Ice Cream and Frozen Yoghurt

I like watching TV shows about cooking. I always get new inspiration from them and learn a lot about techniques.

A few days ago I was watching Donna Hays show. She made a frozen banana mango yoghurt that is so simple to make that I was wandering why I even bother to use my ice cream machine at all. All she did was cut mango and banana into pieces. Put them into zip-lock bags and let them freeze in the freezer. Once they were frozen she took them out and put them into a blender, added yoghurt to it and let the blender run until the is a thick frozen mixture. Pour it all into a container and put it back into the freezer for an hour to set. I thought WOW! That is by far the easiest way to get ice cream.

Being me I ended up in my kitchen trying it out. I must say the combination of banana and mango is delicious. And due to the sweetness of the fruits there is no need to add up any additional sugar which makes this the perfect diet dessert.

Curious as I am I wanted to know if this works also for non fruit ice creams. So I started experimenting with a coffee mocha ice cream. Basically a chocolate coffee blend. I am sure by now you have figured out that I am very fond of this combination of flavours.

I started by making a chocolate custard out of 400ml milk, 40g custard sugar, 40g cocoa powder and 25g cornstarch. In a pot a mix the cocoa with 350ml milk and bring it to boiling point. In a small bowl I mix the sugar with the cornstarch. Add 50ml milk to get a smooth mixture. While stirring I now add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling milk. Stirring constantly I let it boil for 1-2 minutes or until it thickens. This mixture I pour into an ice cube tray, let it cool down and than put it into the freezer. I use an ice cube tray as ice cubes are easy to crush in a blender. If you pour the custard into a container make sure you cut it into pieces before you put it into your blender.

In a second ice cube tray I freeze 200ml espresso mixed with 60g sugar. This ice cream needs the sugar to balance the bitterness of the cocoa and espresso. In the liquid stage it will taste very sweet but this will be toned down once the ice cream is frozen.

The next day I take 200ml well chilled whipped cream. I put the custard and the coffee ice cubes into the blender and let it run for about 30 seconds. Than I add the whipped cream and let the blender run until it is a thick paste. It all goes into a dish and back into the freezer for 1 hour to set.

It worked perfectly fine. If you like to you can add 50g coarsely chopped almonds as a special treat to the ice cream. And a special cup of coffee is ready.

It is so simple as all ingredients are frozen separately and than mixed. For me the days that I had to empty the freezer to chill the bowl of my ice making machine are gone.

I was so excited that I immediately tried another flavour. This time mango-ginger with yoghurt. The sweetness of the fruit combined with the spicy ginger turned out to be a very nice combination too.

For it I took 400g mango cut into small dices, put the fruit into a zip-lock bag and left it over night in the freezer. It is important to cut it into small ices as otherwise the blender might get damaged.

For the ginger syrup I take 2 table spoons custard sugar, 3 tablespoons water and 1,5cm fresh ginger finely grated. Boil this mixture over low heat until it starts thickening. Remove from the heat and let it cool down. Pour through a strainer.

Add 400g plain yoghurt to the ginger syrup and mix it well.

Put the frozen mango into the blender and let it run for a few seconds to cut the mango. Add the yoghurt mixture and let the blender run until you have a thick smooth frozen paste.

Pour the mixture into a container and put it back into the freezer to set.

Thank you Donna Hay for giving me this super simple method for making ice cream. From now on home made ice cream will be a regular on my menu.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Coconut Crumble Cake With Mango Filling

Yes, it is still mango season so you will get a few more mango recipes here because I simply love mangoes.

What is interesting is that I never really liked mangoes when I was younger. I developed a liking for them only after I moved to India. But I guess that has to do with the variety of mangoes that are available here. In Germany we usually get African or Thai mangoes and they taste completely different from the ones you get here.

A crumble cake is one of the easiest cakes to make and one of the few egg-less cakes I make. It is a great cake if you want to bake with your child as all you need is a bowl and a scale. No kitchen machine or other things. The best method for it is to mix it with your hands. And I am sure your little one will love to get a bit messy.

The basic recipe for crumple is a sugar, flour, butter mixture in the ratio 1-2-1.

You can reduce the sugar a bit is the filling is already very sweet. For the flour part you can substitute part or the entire flour with finely grated nuts. You can also add up spices like cinnamon or vanilla to it. The butter used must be cold straight out of the fridge. You can substitute it with margarine if you are vegan. But make sure to use a margarine that hardens in the fridge. Otherwise the dough will be soft and won't set after baking.

This recipe is for a 20x20cm square shaped dish. You can also make individual tarts or bake it in a 22cm round pie dish.

To start with pre-heating my oven to 175°C and greasing the baking dish. Now I take 1 medium size mango, peel it and cut it in small dices.

In a bowl I mix 100g coconut flakes with 100g flour and 75g sugar. I cut 100g well chilled butter into small dices. I like to mix half salted and unsalted butter together as I like the contrast of the mild saltiness to the sweetness. I add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix them with my hands until I have nice crumbles.

Now I give 2/3 of the crumbles into the baking dish and press it slightly down that they bond and give a nice base. On top I put the diced mango and than the rest of the crumbles.

It goes straight into the oven for about 30 minutes. After baking let the cake cool down for 5 minutes. Than cut it into pieces while it is still in the baking dish. Let it cool down completely before removing it from the baking dish.

Instead of mangoes you can use peaches or apricots, either fresh or canned.

I like to serve this either some nice whipped cream, some vanilla ice cream or a vanilla yoghurt.

For the vanilla yoghurt I mix 200g yoghurt with 2 tablespoons icing sugar, the seeds from 1 vanilla bean and 2 tablespoons whipped cream. Mix it all together and that’s it.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

Mango-Vanilla-Jam

 Mango season is finally here. I just love mangoes and use them a lot during season. No matter if I cook curry, grilled meat or a nice dessert.

I can't wait until we can harvest the fruits from the tree at my place. In the meantime I found a great source for organic mangoes. Every year I try to preserve as many mangoes as possible so that I can enjoy their wonderful aroma throughout the year.

A good portion I just peel, cut the fruit off the seed and then store it in my freezer. Out of the rest I cook jams and chutneys. For me jams must be full of fruit and flavour but not sugar. Most jams available in stores are made with a fruit-sugar ratio of 1-1. Sometimes the sugar content is even higher. I cook my jams h a fruit-sugar ratio of 2-1 or 3-1 depending on the fruit and sugar I use. The only drawback of it is that you have to store the jam in the fridge once you opened the jar.

This jam is a combination of 2 of my favourite flavours Mango and Vanilla. It seems that a lot of people around me like this combination as I send every year several jars of it around the globe to family and friends. Making it is very simple.

Before I start I sterilize several glass jars with twist off lids. To sterilize the jars fill a big pot with water. Put in the jars and lids (the lid must be off the jar) and boil the jars in the water for minimum 15minutes. Leave them in the hot water until you use them.

For the jam I take the 2kg of fresh mango pulp. Depending on the variety of mango you use it takes 3-4kg mango to get 2kg of pulp. I cut 6 vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape out the seeds into 500g of sugar.

In a big pot I mix the mango pulp with the vanilla sugar, the vanilla beans and 50ml lemon juice. I simmer it stirring it constantly for about 15minutes or until the sugar is completely dissolved. After switching off the stove I put the lid on the pot and let it stand 2 hours that the vanilla flavour can develop.

I a separate bowl I mix 500g sugar with 30g pectin in a bowl. Pectin ensures that the jam sets well. After adding the sugar-pectin mixture to the mango mixture I heat it over a very low flame to boiling point and let it boil for 3 minutes stirring it constantly. The sugar must be fully disolyed.

To check if the jam is ready I pour a table spoon full of jam on a cool plate. If it gets into a gel like consistence it is ready. If it is runny when I hold the plate slanted it needs to cook a few minutes longer after which I repeat the test.

Once the jam is ready I take the glass jars & lids out of the hot water and put them upside down on a kitchen towel that the water can run out and the jars can dry off a little bit. To fill the boiling hot jam in the jar I use a wide mouth funnel.

You can buy these in a well sorted department store or you make an improvised one out of aluminium foil. Don't worry, if you don't have one you can fill the jam just like this into the jars. I fill the jars til 1cm below the opening edge of the jar.

Make sure that the top edge of the jar is clean before you close the jar with the lid. If there is any jam on it dip a clean kitchen towel into boiling water and wipe off the jam before you put on the lid. Leave the jars standing upside down for 1 hour than turn around and leave it to cool down completely.

Besides having it as jam with fresh bread I often use this jam often as a cake filling or serve it in combination with desserts like milky rice, ice cream or simply mix it with yoghurt for breakfast.

Enjoy and have fun cooking!

Love

Carola

PS.: Pectin is a natural gelling agent made out of apple or papaya seeds.

       Please send me a mail in case you are interested in purchasing a jar of jam.

Bread baked in a Bread Maker

OK, I am back. During May it was simply too hot for me to spend a long time in the kitchen. I also had visitors which means less cooking and more going out for dinner.

But one thing I did was baking bread. Last year I bought a bread making machine and ever since I am experimenting to get the perfect bread. Sometimes more successful than others.

The reason for me buying the bread making machine was that most of the bread you get here in India is soft crust bread and the variety is rather limited. Another reason is that most household ovens available here do not generate enough heat for baking bread.

I must confess I was a bit naive thinking that I just follow the recipes stated in the recipe booklet and get the perfect bread. I completely ignored the fact that flour here has different parameters than in Germany or Europe. To start with the gluten content. The same goes for the yeast. Not to forget the surrounding temperature and humidity.

The 1^st few trials were edible but not great. That's when I started turning to my cookbooks for help. I spend days reading about it and trying out what could be the right solution.

One thing that worked really well is to replace one quarter of the flour with hard wheat semolina as it increases the gluten content. I also realised that plain whole wheat flour gives me better results and taste than the mulitgrain-whole wheat flour which is available from several brands.

I am still trying to figure out while the bread doesn't rise well when I let the normal program run through but I guess that has to do with the kneading right before the baking process starts. Because if I control the kneading and rising time by switching the machine on and off the result is much better.

The best result so far I got with the following recipe. This is for my Kenwood Rapid Bake Bread Maker and a dough volume of 900g. Different machines have different volumes so you might have to adjust the recipe to your own machine.

For the dough I dissolved 7g dry yeast in 300ml warm water and pour it in the baking pan. To it I added 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil and 50ml plain yoghurt. In a bowl I mix 250g plain wheat flour with 125g hard wheat semolina, 125g whole wheat flour, 4tablespoons unsweetened skimmed milk powder, 1 ½ teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon sugar. I add the flour mixture to the liquids in the baking pan and set the machine for 900g French bread with medium crust. This means on my machine that the dough will be kneaded for 20 minutes.

After the kneading process I switch the machine off for the next 1 ½ hours to let the dough rise. Than I start it again on the same setting and let the dough be kneaded for another 20 minutes. After the kneading I switch the the machine off for 1 hour to let the dough rise a second time.

Now I set the machine on 900g baking for 70 minutes. After the baking I leave the bread for 30-60minutes in the machine before taking it out and letting it cool down.

If you don't have a bread maker but a god oven that heats up to a minimum of 220°C you can make the bread too. Just knead all ingredients in a big bowl and neat it well. While the dough is rising cover the bowl with a wet towel to avoid that the dough dries up. Than form a round loaf or put the dough in a baking dish for baking. The oven must be well pre-heated.

This bread was gone so fast that I couldn't take a picture of it but I promise I will post a picture as soon as the next bread comes out of the machine. And I will go on experimenting until I get the perfect bread so expect some more recipes to come.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola


As promised here some pictures of the home baked bread. This is a 700g loaf.