Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

There are some people in my life, besides myself, who are obsessed with the fact that I'm single and have been for quite some time now. Some time exactly would be about four years. My stepmother though; now she takes the cake. Every time there is even a mention of a guy in my life, she wants to know every detail. Last time I saw her, she suggested that if perhaps I would just manifest the "perfect man", then maybe he would pop into my life. But you see, my head is way to full of other things, like to do lists, my personal accounting (or lack thereof, really), and ice cream recipes I want to try. But I decided to try her little technique anyway...but not for a man; for an ice cream machine.

I've been really thinking about buying one for the last couple of months, but other things, like life, keep getting in the way of it. So I kept manifesting and manifesting and nothing! But last Tuesday my friends, I do believe the planets were aligned perfectly and the Gods were smiling down upon me, because my friend actually brought me one. Can you believe it? I couldn't either. It just so happens that he had a brand new Cuisineart Ice Cream Maker lying around. Lucky me. I guess all that manifesting worked.

As you can plainly see I'm pretty obsessive. I tend to eat the same thing over and over 'til I can't possibly look at it anymore. The same goes for my baking habits. I've been making ice cream obsessively for about a week now. My latest and greatest creation are these Peanut butter -chocolate ice cream sandwiches. They're the perfect summertime treat, and hold up so well because they live in the freezer. The peanut butter cookies are perfectly crispy, chewy and tender all at the same time, and don't get too hard, even when frozen. This chocolate ice cream recipe is my favorite of all the ones I've tried, and trust me, I've tried quite a few.

Peanut Butter Cookies, adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Makes enough for 12 large sandwiches

Sift together:

1 1/4 c flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cream:

1 cup butter

1 cup chunky peanut butter

Add:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg, at room temperature

1 Tbsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

Add in sifted dry ingredients until just mixed. Finish by hand to avoid over mixing. Scoop dough into 24 even balls using an ice cream scoop. Freeze until just frozen. Bake on parchment paper at 350 for 18-20 minutes, or until edges are crispy and the middle is still a little soft. Let cool completely.

Chocolate Ice Cream, adapted from James Foran

4 cups whole milk

9 oz. 56% or higher good quality chocolate

8 4oz. sugar

8 egg yolks

pinch salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Caramelize the sugar until a medium amber color. Slowly add milk, being careful not to splash the hot sugar all over yourself. Whisk until sugar has dissolved. Bring milk to just under a boil, and temper yolks into the hot milk. To do this, ladle a little milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, and then add the yolk mixture into the hot milk. Using a wooden spoon, continue cooking until the milk is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add vanilla and salt. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and chill over an ice bath. For best results, chill ice cream base over night before freezing according to your ice cream machine's manufacturer's instructions.

To assemble sandwiches: Place 1 large scoop on the back of a cookie, and top with another cookie. EAT IT!

Ode to Dulce De leche

My great grandma always had a drawer full of candy in her kitchen. My favorite ones were those Brach's Milk Caramels with the various fruit centers; orange being my most favorite of the favorites. She also had the longest earlobes I've ever seen, even to this day. It came from years of wearing heavy clip on earrings. Do they even make those anymore? The clip ons, I mean? You might be wondering the same thing about the milk caramels. Or maybe you have no idea what I'm even talking about, but whatever the case may be the answer to your (my) question is yes, they do.

Until about 5 years ago, I didn't know that this fantastically tangy milk caramel I speak of even had a name: Dulce De Leche. An Argentinian favorite, it is classically made by slowly caramelizing milk and sugar. It's flavor is like no other: sweet and milky with a sneaky bite of acidity at the end. This chick I worked with showed me how to make it by simply boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk for 4 hours, and my life has never been the same. I know what you're thinking...sounds a little sketchy, right? Let me tell you a little story regarding dulce de leche and sketchy. I've always made it the same way until a couple months ago I was skimming through food blogs and stumbled upon an even simpler technique: just stick it in the oven. Yeah, the whole can. Sounded a little scary to me, but what can I say, I'm a risk taker. So the next day when I was cleaning the kitchen, I found a can of sweetened condensed milk and decided to make a little Dulce de Leche. Let me remind you of something here: I was skimming recipes, not reading, skimming, when I discovered this technique. By no means had I actually educated myself on the proper way to go about this, i.e.; temperature, length of time, etc. I've mentioned previously that my oven is ancient and at that time, in desperate need of calibration, so naturally, I cranked the temperature up to like 400 or something ridiculous, and threw the can on in. Then I went about my day of housewife minus the husband duties.

About an hour and a half later, in broad daylight, I heard a gun shot. It scared the shit out of me. Not even a split second later, I smelled burning sugar and I immediatley knew the victim was my dulce de leche. I actually laughed out loud. Ha! What a mess! The top blew straight off and the can was clean! NOTHING in it!

Needless to say, I'll be sticking to my way, thankyouverymuch. I can only speak from my personal experience, but it's a little less sketchy to me.

Dulce De Leche

1 can sweetened condensed milk

large pot of water

Peel label off of can, submerge in water and bring to a boil. Boil for 4 hours, making sure to keep water level above the can at all times. Remove from water with tongs and submerge in ice bath until cool.

Dulce De Leche, how do I love thee?

I love thee in my coffee, or salted on a spoon.

I love thee in my brownies, or whipped into a mousse.

That's all I got.

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake - Say that 10 times fast.

I love this time of year. Every spring, without fail, I’m surprised by all of the gorgeous fruit coming into its’ prime all at the same time. Strawberries are always first, and then rhubarb, and although I love them both dearly, they wear out there welcome within about 2 months. It’s not long before all I can think about is blackberries and summer stone fruit, and long for the days that we can be together, frolicking through my kitchen , hand in hand…I’m getting all worked up just writing about it. Pardon me, I’m gonna go slip into something a little more comfortable…

That said, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon cherries at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago. After tasting my way through the three varieties that were being offered (Rainier, Brooks, and Burlat), I opted to go with the Brooks because I’d never used them before. These cherries are a brighter, lighter shade of red than the more common Bing cherry. They're a hybrid of the Rainier and Burlat cherries and have a good balance of sweetness and acidity. They’re also pretty firm, so I knew they’d be good for what I had in store for them.

When I told my mom I was making a chocolate cherry cheesecake, she insisted that I say it ten times fast. It's not as hard as you might think, go on, do it. Cheesecakes can be a little tricky, especially when you are adding something into the batter that will be baked into the cake. You want to make sure that whatever you are adding into it isn’t going to release too much moisture, or really any at all for that matter. Any extra liquid can throw off the custard resulting in a mushy cheesecake that never sets up. Also, make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature, so that they mix up quickly. This will assure that you don’t whip any extra air into your cake, which could result in a cracked or sunken cake. And one last tip: allow some serious time for a cheesecake. I’m talking like a full day before you actually want to eat it. Cheesecakes are best when baked in a water bath, and then allowed to sit in an oven that has been turned off for an hour after baking. From there, they should be completely cooled in the refrigerator before eating. Of course, they can be eaten at room temperature if you prefer.

As much as I love cherries, I hate pitting them. In fact, this time around I posted up on my couch watching So You Think You Can Dance, so that I wouldn’t focus on my hatred for the task at hand. I have the cherry stains to prove it. Yeah, don’t be fooled by their light color; these little bastards still have the power to stain a dark blue couch. Because I was adding these cherries into the batter, I roasted them first, so that they could release all of their extra juices, and I could make those juices into a light sauce for serving with the cheesecake later.


Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
Makes 1 deep 9” cheesecake

30 cherries, pitted and halved
¼ cup sugar or ¼ cup vanilla sugar, if you have it
½ vanilla bean scraped
Toss cherries with sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Spread in an even layer in a pyrex dish or something similar. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes or until juices have been released and cherries are still firm. Let cool. Drain cooled cherries and reserve juice for serving. Pat cherries dry, set aside.

For the crust:
1 ½ cups crushed chocolate wafer cookies, or chocolate graham crackers
6 Tbsp (3 oz) unsalted butter, melted
pinch salt

Crush the cookies in a food processor, or if like me you don’t have one, put them in a freezer bag and use a rolling pin or wine bottle to crush them. Using a fork, mix the crumbs with the melted butter until evenly distributed. With the palm of your hand or a rounded glass, press the crust into the bottom of a 9” springform pan. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Spray sides of pan before pouring in cheesecake batter.

For Cheesecake:
1 ½ pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ Tbsp flour, sifted
1 cup sour cream
Reserved cherries from above, tossed in 1 tbsp cornstarch

Chocolat Ganache Glaze
4 oz 55% or higher chocolate
2 tbsp cream
1tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp corn syrup

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or (god bless you) by hand, begin by creaming the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla, and then the eggs one at a time, scraping down sides as necessary. Add flour, and then sour cream. Mix until completely incorporated being careful not to over mix. Turn the mixer off and fold in the cherries by hand . Pour batter over the crust and place in a waterbath about ½ way up the sides of the pan. If you are afraid that the water may get into the pan, wrap the pan in foil before pouring the batter in. Bake at 350 for an hour, or until the center jiggles ever so slightly. Turn off the oven and allow cake to set for another hour. Chill cake at least 3 hours, or preferably overnight.

To make ganache: Bring cream, butter and corn syrup to just under a boil, pour over chocolate. Stir until smooth. Glaze cake with chocolate ganache ,chill to set. Makes 12 servings.