Tips & Tricks

 I’m delighted to announce a few new suppliers of our ice cream. First of all, our very first supplier North of Galway is Kate’s Kitchen at 3 Castle Street, Sligo. This what Good Food Ireland has to say about them:

It’s very easy to spot Kate’s Kitchen in Castle Street in Sligo town, its old-fashioned black painted frontage, bay windows and distinctive red and gold lettering makes it stand out from its surroundings. And you won’t be disappointed when you go inside this ‘Aladdin’s Cave.’ The shelves are packed with goodies of all kinds, beautifully presented and laid out in an inspired style. The shop was established in 1982 by Kate Pettit and Frank Hopper and since then, has gone from strength to strength in terms of product range, quality and service. As a result, it has become a destination in itself, attracting customers from far and wide. Indeed, no visit to Sligo would be complete without a visit to this gourmet food and wine shop and delicatessen.

We’re would also like to welcome as customers the Country Market, Howth and Aya Sushi Bar in Dublin.   

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This might interest some of the bakers out there – for our book launch, we had edible icing sheets printed with the book cover for a honey lavender and single-estate chocolate ice cream cake. There are obviously many applications for this – from photos of kids for a birthday to a wedding couple for a wedding cake.

There are quite a few companies on both sides of the Atlantic who print edible icing for cakes. If you’re really gung-ho you can even buy your own printer with edible ink. For us, it was just a once-off for fun.

We ordered our’s from anycake.com in the UK, and they were very responsive and helpful.

Technorati tags: printed, icing, cake, ice cream, edible

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 This was just passed on to me:

If you want to start making your own ice cream, Aldi has an inexpensive domestic ice cream maker on special for 29.99. I don’t know the brand so I can’t vouche for the quality, but no doubt it will do the trick…

Technorati tags: Aldi, domestic, ice cream, maker

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 In reponse to my last post about pirouettes, Donal very helpfully pointed out that the cookies could just as easily be shaped around the bottom of a glass, making a cookie basket as a vehicle for ice cream. I tried it, and indeed he is right (not that I doubted him for an instant). The only issue is that you have to work very quickly indeed before the cookies harden.

I started thinking about the recipe, and I thought it is very similar to a tuile (meaning “tile” in French). In fact, the ingredients and process is virtually identical, except generally you’d shape a tuile over a rolling pin. I guess the only difference is the shape. So what is a this? A Panier?

Technorati tags: pirouette, cookie, tuile, baking

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 Brian, over at Chocolate Gourmand recently published a recipe and how-to for pirouettes. These cookies, perhaps named for the circular dressage move, are light, tubular cookies formed by rolling them around a wooden spoon.

What interests me about them especially is that they use egg whites and so are a great way to use the whole egg when making ice cream (where you usually just use the yolks). 

They go really well with ice cream, and are similar to the wafers we use for sundaes. I’m not going to post a recipe as Brian has done so here (complete with helpful how-to photos).

I didn’t have any trouble making them, and they are great fun to do. Perhaps when I make them again I’ll try dipping one half of them in chocolate!

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I had heard about the egg and bacon ice cream at the Fat Duck – a bit of molecular gastronomy from Heston Blumenthal’s wild and weird tasting menu. I found the above video, showing it up close and personal, on the All Things Ice Cream blog.

It wouldn’t be my thing at all, but you might find it interesting!

Technorati tags: Fat Duck, egg, bacon, ice cream

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Feeling the need for a little chocolate burst last night, I went making some cookies. I have written about Pierre Herme here and here. The recipe came from him via Dorie Greenspan’s excellent cookbook Paris Sweets, which is a compendium of desserts from Paris’ best pastry shops.

What makes these cookies really special is the inclusion in the ingredients of fleur de sel, hand-harvested sea salt that is less salty and more flavourful than regular salt. Although the recipe only calls for half a teaspoon, it’s a distinctive flavour in the final cookie and really works well. (I actually have “fior di sale,” which comes from Italy rather than France, but is the same idea.)

These are dead easy and will disappear very quickly indeed, so I highly recommend them. Rather than write up the recipe, I will refer you to Dessert First, where Anita has already done so. She rates them as her favourite cookies. I’d better eat the last few before I make up my mind!

P.S. – The photos don’t really show how dark and full of chocolate they are. I took the photos late at night, and it’s impossible for me to be patient and fiddle with lighting and camera settings when there are fresh cookies cooling!

Technorati tags: korova cookies, sables, chocolate, Dorie Greenspan, Pierre Herme

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