I had to trawl through the BAPXS back messages to find this simple ice cream recipe because I simply couldn't remember the proportions (see previous post).
So here is Mel's Classic Vanilla Ice cream
1 cup organic single cream (or half & half)
1 cup organic sugar
1 beaten egg
vanilla to taste
Lightly beat egg and sugar mixture, add cream and vanilla. Bring to a warm heat until the mixture forms a thin custard and lines the back of a spoon. All mixture to cool and then put in the ice cream maker :)
I have been experimenting with different types of sugar and different amounts of sugar. I remember I could use half this amount of sugar and still make a creamy ice cream, but that depended on what other ingredients are used. Unfortunately I cannot fond my notes of those experiments.
The SECRET to remember for home-made ice cream is use organic ingredients wherever possible. The difference *can* be tasted!
Always make your custard sweeter and richer than you intend for the ice cream. The colder it is, the more the sweetness and tastes are muted. If you don;t believe me, thaw out some ice cream until it is completely liquid and room temperature and then taste it :)
Variation - Chocolate Ice cream
Leave out the vanilla. Add in a couple of spoonfuls of organic drinking chocolate or organic cocoa. I also add in a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper (sometimes also ground ginger) to make a spiced chocolate version. Also while churning, add in dark chocolate and white chocolate chunks.
Variation - Tina's Buttered Pecans
Tina - do you wish to share your recipe here or is it a secret?
Mel.
Showing posts with label glutenfree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label glutenfree. Show all posts
Monday, 27 December 2010
Recipe - Almond Bisket Bread
Recently I've rediscovered my energy for cooking. This is a good thing as I've been asked to make some of my well-known dishes for old friends. Unfortunately as I haven't been cooking much in the last couple of years (and memory issues associated with the migraine) I just can't remember how to make many of these dishes I could just dash off the top of my head. So, I'm going to be writing them down here as I use them, so I have a reference point for future :)
I made Rosewater and lemon variants of this recipe for the Midland Library Christmas Morning Tea and have been asked for the recipe. Here it is.
A recipe from Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book
To Make French Bisket Bread (17th century)
Take one pound of almonds blanched in cold water, beat them verie smale, put in some rose water to them, in the beating, wherein some musk hath lien, then take one pound of sugar beaten and searced and beat with your almonds, then take the whites of fowre eggs beaten and put to the sugar & almonds, then beat it well together, then heat the oven as hot as you doe for other bisket bread, then take a paper, & strawe some sugar upon it, & lay two spoonfulls of the stuf in a place, then lay the paper5 upon a board full of holes, & put them in the oven as fast as you can, & so bake them, when they begin to looke somewhat browne they are baked inough.
Mel's modern version:
100gm almond meal
100gm sugar
1 beaten egg white
touch of rosewater
Lightly beat egg white, then add in almond meal and sugar. Add in a touch of rosewater to taste and to ensure a good consistency. With damp hands, break over pieces of mix around a 50cent piece, roll into a ball and place on baking paper on biscuit tray. This size batch will make a dozen biscuits.
Put in the oven at 180C until the top cracks and turns golden brown. In my previous oven this took 20 mins, in my current oven this takes 30 mins with the tray needing to be turned around at the 15min mark.
Variations:
Recipe - French Bisket Bread aka Mel's Proto Macaroons
A recipe from Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book
To Make French Bisket Bread (17th century)
Take one pound of almonds blanched in cold water, beat them verie smale, put in some rose water to them, in the beating, wherein some musk hath lien, then take one pound of sugar beaten and searced and beat with your almonds, then take the whites of fowre eggs beaten and put to the sugar & almonds, then beat it well together, then heat the oven as hot as you doe for other bisket bread, then take a paper, & strawe some sugar upon it, & lay two spoonfulls of the stuf in a place, then lay the paper5 upon a board full of holes, & put them in the oven as fast as you can, & so bake them, when they begin to looke somewhat browne they are baked inough.
Mel's modern version:
100gm almond meal
100gm sugar
1 beaten egg white
touch of rosewater
Lightly beat egg white, then add in almond meal and sugar. Add in a touch of rosewater to taste and to ensure a good consistency. With damp hands, break over pieces of mix around a 50cent piece, roll into a ball and place on baking paper on biscuit tray. This size batch will make a dozen biscuits.
Put in the oven at 180C until the top cracks and turns golden brown. In my previous oven this took 20 mins, in my current oven this takes 30 mins with the tray needing to be turned around at the 15min mark.
Variations:
- You can change out the rosewater and include lemon juice for example. You can add cocoa for chocolate biscuits - the basic recipe can be easily adapted.
- The consistency and chewiness can also be altered by changing the type of sugar used - caster - granulated - icing. I have had great success using demerara sugar.
- Grinding your own almonds for the recipe also changes the texture.
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Gluten-free thoughts
I've just started reading "Gluten Free Girl" by Shauna James Ahern. I've been a devotee of her website for a while.
In the books she specifically addresses the issue of people like me who "cheat" and has "just a bite" of gluten-containing foods ....
She says "The ability to shift to living gluten-free takes a psychological shift. It is a shift that must happen, however. How many people spend years mooning over the man who broke up with them, still wishing he was the one? Think of gluten as an abusive boyfriend."
She also talks about the tiredness and listlessness a lot of people experience when eating gluten. Thinking about it, we eat junk food when I'm too tired to cook. I'm too tired to cook in part, because I keep ingesting these foods.
This may be a vicious circle ....
I'm going to cook some of the recipes out of her book. Only problem is anyone know where I can source sorghum flour or Pomegranate Molasses? Some of the most delicious sounding recipes have ingredients that I just can't source at my local supermarket :(
But isn't that always the way and isn't that part of why I think they sound delish? Because they are flavour sensations I haven't tried before?
Hmm - more good food thoughts ....
In the books she specifically addresses the issue of people like me who "cheat" and has "just a bite" of gluten-containing foods ....
She says "The ability to shift to living gluten-free takes a psychological shift. It is a shift that must happen, however. How many people spend years mooning over the man who broke up with them, still wishing he was the one? Think of gluten as an abusive boyfriend."
She also talks about the tiredness and listlessness a lot of people experience when eating gluten. Thinking about it, we eat junk food when I'm too tired to cook. I'm too tired to cook in part, because I keep ingesting these foods.
This may be a vicious circle ....
I'm going to cook some of the recipes out of her book. Only problem is anyone know where I can source sorghum flour or Pomegranate Molasses? Some of the most delicious sounding recipes have ingredients that I just can't source at my local supermarket :(
But isn't that always the way and isn't that part of why I think they sound delish? Because they are flavour sensations I haven't tried before?
Hmm - more good food thoughts ....