Cooking Show: Summer Treats!

We filmed an episode of the cooking show last week, with a "Summer Treats" theme.

I thought it would be a good idea to prepare a few recipes that met the following requirements:

1. Refreshing on a hot day
2. Will not heat up your kitchen because you won't need your stove or oven.

I almost met the requirements with all of the recipes.

Raspberry Lemonade

Check.  Met requirements 1 and 2--refreshing and no cooking involved.  Click here for the printable recipe.

Ice Box Cheesecake with Berries

Refreshing, and no baking required!  Here's the printable recipe.

This brings us to our final recipe, the only recipe that didn't meet requirement number 2.

Toasted Almond Butter Toffee Crunch Ice Cream

(Printable Recipe)

You need the oven for four minutes to toast the almonds and the stove for six minutes to melt the toffee ingredients.

I suppose that you could make the almond toffee a day ahead of time so that all you would need to do on the day you make the ice cream is chop it up and add it in.

I can't promise, however, that the toffee won't disappear if you prepare it too far in advance.

In the words of Dan, Our Awesome Camera Man (best spoken with a lilting Irish brogue): "Forget about the ice cream!  We'll just eat toffee!" --Dan's proclamation when he sampled the toffee.

Fortunately, the recipe makes more toffee than you will need.  Plenty to mix into the ice cream, with enough left over for snacking.

Ice Box Cheesecake with Berries

Okay, the summer heat has finally appeared here in the Northeast, which prompts me to find ways to cook without actually cooking.  

You understand what I mean, right?

This ice box cake fits the bill.  There's no cooking at all--just layers of graham crackers and a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture.  Topped with berries.

Make this ASAP, while berries are still in season!!

Today's Playlist

• "Rag and Bone"...The White Stripes
• "Rollover D.J."...Jet
• "Someday"...The Strokes
• "In One Ear"...Cage the Elephant
• "Holiday"...Green Day
• "Everybody Talks"...Neon Trees

Ice Box Cheesecake with Berries (10 to 12 servings)

Printable Recipe

• 14 graham crackers (full-size, with 4 sections)
• 3 cups whipping cream
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups assorted berries

Line a 9" x 13" baking pan with half the graham crackers, in a single layer.  Break them to fit if you need to--you will be covering them with the whipped cream so nobody will ever know if they're not straight and perfect!

Whip the cream in the bowl of your mixer with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.  Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla extract and whip until completely incorporated and fluffy.

Add the cream cheese (cut into 1" chunks) and whip until it is thoroughly mixed and smooth, with no lumps (about 3 minutes).  Test it to be sure there are absolutely no little lumps hiding in there!

Spread half of the cream mixture over the graham crackers which you've already layered into the pan.  Top the cream with another layer of graham crackers, then spread this layer of graham crackers with the remaining cream.  Top with the berries.  Refrigerate for at least one hour to enable the graham crackers to soften.

 Enjoy.  

Toasted Almond Butter Toffee Crunch Ice Cream

Naming this recipe Toasted Almond Butter Toffee Crunch Ice Cream may seem like overkill, but I wanted to make sure to describe all that is wonderful about it.

Toasted Almonds.

Butter Toffee.

Crunch!

Making your own ice cream takes a teensy bit more effort than opening up a carton or visiting your nearest ice cream parlor, but it's so worth the time and effort!  Especially when it's as yummy as this.

I'm also experimenting with my blog--I'm not going to post as many step-by-step photos.  You may have noticed that I haven't been posting as frequently as I used to!  The time I spend setting up the photos (and let's face it, I don't even know how to take a decent photo) and then incorporating them all into a blogpost could be time better spent writing more blogposts!  As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome (I appreciate all of your emails/comments)!

Today's Playlist

• "Basket Case"...Green Day
• "Don't Make Me Wait"...Locksley
• "Dead!"...My Chemical Romance
• "Chelsea Dagger"...The Fratellis
• "Hey There Delilah"...Plain White T's
• "Death Letter"...The White Stripes
• "Always Where I Need To Be"...The Kooks
• "Short Skirt/Long Jacket"...Cake

Toasted Almond Butter Toffee Crunch Ice Cream (Approx. 1 Quart)

Printable Recipe

Toffee ingredients: 

• 1 stick butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup slivered almonds

Ice Cream ingredients:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Gather your ingredients.  Along with your ice cream maker, you will also need two bowls for an ice bath and a thermometer.

You can see that I took the photo after I had made the almond toffee.  Here's a quick rundown of how to make the toffee:

Place the slivered almonds (in a single layer) onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Place the baking sheet into your unheated oven, and then set the temperature to 350 degrees.

By the time your oven reaches 350 degrees, the almonds should be just beginning to toast.  I took this photo after the almonds reached my desired temperature; you can see that they are just barely brown around the edges, which is exactly how you want them to be!

While the almonds are toasting, prepare the butter toffee.  Don't roll your eyes and tell me that you can't multitask! It only takes five minutes, and if by chance your oven reaches 350 degrees before you're done, simply remove your baking sheet from the oven while you're stirring your toffee.

To prepare the toffee:  melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  As soon as the butter is melted, stir in the brown sugar.

Stir continuously until it begins to boil.  Continue to stir for an additional 4 to 5 minutes while it boils, until it becomes sort of spongy and pulls from the side of the saucepan and sort of holds itself together.  

Here is a video of what you can expect it to look like.  After 4 minutes, the mixture was holding together and reached the spongy, pulling-away-from-the-pan stage.

(And now that I am posting this video, I am realizing how ironic it is that I am trying to streamline my step-by-step photos yet here I am actually posting a cooking video for the first time.  Even though it's only nine seconds long, leave it to me to complicate things when I'm trying to simplify.)

Remove your toffee from the heat and immediately pour it over your toasted almonds.  Allow it to cool as you prepare your ice cream.

Set up your ice bath now: you will need a large bowl, half-filled with ice cubes.  Pour water into the bowl so the ice cubes are covered.  Place a smaller bowl into the larger bowl so that it is sitting in the ice water.

Heat the whole milk in a small sauce pan over low/medium heat until it reaches 175 degrees.  Do not let it boil!  Once it reaches the desired temperature, stir in the sugar and the pinch of salt.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Temper the egg yolks:  Stir about 1/3 cup of the heated milk into your lightly beaten egg yolks, then stir the tempered egg yolks into the saucepan.  Return the heat to low/medium and stir continuously until the temperature reaches 160 to 175 degrees.  The mixture will thicken (thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Remove the thickened mixture from the heat and pour it into the small bowl set in the ice bath.  Stir to dissipate the heat.  When the mixture has cooled slightly, whisk in the heavy cream and the almond extract.

Refrigerate the cream mixture until completely cooled (about 1 hour).  After the mixture has cooled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to your manufacturer's directions.

While the ice cream churns, chop your toffee.

Break your large piece of toffee in half.  Did I tell you that you will have twice as much toffee as you will actually need?

No need to thank me for giving you a toffee recipe that makes enough to allow for the snacking you will do as you're chopping it to add to your ice cream.

Chop half of your prepared toffee into pieces about 1/4- to 1/2-inch in size.  You want them to be substantial enough to know that there is toffee in that ice cream, not teeny crumbs!

Add the chopped toffee into your ice cream maker during the last 30 seconds or so before it finishes churning.  Or you could stir them in manually.

When the ice cream has finished churning, you can either eat the soft ice cream immediately or transfer it into a freezer container to harden in your freezer.

Enjoy.