No Ice Cream Maker Needed

 
Maybe you have a food processor but no ice cream maker?  Have I got the ice cream for you.

Want ice cream but you are lactose intolerant?  Have I got the 'ice cream' for you.

Want ice cream but can't eat that many calories?  Have I got the ice cream for you.

I saw it first on Kat and Matt's blog, A Good Appetite.  Then I found the recipe at The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy.  If you like bananas- this stuff will twirl your toes.  Seriously- it's that good and that easy.


Step one:  Buy bananas.
Step two:  Slice bananas.
Step three:  Freeze bananas (two hour minimum).
Step four:  Process bananas in processor.
Step five:  If they have been whirling in the processor and are still dry, add some water or milk (if you like).  Or even a couple tablespoons chocolate syrup (ah, c'mon, live on the edge).
Step six:  Once the bananas have moved from a crumbly dryish stage, they will move into a soft serve ice cream kind of stage, like the picture.
Step seven: Remove from processor.  Sit down, kick your feet up and enjoy.

I've Been Yogued

Any excuse to say that word. Yogued... like Vogue, only slightly fermented... I also like onomonapea and peppadew... Any excuse to say those words.

But I digress. You see for over a year now, more like five or ten years, I have been serious about making my own yogurt. I actually owned a yogurt maker. It was a long plastic covered contraption with six ceramic containers in it. It sat in my pantry for a looong time. I got rid of it. I saved the containers because they are reusable and have nice little covers. But I gave up. It all sounded like too much of a hassle. Until now. I found this post at A Year of Slow Cooking. I was hooked. I even bought a crock pot (15 bucks on sale, whew heeew). Why? because it had a warm function and I wanted to make sure it would keep the heat below 140F which is optimal because the good bacteria can be killed in the yogurt. I also liked this particular crock pot because it fits on my counter and I don't have to drag it in and out of the pantry. Love that! It was worth it to me you see because my husband goes through copious amounts of yogurt.

Now, crockpot lady does hers solely in the crockpot. I wanted to speed up the process a little. I put 2 quarts of 2% milk into a stock pot. I heated it on medium until the temperature reached about 185F. I turned it off and let it cool. I added the starter that my husbands friend "V" generously gave us (from India) after it had cooled. I had left the starter out on the counter to bring it to room temperature before adding it in. I also stirred in a 1/2 cup powdered milk. From what I have read, 2 tablespoons to a 1/4 cup per quart of powdered milk will help to gel the yogurt a bit more. European yogurt I guess tends to be on the runny side. American yogurt is more firm. I actually will eat it either way but prefer it more on the thicker side.
I put the crock pot on the previous day and took the temperature of the water with an instant read thermometer to make sure it was under 140F. After four hours of being on it was at 120F. So I was pretty sure it would not get too hot. I poured warm water into the crockpot and turned the dial to warm. I put my pint jars into their cozy little hot tub. I covered it and left it on for about 7 1/2 hours. I pulled out one of the jars and looked at the liquid. It had gelled. I consider that a success. Wahoo!
Here are the "Cliff Notes" version of what I did:

1. Heated 2 quarts of 2% milk in stock pot until the temperature reached 185F.
2. Brought my starter to room temperature.
3. After milk cooled down I added the 1/2 cup of starter & 1/2 cup powdered milk.
4. Poured that liquid into 4 pint jars and put lids on top.
5. Turned on my crockpot to warm and added warm tap water.
6. Placed the pint jars into the warm water bath in the crockpot and covered it.
7. It sat in the warm water bath for about 7 to 8 hours.
8. Turned the crockpot off, removed the pints and transferred them to the fridge.
9. In the morning I opened one, spooned it out and added a tablespoon of my canned cherry jelly. I enjoyed some cherry flavored yogurt for a fraction of the cost.

Notes:

You can use a good quality yogurt with all the good bacteria in it for your starter. Or you can actually pick up a yogurt starter at a Health Food store.

I don't know if it was the starter or the milk powder but the yogurt is a bit of a different flavor than the store bought one. I imagine I will get used to it and then hate the store bought one- thinking it too bland. Of course slathered in jelly, I didnt notice anymore.*

*Update- I found out it was the dry milk- I tasted it on its own and it was disgusting. It's old. Goodness time flies.

RECIPES TO RIVAL: Ricotta Cheese

A very cool month at Recipes to Rival. Our challenge this month was to make ricotta cheese. I was very excited to hear about the challenge as I have been wanting to make ricotta for quite some time. Thanks Lauren of I'll Eat You Delish and Temperance of High on the Hog.

It was a fairly easy process with a great yield. For a full story on our blog, click here. I used whole milk as I wanted a big bang for my buck. The higher the percentage of fat, the larger the yield. My yield was about 1 1/2 pounds of ricotta. Not bad! The one thing I would have done differently is that I would have put salt in it. I will be spending some time perfecting this recipe to suit my tastes. By the way, mine never reached 185F. I understand you are not suppose to boil it so I wonder how it could reach 185F. I settled on 110 because that was as close to boiling as I was going to get and I already had quite a bit of curds.

In doing this challenge I began doing some research about cheese and found this pretty informative site. Can you see that this cheese making will be in my near future. I felt the ricotta that we made tasted more like queso fresco than ricotta. This is why I would like to experiment some more.
this whey has a future in a bread recipe.

Recipe for Ricotta Making

1 gallon milk (you can use 1 percent on up, remember that the more fat in the milk, the more cheese it will yield.)
1 quart buttermilk

cheesecloth (if it seems to loose to catch all the curds, double it up)

Place buttermilk and milk in a pot, heat on med-low heat until it reaches 185 degrees.

It will begin to separate into curds and whey. Be sure to stir occasionally to make sure no curds stick to the bottom and burn. You will see that as the temperature approaches 185, the whey becomes clearer as the curds coagulate more.

Pour the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang for 10-15 minutes. Remove from cheesecloth and place in an airtight container.