Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie Ice Cream

Wait….what??

A couple of weeks ago I made a chocolate chip pecan pie and took it to a dinner with friends. We brought it home with a couple of slices leftover and I had an idea. What if I made classic vanilla ice cream and dropped the rest of the pie into it? Would it work? The simple answer is omigoodnessitworks. If you normally like ice cream with your pecan pie, this may be your new favorite flavor of ice cream.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

1 9″ pie crust, baked
3 eggs
2/3 c sugar
1/2 t salt
1/3 c butter, melted
1 c corn syrup
1 c whole pecans (I use more like 1 1/2 c)
1 1/4 c mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Set oven to 375 degrees. Blend eggs, sugar, salt, butter and corn syrup. Fold in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour into the baked pie shell and dot with extra pecans as needed. Bake 40-50 minutes and allow to cool before cutting.

Now, the ice cream:

1 1/2 c whole milk

1 c sugar

3 c heavy cream

1T vanilla

Mix the whole milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves, 2-3 minutes. Add the heavy cream and vanilla and mix well. Pour into an ice cream churn and let it run for about 20 minutes. Drop half of the pecan pie into the ice cream after it has thickened considerably, in the last five minutes of churning. Freeze until set.
 

 

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Dark Chocolate Almond Ganache Ice Cream

I stumbled upon a Chocolate Ganache ice cream recipe at ashleemarie.com but made a few changes, the biggest being that I added a handful of chopped raw almonds towards the end of the churning time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, it’s obviously very rich and a special treat.

Dark Chocolate Almond Ganache Ice Cream

2 1/4 c heavy cream

10 oz dark chocolate chips

3/4 c sugar

3 eggs

1/3 c dark chocolate cocoa

1 1/2 c milk (I use whole milk)

1 1/2 t vanilla

Heat the cream in a saucepan until simmer. Place chocolate chips into a metal bowl and pour the warmed cream over the chocolate and allow to sit for five minutes. Stir till smooth and set aside. (This is classic chocolate ganache).

Mix the sugar, eggs and cocoa until incorporated and set aside.

Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat and then add to the sugar, egg and cocoa mixture and mix until incorporated. Pour this back into the saucepan and heat through on low, for about five minutes as it thickens slightly. Pour this warmed mixture into the original ganache and stir till smooth and add the vanilla. Refrigerate for two hours to bring the temperature down.

Pour contents into ice cream maker, takes 20 minutes or so to become firm. Freeze for at least two hours before serving. Makes six 8oz servings.

 

Grilled Peaches

We were just in North Carolina, dropping our youngest off at college and had to shop at the local Farmers Market for some fresh fruit and veggies for our girl before we left. We ended up driving peaches and blackberries as big as your head halfway across the country because they were too incredible to pass up!

Last night we had grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Grilling them just intensifies the sweetness, and adding a little butter and sugar doesn’t hurt at all!

Grilled Peaches

Turn on your grill and set the heat high. You can place the peaches directly on the grates, but I like to use a grill pan. Place the pan on the grill while heating.

Cut the peaches in two halves and remove the pit. I don’t bother to peel them, but you could.  Brush some oil (I use grapeseed) on the inside and sprinkle a little brown sugar and cinnamon on each. Please the peaches on the hot pan or grates and shut the grill top, allow to cook for 4-5 minutes and turn them over to cook another 3-4. Remove from the heat and add a pat of butter to each middle. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and savor the taste of summer!

 

Nutella Crunch Ice Cream

I’m not a big Nutella fan, but there are a couple of them in my house, so I decided to give this a try after seeing it at yourhomebasedmom.com. Keep in mind that this should be eaten in small amounts because it is rich, and it tastes better than Nutella ever did.

Nutella Crunch Ice Cream

1 1/2 c whole milk

2 c heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 c half & half

1 1/2 c sugar

1 1/2 T vanilla

1/4 t salt

2 c Rice Krispies cereal

1 cup Nutella

Mix all the ingredients except the last two in a stainless steel bowl and place in the refrigerator. Heat the Nutella over low heat and add the Rice Krispies, stir till incorporated. Please the mixture on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and freeze for 15 minutes.

Pour the ice cream mixture into an ice cream maker as per manufacturers instructions. Toward the end of the cycle, add some of the Nutella Krispie pieces while it churns. When the ice cream is the right consistency, move into containers, layering the Nutella pieces into the ice cream. Freeze till firm.

*This recipe uses most of a small jar of Nutella, the rest of which can be poured into the layers of ice cream, forming a ribbon of yum throughout.

Makes 5 pints

 

 

Éclair Torte

 

This dessert has been around for many years, I have no memory of where I first learned of it, or even when I began serving it. The base has no sugar in it, giving it more of a European taste.

Éclair Torte

1 c water

1/2 c unsalted butter

1/4 t. salt (or use salted butter and leave this out)

1 c flour

4 eggs

1 package cream cheese (8 oz, room temperature)

2 packages vanilla instant pudding (3.4 oz each)

3 c cold milk

12 oz whipped topping (I make my own)

chocolate syrup for decorating

Bring the first three ingredients to a boil in a saucepan . Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball is formed. Remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Spread the mixture into a greased 13×9 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Cool completely.

In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, pudding mix and milk until smooth. Spread the mixture over the cooled puff and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Spread whipped cream over the top, sealing it. Drizzle with chocolate syrup just before serving.

 

Butter Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

I needed to bake a cake for a house full of people and had a taste for lemons, so I put this together and it worked well! I buy jarred lemon curd (Dickinson’s) but you can make it yourself. This cake is good the first day, but even better when the lemon curd has had time to sink into the cake some. This is a rich cake, something I would only make for a crowd so we cant have too much of it!

Butter Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1 package plain yellow cake mix

1 cup milk

1 stick butter, melted

3 eggs

2t vanilla

1/2 jar lemon curd

 

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter

3 3/4 c powdered sugar, sifted

3-4 T milk

2 t vanilla

zest and juice of one lemon

Oven 350 degrees. Grease two round pans and set aside. Place the cake mix, milk, butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and blend 2-3 minutes until well combined. Divide the batter into the two pans equally and bake side by side 27-29 minutes. Remove to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile prepare the buttercream frosting by blending all ingredients, add more milk if needed, until the desired consistency is reached.

When the cake is cool to the touch, place the first one on the cake plate and spread 1/4 jar of lemon curd across the top of the layer. Add the second layer and spread 1/4 jar of the lemon curd over the to layer. Carefully frost the top and sides of the cake over the lemon curd. Serves 16

 

 

Fallen Chocolate Cake (gluten free)

I wanted to take something deeply chocolate to a friend’s house the other night, and he needs his food to be gluten-free, so it was a good excuse to finally make this cake. I saw it in Bon Appetit magazine a couple of years ago and tucked it away, I really like the idea of it being an obviously fallen cake. It was dense and fudgy, not overly sweet at all, and really needed the whipped cream to offset the richness of it.

Fallen Chocolate Cake

1/2 c unsalted butter

3/4 c plus 2T sugar

10 oz bittersweet chocolate (61-72% cacao), coarsely chopped

2 T oil

6 eggs

2 T unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t vanilla

3/4 t salt

1 c heavy cream

3 T powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9 inch springform pan and dust with sugar.

Combine chocolate, oil and butter in the top of a double boiler, with the bottom pan filled with simmering water and allow ingredients to melt while stirring over medium heat.

In two bowls, separate 4 eggs with whites in one and yolks in the other. To the yolks bowl add cocoa powder, vanilla, salt, 1/4 c sugar, and remaining two eggs and whisk until smooth. Gradually add yolk mixture to chocolate mixture, blending well.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites on high until frothy, add 1/2 c sugar and beat until firm peaks form. Gently fold in egg whites into chocolate mixture in two additions and folding only until incorporated. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake 35-45 minutes, until the top is puffed and starting to crack  and cake is pulling away from the pan. Allow to cool completely in the pan, the cake will collapse in the center as it cools. Mix the remaining ingredients on high speed until soft peaks form. Mound the whipped cream in the center of the cake.