Lesson #168: White Chocolate Ice Cream

This ice cream is INCREDIBLY smooth and creamy. You start by making a vanilla ice cream custard base and end by whisking in pieces of chopped white chocolate until they are melted and ultra smooth. Justin prefers this ice cream topped with a rich chocolate sauce. YUM!

LESSON LEARNED: Use a high quality white chocolate in this recipe because it's the star ingredient - meaning the one you taste the most.

Recipe for White Chocolate Ice Cream

Lesson #167: Tin Roof Ice Cream

No oh! The seasonal ice cream store down the street is closed for the winter. That means that I'll be breaking out my ice cream maker to experiment with new flavors. :)

First up: this tin roof ice cream. It's a super creamy vanilla bean base with chocolate covered peanuts and fudge ripple sauce folded in after it's freshly churned.

LESSON LEARNED: Use either dark chocolate or milk chocolate covered peanuts in this ice cream depending on how rich you want the chocolate flavor to taste. We used dark chocolate which I thought was maybe too intense for the ice cream.

Recipe for Tin Roof Ice Cream

Lesson #166: Lemon Chiffon Pie

This pie is ULTRA lemony and has an AMAZINGLY silky smooth texture. We loved it so much in our house that we had to give some of it away so we didn't eat the whole pie. If you have a lemon lover in your life, this would be the perfect dessert to make for them.

The only thing that is a little tricky is giving yourself enough time to make the multiple components of this pie. You have to pre-bake a pie crust, whip up the lemon topping (which involves squeezing a bunch of lemons to get fresh juice), make a meringue to fold into the lemon filling, and top with homemade whipped cream. Trust me - it's worth all the effort!

LESSON LEARNED: Use fresh lemon juice to achieve to give this pie the lemon flavor it deserves.

Recipe for Lemon Chiffon Pie

Lesson #165: Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies

Whew! I haven't posted for a while, but these cookies are well worth the wait :)

I modified a peanut butter sandwich cookie recipe I made last year to include chocolate hazelnut spread. My brother's girlfriend works at Smucker's in Orrville, OH and she bought me some of their new chocolate hazelnut spread. The cookies are chock full of the spread, rolled in sugar, and sandwiched between a fluffy chocolate hazelnut frosting. YUM!

LESSON LEARNED: Make sure you refrigerate the dough before you bake - it's much easier to roll the cookies into teaspoon sized balls.

Recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich Cookies