Lody z Masą Krówkową- Polish Caramel Ice Cream with Caramelized Coffee Walnuts

I feel like I've invented a winner here. I had a can of this delicious dulce de leche-like substance (it's thicker, though) and I promised a new batch of ice cream to my siblings. To make the ice cream even better (which is hard, considering how rich and caramelly it is on its own) I added crunchy, bittersweet caramelized walnuts flavoured with expresso powder. Altogether I think it's one of my best ice creams yet.

A couple of plusses about this recipe- you need less eggs and cream than with most custard-based ice cream, because the caramel itself contributes smoothness and richness. You also will probably have leftover walnuts to eat, since the recipe below makes a lot. Instead of walnuts, you can also use pecans, and you can substitute dulce de leche as well. Consider serving with a glog of liquor on top.

Lody Kajmak 
Adapted from F for Food

225 g. Kajmak/masa krówkowa, substitute dulce de leche
1 C. Milk, 3.8 %
2/3 C. Heavy cream, about 35%
3 Egg yolks
1 TBSP Brown sugar
1/2 C. Caramelized coffee walnut pieces, optional (recipe follows)
Pinch of salt

Heat milk and kajmak in a saucepan over medium heat until steaming. Separately, whisk together the sugar, yolks and salt.

Pour 1/4 C. of the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk together well. Strain back into the remaining milk and heat while stirring frequently until thickened.

Transfer to a cool bowl and add the cream. Refrigerate overnight.

Mix in ice cream maker according to its instructions. Layer with the nut pieces in a freezer-proof container and let freeze at least 2 hours before serving.

for the caramelized coffee walnuts:

80 g. Walnut pieces
60 g. Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Expresso powder

Mix all and toast over medium-high heat until the sugar is melted and smells caramel-like. Immediately pour onto a cool tray and keep in an airtight container until ready to use.

Crème Pâtissière/ Pastry Cream

This is one of the great essentials of dessert-making: you use it in all manner of cakes, éclairs, cream puffs, tarts and other pastries. You can easily vary the recipe to suit a particular need, but this is the recipe in its most basic form. Some possible modifications include:

• Steeping crushed cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick or grated nutmeg in the milk
• Go wild and use cream instead of some of the milk... but exercise caution, as too much richness does not necessarily translate to better flavour.
• Adding a tablespoon of liquor at the end
• Add some chopped chocolate towards the end to make a richer chocolate pastry cream
• Use coconut milk or another nut milk: as long as it isn't low-fat!
• Use brown sugar or maple sugar as the sweetener for a unique taste
• Mix with whipped cream for crème chiboust, used in many choux pastries
• Use a stovetop-pudding powder instead of cornstarch
• I've even seen versions made with wine or orange juice instead of the milk... If you try that, tell me how it goes.

No matter which you use, make sure to stir the cooking cream well so that the bottom doesn't burn, strain the tempered yolk mixture to catch any curdles, and don't overcook to avoid an unpleasant eggy taste.

Crème Pâtissière

2 C. Whole milk
4 Egg yolks
1/3- 1/2 C. Sugar, depending on desired sweetness
1 Vanilla bean, split, or 1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/4 C. Cornstarch
1 TBSP Butter, optional (to increase firmness)

Heat the milk in a large saucepan until steaming. If using the vanilla bean, add and cover to let steep for 30 minutes.

Mix the yolks, sugar and starch. Bring the milk back to an almost-boil on medium-high heat and quickly whisk in a ladle full of the hot milk to the yolk mixture. 

When the yolk and egg mixture is completely blended, pour back into the saucepan through a sieve to catch any clumps. Cook on medium-low heat while whisking constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and keep whisking for another 2-3 minutes. Add the butter, if using.

Once at room temperature, pour into a bowl or container and cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

Rosinenbrötchen mit Quark- Raisin Buns with Quark + Stollen-Brötchen

Plain buns on the left and raisined ones on the right.

In the long list of bread and bun recipes I'm finally getting around to posting, here's one of my favourites- soft, moist, rich raisin buns enriched with fresh cheese. You can use the quark recipe I've posted, or some farmer's cheese that's been processed well in a food processor with some extra butter. 

Many flavours work well in this dough, though I kept it simple- you can add some spices, some citrus zest or use a different dried fruit like cranberries or currants. You can even omit the fruit entirely (I did this with half because not everyone in my family appreciates the deliciousness of dried fruit...). These are one of the things I love to make for important holidays like Christmas and Easter as part of the breakfast menu, but I also love to freeze leftovers to eat later on... they're especially good with butter and jam, but are also delicious on their own. The "Stollen" version I give makes a nice off-season treat when you crave the flavours of Stollen but Christmas is still far off.

Rosinenbrötchen mit Quark
From ketex.de

For the Sponge:
200 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
150 g. Milk, 2 to 3.8%
20 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. active dry yeast

Mix all well and let rest, covered, for 45 minutes in a warm place.

For the Final dough:
Sponge
300 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
100 g. Butter, at room temperature
50 g. Sugar
100 g. Topfenquark (20% m.f.), or well-ground 12% twarog/farmer's cheese plus 25 g. butter (You can double this quantity for a moister, denser dough- just add about 5 minutes baking time)
8 g. Salt
2 Egg yolks
175 g. Raisins, light or dark
1 TBSP Diastatic malt powder, or honey

beaten egg yolk, condensed milk, cream or melted butter, to brush
Pearl sugar (optional)

Mix all but the butter and raisins and knead until smooth. Add the butter in small pieces and continue kneading until it's incorporated. Add the raisins and once they're evenly distributed, cover the dough and let rise in a greased bowl for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180℃. Form into buns of the desired size (about a dozen works best) and cover. Let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Brush with the desired topping. Sprinkle with pearl sugar, if you like. Bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

For "Stollen-Brötchen":

Add a pinch of saffron to the milk in the sponge and heat until steaming. Let infuse 30 minutes before using.

To the above recipe, substitute a mixture of 100 g. sultanas and raisins, 25 g. chopped orange peel, 25 g. chopped citron peel and 50 g. currants. In addition, add:

1 Sachet vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
Zest of one lemon
1/2 Tsp. Mace
1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
1 Tsp. Cardamom
75 g. Chopped or slivered blanched almonds

To the dough; the spices and sugar in the first steps in making the final dough, and the almonds along with the fruit mixture.

Top the buns with melted butter and pearl sugar.

Key Lime Pie Bars

I lost these pictures for a while amongst the other things I baked this summer- but I'm glad to find them again, because these are really delicious. I made them with what was left in the pantry just before departing on vacation as a gift for the family watching our cats, and they were extremely popular from the reviews I got.

You need very few ingredients to put these together, provided you can find key limes- but I think they'd probably be pretty good made with regular Persian limes (or maybe meyer lemons!) instead. Another garnish idea is toasted shredded coconut, seeing as coconut and lime go so well together.

Key Lime Pie Bars
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

For the Crust:
1- 1 1/4 C. Graham cracker crumbs
5 TBSP Butter, melted
2 TBSP Sugar

Mix all in a food processor until the consistency is that of wet sand. Pat onto the base and sides of a greased and parchment-lined 8"x8" baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until set firmly.

For the Filling:
1/2 C. Key lime juice
Zest of 6 key limes
4 Egg yolks
14 Oz. Sweetened condensed milk

Mix juice, zest and yolks with a whisk. Stir in milk and keep whisking until thickened. Pour onto the cooled crust and bake at 170℃ until set but still wobbly when poked, about 15-18 minutes.

For the Topping:
1 C. Sour cream
1/4 C. Powder sugar

Mix well and spread on top of the cooled bars.

Nusskipferl I and II

Nusskipferl I, in the middle, and II around the perimeter.

These crescent-shaped nut cookies are probably the most essential Christmas cookie of all- and for good reason. Not only are they pretty with their curvy shape and coat of powder sugar, but they're buttery and nutty with a soft, crumbly texture. I tried two different recipes as an experiment, and I honestly can't choose a favourite. The recipe without eggs is a little more like a classic shortbread and is a bit simpler, but the one with yolks is easier to work with and holds its shape better when baked. You can use almonds or hazelnuts, but in my family they'd be unthinkable without at least some of the latter. I made one batch with Bourbon-vanilla sugar, and one with a hint of cinnamon- both flavours are highly complementary to the hazelnut. Try one, or the other, or both, Christmas or not.

Nusskipferl I
From chefkoch.de

560 g. Flour
160 g. Sugar
400 g. Butter, cold
200 g. Ground hazelnuts
1 Packet of vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade

about 1/4 C. Powdered sugar and one additional packet/tablespoon of vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 180℃.

Cut the butter into small cubes. In a food processor, or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, mix all of the ingredients until homogeneous. Wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Cut the dough into small pieces. For each piece, roll with the palm of your hand to form a log, then curve it to form a crescent shape. Press down lightly. Repeat until all the dough is used.

On a baking sheet with parchment, bake the crescents for about 12-15 minutes depending on size, or until the bottoms are just beginning to brown.

Allow the cookies to cool and set. Mix the powdered sugar and remaining vanilla sugar and use a sifter to dust the cookies.

Nusskipferl II
Adapted from Dr.Oetker: Backen Macht Freude

250 g. Flour
1/4 Tsp. Baking powder
Pinch of salt
125 g. Sugar
1 Packet vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
3 Egg yolks
200 g. Cold butter
150 g. Ground hazelnuts, almonds, or a mix
2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 C. Powder sugar and 1 Tsp. Cinnamon, to dust

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In a food processor or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add the ground nuts and sugar. Add the butter in small pieces and mix until crumbly. Add the egg yolks.

Once a homogenous dough forms, wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Shape the dough into small crescents and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly brown. Let cool before sprinkling with the powder sugar and remaining cinnamon through a sieve.

Vanilla Ice Cream

If there's one thing that you always want to have on hand in the freezer, it's a classic vanilla ice cream. It's great on its own, easy to dress up with sauces or other toppings, can be added to all manner of drinks, goes well on many a cake and pie, and can even be melted down to make a quick creme anglaise should you ever not have time to make a custard to go with a dessert. 

There are many types of ice cream recipe, but this is a very straightforward one that uses the French custard method- which is only tricky in that you have to watch your custard carefully and stir a lot. The most important things to watch out for are:

• Make sure you stir the whole thing through, not leaving the bottom layer to burn.
• Heat the milk mixture only until steaming or lightly bubbling- don't let it bubble over! 
• Strain well to get rid of any curdling both when mixing the tempered egg yolks back in, and when adding the custard to the remaining cream. A little graininess won't be noticed in the final frozen product, but still should be avoided.

I use two vanilla beans as well as extract because I really like vanilla, but you can just use one bean or 2 Tsp. extract total for a more subtle flavour. I wouldn't recommend messing with the fat content of the dairy, number of yolks or amount of sugar, since all of these things will contribute to how smooth the ice cream will be- and a small scoop of very good ice cream is infinitely superior to a whole tub of less rich but less tasty generic store-bought ice cream. 

Some of the mix-ins that I can recommend are chocolate slivers, caramel sauce, jam, lemon curd, biscuit pieces- anything, really. The best part of homemade ice cream is that you can make absolutely any flavour that strikes your fancy.

Vanilla Ice Cream
From The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz

1 C. Whole milk, 3.8%
2 C. Whipping cream, 30-35%
6 Egg yolks
3/4 C. Sugar
2 Vanilla beans, sliced in half lengthwise
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract or rum
Large pinch of salt

In a large bowl, mix 1 C. of the cream and vanilla extract or rum. Cover with a strainer or sieve.

In a medium saucepan, mix the sugar, remaining cream, milk and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla beans into the pot with a knife and put the empty pods in as well.

Bring to a slight boil, then remove from heat and let steep, covered, for at least 30 minutes.

In a separate, heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Heat the milk mixture until it begins to steam, then pour 1 C. of it, one third at a time, into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. When the yolks and liquid have been completely mixed, strain them back into the liquid remaining in the pot.

Cook the custard on medium heat, whisking constantly, until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon or spatula- about the thickness of a gravy. Remove from heat and strain into the bowl with the remaining cream. Mix well and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, churn according to the instructions of your ice cream machine. Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies I

Although I usually prefer a completely different genre of cookies (namely butter biscuits, nut-based shortbreads and gingerbread- anything that resembles the Central European Christmas standbys) I still do like the occasional batch of American, chewy, sugary, almost fudgey cookies flavoured predominantly by vanilla, brown sugar and whatever mix-ins are added. Of all the varieties that entails, one of my all-time favourites is the white chocolate-macadamia cookie. I've always been a lover of white chocolate (whose rep is constantly being shredded by sugar-vegetable fat impostors used in glazes and cheaper baked goods) and it pairs well with the subtle, buttery flavour of macadamias, too. Embedded in a soft and tender dough casing and served with a glass of milk, it's not only delicious- it has a matching colour palette. I think it's fate.

However, to find a good version of that cookie is pretty elusive. Ultra-sweet by nature, it walks a fine line on the best of days- there's no dark or semisweet chocolate to balance out the inherently sugary dough. But you also can't just reduce the sugar- it's an integral part of the chewy texture that makes the perfect chip-type cookie, in my opinion (I'm not about the cakey kinds- though a cookie-like cake is fine). I remember eating some really good ones as a kid, but now it seems far harder to match the criteria of the perfect cookie, perhaps because I've become nitpicky and obsessive about the details. I want it sweet, but not too sweet! Made with butter! With lots of real white chocolate and a generous amount of nuts!

I chose this recipe due to the absence of shortening- I never have it around, and didn't want to be stuck with leftovers after using only a small amount for one recipe. While the texture was pretty spot-on with what I wanted, and the cookies themselves were delicious, it still wasn't the ideal white-choc macadamia cookie of my dreams. Had I only imagined such a thing in the sugar-gluttony of my childhood? Could a perfect balance of sweetness, texture, flavour and richness really have ever existed except for in my dreams?

I've come up with a few plans of action to modify my next batch- And I'm determined to succeed. The perfect cookie will evade me no longer! Until then, these ones will go down just fine. Mmmmm.

• Less sugar, or perhaps more butter; so far as chewy texture will remain
• A mixture of AP flour and vanilla pudding powder in place of the flour mix
• A little more salt
• Actual white chocolate chunks instead of chips, since they aren't stabilized for high temperatures and will melt better

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies I
Adapted from The Chunky Chef

1 1/2 C. AP Flour
1/2 C. Pastry flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Baking soda
3/4 C. Butter, cubed (170 g.)
3/4 C. Sugar
3/4 C. Dark brown sugar
1 Egg plus 1 yolk
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 C. White chocolate chips
1 C. Toasted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (toast 7 minutes at 180℃)

Cream butter and sugars using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. Add vanilla, egg and yolk.

Sift together flours, salt, and baking soda. Incorporate 1/3 at a time into the wet ingredients with the motor on low.

Add nuts and chips. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 170℃. Form balls with an ice cream scoop or tablespoon and bake 8-10 minutes on parchment-lined sheets, until golden. Let set on sheets.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

I look forward to making pumpkin pie every thanksgiving- although we don't treat it as a big deal in my family, it is a good excuse to make a more North American centrepiece dessert. I love the spices and the pumpkin itself alike, and often I wish that I could have a bit of the pie out of season. This ice cream is the perfect solution- even on the hottest days of the year, its pumpkin spice goodness is welcome.

It's very simple to make, and involves a hefty amount of pumpkin puree to ensure a throrough dose of pumpkinny flavour. It's very smooth and creamy, although it doesn't use as much cream as many other ice cream recipes. It's also low on the pervasive ice crystals that plague homemade ice cream, thanks to the glog of rum that helps keep the freezing point down. I garnished it with ginger-nut biscuits and pecan halves, but it would also make a very good filling for ginger-molasses cookes in the form of an ice cream sandwich.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
From Closet Cooking

1 C. Cream, 30-35%
1 C. Milk
3/4 C. Brown sugar
5 Egg yolks
1 C. Pumpkin puree, roasted
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Ginger
1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp. Cloves
1/4 Tsp. Cardamom
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 TBSP Dark rum or bourbon

Bring the milk to a boil in a medium saucepan. Mix the yolks, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Once the milk is at a rolling boil, reduce the heat and temper the yolk mixture by quickly whisking in half a cup of the hot milk. Strain the tempered yolks into the saucepan and whisk frequently while cooking on medium-low until thickened. 

Pour the thickened custard into a bowl and whisk in the cream, spices, vanilla and alcohol of choice. Let cool and whisk in the pumpkin puree. Refrigerate overnight, then churn according to ice cream maker directions.