Biscoff Ice Cream

July is national ice cream month!

 Here the month is half over and I'm just now posting my first ice cream recipe for the year. I have however been posting homemade popsicle recipes like crazy over on my Instagram feed if you're interested. I will work on getting those popsicle recipes put on the site, in the meantime here's the recipe for this scrumptious creation.

Biscoff Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/8 cups granulated sugar
3 cups heavy cream
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
Seeds from half a vanilla bean
1/2 cup chunky Biscoff spread

I guess I should start off by saying that you will need an ice cream maker for this recipe. Kinda obvious but just in case... :) and you will need to follow the individual operating instructions specific to your machine.

Okay lets get started! This is honestly a basic recipe and pretty simple where ice cream is concerned.

In a medium bowl add the whole milk and sugar. Whisk for about 1-2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the half cup Biscoff spread to milk mixture and begin whisking until the Biscoff is fully incorporated. Add in both the vanilla and vanilla seeds. I like to incorporated vanilla beans when possible, but if you do not have any it's not a big deal. Just increase the vanilla extract by 1tsp.
Stir in the heavy cream and pour mixture into ice cream maker. Turn on and let mix for about 25- 30 minutes. Texture should be soft and creamy when done. Enjoy immediately or transfer to freezer safe container and let freeze longer.

And if you're feeling extra adventurous you can jazz up some ordinary waffle cones to go along with your homemade ice cream!

My Best Work

Guys I'm ready to show off my piece de resistance if you will. Definitely my best work to date :)

I mean, just look at her! This perfect little human being is also the reason my blog is dwindling by the wayside. I'm not complaining at all, she is a long awaited blessing and my husband and I just can't seem to get enough of her. She's the best! So now you have a face to go with the culprit. But since this is a food blog (at least a wanna be food blog) I will spare you from baby posts, save this one of course!

This pretty little lady just had a birthday last month, so I made her a sweet smash cake. Let me just say, I've dreamed for so long of all the fun cakes I would make for my children! It's just one of those silly things I have always looked forward to. Can't wait to document them all! Here's a look at the first installment, my daughters first birthday cake!

Yep that's my daughter, holding on to that cake for dear life. Like I said, she's the best :)

And stay tuned because I actually have some recipes that I will be sharing this week...promise!

Nectarine Skillet Cake

Ingredients 

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 C. granulated sugar
2 eggs
Zest from one whole medium sized lemon
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 C. All purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
3 Medium nectarines

Sugar Topping
2 Tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare your skillet by greasing it with a generous amount of butter or baking spray. Using a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Use spatula to scrap butter off the side of the bowl then add the sugar and mix until incorporated. Add eggs one at a time. Add both the lemon zest and juice, mix until incorporated. Sift the baking soda and flour together, add to the rest of the ingredients making sure not to over mix. Use a spatula to pour batter into prepared skillet evenly. Slice up the nectarines into thin wedges and arrange in a circular pattern (our any pattern of your liking) directly onto cake batter. Sprinkle sugar topping on cake and bake for 40 minutes. The top of the cake should be golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean when poked into cake. Serve warm or cooled, with ice cream or whipped cream. Either way it is delicious!!

Lemon Curd

After three years of living in our house we FINALLY had lemons on our tree this year!  I waited so patiently for them to turn yellow, dreaming of all the wonderful things I wanted to create. So far I have used the lemons to bake two pound cakes, add fresh lemon juice to my daily water intake (my favorite), and thanks to Pinterest... a lemon/sugar facial scrub that works like a dream :) Oh my how I love lemons!

High on my list was a batch of fresh lemon curd. I think curd is a great place to start because there is so much one can do with it! I have big plans for this lemon curd, but that is another recipe for another day, hopefully within the week!

With that said lets get to the recipe! It's so easy with minimal ingredients.

Ingredients:

3 Large Eggs 

3/4 cup granulated sugar 

1/3 cup Fresh lemon juice 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon lemon zest

Directions:

Use a glass or stainless steel bowl place over a saucepan of simmering water (A double boiler). In that bowl  whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice until combined. Cook the mixture making sure to stir or whisk continually as to prevent the eggs from curdling. Stir until mixture becomes thick ( this will take about 10 minutes) Remove from heat and add the cut up butter and lemon zest. Stir until combined. Let the curd cool a bit, then cover with plastic wrap directly on the lemon curd (this helps prevent a skin from forming) Then refrigerate! The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

That's it folks, easy peasy! Stay tuned for another recipe this week showing what I did with my lemon curd.