Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Great way to use up leftover sour cream. And no eggs needed!

It’s been awhile! Yeah, I’m inherently lazy in case you haven’t noticed. That’s really the only reason for my hiatus. Well, and my birthday was last month and I’ve been going through one of those “what does it all mean?” phases. And I seriously understand the mid-life-chuck it all, buy a convertible or run off to an island somewhere-crisis.

But I digress. We are talking about a super easy-schmeasy ice cream recipe today. One that requires no egg-custard making – score! And makes use ripe, in-season, bursting with flavor blueberries. Double score!

Alright, I’ll be brutally honest. The ONLY REASON I’m making anything with blueberries is due to a new “get out of your comfort zone” blogging event on a forum I visit WAY-TOO-OFTEN. I cannot stand blueberries. There. I said it out loud. CANNOT STAND BLUEBERRIES. They are about the only fruit I do not like. One of the only foods I don’t like. Period. But I rose to the occasion and came up with a dish.

On previously-mentioned-forum, someone asked about ways to use up sour cream. For some reason, I thought ice cream. So in a six-degrees of separation way, I thought sour cream blueberry ice cream would do just fine to fit my blueberry requirement. A quick Google turned up (lo and behold) a Dorie Greenspan recipe that the Tuesday’s With Dorie group made some time back. Another score! And really, I just couldn’t resist the color.

So, verdict? This was very tangy, very lemony. Kinda reminded me a lot of the creme fraiche ice cream I made a long time ago, but not nearly as creamy. And not very blueberry-y. But gosh, that color. Gorgeous! So if you’ve got some leftover sour cream, some blueberries and you want ice cream, give it a go! But one final note: this does not freeze well. The next day, it will be hard as a rock. No matter, just take it out of the freezer a bit before you eat it.

as published in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:
1 cup blueberries – fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
1/3 cup sugar (or more to taste)
pinch of salt
grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon (or lime as you prefer) or more juice to taste
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Steps:
1. Put the blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice into a medium nonreactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

2. Turn the berries into a blender and whir until you have a fairly homogeneous puree, about one minute. (It will never be completely smooth, and that’s just fine.) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and, if you’d like, add a squirt more lemon juice or a tiny bit more sugar.

3. Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigerate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

4. Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

Enjoy!
Ms. Pantry Raid

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After all, I’m an adult

And that means I can eat cake for breakfast if I damn well please!

Today, I cut a thick slice of Dorie Greenspan’s Devil’s Food White Out cake and ate it with my obligatory Diet Coke (oh, excuse me, Diet Dr Pepper is in the house today). Ah, it’s winter. My winter bikini vacation was last week and the summer diet starts next month I figure (and right now, my fat is tanned so I think I still look good).  And it’s not every day we have cake in the house.

So this is my third TWD post. After my last two baking debacles, I was giving this book one more shot before throwing in the towel. Third time’s a charm – the cake turned out great! I can’t say I wasn’t a little concerned after tasting the marshmallow frosting. I thought it was ungodly sweet and tasted a little off. But in combo with the cake, it was fantastic. Still, I would like to see this cake with more of a whipped cream type of frosting. I think that might be nice.

It wouldn’t be TWD without a few minor complications

Of course, I had a few issues while the cake. I’m sure that isn’t shocking. Although, not as many as usual. As always, Dorie asks for a cake pan size that I don’t own (damn you cake pan makers – do you really need to make pans in EVERY single size?? 8 inch, 9inch, 11 inch, 13inch, do you ever give up? We don’t all have Ina Garten’s pocketbook, thank you very much). She wants 8 inch, I have 9. So I just cook for less time, no? Problem solved. The cake didn’t rise up nearly as much as the lovely pictures, but who cares. I was still able to cut it into layers. Oh, BTW, Ms Greenspan, if you hadn’t included the lovely pictures, I wouldn’t have known what exactly I was supposed to do with that top layer. The instructions seem to be sorely lacking. I’m just saying… Then again, I have a short attention span and perhaps I just missed that part. 

My second problem was that, unbeknownst to me, my thermometer doesn’t go up to 242 degrees. In fact, it doesn’t go above 212. Stupid overpriced, second rate Williams Sonoma piece of trash! Have I discussed that I no longer shop there? Yes, I am officially boycotting them and now prefer to buy my overpriced cooking paraphernalia at restaurant supply stores – pretending like I’m a real chef or something. Anyway… Yeah, ok, I was using a meat thermometer not a candy thermometer but as I’ve discussed before, I’m a COOK not a BAKER so candy thermometer is not in my arsenal. Anyway, I kind of guessed at the temperature and at the very least, I know that my sugar/water concoction was over 212 degrees. Hey, it all came together in the end, so I must have guessed right.

Oh and I added regular chocolate chips instead of the minis. And I will say one of my favorite parts of the cake is the big hunk of chocolate chip in each bite – even though crumbling it for the exterior proved to be extremely messy.  

See you next time!

Three cheers for Dorie! And for me. My sorry ass will be sticking around for yet another installment of TWD. Until then…

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