Kitchen Blunders

Kitchen screw-ups are a given. When I screw up in the kitchen, I just kind of shake it off, tell myself that it happens to everyone and then vow to never speak of the incident again. And obviously, it doesn’t get blogged. LOL. So if you read my blog, it looks like I’m some sort of domestic goddess. I promise you that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I just don’t share my failures. Heh.

One of the places I get tripped up in the kitchen is when I’m trying to manipulate a recipe so that it makes more or less than originally called for. Usually, I’m trying to make less. I don’t know why it’s so hard so…it shouldn’t be. I’m just not….great with numbers, as they say. Or, I just forget that I’m halving half way through and continue on normally. Ha! Oops!!

So this recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream I’m about to share is kind of a screw up, but kind of not. It is, because I tried to halve the recipe and I messed up the ratio of my ingredients and that changed the texture of the final product. It’s not because the flavor combo is AWESOME!! It’s really very delicious. I loved the flavor. Eric did too. I LOVE the graham cracker crust in there. That’s the best part!! But the texture was the slightest bit off. It wasn’t as creamy as some of the other ice creams I’ve made in past. But, of course, that’s not enough to make me NOT stuff my face with it. 🙂

On to the recipe! I spotted this in the Taste of Home cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas. The original recipe called for blueberries, but I subbed strawberries instead because they were on sale this week. 🙂 Reading through it, I didn’t like the way the it suggested to make the ice cream part….just mix together the ice cream ingredients and throw it straight into the freezer? Hmmmm…This didn’t seem right to me. Most of the other ice cream recipes I’ve made calls for cooking the milk/sugar mixture to dissolve the sugar, so I went ahead and did that. Then I chilled it overnight before freezing, per usual.

Where I went wrong was somewhere in the milk to cream ratio which should be two to one, I think. I’m not really sure which one was off. I am the first to call operator error here. I don’t want to blame the recipe, so I am going to include the ingredients for the full recipe below and write the directions in the way in which I prepared it. The full recipe makes about 2 quarts. Which is a helluva lot of ice cream. 🙂

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM (Recipe adapted from: Taste of Home Cookbook)

Makes 2 quarts

ICE CREAM:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 package (3.4 oz) instant cheesecake pudding mix
• 1 quart heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

STRAWBERRY SAUCE:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

GRAHAM CRACKER MIXTURE:

• 2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 36 squares)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Prepare the Ice Cream:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk, sugar and pudding mix. Heat to a simmer until the sugar dissolves, the mixture bubbles a little bit around the edges and thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour into a large bowl and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Whisk in cream and vanilla.
2. Cover and chill overnight.

Make the Strawberry Sauce:

1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water until smooth. Stire in strawberries and lemon juice, bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.
2. Cover and chill overnight.

Make Graham Cracker Mixture (I did this in the morning before I froze the ice cream, but you could do it the day before too):

1. In a bowl, combine cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Stir in butter. Pat into an ungreased 15 x 10 x 2 inch baking pan. bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
2. Cool completely on wire rack.
3. Crumb into large chunks

Put it all together:

1. Stir ice cream mixture and freeze, in batches, in your ice cream maker according to the directions.
2. Pour about 1/3 of the frozen ice cream into your storage container, then add a layer of graham cracker crumbs and half the strawberry sauce. Top with another third of ice cream and a second layer of graham cracker crumbs and the last of the strawberry sauce. Top off with the last of the ice cream.
3. Freeze about two hours to harden before serving.

ENJOY! 🙂