Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Baguio is the summer capital of the Philippines, because of high altitude it has much cooler temperature compare to here in Manila. So when the summer temperature here in Manila is unbearable, people pack up and goes to Baguio! With it's amazing cool temperature, there are abundant of flowers, vegetables and fruits grows there locally. Baguio is more popular known for it's sweet succulent strawberries. Whenever a friend or any family member is going to Baguio, people automatically ask them to bring back loads of strawberries. My recent Baguio trip is different, instead of bringing home strawberries, I got myself a bundle of fresh passion fruit. This is so cool! I was so excited cannot wait to get back to Manila.

First thing that pops into my mind is I would make pavlova or an ice cream? Hmmm.. Tough choices but in the end, ice cream won by a landslide! For ice creams, I go to my go-to ice cream guru David. This is my first time handling passion fruit so I'm tried to savor the moment and be open minded about it. Splitting it open with a sharp knife is already an experience, it was like cutting into a Styrofoam board and lo and behold passion fruit! Its a bit odd that it looks different from what I see online. I was expecting a yellowish goo with black seeds but what I got are transparent goo and black seeds. Though don't let the term "goo" offend or turn you off. It's just that I have no idea what to call it. Odd though when I tried to smell it, I didn't get any distinct aroma from it unlike other fruits like mangoes or strawberries. Eating a spoonful of it, I was pretty surprise that it taste a lot like Soursop or guyabano, only mellower and very crunchy because of the seeds.

Extraction time! Extracting the juices from passion fruit isn't exactly difficult but it takes a little bit of patience since the seeds are wrapped around a slimy substance. With the back of the spoon, I carefully but decisively press the fruits against a wire mess strainer to extract as much juice as I can. I even let it stand in the fridge for an hour to really get as much juice as I could. I got a whole cup of juice from my bundle. I use half of it for my ice cream and the rest, I put it in a Ziploc bag and put in the deep freeze. Most of the seeds I discarded and left a hefty tablespoonful to be incorporated in the ice cream later on.

I've been making ice cream for quite sometime now but often I find them too hard and icy which is no fun at all and a bit disappointing. Got fed up with my passed failures that this time instead of using a local brand cream, I went all out and got myself an imported whipping cream. When I was making the custard base it looks the same but the smell is different and the end product is definitely not the same. It's soft and silky! Very creamy! To add a bit of crunch, I added a little bit of the seeds just for texture. My only complain with this is that the yield is so small that there is hardly anything left.

PASSION FRUIT ICE CREAM

Adapted from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop") 

• 1/2 cup passion fruit puree (I used a mix of fresh and frozen)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 tbsp (90ml) whole milk
• 8 tbsp sugar (I added 9, in future I will reduce to the original 8)
• pinch of salt
• 3 large egg yolks
• grated zest of one orange (optional)
• 1 tbsp (or slightly more) passion fruit seeds (optional)

1. Mix together passion fruit puree and 1/2 cup cream in a large bowl. Set a strainer over the bowl.
2. Heat milk, sugar, salt and remaining cream till warm. In separate bowl, whisk yolks, slowly pour warm mixture into yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed yolks mixture back into the saucepan.
3. Over med heat, whisk the mixture constantly, cooking till the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
4. Pour the custard through the strainer. Stir well to combine custard, passion fruit puree and cream. Add the grated orange zest if using, stir till cool over ice bath.
5. Chill in fridge overnight, then churn in ice cream maker for about 20 minutes (depending on your ice cream machine).
6. Add passion fruit seeds to the custard at the last 5 minutes mark of churning. Transfer to container and store in freezer.

Flock!

Decorated Cookies are so much fun to do! It's a bit nerve racking waiting for the royal icing to dry. This is the first time I made royal icing using meringue powder. I always used egg whites but then I'm making this for a good friend's preggy cousin P. So I know that raw egg whites are a big no no! I hauled my ass to the nearest baking specialty store and grabbed a tub of meringue powder. Back to the kitchen I went and started making my flock. I couldn't find any rubber ducky cookie cutter so I made do with making my own template for it and individually cut them out with a sharp paring knife.It was a lot of hard work but then it's so gratifying seeing many of them done and ready for the oven.

Keeping my fingers crossed, I went ahead and followed the instructions found at the back of the meringue container. Within the first minutes of mixing the powder and water, nothing is happening. My mind was panicking!!! It no way resembled whipped egg whites! Luckily when I increased the speed of the mixer, within the few minutes it starting to look like whipped egg whites. phew! The icing sugar you'd be using must definitely be sifted so that your royal icing would be silky smooth. Divide the basic white royal icing into different bowls depending on the the desired number of color. In my case, I divided them into three. Use paste or gel food coloring and not the liquid stuff so as to avoid altering the finished texture of the icing. Be sure to blend the color properly so that it would be in one cohesive color. Lucky for me everything went smoothly and I managed to finished everything in one day in a leisurely pace. I'm so glad the P liked it and everyone who I showed them to find them adorable and too pretty to eat :D It's such a huge ego boast! :D

Have a happy Baby Shower P! Congrats on the bundle of joy that would be arriving soon!

Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies

I'm not very fond of making rolled out cookies, it takes too long to make since I have to chill the cookie dough for quite sometime to get that more pronounce grooves and sometimes time is something I don't have. This weekend was a treat, Saturday (April 9) was a celebrated holiday here, there are no classes and no work, it's National Heroes Day. With enough time in my hand, I got the chance to make Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies from the book Baked Explorations. Malted Milk are hard to find nowadays, that's why whenever I see some available in my local supermarket aisle, I quickly grab some and hoard it like crazy! :D

The cookies baking smells so good! I couldn't wait to eat them! Though I couldn't nibble on one while waiting for the others to finished because they should be in pairs to make them sandwiches. The filling itself is soft and not too sweet I cut back the sugar by a cup. I light handedly pipe swirls of the filling on each cookie fearing it might be cloyingly sweet. Each cookie has that great contrast between the cookie and the creamy filling, just like a Golden Vanilla Oreo. I store them in the fridge since I fear that the filling will spoil due to our hot climate here.

Addiction Strikes Again!

Look what I got! Last Sunday, one of the biggest mall here in Manila had a sale. What sale means to me is another chance to add to my ever growing cookbook collection. I visited 4 bookstores got these from two of them. It put a huge dent on my wallet.

1. Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts: 150 Recipes for Old-Fashioned and Modern Favorites - being a Martha fan I got to have this. Just like in the previous Martha Cookies and Cupcake books, this is definitely a must have for beginners and non beginners alike.
2. The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread - I've been drooling over this for quite sometime now, I love reading about how bakeries started, the stories behind them and how they found or formulate each recipes. I find it very inspiring.
3. Maida Heatter's Cakes - I'm not actually sure if this is a republish of her old cake book since I don't have that. I haven't had the opportunity to browse this since I only got it last night.
   
4. Milk & Cookies - with that title who would love to try this book. This book is full of classic recipes and will surely remind you of your childhood. This is one of those spur of the moment purchase. The title just got me ♥♥♥
   
5. Maida Heatter's Cookies - aside from being a chocaholic, I'm a self admitted cookie fiend, I love cookies in any form. I love them soft, chewy, thin or crisp. I'm very partial to those dunkable variety.