Ice Cream Ireland

Here’s one of our new flavours. I think there are many uses for sea salt ice cream – it can really lift the flavour of a range of desserts, and we’ve brought it in to complement our new caramel and dark chocolate flavours. It’s certainly caught people’s imaginations, and it’s selling better than I would have thought.

It’s a simple recipe to make, but I do have a caution in that various salts can taste so different, so depending on the salt you use, you might well need to adjust the recipe. I don’t think it should be too salty – just enough to boost other flavours.

I made my own sea salt. If you’re near the sea and have the inclination, here’s how I did it.

MURPHYS SEA SALT ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

• 120g sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 220 ml cream
• 220 ml milk
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

What to do:

1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks and until it thickens and lightens in colour.
2. Bring the milk to a low simmer.
3. Beat the milk into the egg/sugar mixture in a slow stream.
4. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over low heat.
5. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 65-70C) and just coats the back of a spoon. Don’t over-heat, though, because at around 76C you will scramble the eggs!
6. Immediately remove from the heat.
7. Allow to cool.
8. Stir in the salt.
9. Whip the cream until it has doubled in volume (you should have soft peaks – don’t over-whip).
10. Fold (gently stir) in the custard.
11. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine.
You can also just cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours.

Yield: 8 servings

Notes:

1. Again, you may need to adjust the quantity of salt depending on which salt you use. We also really like Maldron salt, but I’d use about 20% less, since it’s saltier than Dingle sea salt!

2. To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and maintain that temperature for at least 5 minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though, and keep stirring! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

Technorati tags: sea salt, salt, ice cream, recipe

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There are many kinds of gingerbreads out there, and people certainly have their preferences – how dark, how sweet, how spicy. The good news about making gingerbread ice cream is that you can use whatever gingerbread you like, so you’ll definitely like the ice cream! Whether you use gingerbread you have made or gingerbread you have bought, this makes a great festive ice cream. I’ve spiced it up a bit, but you could leave the spices away if you like a plainer ice cream, and simply substitute a bit of vanilla.

MURPHYS GINGERBREAD ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

• 120g sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 220 ml cream
• 220 ml milk
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 100 g gingerbread (broken into small pieces)

What to do:

1. Stir the cinnamon, ginger and sugar together.
2. Add the egg yolks and beat until thick.
3. Bring the milk to a low simmer.
4. Beat the milk into the egg/sugar mixture in a slow stream.
5. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over low heat.
6. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly (around 65-70C) and just coats the back of a spoon. Don’t over-heat, though, because at around 76C you will scramble the eggs!
7. Immediately remove from the heat.
8. Allow to cool.
9. Whip the cream until it has doubled in volume (you should have soft peaks – don’t over-whip).
10. Fold (gently stir) in the custard.
11. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, adding the gingerbread when it’s fairly solid.
You can also just cover and place in the freezer, stirring every few hours, and again, add the gingerbread when it’s reasonably solid.

Yield: 8 servings

Notes:

1. The reason to add the gingerbread at the end is that otherwise it can sink to the bottom of the ice cream as it is freezing and won’t be evenly mixed through it.

2. To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and maintain that temperature for at least 5 minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though, and keep stirring! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

Technorati tags: gingerbread, holiday, ice cream, recipe

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Just thought I’d do something a little different…

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Here’s a fruit tart we’ve been making for our shops. It’s a pretty basic recipe, especially if you can buy in the tart shells (otherwise there’s a recipe for pie dough here). We make the tarts in single serving size, but there is no reason it couldn’t be a full pie.

Ingredients:

25 gr sugar
175 gr ground almonds
225 gr butter
4 eggs
50 gm flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Raspberry jam
Raspberries, blueberries, or other berries you have to hand.
Powdered sugar, for dusting.

What to do:

1. Coat bottom of the tart (or pie) shells with a thin layer of raspberry jam.

2. Beat the sugar and butter together until smooth.

3. Add the ground almond and continue mixing.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

5. Mix in the flour.

6. Use a piping bag or spoon to spread the frangipane (almond mixture) in to the tart shells.

7. Press in the berries.

8. Bake at 150C for about half an hour, or until the frangipane looks lightly brown.

9. Dust with powdered sugar.

Technorati tags: berry, tart, baking, pastry, recipe

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I promised a customer, who loved this tart, that I would post the recipe. It’s closely based on a recipe from Simply Sensational Desserts by Francois Payard, with the only difference a slight modification in the sugar. I have found that Payard’s book has given me the greatest baking success of any cookbook, so I highly recommend it.

With any tart or pie baking, the hardest part is usually the dough, and so if you want to make this the quick and easy way, buy a pie shell or some tart shells from your local supermarket. Some of them are quite tasty, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble. If you do want to make the dough yourself, you can find Payard’s recipe here but make sure you have flour without raising agents!

Anyway, once you have the pie shells, whether you make or buy them, you’ll find this is one of the easiest recipes in the world!!!

Lemon Tart

Ingredients:

3 Lemons
45 gm butter
3 eggs
10 small pie tart crusts, or one large pie crust
130 gr sugar

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C.
2. Bring water in double boiler to simmer.
3. Zest andjuice the lemons.
4. Put lemon and eggs in top of double boiler (before putting over heat) and whisk until smooth. Add the sugar and butter.
5. Cook in double boiler until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth.
6. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
7. Pour into pastry shells.
8. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the centre has become solid.
9. Decorate with a slice of lemon, or with some drizzled chocolate, as I have done.

Technorati tags: lemon, tart, cooking, pastry, recipe

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One of our special flavours, for the food festival just passed, was dark chocolate ice cream topped with Kilbeggan whiskey cream. It’s a magic combination, with the smoky properties of Kilbeggan well-suited to dark chocolate. There’s a recipe below, and with Christmas coming up, I’m sure you can find many applications for it. It is also, by the way, great in coffee.

Murphys Ice Whiskey Cream

Ingredients:

• 227 ml cream
• 1.5 tablespoons Kilbeggan or other full-flavoured Irish whiskey
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar

What to do:

1. Combine the cream and sugar in a mixing bowl.

2. Whip until soft peaks form.

3. Add the whiskey and whip fully.

Note: Different people will have different ideas of how sweet they like it, so you should adjust the sugar according to your own preferences.

Technorati tags: whiskey, cream, whipped, ice cream, recipe

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As part of the Dingle Food and Wine Festival, we’ve decided to do an Irish theme. It seems especially pertinant in these times, and we should be able to have some fun with it. We are going to do specials like Barry’s Tea Ice Cream and a Biscuit, Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Irish Whiskey Cream, Bailey’s Ice Cream with Dingle Blackberry Sauce, and Brown Bread Ice Cream with Caramelised Orange Marmalade.

The last one sounds a bit strange, but everyone who has tried it has been delighted. It’s an odd sensation of eating ice cream while your brain is telling you you’re imbibing that old breakfast standby of brown bread and marmalade.

I caramelised the marmalade to make the flavours a bit deeper and complex, and it’s an easy thing to do and could have many applications. Here’s a recipe:

Murphys Caramelised Orange Marmalade

Ingredients:

1 jar marmalade – choose a marmalade that’s tart!
Water

What to Do

1. Empty the jar into a high-sided saucepan or pot.
2. Add water – use 20% of the volume of the jar.
3. Cook on high heat, stirring from time to time, until the marmalade turns a deep brown colour. Be careful – it will be extremely hot, so beware of splatters.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in more water – again, use 20% of the volume of the jar.
5. Serve warm over brown bread ice cream.

Technorati tags: marmalade, sauce, caramelised, ice cream, recipe

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I like to think I’m quite adventuresome in the kitchen. However, with certain foods I’m an absolute traditionalist, and tiramisù is one of them. Italian for “pick me up” or “pull me up,” there are some who say the dessert originated in Sienna and others who claim it’s a relatively recent invention from Treviso, near Venice. In any case, it’s the one dessert that so regularly disappoints me at restaurants that I have stopped ordering it unless I am absolutely certain they will do it right.

For me, tiramisù must have mascarpone, and it must have egg yolks (unlike Gordon Ramsey’s and Jamie Oliver’s versions – although from a catering standpoint I can understand why they don’t want the risks associated with raw eggs). I don’t want it with orange flavouring or variations of the alcohol (Marsala wine).

I guess you could say I want my tiramisù the way my grandmother used to serve it up at her house in the Ticino. I pressed her for a recipe shortly before she died, but she confessed that she didn’t actually make it herself and had brought it in on the sly each time we begged her for more. I never found out her source.

However, my partner Manuela, who is from Venice, recently managed to retrieve her mother’s tiramisù recipe. We made it at home last night, and it came out just about perfect in my eyes. Best of all, once you have the right ingredients, it’s quiet easy and quick to make. If you wish to try it, the recipe is below. I’ll call it Tiramisù della Mamma in honour of Manuela’s mother.

Please note that this recipe does contain raw egg yolks, so it’s not suitable for pregnant women, and I would suggest you use fresh, local organic or free range eggs from a source you trust.

Tiramisù della Mamma

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 80 gm + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 250 g mascarpone (at room temperature)
• 250 ml cream
• 1 packet savoiardi (lady fingers)
• 75 ml + 1 teaspoon Marsala wine
• 125 ml fresh espresso (cooled to room temperature)
• Pure cocoa for dusting

What to do:

1. Beat 80 grams of the sugar and the egg yolks together.
2. Add the mascarpone and 1 teaspoon Marsala wine and mix until smooth.
3. Whip the cream until you have soft peaks.
4. Fold into the mascarpone/egg mixture.
5. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar to the espresso and stir until dissolved.
6. Add the remaining Marsala wine and transfer to a shallow dish.
7. Dip the savoiardi (lady fingers) into the Marsala/espresso mixture for about 5 seconds.
8. Put a layer of the dipped savoiardi into a round bowl (traditional in the Veneto).
9. Add a layer of the mascarpone/cream custard.
10. Add another layer of of the savoiardi, then the remaining custard.
11. Coat the top with dusted cocoa.
12. Refrigerate for at least four hours and preferably over night.
13. Bring out at least half an hour before serving to so it’s not served at a chilled temperature.

Since Marsala wines and espressos vary so much in taste, it might take a bit of tinkering for you to get the balance right between the coffee and Marsala. It’s part of the fun!

Technorati tags: tiramisu, recipe, italian, dessert

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