Vanilla Ice Cream

I know.  This could not get any more vanilla.  Plain Jane.  Milquetoast. Waspy.

But.

There is a reason you don’t see many ice cream posts on this blog (I think there may be one).

I do not have the ice cream juju.

Every summer, I set out to conquer the beast, and every summer I fail. Regardless of recipe, my attempts turn out chalky, overly rich and just plain sad.  Oh, and expensive.  Last summer’s attempt involved Sicilian pistachios and dozens of hand-pitted cherries.  The result was inedible.

So this summer I decided to dial it back and start with crawling instead of toe picking.  And it worked.  The result was creamy, just sweet enough and perfect for topping a piece of peach pie.

So, I thought I’d share. In case I’m not the only remedial ice cream maker out there.

I don’t really have a recipe for the peach pie, but I live and die by this sour cream pie crust.

I know it’s supposed to be hot this holiday weekend, but speaking of toe picks.

Vanilla Ice Cream

New York Times (I swear I don’t get all of my recipes here)

Ingredients 

  • 2 C heavy cream
  • 1 C whole milk
  • 2/3 C sugar
  • 1/8 tsp fine sea salt (I had this on hand–if you don’t, just use kosher)
  • 6 large egg yolks

Directions

  1. In a small pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, sugar and Salk until everything completely dissolves (about 5 minutes). Remove pot from heat.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks.  Whisking constantly, slowly whisk-in about 1/3 of the hot cream to the yolk mixture.  Then whisk the yolk mixture back into the remaining cream in the pot.
  3. Return the pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees).
  4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.  Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours (overnight is even better).
  5. Follow directions on your ice cream machine.  Serve directly for soft-serve, store in freezer for a more ice cream like consistency.

 

 

 

Ringer pie crust

My first inclination was to begin this post with the reminder that we are officially in pie season.

But really, isn’t it always pie season?

I mean, have you ever heard someone turn down the offer of pie because it was “out of season?”  Me neither.

I heard about adding sour cream to pie dough a couple of years ago on the Milk Street podcast.  I listened enthusiastically and then mentally stowed the idea away for a later time.

Two years later.  Because that’s how my brain works.  Adding sour cream is supposed to help with shrinkage in blind baking.  To test this, I made a couple of double crust pies that didn’t involve blind baking.

Because that makes so much sense.

I promise to try it with a Quiche Lorraine and report back at some point.

Yes, this is a different pie.  Same dough though.

What I can confirm is that from a taste and texture perspective, this dough is spot-on.  If you don’t have a go-to pie dough, or if you are like me and have a wandering dough-eye, this is a great bet for all of your pie needs.  In season or otherwise.

Sour Cream Dough (with an apple pie recipe if you need it)

For the dough

Ingredients:

  • 2 C (250 g) all-purpose flour
  • 3 tsps sugar
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 12 TBS (170g) or 1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces about the size of almonds
  • ½ C (120g) sour cream

Directions

  1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt.  Pulse to combined.
  2. Sprinkle the butter pieces over the mixture and pulse again until you get course crumbs and a sandy texture
  3. Add the sour cream and pulse until the dough starts to come together.
  4. Dump the clumpy dough onto a slightly floured surface and form the dough together.  Then divide in half, form each half into a disc and then wrap each in plastic.  Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (or you can freeze, just remember to allow to sit on counter once removed).

For the Pie

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe pie dough
  • 1/3 C sugar
  • 1/3 C packed brown sugar (golden or dark)
  • 3 TBS all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 8 cups thinly sliced apples (I use a combo just to make it interesting and also buy what is on sale.  People have all kinds of preferences when it comes to apples—use what you prefer)
  • 1 TBS lemon juice
  • 1 TBS butter
  • 1 egg
  • Additional sugar

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  2. Pull the dough from the fridge.  Roll-out the bottom crust for a 9ish inch pie pan (I think the one I brought in was 10 inches and it worked just fine).  Carefully fit into the pan with extra hanging over the side.  Let rest in the fridge while you are making the pie filling.
  3. In a medium bowl, combined the sugar and spices.
  4. Peel and thinly sliced the apples into a large bowl.
  5. Add the spices, toss to mix.  Toss-in lemon juice.
  6. Roll-out top crust of pie.
  7. Fill chilled pie tin with apples.  Arrange them as desired (I like to mound them a little bit and make sure everything is laying flat—no rouge apple edges sticking up). Dot with butter.
  8. Top with crust.  You will have overhang from both the top and bottom crusts.  Trim so that you have about ½ inch hanging over the sides of the pie tin.  Here you can either tuck the overhang back between the pie and the edge of the pan (like a fold under) or you can seal the top and bottom together and flute the extra etc.
  9. Cut four cents in the top with a sharp knife.
  10. Beat the egg and brush over the crust.  Top with sugar.
  11. Bake for 50-60 minutes until pie is golden brown.  I always bake pies with a cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch any bubbling juices.
  12. Allow to cool completely before cutting.