After much fluctuation, it seems that the warm weather is here to stay — I’m writing this on my balcony, after wasting my beautiful Saturday in bed, sadly, under the weather. Nothing beats having a south-facing balcony in a Dupont row house. This balcony serves as the background for most of my food photography, has hosted many candle-lit dinners amongst Reagan National flight patterns, and served as the same balcony I sat on when I first met Kristen at the open house when I moved to Washington. Aside from my bed (where I spent most of my day), the balcony really is my favorite part of this old house.
Some of my favorite DC memories take place on this balcony — for example, a thunderstorm dinner with friends, or eating almond-flavored ice cream with Rachel at 3 A.M. (last night). The ice cream making came as a surprise to me. After one day of lunch break perusing on ebay and Amazon for an inexpensive ice cream machine, I painfully convinced myself not to buy anything — so I left work that day and met up with Dave for sangria and tapas. Afterwards, I met his mother at her beautiful house in the U Street area, discovering another foodie at heart. I mentioned my pining for an ice cream machine and the pain I went through in convincing myself to spend money elsewhere… and then she pulled her unopened Krups ice cream machine out of a closet (literally) and let me borrow it. Needless to say, this almond ice cream can be attributed to her. It’s nice having a fellow foodie to leave with confectionary creations. Anyway, this ice cream hasn’t lasted more than a day or two in my house — Kristen and Silje have told me that this ice cream flavor trumps all other flavors. I plan on making some home made ice cream sandwiches with it, so you will all see those photos soon enough!
WHAT YOU NEED:
1/4 cup almond flour
2 cups milk (I used skim)
3/4 cup heavy or whipping cream (Obviously canceling out the skim milk. Oh well!)
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons almond extract
WHAT TO DO:
Toss the almond flour in your food processor and grind down to a paste — it took me about 5-7 minutes. Then, heat the milk and cream in a saucepan, adding the almond paste. Bring to a boil, then immediately remove from heat. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and almond extract. Stir with a whisk until even, then add to the saucepan — you mix them separately, in this case, to avoid the eggs cooking in the almond-cream solution (learn from my mistakes). Heat on low for about five minutes, stirring constantly.
Cool the mixture, then use in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. I had ice cream in about 30 minutes :)
