Half Baked Harvest's Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Stuffed Dates {Insanely Delicious}!

Ok, so if you've been on Tiktok or social media AT ALL lately, then you're seeing all the amazing things people are doing with dates. Dates are so chewy and sweet and make a really delicious and HEALTHY sweet treat!

 

These Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Stuffed Dates on the Half Baked Harvest blog caught my eye a few weeks ago and I had all the ingredients so it was meant to be!

 

And, it's so easy! Cut the dates and pit them, then fill them with a teaspoon or so of vanilla ice cream and stick them in the freezer. After 30 minutes, you pull the dates out, add some peanut butter and put them back in the freezer. Then you melt some dark chocolate with a touch of coconut oil, dunk them in the chocolate and sprinkle them with sea salt and put them back in the freezer.

TOTALLY DELICIOUS...so delicious it will blow your mind. Chewy, sweet, cold, creamy, and salty. It is THE PERFECT ONE BITE SWEET TREAT and eating one will do the trick! Do yourself a favor and make these. You won't regret it! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Stuffed Dates

Adapted from Half Baked Harvest

by Tieghan Gerard

Makes 22

22 plump Medjool dates, split lengthwise and pitted

2 cups vanilla ice cream

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup roasted peanuts, chopped*

24 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoons coconut oil

flaky sea salt

*Note: The HBH recipe calls for peanuts, but I'm unable to eat nuts and seeds so I made them without nuts and they were absolutely delicious! Fill free to make the recipe your own. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Working quickly stuff each date with roughly 1-2 tablespoons ice cream. Place on a prepared baking sheet. Freeze for 30 minutes. 

Grab the frozen dates, spoon/spread the peanut butter over the ice cream. Top with peanuts, if using. It's going to be a bit messy. Freeze for 1 hour or overnight. 

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a bowl in the microwave. Dip each frozen date in the chocolate and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt (if desired). Freeze until completely frozen, 2 hours. Eat and enjoy the sweet, creamy, chewy goodness. 

 

Sweet Treats @ IHCC! 

Southern Summer Series: Just A Few Miles South: #9 Blackberry Crumble Pie! {And American Pie #4}

Somewhere in the world a woman wakes up. She's middle-aged, right on the cusp of 50. Everything hurts. Her body, her mind, her whole world. Her youngest just graduated high school and is going out into the world. Her husband travels for work during the week. She wakes up alone. After years of child-rearing, and chaos, the house is quiet. The home and everything in it is old, bought when the kids were young, back when raising kids felt like it would last a lifetime. Even the dog, begged and pleaded for by kids and their precious little voices, was in fact old and frail. The woman's mom, her best friend, had passed years ago. The other grandparents hanging on, but ailing. Sometimes the woman had her own health struggles and felt like her body was betraying her.

The world was in a state the woman didn't recognize anymore. There were screens everywhere and a lot of talk about AI. She had become the age where she started to struggle with technology, turning her debit card every which way at the checkout, struggling to keep up with her iphone, bumbling about on her new Macbook. Once upon a time she watched a black and white TV, played kickball and foursquare with friends, ran wild in the streets, and drank from the garden hose. Back then the world felt safe and sound. The world was full of promise. Nowadays, it doesn't feel that way at all.

She doesn't recognize this new life. This new chapter. It feels like everything was coming to a close. An ending. The phase were you lose things. She worries over her kids flying the nest, she worries over losing her Dad. She worries about losing her own health. Losing the dog. Losing, losing, losing.

The woman sits alone in the empty house that feels way too big now. She tries to find the answers to big questions like, "why didn't anyone tell her the best time of her life was when she was in her 30's and the kids were little, both her parents were alive, and she had perfect health?" She wonders how this new phase of her life with grown children, aging parents, and an aching body can possibly beat those younger years when EVERYONE she loves was together. And, again, she turns on the TV, she inevitably goes on social media, and SHE DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THIS WORLD she lives in. She is nostalgic about the good 'ol days. She would happily drink water from the garden hose again.

She is old enough to know there is no point in dwelling. She knows there is nothing that can be done. She has to move forward. She tries to stay busy. She reads books. She goes for long car rides in the country. She visits family and friends. She tries her best to take in all the good times because she knows they're fleeting. She cherishes time with friends and family.

She does kitchen therapy. She takes a drive out into the country and buys blackberries from the farm, the same farm she used to take her kids to. She watches the other mothers with her kids picking blackberries. She hears the little boy say, " this is the best day ever" as he eats blackberries with the juice running down his chin. She remembers when her boy was little and said the same. She wants to tell the mom to cherish those days, but she doesn't wanna be one of those people, so she says nothing. She drives home with her blackberries listening to her new audiobook. It's quiet and peaceful, but it used to be loud with both kids in the backseat. She misses the noise, but she turns up the audiobook. She's trying.

When she gets home she washes the berries and starts making the pie crust. She has plenty of berries because no little hands have been gobbling them up. She kneads the dough and rolls it out. Her hands are busy, but her heart is hurting. The house is too quiet. The house and the dog groan with age. Years ago she made the same pie and the kids were loud, the kitchen was new, the dog was playing and barking. Laughter filled the air.

She bakes the pie and starts to work on the crumble topping. Again, her hands are busy working the butter, oats, and sugar. She thinks about how there were three policemen shot for no reason in her old hometown. On their lunch break, towards the back of a dead end road, they stopped to eat their lunch and a man with an assault rifle attacked them. She worries about the state of the world. The world her aging parents have to see. The one her kids have to live in, hopefully for many years. The world she doesn't recognize. The old dog chokes in her sleep and the woman snaps out of her deep thoughts. She looks up at the kitchen ceiling and sees the water damage from the tub upstairs. The light over the kitchen island makes a loud tink sound and the light goes out. The house creaks. The house is old.

Where did all years go? It feels as if they all went by ALL OF A SUDDEN, when her youngest crossed the stage on graduation. Everything changed then. 

The woman puts the pie in the oven and she remembers her husband and youngest will be home soon. Her daughter is coming over for dinner. She is thankful for that, but one of the policemen has just died. She can enjoy a Blackberry Crumble Pie with her family tonight, but somewhere in her hometown a family cannot. It reminds her of all the suffering in the world. The women flashes to her biggest suffering of all, back when her mom was dying. She remembers when her mom whispered to her "Life is for the living, baby. Promise me you will live life to the fullest when I go." The woman remembers her promise. She pulls the most beautiful pie out of the oven and she whispers, "I'm trying my best, mom." 

The house is full of laughter and noise when the woman serves the pie. Everyone is raving about how delicious it is and how the crumble topping really makes it. Someone loves it with vanilla ice cream and someone else loves it all on its own and for a short time all is as it once was and the woman is so grateful. 

She remembers her hero, the one she called Gramps. She remembers something he used to say all the time back when she was a teenager. He'd tell her over and over "The key to life is learning how to adjust." Her teenage brain didn't understand it. She used to think it was so funny. But over the years she thinks of him often, wishing he was around to give advice, and she'd remember. She'd hear his big voice boom saying "the key to life is learning how to adjust" and she'd laugh. She was old enough to get it. She thinks of this now and she says to herself,  "I have to learn how to adjust to this new normal. It will take time, but I have to keep trying."

And she cuts herself a slice of pie.

Every summer I like to chose a cookbook or a special focus and do a summer cooking series. Some of the summer series that I've done in the past are: popsicles; ice creams; cookies; salads; and healthy recipes. One series I've always wanted to do is a series of southern summer recipes. So, this summer I chose a local cookbook from James Beard Nominee, Ouita Michel. Each week I will be cooking recipes from Ouita's Just A Few Miles South Cookbook. *THIS BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE PIE IS #9 IN THE SOUTHERN SUMMER SERIES FROM JUST A FEW MILES SOUTH.

Blackberry Crumble Pie

Adapted from Just A Few Miles South

by Ouita Michel

Makes 1 9" pie

Crust

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon iodized salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

2-1/2 - 4 tablespoons cold whole milk

Filling

1-3/4 pounds (about 6 cups) fresh blackberries, washed and drained

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup cornstarch

Crumble

2/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

pinch iodized salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) frozen unsalted butter

For The Crust: Add flour and salt to a food processor and pulse several times to combine. Add butter and pulse until it is broken into very small pieces and the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add vinegar and then slowly pour in milk, pulsing until the dough comes together. Remove from the processor and knead on a floured surface several times. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before using. Roll out the pie crust, fit it into a 9" pie pan, and flute the edges. Chill until ready to fill.

For The Filling: In a large bowl, mix blackberries and lemon juice. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cornstarch. Pour the sugar mixture over blackberries and mix well. Place the prepared crust on a parchment lined baking sheet. Mound the berry mixture in the crust and bake 30 minutes.

For the Crumble Topping: While the pie is baking, pulse oats in a food processor into a large crumb. Pour into a small bowl and combine with brown sugar, flour, and salt. Grate frozen butter into the oats mixture and toss together by hand. After the pie has baked 30 minutes, pull it from the oven and top evenly with the crumble. Reduce heat to 350F, return the pie to the oven, and continue baking another 30-35 minutes, checking often, until the berry filling bubbles through the topping and the crumble is crisp, golden brown, and cooked through.

Cool pie to room temperature, allowing the filling to set, before serving. Serve a slice as is, or with whipped cream and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Southern Summer Series: Just A Few Miles South

 

 

Southern Summer Series: Just A Few Miles South #5: Buttermilk Chess Pie! {and American Pie #3}

Every summer I like to chose a cookbook or a special focus and do a summer cooking series. Some of the summer series that I've done in the past are: popsicles; ice creams; cookies; salads; and healthy recipes. One series I've always wanted to do is a series of southern summer recipes. So, this summer I chose a local cookbook from James Beard Nominee, Ouita Michel. Each week I will be cooking recipes from Ouita's Just A Few Miles South Cookbook. 

This week we have a dessert! A traditional southern pie, Buttermilk Chess Pie. Chess pie is a custard dessert pie made with eggs, sugar, butter and flour in a pastry crust. It is usually flavored with lemon juice and vanilla and is sometimes thickened with cornmeal. 

There are a few theories about how the pie got it's name. One is that it refers to a "chest" where pies were stored before refrigeration. Another theory is that it comes from a Southern accent of mishearing "just pie" or "jes' pie." There is another theory that it might be a variation of cheese pie, but there's no cheese in the recipe so I think the name takes roots in the southern accent itself.

This Buttermilk Chess Pie is not thickened with cornmeal. In fact, it has very few ingredients. Once you blind bake the pie crust things come together very quickly. A quick mix of eggs, melted butter, sugar, flour, salt, buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, and nutmeg and you're ready to pour it in the pie shell and bake.

 I've had versions of Chess Pie several times, but this is my first time making it. It is sweet and creamy like custard with subtle hints of vanilla and lemon. It's a subtle pie, but one that is delicious and that you can likely make with pantry ingredients. You can serve it like is, or dollop a little whipped cream on top with some berries on the side. 

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Adapted from Just A Few Miles South

by Ouita Michel

Makes 1 (9-inch) pie

1 recipe Midway Bakery All-Butter Pie Crust, blind baked*

3 large eggs

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

1-1/2 cups sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)

 

Midway Bakery All-Butter Pie Crust: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 stick butter (cut into small pieces), 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar, 2-1/2 to 4 tablespoons cold whole milk. Add flour and salt to a food processor and pulse several times to combine. Add butter and pulse until it is broken into very small pieces and the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add vinegar and then slowly pour in milk, pusling until the dough comes together. Remove from the processor and knead on a floured surface several times. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before using. 

To blind bake a pie crust, roll out the dough, line a pie pan with it, flute the edges, and prick the bottom all over with a fork. Freeze the crust in the pan for as least 30 minutes. While the crust is freezing, preheat the oven to 375F. Remove the crust from the freezer and line it with parchment paper, allowing about 2 inches to hang over the sides to serve as handles for lifting. Make sure to fit the parchment snugly into the angle where the bottom meets the sides. Fill the pan to the top with uncooked dry beans or rice or ceramic pie weights. Bake 25 minutes. Using the parchment handles, remove the weights from the pie, reduce the temperature to 325F, and continue baking 15 minutes, until the crust has dried out and is light golden brown. Allow it to cool to room temperature before continuing with the recipe. The rice or beans can be reused as pie weights many times. 

For the Buttermilk Chess Filling: Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add butter, sugar, flour, and salt. Then add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, and nutmeg, if desired. Mix to combine.  Pour into the cooled pie shell. Bake 40 minutes, or until the center is firm and set when lightly touched. Cool on a wire rack before serving.   

 

 

Ina Garten's Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread

Dear Ina,

Shortbread cookies are delicious and Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread Cookies are PERFECT for Christmas, but I think you left one vital ingredient out of your recipe!

Hands! The secret to getting shortbread dough to come together is using the warmth of your hands to shape the dough together. 

No matter what I do I'm always left with a very crumbly mess that looks like it will never come together with any mixer. I stared at the dough of this recipe and thought I'd have to though the whole batch out and then I scrubbed my hands real well and started forming and mixing and holding and shaping and combining until I got the dough into a ball.

I'm not sure if this happens in your neck of the woods, but I feel like this belongs in every shortbread recipe. The secret ingredient is hands and hot hands at that. You are the machine that will form the dough together!

I say this because I don't want beginning bakers and cooks to get scared off and they might not know what to do otherwise.

Now saying that, once your form that dough together with your hands, rolling it out and baking it is the easy part.

I love the flecks of cinnamon throughout the dough and the scent is amazing while baking. I didn't have nutmeg or cloves for the sugar coating so I opted for cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. My pumpkin pie spice had nutmeg and cloves but also some other warm spices that worked just great. 

These are the perfect cookie to enjoy while trimming the tree, or wrapping presents, or doing online shopping, or with tea and/or hot chocolate. We loved them!

But hands Ina, please tell the people to use hands.

Sincerely,

Kim 

Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread

Adapted from Go-To Dinners

by Ina Garten

Makes 16 to 20 cookies*

For The Cookies

3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

salt

For The Sugar Coating

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Note: Amount of cookies the recipe makes depends on the size of your cookie cutter and how thin you roll the dough.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, the 1 cup sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon warm water on low speed until they are just combined (don't whip it). In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, the 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing just until the dough comes together in large clumps. Transfer to a floured surface and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for just 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2 inch thick on a floured board and cut with a large (3-1/2") star cutter or any other shape you like! Place the cookies one inch apart on the prepared sheet pans and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown. 

Meanwhile, for the sugar coating, combine the 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, sprinkle them thickly with the sugar mixture and allow to cool on the sheet pans. When the cookies are cool, shake off the excess sugar mixture and serve warm or at room temperature.

A Tree Trimmin' Good Time @ IHCC!

Erin French's Glazed Butter Cake from The Lost Kitchen!

 Dear Ms. French,

Your Glazed Butter Cake has been on my mind since I binge watched your show, The Lost Kitchen, earlier this summer. The cake sounded like heaven and looked like something everyone would love. I knew instantly I needed to make it.

It took me a few months to acquire both of your cookbooks and now that it is officially "the holidays," I have a reason to make it.

Words cannot express how wonderful this cake is! A fluffy and buttery pound cake with a thick, sweet butter glaze scented with vanilla and almond extract...it truly is the quintessential dessert! I ate a slice warm with blueberries and whipped cream and it was like total bliss...the warm cake fragrant with almond and vanilla, the pops of the blueberries, and the clouds of fresh whipped cream. 

Then I had another slice all by itself and it was equally delicious, almost like stepping back in time and having the most wonderful homemade dessert made by mom or grandma. It is more than a dessert. It's comfort. It's a warm hug.

When my husband had a slice he said, "this is one of the best desserts you've ever made." Then he looked out the window and saw the neighbors raking leaves and he said "I kind of just want to go out with this cake and start giving it to everyone so they can taste how wonderful it is." 

Then he went ahead and had a second slice.

Between my husband and I we ate half the cake.

This is now my new GO TO DESSERT. I'll be making it with different flavored glazes and serving it with different fruits. If I'm called on to make something to take somewhere, it will be this cake. 

I will be singing praises for this cake for days and weeks to come. It will go down as one of my top recipes of 2024, but I will be making it for many years to come.

I am thankful for this recipe and I am thankful for you!

A Truly Devoted Cake Eater in Kentucky

P.S. I felt like this cake called for blueberries. An ode to Maine. 

 

Glazed Butter Cake

Adapted from Big Heart Little Stove

Recipe by Erin French

Serves 8-10

For The Cake

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup buttermilk (well shaken before measuring)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For The Glaze

1 cup granulated sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Make The Cake: Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9-inch loaf pan, line with parchment paper, and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on high speeds until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating the first egg before adding the second one.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

With the mixer on low, one large spoonful at a time, alternate adding the dry mixture and the buttermilk, mixing until well combined. Add the vanilla and mix just briefly to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until the cake is golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Make The Glaze: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup water and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and let the glaze cool slightly; then whisk in the vanilla and almond extracts. The glaze will cool and thicken a bit as it sits.

For a quick and rustic finish, brush the glaze over the top of the loaf in the pan. Allow the cake to cool completely, remove from the pan and slice. Or, to really allow the cake to soak up all the delicious glaze, let the cake cool in the pan until it's comfortable to handle. Remove the cake and transfer to a cooling rack set over a baking sheet, to catch the drips of glaze. Brush the glaze over the entire cake; top, bottom, and, sides. You will need to work gently and carefully, but it's worth it to get every inch of this cake covered in glaze. Repeat until all of the glaze has been used.

Let the cake cool completely, then wrap tightly and store on the counter for up to 3 days. 

Desserts To Be Thankful For @ IHCC!
 

Erin French's Apple Cider and Rosemary Sorbet From The Lost Kitchen!

Over the summer I made ten different ice creams, or frozen treats, and learned a lot! A few weeks ago I bought some apple cider and decided to pour it into my ice cream machine. The instant results were delicious, kind of like an apple cider slushy or granita. When I put away the leftovers, however, they froze solid in the freezer. I had a feeling that would happen.

That very week, I bought Erin French's The Lost Kitchen Cookbook and saw her recipe for Apple Cider and Rosemary Sorbet! Imagine my surprise when Erin added a rosemary infused simple syrup to the apple cider. Turns out the simple syrup is exactly what this needed to sweeten the dessert up and also keep the sorbet more scoopable in the freezer. Simple syrup for the win! And by the way, use ALL the simple syrup. It might seem like a lot, but Erin says when things freeze they usually require more sugar because our taste buds can't taste the sweetness as much.

Look, this is THE FALL DESSERT OF YOUR DREAMS! Seriously, it's so easy and refreshing and delicious - literally everyone should be making it! Make it with a basic simple syrup, infuse it with rosemary for some added earthiness, scoop it into a glass and pour some Prosecco over it. Whatever you do, just make it! Its amazing!

 Apple Cider & Rosemary Sorbet

Adapted from The Lost Kitchen

by Erin French

Makes about 1 pint

Rosemary Simple Syrup (recipe follows)

2 cups apple cider

Making The Rosemary Simple Syrup: Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 4 sprigs of rosemary in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Allow the mixture to boil just long enough for the sugar to dissolve, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. Pour into a jar with a lid and refrigerate for up to a week  

Making The Sorbet: Combine the rosemary simple syrup and apple cider, then transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions (or as I like to say, until you get the desired consistency).

 

 I Heart Cooking Clubs Welcomes Erin French!

Ina Garten's Easy Sticky Buns {An Easy and Fun Autumn Treat}!

Ina Garten's Easy Sticky Buns are the epitome of easy. There is no need to make any dough because you simply use puff pastry. Puff pastry is so easy to work with and the recipe comes together in no time.

First you make a mixture of butter and brown sugar and smear it into the bottom of a muffin tin. The butter and brown sugar mixture is topped with chopped nuts - feel free to use any nut you have. The recipe called for pecans, but I had walnuts so I used those!

Then you roll out the puff pastry dough, brush it with melted butter and top that with brown sugar and cinnamon. At this point you can add raisins or really anything else you'd like. I chose to forego the raisins.

Then you roll the dough up lengthwise and cut each roll into sixths. Place each sixth on top of the butter and brown sugar mixture with the nuts and bake!

I would advise to watch these closely. The butter and brown sugar mixture will rise up around the puff pastry and you don't want it to over cook or it will become to hard and sticky and start to take on a burnt sugar flavor. Ina says to bake these for 25-30 minutes, but I found that just under 20 minutes was the right amount of time for my oven!

These rolls are in fact sticky and delicious. Fair warning though, they are not a soft cinnamon roll sort of pastry. Instead they are buttery, flaky, crispy, sticky and almost verging on too sweet. Which reminds me to point out that you could do with using less brown sugar, especially if you don't like desserts that are cloyingly sweet. Otherwise, they are delicious and fun to make!

Easy Sticky Buns

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa

by Ina Garten

Serves 12

12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) butter, at room temp

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup pecans, chopped in large pieces*

1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted)

For the Filling:

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cups light brown sugar, light packed

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup raisins* 

*Note: You can make this recipe with nuts and without nuts. With raisins and without raisins. You can use pecans or walnuts, or use any nut. The point is, feel free to tuck any nut or dried fruit in this mixture. You could even sub chocolate chips or caramel chips. Make it your own!

Preheat the oven to 400F. Place a 12 cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 12 tablespoons of butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 tablespoon of the mixture in bottom of each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly between the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half the melted butter, leaving a 1 inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/2 cup of raisins (if using). Starting with the end nearest to you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam-side down. Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second piece of puff pastry.I

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the buns/rolls are golden brown on top and firm to the touch. Be careful- they're hot! Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and nuts out onto the buns with a small spoon) and cool completely! Enjoy!

September Potluck @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!
 

The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #10 {Prune Armagnac Ice Cream} And My Top Favorites From the Gourmet Ice Cream Series!

This is almost the ice cream that wasn't. I was slated to make it three weeks ago and was under the impression that I could just walk right into my local liquor store and buy a bottle of Armagnac. Boy was I mistaken! After three weeks of trying to source Armagnac, I finally gave up and decided I was making this ice cream with a substitution, Brandy! It is what it is, folks.

This recipe was a little more time consuming to make, simply because the prunes need to macerate in the brandy for at least 12 hours! Then the macerated prunes get blended with a cup of the ice cream base before being adding back into the ice cream based and stirred. Please feel free to see the picture below where I stirred the macerated and blended prunes into the ice cream mixture. I had high hopes for a beautiful deep plum colored ice cream, but this is when I realized this was not that, as they say.

 

 

Look! My ice cream is a beautiful shade of peanut butter with prune chips running throughout! From this point on, I will now refer to this as Prune Chip Ice Cream, thank you very much!  

 

In The Gourmet Cookbook, Ruth Reichl states "The brandy prevents the ice cream from being too sweet and keeps it slightly soft, with a consistency closer to that of gelato than of ice cream. This recipe comes from the Mapotel de France in the lovely Gascon town of Auch, via Gourmet reader Robert White.

 

The ice cream is in fact soft, with a whipped consistency, and little baby bits of prune chips scattered throughout, kinda remind me of how chocolate chip ice cream in appearance, but not in taste.This is most definitely an adult ice cream. You can definitely taste the alcohol and the little bits of prune chips contribute some texture and a mild prune flavor. The ice cream itself has some carmel notes, but is on the whole quite mild. I didn't mind this ice cream and it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't delicious. It is not my favorite ice cream, but I am very happy to have finally experimented with these flavors.

 

And now for the top favorite ice creams in the series! Over the past ten weeks I made ten ice creams: Vanilla Bean Ice Cream; Burnt Orange Ice Cream; Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl; Italian Lemon Ice; Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream; Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream; Lemon Meringue Ice Cream; Maple Walnut Ice Cream, Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream; and Prune Armagnac Ice Cream. 

All of the recipes were good but my all-time favorite was the Maple-Walnut Ice Cream. I love all things maple-flavored and the flavor of the maple with the texture of the walnuts was simply irresistible. Plus, the ice cream base was smooth and velvety. Our second favorite was the Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream. It was so rich and chocolatey and did indeed have a velvety texture. And, the third favorite was the Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Blueberry Swirl. It was summery and refreshing and so easy to make. I loved the cream cheese ice cream base and the possibilities on different swirls and variations.

Runners up would be the Italian Lemon Ice...on a hot day that would be the most refreshing treat there is and it is so lemony it'll make your mouth pucker. And also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream. That brown sugar base was really something special.

I had a very fun time trying out lots of fun ice cream recipes and will experiment with more at a later date. For now, we all need a little break from ice cream.

Prune Armagnac Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1 quart

3/4 cup (about 6 ounces) pitted prunes

1/3 cup Armagnac

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half and half

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

Pack prunes into a 1/2-pint jar and add Armagnac; it should just cover them. Cover jar and let prunes macerate at room temperature for at least 12 hours.

Combine cream, half and half, and salt in a 2 quart to 3 quart heavy saucepan. With tip of a knife, scrape seeds from vanilla bean into cream mixture, then drop in pod. Bring mixture just to a boil and remove from heat.

Whisk together yolks and sugar in medium metal bowl. Add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly, then pour into saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 on thermometer; do not let boil.

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

Pulse prunes with macerating liquid in a food processor to a thick, slightly chunky puree. Add about 1 cup cold custard and pulse just until well combined, then whisk mixture into remaining custard.

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

From The Orchard @ I Heart Cooking Clubs!

The Gourmet Cookbook's Ice Cream #9 {The Best Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream}

I know, I know. Right now you're thinking, Rum Raisin Ice Cream? And I am here to tell you YES, WE HAVE BEEN MISSING OUT FOR WAY TOO LONG!

Imagine a brown sugar ice cream base...I bet you've never had that, because I know I haven't. Well, imagine this deep rich flavorful brown sugar ice cream base with hints of boozy rum flavor and raisins that give a very chewy caramely kinda vibe. 

I can't vouch for those other vanilla ice cream-based rum raisin recipes, but I can vouch for this one with it's brown sugar ice cream base. I'm telling you right now...this ice cream is giving SO MUCH FLAVOR AND TEXTURE! It's giving fall vibes in the best way! Deep, dark notes of brown sugar, rum, caramel...it's just heavenly.

I imagine this ice cream at all the fall festivals, on all the apple pies, and every other fall dessert and/or occasion.

DO NOT CONTINUE TO MISS OUT ON THIS!

 

 Brown Sugar Rum Raisin Ice Cream

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

by Ruth Reichl

Makes 1 quart

1/3 cup dark rum*

3/4 cup raisins*

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half and half

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

Heat rum in a small saucepan until just warm. Remove from heat, add raisins, and let stand, covered, for 1 hour.

Combine cream, half and half, and salt in a 2 quart heavy saucepan and bring just to a boil.

Meanwhile, whisk together eggs and brown sugar 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; do not let boil.

Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve into cleaned metal bowl. Add rum and raisins. Cool completely, stirring occasionally, then refrigerate, covered until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 6 hours.

 Potluck Week @ IHCC!

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!