TWD: Banana Ice Cream Tart

Excuse me while I shamefacedly hand my head. This week's pick has all of these tasty things in it - shortbread, banana, chocolate ice cream, coconut... But together? I'm going to take a pass. Not to mention that this was made mere days before I had to leave for NC and CA. So we ended up with a bit of a mishmash, something tending more towards "riff on the recipe" than "recipe as written." One last mini sweet tart crust, the last few spoonfuls of burnt sugar ice cream, half of one nicely ripe banana after the other half had joined my oatmeal a previous morning does not equal banana coconut ice cream tart. It is, however, equal delicious.

But that's not nearly as exciting as this past weekend. (Sorry Spike) This last weekend, a friend of mine drove up from LA to visit. He timed his arrival for when I was done with work (midnight-ish, which is hellish for the early morning riser), and I went sprinting down the stairs of the hotel and out the door to greet him. Luckily he ignored that I hadn't bothered to put shoes on and had a silly grin on, and presented me with --- a pineapple. Yes people, these are good friends I have. Other people give you hugs, but I get pineapple. Last year, a friend came to visit with a large bag of parmesan black pepper biscotti in tow. Don't you wish you had friends like mine?


Not only that, we got to go hiking in Upper Kern, a part of Sequoia National Park. Well, less hiking and more scrabbling. Have you ever gone on a hike, following a reasonable-looking trail, only to find out that it peters out a mile in? Sane people, they sigh and turn around, searching for a more promising trail. But my friend? He whipped out his GPS and decided that we could off-trail it. That's all well and good until you're scaling a sheer incline covered in loose dirt and rocks. Freaking mountain-goat-style, for serious.

Needless to say, we were wiped afterwards. And I think I ruined a pair of jeans. And there are scrapes all over my hands, arms, and elbows. But hey, I got a pineapple out of the deal!


Last Week: Apple-Currant Bread Pudding
Next Week: White Chocolate Brownies

NFR: Delayed Gratification

Guys, guys, guys. (okay, fine) People, people, people. It's been a long month. A month full of driving, flying, packing, unpacking, drilling, cleaning, hauling, and labbing. A month spent in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and finally California. A month spent in more crappy hotel rooms than I ever want to see again.

Yes, it's been exciting. Seeing my empty Oshkosh, WI apartment, all cleaned out with the moving truck out front. Spending just one last day at home (home home, where I grew up) with the goats and chickens and horses and dogs and cats. Nervously driving to Chapel Hill, worried that my dad wouldn't keep up in the moving truck behind me. Exploring Chapel Hill, getting my barbecue fix, finding a wonderful dinner place, and checking out the apartment the fiance had signed a lease for (he did good, people). Flying out to California, spending days in Pasadena. Not seeing much of Pasadena, since, well, I was in the lab the whole time. And finally, Bakersfield, where I'm getting the chance to hang out with some pretty neat people, people who are just as oddly excited to study air quality as I am. And now, planning hiking trips with friends, old and new, coordinating Glee-watching parties and attending impromptu barbecues.

But people. People, people, people. You know what's missing in all that excitement? Any real cooking. Any real baking. Getting to spend time in the kitchen, playing with ingredients and (of course!) enjoying the results. So I've been storing up ideas. Things that I have to cook or bake when I get a fully stocked kitchen back. There's these black bean burgers, some crumb buns, probably the most delicious looking breakfast/dinner ever, this fantastic looking grits casserole, and this wonderfully light lemon pound cake. Oh, and when tomatoes come into season, this awesome tomato and corn biscuit pie. And that's just things I've actually bookmarked! I still want the chance to make some homemade pop tarts, a good crusty bread, and something, anything chock-full of seafood.

So people. If you had been oven-less and essentially kitchen-less for a month, with another 1.5 months staring you in the face, what would you be contemplating making? When you finally got your four burners + oven back, what's the first thing you would want to make?


In case you were wondering, this has been lunch or dinner quite often since I've gotten two burners and a microwave about 5 days ago. Mini pitas, tomato sauce, goat cheese, and spinach. Nuked. At least not restaurant food, but no pulled pork sandwich.

TWD: Apple-Currant Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is pretty darned polarizing, isn't it? I mean, you don't have people saying that they absolutely hate all forms of muffins, do you? Or pancakes? But bread pudding is one of those things that elicits the scrunched-face-eeewwww reaction from even the most mature person. Not that I blame them, most times. I'm particular about my bread puddings. They have to be custardy, but not soupy. There must be fruit. I like them better warm. And if you put creme anglaise on it, I will at least give it a shot. Because really, who doesn't like something once creme anglaise is poured over it? Crazy people, that's who.


So I approach all bread pudding recipes with a healthy dose of trepidation. Will they, won't they fit into my definition of a tasty bread pudding? If they don't, what do I do with them? The rejects!?! Luckily, I also have a soft spot for anything involving sauteing chopped up apples with sugar, so I figured we were off to a good start. Well, ignoring the distinct lack of challah in my grocery store, leading me to, um... use hotdog buns as the bread-y portion of the pudding. Sshh! It totally worked. Oh, and the lack of apple butter, which didn't necessitate the tossing in of currants, but definitely caused me to consider it.


And guess what? After all of my monkeying about, all that substituting and omitting, things turned out pretty darned well. I mean, yes, it could have used a bit more custard, and yes, it would have been better with a tart apple butter to offset the sweetness of the apples and currants. But it was no epic fail. Especially once I get the chance to make some creme anglaise to pour over it...


Last Week: Quick Classic Berry Tart
Next Week: Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie (um, yeah... so about those revisionist tendencies of mine...)

TWD: Quick Classic Berry Tart

So, confession. No, confessions. I'm not sure how to rank these, because some are totally relevant, and others are, well... not. At all. Maybe I'll start with the relevant ones and then tell you when you can tune out? Yeah? Think that'll work? God, I hope so.

Relevant confessions:

1) I made these, oh, a month or so ago.
2) And by "these" I mean this one. One little mini tart.
3) With sweet tart dough that was leftover from god knows when (don't judge).
4) It called for fresh, local berries. These were from California, half price, and damned tasty (again, don't judge).
5) It also called for pastry cream. There is zero pastry cream in there. The shell is actually lightly brushed with chocolate, then filled with burnt sugar ice cream and topped with strawberries.
6) After making that ice cream, I basically put it in and on every dessert I made until it was gone.
7) The ice cream was gone much, much too quickly.

And now is when you can tune out if you'd like. From here on out, there will probably be zero facts or rumors that actually relate to the berry tart. (Which was significantly quicker with my use of ice cream instead of making a pastry cream. Just sayin'.)


Irrelevant confessions:

1) Speaking of non-local strawberries from California, I'm in California. Pasadena, California.
2) It's colder here than Wisconsin was when I left a week or so ago.
3) I lasted a grand total 20 minutes on California roadways before flipping someone off. Seriously, driving up on a curb to turn right when I had my right turn signal on?!?
4) Which was longer than the 2 minutes it took once I got on the highway before seeing my first near-collision. (Um, what the hell, California?)
5) I've been up since 3a PST, and it's now nearly midnight on my internal clock. My body is slightly confused right now.
6) Coffee stirrers from my hotel room make fantastic chopsticks. You know, if you ever decide that the dinner you thought you were done with is calling your name.
7) After meeting tons of people at Caltech, I was amazed to find:
7a) Two separate people rooming with two separate girls I knew from Rose-Hulman.
7b) One person from Wisconsin.
7c) Someone engaged to a professor in the dept where a friend of mine is doing her PhD research
7d) Multiple marathoners, bikers, weightlifters, and generally fit people. Toto, I don't think we're in the Midwest any longer...

So what I'm seeing here is this: Burnt sugar ice cream belongs on and in everything, the world is a very, very small place, and I have an unfortunate addiction to trail mix from Trader Joe's.

Wait, what?

Last Week: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream
Next Week: Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

And please excuse me, I believe the final remnants of my kang ka ree are calling my name.

TWD: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

I believe this recipe, this ice cream, deserves a couple of PSAs. It's sort of announcement-worthy, if by "sort of" you mean ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, REQUIRES announcements of the shouting off the rooftop type. Y'know, because I'm restrained like that. (Seriously, how many recipes am I actually "meh" on?) So yes, PSAs. And go:

1) Make this recipe.
2) Make this recipe.
3) Dear god, make this recipe.
4) And for the love of god, don't halve it.
5) Let alone quarter it like I did.
6) Because I regretted that for a long, long time.
7) Which was about twenty seven times longer than this ice cream lasted.
8) And was about when I kicked myself for packing my ice cream maker up so soon.


What, you expected useful PSAs? From me? I'm obviously not doing my job if you expected me to actually have helpful tips, notes, or hints.


Okay, okay, fine. Useful PSAs:

1) Take the sugar mixture |this close| to burnt. Seriously, I smelled burning right as I dumped in the dairy.
2) The caramel will solidify. Fear not. Mine melted back in, and even though I still had little dots of caramel in the ice cream base, they weren't crunchy in the final ice cream.
3) Up the salt. Do as Bridget does - quadruple it. Be not afraid of the salt.
4) This ice cream uses enough sugar that it doesn't harden quite as much as many homemade ice creams. It also melts quickly. Just use it as an excuse to inhale the ice cream.
5) Make at least a full batch. Anything less and you'll regret it.
6) And dear god, make this recipe.


Yep, that's about it.








Except, well. You know. You might have heard this before, but. Make this recipe.


I'm nothing if not helpful, huh?

Last week: Chockablock Cookies (um, not to contradict previous statements, but. Meh.)
Next week: Quick Classic Berry Tart