Alaska: Go with the Floe

I am thinking about, making notes on, and gathering data about settings for a new culinary mystery series set in Alaska. I have another post planned later this year that will tell some of my plans, but for right now, I want to share some recipes that might be in that series.

Thinking Alaska is cold, I might include some of my frozen confections desserts. It’s never too cold for ice cream, right?

Here are a few of them that you might enjoy yourself. Not that I don’t want you to buy the books when they come out, but a little teaser might entice you to look for them later on. By the way, by “later on”, I really do mean “later on”. It will be a few years before this series hits Amazon!

Remember, I don’t cook hard. These are easy peasy. All of these recipes make a bit more than one quart.

Vanilla Ice Cream

1/2 cup milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2-3 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

Whisk all ingredients together and pour into the ice cream tub for processing per your machine’s instructions.

Notes:

If you’d like, add nuts, chocolate chips, crushed candy bars or other favorite additives when the ice cream is close to done.

Sometimes I substitute a can of dulce de leche in lieu of the sweetened condensed milk to make a caramel ice cream. Add some sea salt toward the end for salted caramel ice cream, one of my favorites. Yum!

Eggnog Ice Cream

2 cups of good quality eggnog

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 teaspoons nutmeg

Whisk all ingredients together and pour into the ice cream tub for processing per your machine’s instructions.

Note:

A splash of rum and a sprinkle of cinnamon over the top before serving takes this dessert over the top!

Brownie Ice Cream (very, very rich)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups milk

1 box brownie mix

3 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use black cocoa for a richer flavor but any is okay)

pinch of salt

Whisk all together and let sit in refrigerator overnight. Pour into the tub and process per machine instructions.

Notes:

I always add nuts because brownies always have nuts, don’t they?

For the holidays, add broken candy canes for a minty-chocolate special treat!

Chocolate Frosty (tastes just like Wendy's)

1 quart chocolate milk

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Whisk together then process in ice cream machine per directions. Served immediately after processing, this is smoothie-like in texture. If you put it into the freezer, you get a hard ice cream.

Note:

The better the quality chocolate milk you use, the better the texture and flavor. Spring for the good stuff!

I always throw my over-ripe bananas into the freezer, for this “ice cream” or banana bread or to make choco-nut banana bites. This recipe is the ringer in this column. Ice cream that isn’t actually ice cream (no dairy) but tastes like it.

We have a special machine to make this banana-based frozen treat, Yonanas. It has a tube to feed in the fruit, but recipes abound on the Internet for making banana “ice cream” with a blender or food processor. Surprisingly, the frozen dessert doesn’t taste like bananas. It has the consistency of soft-serve ice cream but gets hard as a rock if you put it into your freezer. We make just enough for that serving and eat it all up. And because there is no added sugar, this frozen dessert is guilt-free.

Banana “Ice Cream” (each banana makes one cup of frozen dessert)

1 banana, cut into circles and frozen rock solid

A food processor is better than a blender. Many blenders aren’t powerful enough to process frozen fruit smoothly.

Add in the frozen banana chunks and pulse the fruit (rather than continually blending).

It looks crumbly at first, then like oatmeal. You want to get rid of the visible banana chunks. Scrape down the sides periodically. Keep pulsing until the consistency of ice cream. Serve immediately or put in the freezer for a couple of hours to make it stiffer than soft serve.

Note:

We process two bananas and add in a half cup mixed frozen strawberries and blueberries to serve the two of us. Any frozen fruit can be used. Sometimes we just use bananas and pour on chocolate syrup, caramel, and/or nuts. Some people like to add peanut butter, Nutella, cookie butter, cinnamon, chocolate chips, cocoa powder or candy bar pieces. Experiment. Have fun with this recipe.

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