butter pecan ice cream

this came out SO good!!!

i've been saving up a bunch of recipes to post here. i made this a while ago and it was awesome! i finally got a hold of a consistent amount of raw cream so i did a lot of experimenting (and tasting!) with ice cream. i found that raw cacao for chocolate ice cream just doesnt cut it for me . . . i tried mixing it in all different ways and it just wont get that super dark chocolateness that regular cocoa gets. it comes out ok, but is light in color and not as flavorful no matter how much i put in.

i also found that even though raw egg yolks are good for you it really improves the texture of the ice cream to cook them into a custard with a little part of the milk/cream. keep the heat pretty low though. and dont add the rest of the milk/cream till it cools.

butter pecan ice cream:

2 1/2 cups cream

1 1/4 cups whole milk

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups chopped candied pecans

take a little bit of the milk/cream, about a half cup, and heat it up on medium low heat. mix the yolks up in a separate bowl. once the milk is hot, temper the eggs so they wont scramble. pour a little hot milk into the eggs and stir to warm them up and get them used to the high temp. after tempering you can whisk it all together on the stove and continue to cook till it thickens. 5 minutes should do it.

let the milk and egg mixture cool and then add the rest of the ingredients except the nuts. chill in the fridge overnight or for several hours. put in an ice cream machine or in the freezer and churn by hand every half hour for a few hours.

fruity frozen yogurt

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another super easy recipe! we had some frozen yogurt tubes at a friends house and my kids loved it. it reminded me to make some popsicles. they came out so good with lots of fruit and way less sugar than store bought versions. i have made them with yogurt but today i used kefir and it tasted the same. ive done cherry strawberry and cherry rasberry. its probably best to use one sweet fruit with one thats not as sweet. the cherries are very sweet so the went well with the tangy strawberries and rasberries.

in a blender put about 2 cups plain yogurt or kefir and 1 cup fruit (i used frozen fruit)
pour into popsicle molds! thats it

today i made to much so i put some in a container for ice creamish frozen yogurt. i dont have any room in the freezer for the ice cream maker so i just mixed it every once in a while and it came out nice and creamy!

all raw ice cream

ive been wanting to try this for a long time. and it came out pretty good! here in new hampshire farmers can sell their milk to who ever they want even if its not pasturized. in many states this is not possible and you have to use loopholes to get raw milk. so we found a great family here with two beautiful gernsey cows who sell the milk that they cant use. we got our first batch last week and it was SO good. the cream is so yellow right now with all the spring growth and gurnseys also produce extra yellow cream.
i think that raw milk, raw eggs, cacao, and raw local honey are all such healthful foods - why not put them together! i havent found any raw cream yet and didnt want to skim my milk but if you have some substitute 1 1/2 c with the milk. it will make it much creamier and more like regular ice cream. the all whole milk version came out damn good though.


RAW CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM:

3 3/4 c whole raw milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 c cacao powder (chocolate that has not been roasted)
1/2 c - 3/4 c raw honey (i used 1/2 c and it was fine. if you tend to like things sweeter add more)
(1 tsp vanilla extract - optional. are vanilla beans roasted? i dont know. oh well its only a teaspoon!)

blend in the blender till the honey is all mixed in. i then put it into my ice cream maker for churning. if you dont have one you could just put it in the freezer and mix it up every once in a while. the more you mix the creamier it will be but you do want it to stay cold too.