because it makes them so easy to dip! Trust me, the hardest part of making these the other day was trying to take a picture of myself dunking them in chocolate. I used Buckeye Balls II recipe from allrecipes.com. It's a great recipe with a light, creamy filling and easy-to-work-with chocolate mixture, but I doubled the chocolate mixture since I made more smaller balls and needed extra chocolate. So now that you have the ingredients and the basics, here are the tips for beautiful Buckeyes.

1. Cold Balls. Now, now, people, we're talking about food here! It's important for the peanut butter balls to be well chilled, so they stay on the toothpick. If the balls start to slip off the toothpick, just stick them back in the fridge for a while.

2. The Dipping Container. I like to pour the melted chocolate in a small juice cup. If you keep it in the pan, the chocolate can get shallow and you have to start rolling the balls around and it get messy. With the cup, it's just one dunk and you're done! I use a small 4 oz. plastic juice glass.

3. Tap Off Extra Chocolate. So that the chocolate doesn't end up pooling around the bottom of the candy, be sure to tap off the extra chocolate. Just tap against the side of the cup until the chocolate stops dripping. Gently push the ball off the toothpick with the tip of your finger, only touching the exposed peanut butter top, onto to waxed paper. I don't really like the toothpick hole, so I just smooth it over. Once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast. Before you know it, you'll have a whole sheet full!

The Best Slow Cooker Beef Stew Ever

Last weekend was cold, dark and gray. It's a bit unusual for central Minnesota to have no snow on the ground this time of year. We did have a pretty big snowstorm a few weeks ago, but it melted within a few days. So now we are just left with brown grass and bare trees. Snow is a pain in the butt, but it sure does make things look pretty. So last weekend was the perfect time for a warm and comforting meal to cut through the brown and cloudy coldness. The first thing that came to mind was beef stew. It's always been one of my favorite winter-time dishes.

I've tried many different recipes for beef stew over the years. I've tried recipes in the slow cooker, recipes on the stove-top and recipes in the oven. I really like the slow cooker recipes the best because the stew cooks for longer and meat becomes so tender. I took some favorite elements from a couple other recipes and made up my very own beef stew recipe. I told my husband that I was combining about three different recipes to make dinner that night and he replied, "That sounds about right for you." I'm always combining recipes and customizing them.

The results were fantastic! I took the slow-cooking method of one recipe, the browning of the beef and deglazing the pan of another recipe, and the herbs and veggies of yet another recipe. This recipe is as custom as they get. I made the recipe large (it serves about 8) so that I could freeze lots of leftovers to enjoy over the next few weeks. Beef stew is great with biscuits. I tried a new recipe called Cheddar-Thyme Flaky Biscuits from allrecipes.com. It was a perfect match to the herbs in the stew. We also enjoy eating plain biscuits with butter and honey or jam. I hope you enjoy the warm meaty goodness of this stew, the best ever!

The Best Slow Cooker Beef Stew Ever
serves 8

2 lbs. stew meat, cubed
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
4 cups (32 oz.) beef broth
1 1/2 lb. red potatoes, cubed (unpeeled)
1/2 lb. carrots, coarsely chopped
6 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried, crushed rosemary
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. flour

1. Place beef, 2 Tbsp. flour and salt and pepper in large resealable bag. Shake to coat beef. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add beef and stir to brown evenly. Transfer beef to slow cooker and return skillet to heat. Deglaze pan by adding the wine and scraping up the browned bits. Pour this into the slow cooker as well.
2. To the slow cooker, also add the beef broth, the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, rosemary and thyme. Stir well. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 10 to 12 hours.
3. 30 minutes before serving, combine the 1/4 cup water and 2 Tbsp. flour in a small bowl and gradually add to the stew while stirring. Cook for 30  minutes on high. Serve.

A New Recipe in Honor of Nestle! Double Layer Peppermint Fudge

Original Nestle Tollhouse Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have no problem promoting the latest product from the Allrecipes Allstars program. I have used Nestle chocolate chips almost exclusively for years now. They are my favorite and I have never been disappointed when using Nestle in any of my recipes. Plus, when you sign up at VeryBestBaking.com, in addition to offering great recipes, they will send you coupons. Who doesn't love that? They have a new variety of chocolate chips this year: Dark Chocolate Chips. We were given the task of making two new recipes with these morsels.

Jumbo Dark Chocolate Cookies

I recently tried the Jumbo Dark Chocolate Cookies recipe. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the dark chocolate chips at my store. I ended up using regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and the cookies came out pretty good. I swear, I can't follow any recipe to "the tee" anymore. I had to add my own twist to the recipe by adding 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract and crushed peppermint candies. Very festive. The second recipe I tried is the Original Nestle Tollhouse Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies. Fortunately, I was able to find the new dark chocolate chips at Target and made a special trip to get them. These cookies turned out great.

I've had a difficult time getting into the holiday spirit this year. So I was surprised when I found inspiration for a new holiday recipe for fudge. I've always seen the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark chocolates around the holidays, but for some reason, we've never tried them. This year my mother-in-law gave us a big bar of this seasonal special chocolate and we found out we loved it. That got the wheels spinning in my head and I thought it would be a great inspiration for a fudge recipe. Thus, Dianne's Double Layer Peppermint Fudge was created.

The first batch I made wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was too sweet and I didn't like the texture so much. I made it by boiling marshmallow cream with sugar, evaporated milk and butter. I decided to try another method. The second time I stirred in marshmallows after boiling the milk, sugar and butter, skipping marshmallow cream altogether. I like what this did to the texture of the fudge. It made it lighter and silkier. I also reduced the amount of sugar and added a little salt to cut the sweetness. Much better!

The new Nestle Dark Chocolate Chips work great in this recipe, but you could also use semi-sweet chocolate chips. A little trick I've figured out about decorating with crushed peppermint candies is to use only the bigger pieces. I crush the candies, put them in a bowl and gently shake it. The tiny pieces and "dust" settle to the bottom. You can then pick out a bunch of larger pieces to decorate the top of your fudge or cookies. The smaller pieces don't go to waste, they just get stirred in!


Dianne’s Double Layer Peppermint Fudge

Ingredients

12 peppermint candies

1 ½ cups sugar

2/3 cup (5 oz.) evaporated milk

2 Tablespoons butter

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups mini marshmallows, divided

1 cup Nestle Dark Chocolate Chips

1 cup Nestle White Chocolate Chips

½ tsp. peppermint extract

Directions

1. Line an 8” square pan with aluminum foil.
2. Unwrap candies and place in a heavy-duty plastic bag. Pound candies with a meat mallet or rolling pin until crushed (about ¼ cups-worth). Set aside some of the big, pretty pieces to decorate the top of the fudge later.
3. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat and bring to a full boil. Boil for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Pour half of the mixture (about 3/4 cup) into another medium saucepan and set aside. To the remaining mixture, add 1 cup mini marshmallows and the dark chocolate chips. Stir vigorously until chips and marshmallows are melted. Spread evenly in prepared pan.
5. To the mixture that was set aside, add the remaining 1 cup mini marshmallows, the white chocolate chips and peppermint extract. Stir vigorously until chips and marshmallows are melted. Stir in crushed peppermint candies. Carefully spread over the dark chocolate mixture in the pan. Sprinkle with the pretty candy pieces that were set aside in the beginning. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Cut into squares.

Disclaimer: I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertisers are only used for experienced-based reviews on Cooking and Cocktails with Dianne. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, Dianne.