The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #8 {Maple Walnut Ice Cream}

 Who doesn't love a good Maple Walnut fudge or ice cream? Especially once the weather has started to turn a little cool in the mornings and evenings? 

The Gourmet Cookbook says that to get the full impact of the maple flavor, you need to seek out Grade B syrup, which is less refined and far more powerful than the easier-to-find Grade A. It also says DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT USING PANCAKE SYRUP! I found a great bottle of Grade B available online at my market, but then I sent my husband to the store with instructions, and a picture, and explicitly said Grade B, and he still bought Grade A. At least it was a good brand and it did have a very dark color and robust flavor. You will need one whole bottle of syrup, or 8 ounces.

This particular recipe was contributed to Gourmet by Ann Patchett, the novelist! I do enjoy her books, particularly The Dutch House, and I am a lover of all books, so I was happy to see this contribution. It states that "Patchett brought us this old-fashioned dessert from a vacation at the Keeper's House, an inn on Isle au Haut, Maine." That gives me a cozy and rather authentic maple feeling!

The maple syrup gets boiled down and reduced prior to adding the cream, milk and salt. When the maple syrup is boiling down it almost has the aroma of molasses - deep and very concentrated syrupy flavor. Do not worry if this is the case for you, because during my interim of making ice cream; I've noticed that ice cream flavors are very pronounced or strong prior to freezing in an ice cream machine. Once the ice cream freezes the flavors tend to mellow out a bit!

The second step is boiling the concentrated syrup, cream, milk, and salt and then slowly incorporating that mixture into the eggs. I'm not gonna lie here, I was very worried about what my mixture looked like when I added in the boiling liquid to the eggs. It looked a little bit like the eggs were starting to scramble and the texture was completely different than the other ice creams, but never fear because the final texture of this ice cream was so silky smooth and wonderful!

The ice cream base needs to chill for 3 hours and during this time I went ahead and toasted my walnuts. Chop the walnuts if you want to, but we opted for some whole or larger pieces of walnuts. Also the 1/3 cup called for in the recipe would be a little too sparse for us, so I toasted more to add on top!

This ice cream is so smooth and silky and delightful! The maple flavor is total perfection, not too little and not too much. The contrast of the silky smooth ice cream with the crunchy nuts is rather addictive and I found myself wanting to go back for more. I am somewhat biased to these flavors, but I can easily say this will be one of my favorite recipes from my Gourmet Cookbook Ice Cream series. I will definitely be making this again - with Grade B maple syrup that I buy with my own two hands! Ha-ha!

Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1-/2 Quarts

1 cup Grade B maple syrup 

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Boil syrup in a 2 quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat until reduced to 3/4 cup, 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir cream, milk, and salt into syrup and bring to a boil over moderate heat.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a large metal bowl. Add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour into saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170F on thermometer, 1 to 2 minutes; do not let boil.

Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve into cleaned metal bowl. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker until soft frozen. With motor running, add nuts, and continue churning ice cream until frozen. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

 Summer Snacks @ IHCC!

The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #7 {Lemon Meringue Ice Cream}

My family has a history with Lemon Meringue Pie. Everyone in the family loved it, but my Gramps loved it most! He used to ask for it on his birthday and then ask for it again any time we had a family holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. My mom would make two Lemon Meringue Pies, one for us to eat on the occasion, and one for my Gramps to take home with him.

Each and every time I see anything having to do with Lemon Meringue Pie, it becomes rather sentimental and makes me think of Gramps. I get a vision of him sitting at the head of the table taking the first bite of Lemon Meringue Pie and leaning his head back and closing his eyes to savor it. Then he would immediately begin singing my mom's praises over the pie.

I knew without a doubt when I started my ice cream series that I had to try my hand at Lemon Meringue Ice Cream. I kept putting it off because I knew it would be tedious and time-consuming, and it was! First, you have to make the meringue, which bakes for an hour, rests for an hour in the oven, and then rests and cools on the counter for another hour.

Once the meringue cools, you cut it into bite-size pieces and set it aside. Now it's time to make the lemon custard which consists of warming milk and cream with lemon zest and sugar before mixing it into 6 egg yolks and gently warming it on the stove until it reaches 170F. Once the mixture cools you add in the lemon juice and everything gets nice and tart! Then the custard has to chill for 3 hours.After the lemon custard chills, it's time to freeze it in your ice cream machine! Once the ice cream is frozen, you add it to a bowl and stir in the meringue pieces and then put all that into an airtight container and freeze until it hardens for at least 3-4 hours!

This Lemon Meringue Ice Cream is dead on Lemon Meringue Pie! The lemon ice cream gets a nice yellow color from the lemon zest and the eggs and it tastes almost exactly like the lemon curd in the pie. The meringue pieces are both crunchy and crispy and also chewy. They add so much fun texture to the ice cream! I'm not sure this is an ice cream for everyone, as you really have to love lemon, but I do love lemon and I enjoyed this SO MUCH! The ice cream is incredibly creamy and smooth and those meringue pieces are simply amazing and add so much crispy-crunchety texture to the ice cream. It is a delight for the senses and I think ol' Gramps would've just loved it!

Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes about 1-1/2 Quarts

For The Meringue

2 large egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

For Ice Cream

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon salt

6 large egg yolks

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Make The Meringue: Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 250F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat whites and salt in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until whites hold soft peaks. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating at medium speed, then beat at high speed until meringue holds stiff; glossy peaks, about 1 minute. Spread meringue into a 9-inch round on parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake until firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Turn off oven and let meringue stand in oven for 1 hour. Transfer meringue, on parchment, to a rack to cool completely. Peel off parchment and, working over a bowl, break meringue into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces.

Make The Ice Cream: Combine cream, milk, sugar, zest, and salt in a 2 to 3 quart heavy saucepan and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk yolks in a medium metal bowl until smooth. Add hot cream mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour back into pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to cat back of spoon and registers 170F on thermometer; do not let boil.

Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into cleaned metal bowl and stir in lemon juice. Cool custard to room temperature, then refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to a bowl and fold in meringue then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 4 hours.

Cook's Notes: The meringue can be made up to 3 days ahead and kept in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. The custard can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. The ice cream can be made up to 1 week ahead. 

Beat The Heat @ IHCC!

American Cookie #10: {The Early 1990's Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie} + The Final Rating For all 10 American Cookies!

 

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the tenth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Bryn, and I'm sharing The Early 1990's Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie! This cookie brings us into the modern era of cookies, and while I will be making more cookies from this book, this is the end of the American Cookie series for now! 

The History of The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie: Well, we all know the history of this cookie, right? This recipe went viral back before the internet! The urban legend says that a woman was dining at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas, TX and ordered a dessert after a dinner - the Neiman Marcus cookie! The woman thought the cookie was so amazing she asked for the recipe. She was told it was "two fifty" and it was the early 1990's, so she agreed. When she received her VISA statement a month later, she'd been charged $285 - $10 each for two salads, $20 for a scarf and $250 for the famous cookie recipe. The woman was rightfully angry and published the recipe, making its rounds in magazines, newspapers, chain letters, and plain old-fashioned word of mouth. Some say this story is nothing but a legend, but I tend to think it's probably true. I mean where there's smoke there's fire, right? 

Either way, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were immensely popular in the late 1980's and early 1990's and this cookie has both oatmeal and two different types of chocolate: milk chocolate and semisweet. Plus, it has nuts...you can chose, walnuts or pecans!

My Results: This is essentially an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with nuts and while I really enjoyed it, it is not my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip recipe. I do like how the edges get crisp while the interior of the cookie stays chewy. I also like the two different types of chocolate, which added a deeper dimension of chocolatey flavor. The nuts were a nice addition, adding extra crunch and a touch of saltiness, but overall I prefer my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies without nuts. I am, however, very happy to have finally tried this recipe, especially since I've been hearing about it ever since I was a teenager! It was a fun recipe to make for that reason!

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5! A really good solid oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, one that anyone would be happy to eat and enjoy! This recipe is truly good, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a busy cookie with the oats and the two chocolates and the nuts. Plus the cookie is crisper than we normally like. Our favorite is a really fat and thick oatmeal chocolate chip recipes from Ruth Reichl's The Gourmet Cookbook. Saying all that, this recipe is a very good cookie and certainly one that I will be proud to share with family and friends.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest! 

The Final Rating For All 10 Cookies, from Best to Least Favorite:

First I'd like to say that baking these cookies and learning the history taught me so much and has been such a fun journey! My cookie venture began with the very first known American Cookie, the Dutch Tea Cookie dating to the early 1600's and ended with a more modern cookie, The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie from the early 1990's. The history of cookies and baking in America is quite fascinating and it was fun to see how ingredients progressed over time. I would wholeheartedly recommend Anne Bryn's cookbook, American Cookie to anyone who loves baking and/or history! The recipes were all fantastic, with the exception of one, and I think any baker would love the book. There are hundreds of other recipes and this is certainly not the last you'll see of the book here on my blog. Saying that, we are quite worn out on cookies and have been eating one or two and happily giving them to family and friends for some time now. 

It was very hard to rate them all, but we did our best. Family and friends who have tasted and tested all the cookies are in agreement with the number one cookie and the two lowest rated cookies, but the other recipes in the middle fluctuated depending on who you asked. I did my best to rank them according to popular opinion, but ultimately I ordered them best I could. Most of us preferred a chewy or softer cookie and that played into the ranking a lot. We also seemed to also prefer a more basic and simple recipe, finding loaded cookies and cookies with lots of ingredients more towards the bottom of the list.

And now for the ranking! (Click on any bold recipe title to be directed back to the original post)!

1) Ruth Wakefield's 1930's Era Chocolate Crunch (Chip) Cookies - This is probably the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made and I even made these gluten free the first time around. These were my family's favorite and I've made them every week since!

2) 1727 Ursuline Anise Cookies - I made this cookie because it originated in New Orleans at the Ursuline Convent (which I've visited) and I LOVE New Orleans! I don't even like anise, but this cookie was the surprise of the bunch! Soft and chewy, with a slight anise-flavor that was so very subtle and pleasant, and the icing was just delicious. This is a new all-time favorite that will be made over and over in my kitchen.

 

3) 1886 Vanilla Wafer Cookies  -  These cookies smell intoxicating while baking in the oven and had the whole house smelled of vanilla. They taste like vanilla cake straight out of the oven when they're warm, but as they cool they firm up and make great ice cream cookie sandwiches. We really loved these, devoured them, and want to make them again and use them for a homemade banana pudding! I also want to make the Chocolate Wafer Cookies from the book.

4) Dutch Tea Cookies (Oldest Cookie in America, circa 1609-1664) - This was the first cookie in America and also the first cookie I made in the American Cookie series. Four ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, and water - no egg or leavening. Surprisingly delicious when you think about how simple the cookie is. These were akin to a shortbread cookie, crisp on the edges and soft in the center and I can see how they would pair very well with tea. I bet they were very popular back in the times!

 

5) 1891 Snickerdoodle Cookies  - Simplicity is beginning to be a key factor in rating these cookies and these were one of my husband's favorites. He loved how soft they were and the subtle flavor of the cinnamon and sugar. He wanted me to rate these higher, but this is after all my list.

 

6) 1917 WWI Era Banana Drop Cookies - These cookies are like eating soft chewy banana bread in cookie form. We gobbled them up very quickly. Plus, this was one of my favorite history stories.

7) Early 1990's Viral Nieman Marcus $250 Cookie - This is a great cookie, but it was a little too busy for us to be a top favorite. We decided that if we wanted a chocolatey cookie, we wanted a plain old chocolate chip cookie. However, if you love a crisper oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with nuts, then this would be a top recipe for you!

8) 1961 School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies - We love peanut butter cookies, and this was a good, solid recipe but it was also more on the subtle side. The peanut butter flavor wasn't very pronounced. I had a batch of these and a batch of Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies at the same time and everyone kept going for the Chocolate Crunch Cookie. 

9) Revolutionary War Era Joe Frogger Cookies (aka Molasses Spice Cookie) - This was a good solid cookie recipe, if you like Molasses Spice Cookies. I knew I had to include this recipe as molasses spice cookies are a HUGE part of cookie history. We ate them and enjoyed them, but I knew going into it that this wouldn't be a favorite based on our personal taste. We simply don't care much for spice cookies or desserts.

 

10) 1939 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - I never thought this recipe would end up at the very bottom of the list, but it sure did. This was the only cookie recipe from the book that I didn't care for. The cookies came out too oatemealy, were tough, and just didn't have the right amount of sugar. We didn't care for them at all, which is a shame because an oatmeal raisin cookie is up there on the list for me! 

and now back to the recipe for...The Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie!

The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Byrn

Makes 7 to 8 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats*

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, grated

1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Notes: Old-fashioned oats are called for in this recipe and that is why you pulse them in the food processor to break down the oats into a flour-like texture. If you have quick-cooking oats on hand that is okay too. Just skip the step of pulsing and add them straight to the dough. Additionally, the author suggests you can use any kind of chocolate in this recipe, but I stuck with the chocolate as written in the recipe, using a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate and I have to say I do think it yields a more flavorful cookie.

Place a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets (I use parchment paper).

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Turn of the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add the eggs and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined and smooth, 1 minute.

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse the oats until finely ground, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer the oatmeal to a medium-size bowl and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine the dry ingredients, and dump the oatmeal-flour mixture into the bowl with the batter. Beat on low speeds until just combined, 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fold in the chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts. Drop the batter by heaping 1" tablespoonfuls, 2" apart on the baking sheets. Place in the oven.

Bake the cookies until they just begin to crisp around the edges but are still a little soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Let rest on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer with a metal spatula to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container. 

 

The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #6 {Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream}

 This week I thought I would change things up and do a decadent and rich Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream!

and, whoa buddy...this ice cream fits the bill! It has a wonderfully rich chocolate flavor from the addition of cocoa powder and 6 ounces of finely chopped semisweet chocolate! 

It is so velvety and smooth, almost like a frozen chocolate mousse! What makes this ice cream so velvety and smooth is that after the custard chills, you pour the mixture into a metal bowl and whip it up for 2-4 minutes with your mixer until you see soft peaks. Then, you add this whipped chocolate mousse-like mixture in the ice cream machine and it is thick and whipped and airy and chocolately and oh so delicious.

I have loved all the ice creams I've made so far, but this one could definitely win a gold medal. It is top of the list for sure and I can see myself making it over and over.

Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1 quart

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3 large egg yolks

6 ounces good bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped

Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2 to 3 quart heavy saucepan until combined, then whisk in cream and milk. Bring mixture just to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, beat yolks in a large metal bowl until smooth. Add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisk constantly, and pour back into pan. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170F on thermometer; do not let boil. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until melted.

Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into cleaned metal bowl. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then refrigerate, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours. (Custard will get very thick.)

Beat custard with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until it is thick and holds very soft peaks, 2 to 4 minutes. Freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden. 

Olympic Eats @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!
 

 

American Cookie #9: {1961 School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the ninth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Bryn, and I'm sharing School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies with a recipe from 1961!

The History of the School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies: Peanut butter cookies didn't happen overnight. Peanut butter was invented in the 1890's and George Washington Carver spent the 1920's sharing the benefits of both peanuts and peanut butter. However, it took hard times, the war years and the Depression, for peanut butter to catch on as a source of protein and B vitamins.

In the 1930's farmers faced very hard times, financial ruin and the prices on commodities were collapsing. Parents were out of work and their children were hungry. The US Government stepped in to help through a federally supported lunch program. The government purchased surplus crops to feed the kids a hot meal, but they also employed thousands of women to cook in the lunchrooms.

These peanut butter cookies were perfect for the lunch program because they used lower cost vegetable shortening instead of butter and they could be baked in bulk. They could also be stored at room temperature. They became a staple at public school lunchrooms as well as private. 

In 1961, the Chicago Tribune featured the cafeteria manager of the Catholic Marquette Park School and they found a favorite peanut butter cookie recipe being baked for 1,300 girls by Sister Mary Trinita. The recipe shared here is that very recipe! 

My Results: The cookies were easy to make and the good news is, I had all the ingredients on hand and I bet you do too! The cookies have a subtle peanut butter flavor and aren't too sweet so I can see why they would be perfect for a school lunch. The cross hatch pattern allows the cookies to spread out to be thin and flat, making for a crisper cookie than what I typically like. I did enjoy these and they are quite good, but with their subtle peanut butter flavor they weren't my favorite all-time peanut butter recipe.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5! Good, solid recipe, perfect for the masses. Keeps well for days and stores well, subtle, good recipe. Nothing wrong, but could have a more pronounced peanut butter flavor and a chewier texture.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest!

School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus about 2 tablespoons for pressing into the top of cookies

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets.

Place the peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and egg, and beat on medium-low until the mixture is smooth, about 45 seconds. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Whisk together the sifted flour, soda, and salt in a medium-size bowl and turn this into the peanut butter mixture. Beat with the mixer on low speed until the dry ingredients are just incorporated, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Drop the dough in 1" pieces spaced about 3" apart on the pans. Press the top of each ball twice with a fork dipped in the remaining granulated sugar, creating a crosshatch pattern. Place one pan at a time in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

 

American Cookie #8 {1939 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the eighth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, which is a recipe that dates back as far as the 1880's and had evolved over time!

The History of Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Cooks have been folding oats into baked goods to stretch the dough, enhance the dough, and make things seem healthier ever since the 1880's and maybe even before that! Early oatmeal cookies used butter or lard and some used molasses or white sugar. By 1902 oatmeal cookies were made with almond extract and were said to taste like macaroons. But the good old oatmeal cookie really secured its place in American baking in World War I because the country was rationing foods and goods and according to the Lincoln Star & Evening Journal, oatmeal raisin cookies were good for the country, patriotic even, a true "wheat-saving" recipe. 

In more recent times, oats have been lauded as a health food, good for your heart and so the simple, no-nonsense oatmeal cookie, is still as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. The recipe shared here today was printed on the back of the round Quaker Oats box ever since 1939! The cookies are aptly named Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies because the original recipe called for baking soda to vanish in a teaspoon of water, but also vanishing was used to describe how fast the cookies disappeared!

My Results:  For seven weeks now, the American Cookie cookbook has consistently produced the most perfect cookies imaginable, until now. This oatmeal raisin recipe is the original recipe from the back of the Quaker Oats canister from 1939, but I didn't like it. Not at all. First of all, the cookies didn't bake up well. Batch after batch of the cookie dough baked up raw in the center and I found myself overbaking them in an effort to cook them all the way through. Next, the cookies were tough, almost like there were just too many oats. Also, I had a hunch the recipe was calling for too much sugar (3/4 cup brown and 1/2 white) and I was right. The cookies were too sweet. And finally, just not enough raisins. Overall this recipe was just disappointing. To me, an oatmeal raisin cookie is one of my all-time favorites, and what makes the cookie so good is that it's not too sweet, has a good chewiness, and has more of a granola bar kind of breakfasty flavor. This is not that at all. Saying all that, the cookie is good enough to eat, but not as good as the rest of the cookies I've made during this bake off and I wouldn't make it again.

My Rating:  2.5 out of 5 stars! My least favorite of all the cookies I've made during this challenge. These are edible, but not worth making again.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest!

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes 4 dozen

14 tablespoons (1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter), at room temp

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup raisins

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets. (I like to use parchment paper)

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat long enough to blend the eggs, about 30 seconds.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, and blend on low speed to just combine, 20 seconds. Add the oats and raisins, and blend on low until just combined, 20 seconds.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets (I use a cookie scoop for uniform cookies), spacing them about 2" apart. Place a pan in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container. 

 

The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #5 {Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream}

We're moving right along with the summer ice cream challenge, cooking our way through the Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream recipes! Up this week is Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

I was excited about this recipe because it's cream cheese based and therefore much easier than the standard custard-based ice cream. Just a quick blend of strawberries, cream cheese, sugar, milk, lemon juice, salt and then you stir that mixture into the cream. Let chill and then freeze in an ice cream maker.

It really couldn't be more easy and I do tend to love a cream cheese base. I had high hopes for this one and I gotta say it just didn't deliver. It was okay, certainly edible, but I've made another Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream years ago (click here) that we absolutely go crazy for and I prefer that one to this recipe, by far!

This Gourmet Cookbook version was harder than I'd like and also quite a bit icy. If I had to guess, I'd say the hefty amount of strawberries in this version lent the ice cream quite a bit of iciness and took away from the creamy factor. I think the hefty amount of strawberries also made the ice cream freeze harder, making it hard to scoop. All in all, it was good and refreshing, but the recipe I linked above is far superior with just the right hint of strawberry flavor and superior creaminess. I will stick with that recipe going forward!

 

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1 quart

1 pint (12 ounces) strawberries, hulled and coarsely chopped

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

Combine strawberries, cream cheese, sugar, milk, lemon juice, and salt in a blender and puree just until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and stir in cream. Chill completely.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

July IHCC Potluck @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!