Blackstrap Molasses Walnut Ice Cream

I think this molasses ice cream recipe by Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is my new favorite holiday ice cream. I was a little surprised that it could have such a rich taste, since it's not a flavor that at first I thought would stand out as much in comparison to peppermint or chocolate, but there's something about the simplicity but depth of this that makes it really stand out. It kind of tastes like a molasses cookie distilled into ice cream. So if you are looking for a Christmas recipe, consider whipping some of this up! There are so many interesting things I think you could accompany this with: a chocolate-orange sauce or cookie, a glass of egg nog, or a plum or apricot sauce. Or just eat while sitting by your tree.

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday and some delicious meals! :) See you in 2015!

Molasses Walnut Ice Cream
From Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes about one quart
(requires an ice cream maker)

Ice cream: 

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch 
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened 
1/4 t fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 c blackstrap molasses 

Blackstrap walnuts:

1 cup walnuts,  halved
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1. For the ice cream, mix about two 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. For later, fill a large bowl with ice and water. 

2. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar and molasses in a four-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for four minutes (the mixture may appear curdled from the acidic molasses, but it will come back together in the finished ice cream). Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. 

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

4. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a one-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. 

5. Meanwhile, for the blackstrap walnuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the nuts with the remaining ingredients in a bowl, tossing to coat. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for about eight minutes. Stir, and then bake for another five to six minutes, stirring twice. The nuts should look bubbly and somewhat dry. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, stirring the nuts every couple of minutes to break them up (they'll harden togeter if left sitting for too long). 

6. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy. 

7. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, folding in the walnuts as you go. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, about four hours. 

Personality Grid

In my photography class this fall, one of our assignments was to do a "personality grid," a grid of different photos of the same person showing different personalities, while keeping the same basic frame on the person. 

You can tell the weather was a bit warmer when I took these of my friend on her front stoop while we had a glass of wine. We were supposed to use a prop, and I liked the idea of using wine since it's a natural thing for a person to be holding, and makes the result feel like these photos could have happened spur of the moment. In general, I really love the results of this, because it showcases so much more about a person than a single photograph.

If you're interested in doing some similar, you need to take quite a few more pictures that you end up using (I probably had about three times as many as ended up in the final product), and figure out a way to give the person direction on which mood to show. For me, the first part was asking someone who I thought would get a kick out of this, and then named off potential moods for her to personify as I took pictures.

Once I looked back at the photos I took of her, I decided to make this semi-focused on laughter (that counts as a mood, right?), since I had a lot of great ones of her cracking up, and also shows her sense of humor. 

Ginger Beer Vodka with Bitters

I love the day or two right before a holiday, when things start to wind down and there's a sense of anticipation about a break. Today was one of those days, which warranted a last-full-day-of-work cocktail tonight.

This is one of those recipes that is derived out of trying to use certain ingredients, with fun results: a friend from work gave me some homemade bitters recently, and I'd been trying to think of something to make with them that wasn't a Manhattan, basically, since I'm not very cocktail literate, and that's the only cocktail recipe I know that has bitters in it! I love ginger beer, and through some searching, found this recipe, which I think is basically a modification on a Moscow Mule.

While not really a seasonal drink, the spiciness of the bitters and tanginess of the ginger give this a really interesting kick, which is balanced out by it also being really refreshing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Loft a Better Mule (official name)

1 half lemon
1.5 - 2 ounces vodka
4-6 ounces ginger beer
1 ounce ginger liqueur
1 dash bitters
Optional: slice of lemon

Squeeze lemon into a chilled glass. Add vodka, ginger liqueur, and the bitters, and then fill with cold ginger beer. Garnish with slice of lemon (optional). Stir with stirring stick.

Halloween

Some friends from college were in town last weekend for Halloween, and became Pam from Archer, a witch, a ventriloquist dummy, an Uber kitty, and witch number two. 

Columbia Heights Street Photography

I always knew Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights, where I live in DC, where visually interesting places, but it took a couple of recent photography class assignments to actually get out and see how many compelling compositions, textures, shadows and people there are around me. I spent a couple of recent Saturday afternoons doing some long and rambling photo walks in my neighborhood, and had a ton of fun viewing things through the camera lens. These are some of my favorites, and it's fun to look at them now, because I don't think I would have noticed most of these things without having been looking to capture interesting visual moments. 

This last one is kind of weird, but I kind of like it. The neon noodle sign, the guy with the iPod, and how you can see the row houses leading into the skyline tell a visual story of the neighborhood to me.

Photo of the Day

I've been doing more photography lately, and thought it could be fun to post more pictures I've taken and think a little about what works or doesn't about them. 

I took this picture after getting off the metro pretty late last Sunday night, and turning around realizing the symmetry of the two escalators was interesting. I was glad to catch a woman wearing a fedora, which I think gives this nighttime, high ISO, black and white shot a mysterious feeling.

DC, Columbia Heights metro. 

Restaurant Review: Bread Furst

I've been curious to try the bakery and cafe Bread Furst since it opened this spring, especially after hearing that it was being run by DC's "preeminent baker" whose goal is to try and fill some of the void we have in DC in terms of good bakeries. In particular, I've been looking for a place to buy really good bread.

My first impression was that it was as bustling shop that is intentionally trying to not be a coffee shop - they had a sign on the door asking that laptops and cell phones be put away, and is full of lots of fresh and unique offerings. So this isn't a place to come and get work done on your computer. I went on a Saturday morning, and it was very busy, but it didn't take that long to get through the line, and it made the environment more vibrant.

My second impression was that Bread Furst puts a lot of emphasis on being artisanal. In addition to their really impressive array of baked goods, they also have a wall of canned goods, cheeses, olive oil, and probably other things I didn't see.

I bought an incredibly random, but possibly representative, bundle of goods: a loaf of whole wheat bread, a jar of pickled root vegetables, a mini blueberry pie, and a couple of bagels. By far, the loaf of bread was the best: it had great texture that wasn't too dense or too fluffy, and just seemed expertly done. The pickled root vegetables were also pretty great.

I didn't get any of the hot food, but it seemed like a lot of the other customers were picking up one of these menu items as their Saturday-morning brunch (they had bagel sandwiches, an egg sandwich on an English muffin, and vegetable frittata), as well as coffee. 

One of my thoughts was that this would be a really great place to get a gift for a foodie - it would be really fun to try some of their other canned items and cheeses, and since those things were a little pricey, something someone might not buy for themselves. 

The thing I was most curious about when leaving was an intriguing item that was new to me. Conceptually. A tomato bacon jam, with maple syrup and chili powder, which sounds like it would be amazing on an egg sandwich or potatoes. The problem was that it was $22, for a 24-ounce jar... so I think this may go on my list of recipes to try and respectfully imitate.

All in all, I'd love to make this a regular place to buy bread. The only issue is that the location is a bit random, as it's in Van Ness, next to a car wash, so I'll probably just pick up a few loaves when I'm in the area. I really hope this business does well, though, since I think DC needs more artisanal (ugh, sorry for using that word) bakeries, so I encourage you to check it out!