Oh Snap! Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream with a Gingersnap Swirl

The Setting: An unexpectedly gorgeous day.

The Soundtrack: Oia, flipping through the pages of one of my cheap paperbacks and babbling as though she were reading it aloud.

Sizzling on the Griddle: Pumpkin Pancakes with Honey Cardamom Butter and pure Michigan maple syrup.

The Scenario: Fall has fallen, and the pages of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream at Home have re-opened to welcome the season of root vegetables and warming spices.

If you missed our summer frolic with the queen of artisan ice cream, here's a re-cap. But for the present, let me say, "It's pumpkin time!"

I always look forward to the time of the year when pumpkin lattes dominate cafe menus and ginger becomes much more than the movie star on Gilligan's Island.

I'm one of those weirdos who can't stand pumpkin pie (it's some combination of the texture and flavor...like two great voices who should never do a duet), so I always have to find other ways to express my love of fall's favorite flavor: pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins, and, thanks to Jeni, pumpkin ice cream.

Since this is Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream, and I happened to have a bunch of 5-Spice Gingersnaps in the freezer, I couldn't resist throwing a few cookie crumbles in for added texture and flavor.

If you like a little textural variation in your ice cream, you can't go wrong with this addition.

To create the gingersnap "swirl," coarsely crush/crumble six or so medium-sized 5-Spice Gingersnaps to make about two cups of gingersnap crumbles. After freezing the ice cream in the machine, pack the ice cream into a container, alternating layers of ice cream and cookies so that you begin and end with layers of ice cream. You should aim for at least five layers in all--three layers of ice cream and two layers of cookie crumbles. If using a tall, skinny container, aim for at least seven layers in all.

If you prefer uninterrupted, velvety smoothness in every spoonful, by all means, leave the cookies out.

This recipe calls for an actual pumpkin, cut in half, roasted, scooped out of the skin, pureed, and measured out.

I typically reach right for the can o'puree when the need for pumpkin knocks, so going whole-gourd was a first for me. I admit I had to enlist Hoosband to cut it in half (I am very short, my counters are sized for a normal person, that equals poor leverage, and, oh yeah, I am weak), but the remaining work was a cinch.

An ice-cream scoop is the perfect tool for both scooping out and discarding seeds and membranes and scooping roasted pumpkin into your food processor.

After measuring out the pumpkin for the ice cream, I had about 2 cups leftover to store in the fridge for this morning's pancakes and future baked goods or sauces.



The following recipe is excerpted with permission from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. My notes are in blue.

Jeni's Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream
"A modern classic--rich pumpkin blended with exotic spices, which give the ice cream a light finish and a pleasant tingle." --Jeni Britton Bauer

1 small pie pumpkin or Kabocha, Buttercup, or butternut squash (2-3 lbs)
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cups packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon Chinese 5-spice powder

PREP Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and membranes. An ice-cream scoop works perfectly for this. Place Cut side down on a baking sheet and roast for 30-40 minutes, until soft when pierced with a fork. Be sure to use a rimmed baking sheet or jellyroll pan, as the pumpkin will release some liquid. Let cool slightly.

Scoop the flesh into a food processor and puree until completely smooth. The ice-cream scoop works perfectly for this part as well.

Measure out 3/4 cup for the ice cream; reserve the rest of the puree for another use.

Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.

Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. If you have trouble whisking the cream cheese, microwave it for about 10 seconds to soften it a bit more. Add the pumpkin puree and the honey and whisk until smooth.

Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

COOK Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and 5-spice powder in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.

Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

CHILL Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Gradually is the key word--if you add it all at once, it will be very difficult to get out all the lumps. Speaking of lumps, I like to strain my mixture into a clean bowl at this point, just to make sure the ice cream will be silky-smooth. Use a spatula to help work the mixture through the strainer.

Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes. I generally make the mixture the day before I want to freeze the ice cream so it can chill thoroughly in the fridge overnight.

FREEZE Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. For best results, always freeze the canister for AT LEAST 24 hours before using.

Pack the ice cream into a storage container (if adding gingersnaps, layer them in now as you pack the ice cream into the container), press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. The parchment is awesome at helping to prevent freezer burn. Every time you scoop out ice-cream, be sure to press the parchment back down over the remaining ice cream to help keep it tasty. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Makes 1 generous quart.

Excerpted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan Books). Copyright 2011.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Oktoberfest Pork and Spaetzle

The Setting: A crisp October day.

 

The Soundtrack: Washing machine and dryer...endless loads today.

Steaming up the Oven: Nothing yet, but there's a chicken in my fridge just begging to be roasted.

The Scenario: A celebration of the season. Good beer and great food.

For the two years that Hoosband and I lived in South Florida, we were beyond blessed with a bounty of diverse dining options.

As you might imagine, we frequently enjoyed an abundance of Latin and Caribbean cuisines.

But one of the things we most looked forward to at least once a week was happy hour at Old Heidelberg, the local German establishment.

The main dining room was the place for outstanding feasts of sausages, schnitzels, and suckling pig any day of the week.

But on weekdays from four to seven, the bar was the place to be.

Here, drink orders were delivered with a small, white saucer and free access to two giant chaffing dishes of simple, comforting goodness.

One dish was a starch, the other some form of meat--generally saucy, occasionally unidentifiable, always delicious.

It wasn't exactly haute cuisine, but it certainly had us coming back for more.

This time of year, when the supermarket beer aisles boast mountainous displays of seasonal Oktoberfest brews, I can't help trying to re-create a little Heidelberg happy hour here at home.

And now you can, too.

Oktoberfest Pork and Spaetzle
In an attempt to make the meal a smidge more wholesome, I like to add a little whole-wheat flour to the spaetzle. If you prefer a whiter spaetzle, feel free to substitute more white flour for the whole wheat.

~for the pork~
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2-3 lbs pork shoulder roast
2 cups crumbled gingersnaps (1/2-inch-sized crumbles)
2 T kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
2 T paprika
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 bay leaf*
2 whole allspice berries, optional*
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T Dijon mustard
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 (12-oz) Oktoberfest-style beer (I used Sam Adams Oktoberfest)

Place the onions in a slow cooker and top with the pork and remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 12 hours or until pork is fall-apart tender when prodded with a fork.

This pork keeps, stored in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to one week and is even better a day or two after it's made. Simply reheat leftovers in the microwave.

*Remove before serving. Also watch out for bones or bone fragments if using a bone-in cut of meat.

~for the spaetzle~
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp fine-grain sea salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
oil
1-2 T butter
2 T finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, eggs, and milk. Cover and set aside while you bring a large pot of water, plus 1 T salt and 1 T oil, to a boil.

Lightly coat a large platter or rimmed baking sheet with oil. Have a metal colander, a rubber spatula, and a heatproof spider or large slotted spoon handy.

Once the water is boiling, hold the colander over the boiling water and carefully pour 1/4 of the batter into the colander. With a rapid, stirring motion, use the spatula to push the batter through the holes of the colander and into the boiling water. Watch out for any rogue batter trying to escape from holes not positioned over the water--it happens. Use the spatula to carefully scrape excess batter clinging to the outside of the colander into the boiling water. The spaetzle cook almost immediately and float to the top when they are done. Set down the colander and use the spider or large slotted spoon to transfer the cooked spaetzle to the oiled baking sheet. Gently shake the sheet to keep the spaetzle from clumping together.

Note: if any raw batter gets caught on top of the cooked spaetzle at the top of the pot, simply use the spatula to poke it down into the water so it has a chance to cook through.

Repeat process with remaining batter.

At this point the spaetzle can either be cooled to room temperature, transferred to a lightly oiled, airtight container, and refrigerated for up to 4 days, or prepared as follows:

Melt the butter in a large saute pan or skillet over medium heat. Add the spaetzle, and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in half the parsley and season lightly with salt and pepper if desired.

Top bowls of spaetzle with the pork and its juices, garnish with remaining parsley, and serve with a frosty glass of your favorite Oktoberfest brew.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

5-Spice Gingersnaps

The Setting: A day torn between beautiful bright blue skies and the currently prevailing cloud cover. Which one will win out?

The Soundtrack: The Barefoot Contessa. Oia loves Ina.

Steaming up the Oven: Nothing at the moment, but I'm about to drop some pork in the slow cooker!

The Scenario: On a bit of a 5-spice kick...

Lately I've been throwing 5-spice powder in everything from lentils to pastries. I can't get enough of the stuff.

So when I needed to develop a gingersnap recipe for a little project I'm working on, the inclusion of this versatile Chinese spice blend was pretty much a given.

Instead of using dried, powdered ginger to give the cookies their namesake flavor, I prefer a combination of moist, freshly grated ginger root and chewy candied (crystallized) ginger for greater complexity.

These spicy cookies are classically crispy (hence the "snap"), but decresing the cooking time by a couple of minutes will result in a chewier cookie.

Crispy, they make a perfect accompaniment to a steaming cup of chai (my breakfast for the past few mornings).

And chewy, they make incredible bookends to vanilla ice cream in a palate-cleansing ice-cream sandwich.

The choice is up to you.

Gingersnaps

I always hear the best way to peel ginger root is to scrape it with a metal spoon, but I have never had much success with this method. Instead, I simply slice off all the edges with a chef's knife, leaving a perfect, peel-less piece of ginger, ready to be grated. It may seem a little wasteful, but let's be honest, the time and energy you save is worth the little bit of ginger flesh lost.

1 1/4 sticks (10 T) cold, unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 T freshly grated ginger root
4 tsp (1 T + 1 tsp) finely chopped candied ginger
1 large egg
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine-grain sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
granulated sugar for rolling, if desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the butter with the brown sugar and both gingers until very well combined (2-3 minutes on medium speed).

Scrape down the bowl if needed, add the egg, and beat just until light and fluffy (about 1 minute on medium speed).

Whisk together the dry ingredients, add to the butter mixture (with the mixer turner off), and beat on low speed till fully incorporated.

Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to scoop out 2-T-sized balls of dough and place 2-3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. If desired, roll each ball in granulated sugar before placing on the baking sheet and flatten slightly with your palm to keep it in place.

Bake one sheet at a time at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes for classically crunchy gingersnaps, or for 12-14 minutes for chewier cookies.

Allow cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Dough you do not wish to use immediately may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week

Cookies will keep for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes about 28 cookies.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in Your life.