Double Pumpkin Quick Bread [with Pumpkin Beer]

I know I said I was waiting for November to pull out the pumpkin, but by November, I really meant October. Obviously pumpkins are a Halloween necessity. Anyway, I failed. It's almost October, so I suppose it's ok. I caved because I really wanted pumpkin bread last weekend but settled on banana bread. While I like banana bread a lot, I was still craving pumpkin bread. Why? Because this recipe for Pumpkin Honey Beer Quick Bread from Cooking Light looked so moist and pumpkiny. I've never made (or had) beer bread, but it's one of C's favorite baked goods to whip up last minute to take to work. With two men in the house, I figured that even if it came out tasting like beer, it would disappear quickly.

The original recipe called for honey beer, but I have absolutely no idea what that is or where to get it. Mead? Apparently not the same thing. When I asked C if we had any beer laying around that was sort of sweet to use in pumpkin bread, he handed me a pumpkin ale from last fall that apparently wasn't good for drinking (and therefore still hanging out in the pantry). I have to disagree with his stance, because I actually drank a little bit of it and that says a lot. I definitely didn't taste pumpkin, but it was also a pretty weak beer (probably why I could drink it--not that I'd drink a whole bottle).

I've been using a lot of whole wheat pastry flour in place of all purpose flour and am getting bolder every time I bake  (you'll note I used mostly whole wheat pastry flour in this recipe). I also decided that quick breads are often a bit too oily, so I subbed out some of the oil in favor of the last little bit of our homemade apple butter. I cut the sugar a lot, but added in just a touch of honey since I didn't use honey beer. I used canned pumpkin puree, but if I had a squash or pumpkin on hand, I would have used that instead.

Objective
Make pumpkin bread with pumpkin beer based on Pumpkin Honey Beer Quick Bread from Cooking Light.

Materials
1 cup + 2 tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp (heaping) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (heaping) pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup pumpkin beer
2 tbsp. + 2 tsp. ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
1 tbsp. honey
1/3 cup oil (I recommend 50:50 light olive oil and apple butter/sauce)
1/3 cup pumpkin beer
2 large eggs
7.5 oz. (3/4 cup + 2 tbsp.) pumpkin puree

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º.  You can make either a 9x5" loaf or 2-4 mini loaves, depending on the size of your mini loaf pans. Grease loaf pan(s) and line the bottom with greased parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside. In a small bowl, stir the flaxseeds into 1/4 cup beer. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl (you can use your mixer, but it's isn't necessary), stir together the sugar, honey, oil, apple butter, and 1/3 cup beer until homogenous. Note: it's going to be wet and sloshy, so if you use a mixer, start on the lowest speed setting. Add the flaxseed mixture and pumpkin puree and stir to mix. Fold in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
4. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan(s), filling the pans 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to the top.
5. Bake at 350º, just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. For a 9x5" loaf, that's about 70 minutes; for mini loaves, around 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edge with a plastic knife, flip out, and cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap tightly in saran wrap and store at room temperature.

Results
The loaves are moist and flavorful with a beautiful golden yellow hue. You can't taste the beer very much, but you can taste pumpkin and spice. The crust is a nice golden brown on the mini-loaves and a deep brown on the 9x5" loaf (see photo under Supplementary Materials).

Discussion and Future Directions
Well, I think I found the best way to consume beer! I will be happy to make this bread again. The flavor is very pumpkiny and not too sweet. This recipe is nice because it uses whole grains and flaxseed, has reduce sugar and oil. I took a loaf to C at work this afternoon (he's on call tonight) and "they" liked it (though did wonder if all the pumpkin flavor came from the pumpkin beer or if it also had pumpkin puree in it). Now, considering "they" are residents who work way too much and only have access to McDonald's on nights and weekends, I don't know that it would even have to be good for it to be consumed with gusto. Nevertheless, I'll take it as a compliment.

Next time you're craving pumpkin bread, I say you give this one a try (especially if you have pumpkin beer on hand). If you don't have pumpkin beer on hand, I suggest buying a 6-pack, using one of the beers to make this bread, then gifting the rest of the beer plus a mini loaf of bread to someone you love who loves beer. Brilliant, right?

Supplementary Materials

Chicken Sausage and Vegetable Soup

Today is the fall equinox which marks the first day of fall. Two years ago, I celebrated the equinox at the Vinotok festival in Crested Butte, Colorado with my best friend from middle school. It was a very appropriate reunion as "our song" was Earth, Wind, and Fire's September about the 21st night of September. I was lucky enough to spend the summer after college living at a research station just up the road from Crested Butte. Every morning as I walked down the mountain from my rickety old cabin toward our laboratory, I looked into the face of  Gothic Mountain. From my bed each night, I listened to the water in Copper Creek rushing through the rocks. Every night when I made my way to the outhouse, bundled in layers and using my headlamp to find my way, I took a moment to look up at the stars. I've never seen as many stars as I could from our cabin at 9,500 feet, far away from city lights. In fact, I don't know that I ever realized there were that many stars.

Crested Butte is the wildflower capital of Colorado. Even though I was there the summer after a funky spring resulting in fewer flowers than expected, the mountain meadows were beautifully colorful. When I visited in September, I learned that they are equally beautiful in the fall when the aspens start to turn and the landscape shifts from blue and green to brown and gold.

With the coming of Fall, I've noticed myself gravitating toward fall clothing. I've even worn shoes to work instead of my commuter flip flops. The funny part about it is that the highs are still in the low 90s. When I go into work in the morning and while I'm in the lab, my clothes feel sensible. When I leave work and it's 94 "feels like 97," I regret my choices and wish I had elected shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. While visiting Wisconsin, we were spoiled with warm days and cool nights. We even got to eat meals on patios and wear jeans, comfortably. Fall isn't going to feel the same down here in Houston, but we have started getting cooler mornings that feel wonderful (and by "cooler," I'm talking 72 degrees) and have left me longing for fall colors and flavors.

My baked goods are starting to take on warmer, comforting flavors like cinnamon, peanut butter, and  apple. I'm forcing myself to save pumpkin for November. I'm starting to want soup and warm foods instead of salads every day. Last weekend, C made a barley vegetable soup, our roommate made an Italian seasoned zucchini and summer squash soup, and I made a cauliflower soup with blue cheese. Since then, I can't stop thinking about soup (and for some reason, sausage). Soup with sausage, yep, that's what I want!

Objective
Make a sausage and vegetable soup with kale and cauliflower. Recipe is based on Spicy Sausage Potato Kale Soup (from The Candid Appetite) and Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Stilton from Home Made Winter (by Yvette van Boven).

Materials
1/2 pound italian chicken sausage, sliced
1 tbsp. butter/olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1/3 head cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 stalks kale, leaves pulled from tough stems and chopped
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups vegetable broth
Parmesan, for garnish (optional)

Methods
1. In a small saucepan, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil while you wash/peel/slice/dice/chop vegetables and sausage. To prepare the celery, chop off the white bottom and the leafy top. Peel the outer curve (you can peel the inner curve too, but it's a little challenging). Blanch the celery by dropping it into the boiling water for 30 seconds, then move it to a bowl of ice water. Once it's cool, chop it.
2. In a large saucepan, brown the sausage slices over medium heat. Once browned on both sides, move the sausage to a bowl or plate and set aside. Add butter (or olive oil) and swirl to melt. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and cauliflower. Cook until softened. Add the garlic, kale, pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt. Cook until the kale has wilted.
3. Add the vegetable broth and browned sausage. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Adjust the seasoning as necessary. Sprinkle with parmesan before serving (optional).

Results
Yum! There is a good amount of heat from the sausage and red pepper flakes. The cauliflower lends a buttery flavor and interesting texture, the kale adds greenery, and the carrots give it color. It's a lovely soup (sorry we devoured it too quickly for a photo).

Discussion and Future Directions
C and I both really, really enjoyed this soup. While some people think the secret to flavor is bacon, we agree that the secret is sausage (or chorizo). I was very pleased with this soup because I was afraid the cauliflower would make it a little weird. Like, weird flavor and weird texture. Thankfully, it worked quite well. I used celery, carrot, onion, and cauliflower because that's what I had in my fridge. I used kale because I really wanted to try a vege soup with kale again (I made one before that my family loved but I didn't think it was worth the effort roasting the veges). You could certainly use whatever you have on hand and use this recipe simply as a guide. You could also add beans or grains to add texture and nutrition. This is a great twist on chicken soup and perfect for capturing the flavors of fall.

Apple Butter Sticky Buns

As you know, we made a huge batch of apple butter. Surprisingly, we're already down to about 1/2 cup. I'm done making apple butter everything and will leave the rest for C to eat with toast. If I find that I absolutely have to make something else after he's finished it, we bought a backup jar at the farmers' market while we were in Madison that I'd be happy to open. The last thing on my list of things I had to make with apple butter this season was apple butter sticky buns. While I love cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, I find that sticky buns are a lot more fail-proof. It can be hard to get just the right balance of sweet and tart when making cream cheese frosting. As soon as you add too much milk, you're stuck adding a mouth puckering amount of powdered sugar. Sticky buns, on the other hand, simply require adding the right amount of syrup and sugar and the baking process does the magic.

On Friday night, I started making dough as soon as I got home from work. By 7:30 p.m., the rolls were in the refrigerator for the final raise overnight. Saturday morning, they were out of the oven by 7:45 a.m.  so we could get on the road for a weekend trip to San Antonio.  Not 15 minutes after pulling them out of the oven, our roommate groggily walked to the kitchen and said "That is a wonderful smell to wake up to." I bet your loved ones would agree!

Objective
Make pecan sticky buns with apple butter filling. Finding apple butter recipes on the internet is easy. Finding recipes that use apple butter is a different story, let alone finding recipes for sticky buns that use apple butter. I found a few, but none of them  jumped out at me. I decided to use the dough from Orange Rolls on Pastry Affair (because it's so simple and very light and fluffy) and I improvised the filing and topping based on my sticky buns/cinnamon roll preferences.

Materials
(This recipe makes 8 rolls)
Dough:
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream, light works fine)
1 1/2-2 1/2 cups bread flour (depending on the amount of moisture in your dough)

Filling:
1/2 cup apple butter
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:
1 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. honey*
2 tbsp. maple syrup*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

*Note: this makes a fairly thin sticky topping. If you want a thick, caramel-like topping, use 1/4 cup light Karo syrup, 1 1/2 tbsp. butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

Methods
1. To prepare the dough: Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (120º-130ºF) and let proof for 5 minutes. Stir in sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and sour cream. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, mixing well. If the dough is still very sticky (tacky is fine), add more flour (about 2 tbsp. at a time). You want the dough to be tacky, even a tiny bit sticky is ok. Knead it a few times to make a smooth ball. Move the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and rise to double (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Punch the dough down and rise to double again (about 1 hour). Pat the dough out to a 16" by 12" rectangle.

2. To prepare the topping: During the final rise, prepare the topping. Stir together the melted butter and the honey/syrup. Pour into an ungreased 8" cake pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Set aside.

3. To make the rolls: Spread the dough with apple butter (leaving a 2 inch border along one long edge). Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough, starting with the long apple buttery edge to the edge with the 2" border. Use a knife to mark where to cut for 8 rolls. Then, use dental floss to cut the rolls. Slide a long piece of dental floss (about 12" should work) under the roll at one of your division marks. Switch each end to the other hand to form a loop, and pull. You should have a nice clean edge. Place the roll with this clean edge up in your pan, spacing the 8 rolls evenly over the prepared topping. Cover the rolls and let rise 30 minutes (if you're planning to bake them right away) or 15 minutes (if you're planning to refrigerate overnight. If you're ready to bake, proceed to step 4. If not, place the rolls in the refrigerator overnight. Make sure to take them out at least 30 minutes prior to baking, but 1-2 hours is better (you want to get the chill off and let the yeast start working again).

4. To bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cake pan with risen rolls on a sheet pan to catch drips. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden on top. Take the pan out of the oven, loosen the edge with a knife (you can skip this if you use a non-stick pan) and flip out onto a parchment paper-lined plate. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

Results
Sweet, but a little tart (like a good apple). The sticky topping is more earthy than caramely sweet. The rolls are soft and fluffy with a bit of a crunch from the pecans.

Discussion and Future Directions
These are very good and make a great fall breakfast treat (as do the orange rolls I linked to above). The bread is extremely light and fluffy. I think that's due to the greek yogurt (which surprised me since I used 0% fat greek yogurt instead of sour cream and I would have suspected that the added fat would have been the key). I was also surprised the recipe called for bread flour as it contains more gluten which would make a tougher bread if over-worked.  My usual cinnamon roll recipe uses all-purpose flour and potato starch flour. It also makes a nice light bread, but not nearly as light as this recipe. For that reason (and that it's simple to throw together), this might be my new go-to bread dough.

The sticky buns weren't quite as appley as I was hoping, so I think that next time, I'd stir a few tablespoons apple butter into the topping. If you want a spiced roll, add a pinch each ginger, allspice, and clove to the filling with the cinnamon. I chose to use a combination of maple syrup and honey for the topping to make it more natural and earthy in taste rather than sweet and caramely like Karo syrup. I am pleased with that decision though it would be great either way. While there is no such thing as a healthy sticky bun, I feel like there are a few things about these that make them less bad as some of the others (just pretend you don't use as much sugar as you do)!

Supplementary Materials

Review: Homemade Spiced Apple Butter

Last week, we headed back to the midwest for vacation. We started with 24 hours in Chicago, then made our way to Madison for 4 1/2 days. Our time was well-spent visiting with friends and family, eating meals on patios, exploring a beautiful gorge, going for lunch by boat, spending Saturday morning at the largest producer-only farmers' market in the U.S., spending Saturday evening at the wedding of two very wonderful friends, and picking fruit at an orchard near my parents' house. While we'd planned to pick apples (since apples don't really grow in Texas), I was absolutely thrilled when we were asked if we wanted to pick raspberries and grapes in addition to the 3 types of apples they had available. (Not only was I still bummed about missing out on strawberry/cherry picking when we were in Buffalo, NY this June, but I was also sad we already had plans and couldn't go to a Sunday morning wine making class at a pick-your-own grape farm nearby.) I would get to pick apples, grapes, and berries? Yep, I think I'm ready to move back to Wisconsin now!

We picked about a peck of Red Macintosh apples and a pint of raspberries. After tasting a few grapes, I decided against them because (a) they had seeds, and (b) they tasted just like grape jelly and were a little too sweet for eating. Very few of the apples were bright red and all the apples at my height were green. C used his height to our advantage and plucked a few red apples from the tree tops. I wont pretend that he didn't go a little apple crazy. Knowing we were flying back to Houston in 2 days, I suggested that 10+ pounds of apples was way over the top, but he kept squeezing more apples into the bag we were given to fill. I don't really like eating apples raw (perhaps a remnant of a few to many bagged lunches during my gluten free years) and I've already explained my very un-American feelings towards apple pie. My favorite way to eat apples is in apple crisp, but we already had one at home that my mom made with some uber tart green apples a coworker gave her from his apple tree. (She also made chocolate zucchini cake and refused to use my recipe because she didn't want to use "an experiment" for company. I won't pretend I'm not a little offended.)

I expressed to C that I was nervous about leaving 10 pounds of apples with my parents, but he gave me a no-problem look and explained that we would be turning them into apple butter. Apple butter? What the heck is apple butter? It must be an Iowan thing. Actually, I think I'd tried a bite a few years back when a neighbor gave my mom a small jar of homemade apple butter. I couldn't remember what it tasted like, but I knew it wasn't life changing when I had it for the first time in my early 20s. The most common way it's eaten is on toast and I can't say I'm a big toast lover. I was finding it challenging to get excited about apple butter until I started brainstorming creative ways to use it.

Objective
Make homemade apple butter based on Carroll Pellegrinelli's Old-Fashioned Apple Butter recipe.

Materials
~14 tart apples*, washed, quartered and cored with skins on
2 cups apple cider
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. ground allspice

*We used half tart green apples and half red macintosh

Methods
1. Fill a 6 quart slow cooker with apple slices. Add the apple cider. Cook on high for 4-6 hours.
2. Remove the apple peels and place the peeled apples into a food processor. Process until smooth. Before adding the puree back to the slow cooker, measure the puree so you know how much you have. (We had about 5 1/2 cups of apple puree. If you have much more/less than that, go to the cited recipe for Carroll's guidelines for sugar and spice ratios.) Stir in the brown sugar and spices.
3. Continue to cook on high for 3 hours (stir every once in awhile). Remove the lid and continue cooking (and stirring every once in awhile) for 3-5 hours longer, or until enough water has evaporated to leave you with the consistency you're looking to achieve. You want the puree to reduce to a texture far thicker than applesauce, more like a jam.
4. Cool completely then store in the fridge (lasts around 3 weeks--discard if moldy) or freeze.

Results
The apple butter is very flavorful. Less apple flavored and more spice flavored. The cloves and allspice are the main flavors. The texture is a little chunkier than it is smooth.

Discussion and Future Directions
C was thrilled with the outcome, though he admitted that we needed to cook off a little more of the moisture to get the right texture. I thought it tasted alright but I hated the texture of cold apple butter on toast. Per the suggestion of my brilliant mother, we filled a large water bottle with apple butter to take home in our checked luggage. As soon as we got back home, I started brainstorming uses for apple butter. I found a lot of interesting recipes to consider in the future, but only made a few with this batch. Here's a summary of what I made/want to make:

Oatmeal Apple Butter Cookies (from Lucky Leaf): I used just under 3/4 cup dark brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar and reduced the milk to 1 tbsp. because my apple butter was fairly moist. I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and omitted the raisins. I probably should have reduced the liquid even further since my cookies came out pretty flat. I also wish I'd added more oats--1.5x what the recipe called for. While they looked nothing like the picture, the flavor was great. They were very soft and best eaten the first day. C said they weren't the best oatmeal cookies he'd ever had, but that they were a good use for apple butter. I agreed and thought that enough spices would make an oatmeal cookie with a similar flavor but more traditional texture. He took them to work and his attending physician asked for the recipe. We'll consider that a win!

Apple Butter, Turkey, and Cheddar Grilled Cheese (from The Law Student's Wife): I made one for C and I to split for lunch with leftover barley vegetable soup. I omitted the apples because that just seemed a little too weird for me. C took awhile to decide, but said he liked it. I thought if I made it again, I'd only put apple butter on one of the slices of bread and put cheddar on both sides with the turkey in the middle (I'm from Wisconsin, more cheese is always the right answer). I probably wouldn't go out of my way to make this again.

Brown Sugar Bourbon Ribs (from Bon Appétit): On the trip to Buffalo, NY that I mentioned above, C made 3 incredible racks of ribs (minus the BBQ sauce). I've sort of been craving ribs every few weeks since (pretty impressive since I don't really like meat period, let alone when there are visible bones). As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew we would have to set aside a 1/2 cup of our homemade apple butter to make them. When I mentioned this to C, he was shocked and told me that he spent a good deal of time pondering whether or not to buy ribs at the grocery store the day before. He decided against it since I don't eat much meat and told him I wanted to get back on the healthy eating horse. We must have some crazy weird alignment of our food cravings. Anyway, we used spare ribs and roasted them for 1.5 hours covered with foil at 300 degrees, then basted with glaze, baked 30 minutes uncovered, basted again, baked 30 minutes longer (again uncovered), then broiled for 4 minutes (per the Homesick Texan recipe at the ribs link above). Word from the wise: let the ribs sit about 10 minutes or so for ultimate fall-off-the-bone-ness. How did they taste? Amazing. Like, I love BBQ sauce on ribs, but I sort of didn't even miss it. This might be the top priority for any batch of apple butter we ever make/buy/receive.

Apple Butter Sticky Buns: Yum, yum, yum! A little sweet and a little tart with a hint of spice. Not based on my usual cinnamon roll recipe, but well worth changing up the normal routine!

Apple Butter Recipe Round-up (or, Inspiration for Future Batches of Apple Butter):
Cinnamon Apple Butter Spritz (from Wilton)
Apple Butter Apple Pie (from Smithfield)
Apple Butter Apple Pie (from Paula Deen)
Apple Butter Bars (from Kuipers Family Farm via She Simmers)
Cinnamon Apple Macarons (from Desserts for Breakfast)
Apple Butter Swirled Pancakes (from Mama Loves Food)
Apple Butter Oatmeal (from Blog Inspired Cooking)
Apple Butter Quick Bread (from Bayfield Apple)
Apple Butter Brown Sugar Quick Bread (from NY City Eats)

APPLE BUTTER: The Verdict
Well, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy it. However, since (1)  it's fairly easy to make, (2) I love pick-your-own farms, and (3) C enjoys it, I'd be happy to make more next fall (well, probably not next fall because we don't have apple orchards near Houston and even if we did, C [and I?] will be living in Africa this time next year [say what?]. More on that in the future).

Cherry Mascarpone Gelato

Mascarpone is a food that deludes me. Whenever I see it, I want it. Whenever I have it, I have no idea what to do with it. I'm convinced that I will find something amazing that just isn't quite right without it. So far, the best thing I've made with mascarpone was a berry pizza at a pizza night we had with another couple. The mascarpone was mixed with honey, spread on pizza, and baked. Then the whole thing was topped with fresh blueberries and strawberries. While we were all full from our zucchini vege pizza and C's salmon and dill pizza, we found the room for small slices of this dessert pizza because it was so tasty.

Other than that, I've used it in a batch of disappointing tuscan lemon muffins (they tasted like they were fried from the oil) and a fully-homemade lasanga. It tastes just like cream but it's very thick, so I don't have a clue how people use it as spread on muffins, etc. That just sounds gross.

There is an Italian cafe and market here in Houston that makes a delicious berry mascarpone gelato. I knew I had to try it myself. I scoured the web for recipes, but none of them seemed quite right. I wanted more than a tablespoon or two of mascarpone, but less than a cup (if you look at the nutrition label, you'll know why). I decided I'd try adapting my vanilla gelato recipe (based on David Leite's Pistachio Gelato). I wanted to reduce the fat in the gelato because the mascarpone would add plenty.

Objective
Make gelato with berries and mascarpone.

Materials
Custard base:
15 oz. sweet red cherries (in order of preference: fresh, frozen--thawed and drained, canned and drained)
2 tbsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar (may add up to 2 tbsp. to taste)
1/2 cup mascarpone
1/4-1/2 tsp. almond extract (or vanilla) to taste, optional
Gelato:
3 oz. chocolate, melted over a double boiler and placed in a small sealable bag
1/4 cup slivered almonds, chopped (optional)

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cherries in an 8x8" baking dish. Toss with 2 tbsp. sugar. Roast for 30 minutes or until the juices start flowing and bubbling. Chop 1/4 to 1/2 of the cherries and put them in the fridge to chill. Put the rest in the blender with the whole milk and cream. Blend until the cherries are smooth.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm but do not boil the milk/cream/cherry puree. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until pale. When the cream is warm, transfer 1/4 cup to the whipped egg yolks while continuing to whisk. Pour this tempered mixture into the rest of the warm milk mixture and stir to prevent the eggs from cooking.
3. Continue to cook over medium heat. Stir the mixture until it thickens (around 175-180º). The custard should coat the back of a spoon (think the texture of pudding, but maybe a little less thick). Remove from heat. Transfer the custard to a large measuring cup or batter bowl with a spout.
4. Prepare an ice water bath in a large bowl. Place the custard container in the water bath and stir the custard occasionally until cool. Whisk in the mascarpone. Stir in the almond or vanilla extract. Chill completely (overnight is best). Make sure the bowl of your ice cream maker is in the freezer chilling.
5. To prepare the ice cream: Have the melted chocolate at your side and start churning the ice cream per the manufacturer's instructions. In the last few minutes, add the chopped cherries and almonds (if using). Slowly pipe in the melted chocolate. Transfer to a freezer-safe bowl and freeze until firm (2-3 hours).

Results
The cherry flavor wasn't as strong as expected (probably because I used canned cherries). It's not overly sweet and you can taste the cream flavor of the mascarpone.

Discussion
The pistachio gelato still reigns as the best gelato/frozen dessert I've made to date. The custard base is a great starting point for other recipes because I know I like the texture (smooth and rich but doesn't feel fatty or leave a layer of fat over your teeth). This time around, I reduced the cream a bit to compensate for the mascarpone. Next time, I would add one more egg yolk and only use 1/4 cup mascarpone. An additional egg yolk might add to the richness/thickness of the gelato to compensate for some of the missing cream. Less mascarpone would not only reduce the total fat, but it would improve the flavor (at least for me as I don't love the flavor of cream). If you love the flavor of cream, you'll probably like it it as is. I don't know that roasting the cherries added anything (again, probably because I used canned). I think I would put the whole 15 oz. in the blender and not leave any chunks. I'd just have the flecks of chocolate and almonds for crunch (if I was in the mood for crunch).

Verdict on mascarpone? I'm still not sold. It still doesn't seem worth the price or effort (not to mention calories). Do you have any amazing mascarpone recipes? I'd love to try them!