Eat My Charlotte

Now that it’s cooler outside, my ice cream maker is working so much better. It has finally decided to cooperate. During the hot summer months, I could churn and churn without results because the frozen canister would defrost so quickly in the 80 degree weather. Now, it works like a charm – I can get ice cream in 20 minutes. Luckily, I appreciate ice cream year ’round, so eating massive amounts of ice cream now makes me just as happy as eating it during the summer.

So now I’ve started churning out batch after batch of ice cream. The most current flavor is pumpkin pie ice cream with molasses cookie crumbles.

As you can see, this ice cream makes for great ginger molasses and pumpkin pie ice cream sandwiches. For the cookies, follow this recipe.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 splash bourbon
A handful of gingersnap crumbs or ginger molasses cookie crumbs.

Directions:
1. Heat the cream, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Add one tablespoon of the cream mixture to the egg to temper it.
4. Add the egg to the sauce pan.
5. Cook at low heat without boiling, until it is slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
6. Strain mixture with a sieve to remove clumps.
7. Add pumpkin puree and stir.
8. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
9. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine. (Add crumbs when the ice cream begins to become the texture of soft serve.)

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There’s nothing that says “celebration” like a few dozen cupcakes. Cupcakes are cute, festive, whimsical, and bite-size (well, that depends on the size of your mouth I guess). And they don’t require plates and utensils.

So to celebrate my friend landing a new job in Atlanta, we made her a cupcake buffet. For my cupcake contribution, I decided to go with a crowd-pleasing flavor combo of peanut butter and chocolate. It’s win-win. These rich, thick chocolate cupcakes are filled with a Reese’s-esque peanut butter filling and topped with a creamy peanut butter frosting made of cream cheese, whipped cream, and peanut butter.

So how good are the treats? These cupcake cuties are profanity-proclaiming good. Explicatives spewed from friends’ mouths as soon as their teeth sunk into the filling. Just check out this photo:

(more…)

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If you are faint of heart when it comes to cooking with heavy whipping cream and lots of eggs (or wary of high cholesterol), you might want to stay away from this recipe. This Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce recipe asks for eight, yes EIGHT, eggs and 2 cups of whipping cream. I’d say it’s darn worth it though. Drizzled with the rum sauce, this bread pudding is a fantastic fall dessert. It’s incredibly easy to make and impressive to serve — this recipe is restaurant quality because it actually comes from a restaurant in Mississippi.

This picture does not do the bread pudding justice. Not too pretty, but you'll understand the hype once you eat it.

I halved the recipe and used a 9×9 pan. A tip: It’s best to assemble the bread pudding and let it sit overnight in the fridge before you bake it in order to let the bread really soak up the creamy mixture. And, if you use cinnamon raisin bread, you can skip a step and omit adding more raisins.

Bread Pudding

8 large eggs
3 1/2 cups whole milk
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1-pound loaf cinnamon challah or cinnamon-swirl bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup golden raisins

Butter 13×9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk eggs in large bowl to blend. Add milk, sugar, cream, and vanilla; whisk to blend well. Stir in bread and raisins. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake pudding uncovered until puffed and golden, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool slightly (pudding will fall). Serve warm with Spiced Rum Sauce.

Spiced Rum Sauce

1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons spiced rum or dark rum
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add cream, rum, and cinnamon and bring to simmer. Simmer until sauce thickens and is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 5 minutes. Serve warm. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

Makes 1 1/2 cups.

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