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Saffron Ice Cream + Anise Ice Cream + Plum Frozen Yoghurt + Fig Frozen Yoghurt

For my birthday I received an ice cream maker from my dad. I was so so excited about getting one of these because, between cake and ice cream, definitely my two weaknesses. This machine was sort of a let down though. In having it for such a short amount of time it definitely did quite some damage in my pockets in wasting my ingredients. I'm not sure how many recipes I made that I had to turn into "smoothies". Sort of a let down to be honest considering I want YOGHURT or ICE CREAM NOT SMOOTHIE. Grr... oh well, I brought it back, and got the money for it, but I still really miss it, especially after two recipes I will be posting here that actually worked and cost me a few pounds ;)

Saffron Ice Cream

This recipe here was the last one I attempted to make with the maker. It was insanely delicious. This had such a great flavour it was fluffy, creamy, hit the spot with the right amount of fat, and lastly it was sweet with a subtle taste of bitterness from the saffron, (I used Turkish saffron that my mom brought back from Turkey, helllloooo). This, is one ice cream I will certainly miss. The last night I had half the tub left... started with one small bowl, went back for another tiny bowl then ended up just grabbing the tub I had put it in and sat on the couch enjoying, oh it was totally worth it! I didn't really follow a recipe, I read a few different one's for a simple vanilla ice cream then adapted it myself but don't have a real source per se, sorry.

Ingredients:
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 tsp saffron

Directions:

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluff, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream, milk, and vanilla and whisk to blend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions

Anise Ice Cream

Recipe adapted from here

I have told you time and time again how much I looooove the taste of anise. It reminds me of my childhood, the pizelle's my neighbour used to bring over to us, the sweet anise cookies I made last winter, the black liccorice I have now started to feast on, and so on. When I found this recipe I knew it was meant to be. Let me tell you though, I did NOT have a fun time with this. No... my ice cream maker decided it DIDN'T want to make me a happy happer and make my life easy. Nope, all I had was liquid. LIQUID of pure bliss, seriously it did taste wonderful, but I wasn't going to give up so easily, I needed this ice cream like I need oxygen in my lungs, yes, I am being that dramatic! I froze the counterpart that needed to be frozen and tried again the next day. HALLELUJAH it worked! It worked, it worked, it worked! I seriously was overcome with joy. This was so insanely indulgent, I'm ALMOST thankful they don't sell these commercially because I'd be a whale, I'm not even joking. This tub, I ate the WHOLE thing in one sitting. I couldn't stop, it was really bad. As much as I tried to stop myself it just kept taunting me with it's beautiful speckly anise morsels and the creamy goodness it had to offer me. I told you I'm a complete mess when it comes to ice cream, but ughhhh I did not regret this what so ever, except... for the fact that I ate it all in one night and didn't have any for another day, but my memory of this ice cream will forever live on, oh it certainly will! This has got to be bookmarked as one of your top priorties to complete in the kitchen, ahhhh so great!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup soy milk
  • 2 cups cream
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 tbsp ground anise seed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Place anise seed in a coffee grinder and grind to the consistency of sand. Set aside.

Heat milk and cream in a pot. Add sugar, vanilla extract and ground anise. Continue cooking on medium heat and stirring for about 10 minutes. Do not let milk boil.

Remove pot from heat. Allow contents to reach room temperature before transferring to another container and placing in fridge until cold. Once cold, transfer to ice cream maker and follow directions per your machine.

Plum Frozen Yoghurt

Recipe adapted from here

* I never got a photo of the frozen yoghurt, however, I did take a picture of it in a smoothie I made!

This recipe here, I wanted it to be on the healthier side (which is why I even reduced the amount of sugar and changed it to honey), but I wanted this more so to be something that I would throw into my smoothies in the morning. I liked this, it wasn't very sweet, it still had a pretty tart taste but it had what I was going after. It really was perfect for my smoothies since when I mixed it with the other fruit it definitely gave it a punch. I enjoyed this even by itself surprisingly, when I first made it it was because I had plums that were going bad but in the end I was really happy with the outcome. I wouldn't make this often (if I still had my ice cream maker), but it definitely was a nice treat.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 lbs ripe plums
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt
  • Freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup of honey

Directions:

Peel plums, slice them in half, and remove the pits. Cut the plums into chunks and cook them with the water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the sugar, then chill in the refrigerator.

When the peach mixture is cool, puree in a food processor with the yogurt until almost smooth but slightly chunky. Mix in a few drops of lemon juice.

Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacture’s instruction. Eat immediately or chill for a few hours if you want it to be harder.

Blueberry Fig Frozen Yoghurt

Recipe adapted from here

This was probably the biggest failure my ice cream maker witnessed which really annoyed me since at the time the figs I had bought were $7.00 a case and had used up quite a hefty amount. What ended up happening AGAIN is that the ice cream maker decided it didn't want to churn properly and wanted to give me normal yoghurt over frozen yoghurt. In the end, I am a little grateful since it tasted like heaven, it was just disappointing at the time since I did want frozen yoghurt. The mix of blueberries and figs though, what a beautiful combination. My love of figs grows more and more every time I have them, everyone in my house seems to despise their taste because of the seeds, but me, the more seeds I get the happier I am, I dare them to bring me more because I love the extra crunch it brings to its soft self. Oh... sorry for this tangent I started to day dream I suppose, but really, if you have a trustworthy maker try this recipe, definitely, definitely worth a try!

*This is just a picture of the yoghurt, absolutely positively delicious, ahhhh!

Ingredients:

  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 5 fresh figs, stems removed
  • 2 6-ounce containers of vanilla yogurt
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

Place the blueberries, figs and sugar in a food processor and puree until smooth. Add yoghurt and pulse until mixed evenly.

Churn in an ice cream maker for about 40 minutes, then freeze for 2-3 hours for the best consistency. Scoop, and serve.

Makes about 1.5 or 2 pints of frozen yogurt.

Root Beer Float Popsicles

When making the Root Beer cookies I still had some Root Beer left that wasn't used for the extract. I had decided to make some Root Beer float popsicles since it was an easy way to use some of the pop as well as some of my ice cream. These went like hot cakes and were definitely a huge hit. They were so simple to make, were cute, and tasted great what more can you ask for? You don't even need to use a bowl!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup Root Beer
  • 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream (I used sprinkle cake ice cream)

Directions:

Allow your ice cream to melt a little, once melted pour your ice cream into the bottom of your popsicle containers and mix the pop in. This will allow it to mix together.

Let sit for 4-6 hours or until frozen.

Serve cold.

I know the summer is over, but it's still nice to have some cold treats while sitting in the warmth of your house on a cold winters night right...? ;)

Enjoy :)

2 comments:

Danae said...

Ooh that Anise ice cream does sound amazing! I'm bookmarking it right now to give it a try! Thanks! :)

Samantha said...

np! it really was delicious