Summer ’12 | Cookies & Cream Italian Ice

The past few months have passed in a whirl of SAT prep work, sweet sixteens, summer assignments, taking long runs and reading books. It sounds so typically teenager-ish but it was amazingly relaxing and great break from all the stress, work, and deadlines of school. And in this time, I also learned many things:

1. It’s hard to stop procrastinating. Really. I thought my procrastinating habit was because I was stressed during school, and that without any stress during the summer, I wouldn’t procrastinate on my summer assignments. That  is the worst lie I ever told myself.

2. Photographing anything frozen and prone to quick melting is hard.  Really. Originally I’d intended to do an entire ice cream series for you guys, but after spending about five minutes trying to scoop a perfect ball of ice cream, only to have it melt and slide all around the bowl… I know the trick to photographing frozen things is to work fast, but its pretty hard.

3. Italian ice is great. Its super easy and quick to make + it really cools you down on summer days. They’re also easier to photograph than ice cream, because you don’t have make it look perfect, just serve with whipped cream garnish, and that is the end of it :)

Anyways, here’s the recipe to an ice recipe that I’ve made several times over the summer :) It’s very simple, but it tastes great, and is easy to make so here you go…

note: I’m not quite sure that this dessert should be categorized as an italian ice because it does contain milk & ice cream, however, it does resemble italian ice more than anything to me, and has a similar texture…

Cookies & Cream Ice

Serves two

1 big scoop of vanilla ice cream

4 oreos cookies

1 cup of milk (whole is preferable, but 2 % is great as well) & two table spoons (keep separated)

1. In a blender blend together all of the above ingredients until smooth, then pour it into a ice cube tray, and freeze until completely solid (this should take a three hours or more depending on how cold your freezer is)

2. Remove frozen cookies&cream mixture from ice tray and place in blender and add two table spoons of milk into the blender, and then blend the mixture until smooth :)

Keep cool & enjoy :)

Deepshikha :)

Tiramisu & Love

When I saw this dessert, it was love at first sight…

I still remember the first time we had met…it was a couple years back, I was eating dinner and Tiramisu showed up upon my dinner table…he was gorgeous….a dark brown hue layered with a creamy, warm white and dusted cocoa on the top…mmm…and the taste! Absolutely amazing…a sharp espresso flavor, lightly touched by a tinge of alcohol, with small but very notable ring of chocolate , and a amazing cream blanketing the whole thing….soo crazily delicious!

Of course, the next day I spent a while digging about and finding the perfect recipe, and trying it out, and it turned out quite good, and awesomely yummy. Plus it’s real easy to make :)

Here we go:

Tiramisu Italiano

adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

For the cream(the white part):

• 7 eggs yolks(I’m not sure if size of the egg makes a difference, but I use medium sized eggs)
• 1/2 a cup of sugar(refer down 3 ingredients, for a small modification)
• 1/3 a cup of sweet marsala(you may want to minimize this if you don’t like the taste of alcohol in desert too much)
• 8 ounces of room temperature mascarpone( you can also use the coffee mascarpone if you somehow dig that out and it’s actually cheaper than the regular kind)
• 1 cup of heavy cream(and possibly more) OR some pre-made whipped cream(in which case you should minimize the sugar, unless you, for some magical reason, have found sugarless whipped cream)– (I prefer using the pre-made whipped cream, it’s just easier :D)

For the ladyfingers(the brown part):

• 1 cup espresso coffee(brewed)
• 1 oz. dark chocolate OR about a heaped half a tbsp. of dark chocolate powder and some sugar.
• 1/4 a cup of rum(once again, if you do not like the taste of alcohol minimize this)
• 2 tablespoons of marsala
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 48 lady fingers

and Lastly:

• cocoa powder for dusting!

For the cream:

Okay, so first, in bowl(check the bottom to see if it’s heat proof) over a pot of simmering water combine the egg yolks and the sugar. When they are successfully creamed together, add in the marsala, and then whisk(or use an hand mixer) the mixture until it starts to gain volume. Then set the whisk/hand mixer aside, take the bowl off stove and then add in the mascarpone and mix it in with a spoon(it’s easier with a spoon) until it’s successfully mixed in.

Now for those who are using pre-made whipped cream:

Take a gigantic spoon of the whipped cream, and using a whisk(or a hand mixer with the whisk attachment) mix the whipped cream in. Continue adding spoons of the whipped cream until the mixture appears to be capable of holding it’s shape.Note: every now and then, just pop the mixture in the freezer or refrigerator, because the cold helps the mixture to get thicker.

For those who are making whipped cream from scratch:

Grab a whisk(or hand blender or hand mixer), a bowl(make sure you pre-chill this by putting it in the freezer) and the (chilled)heavy cream.

• If you use a hand blender or mixer, simply flick a switch and in five minutes you will have a nice whipped cream.
• But how ever, if you intend to whip it by hand(which is crazily hard, and I do not recommend, but it is possible, because how did people do it back in the day?), use the whisk and whip the cream really hard, and every now and then put it in the freezer for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it up again.

Then after you have your whipped cream simply whip it into the marsala/sugar/egg/mascarpone mixture and you may need more than you already have to get it to a  state where it is able to hold it’s shape for a couple of seconds.

And voila! You have the cream part of the tiramisu!

Now just stick it in the fridge and let it chill.

Now, for the lady fingers…

Lady Fingers(the brown part) Part:

Okay…

If you are you are using solid chocolate(chips, a bar,etc…), grab a small-ish sauce pan, the chocolate, the espresso, the rum, the marsala, and the vanilla. Put all the ingredients into the small sauce pan, and heat on medium until the chocolate is fully melted. Now lets call this mixture CERMV(the initials of every ingredient).

If you are using chocolate powder grab a bowl(small-ish), the chocolate, the espresso, the rum, the marsala, and lastly the vanilla. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl and go snatch your sugar. Spoon in two teaspoons of sugar into the chocolate/espresso/rum/marsala/vanilla(lets call it CERMV) mixture. Now taste it. If it tastes worthy to be thrown down the drain, add in more sugar, and taste again. Continue doing this until it tastes semi-edible(because remember that we’re dipping the ladyfingers in this then layering them with the cream which already has sugar).

Now take the all the lady fingers, and arrange them in a dish(or dishes) that is(are) capable of holding two layers of the lady fingers, and the cream also. Make sure you do this before you start dipping the lady fingers, because if you suddenly realize that the tiramisu won’t fit in the dish you are working with, it’s not fun to re-arrange soggy lady fingers.

Okay, now we dip the lady fingers into the CERMV and form the first layer of lady fingers on the bottom of your dish.

Dipping tips: if you have the harder kind(there are soft ones that are spongy and hard ones that are…hard)of lady fingers, I reccomend holding them in the CERMV, completely submerged, for exactly five seconds(w/ the Mississippi’s).  However, if you are using the softer ones, try four or three seconds. But for both types of lady fingers you want them soft enough to sag over your fingers a bit as you are dipping them. If they are under dipped, then you will have a very dry tiramisu, without a strong enough coffee flavor, which is not good. If the lady fingers are over dipped, then they’ll break up on your fingers while they are being dipped or carried. But if you’re lucky and they don’t break at all, that’s fine.

Okay so now since you’ve formed your first layer of lady fingers, cover that layer with half of the cream, and then add another layer of lady fingers(that are dipped in CERMV) and cover that with the rest of the cream.

Let it chill in the freezer for a half hour or maybe more.

And TADA! you are done :)

Another little note: when you serve the tiramisu just dust it over with a bit of chocolate powder.

Hope you enjoy :)

~D.D.

P.S. You may not want to keep the tiramisu out for too long in heat, it tend to become a little melt-y(as you can see in my pictures :D)