No-Churn Mocha Ice Cream

So, have you made Nigella Lawson's no-churn coffee ice cream? It's ridiculously easy and delicious, and when I discovered how simple it was to make really good ice cream with just a mixer, I was tempted to get rid of my ice cream machine!

To make the no-churn ice cream, you beat heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and flavorings until it's nice and thick, then freeze the ice cream. That's all there is to it! The only thing is that I'm not a big fan of cooking with sweetened condensed milk--there's so much refined sugar in it, and I try to avoid that whenever I can.



So I decided to try making my own sweetened condensed milk using maple syrup, with some guidance from this recipe from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring. The homemade sweetened condensed milk takes a while to make, but your house will smell amazing. You do have to watch it pretty closely but don't have to stir it constantly, so it's a good time to do some cleaning or other tasks around the kitchen. I got a lot of dishes done while I was making it! (Anything that gets me to do more dishes is good, and pretty rare.)

The results are so much more delicious than canned sweetened condensed milk! The maple flavor adds a caramel note to the ice cream that goes perfectly with the chocolate and coffee. In addition to working beautifully in this ice cream, the maple-sweetened condensed milk is amazing in hot or iced coffee.

Mocha Ricotta Pie with Strawberries

This pie is one of my absolute favorite desserts. It's in my top three of all time, right up there with almond butter thumbprints and salted caramel brownies.

What makes it so fabulous is the trifecta of a lightly sweetened, crunchy shortbread crust, a rich and creamy ricotta filling with chocolate, coffee, and a hint of lemon (yes, lemon!), and a topping of juicy strawberries. It reminds me of the amazing Southern-style chocolate pie I always used to eat at the now-defunct Marimont Cafeteria in Austin, Texas, but with a mature Italian twist and bright berries to lighten things up.

Really good dark chocolate and high quality, full-fat ricotta are important for this pie. (Good coffee won't hurt either, but I love my Café Bustelo.) I was so excited about having a tub of Narragansett Creamery ricotta in my fridge that I proceeded to completely forget I'd bought it to make zucchini lasagna, and dumped all of it into the filling for this pie.

Mocha Pistachio Ice Cream (Dairy Free, Coconut Free)

Sadly, it turns out that I'm allergic to coconut.

This is especially devastating because coconut is the miracle food source of the paleo world.  Coconut milk, sugar, flour, oil, and butter are all delicious, and do an impressive job of standing in for their non-paleo counterparts.  

I can't help but wonder if my sudden increase in coconut intake during my January Whole30 was what caused my allergy to surface.  But, no matter the cause, I won't be partaking in any coconut anytime soon.  Eating raw coconut makes me feel awful, and my doctor told me not to eat cooked coconut either unless I first sit through a challenge test in his office.  The test would consist of me bringing in some food with cooked coconut in it, eating it one bite at a time, and seeing if I go into anaphylactic shock or anything.  I told him no thanks for now.

Mocha Mexicano & A Giveaway (Paleo, Gluten-free, Vegan)

This mocha mexicano is full of warm spices, and packs a subtle punch thanks to a little cayenne pepper.  It's inspired by ingredients from Rodelle Vanilla and Taza's Fire Puncher chocolate.

This summer, my vegan & paleo strawberry ice cream was a runner-up in Rodelle Vanilla's Great American Ice Cream Contest, and the prize was a basket of Rodelle Baking Goodies.  I asked the wonderful folks at Rodelle if they would include a few extra goodies for you all, and they said yes!  I picked up a couple of other treats over at Taza Chocolate yesterday, and am beyond excited to bring you a vanilla and chocolate giveaway.

Prize basket

One winner will receive a prize basket including:

• Two whole Madagascar Vanilla Beans from Rodelle
• A 6-ounce bottle of Rodelle Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract
• A 2-ounce bottle of Rodelle Organic Chocolate Extract
• A 2-ounce bottle of Rodelle Anise Extract
• Two discs of Taza Chocolate's Organic Fire Puncher 70% Dark Chocolate Mexicano (2.7 ounces)
• A bag of Taza's Organic 55% Dark Chocolate Covered Cacao Nibs (2 ounces)
• A recipe card for Molten Spiced Chocolate cake and a Direct Trade pamphlet from Taza

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream (Paleo, Gluten-free)

I really enjoyed the spiced honey & corn cupcakes I made the other day, but they also left me craving a more classic cupcake.  To me, vanilla beans are the epitome of classic elegance in dessert flavor form.  I ordered half a pound of vanilla beans online months ago, used half of them to make a bunch of little bottles of vanilla extract, and still have a bunch left.  I highly recommend ordering beans online in bulk, since it's much more economical and they're likely to be much fresher than overpriced grocery store beans.

These cupcakes are light and fluffy, because they're made with coconut flour instead of almond flour.  Of all the paleo & gluten-free treats I've made, these may be the closest in taste and texture to their gluten-laden cousins.  I highly recommend them!  They're also perfect for people with nut allergies or for bringing to birthday celebrations in nut-free classrooms.  This recipe makes a very small batch (good for people like me with no restraint), but can easily be doubled.

Mocha Marinated Steak with Peach Salsa and Cauliflower Mash

If you haven't stopped by since last month's chocolate party, you'll notice that things have changed some since the days of double malt ice cream sandwiches.  A Calculated Whisk is going paleo!  It's not a permanent change, but I'm doing a Whole30, and the blog is doing it with me.  So for the rest of August, you'll find more healthy recipes with fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat, and seafood, but no grains, sugar, sweeteners, legumes, soy, milk, or processed food.  Desserts (at least paleo ones, which can still be impressively delicious!) will return in the fall.

Mocha Almond Flourless Brownies

Yesterday I got some almond flour and blue cornmeal in the mail from Bob's Red Mill.  I was super excited to try some chocolate baked goods with the almond flour.  Did you know it's just ground-up almonds?  Amazing.  Full of heart-healthy fats and protein instead of the empty carbs in flour.

I decided to try these flourless brownies, adapted from this recipe on Om Nom Ally.  They are really good!  The coffee and almond flavors are subtle, but add an extra richness to the chocolate flavor.  The brownies are really fudgy and moist, which makes them very satisfying.  Just one is enough (until the craving strikes again an hour later...).

These brownies are not overly sweet.  I actually added extra sugar, because the original recipe only called for 2 tablespoons and I didn't want a bitter brownie.  I think my version came out great, but I would have dusted them with some powdered sugar if I hadn't been out.

Ingredients (makes 9-12 brownies):

1 cup almond flour (finely ground almonds)
1/2 cup cocoa, plus extra for dusting
1-3 teaspoons finely ground coffee, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease an 8 x 8 baking dish and powder the bottom and sides with cocoa.

In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, cocoa, coffee, salt, and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and extracts.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool and cut into squares.

Mocha Chip Cookies and A GIVEAWAY

For my two month blogiversary, I decided to do my first giveaway!  I've been enjoying Aida Mollenkamp's cookbook, Keys to the Kitchen, and will be giving away a copy to one reader.  Scroll down to see how enter.

Keys to the Kitchen is a great cookbook because it covers basic kitchen skills, but also includes really unique recipes with interesting flavor combinations.  Each recipe is designed to teach a certain technique, and the recipes include detailed notes about equipment, substitutions, variations, and recipes-within-a-recipe ideas.

In the back of the book are tons of helpful suggestions for menu ideas, party planning, quick and stress-free recipes, and even cleaning solutions.

I had to try a recipe for chocolate chip cookies with ground coffee.  And, if you love coffee and chocolate as much as I do, this recipe is for you!

Ingredients (from Keys to the Kitchen; makes about 2 dozen cookies):

2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup finely ground coffee beans
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I used 1 cup dark chocolate chips since that was all I had)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, coffee, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, beat the sugars and butter on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well mixed.

Add the flour mixture, and use a spatula to stir just until combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop 2-tablespoon balls of dough onto the cookie sheets, leaving two inches between cookies (they will expand a lot--mine all ran together).  You can use an ice cream scoop, but I think mine holds more than two tablespoons, so my cookies were big.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until puffed in the center and browned on the edges.  Cool on a rack.  Cookies can be stored at room temp in an airtight container for up to a week if you have lots of self control.

Enter to win the giveaway using the widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mint Mocha Ice Cream Cake

Okay guys, this is it.  If you are looking for a birthday treat that will be good but nothing over-the-top, DON'T pick this.  This is actually a seven-layer ice cream cake.  If you like seven-layer dip, you need to know this cake is nothing like it.  This cake is so much better, it's almost wrong to mention seven-layer dip in the same sentence.

Have you made slutty brownies yet?  They have a brownie layer, an Oreo layer, and a chocolate chip cookie layer.  For this cake, those extravagant bars are baked in a round springform pan.  Two kinds of ice cream are smoothed on top, then the whole thing is coated with vanilla bean whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate ganache.  BOOM.

This cake is adapted from the Slutty Brownie Ice Cream Cake on What's Gaby Cooking, one of my favorite food blogs ever.  Since the cake was for my boyfriend's birthday, I had to let him pick the ice cream flavors.  When he chose mint chocolate chip and coffee oreo, I was a little bit skeptical.  I love both those flavors independently, but together?  I wasn't so sure.

Well, I have to give credit to the birthday boy--it was fabulous!  A mint mocha in ice cream cake form.  There are lots of other flavor combinations that would be amazing, though!  I hope you try your own version of this for your next over-the-top occasion.

Note:  Like many ice cream cakes, this is a little bit of a plan-ahead project.  I baked the slutty brownies on Tuesday, layered on the ice creams and froze everything yesterday, and added the whipped cream and ganache today.  

Ingredients:

1 recipe slutty brownies, baked in a 9-inch springform pan (underbake them a little--brownie layer should be a little jiggly--so they won't be too hard once they're frozen)

1 pint coffee oreo ice cream, softened

1 pint mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened

1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean, divided

Pinch of salt

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 tablespoons brewed coffee

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons powdered sugar, sifted

When the slutty brownies are completely cool, top with one of the pints of ice cream and smooth with a spatula.  Freeze for 2 hours or more, then repeat with the other ice cream flavor.  Freeze for at least two hours again.

To make the chocolate ganache, roughly chop the chocolate and set aside in a medium bowl.  Place 1/2 cup heavy cream and the coffee, granulated sugar and salt in a small saucepan.  Scrape in the seeds of half a vanilla bean (save the other half for the whipped cream).  Heat the cream mixture until scalded (about to boil), then pour it over the chocolate.  Cover and let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth.  Set aside to cool before using.

To make the whipped cream, combine the remaining cup of heavy cream and the seeds from the other half of the vanilla bean in a large bowl.  Beat on high using an electric mixer until medium peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat again to combine or until stiff peaks form.

To serve, remove the ice cream cake from the springform pan.  Spread the whipped cream on top, then drizzle on the chocolate ganache.  Slice and go crazy!