kjmillar

So here it is, the final product:

We actually sampled it last night but it wasn’t completely frozen and wouldn’t have made for good photography.

Was it worth it to make ice cream from scratch? Absolutely! This is so good - creamy, full bodied, not too sweet - perfect. And it isn’t really that much work, it just takes a lot of waiting around.

Were the instructions from Fine Cooking any good? As usual they were great. Aside from the custard stirring time everything worked just as they said it would.

My motivation for trying this was the fact that I am trying to get away from buying/eating any processed food at all. Everything in this ice cream is organic or fair trade, there aren’t any chemicals or preservatives, and I can eat it and feed it to Ross knowing exactly what went into it and where everything came from.

I also get to eat really good ice cream.

Filed under: Making on May 22nd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

First - get two metal bowls, one smaller (but big enough to hold 1 quart of ice-cream) than the other. Put a couple of inches of water and some ice in the bigger one, set the smaller one inside and put one cup of cream in that bowl. Set aside.

The next step in the process is to make the custard base.

To do this, re-heat your infused cream, whisk 5 egg yolks in a medium bowl, pour half of the infused cream into the egg yolks (whisking all the time), then pour the eggs & cream back into the saucepan.

If you have never made custard before this is where the awesomeness happens.

Stand there and stir (over medium-low heat) and stir, and stir, more stirring. Then some stirring. Solve the world’s economic, social and environmental issues, stir some more.

Any instructions you read regarding making home made custard will tell you that it will take 6-8 minutes. This is horseshit. You see, with custard you can’t have the heat up too high or it will curdle, too low and it takes forever. To make custard you will need to find that magical sweet-spot on your stove and then stand there and stir until the magic happens.

One minute you will be standing there, stirring and thinking about what an idiot you were to undertake this process in the first place and then, viola, your custard will thicken and you will feel like Julia Child. Seriously.

You will be able to tell that it is ready when it sticks to the spoon and you can run your finger through that and it leaves a clear line.

Take the saucepan off of the stove and strain the custard into the cooled cream waiting in the bowl. Stir and stir and stir and stir until cool. I added my mexican vanilla here.

Take the bowl of ice cream to be and pop it in the freezer.

Or, if you have a stupidly narrow freezer, transfer into a metal bowl that will fit in your freezer and leave it for one hour.

After an hour take it out, buzz through with a hand mixer. Return it to the freezer and repeat until whipped and frozen. If you are adding stuff (chocolate chunks, dried fruit etc) do it the last time you mix it. Once finished transfer to an airtight container and freeze for 4 hours.

Mine isn’t finished yet but I will update with photos when it is.

Filed under: Making on May 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

When I was a kid we went on a field trip to Heritage Park (if you are ever in Calgary you should go, it’s a day packed full of heritagey wonder! And they have a paddle boat!) and they made us some ice cream using one of those old crank handled ice cream makers. It took forever to make but it was totally worth it.

I love ice cream, but not enough to invest in an ice cream maker as it would just sit in our basement and take up space. Not having a maker I had dismissed the idea of making it at home and contented myself with old reliable Haagen Dazs.

Until now.

The only paper magazine that I subscribe to is Fine Cooking. It is produced quarterly by Taunton and I love it. This month they had a feature on making your own ice cream and included instructions on making it WITHOUT a machine. Hmmm…

So, I went out to Planet Organic, picked up some organic cream & milk (Avalon), and started figuring out what insanely creative and never-before-tried ice cream flavour I was going to concoct.

Are you ready for it?

That’s right. Vanilla bean.

Okay, okay: vanilla bean infused cream with pure mexican vanilla, dried bing cherries and chopped chocolate. Feel better?

This is a photo of the first step - infusing the cream, milk and sugar with the vanilla bean. In the pot are one cup of cream, one of milk, 3/4 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and one vanilla bean (split with seeds scraped and added as well). It needs to be heated until the sugar is melted and bubbles are forming at the edge of the mixture. Then remove it from the heat and let it sit (covered) for one hour.

While you are waiting for me to post the next step you can read about where I have been for the past little while.

Filed under: Making on May 21st, 2009 | No Comments »

Dear Internets,

I haven’t disappeared - I’ve been busy cooking, drawing and doing yoga. I’m just on a bit of a break from my blog at the moment.

If you would like to see what I am up to you can find me on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/kjmillar
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjmillar/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=533016186&ref=profile

I will be posting more in the coming weeks but for now we are on a break.

Filed under: Thoughts on March 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

Done!

But man was she hard to photograph! All of that black & white made it really difficult.

Sorry for the crap photos. I am pretty happy with how she turned out and I made a new head template that I love, so everything is happiness.

Filed under: Making on February 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

Hi! Remember me?

Here’s what I have been up to:

GF Baking
And lots of it!

Here are some recent projects:

GF Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream

For the Cupcakes:
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp GF baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup butter (soft)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sour cream

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add eggs one at a time until combined. Sift dry ingredients in another bowl. Alternate adding dry ingredients and sour cream at a ratio of 3 dry to 2 wet, ending with the last of the dry.

Spoon into prepared baking cups and bake for approx 30 min at 350 (or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean)

Remove from oven and cool completely. Make 18 cupcakes.

For Buttercream
5 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup organic smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup cold butter
1 tsp vanilla
6-10 tbsp milk

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream icing sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add milk until the correct consistency is reached then cut butter in a tablespoon at a time until combined. If it seems too wet or too stiff add more sugar or milk until it makes you happy.

Pipe it or spread it on the cupcakes (or rub all over someone you like and lick it off - up to you) and chill.

GF White Sandwich Bread

This is a recipe from 125 Best Gluten Free Recipes by Donna Washburn & Heather Butt. If you are off gluten and miss bread this is the one for you. So yummy…

Saving the World
OK, just my little corner of it.

I bought an indoor composter (our little garden can’t handle an outdoor one). It’s a Nature Mill and I think it is going to be pretty cool. Most of our garbage is food waste so this should cut our weekly trash down a lot. I will keep you posted as to how it goes.

We have also started buying eco friendly household cleaners and picked this up yesterday:

I’m not sold on the name: “Attitude”, sounds kind of mean to me. It is Canadian made though and smells lovely. We also bought their laundry soap and will test it out.

I also finished this book which was pretty amazing. They say that ignorance is bliss but I am pretty sure that ignorance is what is going to cause the end of mankind. Read it, get scared, do something about it.

Hanging out with Cody
Cody was my mother-in-law’s little shitzu. He’s 3 and hilarious. Ross’ Dad is in New Zealand for 6 weeks and we are puppy sitting. Fingers crossed that he is going to become a permanent member of our little household.

Making Stuff out of Other Stuff
After a pretty sad winter creativity drought I have started drawing and sewing again. Yay!

Here is a sneak-peek at a project I am working on…

That’s it other than having a really awful flu last week. Ugh…

I promise to post more often now. No, really!

Filed under: Daily on February 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

Hi! Sorry I’ve been away, I’ve been busy. How are you?

While I am rounding up a list of stuff to tell you about you should read this.

OK, I’ll be back soon - would you mind watering the plants while I’m gone? Thanks!

Filed under: Daily on January 26th, 2009 | No Comments »

Most people don’t think about where their food comes from. They go to the grocery store, buy what they need, go home and eat it. Repeat as needed.

There are many very scary things out there these days in regard to food production, everything from genetically engineered foods (that have not been tested for adverse reactions in humans, nor have the GE seeds been tested in an external environment prior to being planted for adverse effects on the environment) to herbavores like cattle being forced to become carnivores by being fed the ground up remains of other dead animals (resulting in things like mad cow disease), to the pesticides used on the crops that seep into our groundwater and cause all types of problems.

The UK has done a pretty good job of resisting international pressures to adopt the industrial farming practices that have spread globally. Here is an article from BBC News today that talks about the new controls that will stop the use of pesticides known to cause adverse reactions in humans.

Here is a quote from the National Farmer’s Union stating their position:

“We cannot support measures which reduce the tools available to farmers and growers to produce crops and that could ultimately jeopardise future food supply and security.”

 And here is a quote from the MPs:

The association’s policy director, Peter Melchett, said organic farmers had proven that crops could be grown with minimal use of pesticides.

“The vast majority of farmers don’t use these chemicals on a regular basis anyway and those few farmers who do use them can find alternatives,” he said.

What do you think?

Filed under: Thoughts on January 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

I have been playing around with replacing regular all-purpose flour with my gluten-free mix in recipes. Yesterday I did up some more of the brown bread I made last weekend and I made some banana bread using a regular banana bread recipe and replacing the flour with my gluten-free one (and I added dried cranberries and walnuts). Yum!

Today I thought that I would try it out with an old favourite: Chocolate Chip Cookies. The result? Amazing!

These cookies are just the right balance of chewy and cakey with a crisp exterior. Here is the recipe if you would like to try them out:

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 6 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of chocolate chips (you could add nuts or other tasty things if you like)

Preheat oven to 350°.
With the paddle attachment on medium speed mix butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until creamed. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt a bit at a time until combined (the batter will be really thick).

Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon. Drop dough by rounded measuring tablespoons, about 2-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9-12 minutes or until light brown.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Making on January 11th, 2009 | No Comments »

Now that the holidays are over (along with the crazy amounts of food and drink) I feel like I can focus a little more on my health.

I have mentioned here before that I have some issues with gluten - I am not allergic but it doesn’t agree with my tummy - so I have been experimenting with baking using gluten free flours. I love to bake and when it became evident that wheat flour was not my friend I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to bake anymore. Not true.

It is true that baking without wheat flour takes a little more effort - and sometimes you feel more like a chemist than a baker - but if you spend the time and do the research it is completely worth it. I made two different types of gluten free bread yesterday and both turned out really well.

The first one is a variation of a brown bread recipe from 125 Best Gluten Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butt.

Brown Bread
Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan

11/4 cups rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup corn strarch
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1 tbsp xanthan gum
11/4 tsp salt
1 packet yeast dissolved in 1 cup warm water
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp liquid honey
2 tbsp molasses
3 eggs

Mix the dry ingredients well and set aside. In your mixer with the paddle attachment mix all the wet ingredients together then slowly add the dry. Once combined use a spatula to transfer dough into prepared pan. Allow to rise, uncovered, in a dry warm place for at least one hour. Once risen bake in a 350 oven for 35 min.

This bread is really good and perfect for sandwiches. Enjoy!

Filed under: Making on January 4th, 2009 | No Comments »