Triple Nut Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Objective
Make chocolate chip cookies with almonds. One of my favorite ways to get to know people is the either/or game. Pancakes or waffles? Chocolate or vanilla? Day or night? History museum or science museum? Ostrich or emu? Nuts or no nuts? Sunrise or sunset? Cake or cookies? Half windsor or bow tie? For important questions, I ask them to elaborate. That's how I learned that one of my college friend's favorite cookies were his mom's chocolate chip and almond cookies. You can put almonds in cookies? Yes! This has been on my to-do list since 2007.

So why am I finally getting around to making them? Blue Bell's Moo-llenium Crunch ice cream. On a recent trip to Houston, my traitorous self ate Texan ice cream (and I loved it). Their ice cream isn't as rich as many are, which is good. If ice cream is too rich, I feel sick after just a few bites. The flavor was roasted pecans, almonds and walnuts with chocolate and caramel in vanilla ice cream. Three kinds of nuts? We would have been nuts not to try it! Eventually, I'd like to try making my own ice cream mimic, but in the meantime, I can settle for ice cream sandwiches on a hot day!

Materials
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened or melted (I do a combination, mostly melted)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (light brown sugar would work, but I wanted them more caramely)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 cup whole almonds
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips, chopped into small chunks
1/2 cup chopped rolos (optional)
vanilla ice cream

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
2. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla and beat in eggs, one at a time.
4. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt then slowly beat into the batter.
5. Stir in the nuts and chocolate. *At this point, you can bake right away or chill the dough a little before rolling into balls and baking, which will help them be perfect circles. Your choice. But, if you're using Rolos, I recommend chilling the dough first.
6. Drop 1" (or smaller) balls  onto a parchment line baking sheet, greased baking sheet or pre-seasoned baking stone.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes until the edges begin to brown but the center is still doughy. Wait 3-5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire sheet to cool completely.
8. Dollop vanilla ice cream on a cookie, smush one on top and serve as ice cream sandwiches.

Results
Why haven't  I thought of this before? These are delicious! The cookies are soft, which is important when you're biting through two layers plus ice cream. The combination of nuts works well with the chocolate and the cookies are very chunky.

Discussion and Future Directions
I love chocolate chip cookies. I love chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. I love chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips (when I was a kid, I didn't like chocolate and would make separate chocolate-free cookies). Turns out, I love chocolate chip cookies with pecans, almonds and walnuts even more. My mom came home, tried a cookie and decided they were the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. That could be because I don't live at home anymore and she doesn't get them often, but I think it's because they're really that good!

These are a soft, chewy cookie. If you like them crisp, overbake them and they will have a nice crunch. These are delicious alone, but better with ice cream. Toasting the nuts isn't required, but people with more sensitive palates than me say it's a must. Throw them in the oven at 250° and bake 5-8 minutes (stirring every few minutes) or until the nuts are fragrant. It doesn't add much time. The rolls were my way of adding caramel to the recipe, but using dark brown sugar helps add a caramely flavor. I would probably leave the Rolos out next time just because they are a little messy and force you to scrape the baking sheet clean. Parchment paper would be a great way to make cleanup easy if you do want to use Rolos. I made the first batch of cookies without them and they were equally delicious.

Few things remind me of summer break quite as much as ice cream treats (not to mention the ice cream truck). Ice cream sandwiches were always a favorite. These ice cream sandwiches are homemade and a little more adult. That doesn't mean they aren't as good. In fact, I think they're better!

Supplementary Materials

Red Velvet Cake Woes

Growing up, I remember looking forward to my mom's birthday cake every year. My grandma would come over in the morning to drop off a red velvet cake for her daughter's birthday. The vegetable shortening frosting was incredible. The cake was usually good, too. Truth be told, I've never had a red velvet cake other than my grandma's nor have I had anything else with a take on red velvet (like red velvet brownies or whoppie pies, etc). However, as a health-concious adult, I couldn't bring myself to eat a cake loaded with red food coloring and frosted with vegetable shortening.

So, last summer, I did a little research into red velvet cakes. I wanted to try making one, but without the red food coloring and using a different frosting recipe. I told someone I was going to try making one with beets and they didn't believe that it would work or that anyone made cakes that way. That's not true. A lot of people use either beet juice or pureed beets to make their cakes red. Beets are used for color in a lot of natural foods.

One emotionally trying night later that summer, I was in the mood to eat an entire cake myself, so I gave it a try. I have no idea what recipe I used. At this point, I couldn't even tell you what cookbook it came from. However, as you can see, the cake wasn't red. Did I really use a red velvet recipe? I thought I did, but I have no idea. I'll be honest, I was happily dancing around my apartment in heels to La Roux and drinking wine (I had to practice walking/dancing in my bridesmaid shoes for the following weekend). The cake wasn't my top priority. I believe I used beet juice in some way, but I have no idea how. In spite of the concerns I have about what I actually made, I knew I needed to try again. My cake turned out black. The recipe I used called for a lot more cocoa powder than most red velvet recipes I've seen. So, I'm going to blame the recipe for the color of my cake (regardless of wether or not it was actually for a red velvet cake). I can't imagine this cake could have been a normal red color even with the addition of food coloring because of how dark it is. Whatever I made, it was delicious and improved my mood significantly!

This summer, I decided to try again. What sparked my interest was an article about Cajun and Creole food in St. Louis' Feast Magazine. It included a recipe for red velvet cake with a creole cream cheese frosting (which can be found on their website). I liked the sound of the recipe because the cake was colored with beet puree instead of red food coloring and the batter included butter and cream cheese (cream cheese in the frosting and the cake? Woah!). The frosting recipe called for cream cheese, butter and creole cream cheese. I decided it wasn't worth looking for creole cream cheese in Madison, Wisconsin. We're a long way from New Orleans.

Creole cream cheese is made with milk, buttermilk and rennet.

As little Miss Muffet could tell you from her tuffet, 

coagulation produces curds and whey. 

You get creole cream cheese by straining the curds 

and letting all the liquid drain away. 

The digestive enzymes contained in rennet coagulates the milk (there's a good chance you did this in  biology class in high school when you were learning about digestion). Obviously it wouldn't be a problem finding a major enzyme used in cheese making in Dairyland (after all, it's how they make cheese curds). However, I didn't want to call around looking for it or end up with a ridiculous amount of cheese-making enzymes. Instead, I decided to use sour cream.

I didn't like the flavor of the cake, but the color and presentation were perfect! Also, the frosting was top-notch (recipe follows). It was very light and creamy. It wasn't overly buttery or overly cream cheesy. The sour cream lent a bit of tang without being overpowering, which would make it a great frosting for a sweet cake. My aunt is visiting from Lake Tahoe and requested cinnamon rolls. I plan on using the leftover frosting on the cinnamon rolls (my dad tried to get me to throw it away. Sorry dad, no way. He won't eat sweets, so he can't possibly understand how delicious it was).

Now, it's important to note that while I didn't care for the cake, some of my family members did. Even my cousin who chose not to have a piece the first night because of the beets had a piece a few days later and enjoyed it. To me, the cake was far too acidic and tasted like beets (which to me is very earthy). The beets were pureed with lemon juice. Then I was supposed to add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. I couldn't find the vinegar (the woes of baking in someone else's kitchen), forgot I needed it, and left it out. Vinegar is acetic acid. The lemon juice is a different type of acid (citric acid), but will perform the same acid/base chemistry as acetic acid. I can't imagine that the problem was too little acid, because the whole cake tasted tart and acidic (which tells me there wasn't enough base in the cake to neutralize the acid).

Most red velvet cakes contain buttermilk. This recipe did not use buttermilk. Instead, I imagine the purpose of the cream cheese was to replace the fat of the buttermilk and the lemon juice/vinegar was to replace the acidity of buttermilk (and keep the beets a bright red color). The cake uses baking powder, so the lemon juice/vinegar is unlikely to play a big role in leavening because baking powder contains acid and base (when they react, they release carbon dioxide which creates bubbles in the batter). Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is a base, which makes me wonder if the leavening agent should have been baking soda to help neutralize the acid. Cocoa powder can also be acidic unless it's been "dutch-processed" or alkalized to neutralize it.

The moral of the story is that I still haven't found a red velvet cake recipe that's worth making again. After I botched a second "red velvet" cake (the microbiologist in me just looked up the origin of "botched" to make sure it doesn't refer to botulism, it doesn't!), my motivation to make a delicious red velvet cake is as great as ever. Have any of you found the perfect red velvet cake recipe? If so, I'd love to try it!

Dairy-Lover's Frosting
adapted from Simone Faure's recipe in Feast Magazine
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. sour cream
3 Tbs. heavy whipping cream
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip until light and creamy. If the frosting is runny, place it in the fridge to firm up for about 20 minutes before use.

Food Plus Words' Lemon Poppy Seed Cake (Review)

Something got me in the mood for a tart, fruity dessert. Maybe it was the weather. A Memorial Day weekend with temperatures in the 90s was far from refreshing. Perhaps that's why I was craving something tart, like citrus or raspberries. Some friends planned to go raspberry picking Monday morning. I would have joined them and used the raspberries for a raspberry pie, but a special someone was scheduled to show up at my door at 6 am after an overnight bus ride from Chicago. I suspected a nap would be a more appropriate welcome than heading out the door to the pick-your-own raspberry farm. So, instead of raspberry, I opted for lemon.

Objective
Make a lemon poppyseed cake to decorate as a graduation cake.

Review
Lemon was the flavor I was in the mood for, but I thought the addition of poppy seeds would make decorating more fun. The recipe I decided to try was Food Plus Word's Lemon Poppy Seed Layer Cake. I was intrigued by the recipe because the cake was layered with lemon curd mousse and topped with a lemon swiss buttercream, not to mention the reviews stated that the cake was very lemony!

Lemon Poppyseed Cake
Depending on your preferences, this cake might be a huge disappointment. The cake itself is relatively easy to make. It is a bit of a time investment because zesting and juicing lemons quickly becomes tedious. I popped the layers in the oven and all seemed well. However, as soon as the cake was done and cooling, it collapsed. There was lip around the side of the cake as evidence of its fall. In a bit of an overly emotional state, I got a little overwhelmed and wondered if I should even proceed. Having experience with gluten free baking, I was afraid it might end up being a brick. Perhaps it would make a good paperweight. Because I'd already made the lemon curd, I figured I may as well proceed. 

In the end, I really enjoyed the cake. It was dense like a pound cake, which is extremely appropriate for a lemon poppyseed cake. The refreshing flavor of citrus complements the richness of a poundcake very well. The only real concern with the cake was that it was far too acidic for my tastes. The flavor was good, but my stomach couldn't quite tolerate it.

Lemon Curd Mousse
After the incredible clementine curd mousse I made for my Clementine Mousse Cheesecake, I was extremely excited to make lemon curd mousse. Knowing how easy it was to make curd, I spent the time juicing and zesting lemons to make my own. The recipe follows in the Supplementary Materials.

The lemon curd mousse had an entirely different texture from the clementine mousse. The clementine curd mousse was light and airy and made with gelatin as a stabilizer. The lemon curd mousse was denser and creamier (not to mention significantly easier and quicker to make). As a stand alone mousse, this wouldn't be very good. However, it made a great cream filling for this cake.

Lemon Swiss Buttercream
This was my first experience with Swiss buttercream. If you've never had it, it's incredibly rich. It's essentially butter melted into whipped, cooked egg whites and sugar. Swiss buttercream makes a great canvas for decorating because it is heavy and can stiffen up quickly in the fridge. A dense, rich frosting on a dense, rich cake was a little too much. I can't think of what type of cake Swiss buttercream would be appropriate for, but this isn't it. It's just too buttery.

Discussion and Future Directions
I would make this recipe again, but with quite a few changes. In the cake, I would eliminate the lemon juice and use only lemon extract (albeit, increasing the volume). That would reduce the acidity in the final product. The buttermilk is still in the recipe, so there would be mild acidity from the buttermilk instead of the overpowering acidity from the lemons.

The lemon curd mousse filling is delicious. However, for a lighter version of the cake, one could simply use lemon curd (not that lemon curd is particularly light). For a twist, it would be interesting to omit the poppy seeds from the cake and use a raspberry or blackberry jam filling. Or, have two filling layers between the cake layers: one lemon curd and the other jam. If the lemon curd seems like too much work, just use frosting.

As I mentioned before, the Swiss buttercream was a bit too rich for the cake. Instead, I would use a fluffy lemon buttercream. I think I could have had more control over a standard buttercream than I did with the Swiss buttercream. I couldn't really control the sweetness or texture like I could have with standard buttercream. I've seen people use cream cheese frosting, which might also be delicious. But again, I think you would really have to find a light and fluffy cream cheese frosting recipe (I recommend this delicious recipe from Allrecipes.com: Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting).

When I first envisioned this cake, I pictured smooth sides scattered with poppy seeds and a wispy frosting on top with carefully placed candied lemons. However, I ditched that plan in an effort to make it a graduation cake. Overall, I was pleased with how it turned out. I hope the graduate was too!

Supplementary Information

Lemon Curd Recipe
(Original recipe can be found at Joy of Baking)
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
4 tablespoons butter (softened works best)
Zest of 2-3 lemons (however many you juice)

Whisk the eggs, sugar and lemon juice in a double boiler. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (this should take around 10 minutes and most recipes say the magic temperature is 160°F. I disagree. In my experience at 160 degrees, it's just beginning to thicken. Judge for yourself). Remove the mixture from heat. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Whisk in the butter, tablespoon by tablespoon. Stir in the lemon zest. Cover with saran wrap (lay it directly on top of the curd to prevent a film from forming and cool. Store in the refrigerator.