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for Homemade Chipwiches! This weekend brought more beautiful weather to the D.C. area, perfect for a mud run and a birthday BBQ. One of the birthday boys mentioned his fondness for chipwiches last week, and as chipwich lover myself I decided to make him some in time for the BBQ-bonanza.
Selfishly, I was looking for an(y) excuse to buy the Ice Cream Maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. On Friday night, with the bowl chilling in the freezer I began hunting for the perfect vanilla ice cream recipe. I really wanted to make David Lebovitz's recipe, as he has this book and takes the most beautiful pictures of lickable things, however I did not have that kind of time. You see, by the time hubs and I got home from another flop of a meal out it was late and I had a mud date early Saturday morning so I looked for an express lane recipe (first mistake) which landed me with two recipes, one by a-chef-who-says-BAM but will not be named and one I had in-house from a book called Perfect Desserts.
Rather than recap my disasterous first attempt I will leave you with some lessons learned. Basically read the instructions for your ice cream maker and trust David Lebovitz.
1) When your combined cream/milk/vanilla/egg/sugar mixture is ready to cool it will coat the back of a wooden spoon without dripping. If it drips at all, give it another minute over heat. Don't be impatient like me.
2) If your ice cream maker says the bowl needs to freeze for 15 hours before use, do not think 3 hours at the very back of your freezer behind the three bags of peas you didn't know you had is a suitable substitute, it is not.
3) When David Lebovitz (and almost all other ice cream makers for that matter) tell you to cool your custard overnight, but unnamed Cajun chef says place custard in a bowl over a bowl of ice for an hour or two, do not trust him. Cool it overnight because you will end up having to do that anyway (trust me, I know).
After running amuck Saturday morning I tried again with cold liquid and a frozen bowl and was far more successful. The ice cream was smooth and creamy, but very soft. I let it freeze for three hours while I baked and cooled cookies (Chocolate Chip of course) before assembling. For assembly, if you have an extra set of hands available to you, use them. The ice cream was still soft and we had to move quickly. I attempted rolling the finished sandwiches in mini chocolate chips like my favorite ones from my youth but the ice cream was too soft and the chips wouldn't stick. If you must have chips along the edge, freeze your sandwiches for an hour and then roll in chips.
Needless to say, these are a lot of work and time but my oh my are they tasty and very much worth the effort. The cookies are a little more chewy than their packaged cousins and the ice cream is creamy and full of flavor unlike the airy stuff in the cousin's version. I am already thinking about other cookie/ice cream combos to try out. Bring on Summer! Long live the Chipwich!
Selfishly, I was looking for an(y) excuse to buy the Ice Cream Maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. On Friday night, with the bowl chilling in the freezer I began hunting for the perfect vanilla ice cream recipe. I really wanted to make David Lebovitz's recipe, as he has this book and takes the most beautiful pictures of lickable things, however I did not have that kind of time. You see, by the time hubs and I got home from another flop of a meal out it was late and I had a mud date early Saturday morning so I looked for an express lane recipe (first mistake) which landed me with two recipes, one by a-chef-who-says-BAM but will not be named and one I had in-house from a book called Perfect Desserts.
Rather than recap my disasterous first attempt I will leave you with some lessons learned. Basically read the instructions for your ice cream maker and trust David Lebovitz.
1) When your combined cream/milk/vanilla/egg/sugar mixture is ready to cool it will coat the back of a wooden spoon without dripping. If it drips at all, give it another minute over heat. Don't be impatient like me.
2) If your ice cream maker says the bowl needs to freeze for 15 hours before use, do not think 3 hours at the very back of your freezer behind the three bags of peas you didn't know you had is a suitable substitute, it is not.
3) When David Lebovitz (and almost all other ice cream makers for that matter) tell you to cool your custard overnight, but unnamed Cajun chef says place custard in a bowl over a bowl of ice for an hour or two, do not trust him. Cool it overnight because you will end up having to do that anyway (trust me, I know).
After running amuck Saturday morning I tried again with cold liquid and a frozen bowl and was far more successful. The ice cream was smooth and creamy, but very soft. I let it freeze for three hours while I baked and cooled cookies (Chocolate Chip of course) before assembling. For assembly, if you have an extra set of hands available to you, use them. The ice cream was still soft and we had to move quickly. I attempted rolling the finished sandwiches in mini chocolate chips like my favorite ones from my youth but the ice cream was too soft and the chips wouldn't stick. If you must have chips along the edge, freeze your sandwiches for an hour and then roll in chips.
Needless to say, these are a lot of work and time but my oh my are they tasty and very much worth the effort. The cookies are a little more chewy than their packaged cousins and the ice cream is creamy and full of flavor unlike the airy stuff in the cousin's version. I am already thinking about other cookie/ice cream combos to try out. Bring on Summer! Long live the Chipwich!
3 comments:
Mike had a similar experience last week with making maple ice cream for the first time. He was so mad when the custard wouldn't set up, but overnight chilling = perfect ice cream for breakfast! :)
Royela showed me this recipe a couple of weeks ago and I think it would be awesome for ice cream sandwiches! http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/brownie-roll-out-cookies/
That has been one of my biggest lessons - projects like this require much thinking ahead and always read the recipe all the way through before beginning to even plan!
Also, I am up for any and all ice cream shenanigans! I think a homemade ice cream social would be a great way to greet summer :)
Angela - maple ice cream is on my short list! Did you enjoy it? I'm afraid it could be overly sweet, do you have a recipe you liked? Those brownie roll out cookies would be great! I will test these and let you know how it goes.
Turk - an Ice Cream social sounds like a definite must for the summer!
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