Banana Pudding Ice Cream
Posted: March 13, 2012 Filed under: Ice Cream/Frozen Desserts | Tags: banana, ice cream, pudding Leave a commentIs it just me, or are bananas the awkward child of the fruit group? Most other fruits contain lots of water, but bananas are off in their own world, doing their own super starchy thing. Like growing upside down. I didn’t really believe that was true until I saw it for myself in Taiwan.
Bunched up unripe bananas look like little alien pods. Weird. But don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy bananas. One of my favorite snacks is a banana with peanut butter. Luke and I bonded over making my mom’s banana bread, (which he loves).
Bananas and I are definitely buddies. I mean, my name rhymes with them, so there’s got to be some kind of connection.
When I made this ice cream, I was worried the flavor of the banana might get wonky because of the freezing process. Although the ice cream turned a slightly grayish color (which is normal because of oxidation, like apples turning brown), I could not be more thrilled with the taste.
Smooth, creamy, with just the right balance of sweetness and banana flavor. There were even little pieces of frozen banana that managed to remain intact through my vigorous mashing. Gotta love that resilient banana spirit.
Banana Pudding Ice Cream
Adapted from Bella Eats
Makes about 1 quart
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 cup whole or 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 tsp vanilla
4 very ripe bananas, mashed or puréed
1/2 cup vanilla wafers, broken to small pieces but not crumbs (I used sugar cookies)
In a medium-size bowl whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt, and set aside.
In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the milk and 1 cup of the cream until little bubbles begin to form around the edges. Remove from heat and add to the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until a candy thermometer reads 170˚. The mixture will coat the back of a spatula.
Pour custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Add the remaining cup of cream and the vanilla, and stir to incorporate. Add the puréed banana and stir to combine. Let the mixture come to room temperature.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. This can be done overnight.
The next day (or 8 hours later), pour the mixture into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions. As you transfer the ice cream to its long term container, stir in the crumbled cookie bits.
Apple Bread Pudding
Posted: October 7, 2011 Filed under: Misc. Desserts | Tags: apple, fall, pudding Leave a commentFor some reason fall makes me very nostalgic, this year more than ever. Maybe it’s because this is my first year out on my own and I’m still in denial about having graduated and becoming an adult, so my brain is trying to compensate and keep me occupied from my current situation.
When I was growing up, fall was full of activities like apple and pumpkin picking, jumping in piles of leaves, and enjoying the cool autumn nights and New England foliage. An atypical childhood I’m sure, but it was an enjoyable one that I’m trying to keep alive as long as possible. Maybe that’s why I stock up on canned pumpkin whenever I can and buy apples in quantities no less than five pounds….
But that’s only because the flavors of fall are undoubtedly my favorite and I’m so excited that fall is in full swing again. I’ve already been apple picking twice, and have every intention of going at least another two times.
I had some extra bread in the freezer that I had bought to make sandwiches for my fiancée, but he started taking leftovers to work for lunch, so what was I going to do with all this white bread? When I make sandwiches, I like a full flavored grainy, nutty whole wheaty bread, so I wasn’t going to be making any sandwiches with the flimsy white stuff. Well, what do I do with any leftover bread…make bread pudding!! I made my first pan of bread pudding last year, and have tried a couple different varieties.
This one is nice and simple, and comes from the Moosewood Cookbook, a hand-me-down from my mom after I obsessively started reading food blogs and wanted to amass any and all cookbooks in sight. The Moosewood Cookbook is a lovely compendium of natural, vegetarian recipes with hand written entries. I also happen to love their cornbread, and have a bunch of other recipes flagged that I’m dying to try. The other fun thing about my copy is that it has notes my mom wrote in it back when she first got it in the 1980s. I found it fascinating to look at her observations and tiny adjustments to recipes, as well as her comments about which recipes worked for her and which didn’t. Anywho, and without further, ado here’s the recipe.
Apple Bread Pudding
Adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook
3 cups milk (I used a combination of 1% and whole)
3 large eggs
½ tsp cinnamon
juice from ½ lemon
½ tsp salt
2 tsps vanilla extract
3 Tbs honey
2 Tbs brown sugar
4 cups coarsely crumbled bread*
1 ½ cups diced apple
½ cup chopped nuts (I omitted this step)
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9X13 pan. Set aside. Beat well together with a whisk all but the last three ingredients and set aside. Mix together the last three ingredients in the prepared pan. Pour first mixture into the pan and push everything around with a wooden spoon until it is uniformly combined. At this stage, I like to let my pudding sit for about ½ hour to let the milk mixture soak in, but you don’t have to. Bake for 35 mins. It’s best served hot, warm or cold whichever you prefer. I also whipped up a spiced glaze to go with mine because I wanted a little extra fall flavor. You could also top it with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or applesauce.
*Instead of white bread, feel free to sub in stale cake or sweet breads. This recipe is calibrated for unsweetened breads though, so if you go this route, make sure to adjust the sugar and honey levels accordingly.
Bashfulbao 