New Ice Cream Recipe with Variations

Finding myself with copious amounts of milk and eggs again, I decided to have some fun making ice cream.

Previously, I'd made French Vanilla Ice Cream but this time, I wanted to venture out and try something a little different.  I asked my family what were their favourite flavours and resolved to have a go at each of them.

I found a recipe for Chocolate Ice Cream online and gave it a go.  I didn't have enough chocolate so I added two heaped dessertspoons of hot chocolate powder.  I also noticed that it used half the eggs compared to my previous recipe and still turned out lovely and tasty.

Miss 12 asked for a mint choc chip ice cream.  I didn't have mint essence so I went outside and picked a large bunch of mint from my garden.  I washed the mint and stripped the leaves from the stems.  Instead of scalding the milk, I heated it slowly with the mint.  Strained, I used the milk and followed the recipe like normal.

It tasted kind of minty with a distinct "herbal" flavour.  It wasn't unpleasant and Miss 12 has been eating it, it's just not quite the same as the bought ones.

I wanted a rum flavoured ice cream.  I like Rum and Raisin, although my last purchase was rather underwhelming.  I didn't have any raisins, but couldn't see why rum wouldn't work on it's own.
In my first batch, I added rum at the end.  It was delightful.  Since then though, I've been adding the rum with the milk before heating - it has the flavour but not the alcohol content.

I also made a coffee ice cream.  For this variation, I put 4 heaped dessertspoons of coffee in my plunger and filled it with hot milk.  It made the slow addition of hot milk to eggs much easier as I simply poured from the plunger.

It got stronger after it was frozen.  It's all mine.  My Preccciousssss.

Berry Ice Cream for my daughter-in-law was made by simmering frozen blackberries until soft and mushy, then forcing them through a sieve.  I froze this separately from the ice cream and then mixed them together later making a ripple effect.

Hubby and Dad tried to ban me from giving it to her.  They decided they really needed to eat it all.

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream for my Dad was fairly simple.  I found a recipe for Hokey Pokey (also known as Honeycomb by the Aussies) which I'd never tried making before.  Made the Hokey Pokey, broke it up into chunks and mixed it through French Vanilla.

My basic recipe has changed a little from the rather rich Creme Anglaise recipe.  My process has also changed a bit too.

Basic Ice Cream recipe

9 egg yolks
1 1/2 C sugar
1.5 litres milk

Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the yolks and sugar together until pale.  Heat gently in a double boiler, adding milk very slowly and whisking constantly.  When thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, take it off the heat and allow to cool.

Pour into a shallow metal tray and freeflow in the freezer overnight. 
In the morning, cut into chunks and run through food processor until soft-serve ice cream consistency.  This may take several batches.
Pour into container, label and freeze.

Cookies and Consent

I have been informed by Google about new laws regarding cookies in the European Union:

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used and data collected on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. 
As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies, and other data collected by Google. 
You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. If you include functionality from other providers there may be extra information collected from your users. 

There was a link that informed me that as I am outside of the EU, I won't see the notice, but told me to change the country code on my address bar to view it. 

It hasn't worked.  I can make it blogger.co.uk but the instant I try to go to the page, it resets to blogger.com for me.

If anyone is reading this from the EU, can you please leave a comment and tell me whether or not you can see the notice?

Thanks in advance.

Pickled Walnuts

A friend's prolific walnut tree got rather wind damaged recently.  The trunk split into four large branches about waist height, with strong winds from an unusual direction, three of those branches split off the trunk and were lying on the ground although still attached to the main trunk.

Fearful that the entire crop would be wasted, we were invited to pick some green walnuts if we wanted some.

Not sure what to do with green walnuts, we were a bit dubious.  Then we were told about pickled walnuts.  Why not give it a go?  So we picked a fair amount of the small ones.

Pickled Walnuts take about 2 weeks before they make it into the jar, then a further 4-12 weeks (depending on your recipe) before they're ready to eat.

I was given a recipe by the friend who suggested pickling the walnuts, then I found 2 very similar recipes in my books at home.

I've been told they have a strong flavour, so when it comes to eating them with crackers and cheese, make sure you choose a strong cheese or it will get lost or overpowered.  I still haven't tried it, but I figure that I have enough friends who will take it if we don't like it.

A few notes and lessons I learned the hard way:

My fingers were this dark for weeks.

Walnut juice will dye your hands black.  Wear rubber gloves.  Six weeks later I still have brown marks on my fingernails.

This is only partially shadow - mostly it is blackened fingertips dyed by walnut juice

Even when your pricking tool (of whatever type you choose) goes easily into the fruit, it can still be quite hard on your hands.  A wad of masking tape as a handle makes a huge difference.

The brine looks dreadful after a day.  It goes black and oily looking and smells awful.  This is normal and probably why the recipe has you change the brine every three days.

All the recipes I found specified malt vinegar.  As I am Coeliac, malt vinegar is not an option.  I used white vinegar, but haven't tried the walnuts out on folks who know and love them yet to see if it made a big difference.

Pickled Walnuts

Prick the green walnuts all over.  Push your darning needle or pick tool at least into the middle of the fruit - discard any that are hard to prick.

Cover the fruit in brine and leave for 3 days.  Drain and cover again in brine for another 3 or 4 days.  Drain (again) and cover again in brine for another 3 or 4 days.

After brining

Drain.  Line a tray with newspaper and spread the walnuts out to dry in a warm place, turning occasionally for a few days  - or until black and dry.  A sunny windowsill is ideal for this.

Apologies for the blurry photo, but the colours should show.

Make the spiced vinegar:

2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 teaspoon whole yellow mustard seeds
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
4 thin slices of fresh ginger
1.8 litres malt vinegar
450g light brown sugar

Lightly crush the spices with a mortar and pestle to bruise them slightly.  Put into spice bag or muslin with garlic and ginger.
Heat vinegar and sugar with spice bag in a large pan to dissolve the sugar.  Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for about 15 mins.  Allow to cool before removing the spices.

Pack the walnuts into dry sterilised jars, cover with the vinegar and seal.  Store for 8 to 12 weeks before using.

UPDATE (21 Feb 2019)

These walnuts are awful.  They're hard and kind of woody and you can taste the vinegar but not the spices.

I read a piece from a company in England that has been making them for about 100 years, they steam theirs before brining and pickling.  I might try that next time.

Other things to do with Walnuts:

Apple and Walnut Crumble

Other Pickles:

Onion Jam

Chicks!

Last year, I wrote about all our disappointments with chicks and our eventual success.  This year, I'd been watching for hens to go broody.  My barred rocks started to sit and as they hatched two chicks last time, I was hopeful.

They'd been sitting for about a week when I went into my chook run and was shocked to see four tiny chicks running around.  It became quickly clear that their Mum was one of the shavers.  I hadn't even known one had been sitting, she must have had a hidden nest somewhere.  I was shocked as I'd always been told that shavers were hopeless breeders - they're too small to generate enough body heat and not sufficiently attentive to their chicks - but this girl just proved it all wrong or maybe she's the exception.

Shaver Mum with four day old chicks

The next day, though, she only had two chicks with her.  We never found out what happened to the other two.

Two weeks later, while I was looking in some of the usual odd spots for eggs, I found one of my leghorns sitting on a nest.  I hadn't noticed she'd gone and was also surprised to see her broody.  I bought two leghorn hens about four years ago and they'd never shown any sign of it previously.

The following week, I went to check on her again, in her little hidey hole and saw what looked like a dead chick half under her.  I wasn't sure and she was still sitting, glaring at me so I left it alone.

The next morning, I went out to see the chooks and she was by the gate with eight tiny freshly hatched chicks at her feet.  Eight!?!

Five out of eight chicks with Leghorn Mum

When I went back to see where she'd been sitting, all the remaining eggs were her own - they're bright white and distinctly different from the brown eggs I get from my shavers or the creamy whitish ones from all my other breeds.

The barred rocks were still sitting.

Each day when I go to feed them, I do another head count.  There are now 11 chicks.  Two bigger ones that are probably about 4 months old now - one dark (Miss 12 has named it Weka) and one white with a funky top-knot (I've named it Blondini), eight smaller white chicks with the odd black spots that are about 3 months old and one single chick from my other leghorn who is now about 2 months old.

Weka and Blondini - the two on the right.

Some of the white chicks getting a bit bigger

It's interesting to note that of all eleven chicks, only one (and it's one of the smaller ones) has a visible, noticeable comb so far.

Meanwhile, my barred rocks have given up.  I have a shaver and an austrolorp playing constant swapsies between two nests (both full of eggs).  I thought I heard a new chick peeping this morning but neither hen would move enough to prove it or show it off to us.

Hubby keeps asking how we'll know whether they're hens or roosters.  I keep telling him when they either start crowing or laying - until then it's pure guesswork.