TWD: Cinnamon Ice Cream Tart

This week's TWD recipe, for a Coffee Ice Cream Tart, can be divided into two categories: things I did differently, and things I wish I'd done differently.

In the "Things I Did Differently" camp, we have the ice cream itself. Instead of doctoring up store-bought coffee ice cream with ground almonds (??) I made my very favorite recipe for cinnamon ice cream (found below). The ice cream is delicious. I have no regrets. You can keep your ground almonds!



In the "Things I Wish I'd Done Differently" category, we have...the rest of the tart. Sorry to say, the ice cream was totally the best part of this for me. The crust was way too hard, the almond flavor was too strong, and the layer of melted chocolate between the crust and the ice cream nearly shattered a molar. I was left gnawing on my crust like a crazed rodent. Not a good look.



On the bright side, I got to play around with piping some ganache on top, and I also had some candied flowers lying around (yes, I know my life is ridiculous) so I primped the tart for a little photo shoot. "You look maaaahvelous, dahling!" (Candied Flowers photo tutorial here.)



So, I'm not in love, but I can't be mad because any recipe that gives me an excuse to make cinnamon ice cream--and then lick said ice cream from inedible tart crust--is okay in my book.



For the original recipe, visit Jessica's blog, Domestic Deep Thoughts. If I were to make this again, I'd take a cue from Katrina of Baking and Boys! and make a chocolate cookie crust instead. She's a genius, that one.





Cinnamon Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 vanilla bean pod, split in two
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Place the half-and-half, vanilla bean pod, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the half-and-half comes to a simmer, take the pan off the heat, cover it with a lid, and let it infuse for at least 30 minutes and up to two hours.

When you're ready to proceed, return the pan to medium heat, remove the lid, and whisk in the sugar. When the mixture begins to simmer, remove from heat, and whisk half of the mixture into the eggs. Whisk quickly so that the eggs do not scramble.

Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan, and cook until it reaches 175 degrees F on a candy thermometer, or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.

Remove from the heat and pour it through a strainer into a large bowl. This will strain out the vanilla pod, cinnamon stick, and any bits of egg that might have cooked. Whisk in the heavy cream, then add the vanilla extract and cinnamon. Press a layer of cling wrap directly on top and cool in the refrigerator until completely cold.

Pour cooled mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Want to make chocolate bowls like in the photo? Chocolate bowls photo tutorial here.

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Oh Yes I Did: Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies

Two words: sugar cookies.

Two more words: cinnamon rolls.

One question: can they be combined?



Oh, yeahhhhh.



This recipe-slash-BEST-IDEA-EVER comes courtesy of Jenny at Picky Palate. The second I saw it I bookmarked the page and returned regularly to drool, plan, and plot my way into making these cookies.



The idea couldn't be simpler. Take some sugar cookie dough and roll it out into a thin-ish sheet. (Mine worked best when it was about 1/4-inch thick.) Spread on some softened butter--I'm sorry, but it must be done--and then sprinkle liberally with brown sugar and cinnamon. Treat these babies like the cinnamon rolls they aspire to be!

Roll the dough, slice it into thick rounds, then bake it up. The cookies blossom into soft, sweet rounds with crisp edges and moist middles, with a buttery cinnamon swirl threaded throughout.



And did I mention the finishing touch? A drizzle of cream cheese icing, with a touch of vanilla or lemon, to complete the resemblance to cinnamon rolls, no yeast dough required.



I made these with leftover sugar cookie dough, and it's just about the best use for leftover dough I can imagine. The dough was fairly stiff and meant to be used to make precise cutout cookies. I suspect a soft dough that makes those pillowy round sugar cookies would work even better. If you'd like a recipe for the sugar cookies themselves, I'll refer you to the source at Picky Palate for further enlightenment.

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Apple-Apple Bread Pudding (MY PICK!)

Today is a banner day, my friends! Today is the day that we baked my chosen recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie, the online baking group I belong to. If you're not a member of this group, please understand that this is a Big Deal. There are approximately five bajillion members (give or take a kablillion) so most weeks, we TWD'ers end up making a recipe someone else has picked out. After a year and a half in the group, it was finally my turn, so you'd think I would be excited, right?

Well, I was excited. But I also felt pressure! And fear! And the ice-cold sweat of the guilty upon my brow! You see, everyone wants to pick a recipe the group will love. No one wants to be the one to inflict the TWD equivalent of the infamous Sandra Lee Kwanzaa cake upon their friends. Adding to this concern is my certainty that I have bad TWD karma because I complain about the recipes all the time. It's nothing against Dorie--I truly love this book--it's more about being an obnoxious nitpicky perfectionist who always wants to tweak things and make them just a bit better.

So although I was looking forward to choosing a recipe, I'm also sure that I've cosmically earned whatever apathy or negativity anyone has toward this week's recipe. And what a struggle it was to decide! I've confessed before that I am a bread pudding-holic. It's been a year since my admission, and I still haven't hit rock bottom. So obviously I'd had my eye on her Apple-Apple Bread Pudding since day one. But I had so many doubts: bread pudding isn't a springy dessert! And why use apples when there are so many delicious berries coming into season? And what about all the bread pudding haters? So I struggled. But in the end, I had to be true to myself, and my stomach, and say, as did the wise Kenneth from 30 Rock, "This mess is going to get raw like sushi, so haters to the left!"

This bread pudding was different from any others that I've made. It actually seemed almost more like stuffed French toast. Toasted brioche is slathered with apple butter, then caramelized apples are sandwiched in between the slices, and the custard is poured over the whole thing. As you can see from the picture above, the end result is just about the most delicious--and calorically deadly--sandwich you could have.
I decided I couldn't have my bread pudding going out into the world naked, so I made cinnamon ice cream to go with it. (That linked recipe is just about my favorite ice cream recipe ever. And I swear, the "Elizabeth" who submitted it is not me. I would take full credit if it was!) I reserved some of the ice cream mixture before churning, so some of the bread pudding was served with cinnamon creme anglaise instead. Either way, you can't go wrong!

Here's the truth: I didn't love this right away. Of course I'm an impatient monkey and was there with my tastin' spoon the second I took the bread pudding out of the oven. I risked a burnt mouth to shovel it on in, and...I was disappointed. I don't know if I overcooked it, or what, but it was eggy and not so flavorful. Believe me, I was crushed.

But, not being willing to admit defeat, I kept tasting it in 15-minute intervals. (Ah, dinner, I hardly knew ye.) As it cooled and settled, it got better and better. Turns out patience really is a virtue! By that evening, I liked it quite a bit, especially when served warm with the cinnamon ice cream melting on top.

But the truly happy ending to this story is that I loved it the next day! I don't know what magic my refrigerator worked overnight, but when it was reheated the next day, it was amazing. Moist, flavorful, melting into the ice cream...to die for. I'm looking forward to trying this recipe again this summer with more seasonal fruits, like using fresh peaches and peach jam, maybe with ginger ice cream? Yum!

Thanks to everyone who baked along with me this week! Here are the blogs of my fellow TWD'ers who made it, and here's the recipe:

Apple-Apple Bread Pudding
From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the caramelized apples: [I actually made this times 1.5]
3 medium apples, peeled and cored (Fuji or Gala recommended)
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp sugar

12 oz egg bread, such as challah or brioche, sliced 1/2" thick and stale

1 cup store-bought spiced apple butter [I used more like 2 cups]

3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs
5 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Confectioner's sugar or apple jelly, for finishing

Getting Ready: Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan (like Pyrex), dust the inside with sugar and tap out the excess. Line a larger roasting pan with a double thickness of paper towels.

To Caramelize the Apples: Cut each apple into smal lchunks. Put a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, add the butter, and, when it melts, sprinkle over the sugar. Cook the butter and sugar for a minute or so--you want the sugar to caramelize but not burn, so adjust the heat accordingly. Toss in the apple slices--don't worry if the caramel seizes and lumps, it will melt and smooth out as you work--and cook, carefully turning the apples once or twice, until they are tender but not soft, 3-5 minutes. They should be golden, and some might even be caramelized. Remove from the heat.

To Make the Bread Pudding: If your bread is not stale, spread it out on a baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes to "stale" it.

Spread one side of each slice of bread with the apple butter, then cut each slice on the diagonal to get 4 triangles. cover the bottom of the baking pan with half of the bread, arranging the triangles, buttered side up, so that they overlap slightly (don't worry about spaces between the slices.) Spoon over the apples and their liquid and finish "the sandwich" with the rest of the bread.

Bring the milk and cream just to a boil.

Fill a teakettle with water and put it on to boil; when the water boils, turn off the heat. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks, and the 3/4 cup sugar. Still whisking, slowly drizzle in about one quarter of the hot milk mixture--this will temper, or warm, the eggs so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining milk. Add the vanilla and whisk to blend. Rap the bowl against the counter to pop any bubbles that might have formed, then spoon off any foam that has risen to the top. Pour the custard over the bread and press the bread gently with the back of a spoon to help it absorb the liquid. Leave the pan on the counter, giving the bread the back-of-the-spoon treatment now and then, for about 30 minutes.

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Put the baking pan in the roasting pan, slide the setup into the oven and very carefully pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the pudding pan. Bake the pudding for about 1 hour and 25 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

The pudding can be served as is or dusted with confectioners' sugar just before serving. Or, if you want to give the pudding a little gloss, put about 1/2 cup apple jelly in a small pot with a splash of water. Heat until the jelly liquefiees, then brush a thin layer over the top of the pudding. Or...my personal recommendation...serve with lots of ice cream!

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TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Say hello to entry #276 in the "Not Much To Look At But Darn Tasty" category of desserts: Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars.



I wasn't head-over-heels about making this recipe, since it seems very autumn-ish and it's still only August. More fresh berry desserts, please! However, the day after I made this, we had a beautiful overcast morning in my fair city, with cooler temperatures and a cloudy sky until after 12. Do you think this means I can now control the weather through my baking? *evil raised eyebrow*



And once again, my skepticism was misplaced, because these "bars" were great! (Don't let the name fool you, though--I thought they were much closer to an apple cake than any sort of bar. But still, apple cake! Yum!) I halved the recipe but kept the full amount of spices and frosting, so it had a great flavor and a generous topping. And OF COURSE I omitted the raisins. [See ya in hell, shriveled grapes corpses!] All in all, a great pick by Karen, and a great way to start what I hope will be a long, long fall season. Now off to summon a rainstorm with pumpkin bread...

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Cinnamon Squares

You guys, my brain is fried. There is a small pathetic puddle of gray jelly in between my ears, where my thinkbox should be. I can't even summon the mental fortitude to wax rhapsodic about the cinnamon squares we made this week:



See, I'm writing this entry a few days in advance, because we're going to Peru for a few weeks and I don't want to leave my blog sad and outdated, so I've been planning on writing and dripping the TWD posts while I'm gone. However, I have also been working, and hosting my visiting brother, and shopping for the trip, and making endless (endless!) checklists and plans and contact lists, because I am a high-strung Type A monkey who can't eat breakfast without a 5-bullet point plan of action. Long story short: I have been trying to write this entry all evening and have not been able to concentrate long enough to think of something clever to say.

Which is a shame, because this was a really nice cake. I love the combination of cinnamon and chocolate, and I thought the cinnamon swirl running through the middle was a really nice touch. The cake came together easily, and had a nice, moist crumb. I might have wanted a little ice cream on the side, but that's really not the cake's fault, now is it?

Sorry Dorie, it's a nice cake, but it's no match for Vacation Planning Brain. Cinnamon Squares: 0, Mush Brain: +1. Rematch next week!

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Lenox (non)Almond Biscotti

Let me start by saying: I really liked the recipe this week! Huzzah!

Really, my enjoyment of this week’s recipe comes as such a relief. I was starting to get a complex, because I feel like every week I’m a Bad Attitude Bear. It’s all, “I wanted to like this recipe, buuuut…whine whine whine.” And while most people would agree that no one likes every recipe every time, I really thought I was the exception to this rule. I love sweets! I never knew I was so finicky until I started picking apart every single TWD recipe! Shut up, me!

So, yes, score one for biscotti. Actually, score two. This biscotti deserves double credit because I was so NOT excited about making it and was expecting to dislike it. In my face! First off, we’re not coffee drinkers, so I don’t have much use for dunkable cookies. As a rule I like my cookies underbaked and very soft and chewy…and biscotti, being double-baked and ultra-crispy, is the polar opposite of my Platonic cookie ideal.

Orange-Chocolate Chip with Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

Secondly, my first pastry job involved making boatloads of biscotti in huge Hobart mixers. If you have never lifted a Hobart overflowing with biscotti dough, let me tell you, it is heavy. Annoyingly, painfully, throw-your-back-out heavy. I was so sick of making biscotti by the time I left that job, I vowed I would never make it again unless forced to under penalty of death (or employment contract). But as they say, time heals all wounds, and my rabid hatred of biscotti has cooled down to a mild indifference.

Double Coconut Biscotti

I approached this week’s challenge with an attitude of “meh” but ended up really liking the final product! I made a half-batch, and from that I split the dough in half to produce two different flavors: a double-coconut biscotti and an orange biscotti with chocolate chips, rolled in cinnamon-sugar. I’m quite glad I halved it, because as it was, I ended up with quite a lot of biscotti for two people. Both varieties were good, but I think I preferred the orange-chocolate-cinnamon one, just because it was more interesting to eat on its own. (Both paired marvelously with hot chocolate, I am happy to report!)

I wasn’t much impressed with the taste of the unbaked dough, and was also puzzled by how sticky it was--I almost thought there was a mistake in the recipe, because it was so wet. But Dorie did not lead us astray, the dough turned out perfectly. (And I was glad to have followed her instructions to form the dough into very narrow logs, because these puppies spread.)

They start out svelte...

...but soon lose their girlish figures

The final product was delightful--so light and crunchy. At first the cornmeal seemed like a crazy ingredient, but after tasting the ultra-crisp cookies, I have to admit that it’s crazy brilliant.

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Cinnamon Crème Brûlée

Yes, this is a story about baking. It's about crème brûlée, and how to make a fine, fine batch of cinnamon-flavored custard. But mostly it's a love story. I am speaking, of course, about the love between a girl and her brand-spankin-new Bernzomatic Fat Boy propane blow torch.

Because, you see, there is only one true way to make the caramelized sugar on top of crème brûlée, and it ain't with an oven. No, my friends, you need the fierce flicker of flame that only a blow torch can provide. True, I did not believe at first--couldn't I just take Dorie's advice and place my sugar-topped custards in an ice bath under a broiler, and all would be well? Or what about the other cheater's option of making a caramel in a saucepan and then pouring it on top? Couldn't I be content with these other methods?

But then I realized that I was passing up a prime opportunity to buy yet another kitchen gadget for my already-overstuffed cabinets. "Never!" I roared. "I shall not rest until I own a kitchen torch of my very own! I shall spare no expense or effort!" Imagine, then, what a surprise it was to find a big torch for sale at my neighborhood home & garden store for $15. Glad I stuck to my principles!

Trust me, though, it was completely worth it to do this thing right. Crème brûlée, or burnt cream in English, is first made by cooking a custard base of egg yolks, milk, and cream in individual ramekins. I infused my cream with several cinnamon sticks, which provided a delicious background flavor that blended well with the vanilla in the recipe. After the custard is baked, it's refrigerated until completely cold and firm. In my case I actually made it a few days in advance and kept it well-wrapped in the refrigerator. This prolonged chilling time didn't seem to hurt the flavor or texture at all.

After the custards are totally cold, they're sprinkled with a generous heaping of sugar, and the sugar is then heated until it caramelizes--it should be quite dark, but just on the safe side of burning (no one likes the taste of black sugar!) As I mentioned above, the caramelizing is best done with a torch, although other methods will do in a pinch. If done properly and quickly enough, the custard should still be set, silky smooth, and cool, and the sugar topping has formed a warm, hard caramel shell that has to be "cracked" before you can get to the custard underneath. It is this interplay of hard and smooth, warm and cool, sweet and almost burnt, that makes crème brûlée so irresistible.

...well, to some of us anyway. I'm sadly not much of a custard person, although I did think this recipe was an excellent, excellent version of crème brûlée. I just really don't love the texture, sad to say. However, my husband adored these and ate three in quick succession. And ate the fourth a few hours later. And then was heartbroken when there wasn't any more crème brûlée available. THAT must be the sign of a good dessert!

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Snickerdoodles of Lust

I have a shameful confession: I have been watching the new 90210 show. This is especially embarrassing because not only is it lowest-common-denominator teenybopper trash, but it's not even well done trash. Whereas viewership of One Tree Hill or Gossip Girl can be defended because they provide an endless stream of over-the-top soapy action and questionably awesome fashion, 90210 has NOTHING to redeem it. It is a badly written, poorly acted, atrociously styled timesuck. But that's not even the worst part! To add insult to injury, this show is dead dull. Like, it rivals the director's cut of Das Boot for sheer sleep-inducing torpor. So bad.

"That's great," you're thinking, "now I know you're a loser who should have her TV privileges revoked. But what does this have to do with snickerdoodles?"

Well, in addition to the fact that a plate of snickerdoodles has more personality than all of the 90210 characters combined (fact!), snickerdoodles were prominently featured in this week's episode. Fresh-from-the-Kansas-farm Annie baked a batch of snickerdoodles in a desperate attempt to redeem herself in the eyes of resident musician-actor-hunk-about-town Ty.

Go Fug Yourself, my idols in snarkdom, recently wrote about what's wrong with the whole show, and they rightly called Annie out on this pathetic behavior. In the process, they deemed the offending cookies Snickerdoodles of Lust, which I found absolutely hilarious, for reasons that cannot be fully explained. My husband suggested that we form a band just so we could use the name. "We're Snickerdoodles of Lust! Are you ready to rock, Springfield?!"

So the afternoon wore on, the joke persisted, and pretty soon...I was craving snickerdoodles. Nay, I was lusting for snickerdoodles. So I ended up making my own Snickerdoodles of Lust, and even though Annie claimed it took her "all night" to make them, it was less than an hour, start to finish.

To make them more lust-worthy, I added a little spice to the dough: just a pinch of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, to give them an extra flavor boost. No wonder Ty took Annie back at the end of the episode--it's impossible to resist warm snickerdoodles fresh from the oven, with a crispy outer coating of sugar and spice and a soft, melting interior.



Snickerdoodles

For the cookies:
3 cups AP flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1 cup (2 sticks, or 8 oz) butter, softened to room temp
1-1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

To roll the cookies:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until they are fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well-blended. I think these cookies are better after the dough has chilled for a few hours, but you can make them right away if you want--they'll just be a little flatter.

Combine the sugar and spices used for rolling the cookies in a bowl. Scoop small spoonfuls of cookie dough and roll them between your palms to get nice balls. Roll them in the spiced sugar, and place them on cookie sheets covered with silpats or parchment.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until they are set, lightly golden, and crinkly on top. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

[Random postscript: I have had Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love" stuck in my head since writing this post, and I'm trying desperately to re-write the lyrics to fit "Snickerdoodles of Lust." Any takers?]

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