Week 49

Ice

I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the “Cookbook Challenge.” Having a set topic that needs to be covered in a particular timeframe has meant that I have been cooking interesting dishes that I wouldn’t have otherwise prepared.

This also means I am learning new techniques, family and friends are enjoying tasty new dishes, (or mishaps that will never be photographed) and I am getting regular use from my mountains of cookbooks.

This week however, I have noticed I have become the ultimate procrastinator.  I have known what recipe I intended to make for at least a month, I have all the ingredients and I have found every reason in the book not to start this challenge. I love ice-cream!! I can eat a bucket of Sara Lea, Homer Hudson, Serendipity and the like, all by myself.  You would think I would have made a selection of flavours for this weeks challenge but yet here I am late submitting my dish of just one flavour of ice-cream.  More to the point, I am still waiting for my ice-cream to set!

Why??? I never procrastinate??? What has happened this week to throw my cooking mojo off balance.

Ice-cream has always eluded me. I am a complete ice-cream failure!  I have spent the last week joining forums and trying to sort out technique issues, but the day of reckoning has come.  I am none the wiser, and I have had no epiphanies as to what I do wrong when I make ice-cream.  So, alas the moment of truth has come and I am biting the bullet and making my ice-cream the “old school” way.

My first ever ice-cream was attempted when I was a teenager.  It was icy and artificial tasting and I made such a mess in the kitchen transferring from freezer to mixer half a dozen times that I wasn’t allowed back into the kitchen for months.

Next time I tried to make ice-cream I chose a recipe with out any essences or distasteful evaporated milk, and went for a yummy sounding “Chocolate Cheesecake Ice-Cream.” I also purchased a soft serve ice-cream machine thinking that would get rid of the mess factor associated with transfer from freezer to mixer for churning.

Nope, it was a bigger failure than I could have ever managed on my own.  I had unset chocolate ice-cream everywhere.  It just didn’t freeze in the machine despite any of my swearing and cursing. Then trying to get it out of the machine to put it in the freezer resulted in a chocolate mess all over the floors and cupboards. That was exactly one year ago.  The soft serve machine has never been given a second chance.  The mess was that monumental!

What has been done this time to ensure success…. Nothing, I just don’t know why I have had such failures so I really don’t know how to correct my issues.  I decided to blame the first mishap on a bad recipe and youth, and the second mishap on the *@# ice-cream machine.

Here is my recipe, and a reviewed technique for ice-cream making.  I decided to make a plain cheesecake ice-cream so that if this one ends up all over the floor, at least it isn’t a chocolate brown mess.

Cheesecake Ice-Cream

Ingredients:

450gm low fat cream cheese

1 can fat free condensed milk

1 cup milk

1 t/s vanilla bean paste

2 t/s lemon juice

lemon rind finely grated (1 whole lemon)

Mango Syrup

Ingredients:

500gm mango (fresh, canned or frozen)

¾ cup water

¾ cup sugar

Method:

Add all the ice-cream ingredients to a two litre plastic jug.  Use a stick blender to thoroughly mix the ingredients and fluff the mixture up.

Place the jug in the freezer and freeze until the mixture starts to set.

Use the stick blender to mix the ice-cream again for about 30 seconds. Return the mix to the freezer. Repeat this step again as the ice-cream is setting. Once the mixture has been re-mixed twice, transfer the ice-cream to a deep metal dish and return to the freezer.  Choose a dish which is large enough and has enough space to use the stick blender.  Blend in the metal container twice before allowing to completely freeze.

Place all the mango syrup ingredients in a saucepan and using a stick blender puree the mix.  Heat the syrup and let it boil for 5 minutes stirring regularly.  Reduce the heat slightly and stir for a further two minutes or until the mixture is at a desirable syrup consistently.  It will thicken slightly on cooling.

Pour the cooled syrup over the ice-cream for a delicious Mango Cheesecake Ice-Cream. I can tell you honestly this ice-cream was really easy, absolutely worth the effort, very very yummy, perfect consistancy and so delicious.

I have had my first ice-cream success! Thanks to the “Cookbook Challenge” forcing me to confront my demons!

Now tell me, do any readers have a particular dish they avoid making?  Have you had a cooking disaster that has stopped you making something you love eating??  Let me know in the comments section below.