Irish Coffee Ice Cream!

Hey Folks! Since it's wintry out I decided my next ice cream project had to have a bit of  a kick in it. Nothing fruity and zingy that reminded me of our long past summer. Than it hit me Irish Coffee Ice Cream has caffeine and alcohol (whiskey)- double whammy going on! Plus I've been wanting to try out this recipe for a while. Just never got around to it until now.

Recipe

The recipe used came from the Ice Cream Ireland blog.
http://icecreamireland.com/2009/05/

Ingredients:

150g Sugar   
5 Egg Yolks                                                                                      
240ml Milk
4 tablespoons/10g Instant Coffee
3 tablespoons/45ml Irish Whiskey

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until it thickens.
2. In a pot, bring the milk to a low simmer.
3. Slowly pour the milk into the the egg and sugar mixture whilst beating it in.
4. Than pour the mixture back into the pot and set it at a low heat . The custard should remain at a temperature between 65-70c otherwise the eggs will start to scramble!
5. Continuously stir the custard until it thickens slightly and it just coats the back of the spoon.
6. Remove from the heat straight away and stir in a small amount to the coffee until it is dissolved. Some of my coffee would not dissolve for me so I chucked the lumpy bits outs. I love coffee so my tbsps were quite heaped so I guess I ended up back with the original quantity stated in the recipe.
7. Add this coffee mix to the custard and transfer it to a container and chill in the fridge until it reaches 5c. I gave it  an hour and a half in the fridge.
8. Stir the whiskey into the mixture.
9. Whip the cream until it doubles in volume and you can see soft peaks. Try not to over whip. Since I used Elmlea, it did not form peaks but did double in volume.
10. Fold the cream into the mixture.
11. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours to break up the ice crystals. I left the mixture in my ice cream machine for 15 mins.
12. For a more solid consistency, leave the ice cream in the freezer for a few hours.

Note: I used low fat milk and Elmlea (cream alternative) because that's what I had in the fridge and because it was wet and windy out.

Verdict: Definitely strong tasting but in a good way. It so is an Irish Coffee in ice-cream form and cold. Coffee generally has a bitter taste to it but the sugar in this just makes it taste sweeeet!

Third Party Verdict: 2 of my flatmates were kind enough to test my ice cream out and both agreed it had the yum factor and they could taste the whiskey which was a plus for them.  Heey not a bad result as both flatmates don't drink coffee!

Review of Franks Diabetic Vanilla Ice Cream

 

I was in Tesco doing my weekly grocery shopping when I spied Frank's Diabetic Vanilla. One usually sees special ice creams in the health food shop. Well I was looking for vanilla ice cream to make my some more oreo ice cream sandwiches(recipe in previous post) so I decided to test it out. The €2.69 price tag is comparable to other tubs of vanilla ice cream and very reasonable indeed for a 1 litre tub.
Verdict- it's gorgeous! The texture is the soft scoop type and very creamy. It's not too sweet but it tastes no different from other vanilla ice creams. According to the label it is also suitable for vegetarians and is gluten free. I took a peek at the ingredients and fructose is in it. Fructose is a sugar found in fruit and is often recommended to diabetics because of its low glycemic index (GI). My flatmate helped test it too and he gave it the thumbs up.

My DIY OREO Ice Cream Sandwich

 

Carl's Jnr, a popular burger franchise chain in America  has recently launched an Oreo ice cream cookie sandwich to their dessert menu. A scoop of their in-house made ice-cream is placed between 2 large Oreo wafers which are 3 inches in diameter compared to the regular 1.75 inch cookie we all know.
I'm quite fond of the cookie which I mostly consume as a malt milkshake in Eddie Rockets.
Here are some interesting facts about the Oreos:

• The Oreo Cookie has been around since 1912 and is the best selling cookie of the 20th century.
• Origin of the name is still a mystery, One belief of how it got its name is from the shape of a hill-shaped test version of the cookie and so named it Oreo which in Greek means mountain. Another possibility was the cookie's name was taken from the French word for gold, "or" and this was the colour of the packaging in earlier days. Another plausible reason for the name is the combination of  "re" from "cream" and placing it between the two "o"s in "chocolate" thus making it "o-re-o."Or some believe it was so named because Oreo was simple and short to pronounce.
• There are many different variations of cookie like lemon filled Oreo, Oreo wafer sticks, sugar free Oreo,Oreo cakesters and many more.

To make your own Oreo ice cream sandwich you will need;
-Oreo cookies
-Vanilla Ice cream

1. Gently seperate the cookie  halves.
2. Using a knife, scrape the cream filling from each cookie.
3. Place a tablespoon of ice cream on one cookie half and put the other layer on top.

Et voila! Simple and delish!

Frankincense Ice Cream

One of  my eyebrows shot up quizzically as I read the article entitled 'New Taste of Oman:Sweet Frankincense Ice Cream'. Two things popped into my head.
1) Isn't that 1 of the 3 gifts presented to baby Jesus at Xmas? and
2) I didn't know frankincense was edible. 
Frankincense is an aromatic gum resin from the genus Boswellia trees. It is mainly used in perfumes, pharmaceutical preparations and is also burnt as incense. According to the Times of Oman, an American woman Trygve Harris created the new ice cream and first launched it at Oman’s Haffa Souq Salaleh (the frankincense market in Salaleh). It was a complete sell out every night.
Her new company  Enfleurage Middle East is based in Oman and her goal is to increase production of the uniquely flavoured ice cream along with frankincense candy by February of next year. Harris already has a shop Enfleurage in New York which sells scented items like oils, lotions and candles. She is currently working on developing a less strongly flavoured frankincense ice cream to better suit the American palate.

Review of New Magnum Ghana

Me and my buddy decided to indulge in a delectable Magnum last night & noticed a new flavour-Magnum Ghana with milk chocolate and hazelnut. We both agreed it was delish and you can definitely taste the hazelnut ice cream. However the milk chocolate layer was noticeably thinner. More choc ice thinness than the normal thick Magnum layer I've come to expect. Therefore I give it 8/10 marks.
Also I feel its important to mention the new Ghana Magnum ice cream is made with specially selected cocoa beans sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in Ghana. The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organisation who are devoted to promoting sustainable agricultural practices and improving the quality of life for farming communities. Presently Ghana is the second biggest producer of cocoa globally. Magnum aim to source all of their cocoa supply from these certified farms by 2015.