WOYP Day # 55 Buterscotch Ice-cream (Without an Ice-cream Maker)

Butterscotch Ice-cream…brings back memories of the scoops of ice-cream we used to eat as kids -  a pale yellow ice-cream with a distinct flavor and loaded with crunchy butterscotch bits. Butterscotch here in the US is very different and the flavor doesn’t come close enough to the one back home. I set out to make my very own version of this ice-cream. It wasn’t easy adapting this flavor to another base recipe so I came up with my own, which worked beautifully! It combines a custard base with a whipped cream base which yields a smoother ice-cream which is akin to the ones made with an ice-cream maker. 

Butterscotch extract smells heavenly but it can easily get over powered by other ingredients. The idea is to add layer upon layer of the same flavor so it shines through in every bite. Making the butterscotch brittle is easy as long as you keep an eye on it and the heat is on medium to medium low.

You can churn the mix in a ice-cream maker if you have one, but this doesn’t need to be churned and can be made without an ice-cream maker. You will need a hand held beater to whip the cream.

Butterscotch Ice-cream (Without Ice-cream maker) 

You will need:

1 cup Heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp Butterscotch Extract
A generous pinch -  Yellow Food Color powder

1/2 cup Milk
1/4 cup Sweetened Condensed milk
1 tbsp Corn starch + 2 tbsp Cold milk (combine)
2 tbsp Milk powder

For the Butterscotch brittle:

3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp Cashewnuts, chopped
1 tsp Butterscotch extract
1 tbsp unsalted Butter
Parchment lined baking sheet or plate

Prepare the Brittle:

Heat the sugar in a non stick pan on medium heat and stir. The sugar will begin to melt, continue stirring until all the sugar is melted. Continue to heat until the color changes from light yellow to a golden yellow and then light brown. This happens fairly quickly so keep an eye. Stir in the butter and chopped nuts. Combine and remove from heat. Pour mixture onto parchment and spread it thin quickly. Allow to cool completely. The brittle will harden and peel off from the parchment easily. Using a sharp knife chop into tiny bits. 

Store in an air-tight container in a cool place. If you have a hot humid kitchen, this is best stored in the refrigerator. The brittle can be made ahead of time. 

Prepare the base:

Part 1 - Custard base

Combine the corn starch and cold milk to make a smooth paste. Set aside. Heat the milk in a saucepan. When it is warm, remove a tablespoon and combine with the milk powder until it’s smooth with no lumps. Add this to the milk and stir. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and bring to a boil. Lower heat and stir in the corn starch paste. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool.

Part 2 - Whipped cream base

Chill a mixing bowl and beaters in the refrigerator for 30 mins to an hour. Once chilled, add the whipping cream, powdered sugar and Butterscotch extract to the bowl.Also add the pinch of color.  Beat on low speed for a minute and then increase speed. Whip to form soft peaks.

Slowly add in the cooled custard base to the whipped cream base and fold. Stir in about 1/2 of the prepared butterscotch bits.

Combine well and transfer to a glass container or any air tight container. Freeze for 4-6 hours or more. 

 

 Scoop into a bowl and top with more butterscotch bits. 

How to make Hot Fudge Sauce I Hot Fudge Sauce

Warmer days seem to be around the corner though I have nothing to complain about this past Winter. Almost felt like a mix of Spring, Summer, winter and a little bit of rain!! Having said that who doesn’t love care-free summer days, when you and the kids can down a tub of ice-cream and not have a care in the world! This post is for one of those days..in the very near future.

One of my favourite indulgences is smooth creamy Vanilla ice-cream drenched in luscious Hot fudge Sauce, topped with nuts and sprinkles and candy and more sauce and…… well that would be a definition of my boys’ Sundae not mine! :) I would just stop at the nuts. A good big handful of it.

When I first made this Hot fudge Sauce from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking From My home to yours”, boy was I in chocolate heaven..mmm finger liking good indeed! This makes a good batch and can be frozen too. My boys being chocolate fans, this is on their list of favorites too! The best part about this sauce is it forms a nice shell the minute it hits the cold ice cream…delicious!

You can use Bittersweet or Semi Sweet chocolate for this. I prefer Semi-Sweet.

You will need:

Makes: 1 ¼ cups

½ stick or 4 tbsp Unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

6 ounces Bittersweet or Semi sweet Chocolate, finely chopped

¾ cup Heavy cream

3 tbsp Light corn Syrup

2 tbsp Sugar

¼ tsp Salt

Set a glass or steel bowl over another pot of simmering water. The bowl shouldn’t touch the water. Put the butter in the bowl, top with the chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat one its smooth.

In another pan, stir together the cream, corn syrup, sugar and salt. Combine and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute and then remove from heat. Pour ¼ of this mixture onto the chocolate and using a rubber spatula combine in circles. When combined add the remaining cream in two additions and stir until smooth and shiny. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before using or transfer to an air-tight container.

If chilled, this sets up hard. To use it, warm gently in the microwave on low power setting to melt it and make it shiny and smooth again.

Top your favorite ice cream with this warm sauce and enjoy!

This is for Srivalli's Kid's Delight event, guest hosted by Kalyani, themed on Chocolates.

This event is part of the Blogging Marathon Series. I’m taking part in a blogging event after a really long time and exactly what I needed to get me back into blogging! More posts to come :)


Do check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74

Fig & Honey Ice-cream

The summer heat has just about reached its peak and any amount of chilled beverages and ice-creams don’t seem enough to cool off. I’ve already made a batch of Mango ice-cream this summer too, and wanted to make other flavours. I also bought a spanking new red Cuisinart ice-cream maker, oh boy, it has just made my life and making ice-creams that much easier! Last week I was at Costco and found fresh figs and I was squealing with joy!! 

My last memory of eating fresh figs is from almost a decade ago when ajji (my grandma) used to bring them home when she saw them in the market. This was one fruit I really missed when I came here and didn’t quite know where to buy them or when they were in season here. This year I had kept an eye out for them and came home armed with two whole boxes – about 50 figs in all. By the time I got around to making ice-cream I had polished off about ½ off one box and had to resist eating them all.

I use a lot of the figs to make Fig & Honey Ice-cream, a flavor favourite from childhood and something I haven't come across here in the USA.

You will need:

2 cups chopped Mission figs, about 12-14

2 cups Whole Milk

2 tbsp Custard Powder (Brown & Polson, recommended)

3 tbsp + 2 tbsp Crystal Sugar

3 tbsp Water

½ cup Condensed milk

4 tbsp good quality Honey

2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 cups Heavy cream

Powdered Sugar, if required

Combine the chopped figs,3 tbsp crystal sugar and water in a medium saucepan and place on medium heat. Stir occasionally and cook until figs are soft and the whole mixture has a jam like consistency, about 7-8 minutes. Turn off heat and cool completely. 

Combine ¼ cup of cold milk with the custard powder until dissolved and lump free. Bring remaining milk and 2 tbsp sugar to a boil on medium heat. When it begins to boil, remove from heat and add the custard paste while stirring. Return to low heat and stir until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Turn off heat and cool completely.

Once the custard is cooled, stir in the condensed milk, honey,vanilla and heavy cream. Transfer to a metal container and chill for atleast 8 hours. Churn in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. In the last 5 minutes of churning, add the fig mixture. 

 Serve with additional honey drizzled on top if required. 

Strawberry Ice-cream

Strawberries....mmmm, can't get enough of them! This summer has been great with a bounty of great tasting strawberries straight from the farm to my kitchen. I gorged on a lot of the berries, made strawberry jam with another lot and still had so much left over. I had to freeze them to keep them from going bad, it will come in handy when strawberries go out of season.

This is another ice-cream you can hand crank at home without a machine.

The mushy ones which I couldn't freeze went into making this strawberry ice-cream. After making Mango ice-cream at home I simply had to try strawberry ice-cream with fresh strawberries.

Strawberry Ice-cream

You will need: Makes about 3 quarts

1 ½ cup Milk

1 ½ tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Strawberry Custard powder (substitute: Vanilla custard powder)

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 cup Fresh strawberry puree (fresh strawberries, washed and pureed)

1 cup Heavy whipping cream

1 tsp Strawberry extract

½ cup chopped frozen strawberries (don’t thaw)

Hand held electric beaters

Mix ½ cup of milk with 1 tbsp custard powder. Bring remaining milk and sugar to a rolling boil on medium heat. Turn down heat and then stir in the custard mix. Stir continuously for 4 minutes till the custard thickens and coats the back of your spoon. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Meanwhile blend the sweetened condensed milk, strawberry puree, whipping cream and strawberry extract in a medium bowl (which will fit into your freezer)

The procedure to make the ice-cream is similar to the Mango ice-cream (click to see instructions) When you whip the mixture the final time, stir in the chopped frozen strawberry bits. Transfer mix to a plastic container and freeze for 6-8 hours or overnight.

The strawberry extract and the strawberry puree added a ton of flavour and I was really happy when the ice-cream smelled like strawberries :D The taste of course was undoubtedly strawberry-ey.

How to Make Ice-cream without a Machine

Hot summer days are finally here and cravings for ice-cream and all things cold are at an all time high. As kids, summers meant a whole lot of ice-creams and Popsicles ...not store-bought but made right at home. Mom conducted ice-cream making classes and after each class my brother and I got to gorge on atleast 3 flavours at a time. She has never used an ice-cream maker/machine anytime and the fact that she didn't made those ice-creams even more precious and special.


Last year I made ice-cream at home for the first time without the use of a machine. Its simple but requires time and effort, which are definitely worth it. Our all time favourite flavour is Mango, and there is something about Indian Mango ice-cream which sets it apart from Mango ice-cream I've eaten anywhere else. It simply tastes so much more mango-ey! The following is mom's recipe for Mango ice-cream. I made this ice-cream again this year.

Home-made Mango ice-cream:


You will need:

3 cups Whole milk

3 tbsp Sugar

2 tbsp Vanilla custard powder (Brand: Brown & Polson)

2 cups Sweetened condensed milk

1 Cup Mango Puree

2 Cups Heavy whipping cream

½ tsp Clear vanilla extract

¼ tsp Orange Red colour (powder preferably)

Hand-held electric beater, the one which can withstand heavy whipping.

Make a smooth paste of the custard powder and ¼ cup of milk. Bring remaining milk to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. When the milk comes to a rolling boil, reduce heat and slowly stir in the custard mixture. Keep stirring till the milk thickens. The custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

While the custard is cooling, take a large bowl (which will fit into your freezer) and blend the mango puree with the condensed milk. Stir well to combine. Once the custard has cooled, add it to the puree-condensed milk mixture. Also add the heavy cream, the vanilla extract and food colour.

Cover and freeze for an hour.

What follows next is the important step…the 'churning' or whipping part. Since this ice-cream is made without an ice-cream maker, doing it right manually determines the final quality of the resulting ice-cream.

Remove bowl from freezer and using a hand beater, whip the mixture for 10 minutes at the highest speed on your beater. The mixture will begin to bubble because of the whipped cream. Return to freezer for another 30 minutes.

Repeat the whipping process, but reduce time to 5 minutes. Return to freezer for 30 minutes.

This needs to be done 2 more times(once every 30 mins). By the third time your mixture would have thickened and would be harder to ‘churn’. Let your hand-mixer do its thing.

After the last churn, you can transfer ice-cream to containers and then freeze or return the same bowl to the freezer. Freeze overnight or for atleast 6 hours.

This ice-cream brought back very sweet memories. And at the rate we are eating the ice-cream I might have to make another batch very soon!