Yogurt Popsicles

Yogurt. It is starting to become one of my most favorite things. I have to admit, I only do enjoy my yogurt when it is flavored with fruit sweetness. But I am slowly opening up to trying out plain yogurt... probably with a touch of honey. My daughter loves yogurt, too! It is the only way I get her to eat berries, since it is much too expensive over here. 

I am unsure whether this is a failure, or simply that our refrigerator sucks. It cannot even freeze damn ice cubes. Maybe because my in-laws store their water bottles at the freezer. I still do not understand why. So in the end, they have ice water... and we have watery ice cubes.

It was still yummy though. And I think I have to mash the bananas more thoroughly. Little DD loved it! More fruit for her, secretly. You may substitute a cup of the yogurt for pureed fruit. Berries.

Yogurt Popsicles

1 cup Very Ripe Bananas, mashed

2 cups Fruit Yogurt - or - 1 cup plain yogurt + 1 cup pureed fruit

Mix the ingredients together and place it on a popsicle mold. Freeze until firm.

Easy Peasy Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

The temperature has risen, and summer has arrived at our country. It makes everyday seems so sluggish and lazy. I have been lazy, baking-wise due to the heat. But there seems to be no excuse, and more reasons to make ice cream. Especially this easy peasy vanilla one. No need for heating your cream, or ice baths or whatnots. Perfect for lazy bums such as moi. The result was not as creamy and delicious as my previous work, but if you aren't so picky about ice cream and just want a yummy way to deal with the heat, you gotta try this out. It is still quite yummy after all. You just have to be careful about adding the condensed milk, adding too much will be too overpowering and if you do not have additional cream or in my case, milk (I had added a bit of milk to lessen the sweetness), your ice cream might end up too sweet.

Despite my laziness, life has been busy and there had been some adjusting we had to deal with for my hubby's work. Also, the never-ending compromise and adjustment when you live with your in-laws. Ice cream usually tosses the hotheadedness out the window, but sometimes I feel running also works... if it weren't so hot.

I've also been dealing with some personal issues. Mostly decisions and at times doubts about really pursuing my dreams. Mostly I know its a never-ending struggle, 100% of the time I wish I could get lucky as I never seem to be.

So! Get your bums into the kitchen, you'll need a hand mixer or stand mixer, and ten minutes (or less) of your time to get this done!

Easy Peasy Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

600g Cream (I had used 300g heavy cream and 290g all purpose cream)
300g Sweetened Condensed Milk (I had only used 3/4 of the can, and it ended up slightly sweeter than I wanted, so be careful in adding this)
Vanilla bean or Vanilla Extract
Chocolate Chips, depending on how much you would like

Whip your cream (and vanilla bean, if using) until it has body or stiff peaks. Add the sweetened condensed milk, tasting once in a while (no eggs here, don't worry). Add your vanilla extract and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze. When it is thick, but not yet frozen, add in your chocolate chips then bring back to the freezer. Freeze for at least 4 hours. Take ice cream out for a minute before eating for easy scooping.

In another note, I wish my photos ended up clear enough. I was already sweating like a pig! Damn this heat. LOL. My little one enjoyed smiling for the camera though.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Cookies are my best friend. You may call me Cookie Monster, and I would gladly accept. My husband knows how much I absolutely love them. I am even on a constant search to find the perfect cookie from the bakeries we visit. But you aren't here to read about that, you're here for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough... and Ice Cream.

I recall my early teen years with fond memories of watching Gilmore Girls with my sister, having a bunch of desserts in front of us. This was when my love of cookie dough was born. If you watched Gilmore Girls, you would know that the girls loved it. And me being the cookie monster that I am, was intrigued by it. Cookie dough you can eat? I must have some!

Although I have made some disastrous cookie doughs in my time, all of them inedible for my high cookie standards. Finally here I come with the cookie dough recipe that does not disappoint, coming from a Cookie Dough lover even!

So, what must I do with it? Oh, but of course, I shall not be selfish and eat it all on my own. I do not think the people I live with could fathom the idea of eating DOUGH! So I have made my own version of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Hubby and I wouldn't need to go grocery hopping to find this flavor anymore! We can make it ourselves.

I've made this without an ice cream maker. As expected, it did not physically turn out to be as creamy looking as the commercial ones.. but this baby melts in your mouth into a smooth, sweet, incredible and very creamy ice cream. We loved it.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Ice cream Recipe made by me, Cookie dough from Love & Olive Oil

Ingredients:
Ice Cream:
1 3/4 C whole milk (we use Full cream milk because we do not see "whole milk" sold in the grocery)
1 1/4 C heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
A pinch of salt
1 C brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp cream cheese, room temperature

Cookie Dough (the original recipe for this I got from Love & Olive Oil, which I follow):

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (we do not have miniature choc. chips so we use the regular ones sold in the market)

Note: The Cookie Dough recipes makes twice as much as you need. I opted following the original recipe, well, because I love cookie dough.

Directions:

Warm the milk, sugar, 1/4 cup of cream, vanilla bean and its seeds, and salt in a medium saucepan. Let the mixture heat up until it is steaming. Remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes. (I used this time to measure out the rest of the ingredients)

Pour 1 tbsp of cornstarch into a bowl and add a tablespoon of milk to disolve. Set aside.

Whisk room temperature Cream Cheese in a different bowl, with a pinch of salt until soft, light and creamy. Set aside.

Pour 1 cup of cream into a medium sized bowl, set over a larger bowl filled with ice and iced water. Set aside.

Return custard mixture (milk mixture) to the burner, and heat until steaming. Slowly add the cornstarch slurry and whisk into the custard.

Slowly sppon 1/3 of the warm milk custard into the egg yolks, whisking continuously to temper the eggs. After this, add the egg and milk mixture to the rest of the custard and continue to heat it up, stirring every once in a while.

Let the custard boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent it from spilling over your pot (this has happened to me once lol). Remove from heat.

Pour custard through a strainer over the cooled cream. Do not stir yet. Add the warm custard to the cream cheese 2 tablespoons at a time and stir until it is smooth. Add the cream cheese mixture back to the custard base. Now you may stir it completely with the cream. Return the vanilla bean to the mixture, and stir until cool.

Cover and chill in the freezer for at least 5 hours, stirring the ice cream every hour to break up ice crystals. Make sure to discard the vanilla bean.

To prepare cookie dough, Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add soymilk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and chill until ready to use.

Stir in bite-sized chunks of cookie dough onto the ice cream.



Oh, and don't forget to join my GIVEAWAY! Its only until the 30th of January. :) On another more side tracked note, what do you think about the new layout?

Home-made Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Chocolate chunks

If you knew me personally, you would have known that I have been raving about making my own ice cream for months. And as a special ocassion came that required a soft of gift from yours truly, I thought, why not just make Ice Cream so everyone would have their share? Well, honestly, I just made an excuse to finally get to make one! Haha!

I had made these babies without an ice cream maker. Can you believe it? Yes. Although they ended up not as creamy as I wanted them to, I believe it was because I wasn't able to break up the ice crystals before it became fully solid (meaning, solid enough to eat!). I had made it very late and I had work the following day. I only got to mix the batter a few times.

It was too late for me to take a picture, I had feared that everyone enjoyed it too much! But thank goodness, there was still some left for me to photograph. I was at work, but I've heard raves about it. My sister-in-law even enjoyed it, and my hubby's little cousins couldn't get enough!

My verdict? I was won over. I don't think I want to purchase any store-bought vanilla ice cream anymore. This was divine, despite my personal disappointments about its consistency. It was yum-oh!

You can see recipes about how to make your own ice cream here:

David Lebovitz' Vanilla Ice Cream (with egg on the recipe)

David Lebovitz' Chocolate Ice Cream (no egg)

The thing about ice cream is that you can change it the way you want it! Just follow the basic ingredients, edit or add some, and viola! I did not get to follow the recipe EXACTLY, as I've wanted an eggless ice cream. But you can do that, as well.

I think everybody should just stop purchasing store bought ice cream and try home-made ones. I can't wait to make some more in the future, I think Pistachios are actually calling me to mingle them with the rich custardy heavenly frozen cream.

What is your favorite Ice cream flavor? Share! :)