First popsicles, now ice cream? Yes, because it's PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE!!!

Making popsicles in the Zoku reminded me of my old Donvier Ice Cream maker. We bought it back in the 90s, and design-wise, it's similar to the Zoku. You've got a metal canister filled with coolant that goes in the freezer, and once the coolant is frozen you put the ice cream wannabe liquid in the canister & crank the dasher occasionally. 20 minutes or so later and you get soft serve. Freeze it to get full-blown ice cream. Sweet!

My favorite flavor of ice cream, since my youth, has been peanut butter & chocolate. No, not peanut butter ice cream with chocolate bits. That's just so wrong, Ben & Jerry! You want it like old school Baskin Robbins, where I enjoyed many pb & c cones as a child. Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter chunks...that's good eatin'! So now at 41 years old I decide it's time to make some pb & c ice cream at home, since I've got this Donvier machine waiting to be used again. I planned to make Cook's Illustrated chocolate ice cream & then add peanut butter, so I searched for "peanut butter chocolate ice cream" to get ingredients for the peanut butter "ribbon". And the first recipe that came up was from Joy the Baker's site, http://www.joythebaker.com/ . Looking at the recipe, I said, heck, I'm just going to try this one! I found the use of cornstarch in the base instead of eggs particularly intriguing, especially since I'm not very fond of eggs. (Cookies & cakes & meatloaves are fine for eggs. Raw or partially cooked eggs are yucky, IMO. And I only eat scrambled eggs once or twice a year. They are just not my favorite thing.)

I did a few things differently from her recipe. I used darker chocolate (a Dutch cocoa blend for the cocoa, and a 60% semisweet/bittersweet chocolate chip) in order to get a richer chocolate flavor. I also added some agave syrup (probably no more than 1/4 cup) to the natural peanut butter to sweeten the pb, since I think they usually sweeten the peanut butter in the commercial recipes. You can find Joy's original Double Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream here: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/07/double-chocolate-peanut-butter-ice-cream/ . And yes, you should go there. :)

The other difference for me, aside from the different chocolate and the sweetened pb, is that I didn't have whole milk on hand. So I used 1 1/2 cups of 2% milk plus 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream for the 2 cups of whole milk, and used 1/4 cup 2% and 1/4% heavy whipping cream for the 1/2 cup of whole milk that gets mixed with the cornstarch. Hey, don't judge; it worked out ok. :)

And tastewise? Well, I'm blogging about it, aren't I? :D Really, really good ice cream. The texture is akin to a super-premium ice cream like Ben & Jerry's , although part of the texture will depend on your ice cream maker. (The more air that gets whipped into the ice cream, the "icier" and less dense your final product will be, I believe.) I like to think this ice cream is what frozen Nutella would be like, if Nutella was made with peanuts instead of hazelnuts. Maybe it comes off more like a frozen custard or frozen pudding, but I don't care. I just want to eat it! Chances are if you're a pb & c freak like me, you'll want it,too.

My new "6 sticks" rule

Made strawberry/pineapple/coconut Zoku popsicles yesterday. But before I could make them, I needed to make a run over to Williams Sonoma for more sticks. I've come to the conclusion that if you ever want to make more than 1 flavor of popsicles with the Zoku, you better have a good supply of sticks! The 6 that come with the machine just don't cut it for more than a single batch, and it doesn't look like those things are going to multiply on their own. I'd say plan to have at LEAST 6 sticks per batch of popsicles, and more than that is even better. I ended up needing 10 for the s/p/c popsicles yesterday, which was all I had on hand since I still had 2 plain strawberry in the freezer. Of course, you can always keep your popsicle base in the fridge until you get some of your current popsicles eaten. ;)

So, word of warning, when you're buying your Zoku, pick up extra sticks. $12 for a box of 6. You're welcome. :)

Summer? What happened to spring?

LOL, I just checked & saw that I last posted here at the end of January! Talk about neglect!

We're in full summer mode here. 100 degree temps. Dips in the kiddie pool. Staying in the air conditioned house a lot. And now popsicles. I bought some Caribbean popsicles from Aldi that I love. My favorite fruit flavors are involved: strawberry, pineapple, and coconut. (Also mango & passionfruit.) Those three flavors were in my favorite smoothie from Frullati: the Affinity. I don't even think they make the Affinity anymore although I think you can get a similar smoothie there. Anyways, these popsicles are close and now when I taste them, they will make me think of summer.

And speaking of popsicles...last weekend we broke down & bought a Zoku Quick Pop maker. My friend Sara had bought one recently & raved about it, so I was curious. (Visit Sara's blog at http://www.threehungryboys.blogspot.com/ .) And since I could easily see myself spending hundreds of dollars on Caribbean popsicles for myself (not to mention strawberry ones for my son), I thought, hey, I really need to start making them at home instead of buying them. So...$50 later & about 24 hours later, we made our first batch of strawberry popsicles. Still being a novice to the Zoku, we did have the popsicles stick on us, but once we got them out of the machine, they were delicious! Just like a really sweet, cold strawberry. I used a recipe from food.com which you can find here: http://www.food.com/recipe/strawberry-popsicle-375304 . I'm guessing the water in the recipe may have made the pops stick too much, so I need to tweak it 'til I get it right. Tastewise, as I said, they were awesome!

I also hunted down a mocha popsicle recipe I'm going to try, as well as the pineapple & coconut recipe from Zoku's blog (http://blog.zokuhome.com/ ). So I'll be busy freezing this summer instead of baking, I think. Although...I did want to make some inspired-by-strawberry-lemonade cookies soon. We'll see if I'm desperate enough to run the oven during a 100 degree day! :)

'til next time!

Trying to update

In case you're following my other blog, you've noticed that I've started updating the Seebee's Freebies again, including a new Dream Trip addition yesterday. I really like the Toy Room mini kit; the cloud paper was especially nice for the background paper of my Toy Story Midway Mania layouts from our Disney 2010 trip. :) Yes, scrapping the album tends to lead to creating new papers & elements, which leads to new Seebee's Freebies items. And I'm not even halfway through the album, so I expect a few more things to go on that blog. Stay tuned.

Also, the holidays caught me doing a LOT of baking! (Most of it went to teachers & family as gifts, since baking staples were cheap at Aldi & we didn't have a lot of money this year.) Thanks to the America's Test Kitchen group, I'm getting more comfortable with pie crust, so I made several pies for the holidays. And, of course, their cookie recipes are favorites here, too. Being a diabetic, it's not really a great idea to have tons of cookies in the house, so I end up giving the bulk of the food away to my husband's coworkers or my kid's teachers. I'm finding that I really enjoy the process of cooking almost as much as the eating. Of course, the cleanup continues to be a pain. :D

Just to give you something to look at, I posted the picture of the coconut cream pie I made for one of the teachers. I've NEVER made one before, since I'm not a big fan of the texture of coconut. But the little bit I sampled of the filling tasted good, and I was told it was delicious. Another successful recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook!

I want to get some more work done in my album this week, but I've also made a commitment to make several dozen cookies for someone. So, that'll cut into my computer time. If you want to get in a cookie mood, I'll tell you that the ones I'm making this week are: oatmeal (no raisins), peanut butter chocolate chip (my favorite), Wookkie Cookies from the Star Wars cookbook (double chocolate chip with cinnamon; really tasty & my son's favorite!), and triple chocolate cookies (ultra rich & yummy).

Speaking of baking, I have plans to make either M & M sugar cookies for Valentine's Day, or Red Velvet cupcakes. Or both. Again, teachers will be receiving the bulk of my work. I'm sure they hate me. Well, at least their scales probably do. ;)

All this food talk...can you tell it's lunchtime here? LOL!

Cupcake picture

Not the best picture, but I never claimed to be a food stylist. I can tell you they taste great, though! :)

Yummy Red Velvet Cake w/ cream cheese frosting!

Ok, I don't have time to type up the recipe and I haven't taken any photos yet. But here's where you can get the recipe for the red velvet cake & cream cheese frosting that I used for my cupcakes yesterday. The only difference is that I portioned the cake batter into 24 cupcakes, and cooked them for 18 minutes. I also halved the frosting since I figured half would be enough for the cupcakes, as opposed to the layer cake. (I was right; I have almost a cup of frosting left over in the fridge.)

The cake is good, but I'm particularly impressed with the frosting. Perfect texture, easy, and it's more reminiscent of a buttercream frosting flavored with cream cheese. I find it to be a perfect blend of sweetness with a light cream cheese flavor. Already I'm thinking of trying this on my favorite banana chip snack cake. (Also an ATK recipe from one of their cookbooks; it's fabulous!)

You'll probably need to create a login account with Cook's Country TV, but it's free and believe me, the ATK crew's recipes are well worth having. Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country are my go-to recipes. I've loved them for years. :)

Go here to get the Red Velvet Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from Cook's Country. (Remember that you may need to create a login to view it, plus the recipes are only free during the current season of Cook's Country. So this recipe may not be available for free, depending on when you're reading this post.)

Yummy! Microwave Chocolate Pudding

So, a recipe that I find myself making often lately is this quick & easy chocolate pudding. I have to admit that I like making things from scratch more than from mixes. I have a hard time justifying the cost for convenience foods. Although, I know that a box of instant pudding isn't all that expensive, but this tastes much better. :)

This is from the 365 Great Chocolate Desserts cookbook.

OLD-FASHIONED MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE PUDDING

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups milk

2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate, cut up

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a 2 qt. glass bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt until well blended. Gradually whisk in milk until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add chocolate.

Cook in a microwave oven on High 7 to 9 minutes, whisking every 2 minutes, until mixture is cooked through, smooth, and thickened. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into 4 individual serving dishes.* Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on top. Refrigerate until cold.

* I just put it in a plastic container in the fridge with the plastic wrap and then portion it out as needed.

Man cannot live by bread alone...

...but with these rolls, you might consider it! :D I just finished up another double batch of Honey Oat cloverleaf rolls, my favorite rolls! This bread dough recipe makes enough to have 1 dozen to eat & 1 dozen to freeze. It's from The Bread Machine Cookbook series of books (Nitty Gritty Publications), although I forget which one. (I think it's the very first one.) Anyways, I make the 2 lb. loaf in my bread machine on the dough setting, and then shape them into these.

Here's what you need for the 2 lb. recipe for Honey Oat Bread:

1 1/2 Cups water

2 Tablespoons oil

1/3 Cup honey

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Cups oats

3 1/2 Cups bread flour

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

I put it all in the bread machine in that order, and I choose the dough setting. Then, when that's done, I'm ready to shape rolls! You can expect to need two 12 count muffin/cupcake pans for this. I divide the dough in half, then start pinching off bits of dough that are just slightly smaller than ping-pong ball shape. Roll it into a nice ball, and add it to a muffin cup. Put three of these in each muffin cup.

I also prefer to double-baste them with butter. One basting goes on before they cook, while they are rising, to promote browning. Then, as soon as they are out of the oven I'll baste them with butter again, which adds more flavor and keeps the crust softer. (Yeah, the butter's not so healthy, but it's good. It *might* work with something like Smart Balance Spread, as long as you're using one with a high oil content.) I've been cooking them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. They may not be the prettiest rolls on the planet, but man, are they tasty!

It's strawberry and gardening time!

This is in my fridge right now. Jealous? :) I got the new Kraft Food & Family mag yesterday, and looking through it today, I knew I wanted to make this. The little bit I've sampled proves it was a good choice. :D Strawberry season has snuck up on me; somehow I still feel like we should be having winter, although the weather sure doesn't feel that way. We were outside a bit today and I planted some chives, plus my dh planted some tomato plants that he got through the mail. I've already got a basil plant outdoors. I love basil! But it's my hope to have some homemade salsa before the end of the summer, with home-grown tomatoes. Wish us luck!