unintentional milk chocolate ice cream

I haven't made homemade ice cream in ages, so I was excited to dust off my ice cream machine and get it running again. I kept things simple and settled on chocolate chip ice cream. For the base vanilla ice cream, I used Jeni's cookbook. I thought that having big chocolate chips throughout the ice cream might be a bit much, so I melted the milk chocolate with a few tablespoons of heavy cream to make it liquid, and drizzled it into the ice cream as it was churning. The result was, well, not what I had planned. Instead of vanilla ice cream speckled with chocolate, I got milk chocolate ice cream.

I realize now that I should have let the ice cream churn until it was almost completely frozen before drizzling in the chocolate. That way it would have been cold enough to freeze the chocolate into little bits. Oh well, this ice cream still hit the spot!

Jeni's recipes never seem to disappoint. You can see a few of my favourite recipes from the book here, here and here.

foodstuffs

Some random food-related pics from this past week:

1. Trying out a new flavour of Pretz from Sanko. Supposedly black pepper chicken. Tasted like peppery chicken bouillon. Oh well. The melon cream(y) soda was pretty refreshing.

2. A new-ish addiction: milk chocolate covered toasted corn from Soma. Salty and sweet, I polished off this bag in no time.

3. The first scoops of the summer at The Big Chill. So many flavours! 

I settled on watermelon sherbert and pistachio kulfi. Can't believe I've never been here before.

4. Maxwell getting his first taste (ok, more like whiff) of an original steamer hot dog from The Little Dog (conveniently located beside The Big Chill).

It was a good week! 

triple chocolate chunk cookies

These are triple chocolate chunk cookies. And they were just what I needed this past weekend.

1 C flour
1/2 C Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C butter, room temp
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
3 oz. white chocolate, chopped

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugars in a stand mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg. Mix until combined.

3. Slowly add in dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks by hand.

4. Drop heaping tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Slightly flatten the tops of each dough mound. Bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes.

baked brownies

The infamous Baked brownie has made its round all over the interweb these past few years and with the overwhelming success of their peanut butter cookies last week, I decided to give this popular recipe a try.
These rich brownies were definitely decadent. More fudgy than cakey, I recommend cutting them small and having a tall ice-cold glass of milk handy or you may go into chocolate overload. I'm partial to the crackly corner piece, slightly chilled, eaten in silence. 

You can find the recipe here or buy the cookbook, here. 

peanut butter milk chocolate chunk cookies

Peanut butter is one of those things that I rarely crave, but when I was trying to think of a new cookie to make, peanut butter somehow made its way into my head. I decided on these peanut butter milk chocolate chunk cookies from the Baked cookbook that promised to be chewy and full of flavour. I ate three as soon as they had cooled, so that means they were real good.

You can find the recipe here.

back in the day

A few months back I impulsively (as always) picked up The Back in the Day Cookbook. It was during a time when I was dreaming about a vacation to the deep south. Visions of peach cobbler, fried chicken and sweet tea were floating through my mind on a daily basis. Well, that vacation hasn't happened (yet), but I'm still hopeful that one day it will. And when it does the Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia will definitely be on my must stop list. 

Recently I tried out their chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's actually similar to the NYT cookies in that they are finished with a good sprinkle of fleur de sel, but these were more up my alley in terms of texture: crisp, chewy and buttery good!

nyt chocolate chip cookies

This chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from The Essential New York Times Cookbook and uses techniques developed by Jacques Torres. The unique thing about this recipe is that the cookie dough needs to rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours or ideally 36 hours. This "aging" of the dough is what's supposed to develop the flavour and create crisp-edged cookies with chewy middles. 

Unfortunately, this recipe was just ok for me. The taste was good and I liked the sprinkling of salt on the top, but the cookies ended up too cakey for my liking. Plus, I need that crisp outer edge and these just didn't have that (even though the recipe said they would). 

chocolate chocolate cookies

I recently made the chocolate chocolate cookies from the Milk Bar cookbook (last Momofuku post for a while, I swear).

They definitely had a very rich chocolate flavour (maybe too much so for my taste). But the texture was great. That's the thing that I've found with all the Momofuku cookies that I've made—the texture is perfect: crispy edges, chewy middles. The recipes always call for what you think will be too much salt, but that salty bite really complements and balances out the sweetness of the cookies.

I actually went one step further with these and made a Cherry Garcia ice cream sandwich...that I sadly couldn't finish for fear of falling into a sugar coma.

chocolate cherry toffee cookies

After what feels like a long baking hiatus (it's been a busy couple of months!), I busted out my mixing bowls and measuring cups and got down to business making these cookies filled with plump dried cherries, rich Valrhona dark chocolate and toffee bits.

3/4 C flour

1/4 C + 2 tbsp sugar

1/4 C + 2 tbsp brown sugar

3/4 C quick-cook oats

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 C dark chocolate, chopped

1/2 C toffee bits

3/4 C dried cherries, chopped

1/2 C butter, at room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1. Mix flour, baking soda and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream both sugars and butter for 2-3 minutes. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

3. Add flour and mix until just incorporated. Mix in chocolate, cherries, toffee and oats.

4. Form the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for an hour. 

5. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice dough into 1/2-inch rounds and bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 10-12 minutes or until edges are barely golden. Let sit on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to cooling rack.

sunday sweets

Starting Sunday off right with a few treats from Nadège. 
Sorry, I can't remember what these were called. The teardrop-shaped one had a crisp, chocolate shell filled with caramel mousse and a chocolate centre; the cylindrical one had three different layers of chocolate varying from milk to dark; and the tart had a vanilla custard filling and was topped with raspberries filled with raspberry coulis (this one was my favourite of the three).

* Nadège Patisserie

780 Queen Street W.

petit profiteroles

Pâte a choux is a type of pastry dough that can be intimidating to make. If you don’t treat the dough properly it will puff while baking, then deflate once taken out of the oven. But prepared the right way, you’ll end up with a light yet rich pastry that can be made into éclairs, cream puffs and gougères. 

These profiteroles (a fancy name for cream puffs) are filled with silky milk chocolate custard and dipped into a dark chocolate ganache. So fancy!

choux pastry (makes 15 profiteroles)

1/4 C water

1/4 C whole milk

1/2 stick salted butter, cubed

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 C flour

2 eggs, room temperature

1. In a pot, combine everything except flour and eggs. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon for a 3 minutes. Take off the heat and transfer to a bowl.

2. Add one egg at a time and beat to incorporate (the dough may look like it's splitting, but will come back together as you beat). At the end, the dough should be smooth, thick and shiny.

3. Pipe small "puffs" while still warm onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. I used a ziplock bag with the corner snipped. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Prop the door open with a wooden spoon and bake for another 10 minutes. The dough should be puffed and dry. Let cool completely before filling.

milk chocolate filling
1 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, sifted
100g milk chocolate, melted (I use Lindt)

1. In a pot, bring the milk to a boil. In another pot, whisk together sugar, cornstarch and yolks.

2. When the milk is boiling, add a couple of tablespoons to the yolk mixture to temper. Continue adding milk until all of it is incorporated. Strain the mixture and return it to the stove over medium heat. Whisk for about 2 minutes until thick and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the melted chocolate. Strain again and let cool completely. 

chocolate ganache
1/3 C whipping cream
3 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used Valrhona)

1. Bring cream to a boil and pour over chopped chocolate. Let sit for three minutes then stir until smooth.

red velvet cheesecake (sort of)

Sandwiching a layer of cheesecake between two layers of red velvet cake may seem a bit crazy, but really, it's genius.

The cheesecake component of the cake is rich and decadent, but it's also a bit tangy, so it balances out the sweeter red velvet portion.

The recipe has been floating around for a while and I'm surprised it took me so long to cave and finally make it. The problem I'm now faced with is that I have a huge cake sitting in my fridge calling my name.

thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies

I didn't think a super-thin, crispy-edged chocolate chip cookie would be my style, but I loved these. The outside becomes caramelized like candy and the middle stays nice and chewy. 

1 C brown sugar

1 3/4 sticks butter, room temperature

1 1/4 C sugar

2 tbsp water

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C + 3 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 + 1/8 tsp baking soda

milk chocolate chips

1. In a stand mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add sugars and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg, water and vanilla. Mix to combine.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Scoop onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Freeze for 1 hour. 

4. Flatten each ball slightly and bake at 375 degrees for 16-18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Let cool completely before eating.

sweets & treats

I fear that over the last few weeks I've developed quite the sweet tooth. One culprit? Caramel au beurre salé from Paris. It's rich, sweet and slightly salty. It's perfection really.    

* salted caramels (so good that I'm rationing them and kicking myself for not picking up more)

* Franck Kestener "Atlantique" dark chocolate bar w/ salted caramel and crisp butter cookie

I picked up a couple of the above bars at A L'Etoile d'Or, a small shop in Montmartre. The owner, Denise Acabo (pictured below) is a sweetheart. She showed me clippings of publications she's been featured in, asked me which blogs I've seen her on, and I loved how she would suggest chocolates for me then sample a few right there saying she was hungry. I guess she never got sick of eating chocolate.

* A L'Etoile d'Or

30, rue Fontaine (9th)

Paris