Hatch Chile Ice Cream Sandwiches

It's hatch chile season. If you don't know what a hatch chile is, don't worry, you're not alone. I didn't know what a hatch chile was until last year when my boyfriend moved to Texas. One evening, he went to dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant that had a seasonal "hatch chile menu." Early summer is "flor de calazaza" or squash blossom season; late summer is hatch chile season. This is the time of year when grocery stores dedicate space to hatch chile everything and chefs design special sauces and meals highlighting the chile in their own unique ways. These are important things to know if you ever move to Houston.

The hatch chile is essentially an anaheim chile, but grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. Different varieties have been cultivated for different heat scores. The fame given to this specific variety is year-to-year consistency and many people think the flavor is superior to other varieties. I don't know that I've ever had a regular old anaheim chile, so I can't put my vote one way or the other. What I can tell you is that when we tried "mild" vs. "hot" side-by-side at the grocery store, the roasted "hot" hatch won ten-times over. The "mild" hatch was not good: it lacked heat and any sort of delicious flavor. The "hot" hatch definitely brought the heat, but it also had flavor. Maybe we just got a bad mild chile. I'll have to try again!

We bought 2 bags of roasted "hot" hatch chiles and I bought 2 fresh hatch chiles. We used them for chile con queso, tomatillo vegetable stew, tomato pork stew, corn and rice stuffed peppers, zucchini and tortilla chip fritatta, and chocolate chip cookies. The winners were chile con queso, tomato pork stew, and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. The vege stew was a little to acidic from the tomatillos without something basic to balance the flavor. The stuffed peppers and fritatta were lacking in flavor. You really can't go wrong with chile con queso as long as it includes chile and queso. We got the recipe for the tomato pork stew from a recipe card lying in the crate of hatch chiles. It was really delicious, though I might like some more textures in it (maybe some sort of grain). The idea to make hatch pepper cookies came from the hatch pepper chocolate chip cookies they were selling at the grocery store. They didn't have samples, so I knew I needed to try baking a batch myself.

Objective
Make chocolate chip cookies with hatch chiles and whole grains (since I'm still on a quest for the perfect whole grain chocolate chip cookie). Recipe based on the original Toll-House recipe, but with reduced sugar and whole grains.

Materials
1/2 cup butter, partially softened, partially melted
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. toasted wheat germ
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup hot hatch chile, roasted, de-stemmed/skinned/seeded, patted dry, and chopped
1/2-3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
Vanilla ice cream (~1/4 cup per sandwich)

Methods
To make the cookies:
1. Cream the butter, dark brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, and chopped hatch chile. Stir into the creamed mixture until just combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
3. Chill the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour (this is important or you'll get puffy, cake like cookies that take over your entire pan). Shortly before the dough is done chilling, preheat the oven to 375º.
4. Use a teaspoon to form dough balls and place about 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet or seasoned baking stone. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are brown and the middles are still a little wiggly. Cool on the pan for 3-5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the ice cream sandwiches:
1. Set the ice cream on the counter to soften for a few minutes then scoop the ice cream and smash it between two cookies. Alternatively, let the ice cream soften quite a bit (stirring it helps a lot). When smooth, spread it over the bottom of a baking dish to a depth of 1/2". Return it to the freezer to firm-up. Use a biscuit cutter or circular cookie cutter to cut out circles of ice cream. Use a spoon to lift the ice cream out of the pan and place it between two cookies.
2. Return the ice cream sandwiches to the freezer until ready to eat. Makes 1 dozen ice cream sandwiches (with a few extra cookies).

Results
The cookies are very soft and chewy. They spread out a lot while baking, but that made them ideal for ice cream sandwiches. The heat is fairly subtle and you can't taste it in every bite. With ice cream, the cookies are even better. The dairy helps with the heat and gives the cookies a way to shine, since as straight up cookies, they're a little thin (but not crispy).

Discussion and future directions
I've been trying different recipes for whole grain chocolate chip cookies. So far, my biggest complaint has been that people reduce the butter to make them healthier and that kind of ruins the texture. I tried 100% whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour with oat flour, neither of which was quite right. I decided to try a 50:50 whole wheat pastry flour to all-purpose flour ratio here, but with the additional moisture from the chiles (and dark brown sugar), I needed to add more flour to get the dough to the right texture. I chose to increase the all-purpose flour, though you could swap amounts. Did you know that you can use wheat germ in cookies? There are  a few recipes floating around for chocolate chip cookies with wheat germ, like this one from King Arthur Flour. I started out with just a couple of tablespoons to try it. I didn't even know it was there, so I'd happily try it again with more.

I think this recipe would also be great as cookie bars or modified into hatch chile blondies. These are fun because they are different. No one expects to heat when they bite into a cookie. Making them into ice cream sandwiches is optional, but recommended. Ice cream sandwiches hit just the right spot on a hot August afternoon in Texas, hatch chiles optional.

Supplementary Materials

Zucchini Butterscotch Blondies (Updated)

Warning: Do not make these blondies when you're home alone. Last night, my roommate came home to find half of a zucchini, a block of chocolate, and a cup of melted butter on the counter. He immediately voiced concern, wondering what on Earth I was making this time. I reassured him that I'd made this recipe before and that it was very good and that there was no need for skepticism! 

Once the blondies were cool, I ate a corner piece to try them and went to bed. The next morning, I found the blondies half-eaten (see the photo below), proof that there was no reason for him to be worried! This recipe is a crowd pleaser, and now, it's a little healthier. The recipe has always included vegetables (well, botanically speaking, fruit), but now, there's less sugar and a little bit of increased nutrition from the whole grain. This is a great dish to take to a picnic or potluck because if you keep it around the house, you'll realize you ate the whole batch in about 36 hours. (I wish I were kidding.) If you're taking it to a gathering of 10 or more, I suggest doubling the recipe. I doubt there will be leftovers.

Objective
Revamp my Zucchini Butterscotch Blondies with the addition of whole grain flour and less sugar.

Materials
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup zucchini, freshly grated (1 small zucchini)
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped (or semisweet chips)


Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish.
2. Beat butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg and vanilla.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then sift it into the butter-sugar mixture. Beat until just incorporated.
4. Stir in the grated zucchini, half of the butterscotch chips and all of the chocolate.
5. Spread the batter evenly in the 8x8 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining butterscotch chips.
6. Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Results
These are not too sweet, which allows the butterscotch flavor to shine without being overpowered by the sugar. They are extremely moist and crumbly, which prevents them from feeling like cake.

Discussion and Future Directions
Immediately out of the oven, these looked very cakey. I was heartbroken and scrambled to find a sticky-note or recipe card or loose sheet of paper with the recipe I'd been working to perfect in St. Louis. I was worried that I'd written it down wrong in my blog post. Was there too much baking powder? Did I really use baking soda instead of baking powder? I figured I'd let them cool and see how they turned out.

They turned out great. The moisture from the zucchini helped give them a denser, not chewy, but thicker texture. Increasing the amount of butterscotch chips and decreasing the amount of sugar made them taste like butterscotch without making you pucker at the sweetness. I think these are an improvement over my previous recipe if you aren't looking for something super sweet (which is often expected with butterscotch cookies or other butterscotch treats). Don't like butterscotch? Feel free to replace the butterscotch chips with chocolate chips, but you might want to add an extra tablespoon or two of each of the sugars. I highly recommend you try this with your next zucchini! I also recommend that you shred some zucchini to freeze so that you have it on hand for zucchini bread, zucchini cake, and zucchini blondies once summer, and with it zucchini season, is over.

Supplementary Materials

Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies [Ice Cream]

Yesterday, I packed a measly lunch. I packed a handful of grapes and a bowl of Roasted Carrot Soup that our roommate made as part of a 5-course meal for losing our household March Madness tournament. The soup was delicious, but unfortunately not filling. By 1:00, I was craving cookies. By 2:00, my brain was shutting down because it needed fuel. By 3:30, my head was pounding and I was lightheaded, probably from my hunger combined with "Feels Like" 106º heat. When I got home, I told C that I wanted to make cookies. He said that I shouldn't (perhaps related to the 1/2 blueberry pie in the fridge and fresh batch of Snickerdoodles from our 5-course meal) and instead, he made me a bagel sandwich. There's a good chance I ate a Snickerdoodle (or two) while waiting for my personal Sandwich Artist to create something scrumptious.

A few hours (and 5 paintings) later, I was still craving cookies, oatmeal cookies. When C left to go get more canvases, I booked it to the kitchen to whip up a batch of cookie dough before he returned. Now, he can't get mad at me for my baking problem because he has an ice cream problem. About a week ago, he came back from the grocery store with 3 half-gallon cartons of ice cream. Shortly thereafter, our roommate came back with 2 pints of Ben & Jerry's and alerted C of a sale. It wasn't long before I noted a new pint of Cherry Garcia in the freezer. When I asked him about his flavor choice (I thought he knew I was planning to make cherry chocolate chunk ice cream), he said "I panicked. There was a lady behind me and I couldn't find Oatmeal Cookie, so I grabbed that one. But I really wanted Oatmeal Cookie." So that's why I was craving oatmeal cookies! I decided that I would stir crumbled homemade oatmeal cookies into vanilla ice cream so that C could get his Oatmeal Cookie ice cream fix and I could satisfy my oatmeal cookie craving a la vez. I figured this had to be close to the Ben & Jerry's flavor, though I'd never actually had it.

Earlier in the day, I'd decided to make Thin Oat Ginger Crisps from Green Kitchen Stories. What excited me about the recipe was the list of ingredients, specifically pure maple syrup instead of refined sugar and buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour. What I didn't like about the recipe was the thickness of the cookies. I prefer soft, chewy cookies, not thin, crispy cookies. I decided to try them anyway, but with different flavors, and the addition of steel-cut oats. I got the idea to add steel cut oats from Adventures in Cooking. I decide on cherry and almond additions because I've been craving cherries since they first hit the market in June.

Objective
Make oatmeal cookies to crumble over ice cream as a substitute for Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie ice cream.

Materials
4 tbsp. butter, softened
3 tbsp. pure maple syrup
2 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. buckwheat flour
2/3 cup rolled oats
~1/4 cup steel-cut oats
pinch cinnamon
pinch salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. almond extract, to taste
2 tbsp. to 1/4 cup  blanched almonds, chopped
2 tbsp. to 1/4 cup dried cherries (or dried cranberries flavored with cherry juice)

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, maple syrup, milk, buckwheat flour, rolled oats, cinnamon, salt, almond extract, blanched almonds and cherries. With the almonds and cherries, stir in as many as you want for the amount of chunkiness you desire. Stir in steel-cut oats, starting with 2 tbsp. until the dough stops looking "wet." (You want it to look like normal cookie dough for chocolate chip cookies.)
3. Drop dough onto the parchment by the tablespoon, and gather the dough into balls to make the dough a little cohesive. If needed, redistribute the dough for 12 even dough balls. Flatten the tops slightly.
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool on the cookie sheet.

Results
These cookies are delicious and I don't feel guilty about eating them. They are very crumbly, which makes them perfect for crumbling over ice cream, though difficult to eat. The texture is soft and a bit chewy. I would describe the flavor as 50:50 oatmeal to almond, though easily mutable based on how much you decide to add. Stirred into ice cream? Delicious and you'd never even know these are "healthier" oatmeal cookies.

Discussion
The cookie itself? Very good. I'm pleased with the cherry/almond combination as well as the addition of steel-cut oats. I have to admit, I was going to make the cookies as written, as flat, crispy cookies. However, when I saw how moist the dough was, I decided I wanted to make it thicker like my normal oatmeal cookie dough. I kept adding steel cut oats until I got there (~1/4 cup). I knew this would increase the amount of dough and consequently decrease the amount of butter per cookie. I totally forgot that the recipe called for flattening the cookies as flat as you can make them, so I only flattened them slightly. The end result was exactly what I was looking for: thick, soft, and chewy. A happy mistake!

Now, cookie + ice cream? Since I've never had the ice cream flavor, we'll turn to C. "Better than the real stuff." Whew! That makes up for the brownies I made last week with spelt flour (that part was fine) and beet puree (not fine). I wondered what Ben & Jerry's flavor actually does taste like. Apparently its real name is Oatmeal Cookie Crunch and it's described as "sweet cream cinnamon ice cream with chucks of oatmeal and fudge." Mine didn't have chocolate, but I'm glad I added cinnamon to the cookies. I generally omit cinnamon from all cookies and quick breads, but I added it because I figured B&J's oatmeal cookies were bound to be cinnamony. They also add raisins. Gross. Anyway, next time C's craving oatmeal cookie ice cream, I think I'll whip him up another batch.

Supplementary Materials

To make Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream:
Bake and cool Cherry Almond Oatmeal Cookies. Get out vanilla ice cream and let it sit out to soften. Crumble the cookies over the ice cream and stir to combine. Return to freezer until you're ready to eat it. Cookie recipe makes enough cookie crumbles for about 1/2 quart of ice cream.

Blueberry Sour Cream Crumble Pie

As we were getting ready for bed one night, C asked me to tell him a story. Having just finished baking a pie, I decided to tell him a story about the first pie I ever made. It took me awhile to remember which pie actually was my first pie. My first pie was apple. I was in high school, and for some reason, I decided I needed to make a pie. I told my mom that I wanted to make apple pie and she gave me the Oh-no-way!-I'm-not-getting-involved-in-this!-If-you-start-it-you'd-better-finish-it-yourself attitude that comes along with anything it the kitchen that she considers "fussy." If I remember correctly, my dad happily volunteered his hands for apple peeling. Anyway, after hours pie making and baking, I realized that I don't really like apple pie.

You know what's funny? I knew I didn't like apple pie, but nevertheless I decided to try again while I was in graduate school. I made not only one but two apple pies the same day (I always intended to blog about the second and post more of the beautiful pictures that my friend took, but never got excited enough about apple pie to actually do it). I ended up feeding about 60% of the two pies to said friend and inevitably threw out what was left after it sat in the fridge for a few too many days.

The pie that I often confuse with my first pie is a strawberry rhubarb sour cream crumb pie. It was the first pie I made post-GF diet. I made it on a summer day with fresh rhubarb from the farmers' market. It was delicious, but still, I could only get excited to eat a piece, or maybe two. I made it for the third time last summer and again, wasn't as excited to eat it as I was to make it. Finally, I was realizing that pie just isn't my thing. However, I've learned over the years that men love pie. We have a friend who bakes her husband a pie a month because he loves pie so much. C frequently asks me when he's going to start getting his pies of the month! Since they say that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, I continue to make pie, even though I don't really like to eat it. Plus, I really can't pretend that I don't get satisfaction from pulling a beautiful homemade pie out of the oven.

Each of the past two nights, I've made a blueberry pie with 2 pounds of blueberries that I saw and had to have. I started with this gorgeous Buttermilk Blueberry Pie from Adventures in Cooking. I was very glad that I made it into a mini pie, because while I really enjoyed the blueberries (and the adorable cut out stars), the "custard" was chunky and chewy and really ruined the pie. Without ice cream, all would have been lost. Instead of the logical choice to make a blueberry pie straight-up, I decided to go the "sour cream crumb pie" route for a certain man I know who loves crumble topping. Apparently baking two pies with the same fruit two ways is my modus operandi.

Objective
Adapt my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe to make a blueberry pie with crumble topping. I made the pie crust with a variation of the rye rough puff pastry from Peach Galettes.

Materials
Makes a 9" pie (or a 6" pie)

Crust (makes enough for two 9" pies; freeze leftovers):
3.25 oz. rye flour
1.0 oz whole wheat pastry flour
4.25 oz. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6. oz unsalted butter, cold and cubed
2 oz. ice water + 1/2 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Filling:
4 cups fresh blueberries (2 cups)
1 cup sour cream/Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup)
2 small limes, juiced (1 lime)

Crumble topping:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (2 Tbsp.)
1/2 cup oats--quick cooking is fine (1/4 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar (2 Tbsp.)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut in cubes (2 Tbsp).

Methods
1. Preheat oven to 450º. Grease and flour pie pan and set aside.
2. To make the pie crust: Whisk together the flours, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Rub the butter into the dry mixture with your fingers until you have pea-sized crumbles. While stirring, slowly add the water+apple cider vinegar. Mix only long enough to moisten the flour and make a dough. If it doesn't hold together when squeezed, add a little more water. Form the dough into a ball, flatten, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or more. Roll out to 1/8" thick. Lay into the pie plate. Trim the overhang to 1/2 inch over the edge. Fold the edge under and crimp the edges. Use the trimmed edges to cut out fun shapes for decorating the top of the pie (optional)
3. To make the filling: Gently place the blueberries into the crust. Mix the sour cream (or yogurt), sugar, and lime juice. Pour over the blueberries.
4. To make the crumble topping: In a small bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Add the butter, and rub the butter into the dry ingredients by pinching it between your fingers. Crumble over the filling. The crumble should cover the entire pie. If you decided to make decorative shapes, brush them with water, sprinkle them with sugar and arrange them on top of the crumble.
5. Bake at 450º for 15 minutes (or 10 minutes for smaller pie), then reduce the oven temperature to 350º, cover the pie with a tent of foil, and continue baking for 25-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Chill before serving.

Results
This is the "beauty and brains" version of blueberry pie. Not only does it look pretty, it tastes like blueberry with a little tartness. The crust is a lovely brown and flavorful. The crumble gives texture and oat flavor. Oh yeah, and it's even kind of healthy if you make it with protein-packed Greek yogurt!

Discussion and Future Directions
Since I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and added oats to the crumb topping to make it crumble topping, this pie could aptly be called "Blueberry Yogurt Parfait Pie." However my fear was that people would think that it was an unbaked pie. Instead, it's a whole grain crust filled with a creamy, tangy blueberry filling, topped with oaty goodness then baked to release the juices and solidify the cream just a smidgen. The end result is a wonderfully flavorful, juicy purple pie. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.

I didn't cite my Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie recipe because I have no idea where I found it. I've tried searching for it online but can only find recipes that include flour (and often egg) in the filling. My recipe doesn't. I was beginning to wonder if that was an Abby-opps and I wrote the recipe down wrong. Sure enough, I just found an e-mail to myself from June 5, 2011 for Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie that specifically says "Mix sugar and 1/3 cup flour with sour cream and pour evenly over fruit." There's also a note that it freezes well. As if this pie could be around long enough to freeze!

Clearly this pie doesn't require that extra 1/3 cup flour in the filling. In fact, it's gluten-free pie filling if you omit it! The crumble could easily be made gluten free by using the right oats (or just using oat flour and omitting flour all together). I'm also envisioning this served in little ramekins without even bothering to give it a crust. Fewer calories? Bonus! Oh my gosh, so many options!

Believe it or not, I had fun making and eating this pie. That makes it doubly rewarding! This recipe is a keeper, through and through.

Supplementary Materials