Hello, Baker! » Chocolate

July Daring Bakers: “Mallomars” & Milan Cookies!

Rebecca — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:01:37 +0000

Edit: Ugh! I set this to automatically post while I was in Europe and it didn’t. Wordpress must hate me.

It’s the end of the month and what does that mean for baker blog world!? The Daring Bakers challenge is due of course and for once I remembered to get it done on time! Since I lost track of time and missed the last two challenges I MADE SURE I had this one done early! Oh and it doesn’t stop there! Not only did I finish this challenge within the first week of July, but I also made it THREE times! I would have made these bad boys a fourth if I hadn’t run out of gelatin because the recipe is just that amazing. My family went through these so fast that they would be completely gone by day two. It was insane.

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Oh and I have decided that I’m going to try and start this new thing. You see, my favorite types of food blogs are the ones that try to capture as many steps as possible. I’m a very visual person so I love being able to see how everything is supposed to look as you go along. As fantastic as a final picture looks, I really love being able to tell if my mix looks correct and to see what kind of techniques others use so I want to try and do this as well. Beware, this blog is about to get rather picture heavy!

Begin by blending all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the butter.

At a low speed, mix until it has a sandy look!

Add the eggs and mix until well combined!

Mold the dough into a disk-like shape (it really doesn’t matter), wrap in clingform, and chill for 1 hour up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease or line a cookie sheet. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough to around a 1/8th inch thickness.

Find a cookie cutter that’s about 1 to 1-21/2 inches and cut away! I actually found that I liked the cookies more when I used a 1 inch cookie cutter. They felt really big when I used a larger one, but whatever works for you!

Place you’re lovely little dough pieces on your prepared sheet and bake for ten minutes (or until golden brown).

Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. On my second and third batch I spread a layer of peanut butter on each cookie. It made them taste even better!

Anyway, begin to prepare your marshmallow! I’d like to note that I found THIS video very helpful when making marshmallows if it’s your first time.

Now, in a saucepan combine water, corn syrup, and sugar. Allow to boil to the soft ball stage or until it’s around 235 degrees.

Dissolve gelatin in cold water. Remove your syrup from the heat and mix in the gelatin.

Whip the egg whites into soft peaks form! This should take a couple minutes.

Pour the syrup mixture into the egg whites and add vanilla extract.

Continue whipping until stiff and when it gets that fantastic shine. It’ll be slightly runny, but not too runny. It should be able to hold some sort of shape without turning back into a blob. Transfer to a piping bag.

Pipe a kiss on top of each cookie.

If you want a more uniform look there was another method suggested by Audax Artifex, which I tried on my second batch.

You can fill a tray with flour, icing sugar, or even cornstarch and loosely stamp your marshmallow shape into it. Then fill the holes with marshmallow and allow to sit for up to 2 hours or until stiff enough to move.

I found this method helpful to get a perfect dome shape, but I sort of sucked at getting the bottom flat so my second batch was still kind of funky. On my third try I used an open star piping tip and piped the marshmallows in a swirl.

Create your chocolate glaze. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and begin to dip your marshmallow cookies into the glaze one at a time. Use a fork to scoop them out and to allow any excess chocolate to fall off. The marshmallow shouldn’t melt. I did find that when I accidentally burned the chocolate the marshmallows melted almost instantly, but when done correctly they were fine.

Let set until the coating is firm (about 1-2 hours). I put mine in the fridge overnight because I happened to finish mine at around midnight each time. It was also insanely humid where I live so there was no way the chocolate would ever fully set at room temperature.

All done and boy were they delicious! I swear to you, that layer of peanut butter did wonders. Somehow marshmallow, cinnamon cookie, peanut butter, and chocolate all go so well together. I would never have known! I really want to try other combinations now!

Here’s the inside of the first batch without that fantastic peanut butter layer. I also made the mistake of making my cookies too thick. Woops! Still very delicious though.

In all, this challenge was fantastic. It’s not too hard, but surprisingly incredibly delicious and addictive. Your family won’t be able to keep their hands off these little cookies! Oh and don’t forget about the Milan cookies too! I never got a chance to make them, but from everyone elses pictures they looked amaazzzinnggg. Mmm. God I love cookies.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

3 cups (375 grams/13.23 oz) all purpose flour

1/2 cups (112.5 grams/3.97 oz) granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

12 Tablespoons (170 grams/6 oz) unsalted butter

3 eggs, whisked together

Homemade marshmallows (recipe follows)

Chocolate glaze (recipe follows)

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.

On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.

Add the eggs and mix until combine.

Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.

Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.

Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.

One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.

Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.

Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: If you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade Marshmallow

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup light corn syrup

3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar

1 tablespoon powdered gelatin

2 tablespoons cold water

2 egg whites , room temperature

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.

Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.

Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.

Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.

Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate Glaze

12 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Milan Cookies

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar

7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour

Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 orange, zested

In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.

Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.

With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.

Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.

Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).

Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.

Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Valentino

Rebecca — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:13:43 +0000

It’s the end of the month and time for a Daring Baker’s post again! In the spirit of Valentine’s Day we were instructed to make a flourless chocolate cake and accompany it with an ice cream of our choice. Having missed the last two challenges cause I’m a total lame-o, I was mega excited about doing this challenge. In fact, I actually didn’t procrastinate like I usually do and made it ahead of time! High five, Rebecca!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

This cake is extremelyyy chocolatey, which is perfect for all you chocolate lovers out there. I used a huge block of dark chocolate so the ice cream was definitely needed to tone down the extreme richness of this cake. Seriously, it’s so rich that it’s hard to eat it plain, but I’m sure there are some chocolate loving people out there that would have no problem with it. I also covered my cake in brown sugar whip cream to assist in toning down the chocolateyness.

Some of the things that they told us to keep in mind while making this cake is that you should use your favorite chocolate. This cake will taste EXACTLY like the chocolate you use. This cake also has a high cocoa percentage, which increases the bitterness of a cake. If you want a sweeter cake, then use milk chocolate. Also, some people were able to make this cake with white chocolate, but it isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish because white chocolate is not the same as real chocolate. If you do produce a cake with white chocolate it won’t be the prettiest thing in the world, but I’m sure it’ll taste great.

Note on recipe – the recipe consists of 3 simple
ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The
simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the
same way of French baguette.
-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.
-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.
-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.
-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

Chocolate Valentino

(Recipe from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy)
I used a 6 inch pan and got two cakes out of this recipe.

16 oz/1 pound/454 grams of chocolate, roughly chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) + 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

5 large eggs, separated

Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

As seen in my previous post, Brown Sugar Toffee Ice Cream with a Dulce de Leche Swirl is my current ice cream obsession so it was obvious that I’d choose to make that to go along with this cake. I decided to follow the theme of my ice cream and made brown sugar whip cream to cover the cake. I felt like a frosting would have been too much so a light whip cream was perfect. I also sprinkled toffee bits along the top and covered the sides of one of the cakes completely in toffee bits. I also added dark chocolate curls for decoration and tried to make white chocolate curls, but they turned more into flakes so I just scattered them on top too.

This cake was good, but again not quite my tastes. I’m not a major chocolate lover and I also only like my cakes chilled, but that sort of hardened the cake too much. I think I might have also baked it too long (considering it’s hard to tell when it’s done) because my cake came out pretty dry. It was still good for a new treat to enjoy, but I think my cakes actually got thrown out in the end because no one wanted to eat them. Oh well!

Neapolitan Dynamite Cupcakes!

Rebecca — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:54:10 +0000

Valentines Day has come and gone and I was more than happy to spend it at home with my family. Who needs a significant other to enjoy Valentines Day anyways? Of course holidays, to me, are excuses to bake and I took that opportunity to finally start my Ben and Jerry’s themed cupcakes. You see, a few months ago I went through the list of ice cream on the Ben and Jerry’s website and made up cupcakes for all of the ones that sounded good to me. With Valentines Day approaching I looked back over that list and saw one that had Valentines like colors. Neapolitan Dynamite! How perfect!

Neapolitan Dynamite ice cream consists of Cherry Garcia (cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes) and Chocolate Fudge Brownie (chocolate ice cream with fudge brownies) ice creams, side by side. I decided to replicate this by making a cupcake that was half cherry and half chocolate, filled with cherry chocolate ganache, and topped with some sort of cherry frosting. In the final moments I actually forgot to mix the cherry preserves into the chocolate ganache, but it was fine anyway.

My sister and I, luckily, each have our own Kitchen Aid stand mixer so I was able to prepare the ingredients and make both of these batters simultaneously. Don’t worry too much if you can’t do that, but I’d still suggest having all of your ingredients prepared before you start. It sure makes life easier! Also note that it doesn’t matter if you make them in the order that I listed. I listed each batter’s directions separately even though in the end you’ll bring them together.

To Start: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cherry Cupcakes

(Recipe from Jacki’s Bento Blog)

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temperature and separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk

2/3 cup maraschino cherry juice

1 10oz jar of maraschino cherries, finely chopped

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 4 or 5 minutes). Add two egg yolks and mix for an additional minute. Add remaining egg yolks and mix for an additional minute.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine milk and cherry juice.
Alternate between adding dry ingredients and liquid ingredients to the butter mixture, a little bit at a time.
Fold in chopped cherries.
In small bowl, beat egg whites on high until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula, add about 1/2 cup of the egg whites to the mixture and fold in gently, to separate and lighten the batter. Add remaining egg whites and fold in gently until no white streaks are present.

Chocolate Cupcakes

(Recipe from Crazy about Cupcakes)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup boiling water

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/4 + 4 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain yogurt, room temperature

Place the cocoa in a small bowl. Pour the boiling water over cocoa and whisk until all lumps are dissolved. Add the bittersweet chocolate to the cocoa paste, and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on a medium speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat 1 minute after each addition. Add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix at low speed until well integrated. Add the yogurt and mix well. Add the remainder of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Add the chocolate. Mix until blended. Do not overmix.

Time to put them in the pan! Fill cupcake tins half way with equal amounts of chocolate and cherry batter, side by side. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for five minutes before removing to a wire wrack. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Chocolate Ganache

2/3 cup heavy cream

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 or 3 tablespoons of cherry preserves (I forgot to do this part)

Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the heavy cream until simmering, then pour over chocolate.
Stir for about a minute until chocolate has completely melted.
Add the butter and preserves and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.

This was my first time making swiss meringue buttercream. I had always been too afraid to bother with it, but now that I have I’m definitely sticking to it. American buttercream tastes more like powdered sugar mush, but swiss meringue buttercream is silky, rich, and just plain amazing. Then again, if you have swiss meringue fears like I had, then I’d recommend watching this video. It’s incredibly helpful and makes the frosting seem less intimidating. The woman in the video also explains the curdling effect that happens when making swiss meringue and assures you that it’s supposed to look like that. When mine looked like a curdled soupy mess I decided to take her word for it and continue to let it mix for a few more minutes. Right before my eyes my frosting transformed from the soupy mess to beautiful, thick, and silky buttercream frosting. It was amazing!

Cherry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(Recipe from Tofu and Cupcakes)

5 large egg whites

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into tablespoons

3 tablespoons cherry preserves

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Pink or Red food coloring (optional)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk egg whites gently with a pinch of salt.
Add sugar and stir.
Place the bowl over a small pot of simmering watering so the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water and whisk vigorously until the sugar is melted about 4-5 minutes. The mixture will become thick and white. Test by rubbing mixture between your thumb and index finger; if you can feel the grains of sugar it’s not ready. It should feel completely smooth. At the this point the eggs are pasteurized and safe to eat.
With the whisk attachment of the electric miser, beat on high for about 7 minutes until shiny, stiff peaks form.
Lower to medium speed add in softened butter one or two tablespoons at a time until butter is completely incorporated.
Switch to paddle attachment and set the speed to low. Add in Cherry Preserves, almond extract and food coloring. Mix for about 5 minutes to eliminate any air bubbles.

I didn’t feel like going all the way out to Michael’s to get some Valentines Day sprinkles so instead I used red jimmies from my Christmas set, the pink sanding sugar from my Easter one, and some white nonpareils that I had on hand. Those themed sets come in handy when you least expect them to!

Assembly Time!

Once your cupcakes have fully cooled, then it’s time to use the cone method (see cupcakeblog for visual reference) to cut out the center.

With a knife, cut out a cone from the center of the cupcake and cut the tip off of it. Set cone piece aside.

Spoon the cooled chocolate ganache into the center of the cupcake and replace the cone piece on top.

Fill a piping bag with frosting and pipe frosting on top of the cupcake.

Decorate however you desire, eat, and enjoy!

These cupcakes were definitely a change from the usual types I make. I’ve never really been fond of fruit flavored foods and these surely didn’t win me over. I’m more of a chocolate, coffee, caramel dessert loving type of girl, but to each their own. I would like to note that I did, however, have one real problem with this recipe. The cherry batter rose higher than the chocolate and I think the chocolate side was also done before the cherry. If I was ever to do this again I’d probably just create a recipe myself that starts with a base so that I could add cherries or cocoa to it and still attain the same results from both sides. Oh well! At least I learned something from this experience.

The Devil loves his berries

Rebecca — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:21:58 +0000

Every good baker knows that you have to experiment with many different recipes, be willing to tweak ingredients here and there, and be open minded to new ideas when it comes to finding “the one”. That basic cake that you can proudly call the best, the one that we all dream to someday discover, fall in love with, and live happily ever after. For me, those dreams have yet to come true and I ultimately blame it on the fact that I rarely ever focus on vanilla or chocolate cake.

I’ve had many baking experiments in my life and it wasn’t until recently that I realized I haven’t actually made a real attempt to find my go to vanilla or chocolate cake recipe. I’ve definitely had over a dozen experiments with peanut butter cookies (still with no real breakthrough), but never any with cake and I find that surprising. I’m always too eager to jump into a recipe that requires something more unique, more out of the ordinary, and more complex than plain vanilla or chocolate. Maybe it’s simply because I always want to amaze people with something they aren’t used to or maybe I just enjoy a less common flavor, but either way I surely need to find my “one” and David Lebovitz’s recipe for devil’s food cake is a step in that direction.

I love David Lebovtiz, I truly do. His creations are terrific and his books (especially The Perfect Scoop) are a true inspiration. When I discovered that he had a recipe for devil’s food cake I knew I had to try it and boy was I glad that I did. This cake (and even the batter) tastes absolutely sinful and it remains nice and moist for quite some time.

After finding the cake my next mission was to figure out exactly what kind of cupcakes I wanted to make with it. Perhaps I could have another go at the peanut butter cupcakes or keep things simple for once and compliment it with a cream cheese frosting. I did my usual precupcake baking research and came across a recipe for devil’s food cake with raspberry jam buttercream and raspberry truffles at the always sensational Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and at first site I instantly knew this was the recipe I wanted to make!

Devil’s food cupcakes, filled with raspberry jam, covered in a creamy raspberry jam buttercream, and topped with a chocolate filled raspberry for decoration!

Devil’s Food Cupcake

(Recipe from David Lebovitz)

9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/2 cups cake flour (Not self-rising. All-purpose flour works too.)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup strong coffee (or water)

1/2 cup whole or low-fat milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)
Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.
Pour into lined cupcake pans, about 3/4 of the way full, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Raspberry Jam Buttercream

(Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

6-8 cups powdered sugar (Any more than 6 was too much for me.)

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Place butter and jam in a mixing bowl or an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream until well incorporated, about 2 mintues.
Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until you reach desired consistency. If frosting gets too thick you can add a little milk to thin it out.

Raspberry Truffles

(Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)

2 pints fresh raspberries, cleaned and dried

5 oz semisweet chocolate

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Place chocolate and raspberry jam in a heat proof bowl.
Bring cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate and jam and let sit for about 3 minutes.
Whisk together chocolate mixture. If it is still a little lumpy, put in microwave for a few seconds and whisk again.
Put ganache into a piping bag and pipe chocolate into fresh raspberries, then let sit in fridge for about 15 minutes.

Assembly

Using the cone method, cut out the center of each cupcake and fill with raspberry jam.

Replace the top and pipe on raspberry buttercream frosting.

Top each cupcake with a raspberry truffle and enjoy!

How an engineer solves a craving problem

Rebecca — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:22:28 +0000

I am such a nerd it’s almost unbelievable. Despite being a really healthy eater I tend to crave ice cream on a regular basis. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about the delicious freezing cold sugary custard like goodness that is ice cream. If it was realistic, I’d gladly live off ice cream for the rest of my life.

So anyway, I was back at home and discovered that we had no ice cream. Oh no! What was I going to do!? I didn’t even have ingredients to make my own! Of course, being a chemical engineering major, my first thought was to make ice cream in a bag. Duh! It’s like the one and only science experiment you should even know how to do! Who needs to know chromatography, crystallization, or any of that other silly chemistry stuff! It’s all useless if you can’t eat it! The best part about making ice cream in a bag is that it only requires everyday items like milk, sugar, and salt. The one downfall it does have is that it melts really fast, but who cares if you’re going to eat it right away.

Ice cream in a bag is great because it’s a fun blast from the past for adults, but also something neat for kids to do at home. Kids will love this so much that they won’t even realize they’re doing science and they get a delicious cold reward at the end! Waht’s even better is that you can make easy variations with such a simple recipe like this. For example, instead of milk I used eggnog because I wanted something other than boring old vanilla. You can also add chocolate syrup for chocolate ice cream or maybe even peppermint or strawberry extract for a more interesting flavor. But hey, if you like plain old vanilla, then definitely go for it!

What you will need:

1/2 cup milk (I used eggnog for this one)

2 tablespoon sugar

1 ziploc sandwich bag

1 gallon size freezer bag

Lots and lots of ice

1/4 cup rock salt (I didn’t really measure this)

Place the first three ingredients in the ziploc sandwich bag and then make sure you seal it tight! You don’t want any spills! Put enough ice in the gallon size bag to fill it up about halfway, then add the salt.

Place the sandwich bag in the gallon size bag and make sure the gallon size bag is sealed tight. After that shake, shake, shake the bag like crazy until the mixture thickens (about 5 to 10 minutes). I found it helpful to wear oven mitts while doing this because the bag can get VERY cold.

Finally, remove the sandwich bag from the gallon size bag and wipe it off a bit (you don’t want to end up eating the salt)! Now you can either eat straight out of the bag or you could do what I did and cut off the tip and pipe the ice cream into a dish. After that you’re all done. Now eat it fast or it’ll melt!

TwD: Chocolate, Chocolate Cupcakes

Rebecca — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:00:04 +0000

Once again it’s time for Tuesdays with Dorie and this week Clara of I Heart Food4Thought chose the Chocolate, Chocolate Cupcakes! These cupcakes are extra chocolatey because they are made with cocoa and melted chocolate, then covered in a luscious bittersweet chocolate glaze. I apparently missed the part where Clara urged us to decorate them in spirit of Halloween, but I guess that’s alright. Having never been a fan of Halloween, I secretly wouldn’t have wanted to do that anyways. Instead my double chocolate cupcakes were filled with toffee sauce (courtsey of Harry and David), covered in the chocolate glaze, frosted with white chocolate buttercream infused with a bit of toffee sauce, and then finally finished off with a drizzle of the sauce and mini chocolate chips.

As you can see here, there was a trend in the comments about the cake coming out dry, so I decided to alter the recipe a little bit. I didn’t exactly have time to make the original recipe in order to figure out what needed to be changed, so instead I blindly modified ingredients, crossing my fingers all the way. Luckily for me, my alterations proved to be a success because the cake came out fluffy and moist! However, I think if I ever planned to make this again, then I’d probably tweak a few more parts because it still wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for it to be.

I decided to post my cupcake recipe because I altered it quite a bit, but for the chocolate glaze you will need to visit Clara’s website. Also, the toffee sauce I bought was premade from Harry and David, but I am sure that making something like Nigella’s Sticky Toffee Sauce would be just as good. I’d also assume that butterscotch would also work because it is so very similiar to toffee (the only difference is that the sugar is boiled to the soft crack stage for butterscotch and the hard crack stage for toffee). Then again, if you’re feeling extra lazy, then why not use caramel syrup?

Chocolate, Chocolate Cupcakes

(Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)
Makes 12 cupcakes (I got around 16)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1/4 cup strong coffee or water

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare muffin pan with muffin cups or by greasing the pan.
Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft and creamy.
Add the sugars and beat for about 2 minutes, until it is blended into the butter. Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Beat in the vanilla, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear. Scrap down the bowl and add the sour cream and coffee, mixing until incorporated, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients.
Scrape down the bowl, add the melted chocolate and mix it in with the rubber spatula. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin molds.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes (mine took 15-17), or until the tops of the cakes are dry and springy to the touch and a knife inserted into their centers comes out clean. Transfer the muffin pan to a rack and let cake cool for a minute or two before removing from the pan. Cool to room temperature on the rack before glazing.

White Chocolate Buttercream

(Adapted from Em’s Buttercream Dream Icing)

4 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons half and half

3-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Toffee sauce (optional)

In a heat proof bowl, over a pan of simmering water, gently melt the white chocolate. Allow to cool for 2 minutes or so.
In an electric or stand mixer, cream the butter and shortening, then beat in white chocolate. Add the vanilla extract and half and half until well combined.
Begin adding the powdered sugar, a little at a time, mixing thoroughly and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Continuing adding until you’ve reach the desired consistency.
If desired, add in a bit of toffee sauce for added flavor.

Complete Assembly

This is just a little summary of what you should have done:

Using the cone method, cut out the center of each cupcake and fill with toffee sauce.

With an icing spatula spread chocolate glaze over tops of cupcakes.

Pipe on frosting, then drizzle with toffee sauce and add mini chocolate chips.

That’s all, folks! Now go and start making these cupcakes for yourself! I even encourage you to try out the original recipe and see how it works for you!

Cupcakes, cookies, and dough! Oh my!

Rebecca — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:45:45 +0000

You know, of all the things I’ve baked, of all the recipes I’ve ever tried, I do not believe I have ever actually attempted to make my own chocolate chip cookies. There have been, of course, the many occasions that I’d make the store bought, frozen dough kind or just use the cookie dough that my mom made for us to eat, but I can’t recall ever actually making my own cookies. I suppose it’s because I always thought that chocolate chip cookies were too generic. How unoriginal and boring of me to make chocolate chip cookies, right? Everyone and their dog makes chocolate chip cookies so why should I? Well I obviously had no idea just how great Alton Brown’s recipe for “The Chewy” was because if I had I for sure would have made these a long time ago! I don’t know why it took me so long to jump onto “The Chewy” bandwagon given the recent significant increase in chocolate chip cookie posts thanks to Joy’s experiment and the NY Times’ article. I’m so glad I finally made these too because they are FANTASTIC!

Now of course, knowing me and my baking addiction, I couldn’t possibly just stop with cookies. I had to make something else, something to add to my chocolate chip cookie theme. That’s when it hit me! Why not try my own version of the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes? They’d been on the top of my ‘Future Things to Bake’ list for ages so this was the perfect opportunity to finally commit to baking them. I already had the cookie dough so all I needed was to find all of the extra components that I would need in order to make things happen.

My first thought was to make brown sugar cupcakes because the dough of chocolate chip cookies uses mainly brown sugar vs. white, granulated sugar. Not only did brown sugar cupcakes sound enticing, but these cupcakes would also remain very moist for a while due to the molasses in the brown sugar trying to draw in moisture. This is baking science 101, kids, and very handy at that!

Now what was next to figure out? Oh, yes! What kind of frosting would I use? Well, I had seen on sites such as How To Eat A Cupcake that they actually combined cookie dough into a vanilla flavored frosting. How ingenious was that! As Jamieanne from The Cupcake Review had noted, the frosting seemed very similar to that of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and was a perfect way to compliment the brown sugar cupcakes. Of course, fearing for disease from raw egg in cookie dough that would be sitting out on cupcakes, like any right minded person should, I went and made an extra cookie dough that contained no eggs at all. No eggs, then no worries! All that was left was to bake mini versions of “The Chewy” to place on top of every cupcake in order to give them that last perfect touch.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alton Brown’s “The Chewy”

(Recipe from Alton Brown)

2 sticks unsalted butter

2-1/4 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1-1/4 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons milk

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Note: You can actually watch Alton Brown’s chocolate chip cookie episode on youtube to see how a few changes to one recipe can produce either a thin, crispy, or chewy cookie: Part 1 | Part 2

**The dough placed in the cupcakes MUST be frozen in order to produce that nice gooey cookie dough center. You DO NOT want the dough to actually bake into a cookie. Also remember to save some of the dough for your mini chocolate chip cookies to be used as decoration at the end!**

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

For the dough center: Place dough in the freezer until it is firm enough to be rolled up into nice little balls. Take dough out, roll them into whatever size you desire (mine were probably as large as How To Eat A Cupcake’s) and then place back into freezer until completely frozen (I believe I did this step the night before when I made the dough).

For cookies: Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container. (For the mini cookies, I literally rolled up unbelievably tiny balls of cookie dough and then watched them like a hawk while baking. I cannot recall how long they took, but it shouldn’t have been too long.)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

(Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop. Makes about 12 cupcakes)

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Measure out milk and vanilla together.
Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
Place previously prepared frozen cookie dough ball (mine were fairly big) into cup liners, then fill about half to three-quarters full of cupcake batter.
Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched. (Testing by using a toothpick would be insufficient because of the gooey cookie dough in the center).

Cookie Dough Frosting

(Recipe from The Cupcake Review. Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes.)

1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

Eggless cookie dough (recipe below)

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
At this point you can mix in the eggless cookie dough. Mix in enough cookie dough to suit your taste. Any cookie dough leftover you can gladly eat! There are no eggs in it so it is safe. Yum!

Eggless Cookie Dough

(Recipe from How To Eat A Cupcake)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

2 teaspoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional).
Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Complete Assembly

This is just a little summary of what you should have done:

Make cookie dough balls and place them in the freezer until ready to be used.

Insert a ball of cookie dough into each cupcake liner before baking.

Mix vanilla buttercream frosting with eggless cookie dough to create cookie dough frosting.

Allow cupcakes to cool, then pipe on cookie dough frosting.

Decorate by sprinkling on mini chocolate chips and topping with a mini chocolate chip cookie.

Viola! Cupcakes that not only taste like cookie dough, but also have the look of a cookie! These cupcakes can store for multiple days and will remain moist due to the brown sugar, but I’d still suggest eating them as soon as possible. Then again, who couldn’t resist gobbling these blessings up as soon as they can? They’re much too good to just stare at it! Definitely make these for your friends and loved ones and they will LOVE YOU forever!

Zebra Cake

Rebecca — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:09:48 +0000

Zebra cake!? What on earth could that be? If you’re imagining a cake striped like a zebra, then you’d be correct! This cake comes out perfectly soft and moist with very light flavors and, more importantly, looks fantastically impressive! The elaborate design is really the only reason I desired to make this cake in the first place because it seemed very fun and different, not like your everyday plain, one colored cake.

I first came across a recipe for zebra cake when browsing My Kitchen Snippets and, although very intriguing, I figured it would be much too time consuming to actually create. Boy was I wrong! In fact, making the striped pattern couldn’t be any easier! All it involves is constantly alternating between vanilla and chocolate batter, a few tablespoons dropped in the center at a time. The magic of physics does most of the work for you by allowing the layers to spread out more and more as you add on another.

Zebra Cake

(Recipe from Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook )

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 cup oil (corn, vegetable, or canola is fine)

1/3 teaspoon vanilla powder (I actually used 1 tsp vanilla extract instead!)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder such as Dutch-processed (nothing too bitter!)

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Using a hand-held electric mixer or wire whisk beat until the mixture is creamy and light in color.
Add milk and oil, and continue beating until well blended.
In a separate bowl, combine and mix flour, vanilla powder and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat just until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. DO NOT OVERBEAT to prevent air pockets from forming in the batter.
Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Keep one portion plain. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C).
Lightly grease the pan with oil. If you don’t have non-stick baking pan, grease whatever pan you have then line it with parchment paper (baking paper).
The most important part is assembling the cake batter in a baking pan. This is what you do. Scoop 3 heaped tablespoons of plain batter (you can also use a ladle that would hold 3 tablespoons) into the middle of the baking pan. Then scoop 3 tablespoons of cocoa batter and pour it in the center on top of the plain batter. IMPORTANT! Do not stop and wait until the previous batter spreads – KEEP GOING! Do not spread the batter or tilt the pan to distribute the mixture. It will spread by itself and fill the pan gradually. Continue alternating the batters until you finish them. The pictures below will guide you through.
Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. Do not open the oven door at least the first 20 minutes or the cake will shrink and will not rise. To check if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick into the center. It should come out clean when ready. Remove from the oven. Immediately run a small thin knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake, then invert the cake onto a cooking rack. Turn the cake back over and let cool. You can sprinkle the top of the cake with some powdered (confectioner’s) sugar or leave it plain.

Although the chocolate batter was absolutely fantastic, I found the cake as a whole to just be alright. Next time I’d probably add more vanilla to it or maybe substitute the vanilla section with something else. Either way this cake goes grand with some coffee or even coffee ice cream (as seen in the picture above!). I’m sure adding some sort of icing would make it even more fantastic because this cake by itself, although pleasant to the eye, isn’t flavorful enough to be worth it (unless of course you like that type of stuff!)

August Daring Bakers: Chocolate Eclairs

Rebecca — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:43:47 +0000

After secretly stalking and anxiously awaiting the reveal of new challenges for months, I finally went and joined the Daring Bakers for myself! It was a good thing too because for this challenge we had to make chocolate eclairs, but not just any chocolate eclairs! Oh no, sir! These sugarcoated little creatures come from none other than Pierre Hermé, a famous and fantastically gifted French pastry chef that’s an inspiration for me and I’m sure for many, many more.

Before I go any further, I’d like to note that I wrote this entire entry and then Firefox screwed me over and I lost it all. Yes, Firefox, I am very angry at you right now! If your rival IE didn’t suck so much I’d probably make him my new best friend instead. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT, FIREFOX!?

Anyways, this challenge was hosted by Tony and Meeta. You can go to their blogs in order to view the original recipe because it is incredibly long and I am feeling way too lazy to post all it. (However, do not let the length discourage you from making these eclairs because they are fantastic and definitely not as hard as they seem. In fact, I’d say this is was one of the easier challenges I’ve seen the Daring Bakers do so far.) Their posts are also much more graphic than mine would have ever been and having a visual is always a good thing when baking something foreign.

For this challenge we were allowed to change one of two things. We could choose our own glaze OR our own filling, but we couldn’t change both. I decided to change the filling because I hate having too much chocolate (although I definitely regret this choice). Instead of the chocolate pastry cream (which sounded deliciousss), I made a vanilla bean one. Also, because my favorite donuts are the ones with maple glaze, I made that as well to stripe over the eclairs.

I thought I’d really like this vanilla pastry cream, but it just reminded me of the pastry cream that they use in donuts, which I have never been a fan of. Actually, now that I think about, I’ve never really liked cream filled anything.

Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream

(From Joy of Baking)

3 large egg yolks

1/4 cup granulate sugar

1/8 cup all-purpose flour

Scant 3 tablespoons cornstarch

1-1/4 cup milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together with a wooden spoon. (Never let the mixture sit too long or you will get pieces of egg forming.)
Sift the flour and cornstarch together and then add to the egg mixture, mixing until you get a smooth paste. Set aside.
Meanwhile in a saucepan combine the milk and split vanilla bean on medium heat until boiling. (The milk will foam up to the top of pan when done, so watch carefully.) Remove from heat and add slowly to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. (If you get a few pieces of egg (curdling) in the mixture, pour through a strainer.) Remove vanilla bean, scrape out seeds, and add the seeds to the egg mixture.
Place the egg mixture back into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another 30 – 60 seconds until it becomes very thick and it is hard to stir.
Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a crust from forming. Cool. If not using right away refrigerate until needed, up to 3 days. Beat before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.

Maple Glaze

(From Pastrywiz)

1-1/4 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

In a bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Gradually whisk in enough maple syrup to make a smooth, thick glaze. (I think I actually added more confectioners sugar than required.)

Although these eclairs were good, I do not think I’ll ever make them again, or at least not for myself. Like donuts, I am not a fan of anything cream filled and eclairs were no exception. I’m really not sure why that is. Maybe I just don’t like pastry cream?

If you’re really interested in making these for yourself I’d definitely suggest going to the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll and visiting some of the other blogs. Everyone gets so creative and I’m sure there were MANY variations to these eclairs that would suit almost everyone’s fancy.

Tiramisu Ice Cream

Rebecca — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:15:42 +0000

Tiramisu has to be one of my all time favorite desserts, but I rarely ever get to have it. It’s usually one of the first things I think about making when I want to bake, but a lot of the ingredients aren’t exactly common items that you have lying around (e.g. lady fingers, mascarpone, and coffee liqueur). However, I finally managed to get my hands on Kahlua liqueur and Bailey’s Irish Cream (not being 21 makes that a hassle to get) and couldn’t wait to do something with it.

Now how sad is this? Most kids cannot wait to turn 21 in order to be able to legally purchase their own alcohol and go out drinking whenever they want, but I only want to turn 21 so I can actually go into a liquor store and buy ingredients. I wish they at least allowed you to go inside if you’re 18, but no. I’m not even allowed to see what my choices are. Luckily I have great parents that will go and buy it for me.

So now I had the liqueur just sitting in the pantry waiting to be used. What was I going to make? Considering I hadn’t originally planned on baking I didn’t prepare myself with the other ingredients required for tiramisu, but I did manage to find a tiramisu ice cream recipe that I had all the ingredients for. How perfect! So it’s not quite tiramisu, but it’s still something fun to make. I love ice cream and I love tiramisu so a combination of the two couldn’t be bad, right?

Tiramisu Ice Cream

(Adapted from Desert Candy and The Perfect Scoop)

2 cups mascarpone (or 8 oz cream cheese and 1 cup sour cream)

2/3 cup whole milk

2/3 cup cream

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup Kahlua liqueur

3 tablespoons brandy or rum (I actually used Marsala)

Pinch of salt

Espresso chocolate (see recipe below)

Note: you can substitute 1 1/3 cups half-and-half for the milk and cream.

Espresso Chocolate

6 oz chocolate, chopped (I used semi-sweet chips)

1/2 cup strongly brewed espresso

Note: You can substitute espresso for 1 tablespoon espresso powder or even ground coffee.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler, then mix in espresso until fully combined. Do not allow the mixture to harden before adding to the ice cream.

Place all ingredients (except chocolate) in a blender and blend until smooth.
Chill mixture in your refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to it’s specific instructions.
A few minutes before the ice cream is expected to be finished, prepare your chocolate mixture. However, keep it in your double boiler so that the chocolate does not harden.
When the ice cream is nearly done, with the machine still running, slowly and carefully drizzle chocolate directly onto the ice cream as it continues to churn. Be careful not to add too much at once or else the chocolate will clump up rather than form flecks. I found that using a fork makes things a lot easier to thin it out.
Transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container and allow ice cream to freeze for about an hour or until firm before serving.

I later got the idea to add chocolate flecks when looking at recipes for stracciatella ice cream. Stracciatella is a popular flavor in Italy, consisting of vanilla ice cream and pieces of chocolate. A type of mozarella and even egg-drop soup are often referred to as stracciatella as well. In Italian it literally means “little rags”, which in this case refers to the flecks of chocolate throughout the ice cream.

I decided to incorporate David Lebovitz’s recipe for a mocha ripple in my ice cream by drizzling in espresso chocolate instead. I altered it a bit so mine would be more like chocolate chips and less like a ripple. The ripple sounded neat and all, but who doesn’t love pieces of chocolate too? Considering I was also craving mint chocolate chip ice cream at the time I figured it’d be a good idea replace the ripple with espresso chocolate chips.

Even though it didn’t taste like I was eating tiramisu in the form of ice cream, in my opinion, it still came out great! It actually tasted more like cheesecake ice cream to me, but then again my sense of taste has been absolutely terrible lately so maybe it was just like that for me. In the future, I’ll probably make a form of this ice cream again, but do a few things a little differently (like making sure I actually have some rum to use).