October 23, 2007

Drowning Yourself in Alcohol and Ice Cream Makes Things Worse?... Or Better!


Have you made a decision yet? I get that question a lot. I rarely have an adequate answer to it. Some people choose to drown their decision making sorrows in ice cream, others choose alcohol. Well I like to go big or go home so I opted to make a recipe that called for both, or to adapt it so that it did: Apple Crisp Ice Cream with Grand Marnier. I don’t know if it was the ice cream that helped my decision making or something else entirely, but I’ll definitely make it again to test the theory that it was the ice cream. I actually made this recipe last week but have been slow on posting lately due to some other preoccupations. Things should pick up now though as I finally got a shove into motion. I probably wouldn’t have done it on my own, so thanks for the push, mumble mumble.


Andrew of Spittoon Extra is hosting this month’s round of Sugar High Friday and has chosen Drunken Apples as the theme. SHF was originally created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess and it’s now in its 35th round so coming up with a new theme is beginning to be a challenge. I thoroughly approve of Andrew’s choice of apples and alcohol and when I saw this recipe in Food & Drink magazine for Apple Crisp Ice Cream I knew it could easily be adapted to include alcohol, especially one as good as Grand Marnier.


Apple Crisp Ice Cream (Adapted from Food & Drink, Autumn 2007)


Apple Crisp

2/3 cup regular oats

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup all purpose flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Dash fine salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 cups peeled and diced apples

¼ cup sugar

Zest of one orange


Preheat oven to 375F.

Toss oats, brown sugar, flour cinnamon, salt and orange zest to combine. Add melted butter and stir to blend. Toss apples and sugar and pour into an 8-inch square or round baking pan. Crumble crisp topping over fruit and bake for 20 minutes, until apples are tender. Cool and then chill completely.


Ice Cream

1 ¼ cups 2% milk

4 large egg yolks

5 T sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 ¼ cups whipping cream

¼ cup Grand Marnier


Heat milk to just below a simmer. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a separate small bowl. Slowly add hot milk to yolks, whisking constantly, until all milk is added. Return mixture to pot and stir with a wooden spoon over medium-low heat until custard has thickened and coats the back of the spoon, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, strain, then whisk in vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk in whipping cream and Grand Marnier and chill completely.


Freeze mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon in the apple crisp near the end of churning and then scrape the entire mixture into a non-reactive container and freeze until firm.



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20 comments:

K and S said...

sounds wonderful!! glad you were able to make a decision :)

Anita said...

Sounds divine - I love your idea so much, i'm going to try it this weekend!

Manggy said...

Ooh, the idea's so simple and so obvious you'd wonder why none of us have thought of it before :) I love apple crisp-- so do you serve this ice cream with warm apple crisp? :)

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, drowning yourself in this kind of ice cream must make things better, I would think! Great idea for putting the two flavors together- I couldn't think too far beyond cake, and then I didn't even get around to it either!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I'm not a very experienced ice cream maker. If I wanted to make this without the alcohol (I know... what's the point of that?), what could I substitute for the 1/4 cup of liquid?

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

Well, I don't know if it would improve my decision making, but it would certainly make me feel good! Looks amazing!

Anonymous said...

This ice cream is perfect for fall! Looks yummy!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

What a perfect and creative choice for SHF!!!!

Anonymous said...

Oooh, two recipes in one! I can have apple crisp, I can have ice cream, or I can have both. Thanks for this!

Lyra said...

Why do I always look at these things when I'm hungry! This looks so delicious....great one Brilynn!

Susan @ SGCC said...

Apple Crisp......Ice cream......Booze.....What could possibly be wrong with that!!! It looks and sounds delicious!

Nora B. said...

That's a yummy combination. I never though of using ice-cream as a decision making tool. ;-)

I just missed the deadline for this month's SHF, was a bit preoccipied myself. Oh well, there's always next month.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous, as is everything you make. My husband would be the happiest boy on the block with a big bowlfull of this!

test it comm said...

Apple crisp flavoured ice cream sounds amazing! Bookmarked

Cynthia said...

You're my kind a gal :)

Anonymous said...

Great decision Brilynn! I love the idea of the apple crisp and the ice cream together, mucho yummy!

Julie said...

Love, love, love apple crisp. I'd sort of forgotten that it's about the time of year to make some until I saw your post!
Julie

Patricia Scarpin said...

I want both, the booze and the sweets!

Brilynn said...

Lydia- I think you could omit the 1/4 cup of grand marnier and not replace it with anything. It wasn't in the original recipe, it was my own addition.

Andrew said...

Who could possibly resist such deliciousness...