Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 28, 2015 // 41 Comments

What’s that? Winter you say? Sounds like the perfect time for ice cream to me! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s never too cold for ice cream. I know lots of you are covered in snow right now, and I bet ice cream would make you feel better about that! Don’t believe me? Try this super chocolatey ice cream full of banana sweetness and I’ll wait for you to tell me I’m right, I won’t even tell you I told you so – I’m nice like that!

I’m on a bit of banana kick at the moment. I keep buying them and just waiting for them to go over ripe in the fruit bowl, so I can make something yummy with them! With this batch of bananas I was torn between two ideas, so I did the only thing I could – made one of them and bought more bananas so I could make the other thing too! This yummy chocolate banana ice cream was the result of the first batch – creamy, chocolatey, sweet and oh so delicious!

Now I know you’ve probably heard about that healthy banana ice cream that is pretty much just mashed frozen bananas, but you’re not going to find any of that kind of healthiness here I’m afraid – this is proper ice cream, full of real cream! It still has bananas in though, so it’s entirely bad for you right? All that potassium totally negates all the fat and sugar I’m sure of it! Come to think of it, with all that potassium this ice cream is sure to be a hangover buster. See, I’m looking out for you guys 😉

I originally thought about just banana ice cream, but then I remembered everything is made better by chocolate so I had to add it! I use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate in this ice cream, to really give it that chocolate boost. It doesn’t over power the banana though, both flavours punch through beautifully alone while also complimenting each other! I put a little cinnamon in there too a) because I’m me and b) cinnamon really does compliment banana so nicely. You will need an ice cream maker for this recipe, but it’s a worthwhile investment if you love ice cream as much as me!

So let’s do a headcount shall we? Banana? Check! Chocolate? Check! Real cream? Check! Deliciousness? Double check! Yep, this ice cream really does have it all! You won’t be sorry you made this, and neither will your family/friends/random people who show up at your house to eat your ice cream. Serve it up with some fresh banana slices or even on top of a nice warm pie, and you’ll have one awesome dessert! Since it’s homemade it won’t last as long as your store bought ice cream, but trust me when I tell you it won’t have a chance to go bad – you’ll be lucky if it lasts overnight!

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Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

2015-01-26 21:49:11

Delicious chocolate banana ice cream, simple to make and oh so worth it

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Ingredients

4 Bananas, very ripe
1/2 cup brown sugar
60g chocolate finely chopped
1 cup double cream
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks

Instructions

Put the bananas and 1/8 cup of the sugar in a blender, and blend to combine. Only do a couple pulses if you'd like little chunks of bananas in your ice cream like me, otherwise blend until smooth. Set aside.
Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat 3/4 cup the cream until bubbles just start to appear and pour over chocolate. Leave to stand for 1 minute and then stir until smooth.
Pour the cream and chocolate mixture back into the pan with the milk, rest of the sugar, cocoa, salt and cinnamon. Heat on medium, stirring occasionally, until sugar is all dissolved and it just starts to steam. Remove from heat
Whisk egg yolks in a bowl. Ladle 1/4 cup of the cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs and whisk in. Repeat with 2 more 1/4 cups of the mixture - until egg yolks are warm to touch.
Pour egg mixture into the pan and return to a medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. It's ready when it coats the back of the spoon - it will be about 80C/170F on a candy thermometer. Do not boil!
Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the cream and the banana mix. Transfer to a bowl.
Fill a bowl slightly larger than the bowl your custard is in with ice water, place the custard bowl in the ice water. Cool in ice bath for 20 minutes, until room temperature (make sure no water can spill into the custard). Transfer to the fridge and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Once it reaches a soft serve consistency, transfer to your storage container and place in freezer overnight.
Leave at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before scooping and serving

Notes

Keep in airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the freezer
I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate will be good too - whichever you prefer.
Recipe makes about 1 quart (950ml)

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate and Raspberry Vodka Tonic

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 23, 2015 // 55 Comments

Happy 1st Birthday to Fiesta Friday!!! 52 weeks of an awesome virtual pot luck party, the only place to be every Friday! And after 52 weeks it’s only getting better. If you haven’t partied with us before, today is the day – because we’re having a party within a party! And even better than that, it’s a two week long party. This week it’s happy hour time, so there’s going to be plenty of appetizers, finger foods and of course cocktails! Next week the party will continue with main dishes and desserts! So come celebrate with us, whether it’s your 1st Fiesta Friday or your 52nd, you’ll be welcomed with open arms and you’ll have a great time, I promise. Our fab co hosts for part 1 of the party are Hilda and Julianna. Join up with the party here

I am bringing this awesome cocktail to the First Fiesta Friday Anniversary Block Party – because what’s a party without a cocktail or 5! When I brainstorming on what to make for the party I knew it needed to be something sweet, it’s what I do best after all. And I think our wonderful host, Angie, might appreciate how I happened upon these ingredients as I know she impulse buys random things in the store because she *might* find a use for them, just like I do – that’s how I got the two main ingredients for this cocktail! There’s a small international section in the mini Tesco by my house and I also browse it to see if there’s anything fun looking, and I found this bottle of raspberry syrup, I think it’s Polish but I’m not 100% sure, I picked it up because I thought it looked cool and I was sure I’d find a use for it – cue it sitting in my cupboard for 6 months unopened! Then when I was in Atlanta over Christmas, I went to the liquor store to pick up some bottles of wine and at the checkout they had little bottles of flavoured vodka, as soon as I saw the chocolate vodka I picked up one – chocolate and vodka, what’s not to love?! And again my rationalisation was “I’m sure I can find a use for it!”

When I thought about cocktails I could make from the chocolate vodka and raspberry my mind immediately went to a cream based cocktail, it seemed to make the most sense. But the inspiration this chocolate and raspberry vodka tonic came when I was enjoying my regular vodka tonic. Vodka tonic with a lime wedge is my favourite drink but it has to be good quality vodka, and it has to be polish. My favourite is Belvedere by far, I always pick up a bottle at duty free! A chocolate vodka tonic definitely sounded like a good idea to me, especially combined with raspberry syrup and with the addition of a little fresh lime juice and you have every flavour profile a cocktail needs – sweet, bitter and sour! It’s a simple cocktail to put together, but it will definitely impress your friends. And it’s perfect for a big party like this!

I’m no mixologist and cocktails definitely aren’t my area of any kind of expertise, but I knew if I got the right levels of sweetness from the syrup and vodka, the bitter edge to the tonic would make for a delicious cocktail. You don’t even need any fancy cocktail wear to make it, no shaker needed. You will want something mix it up, but even a spoon will do. Since this is a stirred drink, the amount of ice you use isn’t too important as it’s not used to dilute the drink – you just need enough to keep it nice and cold.

I’d never heard of this brand of vodka before and while it’s no Belvedere it was very tasty, if you can get your hands on some chocolate vodka I would definitely recommend it trying it! It has a bit of chocolate sauce taste to it which blended really nicely with the raspberry syrup. If you can’t get your hands on chocolate vodka right now, I would definitely recommend trying this with regular vodka I’m going to be adding raspberry syrup to my regular vodka tonics much more often – but please use good vodka, drinks are just like anything else, the better quality your ingredient the better it will taste!

This drink is not only great for this fab party, but with that beautiful pink colour and the chocolate theme it’ll be perfect to serve on Valentine’s Day – whether you’re spending it with a significant other or having drinks with your single friends! I’m certainly going to pour one for myself on February 14th!

So, get your party shoes on and grab a cocktail, there’s lots to see and taste! I can’t wait to see what everyone else has brought to the party, cheers!

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Chocolate and Raspberry Vodka Tonic

2015-01-23 00:32:20

A delicious cocktail made with chocolate flavoured vodka, perfect for Valentine's Day and any party!

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Ingredients

Ice
25ml Chocolate Vodka
25ml Raspberry Syrup
Tonic Water
2 Lime Wedges
Fresh Raspberries (optional)

Instructions

Add ice to a tall glass, filling halfway full
Pour over vodka and syrup, fill up with tonic water.
Squeeze lime wedges into glass before dropping them in glass
Garnish with fresh raspberries if desired, serve with stirrer to mix drink.

Notes

If you don't have stirrers, be sure to stir drink before serving

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Apricot Cheesecake with Amaretto Caramel

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 21, 2015 // 50 Comments

I finally started baking again and oh boy did I go hard my first time back! What better way to get my mojo back by baking this wonderfully creamy, thick apricot cheesecake, topped with a delicious amaretto spiked caramel! I think the universe was just waiting for something truly awesome to come into my head before I could bake again, or maybe subconsciously I felt I had to go really big to make up for my absence in the kitchen. Either way, I was so happy with the results – this cheesecake disappeared pretty quickly in my house, despite the size of it!

The inspiration came about when I picked up some apricots from the Indian supermarket by me, I like apricots a lot but I’ve never really done much with them so I decided to pick up a few to see if I could get them to spark my imagination. And they did! Cheesecake is one of my absolutely favourite desserts, if not my actual favourite, and I really don’t make them often enough – so the apricots were destined for a cheesecake! I can’t really say where the inspiration for the amaretto caramel came from, but I’ve been wanting to bake with amaretto for a while now (hopefully one day I’ll work up the courage to make some amaertti cookies!) and almond and apricot are a good match. And it really does work so well, the sweet almond liquor caramel combined with the creamy, tart cheesecake is just a match made in heaven. So good! The caramel is the sauce from my Brown Sugar & Pecan Caramel Pound Cake, it’s thick and delicious and perfect for topping a cheesecake – it sets but doesn’t get hard so the sauce stays on top of your slice but you’re not gonna break your teeth! The very bottom of the sauce layer stayed runny and gooey though, I’m not sure why but I loved it – a little bit of goo is very good in my books!

Now, let’s talk crust! I love the crust of a cheesecake, it might even be my favourite part. I’m personally offended by crustless cheesecakes to be quite honest, if there’s no crust I don’t want to know about it! And my love of cheesecake crusts is why this cake as so much of it – it has a thin crust base and then a thick crust border all the way up the sides, which is the perfect combination in my books. If you don’t like joy, then feel free to limit your crust to the base 😉 The crust on this cheesecake is a digestive biscuit base with some almond flour thrown in for a subtle almondy kick. Don’t worry if you can’t get digestives easily where you live, graham crackers are a good substitute. So now we have creamy, tart cheesecake, sweet amaretto caramel and a crunchy digestive crust – if this isn’t what dreams are made of then I don’t know what is!

Did I mention yet that the apricots are roasted before they go in the cheesecake? Yep! With a little brown sugar to caramelise them just a little and also to reduce the moisture just a little. You don’t have to worry about the liquid in the fruit too much for this particular cheesecake because it doesn’t have any cream in it, so a little extra liquid won’t make it sloppy. This is a baked cheesecake too, I’ve had and seen some wonderful no bake cheesecakes but, for me, a real cheesecake is always baked! You just can’t beat the texture and taste you get from a baked cheesecake. It does take a bit of time for the cheesecake to be ready to eat, but it’s worth it. Plus most of the time is baking, cooling and chilling, the actual hands on time isn’t very long and it’s easy to do. Trust me, you can do this! And you’re going to want to! Apricots aren’t in season in the northern hemisphere right now (mine were imported), so you can use canned apricots if you can’t find any fresh ones – just make sure to drain them really well before roasting. Another important note if you’re looking to make this cheesecake but you don’t want any alcohol in it – just swap out the amaretto for almond extract, I’ll include a note on that in the recipe.

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Apricot Cheesecake with Amaretto Caramel

2015-01-21 19:52:02

A delicious creamy and thick apricot cheesecake with an amaretto spiked caramel topping and a digestive crust.

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For the crust

250g digestive biscuits
50g ground almonds
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
150g unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake

8 apricots
1 tbsp brown sugar
1kg full fat cream cheese, room temperature
230g caster sugar (super fine white sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature

For the caramel

1 can sweetened condensed milk (397g can)
180g brown sugar
30g unsalted butter
3 tbsp amaretto

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F
Halve the apricots and remove the stone. Lay on a baking tray, cut side up and sprinkle with 1 tbsp brown sugar. Roast in oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, put in blender and blend until smooth. Leave to cool completely.
Line the base of a 9"/23cm push bottom or springform cake tin with parchment paper, then grease the edges.
To make the base, add the digestives, almond flour, sugar and cinnamon to a food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs. Add the butter a little at time and stir in until the mixture can be easily clumped together - you might not need all the butter.
Press the mixture into the base of the cake tin and around the edges - use the side of a glass and roll around the sides of the tin to press in the edges easily. Place in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170C/325F.
Add the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla to the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if you're using a hand held) and beat on medium until smooth and fluffy, about 90 seconds.
Add the apricot puree and beat in gently, on a low speed.
Add the eggs one at time, beating on low between each addition.
Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and baked for 1 hour 15 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the edges look dull and set. It will still have quite a wobble to it, that's okay - it carries on baking as it cools and you don't want to over bake it. Turn the oven off and open the door a couple of inches, leave the cheesecake to cool in the off oven for 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
To make the caramel, put the condensed milk and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium high heat, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and amaretto. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cooled cheesecake from the pan and place on plate. Pour caramel over the top and spread out evenly. Chill cheesecake in fridge for a minimum of 4 hours before serving.

Notes

If you don't have digestives, graham crackers are a good substitute
Swap the 3 tbsp of amaretto for 1 tsp almond extract for an alcohol free version.
An over baked cheesecake will crack along the top as it cools and there are ways to help stop this happening, however I don't personally bother with most of them unless it's important for the top to be smooth. Since there is a topping on this cheesecake it doesn't matter if there are cracks - however if you'd like to avoid them you can bake the cheesecake in a bath - place the tin in a roasting dish filled with about an inch of water before placing in the oven. If using a spring form or loose bottomed pan, wrap the outside of the pan in foil before putting in the bath.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Pear and Persimmon Galette

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 16, 2015 // 31 Comments

Happy Friday everybody! Today I’m bringing you another recipe for something I baked a while ago but hadn’t shared the recipe for yet. I don’t know why this one has been locked away in the figurative vault for so long, it’s really, really yummy – other recipes just took precedence I guess, that tends to happen with the holidays!

Galettes are like a pie or tart without the need for a dish, you form them by hand. Which works out well for me because I don’t currently own a pie dish, plus I absolutely love the rustic look, don’t you? This galette has beautiful flaky pastry wrapped around pears and persimmons in an almond filling, it’s a beautiful combination. I came across some persimmons at the market stalls in my town and picked up a few to bake with. Persimmon are a really yummy, sweet fruit, very similar to Sharon fruit, but you need to make sure they’re properly ripe before you eat them or they’re very astringent. A persimmon is ripe enough to use when you can really indent it when pressed, it should feel almost like pudding underneath the skin – anything less than that and it’ll feel like you ate a box of chalk! Mine took over a week until they were ripe enough, but it was worth the wait – especially combined with the pear and almond, so yummy!

The beauty of a galette too is you can make them pretty much any shape you like, I made mine rectangular because all of my baking sheets are rectangular and none are big enough to make any other shape! Go nuts with yours though, you could even make it into a little heart shape for the upcoming valentines day! Aww! That might take a little artistic expertise, but I believe in you – besides that rough homemade look is always good! You can also use any kind of pear you like, I used Bosc because that’s what’s readily available here but feel free to use your favourite kind. Bosc are good to bake with though as they hold their shape pretty well – I didn’t utilise that feature by making a pretty pattern, but its definitely an option with these pears. Oh, and the type of persimmon I used is called a Kaki which is the type that looks like a big, orangey tomato.

You can serve this up with a little cream, maybe a la mode or even just by itself it’s gonna be great! I served mine with a little cream and some of my spiced caramel which was a really yummy addition! Whatever you serve it with though, everybody is gonna love that buttery, flakey pastry and the sweet, fruity filling – it was certainly a hit at my house!

I have a few more recipes left to share in my fault, but I should have a brand spanking new one for you next week! I baked for the first time since before Christmas today and *fingers crossed* if turns out well I’ll get that recipe up for you soon, I’m very excited about it so I hope it came out!

I’m bringing this yummy little free-formed tart along to Fiesta Friday to share with the masses! FF is a great party held by Angie every week, you should definitely stop by, it’s a lot of fun! Our hosts this week are the ever fabulous Jhuls and JuJu

Do come hang out with me on Social Media, I’m always pretty active on Instagram, – I also have Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to see you guys on there!

Pear & Persimmon Galette

2015-01-15 18:03:53

A free formed tart with flaky pastry filled with pears, persimmons and almond

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For the pastry

320g plain flour (all purpose flour)
1 tsp salt
90g unsalted butter, cold and cubed
155g 100% vegetable shortening (e.g crisco or trex), cold
120ml ice water
1 egg and 1 tbsp milk for egg wash.

For the filling

2 persimmon
3 pears
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
5 tbsp almond flour
2 tbsp brown sugar
25g unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes

Instructions

To make the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and shortening ad cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter or two forks, until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs (some pieces may be larger, that's okay).
Pour 120ml cold water into a cup or jug and add a few pieces of ice, swirl and leave to sit for a moment. Add 1 tbsp of the water to the dough at time, mixing in completely after each addition. You don't need to add all the water, just add it until the dough begins to clump together.
Turn the dough out on to floured work surface and roughly roll out so it all comes together, the dough shouldn't be too sticky and should come together easily.
Form into a ball and flatten it into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour (up to 5 days).
Meanwhile, slice up and core the persimmon and pears, you can leave the skin on for both (you can peel the pears first if you'd prefer) and place in a large bowl. Add the cornflour, the cinnamon and 3 tbsp of the almond flour and mix to combine. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 190C/375F and line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
Take the pastry dough out of the fridge and roll into a large rectangle, with the approximate dimensions as your baking tray but bigger.
Sprinkle the brown sugar and remaining almond flour over the pastry.
Arrange the persimmons and pears over the pastry, leaving a 2 inch border around the edge.
Sprinkle the butter cubes over the top.
Fold the edges of the pastry over on top of the fruit, then brush with egg wash.
Bake for 30 minutes, until pastry is a deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling
Serve warm

Notes

Can be made a day in advance, you can reheat it under the grill/broiler for 10 or so minutes - keeping a close eye to watch it doesn't burn.

By Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake

A Tipsy Giraffe https://www.atipsygiraffe.com/

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Chocolate Raspberry Green Smoothie

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // January 9, 2015 // 37 Comments

Hey guys, how you been doing? First off, apologies for how quiet I’ve been on the blog lately – I’ve been majorly lacking in inspiration! Would you believe it if I told you I hadn’t baked since before Christmas? That’s crazy by my standards! I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a post holiday funk? Or maybe it’s just one of those things! Either way, hopefully I’ll get my mojo back soon or I might drive myself crazy! I have a few recipes in the figurative lock box still to post, but my lack of inspiration spreads to writing too! That might be more of a lack of motivation, it’s a dangerous spiral really – I need to bake to keep myself level headed and happy, when I stop that I lose motivation to do anything else! But I’m here today because a) I need to force myself back into things if I want any hope of returning to normal and b) I can’t miss Fiesta Friday now, can I?

I think we all find ourselves in funks like this every now and then, it’s part of life. People talk about writer’s block a lot, but you don’t hear much about other blocks – baker’s block, knitter’s block, painter’s bloc etc. They all exist, no matter how much you love doing something, sometimes you just can’t! What do you guys do when you find yourself in that situation? Any tricks you use to get yourself back in the game? Or do you find it’s just one of those things you have to let play out? So far I’ve just been letting it play out, but I think it’s gone on long enough now so I’m taking action! Starting with writing up the recipe for something yummy I’ve had in my list of recipes to share with y’all. Next up I’m going to be baking some things to photograph, recipes I’ve already posted but their photos are terrible so they need updating – that’s what I’m gonna be spending my Friday doing – I’ll be baking profiteroles. I’ll only have time for that one thing though, as I have to take the cat to the vet in the evening and then me and my mum are having some late Christmas drinks (aka an excuse to drink more wine than we should!) – but I think it’ll make a good start and hopefully that will give me the kick up the rear I need to get me in the kitchen properly again!

To get me back into the blogging side of things, I’m sharing a pretty easy recipe with you today. It’s nice and simple to put together, it’s super yummy and it’s good for you – that’s 3 pretty awesome boxes checked there! It’s also pretty customisable – I used raspberries because I had a nice supply of them in my freezer and chocolate and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations, but you could also use cherries or strawberries. I love, love, love my green smoothies – it took me a long time to convince myself to try them, but I’m so glad I did. They’re super yummy and they just make you feel healthy even when, like me, your diet really isn’t! I can’t eat a lot of fresh vegetables because of my TMJ so the green smoothie is a great way for me to get some of that goodness in my diet without cooking vegetables until they’re way too soft and lose most of their nutrients. This smoothie is a great one to start with if you’re still on the fence, it’s got plenty of sweetness and a deep cocoa flavour, you’ll forget there’s even spinach in it! My general rule for green smoothies is to have a 2:1 ratio of greens and fruit – so if I use 1 cup spinach I’ll have 2 cups of fruit (or 1 cup and a banana), that way you don’t have to worry about any bitter aftertastes ruining the smoothie for you. Nut milks are a great addition too to help counteract the bitterness, and the almond milk in this one is just a must, it really adds to that chocolatey flavour.

As a rule, I like at least one ingredient in my smoothie to be frozen to make the smoothie cold without any need for ice. I usually buy fruit when it’s on sale or discounted (buying fruit that’s been marked down at the end of it’s shelf life is great for this), then I divide it into portions and freeze in zip lock bags, that way I have handy portions of frozen fruit ready to go! I do the same with my greens too, 1 cup of packed greens per zip lock bag and I’m always ready to go when the smoothie need hits! Although I do like to keep fresh greens on hand when possible, so I don’t lose out on those nutrients.

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