Chocolate Ice Cream, in a bag...

It's summer break from school!  The little is happy... but bored!  So we try to find activities for her to do... one of which is making ice cream in a plastic bag.

Of course she wanted chocolate ice cream!

Our deal was for her to do everything... well almost everything... which she did.

1. She measured and placed into a 2-cup capacity Pyrex liquid measuring cup, 1/4 cup of each:  cocoa (then sifted), chocolate milk, and condensed milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  And she mixed everything until the cocoa was fully dissolved. (first pic, top left)

2. She measured 3/4 cup of whipping cream and added it to the chocolate mixture (second pic, top right)

3. She mixed until the mixture was well combined. (second row, left)

4. Then she poured the mixture in a small zip-lock bag (we used Reynolds secure seal) [second row, right).  We placed the zip bag in the freezer while we prepared the bag of ice - mix 1/3 cup rock salt and 3 trays of ice cubes in a bigger zip lock bag.  Then place the small bag containing the chocolate milk into the big bag of ice cubes and salt.

5. Shake, shake, shake... or massage the bags... We used gloves because the plastic bag was really, really cold!  (third row, left)  The bags were to be shaken or massaged for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the the consistency was that of soft serve ice cream.

6. Of course, the little girl got tired in about 4 minutes!  So I had to take over the shaking of the bags. Meanwhile, she decided that she wanted her ice cream stuffed with chocolate chip cookies, so she "chopped" some Mini Chips Ahoy while I was busy shaking and massaging the super-cold bags!  (third row, right)

7. The finished product!  (bottom row, left)  After about 15 minutes, the mixture had thickened.  We place the bags in the freezer for about 15 minutes while I looked for a container!  To transfer to the container, remove the inner bag from the out bag.  Wipe the inner bag well.  Snip a corner and squeeze the ice cream out (soft serve consistency) into the container.  Add the chocolate chip cookie pieces and fold.  At this point the little girl took a couple of spoonfuls.

Then she decided to save the rest for dessert after dinner (to share with Daddy, as well!)  So we stored the ice cream in the freezer.

8.  After dinner, the little ater with gusto and proclaimed:  Best choco ice cream ever, Mommy!

Yay!!!

No Churn Chocolate Chip Chocolate Ice Cream

For the little girl... who has requested, repeatedly for several days now, chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips in it.

This recipe was given to me by an e-friend, who gave me permission to share...

1/2 cup chocolate milk
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/3 cup Dutch style cocoa
300 ml heavy 40% cream
3 to 5 tablespoons mini chocolate chips

Stir together the chocolate milk, condensed milk and cocoa until thoroughly mixed.  Chill for a couple of hours.

Whip the cream until stiff peaks.  Fold in the chocolate-milk mixture.

Pour into prepared container (about 1 liter capacity).  Freeze for 1 to 2 hours, until sides begin to freeze but center is still a bit liquid-y.  Stir the mixture then fold in chocolate chips.  Freeze until solid.

The little girl obviously loved her ice cream.  It was delicious, although I found it a tad a bit on the sweet side.  It's a little sweeter, particularly the end-note, than my go-to homemade chocolate ice cream, but it is darker and has a more complex chocolate-y taste, maybe due to chocolate milk component.

In any case, the little girl pronounced me her (kitchen) hero once again!

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream...

The little girl has a new toy.  It's a toy ice cream maker that makes REAL ice cream.

Of course, it cannot make a lot.  Just enough for one serving, in fact.

And the darn thing kept leaking!  What a waste of ice cream mix!

So what did I do with the rest of the ice cream mix?  I churned it, of course!  With what, you may wonder... (after all, I don't have an ice cream maker!)  Well, with 2 bowls, my favorite spatula, plenty of ice and salt!

In the beginning it was like stirring soup.

After 15 minutes...

It was like stirring thick soup... still nowhere near soft serve ice cream though.

More stirring and another 5 minutes (20 minutes from the beginning)...

Getting thicker and thicker... and the mixture had a couple of solid globs of ice cream!

Another 5 minutes (at 25 minutes)...

Getting there... getting there... (my arm and hand are getting really sore, though!)

After 30 minutes (and really sore arm and hand!  although to be truthful, hubby was the one who "churned" the ice cream the last 5 minutes!)...

Soft-serve ice cream... ready to eat!

I poured a pint into a carton ice cream container (to freeze firm in the freezer).  As for the rest (half a pint's worth) we ate it with gusto!  It was certainly perfect for the hot day... imagine that last Sunday at 3pm, the temperature recorded was the highest this year (Tuguegarao station) at 37.4*C!  Yesterday, it was 37*C!  Yikes!

What recipe did we use?  Technically I used David Lebovitz' Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe, with some changes:  first, I added about 1/2 cup dutch cocoa; then I substituted egg yolks with 1/3 cup greek style yogurt.  The ice cream mix essentially became no-cook, except for the dissolving of the cocoa in the milk.  I mixed the yogurt with the cream before adding the cooled cocoa-milk and other ingredients.  I stuck it in the ref for about an hour before "hand-churning" it.  

Anyway... hubby claimed that it was way, way better than any of the commercial ice creams!  As for the little girl?  She gave me a lot of kisses, which (she says) reflects how good the ice cream was!

And there were a lot of kisses!

Homemade Langkasuy Yogurt Ice Cream

We went on a short getaway to the nearby south and I came back with a really big langka (jackfruit).  I had been skeptical of its sweetness, but a quick taste test and I was sold!

I had really been on the lookout for langka because I wanted to make my own langkasuy (langka and kasuy/jackfruit and cashew) ice cream.  Most of the recipes I found online used preserved langka, for convenience, I suppose.  But I wanted mine with fresh langka!  And I didn't want to cook, which meant no eggs!  Then I did not have an ice cream maker!

This meant that I had to make my own preserve.  Using the instructions for mango jam in the book "Introduction to Food Preservation" by Matilde P. Guzman (1977), I made my langka "jam", reducing the sugar in half (because the langka was really, really sweet already on its own).  The resulting "jam" measured just a little less than a cup.

I based my recipe on this, modifying it to suit my taste -

First I halved the recipe, but still used almost a cup of (homemade) langka preserve.  Instead of egg yolks and soy milk, I used Greek-style yogurt.  Everything (all ingredients very cold) got blitzed in the food processor.  I transferred the mixture to a stainless steel bowl, covered it with plastic cling film and froze it for 1 to 2 hours (depending on the freezer), until the sides were frozen but the middle was still liquid.

I then re-beat the mixture (still in the bowl) with a hand mixer for 30 seconds (it actually looked like soft serve ice cream at that point).  Then it was time for the mix-ins...  fold in 1/4 cup chopped fresh langka and 1/4 cup chopped kasuy.  Transfer to a container, cover well, and freeze until solid.

To serve, let the ice cream stand at room temp for 10 minutes, or in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes, to soften slightly (more scoopable this way).

I love, love, love it!  The texture is very creamy.  It is definitely less sweet than the commercial variety.  In fact, there was a slight tang to it, perhaps due to the yogurt, but the langka flavor was perfect (not subtle but not overpowering) and the cashew bits were plentiful, just the way I like it!