Well, hello heat.
Every June, when the temperature climbs here in northern Florida, I’m always surprised. I should not be surprised – I’ve lived here long enough to know that this is Florida’s way. But, it always seems that we should have more of the spring season than we end up having. Instead, spring is over in a flash and we’re on to sweltering summer, which fills up the majority of our year. The heat would be more tolerable if it were less humid out. Leaving work at the end of the day earlier this week, the thermometer in my minivan read 101°F. With somewhere between 70 and 80% humidity, it felt as if a sauna door had been left open.
Make that 100 sauna doors.
One bonus of the heat – and summer in general – is that the ice cream maker gets unearthed from the depths of our pantry. Earlier this summer, I made olive oil ice cream, something that I fully intend to make repeatedly in the years to come. Last weekend, I tackled an old favorite of mine – mint chocolate chip ice cream. Since my husband and daughter prefer strawberry ice cream, and my son seems to prefer chocolate, this batch was made with me, and only me, in mind.
Although I did share.
The methodology is very simple. The milks and creams that form the custard base are infused with fresh mint, and then chocolate chips are added to the ice cream near the end of the freezing process. I used five big sprigs of fresh mint and let the warmed milk mixture infuse with flavor for about an hour. The mint ice cream – good enough to enjoy on its own, without any chocolate – was bright and vibrant and heavenly. The addition of semi-sweet miniature chocolate chips added a fantastic chocolate crunch with each spoonful of creamy goodness.
Yield: 1 1/2 quarts
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Filled with fresh mint flavor and sweet chocolate chips, this is a refreshing summer ice cream that can be made up to one week in advance.
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup whole milk
5 large sprigs of fresh mint
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
8 ounces miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a large heavy saucepan on medium heat, warm the cream, half-and-half, milk, mint sprigs, and sugar. Bring just to simmering, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat. Let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Strain out the mint leaves.
Return saucepan to burner over medium heat and heat cream until almost simmering, stirring occasionally. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add hot cream mixture to the eggs in a thin slow stream, whisking continuously. Pour mixture into saucepan and cook over low heat until the the custard coats the back of a spoon (or 170 degrees on a thermometer). Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl set in an ice bath to cool. Cover the surface of the custard with wax paper and chill in refrigerator overnight.
Following the instructions on an ice-cream maker, freeze custard, in 2 batches if necessary. When there is about 5-10 minutes left in the freezing process, pour in chocolate chips. Transfer ice cream to an air-tight container and place in freezer to harden.
PrintOne of my favorite things to do on lazy weekends – on the occasion that I get a lazy weekend – is to sit at my breakfast nook table, preferably with a cup of coffee in hand, and flip through the latest issues of food magazines. I can often convince my kids to join me. They think it’s fun to look at the food photography and identify what dish they might like to eat. I often quiz my kids on what ingredients are in each beautifully-styled dish featured in the glossy pages of the magazines. Many times they get the ingredients right. Other times they don’t. For some reason, my daughter first identifies most meats in the photos as horse. And I swear we’ve never eaten horse.
A couple of weekends ago, we picked some blueberries at one of the local blueberry farms. Lots of blueberries, actually. Nine pounds of them. Forty-three dollars worth, in case you were wondering. I was a little overwhelmed at the amount. After the split second it took me to get over the fact that we had just picked over $40 worth of blueberries, I nudged my husband to hand over the cash to the sweet woman behind the folding table. I had asked my kids to fill their buckets, so they did.
Later that day, I sat down at the table with a few magazines in front of me. The recent issue of Better Homes & Gardens was top on the stack. Madeline and Oliver each took a seat beside me and we started flipping pages, looking for blueberry inspiration. A recipe for blueberry ice cream pie caught my attention, mostly because it was a recipe of southern chef Scott Peacock‘s. It caught the kids attention because it had plump blueberries and vanilla ice cream, all packed together in a pie. My kids are suckers for pie. And ice cream.
I made one huge mistake with this dessert. I made it on a day when we had no one else around to help us eat it. This is the type of frozen dessert that is appropriate for pulling out of the freezer to serve at a July 4th barbecue or at a children’s birthday party. It’s a little overwhelming for a family of four.
The recipe uses five cups of fresh blueberries, three of them in the syrupy blueberry sauce and another two cups are used as topping. While it wasn’t the most attractive pie to photograph, the sweet richness of it certainly made me the Best Mommy In The World.
For about an hour, anyway.
I’ll take what I can get.
Yield: 10 servings
Blueberry Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients:
Ingredients for Crust
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Ingredients for Blueberry Sauce
3 cups blueberries, rinsed, well-drained, & carefully picked through for damaged berries
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
⅛ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon water
Ingredients for Assembly
1 quart vanilla ice cream (store-bought or homemade)
¾ cup blueberry sauce, chilled
½ cup sour cream
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed, picked-over, and well-dried on paper towel-lined baking sheets
Remaining blueberry sauce, heated
Directions:
Preparation of Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor, combine oats, almonds, brown sugar, and salt. Pulse until coarsley ground.Transfer to a small bowl and stir in melted butter. Dump into a 9-inch pie plate and press evenly onto the bottom and sides with your fingers.
Bake 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely, then transfer to freezer until ready to use.
Preparation of Blueberry Sauce
In a large, wide, non-reactive skillet, stir together blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add zest, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and water. Stir to blend.
Cook and stir over medium heat until blueberries begin to pop and give off juice. Continue stirring until the berries come to a full simmer. Simmer for 1 additional minute until the sauce is slightly thickened.
Set aside to cool then refrigerate sauce until completely chilled before assembling the pie.
To Assemble Pie
Transfer ice cream to a mixing bowl and let stand in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, or until just softened.
Spoon half the ice cream into the prepared crust and spread in an even layer. Top with the chilled blueberry sauce. Spoon on the remaining ice cream and spread to edges.
Cover surface of ice cream with plastic wrap and freeze for 8 hours or overnight until firmly set.
In chilled mixing bowl, whisk sour cream, heavy cream, and sugar until just thickened to spreading consistency. Do not overbeat. Spread cream mixture over pie and top with blueberries.
Adapted from this recipe from Scott Peacock in Better Homes and Garden.
