Darienne

They look mouthwatering-ly gorgeous!

My blender is simply a Hamilton-Beach. However, I makes lots of smoothies in it and my own special Orange Julep which we have for supper along with popcorn once a week. Also Road's End Coffees which my DH invented when we first moved to the farm...hot in the winter or at night and cold in the summer. Plus I make basil pesto in the blender. And then it purees this and that. I guess I'm not really a big blender user so this topic will be of interest to me. Inexpensive blenders have their limitations for sure and I find myself using a food processor for other procedures.

I can't remember which is a stabilizer and which is an anything else. I didn't think that cornstarch or eggs were stabilizers ...but then what do I know? The cornstarch and milk makes basically a cornstarch pudding and then you churn it into a frozen air-filled ice cream. I use the cornstarch base to cut down on the calories and the cost. Less heavy cream and no eggs. And the same mouthfeel almost. I find the egg custard ice cream a bit too rich. Especially for every day... For me it's the corn syrup which keeps any ice crystals at bay and the mixture from getting too hard. I really must get the proper wording into my mind. I just know what works...not why. Paulraphael and jon were my two main mentors who helped me learn how to make proper ice cream two years ago.

From Kerry: Short answer - it's just better! Give it a try - I think you'll agree. Short question for Kerry: did we use Horlick's or this CTL when making Malt Meltaways? I found the Malt Meltaways a delicious problem in that I could not keep from nibbling on them...but I found my Malted Ice Cream (DL's recipe) no problem. Too sweet for me, although Ed and our company gobbled it up like crazy. My sweet tooth is not that great usually.

Speaking of Mexican inspired ice cream, today with our basically Tex/Mex meal, we had David Lebovitz's Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream with Dulce de Leche on top. Oh my! Talk about death row ice cream. My tongue was frozen and my throat was scalded. So good. ________________________________

Oops. We are not wine drinkers either, and Ed cannot commit to any meals ahead of time. Not the best, but the best we can do. Sorry.

Ended up making one of DL's ice creams yesterday instead of my Raspberry-Pepper one. Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream using one dried Chipotle pepper which I buzzed in my little grinder with some sugar. The ice cream is truly 'hot'. Then I topped it with commercial Dulce de Leche which I had on hand instead of making Cajeta from DL's book. The official learning experience: This is the first ice cream I have made with liquor. Oh, I used rum, having no brandy. Yep. It's good. However, because I also subbed (per usual) about 2 T of corn syrup for 2 T of sugar, the resultant ice cream is not as frozen as it is normally. Normally, the big chest freezer makes things quite hard and the fridge freezer is better for serving from. This time the fridge freezer is just bordering on a tad too soft. And I could safely leave it in the chest freezer. Thus alcohol plus corn syrup is more than needed. Which is what I should have thought about ahead of time. No problem. Just another learning experience.

Thanks for the encouragement. All in the name of science. In other words, just make the regular ice cream and add the pepper bit by bit. That's rather than infusing the pepper into the cream and later straining. OK. I can do that.

Definitely a #1. Unsure about the afternoon. Sorry.

This ice cream thread is ALIVE! * Sadly no one has tackled my question about combining a fruit and pepper in an ice cream. I'll just muddle along. * Such interesting flavors are available now. jmahl: never even tasted a mamey. Never even seen one in a local store although Longo's a couple of weeks ago had 3 fruits I had never tasted. *Dcarch: what are the asterisks on some flavors in your post? * paulraphael: you are a master for sure. * ChefJohnny: I am overwhelmed. Need to try just regular Horchata before making ice cream with it. *LizD: so was the ice cream hard enough or too hard or what? And why if you know or suspect? Sorry for the endless questions.

A few answers: * Any bread is fine with me. I just need to learn how to make a brioche type bread and can do it on my own. Whatever I learn will be applicable to the entire subject. And I am a rank beginner. * Szechuan would be tops with us. Ed loves Chinese food and Szechuan above all and would be ecstatic at the prospect of good restaurant food. * No sense of top prices to be paid. * If the loaves are missing, we WILL know who took them. Oh right. Please a formal reiteration of what day the bread workshop is to be and what time slot, if possible. Also what day for the thermomix workshop and a hint of what we will be making/? watching being made?, if possible. Besides meeting you all, I am really looking forward to possibly meeting Ilana. ps. Will be bringing something VERY Canadian with me.

If we are putting in requests...I opt for a brioche. But will be happy with anything.

Now that is an interesting point I had never thought of... Must keep that in mind this summer when we do our own modest Mexican feast. So often the vegetarians go almost hungry. And we do have a couple of vegetarians in the crowd.

No help here, but I am fascinated reading this topic. I am just learning to cook Mexican...mostly Tex/Mex I fear...but I'll get there. Next things I am going to try is a pipian from Rick Bayless' book and also Horchata. Good luck with your dinner!

Sorry. No answer here to this problem but I am interested to know what your end result will be. I know that some add a dollop of liquor/liqueur to an ice cream base to help retard the crystallization process, and I always add a pinch of salt and replace a large dollop of the sugar with corn syrup...and am STILL going to try invert sugar. Too late for you to do the corn syrup trick and it would alter your ice cream substantially to add booze. You don't say how large your can of coconut milk is.

It's cherry season here (I'm going picking on Thursday!), and I would love to have this recipe, if possible. Thank you, pastrygirl! Ditto for me, please...except for the cherry picking part.

Hi judiu, Thanks for the information. Day lilies we have...like nobody's business. Not planted by anyone, just grow in profusion...weeds. I'll do it. I will. Although I am not quite ready in my mind, I'll do it anyway. Two flowers are out today outside my studio window and soon there will be hundreds. And then thousands.

Could you please tell me a bit about what's in pineapple sambal. I know pineapple and I know sambal oelek in a jar. Do you make the sambal or buy it ready-made? Did you make up the recipe basically? I would love to see the recipe if you are into sharing it. Probably won't make it in my household but it does stir the curiosity. Thanks.

It is now June 12th and I still have not received any reply from Longo's. I wrote them on their website, so there is no way my letter could have disappeared. This speaks ill of the chain.

Please tell me about eating Daylilies. We have hoards of them...but not yet. This is the great frozen north.

A young friend told me she loves Strawberry & Pepper Ice Cream. I think she bought it in Australia. I thought I would like to try Raspberry & Pepper Ice Cream. However, I can't find any fruit AND pepper ice creams anywhere so far. Except DL's Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice cream. I don't think oranges translate to raspberries too well. I could just try to figure it out...more or less a raspberry ice cream with the addition of pepper infusing the cream. Has anyone tried a fruit & pepper ice cream? Seen a recipe for one? Eaten one?

Could the 'Utah Scones' be a regional designation? I have now contacted a number of Utah-born friends, and although some of them have eaten fried dough growing up at home, no one has ever even heard of Utah Scones. All of them currently reside in Moab. I am still curious about this.

I have finally done the unthinkable...on the fridge is little pile of paper tables headed 'foods in the fridge'. Those are the foods which are subject to the 'throw out' mode: mushrooms, sour cream, etc. Each Monday this list gets updated. So far, so good. The only slip ups to date are when DH buys something...like mushrooms...and doesn't tell me or write it down...heavens forbid...and I don't know the mushrooms are there and they go bad and ooops! they are thrown out. Salad stuff is never thrown out because our supper every second night is simply a huge salad. Whether I can keep this up forever or not, I cannot say.

So made the Malted Ice Cream using Horlick's Original. I was not impressed with my results. DH and friend for supper loved it. Also made DL's Classic Hot Fudge sauce because DH wanted 'Chocolate Malted' and toasted pecans to go on top. I would have picked walnuts as a foil to the sweetness, but DH and I have different sweet quotients in life. The ice cream was to be for guests who are coming tonight, but it is long gone. I'm going to make this evolution of my own today which has nougat inclusions. ps. In all fairness and usefulness, I should add that what I didn't find exciting was the flavor and sweetness. I used my own evolved cornstarch ice cream base with DL's flavoring. DH and friend found the ice cream texture and mouthfeel just fine. Maybe if I had simply followed the entire recipe as written I might have said differently...but I don't think so.

Dearest Pierogi, Come home. All is forgiven. Yes, the nomenclature is totally confusing. Like much of life. And so we carry on... Yesterday I went to our local 'hot' emporium...98% bottled, boxed and canned...and bought my first whole dried chiles: Cascabel, Habanero, Chipotle and Mulato. They normally carry one or two others but were out. I also bought a box of packets of Sazon Goya with cilantro and annatto (achiote). We can find cilantro of course, but not annatto. I was dismayed when I got around to reading the ingredients that numero uno was monosodium glutamate. Cilantro (coriander) was #7 and annatto #8. Back it goes. That's a problem of shopping the way we do. Live in the country: go into town and do 6 dozen errands: be exhausted, errandwise, 3/4 of the way through: make mistakes. Thanks for the help, Pierogi.