Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream

I love waxing lyrical over food, especially desserts. When I've discovered a new dish, new flavour or a new combination that left a deep impression on my mind, I can't get it out of my head and have a tendency to crave for it. This happened to me when I tasted this Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream.

Well, sidetrack first. This week was a pretty busy week for me. I had sooo many things going on and was basically rushing from place to place the whole week. Though busy, I really enjoyed all the activities and am very thankful for the people who are placed in my life. I'm also really looking forward to camp, which is coming in in slightly more than a week's time....excited!!

Ok, back to the yummy ice cream. At first, I was skeptical about trying out this flavour. I don't like coconut...and I normally steer away from it as far as possible. However, I had a feeling that my family will enjoy this refreshing flavour hence I went ahead with it. 

Boy, was I majorly surprised. I fell in love with it at my first spoonful - the creamy, fragrant coconut milk melding with the slightly tart cherries like a dream. I could hardly taste the rose but it doesn't really matter, this was absolutely delicious.

It's a must to use fresh coconut milk for this as the packaged ones have an overly strong coconut flavour that I don't quite like. Oh, and use good cherries too. The dark cherries I use were absolutely delightful.

If you'd like an added crunch, sprinkle some cocoa nibs over the ice cream. I love how the cocoa nibs provide an interesting added dimension to this gorgeous  flavour :).

Cherry Rose Coconut Ice Cream

adapted from Tartlette

For the Rose-infused Cherries
145 grams pitted and quartered cherries
60 ml water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
100 grams sugar
12 food-grade dried rose buds (more or less depending on your own liking)

Preparation:
1. Place all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn the heat off and let steep one hour (longer for an even intense rose flavor). Remove the rose buds and refrigerate until ready to use.


For the Ice Cream
250 ml heavy cream
250 ml whole milk
250 ml whole coconut milk
200 grams granulated sugar

Preparation:
1. In a large saucepan set over medium low heat, bring the cream, milk, coconut milk and sugar to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, preferably overnight.
2. Process the mixture into your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's intructions.
3. Once the ice cream has reached soft serve consistency, pour into a freezable container. With a spatula, swirl in the cherries and a few tablespoons of their liquid. Freeze a couple of hours before serving.

Yields slightly less than 1 quart.

Malted Milk Ice Cream

In between making the Chinese New Year cookies, I accidentally promised that I'll bring some homemade ice cream for a girly gathering this weekend. That kinda threw me into mild panic mode, as I'm so tied up with all the other things plus the impending Japanese exam that I have no idea how to fit ice cream making into my schedule. But somehow, I did!

Mum's been going on and on about all the chocolate desserts I've been making lately and told me to make something different. Hence I thought malted milk ice cream sounded like a pretty good idea...until the point where I was about to add the chopped maltesers, then I realised that this contained chocolate after all....Oops!

I quietly presented this to her and thank goodness she didn't make any noise about it. I tasted this thereafter and it was delicious! Though the ice cream wasn't as sweet as I would have liked it to be, the chopped maltesers added a nice crunch and rounded off the sweetness level very nicely. I do hope the girls will like it!

Malted Milk Ice Cream

adapted from The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients:

1 cup half and half (I used whole milk)

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 cups heavy cream

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup malted milk powder (I used Horlicks)

6 large egg yolks

2 cups malted milk balls, coarsely chopped (I used Maltesers)

Preparation:

1. Warm milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. In a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, vanilla and malt powder and set a mesh strainer on top.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and whisk it into the malted milk mixture. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. As you remove the ice cream from the machine, fold in the chopped malted milk balls.

Yields 1 quart.

Here's to a Happy 2010!

Happy New Year! I really hope 2010 will be a much better year for everyone who reads this. Personally, I'm really thankful for how 2009 has turned out. It has so much potential to become a total disaster year for me, but it wasn't so. There were many sweet moments that touched me, caused me to believe there's so much more to look forward to rather than keep looking back at all the wrong that has happened. Plus, more than a handful of people told me this: "2010 is going to be a great year for you" and I truly believe it will be so :).

My colleagues gave me an ice cream maker for Christmas...so sweet! Well, being a total ice cream newbie, it took me two tries to get it to the right consistency. But even so, I think it can be done much better. If I'd known how difficult it was to photograph this finicky dessert, I wouldn't even have attempted. It was melting so quickly under this hot hot hot Singapore weather and my lack of scooping skills didn't quite help. Well well, this is the best I can do for now (referring to the melted brown mess :P). All I can say is, I think it tastes absolutely delicious! Melt or not, it doesn't quite matter...I'm happy!

The recipe came from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. I've read so many rave reviews about this book but never had the urge to buy it as I didn't have an ice cream maker. Now that I actually own one, my eyes suddenly twinkle at the sight of this book. The resultant chocolate ice cream was decadently rich and smooth. Some might find it too bitter with 68% dark chocolate but I loved it. The chocolate flavour was very intense and satisfied my chocolate craving for the day, which seldom happens. I think I'm just beginning to fall in love with making my own ice cream :).

Chocolate Ice Cream

adapted from The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

3 tbsp unsweentened cocoa powder

5 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrhona 68%)

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

5 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Warm 1 cup of cream with cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking thoroughly to blend the cocoa. Bring to boil then reduce heat and gently simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth. Stir in the remaining cup of cream.

2. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Set the mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

3. Warm the milk, sugar and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat making sure to scrape the bottom and corners until the mixture thickens to resemble a custard consistency.

4. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate till smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Refrigerate until the mixture is cooled thoroughly, then freeze it in the ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to freezer box and freeze for 4 hours to firm before serving.


Yields 1 quart.