Root beer float ice cream cupcakes

Last year for my husband's birthday, I made a really yummy root beer float Bundt cake from Joy the Baker. Her recipe is a chocolate cake with root beer in it. It's really moist, and the longer it sits out, the more the spice and kick of the root beer comes out. This year, I thought I'd be a little adventurous and try making root beer float ice cream cupcakes. I found a recipe for root beer sherbet, which sounded also really yummy, and different than just plain vanilla. My plan was set.



Later in the week after I decided to make this creation for my husband's birthday, I came across a post on Scoopalicious about an ice cream cupcake contest (with -- yes -- a prize!). I thought it was perfect that I already had a plan. The contest is co-hosted by Scoopalicious and Cupcake Project (click links for contest info).



His birthday was on Sunday, so I made the cupcakes on Friday, hoping to let as much of the root beer flavor come out as possible. With the soda in the cake batter, it's really moist, so two days left out (if covered, even with a paper towel) won't dry them out terribly. Having only made the cake once, and never in cupcake form, I wasn't sure how much it would rise. It turned out that I used more batter per cup than I would have liked to, but there still ended up being a good enough balance.

Saturday night, some friends had us over for a barbeque and they gave my husband a lemon meringue pie (his favorite) for his birthday. Into the freezer went the cupcakes. I was hosting a book group discussion at my house on Thursday, so I decided to use them for that.



On Wednesday, I tried to make the sherbet. My ice cream bowl had been in the freezer for two or three days, so it was good and cold. My root beer had been in the refrigerator for two or three days, so it was also good and cold. I'd read the recipe in advance, and it said to leave the bottles (I used cans) open to let them go flat a bit first. Being that I'd originally planned on making the sherbet sooner than I did, I'd opened them and stuck them in the fridge. By the time I used them, they were completely flat. I mixed the root beer with the sweetened condensed milk and the half-and-half, and poured it into the mixer. After 30 minutes, there was absolutely no change in consistency. I think that I needed a little bit of fizz. Whoops. I poured the "sherbet" into a bowl and stuck it in the freezer anyway, and stirred it a few times during the day and evening. It ended up freezing, but it was too icy for me to use. (The flavor is really great, though, and I would definitely not be opposed to making it again. With fizz.) To the store I went that night for some plain vanilla ice cream.



Thursday morning, I left the ice cream out on the counter to soften a little. By the time I got back to it, I was glad I didn't wait any longer. The top was really soft, but just under it was just soft enough but still hard enough to allow me the time I needed to work on the cupcakes. I filled them each just to the top of the liner (I used jumbo cupcake liners...normal jumbo, not grotesque jumbo). Then back into the freezer they went.

I made up the frosting (which has root beer, melted chocolate, and cocoa powder in it, among other things) and scooped it into my bag. It was the first time I'd ever used my frosting bag. I've never piped frosting onto a cake or cupcake before. Welcome to the big league.



So, by the time I actually got around to eating one (last night), it just tasted like chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, with frosting. There was a little more to it, but not enough that I could tell there was root beer involved. I took pictures today, and rather than sticking the starting-to-melt cupcake back in the freezer to re-freeze in a sad and wimpy state, I ate it. :) Today I could taste a little more of the root beer. Maybe it was that the cake part of the cupcake was bigger than last night's. Maybe it was that the frosting had had longer to germinate, so the root beer was coming out in it. Either way, I could definitely taste it today.



This afternoon I looked at the contest post over at Scoopalicious for the rules. I clicked over to the entries from 2008 and 2009 and found that I wasn't nearly as original as I thought. In 2008, Coconut & Lime entered this contest with a root beer float ice cream cupcake entry, albeit a different recipe. Last year, a sponsor of the contest was justJENN recipes (who has made root beer float ice cream cupcakes too -- using the same recipe that Joy the Baker used!), which, ironically was where I found the sherbet recipe, just doing a Google search. If the authors of either of those blogs read this, know that I wasn't trying to steal an idea. I thought I was mostly original, but I guess not.


For friends reading this: while this is a contest, only entrants can vote in the first round. If I make it to the second round, the public can vote, in which case I'll be soliciting your vote. :)

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

EDIT: I uploaded a couple of photos of the ice cream while I was making it. The colors are beautiful (as you will read below).

Last week, I saw a link to this old post on one of my favorite food blogs. I'm not generally a fan of blueberries, but my husband -- having grown up in Maine -- loves them. The pictures were beautiful (I love colorful food!), so I thought I'd give it a try for this week.

The ice cream is pretty easy to prepare -- and the coloring really is gorgeous. I think my husband has the camera right now, but I took some pictures of the dark blue berries, the bright white sugar, and the bold green lime zest in the pan together. Then, while it was all cooking, the berries bled and the juice turned purplish. Absolutely gorgeous.

Okay, enough gushing about the colors. The prep is easy; then you just stick the blender in the refrigerator to cool the mix down, and when you're ready, just turn your ice cream mixer on and let it churn for about 25 minutes.

A couple of notes on this:

• It didn't make very much. If you're making it for the whole family (or a group), you might want to double it. I made it for company, and ended up baking a pan of brownies to supplement. It went really great with the brownies.
  
• I had to soften it in the microwave to scoop it (it had been in the freezer for about 22 hours)
• Like I said, I'm not generally a fan of blueberries, but I did enjoy this. It was a little too tart, though. I prefer my ice cream sweeter.
• My husband said it could use a touch less sour cream (he recommended 2/3 of a cup, instead of the 3/4 of a cup that the recipe called for). That said, he loved it and gave it 5 stars.
• Serving it with brownies already, I didn't do any chocolate or fudge sauce on top. It was fine without it, though.

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Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, if frozen, thaw and drain)
1/3 cup sugar, or more to taste
pinch of salt
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime, or more juice to taste
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt, lime zest and juice in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a bender and whirl until you have a fairly homogenous puree, about 1 minute. (It will never be completely smooth, and that’s fine!) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and, if you’d like, and a squirt more lime juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.
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Enjoy!

Raspberry Lemonade Pie

I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer and our local grocery store had raspberries for $0.50 a carton yesterday, so I thought this would be a fun creation. I got the crust recipe from the Honey Made graham cracker/Nabisco website, but the rest of the recipe is my invention.

Raspberry Lemonade Pie

Crust:
8 whole graham crackers, finely crushed (about 1 1/4 cup crumbs)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix all ingredients until well blended.

Press firmly onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. (I used a 9.5 inch and it worked fine)

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.

Filling:
1 2 quart carton vanilla ice cream, softened
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (this is what I used, don't use it. Use powdered lemonade instead) See edit below
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

Mix softened ice cream and most of the can of thawed lemonade concentrate, to taste. Gently stir in raspberries.

Place filling in pie crust and put in freezer. Allow enough time for filling to harden back up. Top with fresh whipped cream and freeze again until cream is frozen.

****I have a few modifications to my recipe. Don't use frozen lemonade concentrate. Although it tastes oh so good, it doesn't freeze back solid. Use powdered lemonade. I'm sure it works lots better. The pie was so soft that we had to serve it with a spoon. When I tried to spread the cream on the pie (which I think I whipped too thick), it just mushed the filling all around. So don't use the liquid lemonade stuff.

Edit: I had some filling left over, so I put it back in the carton in the freezer. I got it out the next day and it was actually frozen. So I would say if you need it to freeze in a few hours to use powdered lemonade, but if you have the brain and time to make it the day before, I would go with the liquid concentrate. I think it tastes better for something like this.

We ate this with friends and everyone agreed that it should be rated five stars. It was really, really good. We ate the whole thing and I'm surprised that the pie plate didn't get licked clean. It was definitely a hit.

Challenge Ingredient: ICE CREAM

As we enter the final week of August, I thought ice cream would be a particularly appropriate challenge ingredient. I suppose we should have done it sometime in July, being that July is National Ice Cream Month. I'm sure we'll get over it.


I had fun reading about our ingredient this week. Did you know that ice cream was known to exist as early as the second century B.C.? And that the ice cream sundae really has something to do with Sundays? Want Thomas Jefferson's personal ice cream recipe? You got it!

Read up on the history of ice cream here, and let's have some good entries this week!

You can make a recipe that uses ice cream as an ingredient, or you can make ice cream itself. Sorbet, sherbet, gelato, and frozen yogurt are also all acceptable. Have fun!!

And enjoy this ice cream maze while you indulge yourself.