Pumpkin Ice Cream

I've been thinking about making it for a couple of weeks now and I finally did it!  I remember making this last year and it being SO satisfying.



The color of the ice cream isn't a bold orange, but I think it's because of the brown sugar and pumpkin spice.  Don't let the color fool you, the flavor screams pumpkin.



 I'm one of those pumpkin fanatics come fall so this is probably going to kick off my pumpkin baking/cooking spree.  Sometime soon I'm sure I'll be making pumpkin cookies, pumpkin granola, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cinnamon pull apart bread, pumpkin muffins, and possibly even a regular old pumpkin pie.  We'll see what happens and how much energy I have to devote to my pumpkin fetish. 

Usually when I make gelato or ice cream I like to use David Lebovitz's pistachio gelato recipe and substitute all sorts of things for the pistachio paste.  I think I used this last year.

A few months ago I had read about Jeni's Ice Creams and was interested in trying her base recipe, but not using corn syrup which she recommends for the smooth texture.   I used honey instead.

I also happened to find this recipe while googling for pumpkin gelato recipes and decided to use brown sugar instead of regular sugar and honey. 

So this is what I ended up doing.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

(Adapted from David Lebovitz, Jeni's Ice Creams, and NYT recipe.   Links above.)

Ingredients

2c half and half

1c milk (I used lactose free 2%, but if I had lactose free whole I would have gone with that)

1c pumpkin puree
1/3c brown sugar
3tbsp honey
3tbsp cornstarch (use organic non gmo!!)
2tbsp cream cheese
3tsp pumpkin spice
1/2tsp vanilla extract

Method
1.  Combine 1c milk, 1 3/4c half and half, sugar, and honey in a saucepan and heat over medium heat.

2.  Mix together 1/4c half and half and cornstarch.  Add to the milk mixture in the saucepan just as it starts to boil.  Lower the temp immediately and stir until it thickens (2 or 3 minutes).

3.  In a bowl combine pumpkin puree, cream cheese, pumpkin spice, and vanilla extract.  Mix in the milk mixture from your saucepan once it's thick and chill.  You can put it in the fridge or a bowl or sink of ice water.

4.  Once the mixture is cool, process in your ice cream maker.  Ripen in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.

**Homemade ice cream usually needs 15 minutes or so to soften up when you take it out of your freezer. 

Oh my gosh, I just had my first taste of the batch I made today and I think this is the best ice cream I've EVER made.  It's really smooth and it has a great mouth feel.  The flavor of pumpkin is really strong and it's not too sweet.  Oh man, I don't know if this batch will last very long.  If you want to try it you'll have to visit within the next few days.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for the seasons and all the lovely produce that comes with it!  Help us to be greatful throughout all the seasons of the year and seasons of life.  Amen.

Cream Puffs!

This weekend we went up to the Great White North to visit my family for my mom's birthday.  Our food spread was a little insane.  Dad made some awesome steaks, mom (I don't know why she was cooking on her birthday, but it was good!) made salmon, I brought up some foccacia bread that I made, sis picked up the obligatory pancit (really chow mein), and my sis also made her famous caesar salad.  When I asked my mom earlier in the week what sort of cake or birthday dessert she wanted she thought for a minute about the things I knew how to make and burst out with "Cream puffs!" 

We decided to get more creative than I had been in the past and while we did make the classic vanilla cream puffs with chocolate sauce, we also made mango whipped cream filled cream puffs.

I had a lot more fun filling these than I usually do because since my mom is a crazy baking machine (check out her own blog here) she has every gadget known to man and let me use her injector!!  I got to inject whipped cream into every puff.  Ooh, it was fun! 

The recipe for the cream puffs comes from HERE.

I have to admit, I didn't really take note of the amount of mango puree I folded into my whipped cream. 

I followed the whipped cream instructions on the site with the recipe, then I just kept adding spoonful after spoonful and tasting until it was fantastic.  So, how's that for a measurement?  "Enough mango puree to make it fantastic."  Ha ha!!  Oh we did add a packet of gelatin powder to the whipped cream to help keep it nice and fluffy even with the mango puree.  That was my mom's bit of baking wisdom there. 

  

So instead of a traditional birthday cake, mom got to stick her birthday candle atop a mountain of cream puffs.  Yum.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  Thank you for my mom.  Thank you for all that she has done to keep our family healthy and happy.  Please bless her with many more years.  Amen.