Chocolate-Baileys Ice Cream with Spiced Pecans for #bloggersscreamforicecream

“Christina,” said Mr. McMc after taking the first bite of the dessert I’d lovingly served up on Christmas Day. “Just how much Baileys in this ice cream?” “Oh, just 250ml,”  I said nonchalantly. “Why, is that a problem?” It turns out that I had put half a pint of rich, creamy booze in my frozen treat. As you do. Well, after all, it *was* Christmas.

I’ll level with you. This is not the type of ice cream which you should think about making and consuming if you’re planning on dieting next year. It contains two different types of chocolate, crunchy smokey-sweet pecans coated in a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and smoked paprika, and enough Baileys to fell a horse.  Rich, boozy and decadent, it’s a fairly ridiculous concoction devised after one too many sherries in the run-up to the festive season. It’s also my entry for December’s booze-themed Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream challenge – a delicious last gasp of Christmas indulgence.

In some ways, this ice cream is the perfect emblem of my year of excess. After all, 2012 was the year I got married, turned 30, visited Berlin and New York and somehow only managed to lose my shit about all of this three times along the way (a perfect example of this being the Monday before my wedding where I ran laps around the outside of my office in a vain attempt to calm myself down.) While I wouldn’t change any of these experiences for the world, there’s a part of me that would like my 2013 to be slightly more sedate. I’m a firm believer in New Year’s Resolutions (although most of them tend to be broken by 6th January), and my ones for the next year mainly involve building upon the happiness and wonderful experiences which I was so lucky to have last year. If 2013 is even half as great as 2012, I’ll be a very happy person indeed.

But for now, enough self indulgence. There’s still ten hours left of 2012, and there’s baths to be had and booze to drink. For now, I wish you all a very happy New Year. Here’s to 2013 and whatever excitement and new experiences it holds.

CHOCOLATE-BAILEYS ICE CREAM WITH SPICED PECANS

For the Chocolate-Baileys ice cream (based loosely on David Lebovitz’s recipe for Chocolate ice cream in The Perfect Scoop)

You will need:

• 500ml double cream
• 150g high quality dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
• 150g high quality milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks
• 250ml Baileys (If you’re not a raging boozehound like me, feel free to reduce this to 200ml)
• 150g granulated white sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the spiced pecans (recipe based loosely on this one from Smitten Kitchen)

• 20g Muscovado sugar
• 60g white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 150g pecans
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon water

Make It!

1. First, place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer and chill for 24 hours. (I know this sounds obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve forgotten to do this and wept for all the delicious ice cream I could have made).
2. While your bowl is chilling, make your custard. Warm 250ml of the double cream and the chopped dark chocolate together in a medium saucepan, whisking thoroughly to ensure that the two are thoroughly blended together.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped milk chocolate, stirring rapidly until the mixture turns smooth and glossy. Then stir in the remaining 250ml of cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a large sieve on top of the bowl.
3. Warm the Baileys, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks until they turn light and fluffy. Slowly pour the warm Baileys mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over a medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom while you stir so the mixture doesn’t stick. The custard is ready once it has thickened and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the sieve and stir it into the chocolate mixture until it turns smooth, then stir in the vanilla.  Cover the bowl with a piece of greaseproof paper and leave it to cool for half an hour – this will prevent a skin forming. Them, pop it in the fridge overnight until it’s ready to churn.
5. To make the spiced pecans: While your custard is chilling, make your spiced pecans. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6. Mix sugars, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon, making sure there are no lumps; set aside. Beat egg white and water until frothy but not stiff. Add the pecans, and stir to coat evenly.
6. Sprinkle your nuts with the sugar mixture, and toss until evenly coated. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet which has been covered with baking paper. Bake your pecans for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the oven, and separate nuts as they cool. When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.
7. Once you’re ready to make your ice cream, add the spiced pecans to the chocolate-baileys custard (the custard will be quite thick), and churn it according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
8. Serve either on its own, or with a simple cake – this Almond & Cinnamon Cake from BBC Food complements it nicely.

Milk Chocolate Tart with Cherry Sorbet

It’s the last Friday of 2011, and, as is customary, I am currently sat in my pyjamas scoffing leftover Christmas chocolates and thinking about the events of the past year. 2011 has been a funny one for me. Whilst there’s been no deaths in the family, or even (bar Mr. Cay’s dodgy mouth) any major health scares, I’d  be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly glad to see the back of it. There’s been one too many mistakes and regrets for my liking – friends who turned out to be anything but, chances which I cocked up due to my own idiocy, loaves of elaborately sweetened bread which descended into mires of gloop. And let’s not mention the calimari I attempted to make last night which turned into a rubbery, soggy mess.

As it is, I’m immensely looking forward to 2012, with the blind idiocy of a person who is trying not to panic about just how much she has to accomplish over the course of the next twelve months. After all, it’s the year where I have to write a book, get married and turn 30 whilst attempting to retain my sanity amidst the chaos. I could panic about it all, but that would be pointless. As it is, tomorrow night I shall just raise my whisky glass, shout BRING IT ON WORLD! at midnight, and indulge in another slice of this Milk Chocolate Tart.

Prior to making this, I’d never had much luck with tarts. The pastry always turned out to be too soggy, or cracked, or just couldn’t handle the strain of a huge custard filling. But then I turned to that guru of all things baked, Dan Lepard. And what do you know, I think I may have finally gotten to grips with this whole ‘pastry’ lark.

The recipe for this Milk Chocolate Tart is based (very loosely) on his Pecan Crusted Bourbon Chocolate Tart. There, he suggests chilling the dough twice, which helps to keep it firm, and reduces shrinkage whilst baking. Because it’s the season to get down and get merry, I added a good shot of Black Grouse whisky to the Milk Chocolate custard. Black Grouse is a peated malt with overtones of caramel, sugar and a slight hit of smoke – and is just the thing to cut through the sweetness of so much chocolate.

The cherry sorbet is also a must when you’re serving this – its sharpness perfectly compliments the tart. Indeed, I quite enjoyed just eating it on its own – scooping it out of the tub with a big spoon when no one was looking. All in all, this is a dessert to savour -  a small slice of indulgence to enjoy whilst you’re seeing out the old year and welcoming in the new. Happy New Year (and, because I don’t say it often enough, thank you for continuing to read Little Red Courgette!)

MILK CHOCOLATE TART WITH A CHERRY SORBET (Serves 8-10 slices)

Milk Chocolate Tart adapted from a recipe by Dan Lepard

You will need:

For the Milk Chocolate Tart

• 125g plain flour, plus a little extra for rolling
• 25g caster sugar
• 75g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg yolk

For the filling

• 300ml double cream
• 50g soft light brown sugar
• 400g good quality milk chocolate, chopped (I used a combination of Green & Blacks, and Lindt)
• 75g unsalted butter, chopped
• 50ml whisky

For the cherry sorbet

• 400g cherries, washed and de-pitted (be careful when you’re de-pitting your cherries – I did it by squishing them and my kitchen ended up looking like the scene of a particularly brutal murder)
• 200g white sugar
• 150ml water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest and juice of a lemon

Make It!

1. Sift the flour and caster sugar into a bowl. Cut up the butter, add to the flour mixture and rub in with your fingertips until any lumps vanish.  Mix the egg yolk with a teaspoon of ice-cold water and add it to the bowl until a soft dough forms. Pat into a flat slab, cover it with cling film and chill in the fridge until firm (this should take around 20 – 30 minutes).
2. When you’re ready to roll, let the dough soften for five to 10 minutes at room temperature until pliable, then roll it out thinly on a floured surface (if you don’t own a rolling pin, you can use a floured empty wine bottle to do this). Line a tart tin with the pastry, then place the tart case in the fridge until it firmed.
3. Press a sheet of  greaseproof paper weighed down with baking beans against the base and side, bake at 170C (150C fan-assisted)/335F/gas mark 3 for 20 minutes, then remove the paper and bake for 10 minutes more.
4. For the filling, heat the cream until boiling, remove from the heat and stir in sugar until dissolved. Add the chocolate and butter, stir until both have melted, then stir in the whisky. Leave to cool until lukewarm, then beat the mixture slightly until it turns thick and gooey. Pour into the pastry case and chill until set.
5. For the sorbet: Place the cherries in a large bowl and macerate them with the side of a spoon until the flesh has turned pulpy. Put the cherries, sugar, water, lemon zest and vanilla essence in a heavy based, high sided saucepan . Place over a low to medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat slightly and simmer for 3-4 minutes until the mixture has thickened slightly (be careful whilst doing this – the mixture will bubble up very quickly once it reaches boiling point). Squeeze over the lemon juice and stir to combine.
6. Place the sorbet mixture into an ice cream machine, and churn for around 30 minutes until the mixture has firmed up, yet is still slightly slushy when prodded with a fork. Place in the freezer until ready to serve.
7. Serve the tart and the sorbet together with a large shot of your favourite poison.

Rocky Road Ice Cream

Ice cream is one of those things which has gotten me through many of the major disappointments of my life. When I was five years old, and had been badly stung by a jellyfish whilst swimming in the sea on Miami Beach, my Bubbie held my hand and promised me that if I was a good girl, and didn’t cry, she’d buy me the world’s biggest sundae afterwards. I have a vivid memory of my Dad waving a dripping ice cream cone in my face in an attempt to coax me out from underneath a table when I refused to get my BCG injections. Back in 2004, after a very bitter break-up with one of my ex boyfriends, I’d frequently sit on top of Greenwich Point moping and eating Mint Cornettos. To put it bluntly, when I’m feeling sad, I tend to each for the Ben & Jerry’s.

So, cut to last Sunday. I’ve spent my Summer swathed in a fug of minor annoyances; a situation not helped by the fact that recently, Liverpool has been experiencing almost monsoon like weather conditions. I am (unsurprisingly) hungover, having spent the previous day overindulging at the Liverpool Whisky Festival (which led to me waking up fully clothed on my bed at 1am, cursing the person who invented Lagavulin).  I have just experienced a terrifying trip to ASDA which was playing the theme to Twin Peaks whilst I shuddered in the milk aisle, and was full of screaming children. I look at the ice cream maker currently taking up space in my living room and decide there’s only one thing for it. It’s time for me to drown my sorrows in frozen emulsified fat.

Last month, the nice people at Cuisinart were kind enough to send me one of their Ice Cream Deluxe makers which, I’m ashamed to say, sat in the corner of my living room for far longer than it should have. I was too scared to open the box, and allow it to wreak havoc on my (already larger than it should be) waistline. But, me being me, I’d been contemplating all of the delicious things I could make it with it. Should I combine chocolate with salted caramel to create a salty-sweet treat? Or perhaps I should swirl it with peanut butter? Maybe vanilla studded with popping candy would work? After some deliberation, I finally settled upon a Rocky Road ice cream, studded with large chunks of marshmallow and digestive biscuit.

The chocolate base for this ice cream comes from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop – which is the bible for all things sweet and frozen. Rich, decadent and almost overwhelmingly chocolatey, it’s the perfect accompliment to the sweet squidgeyness of the marshmallows and the crunch of the digestive biscuits. Because of its richness, you don’t need a lot of it – I found that a ramekin sized portion was just enough to satisfy my cravings.

This ice cream didn’t cure my hangover, or cure any of my problems, but it did make me feel a little bit happier and a little bit more content with my lot.  If you use the best chocolate you can afford when you make this, you’re sure to adore it too.

ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM

Inspired (yet again) by David Lebovitz

You will need:

• 500ml double cream
• 3 tablespoons high quality cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
• 150g high quality milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks
• 240ml full fat milk
• 150g granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 Digestive biscuits
• A large handful of mini marshmallows

Make It:

1. First, bash your digestives – you can do this by sticking them in a carrier bag and whacking the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin. I suggest doing this when you are a) very pissed off and b) there’s no one else around. It’s rather cathartic.
2. Warm 250ml of the double cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped milk chocolate, stirring rapidly until the mixture turns smooth and glossy. Then stir in the remaining 250ml of cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a large sieve 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 with a hand mixer, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (if you have a candy thermometer, it’s ready when it reaches 170°F). Pour the custard through the sieve and stir it into the chocolate mixture until it turns smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Pop it in the fridge for an hour or two until it’s chilled.
5. Once the custard is ready, freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  (As a guide, I churned my mixture for half an hour). Add the marshmallows and the bashed digestives right towards the end of the churning process – I didn’t do this, and kept staring into the machine terrified that the motor was going to burn out due to an excess of synthetic fluffy goodness. Once the churning has stopped,  pop it in the freezer for two hours until firm.
6. Serve with extra marshmallows and (if you have any) hot fudge sauce.

Chocolate Liqueur Pannacotta with Honeycomb

An open letter to my dentist: Hello there Mr. Dentist. I know I haven’t been to see you in a while – well, ten years to be exact – and you can be assured I have a suitably guilty conscience about this fact. I can assure you my lackadaisical approach to dental hygiene is more down to laziness than anything else. And, you know, have you seen the cost of dental services recently? Exactly.

Another reason I might not be darkening your doors any time soon is because I was hit with an urge to make honeycomb this weekend. Take it from me, there’s something very satisfying about the roll and boil of sugar on the stove. And, if you decide to call honeycomb by its Irish name – Yellowman – you can wander around your kitchen singing ‘YELLOWMAN!’ to the tune of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’. The finished result is something else entirely – a real filling-ripper of a dessert. After just one bite, you can feel all of the nerve endings in your teeth jangling from sugar. It’s also very good when coated in chocolate, making a treat which knocks the socks off Crunchie bars.

Unfortunately for you Mr. Dentist, I didn’t have any chocolate to hand – which is a good thing, as I really didn’t fancy spending my Sunday evening in A&E spending an obscene amount of money on having my back molars repaired. What I did have to hand though was a bottle of Thornton’s chocolate liqueur that I’d been sent by a very thoughtful PR (admirers take note – if you ever want to win my heart, sending me booze and/or chocolate is a good place to start). After having a few sneaky shots of it, I thought that it might be good to incorporate into a dessert. Especially if that dessert was silky smooth pannacotta.

There is something wonderful about pannacotta – that luscious Italian dessert of set cooked cream. Its wonderful gelatinous wobble (which, apparently, should have the same fluid movement as a woman’s breast) is just the thing for the rich teeth-cracking crumble of the honeycomb. The cream and chocolate enrobes all of the sticky sugar, creating a dessert which slips down far too easily – and will immediately make you feel guilty for forgoing that trip to the gym you intended to have today.

So, Mr. Dentist, I’m sure you can forgive me my sugar-imbibing sins considering the extenuating circumstances, especially as I promise to brush twice a day, and floss after every meal. And if I promise to bring you a portion of pannacotta and honeycomb next time I visit, can you make sure I won’t have to remortgage my house in order to get my teeth fixed before my wedding?

CHOCOLATE LIQUEUR PANNACOTTA WITH HONEYCOMB

The recipe for honeycomb comes from the brilliant Eat Like a Girl – if you haven’t read her blog, you really should you know. Any leftovers (and there will be leftovers) should be kept in an airtight tin or smothered in chocolate)

You will need:

For the pannacotta

• 3 gelatine leaves
• 250ml milk
• 250ml double cream
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons of chocolate liqueur
•  25g sugar

For the honeycomb

• 300g White Sugar (caster or granulated)
• 200g Golden Syrup
• 100ml Water
• 1 tbsp Cider or White Wine Vinegar
• 2 heaped tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Make It!

1. For the pannacotta: first, soak the gelatine leaves in a little cold water until soft
2. Place the milk, cream, vanilla and sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer.
3. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves, then add to the pan with the chocolate liqueur and take off the heat. Stir in until the gelatine has dissolved.
4. Divide the mixture among four ramekins and leave to cool. Place into the fridge for at least an hour, until set. You’ll know they’re done, as they should be wobbly yet firm to the touch. Don’t add too much gelatine, otherwise they’ll turn horrible and rubbery.
5. For the honeycomb: Line a tin or dish with baking parchment. Alternatively, you can do as I do and use a sillicon baking dish.
6. Heat the sugar, golden syrup, water and vinegar in a large saucepan (this is very important, as if your saucepan is too small, you’ll be scrubbing melted sugar off your cooker until doomsday) until it starts to turn amber and reaches 150C/the hard crack stage on a jam thermometer. If you don’t own a jam thermometer and want to test if it’s done, when the mixture has turned a dark amber colour, take a spoonful of it and place it onto a cold plate. If it solidifies and cracks when you tap it with a spoon, then it’s done.
7. Add the bicarbonate of soda and stir thoroughly. BE CAREFUL at this point, as adding the bicarb will cause the mixture to bubble up wildly and massively increase in size. Blisters from hot sugar HURT, so make sure you’re wearing long sleeves! Once the mixture is sufficiently bubbly,  pour it into your lined tin.   Leave to cool to room temperature for around an hour or so. If you want it to be cut into ordered shapes, cut with an oiled knife when it’s nearly it room temperature. If you like yours to be a little bit more rugged around the edges, wait until its cool.
8. When you’re ready to serve the pannacottas, plop them into a bowl of warm water, and then gently ease them out onto a plate. Top with squares of honeycomb, and serve immediately.

Dense Chocolate-Rum Cake

I’m really up against it at the moment. My life is full of work, deadlines, stress – that toxic brew which leads to me waking up each morning feeling as though my jaw has been clamped in a vice because I’ve been clenching it so hard in my sleep. And that’s without the psychic swipes I keep taking at myself for not blogging as often as I should. In such circumstances, there’s only one thing for it. I need to bake.

When some people get stressed, they go and hit a punching bag.  For others, the only way to work off their malaise is to go for a five mile run, or drink a tumbler full of whiskey and get into a fight. My personal release valve is none of these things. Indeed, I only feel that awful yoke of anxiety lift from my shoulders when I’m in the kitchen creaming eggs and sugar together, or thumping the living daylights out of a huge lump of dough whilst singing along to the radio. I come alive when I bake. Perhaps there’s something wrong with me.

So, last Sunday, I shoved my to-do list and my worldly cares to one side, broke out the chocolate, and decided to make a cake. A ‘Dense Chocolate-Rum Cake’ to be exact. It was supposed to be a straight up recreation of Nigella Lawson’s famous Dense Chocolate Loaf, but circumstances contrived to work against me. So, I decided to (for want a better term) ‘freestyle’ a bit. I’ve replaced the vanilla essence she uses in her recipe with dark rum (because hey, show me a person that doesn’t like rum) and I used Green and Black’s Dark Chocolate with Espresso Beans because it was just what I had in my fridge at the time.

The end result was magnificent – rich and delicious, with a dense consistency and an almost treacle flavour. The slight hint of coffee and rum complemented the dark chocolate perfectly, and it almost reminded me of a very grown up version of Parkin. Both myself and Mr. Cay ate huge slices of this with a vanilla spiked cream and a nice mug of builder’s tea, and suddenly all was right with the world.

This cake won’t write my work reports for me, blog for me, or even be accepted by my debtors in lieu of payment. But, when I’m eating it, it does make the world feel that little bit brighter. Even if it is only for five minutes.

DENSE CHOCOLATE-RUM CAKE (Makes 6-8 medium sized portions)

Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson

You will need:

• 225 g salt soft unsalted butter
• 375 g dark muscovado sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 large glug of dark rum
• 100 g best dark chocolate, melted (I used Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate Espresso Bar for a nice coffee kick)
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Make It!

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/gas5. Grease and line a 23x13x7cm cm (9x5x3in) loaf tin (or, alternatively, you can use a silicon baking dish). Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and rum, beating in well.
2. Next fold in the melted and cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but do not overbeat.
3. You want the ingredients combined: you don’t want a light airy mass. Gently add the flour, to which you’ve added the bicarb, alternately spoon by spoon, with 250 ml of boiling water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter.
4. Pour into the lined loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170C/gas mark 3 and cook for another 15 minutes. The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake tester or skewer won’t come out completely clean.
5. Place the loaf tin on a rack and leave to get completely cold before turning it out. It improves if left for a day or so before eating. This cake will probably sink in the middle because of its denseness.