Photo credit: 3.bp.blogspot.com

History of Ice cream

Ice cream is one of the most popular sweet treats around today, but where did it originally come from??

The first records of desserts similar to ice cream come from as early as the 4th century BC. King T'Ang of Shang in China had among his serving men 94 "icemen" to bring ice down from the mountains. He made a concoction of ice, fermented milk, flour and camphor. At a similar time, Emperor Nero in Rome ordered ice brought down from the mountains which he had mixed with fruit, nectar and honey.

The Chinese are credited with the first ice cream machine. They filled pots with a syrupy mixture and placed them in buckets of snow and salt. Salt was an important breakthrough in the creation of iced desserts. When added to ice, it makes the ice freeze at a much lower temperature, meaning that a bucket of snow and salt can get as low as -14 degrees Celsius.

In the 1660s in cities such as Naples, Florence and Paris, concoctions similar to modern day sorbets known as 'water ices' became popular. In 1664 ices with sweetened milk emerged in Naples. The first emergence of ice cream in England was in 1671, at the feast of St. George at Windsor Castle. Plates of strawberries and iced cream were served only to the very important royals at the head of the room.

Soon after this wealthy people began building ice houses under their estates and they farmed ice in winter. Custard based ice cream originated in France in the 18th century. In 1843 Nancy M Johnson patented the artificial freezer and the first ice cream machine with a rorating paddle. This prevented the need to stir it every so often and made a smoother texture.
In 1850 Jacob Fussell in Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania had excess cream left over from his dairy farm. He made ice cream and sold it in Baltimore. This was the first ice cream shop in the world and this soon became very popular.
www.ice-cream.org
www.todayifoundout.com
www.inventors.about.com
www.almanac.com

Easy Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, scraped
Directions:
Combine cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and stir in to the cream mixture just before removing from the heat.
Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator or in an ice bath until completely cool.
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Store in an air tight container and freeze for an additional 2 hours.

www.simplystated.realsimple.com

Photo credit: justataste.com

Churros 

Churros are Spanish pasteries made of choux pastry and deep fried and are popular all over the world. They are typically rolled in cinnamon sugar or dipped in sauces such as chocolate. In many South American countries they are served filled with fillings such as fruit, chocolate or dulce de leche.

http://churrosforlife.weebly.com/history-of-the-churro.html

The history of churros is unclear. Many people think that Spanish shepards needed something sweet that they could cook easily over an open fire so they developed a version of the churro. Other people think that the Portugese developed them after returnuing from trading in china and wantred asweet version of a fried salty Chinese stick.

Ingredients

• Sunflower oil
• 50g (2oz) dark chocolate

• Ground cinnamon
• 75g (3oz) butter
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 25g (1oz) dark chocolate
• 112ml (4fl oz) milk
• 25g (1oz) caster sugar
• Cornflour

1. Place the butter, salt and 225ml water in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Once the butter has melted, add the flour, whisking on a low heat until the mixture forms a smooth ball.
2. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with the vanilla and sugar and gradually add to the dough until smooth. Spoon into a bowl and place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the fridge and spoon into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.
3. Pour oil into a pan to a depth of 2cm and heat to 180 degrees C. Squeeze strips of dough into the oil, slicing off the nozzle with a knife. Deep-fry for 3-4 minutes or until golden, turning half way through. Drain on kitchen paper and roll in cinnamon and sugar.
4. Place the chocolate and half the milk in a saucepan and gently heat until the chocolate has melted. Mix the sugar with the cornflour and remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate mixture. Cook on a low heat for around 5 minutes until it's thickened.
5. Pout the chocolate sauce into cups and serve.

Recipe credit: Rachel Allen

Make your Own Honeycomb - Crumbs

Here's an example of how to make honeycomb. This recipe is very similar to the one I've just published.



Video credit: Crumbs Food

Honeycomb

Honeycomb toffee is a crunchy, aerated sweet that is most commonly associated with Cadbury's Crunchie bar. It has many different names including cinder toffee in parts of Britain, sponge candy in parts of America and hokey pokey in New Zealand. Honeycomb is really simple to make. There are loads of different recipes for it but the majority of them only have three ingredients: sugar, golden syrup and baking soda (bicarbonate of soda). It works by boiling the sugar and syrup to the "hard crack" stage (this gives it the crunch) and then adding the baking soda. The soda causes a chemical reaction which releases carbon dioxide bubbles. As the honeycomb hardens, the bubbles are trapped which gives the honeycomb its signature aerated texture.

Here's some honeycomb I made over the weekend. It's amazing dipped in chocolate!

Here's the recipe I used which is adapted from Nigella Lawson:

Ingredients:

100g caster sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (sifted)

1. Mix the sugar and syrup together in a pan.
2. Set over a medium heat and allow to melt. Make sure it's completely melted before bringing to the boil.
3. Bring to the boil and boil until it's the colour of maple syrup (around 150 degrees C if you have a sugar thermometer). Test by dropping a little amount into a glass of water. It should make "threads as soon as it hits the water and become hard. This means it's at the hard crack stage. Make sure it's cooked enough as otherwise you won't get that crunchiness.
4. Quickly whisk in the bicarb and make sure it's fully incorporated.
5. Pour out onto a tray covered in baking parchment. Leave to set.
6. Break into pieces and dip in chocolate. It's best kept in an airtight box in the fridge as the sugar attracts water vapour in the air and can become sticky in a humid environment.
7. Enjoy!!

Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska is an ice cream dessert that consists of a cake base and a mound of ice cream which is covered in meringue. What's special about baked Alaska is that the meringue on the outside is cooked in the oven while the ice cream in the middle stays firm. This is possible because the meringue contains a lot of air which is very insulating and keeps the heat from the oven from reaching the ice cream. It's served immediately after cooking meaning that the dessert has cold ice cream surrounded by hot meringue which is a wonderful sensation of different temperatures, textures and flavours.
Originally the ice cream was surrounded by pastry but this wasn't as good as meringue as it's not as insulating. Many Americans have claimed to have invented the baked Alaska, including physicist Benjamin Thompson after his work on the insulting properties of whipped egg white. It was then called omelette surprise or omelette a la norvegienne.
The name "baked Alaska" comes from Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City in 1876 to celebrate Alaska joining the United States.

Ingredients

• 1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons plus 5 teaspoon water, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon                            
• 1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2/3 cup cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar                                                       

2 tablespoon sliced almonds, toasted                                                                 

Photo credit: myself

Directions

1. Spoon ice cream into a 1-1/2-qt. bowl lined with plastic wrap; freeze until firm. Line a greased 9-in. round baking pan with waxed paper; grease the paper and set aside. Place a clean kitchen towel over a wire rack; dust towel with confectioners’ sugar. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, 3 tablespoons water and vanilla. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; fold into egg mixture.
3. Gently spoon into prepared pan. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately run a knife around edge of pan; invert onto prepared wire rack. Gently peel off waxed paper; cool completely.
4. In a large heavy saucepan, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and remaining sugar and water; beat on low speed with a portable mixer for 1 minute. Continue beating over low heat until mixture reaches 160°, about 12 minutes. Remove from the heat. Beat untilstuiff aks form and sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes.
5. Place cake on an ungreased foil-lined baking sheet; unmold ice cream and place over cake. Immediately spread meringue over ice cream and cake, sealing it to foil; sprinkle with almonds. Freeze until ready to serve, up to 24 hours.
6. Just before serving, heat with a creme brulee torch or broil on lowest oven rack position for 3-5 minutes or until meringue is light browned. Serve immediately. Yield: 12 servings

Recipe credit: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-alaska#ixzz3Ig10S5w2

Here's a picture of the macarons I made using this recipe - a gorgeous mix of textures with a really chocolatey flavour!!