Passion Food

The Ice Cream Man.

It may not appear that I have a lot in common with my cousin Suanne’s fiancé John, but the truth is we seem to be more alike than different. John and I both crave peace and quiet and our idea of the perfect day is being engrossed in a good book (in peace and quiet). However, I must say I believe our most common trait is that we both love, love, love ice cream. Since I’ve been working my way through the Williams-Sonoma Mastering Frozen Desserts cookbook I thought I’d ask my kindred spirit to come over and make ice cream with me. John, who isn’t known for his prowess, in the kitchen didn’t think twice -– he said, “Cool, I’ll be over. Will we use nitrogen?” You see, John is a scientist at heart.

I asked Sue what is John’s favorite ice cream -– she said, "Edy’s Slow Churned Fudge Tracks". I said, "I think we can do that". Using the French vanilla recipe, adding in some chocolate sauce and chopped peanut butter cups would do the trick. From experience I know that making the custard and waiting for it to chill can take some time so I went ahead and made that in advance. When Sue and John arrived the ice cream machine was ready to go and we got to work. Sue made the chocolate sauce, while her John chopped the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, my John sipped a martini and I supervised the entire operation. When all ready, we poured the custard into the machine, impatiently waited for 30 minutes and voila… we had our own ice cream!

None of us felt like pictures that night (sorry for the absence of visuals!). I had planned to take a shot of the ice cream the next night, but when I got home from work my John was on the couch with the empty container next to him -– so much for pictures!

Star Gazing.

After my sister Jenny passed away one of the ways we kept her spirit alive was to incorporate the symbol of the butterfly into our daily lives. Marilyn (my-catholic-school-teacher-that-never-curses-mother) even has a butterfly tattoo.  For Scott we decided that a shooting star would be appropriate. He shot baskets, he shot photography and he really was our shining star. People wasted NO time in starting our shooting star collections with earrings, jewelry, my cousin Sue even bought Scott his own a star. But my Aunt Charlotte (known as AC from previous blogs) knows me well and found the perfect shooting star gift for me—a cookie cutter. By now you know I love to bake cookies; what you may not know is that I have a collection of cookie cutters—like well over 100. This weekend I decided I am putting that gift to good use and making a batch of the best chocolate cookies in the universe.

Chocolate Cookies (Martha Stewart’s Menus for Entertaining)
3 sticks of unsalted butter
1 ¾ cups of sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups of cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating them thoroughly, then beat until fluffy.

2. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Add to the butter mixture gradually (note: gradually is key because the dry ingredients will fly out all over the place), beating until well incorporated. If the mixture seems soft, add more flour.

3. Divide the dough into thirds and wrap each third as a flat round in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour.

4. Heat the oven to 375 degrees , line a cookie sheet with parchment.

5. On a well-floured board, roll out the dough to 1/8 thick. Use a cookie cutter for desired shape. Transfer cut-out cookies to a cookie sheet, spacing them about ½ inches apart.

6. Bake until crisp but not darkened about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool before icing.
 
To decorate I usually make an icing with confectioners’ sugar – you can easily spread the icing on the cookie or pipe the icing for a more dramatic decorations. Sprinkles work well too!