Pumpkin Ice Cream with Gingerbread Croutons

We're all fans of David Lebovitz and The Perfect Scoop, but Maida Heatter has some divine ice cream recipes in her many cookbooks too. I know I've mentioned she is my dessert guru. (Her chocolate cookbook is part of my giveaway.) I'm going to post a couple of her ice cream recipes this holiday season.

Let's start with pumpkin. This ice cream tastes like pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream, only frozen. And just to make it a touch more unusual, I made some gingerbread croutons. (Maida has a fabulous gingerbread recipe; please find it HERE.) I just cut some gingerbread cubes, dried them out in the oven and then melted a little butter and threw them in. Toss them around lightly until they get crunchy. You'll love them with this ice cream.

You DO need an ice cream maker. (I cut this recipe in half as my ice cream maker is not big enough to handle the whole recipe.)

Pumpkin Ice Cream

From Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts

Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin ( about half a one pound can of solid-pack pumpkin; do not use pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
4 cups heavy cream


Method:
In an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks until they are pale, thick and creamy.
Place the pumpkin in the top half of a large double boiler. Add the beaten egg yolks, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Place over the hot water on moderate heat.
Cook, stirring and scraping the bottom with a rubber spatula for 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
Remove and set aside, stirring occasionally, until cooled. (Or you can set the double boiler top in a bowl of ice and water and stir constantly until cold.)
In a large chilled bowl with chilled beaters, beat the whipping cream until it holds a soft shape. If you beat it too much, it will taste buttery and not creamy.
Fold into the pumpkin mixture. I put it in the fridge for a few hours, but Maida says it is cold enough to freeze right then.
Freeze according to manufacturers directions.

(And be sure to check out my cookbook giveaway in the last post! Winners will be announced on November 5th.)

A Giveaway!

There's a lot to celebrate in October!

First  I want to wish all of you a fun and scary Halloween!

Second, I have been blogging two years this month. It went by in flash, didn't it?  So fast, I even forgot to celebrate my first year blogging last year! So to celebrate this blogoversay, I'm going to have a giveaway. Four fabulous cookbooks for four fabulous readers!

Drum roll, please....

How about that? Isn't this a super giveaway? Maida Heatter....Rose Levy Beranbaum.....Nigella.....and Dorie!

To win one of these lovely cookbooks, just leave a comment letting me know which cookbook is one you've always wanted and if you become a follower, you'll get two entries! (Please leave a separate comment for each.) And make certain I have your email address.
Have a lovely holiday week. I'll announce the winners on November 5th.

Mis-fortune Cookies

Halloween fun! I may not have kids around the house anymore, but are these adorable or what? To be honest, I was rather intimidated by the idea of making fortune cookies, but that part turned out to be the easiest. Would you believe it's finding exactly the right kind of black food coloring that's the trick? Some just left me with grey batter...no matter how much I added. Why don't ALL grocery stores carry good quality black and orange food coloring this time of year? 

 And the next time I make them, I'm going to use even more black. The camera made them seem more dark brown than black, which trust me, they were. (Or perhaps it was the lighting......)

 Anyway, surprise your family and make a batch for Halloween!

Mis-Fortune Cookies
From The Decorated Cookie (such talent!)

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoons water

Method:Write fortunes on pieces of paper that are 3 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Or print them out HERE. 
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 2 9-X-13 inch baking sheets.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg white, vanilla extract, almond extract and vegetable oil until frothy, but not stiff.Sift the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar into a separate bowl. Stir the water into the flour mixture.Add the flour into the egg white mixture and stir until you have a smooth batter. The batter should not be runny, but should drop easily off a wooden spoon.

 Note: if you want to dye the fortune cookies, add the food coloring at this point, stirring it into the batter. I added black as indicated above. A little at a time, until the desired color was reached.

 Place level tablespoons of batter onto the cookie sheet, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Instead of spreading the batter with a knife or spoon, gently tilt the baking sheet back and forth and from side to side so that each tablespoon of batter forms into a circle about 4 inches in diameter. That way they will be smooth and crisp.

 Bake until the outer 1/2-inch of each cookie turns golden brown (difficult to see with black ones!) and they are easy to remove from the baking sheet with a spatula (14 - 15 minutes). Working quickly (I used a hot pad over my hand), remove the cookie with a spatula and flip it over in your hand. Place a fortune in the middle of a cookie. To form the fortune cookie shape, fold the cookie in half, then gently pull the corners downward over the rim of a glass. Place the finished cookie in the cup of a muffin tin so that it keeps its shape. Continue with the rest of the cookies. This recipe makes about a dozen cookies.

And stay tuned for a fabulous giveaway next week!