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 :)
10 comments :
Do they sell almond paste somewhere – I don't think my food processor will work.
I've just started making home made ice cream with a White Mountain hand crank machine and the kids think it's awesome.
If you don't make your own ice cream you should give it a try. Here's an interesting article I found that might be helpful to folks thinking about making their own.
http://worldvillage.com/hand-crank-vs-electric-ice-cream-makers
I just made an almond torte, this would be perfect on the side!
Best ice cream I've ever had… EVER.
This looks so delicious! I'm definitely jealous of your ice cream maker luck. Did you send some ice cream to your friend's mom? When we're living together in DC we're making this all the time, and coming up with genius modifications. What are the little black dots? I thought it was vanilla beans at first, but you don't have vanilla in your recipe (which you totally should try). Also, do you know of any ice cream recipes without eggs?
The almond flavor is perfect. It's light and creamy and so flavorful… definitely my favorite Sarah dessert thus far!!
Sarah — I am sure they would have almond paste at any specialty grocery store… or you could even try substituting with marzipan. Yum! I remember the crank ice cream machines from when I was a kid :) These days, I am far too lazy/busy, so I definitely appreciate the Krups!
Fare Bear — I can hear your voice asking me all these questions. It's hard to send ice cream to people without it melting; I delivered some sugar cookies on Mothers' Day. The little flecks are fragments of almond skins from grinding almonds down in a food processor to get almond paste. I have tried vanilla in this recipe! But I prefer almond. Or both. Many eggless recipes to come!
Mmmm… looks delicious. Can you make sorbet with that thing? I sent my mom the link and she's looking forward to giving it a try. You should go over there and give it a whirl with her!! (PS I like lemon and raspberry sorbet hahahaa)
Oooh I look forward to it! Will call her soon =) I've been ridiculously stressed at the J-O-B the past couple of weeks. Can you tell? I have been stress-blogging.
Should try making it with almond milk!
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