Butterbeer Ice Cream is your new favorite thing.
Today’s post is a kickoff to something new I’m going to try out around here. I see just about all of my crafting and blogging friends doing it, so I thought it was time for me to play along. I’m going to include a recipe for you once a month on the blog. Since I post once a week, the recipe will be the post for that week. If I can ever figure out how to get more done, I’d love to have the recipe be a bonus post, but for now, it’s going to be it’s own post for the week it publishes. The first recipe is how to make Butterbeer Ice Cream.
I’m going to include some crafted piece I made to accompany the post, so don’t worry, the crafting will still be the main thing we do. But I find most people who craft also love to make a good recipe. I’ve recently gotten my sewing machine out of the closet and started taking a weekly class, so expect to see cloth napkins and other housewares type items popping up in the recipe posts. And knitting, of course!!! Like that cute Gryffindor coaster is planned as a fall pattern for you.
So can I take a few minutes to vent about something that bothers the heck our of me regarding recipes? The issue I find with sooooo many online recipes is that they are not very good. The problem, as I see it, is that these are untested recipes, and most of them absolutely stink. That’s why I prefer to cook from cookbooks or use only selected online recipes. My time is precious and ingredients are expensive. I get a bit miffed when I spend time and money on a flop of a recipe.
Like that gUy who is too good to be true on the online dating app. We should have known better, but we were just so darn hopeful “this one would be different.”
So I’m not doing that anymore. I’m going to stick with the people I know are reputable, and I’m going to make their stuff and share it with you. I am also going to share some of my own recipes with you. I have a few.
Today is one of my newest concoctions. I developed this one specifically for this kickoff recipe post. I paired it with something from my favorite food writer, and the chef who taught me how to make ice cream, David Liebovitz. If you don’t know about him, please change that. His books and blog are wonderful, and some day I hope to take one of his Paris tours. He is a fantastic writer, and his recipes ALWAYS work. ALWAYS. If you follow his directions exactly, you can replicate whatever it is he’s written about. The first butterscotch I made for today’s post was awful. AWFUL. It tasted great, but it didn’t set up properly. I made David’s and it is utter perfection.
So without further delay, let’s talk about the Ice Cream Recipe I have for you today!
I knew I wanted to photograph my ice cream in those soda fountain ice cream dishes. Only problem is that nobody has them anymore. I looked high and low. So I went to the thrift store to see what they might have, and lo and behold I found them! I imagine them coming from someone’s grandmother’s kitchen. Grandma probably passed on and the family didn’t know what to do with these dishes. Well I certainly do!
If you don’t know already, I love vintage. Seriously. I love it. Probably because I AM vintage! I remember these dishes from my childhood, so I was surprised when I couldn’t find them anywhere. I couldn’t find a matching set of four so I bought two sets of two. That’s more fun anyway, don’t you think?
Can I talk about that divine spoon with you for just a minute? That spoon is pure silver and is an antique. It came from my Great Aunt Edith, and is the most gorgeous spoon I’ve ever seen. One thing I learned in the course of working on this post is that there is a lot of truth in the saying, “They don’t make it like that anymore.” Seriously, people. They don’t make anything like they used to. It’s just all massed produced crap. Sorry, but it is.
The stores are filled with junk, and I for one am sick of spending my money on it.
That’s why I knit, and craft, and cook, and why I’m getting back into sewing. I’d rather have less stuff, but have that stuff be quality.
Anyway….so about the spoons. I only found out that I had that spoon and many others like it last week. You see, I’m taking a food photography class, and one of our assignments was to do some styled pictures with spoons. I was absolutely drooling with envy over the gorgeous ornate, vintage spoons my English classmates were showing in their pictures. They were finding this stuff in their flea markets for 25 cents. Yeah. I can tell you there’s nothing like that in our thrift stores. So I shared my frustration and the assignment with my mom who reminded me we had some old silverware packed away for like the past 30 years in the closet. So I immediately got that stuff out and found a treasure trove. A literal treasure trove. And this is what I did with them.
People are surprised when I tell them I’m taking a food photography class. Yes, I’ve been active with my photography for many years, but there is always something more to learn. Just like with knitting.
The truth is, I have taken several photography classes in the past year. Creating great images for a blog and for Instagram is pretty specific and important. So I have taken a few courses to help me with styling objects. It’s not as easy as it would seem, and I still have a lot to learn! But I like what I’ve done so far. When I decided I wanted to do the recipe posts here, I knew a food photography class was just what I needed. I also think including pretty food images in my instagram is fun way to make the feed more interesting. I recently added flowers and quotes, and people seem to really like those.
I am taking my classes with Makelight who is based in London. Lovely group of teachers and students, so if you would like to improve your photography, I can’t say enough nice things about Emily Quinton and her website. I will be taking her level two food photography class in the fall, and I’m pretty excited!
The main thing I use in my cooking is the freshest, most high quality ingredients I can find. I highly recommend organic grass fed dairy, as it’s clearly superior in taste and quality. You will only understand this once you’ve tried it. And then there’s no going back! I have to count every calorie I put in my mouth, so I decided I’m going to make it the best it can be. The ingredients I’m going to recommend in my recipes are going to be the best stuff I can find. You can certainly make substitutions, but why?
There’s nothing like enjoying your homemade organic ice cream in vintage dishes on a warm summer afternoon. If you’re going to make it like grandma did, shouldn’t you eat it in the same dishes she had?
In a snapshot, here’s what goes into the ice cream.
I get my dairy in the bottles from Whole Foods. It’s amazing. Yes it costs more money. Get over it. You only get one body for your lifetime, so care for it by feeding yourself with high quality food.
And yes, that’s a beer in the picture with the ingredients. It is a Butterbeer Recipe after all!
I chose an English Stout, because nothing else seemed right. This ice cream recipe is a tribute to an English character and Author, so I felt that using an English beer was important. I found it at Whole Foods in the beer cooler. And it’s soooooooo good! I know it seems weird, but trust me. The beer is cooked on the stovetop, so that pretty much obliterates the alcohol if you’re concerned about giving this to children. I suppose you could sub a cream soda or something if you are ardently against using a real beer.
I know it seems so strange to put beer in ice cream, but it is part of the recipe, and you’ll just have to trust me. It is DELICIOUS! It gives the vanilla base a warm flavor undertone and a yields a beautiful golden color. Finish the ice cream with the Butterscotch Sauce, and you have a sweet treat that cannot be topped. Honestly. If Voldemort had be given this ice cream, I think he would have completely turned his life around and gotten past all that icky evilness and those serious control issues. Everybody locked away in Azkiban should have been fed this concoction at least once a day, and we could have avoided that pesky Battle for Hogwarts altogether.
Because who can be grumpy and mean when they have this in their mouth?
Here’s what you need to gather to make this recipe:
For the Butterbeer Ice Cream:
- Whole Milk
- Heavy Cream
- Egg Yolks
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- Stout Beer
- An Ice Cream maker of your choosing. I have one similar to this. The one I use is over 10 years old and was a gift from my best friend.
- (plus a secret ingredient you can only get if you download the recipe)
For the Butterscotch:
- Butter
- Sugar
- Milk
- (another secret ingredient)
Tools to make this Recipe:
- Heavy pan
- Whisk
- Mixing Bowls
- Freezer Safe storage contaier
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Ice Cream Maker
It takes a little time and some patience, but you wind up with THIS as your reward. Once you’ve made your own ice cream from scratch, you’ll never again be able to eat the stuff they sell in packages. I don’t care how expensive it is or what two farmers in tie dye from Vermont put their name on the container. It will never be this.
And now the moment you have all been waiting for. Here’s the actual recipe to make this heaven in a dish. Simply click on the image below to download the whole recipe in pdf format. When you make this, please write to me or tag me on instagram! I can’t wait to hear what you think!
Just in case you still aren’t convinced about this recipe, check out my video of the finished recipe. If this doesn’t get your attention then you may not be human.
Butterbeer Icecream from Patty McGuire on Vimeo.
The post Butterbeer Ice Cream Recipe appeared first on Knitting Patterns, craft inspiration, tutorials.