Blueberry, Creme Fraiche, Graham Cracker ice cream

Wow, that's a mouthful! And once you make this you will want mouthful after mouthful of this cool, sweet treat.  The last time I made ice cream, I had some trouble.  This time, I am proud to say, no problem man!  My friend Andrea has talked about creating a creme fraiche ice cream recipe for awhile, and when she dreamed one up, and then brought the finished product to work several weeks ago I was blown away.  It was so rich and creamy in flavor, but the sweet blueberry swirl cut through the richness and added some great texture, it was purely decadent.  Given its similarity to cheesecake in taste (for me) I knew I had to try this but add a graham cracker swirl to it.

Cast of Characters:

Blueberry Swirl
1 cup blueberries, frozen or fresh (I used fresh)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Creme Fraiche Ice Cream
1.5 cups whole milk, divided into 2 Tbsp, and remainder
2 Tbsp corn starch
2 oz. cream cheese, room temp
1/8 tsp sea salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 cup creme fraiche


Graham Cracker Swirl
1 cup of crushed graham crackers
4 Tbsp of butter, melted
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a small heavy-bottomed sauce pan, mixing well. 

2. Heat over medium-high heat for 20 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved and the blueberries have released their liquid. Remove from heat  (Note: this took me 10 minutes, I went 15 and ended up with a jam like substance (see above), still tasty just not juicy.)
3. Puree mixture with an immersion blender and allow to cool (Note: my "jam" didn't need to be blended.)
4. Strain mixture and chill. Save for use (Note: I skipped this step.)

mmm slurry

5. Mix corn starch with 2 Tbsp of milk in a small bowl to form a slurry. Set aside.
6. Whisk cream cheese and salt in a medium/large bowl until smooth. Set aside.
7. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Set aside.

8. Combine the remaining milk with cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-qt sauce pan. Bring to a roiling boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 4 minutes.
9. Remove from heat and whisk in corn starch slurry. Return to heat.
10. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat proof spatula until slightly thickened (about 1 minute). Remove from heat.
11. Gradually whisk the hot mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.
12. Add creme fraiche to mixture. Stir until completely incorporated.

13. Pour ice cream base into a 1 gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge in ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as needed, until cold - about 30 minutes. 
14.  In the meantime, process your graham cracker crumbs and combine them with the sugar, melted butter and cinnamon. 
15.  Spread the crumb mixture on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, approximately 10 minutes in my oven. Remove from oven and set aside.

16. Pour base into ice cream maker per manufacturer's instructions. Freeze until thick and creamy. Add blueberry mixture and half the graham cracker mixture at the very end of the freezing process to create a swirl (Note: my jam like substance did not swirl, but incorporated completely into the base, so I ended up with a blueberry colored ice cream.) 

17. Pack into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment paper directly against the surface and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze for at least 4 hours. 

18.  Enjoy with some additional graham cracker crumbs poured on top! A small serving goes a long way, but holy smokes this is a delicious summer dessert! 

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream...

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!