Re-purpose ice-cream and bake {The journey of interlaced recipes}

Big, bold and beautiful was this newly created ice-cream concoction.

Later to be re-purposed into a blend for muffins?!?

...Ice-cream parfait served alongside with millet puffs...

Yes...muffins.
  

I just couldn't file this story away and not share all my culinary emotions with you.

It was a merry-go-round of feeling...

exhilaration turned disheartened and right back to enchanted.

All this because of a desperation to re-purpose a less than stellar ice cream.  

What to do with ice-cream that did not actually please your palate?

Re-purpose it...of course.  

Got you curious?

Well, a little more patience...all will be explained shortly.

I still had plenty of beets remaining from my bargain splurge.

Once more, I was being stubborn for not wanting to compete with my MIL’s pickled beets.  

Little did I realize where the next experimentation was leading me too.  

As I mentioned in a recent post on Beetroot pesto...

I actually did go through with daring myself further.

I did once more break out of my very classic-flavoured ‘ice-cream’ box.

Did you think I'd experiment with beets and not try making my own version of Beet ice cream? 

By now, most of you might be wondering if I've gone out of my usual comfort zone. 

I sure was...and unusually so it seems.  

Delving into some very uncharted territory had been suiting me lately.   

This was really an 'out of the box' moment for me...and it felt right...or did it eventually? 

The VERDICT...

With much apprehension...Hubby gave it quite the raising eye-brow glance.  He  thought the presentation was exquisite and definitely worth the time to pick up his spoon.  Dido for me as well.  

As we carefully dug in...we kept making all kinds of remarks like "how interesting"..."how different".

Now, we all know by now where those types of comments lead.  That was the kiss of death for any recipe that just didn't cut it.

By the end of our parfait...we graded it on execution...merit...and finally taste appeal.  We mutually agreed that a 7/10 was an honest grade.  Since I‘ll only consider re-making recipes that hit a 9/10 before properly recording it into my favourites...this was going to be a one-timer only.

The DILEMMA...

I have also come to realize that any medium graded concoction would probably sit undesired and end up elevating my concerns about world hunger.

That evening, for some odd reason, I could not think of anything else as I went to sleep.   Did I mention, how few hours of sleep I get?  This was not what I should have been thinking of.  It was like a musical tune that you just can't erase from your mind.  It was playing over and over.  I was really hoping that something good better come out of robbing me my zzzz.

The ENLIGHTENMENT...

The sun had risen in all its glory...and my brain was clear on what needed to be done.  
The problem solver that I usually am...slept on it and woke up in light bulb invention mode.  Make muffins with thawed ice-cream!  What?!?...Was I losing my marbles again? 

The SPECULATION...

Well, I owed it to myself to attempt to save all that ice-cream which I knew was only going to please my eyes with color and not my palate.  Plus, I had a few containers taking up valuable freezer real estate.

Once I chose my adaptable muffin recipe...I ended up highly succeeding in what I thought was honestly a gamble.  Since there was mascarpone in it...the yogurt was out...as well as the mashed banana and so on.   With nothing to lose...I got my baking gear out for a stretch. 

The CONCLUSION...

Since I figured that most of you may not be tempted to make the above mentioned recipe...you'll not have this particular blend of thawed ice-cream.  After this experiment, I would imagine that any rich based ice-cream would work marvelously as well.

***

However, all this said...I sincerely can admit, that if this frozen delight was offered to me in a high-end restaurant...I would have probably been much kinder in my opinions.  
Since everyone's palate is not the same...I do suggest that you at least try this once.  If for nothing else, it certainly will raise some eyebrows and kick off some after meal conversation for sure.  
Oh, and by the way, you may as well place a wager on guessing the flavour.  It’ll take a long while before someone would ever think there were beets in the mix ;o)

Therefore, those who are curious to how I made this very unique tasting BEETroot ice-cream...here it is:

bold Beetroot Mascarpone Banana Rum 

ice-cream

yields about 4 cups (2 litres)

Click HERE for the PRINTER version

INGREDIENTS:
(American / Metric measures)

. 8 small-medium beets, cooked

. 1 medium, ripe banana (not-overly ripe)

. 1/4 cup (60ml) Agave syrup

. 6 tbsp. (90ml) premium, dark Rum

. 1 small tub (8.8oz / 250g) Mascarpone * cream cheese

. 2 cups (500ml) unsweetened Almond milk

* Note:
- If Mascarpone is not available...it can be substituted by combining:  Cream cheese (8oz./240g)...plus 35% Whipping cream (1/4 cup/60ml)...added to Sour cream (2 tbsp./30ml). 

PREPARATION:

. Place beets and banana in a food processor.  Pulsate them both until a very fine purée is achieved.

. Add the syrup, Rum and the Mascarpone.  Blitz for one minute more.  

. Add the milk and blitz again for an additional minute.

. Pour this cream into a large shallow metal or freezer-proof glass dish.  Freeze for about 2 hours before taking it out to give it a quick whisk.  Afterwards, place it back into the freezer.  Repeat the process in the next few hours with the food processor this time.  Pour the cream into a few individual containers.  

. Before serving, place the ice-cream in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes until the ice-cream starts showing softening around the edges of the container.  At this point, it’s ready to scoop out.  Whatever you do...don’t let the ice-cream melt.  Enjoy the adventurous taste ;o)

The next culinary adventure came in the form of incredibly, moist and tasty muffins:

ice-creamed BEETroot walnut, raisin MUFFINS

Re-purposed, thawed ice-cream Muffins

yields 12 muffins

No electric mixer required

Click HERE for the PRINTER version

INGREDIENTS:

(American / Metric measures)

Dry mix:

. 2 cups (260g) unbleached All-Purpose flour

. 1 tsp. (5ml) baking powder

. 1 tsp. (5ml) baking soda

. 1/2 tsp. (2.5ml) sea salt

. 1/2 cup (105g) sugar

. 1/2 cup (85g) walnuts, coarsely chopped

. 1/2 cup (120g) dried raisins

. sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut

Wet mix:

. 2 large eggs

. 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil

. 1 tsp. (5ml) almond extract

. 1 cup (250ml) ice-cream (Beetroot in this case), thawed *

. 1 orange zest (optional)

* Ice-cream thawed:  Make sure this procedure has been done solely in the refrigerator about one hour before starting the recipe.

PREPARATION:

Pre-heat oven at 350F/180C/Gas 4. 

Position rack at the bottom level of the oven.

Prepare a muffin pan with paper liners.  

Note: oil spray will be used right before pouring the batter.

. DRY MIX:  In a large bowl...whisk together all the dry ingredients.

. WET MIX:   In a medium bowl...whisk the eggs and add in the rest of the wet ingredients.  Blend until well combined.

. Make a well in the dry ingredients and then add the wet mixture.  Combine only until there is no appearance of flour.  Do not over mix the batter.  Set aside.

. Spray a generous spot of oil into every paper liner.  Fill the cups evenly.  Optional: sprinkle with sugar or with unsweetened shredded coconut.

. BAKE them for about 26-28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  When you take them out...do not wait longer than 5 minutes to extract them out of their molds.  Yes, they will still be hot...but not unmanageable.  This will stop the muffin from over baking and will keep the liners from sticking too much to the muffin.  Note:  When ready to peel off the cupcake liners...be gentle. 

. If not planning to eat the muffins within the next two days...it's best to freeze them with their paper liners up to one months time.  Afterwards, re-warm with keeping the paper liners.  Set the oven on very low for about 20 minutes.  Happy baking.  Enjoy.

Well, it was splendid to share my culinary light bulb moment with you.

Who else would want to read about this craziness in our kitchens?

Now, I can only wonder what other adventure a sleepless night can bring.

Successful creations to all and to all a fabulous week.

Flavourful wishes,

Foodessa

Other related desserts that may be of interest:

- TiraMiSù ExtraOrdinario

- TiraMiSù Galliano LEMON special 

- BANANA CHOCOLATE candied Ginger Muffins

- BLUEBERRY ginger citrus GF Muffin

- Chocolate Ricotta Squash muffins