Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

Things are crazy here in Pullman. WSU started a new year monday which means the tide has turned and we have to adjust. I'm sharing this sauce recipe - it's quick and easy and tastes great on ice cream (try it over chocolate - so good).
I just got a couple of recipes for homemade sweetened condensed milk - one with dairy and the other dairy free. I think I'll try this recipe with them and get back to you.


Hot Buttered Rum Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup dark rum
2 tsp. vanilla
In medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in rum and vanilla.

Vanilla Ice Cream

I'm not as prepared today and I would have liked. I often write my blog at work so if I leave my notes at home then I am stuck. I didn't realize I hadn't shared my bread recipe here so I can't share with you how I turned it into cinnamon rolls but I can share with you how I made vanilla ice cream in my gel canister. I mentioned that the gel canister ice cream maker makes an icy sort of product. I read somewhere (wish I could remember where) that you can add 1 teas of Xanthum gum to make a creamier product. We don't use Xanthum gum in our house, always opting to go with the far less expensive Guar gum. The end product was a little pastier than I prefer so I am going to experiment with the amount and may be posting more on this as I figure out the perfect balance. I also don't use cream in my ice cream which means a slightly lower fat ice cream which changes the consistency as well. However, with all that said my family couldn't stop raving about this experiment.

Vanilla Ice Cream
1 can evaporated milk
Enough whole milk added to the evaporated milk to make 3 cups
1 cup sugar
1 teas vanilla (I thought it really should have more since the flavor was rather muted)
1 teas Guar gum
Mix together until smooth and pour into ice cream maker. Process according to manufacturers instructions.
Something to note here - the guar gum made the ice cream fluffy and come right to the top of the container. I think it added 50% more volume to the ice cream which made a difference when I moved it to the container for freezing. My son got a bowl of ice cream out of the maker because I didn't have enough room to freeze it.
The final product is quite similar to store bought ice cream.

Ice Cream Makers and Almond Milk Ice Cream

There are two basic types of ice cream makers - the frozen canister and the one that uses ice and rock salt.
The frozen canister type (like we are currently using) has a thick bowl that sits on a motor which you remove and freeze. The bowl is filled with a gel that freezes and thaws as it makes the ice cream. There are some great advantages to this type of ice cream maker. It is often cheaper than it's counterpart, it's quiet and you can use it to make a variety of frozen treats from slushies to ice cream. The disadvantages are you have to re-freeze the canister after every use so only 1 recipe at a time and it doesn't make the best ice cream (but I am working on that).
The type that uses rock salt and ice often has a thin canister for the ice cream that sits in a bucket like structure which is all secured by the motor on the top. You pour a mixture of ice and rock salt around the ice cream canister and turn it on. The advantage is it makes nearly perfect ice cream without having to freeze the ice cream before eating. It's rather low tech. The disadvantages are it's more expensive and horribly noisy. The noise kept us from making ice cream as much as we would have.
I am playing with recipes and I have to say with a little experimenting I think you can get a really good ice cream out of the gel canister maker. I'm hoping because that's what we are using. With these, you need a seperate container to store the ice cream. I find that the Ziplock containers with the twist lids are perfect.
Our first ice cream we made was an almond milk - this is really simple and tasty. This version will make more of an ice milk than an ice cream but for those who can't do dairy it's wonderful.

Almond milk ice cream
3 cups vanilla almond milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Mix together in large measuring cup and carefully pour into ice cream maker. Let stir in make for 25-30 minutes (or to manufacturer instructions). Pour into covered container and freeze overnight.

We did make a dairy version last night with some modifications that look promising so I can't wait to share them with you when I have them more perfected.

Homemade Magic Shell for Ice Cream

With my son on the Feingold diet finding ice cream toppings has become difficult. My son loves Magic Shell topping and the concoction I created for his ice cream turned out to be a great substitute.

Chocolate Chips (we used Safeway organic)
Whipping Cream

It doesn't matter how much you use but I think I started with about 1 cup of chocolate chips. Melt in the microwave in 30 second increments until melted (took me 2 times). Stir well and drizzle in whipping cream until it's a smooth consistency. May have to re-microwave if it starts to solidify. Spoon over ice cream while still warm (microwave if it gets too hard). Be careful not to over- microwave. The chocolate will harden on contact with the cold ice cream but remain soft enough to break with spoon.