White Chocolate ice-cream #2, and an egg-white omelette

Things of note:

I was making ice-cream this morning, using 4 egg-yolks, so instead of throwing away the egg-whites, or using them to help roll chicken cutlets in bread crumbs, for example, I decided to make an omelette. Conclusion? Stick with real eggs. The taste was OK, but the texture wasn't so great. One good thing though, is my daughter really liked it; I'm assuming it was the taste, since I used some dill and mozzarella cheese (and garlic and salt/pepper). The dill taste actually was quite nice, but as an omelette it was still missing something... Egg yolks. :)

So I took the cinammon ice-cream recipe that I've been using with some success, and combined it with a recipe from "the ice cream book" by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis. A few key differences between the different styles of making ice-cream, that I'll explain after the recipe:

4 egg yolks
6T caster sugar
1t cornflour
1 1/4C semi-skimmed milk
7oz dark chocolate (I used E. Guittard White Chocolate, 31% cacao)
1 1/4C whipping cream

This recipe called for whisking the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour (same thing as corn starch) until thick and foamy. Bringing the milk to a boil, then gradually whisking into the egg mixture.

First key difference is what you mix the sugar with. Some recipes have the sugar mixed with the milk, then the eggs slowly whisked in. This one obviously has the sugar mixed with the eggs, while adding the milk. I'd like to try it both ways, under a very controlled experiment, to see which way is better.

Then this recipe called for re-heating the eggs/milk/sugar/corn starch mixture until it thickens, and then adding the chocolate until it melts. The last thing you do, right before chilling in the ice-cream maker, is to add the cream.

Other recipes add the cream and then re-heat the entire mixture until it thickens, then cool the whole thing down before the "chilling" step. Again, another variable.

So things I'd test in a complete experiment:
eggs vs. egg yolks (2 options)
sugar with eggs or sugar with milk or split half/half (3 options)
with and without corn starch (2 options)
half-and-half or full-cream or milk to start (3 options)
adding cream after mixing milk/eggs then reheating vs adding cream just before chilling. (2 options)
how much reheating to actually do. (3? options)

2 * 3 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 3 = 6 * 6 * 6 = 216 different permutations of ice-cream.

Well, that ain't going to happen any time soon.

The big thing I'm curious about is "How easy can I make this", which you can also translate as "Can I make the whole thing in my vitamix?". I've heard the reason to mix the eggs in with hot milk is to be sure you aren't eating raw eggs (which doesn't particularly scare me).

So next time I think I'll try not using the stove at all, and see where it takes me.

For now, the white chocolate ice-cream is chilling; I'll pour it in ice-cream maker later around noon and see what happens.

Happy 7th Birthday Ilan!

This turned out to be a pretty good party; all the kids had a great time. Here's the recipe:

• Create a fun invite (see below).
• Order chairs from http://www.inflatablechairs.com/68539.html they were only $4.95 each.
• Go to Smart & Final and get some popcorn cups and water bottles (no juice boxes on the carpet).
• Buy a great movie (we watched Underdog), and borrow a projector and optionally a screen.
• Borrow an air compressor to inflate the chairs, or just use your lung power and go for it.

That was it. The chairs became the give-away gift also (for the record, I think the idea of giving somebody a gift for coming to your party (aka a goody bag) is insane. We had cake afterwards, and watched a couple of trailers off of iTunes as parents were showing up to pick up their kids.

Here's the invite: