Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

March is starting to feel like the most do-or-die month, and I sort of totally love it. I'm besickened with the worst cold I've had in over a year and one day from my organization's giant, fancy gala for which I'll be up all night barking into a walkie-talkie, yet all I can think about are ways to start a bicycle cafe and names for my weekend doughnut business (Dough-Zone Layer!). I've been staying up late to make earrings for Ginger Root, DC's most awesome custom clothes, jewelery, and design store, and am squeezing in a visit with my sister that has been full of SVU (pasttime numero uno), good food, and chest hair jokes. Joey and I are planning our symphony date and our vacation to San Diego, and right now even, I'm waiting for an assignment at work to come through and using my spare minute to blog. I'm straddling obligations and compulsions–and not really balancing them–but instead of making me feel crazy and weird, it's making me feel excited. I'm totally pumped for what's in store in the next few weeks, and hopefully these ice cream sandwiches are some indication of what will filter through this manic month!

Coffee Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups cream, divided

1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used turbinado)

Pinch salt

5 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon instant espresso or superfinely ground coffee

1.  In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stir the milk, a half-cup of the cream, whole beans, sugar, and pinch of salt until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is steaming (not boiling!). Cover and let steep for one hour.

2.  Fill a large bowl with ice, and place a medium metal bowl inside it over the ice. Pour the remaining cup of cream into the metal bowl and put a fine mesh strainer over the top. Whisk the five yolks in a separate large bowl, and then reheat the milk and beans until the mixture is steaming (not boiling!). Slowly pour the milk into the egg yolks to temper, whisking vigorously the whole time. Pour the yolks and milk back into the pan, and. stirring the whole time, cook over medium heat until the mixture has thickened into a custard, seven to ten minutes. You'll know the custard is ready when you can run your finger across the back of a spoon dipped in the custard and it leaves a clear trail.

3.  Pour the custard through the sieve into the cold cream, pushing on the beans to extract as much custard as possible. You'll need to clear out the strainer every now and then so that it doesn't overflow. Mix the vanilla and superfinely ground coffee into the cold cream mixture, and stir the whole thing until it's cool. Allow the mixture to cool completely in the fridge, preferably overnight, and then process according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made these sandwiches using cookies that were leftover from last week's thin mints. Any not-too-crispy cookie will do though, and a stay in the freezer overnight will soften them up a little bit for perfect ice cream sandwich texture. The coffee ice cream goes really well with the chocolate wafers, but I think that a chocolate chip cookie with toffee would have also been amazing!

1.  Make half of this recipe to get about 35 cookies, or enough for 15 or so sandwiches. Once the cookies have cooled completely and the ice cream has hardened in the fridge for about an hour, scoop 1 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of coffee ice cream (or however much) onto a cookie back, then sandwich it with a second evenly sized cookie.

2.  Wrap the sandwiches in waxed or parchment paper and let them hang out in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to soften the cookie somewhat. Take them out about ten minutes before you're ready to serve, and enjoy!

Homemade Thin Mints

During the first of the only two seasons where I ever sold girl scout cookies, my dad bought 30 boxes of Thin Mints so that I could "earn" the super seller girl scout patch that had a harp seal pup on it. An additional prize was in the mix too, but I was really into harp seals, specifically, and my earnest patch-wantin' tears coaxed my dad into footing the bill for a freezerful of cookies. Not like he complained though, because as much as the rest of us, my father the girl scout hero could totally eat a whole tube of thin mints in one sitting. And then three summers ago my mom was leaving Safeway and decided to confront a cookie-selling scout about the hydrogenated oil and corn syrup that were standard (at the time) in girl scout cookies. The girl was most likely an eight-year-old do-gooder with no idea what my mother the girl scout villainizer was talking about, but still, Mom had a point. Enter:  homemade thin mints! 

I made them a little too large, a little too thin, and none too smooth, but they are so very, very good, that they might permanently thwart your craving for actual Thin Mints. Plus, the chocolate wafer that they use also makes an excellent snacking cookie and a phenomenal sandwich cookie for ice cream and filling (more on that later). 

Homemade Thin Mints

Adapted from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

This wafer recipe makes approximately 70 cookies. I divided the dough in two and used one half for these thin mints and the other half for the tops to ice cream sandwiches. You could either halve the recipe below or double the chocolate coating recipe to make a whole batch of thin mints.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) flour

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the fancy shit)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  In the bowl of a food processor, put flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda, and pulse a few times until blended. Cut the butter into 12 chunks, add it to the bowl, and pulse it a few times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small bowl and with the processor running, add the liquid and continue to process until dough clumps together. Transfer the dough to a large bowl and knead a few times to ensure that it's thoroughly mixed. 

2.  Divide the dough in two, and roll each into a log that is 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter (I used the smaller diameter for the thin mints, larger for the ice cream sammiches). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour, or up to a day as needed.

3.  Preheat the over to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Slice your cookies into thins that are 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thin, and space one inch apart on the sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cookies will puff up and deflate as they bake, and they are ready about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate. They should crisp as they cool, and if they don't, you can pop them back in the oven for a few minutes so they finish baking. Cool cookies on their sheets on top of cooling racks. When completely cool, being the chocolate-coating process!

Chocolate Mint Coating

This makes enough for 35 to 40 thin mints, or about half of what the recipe above yields. You can either halve the cookies, double this chocolate to make a huge she-bang, or keep the wafers in the freezer and use them as needed for ice cream sandwiches or snackin'.

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chips or chopped

2 to 3 teaspoons peppermint extract, or to taste

1.  Prep your station by lining cooling racks or cutting boards with waxed or parchment paper.

2.  Place the chocolate in a metal bowl set over gently simmering water. Stir frequently until chocolate is melted, smooth, and glossy. Start by mixing in a teaspoon of peppermint extract, and increase by half-teaspoons until you reach your desired level of mintiness (I used a full three teaspoons). 

3.  Using a fork or clean fingers, dip the cookies in the chocolate one at a time, coating both sides with a thin layer. Let the excess drip off, and place the dipped cookies onto the wax paper to set. If the dipping chocolate ever gets too thick, put it back over simmering water for a minute to thin it out. Place the finished cookies in the freezer or fridge for 20 minutes to speed up the setting of the chocolate. I kept my thin mints in the freezer the whole time because frozen thin mints are the best, but they'll keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature too.

Olly Oxen Free Recap!

Last Sunday marked the most recent installment of Olly Oxen Free, my in-house restaurant that I plan menus for constantly and execute every now and again. Fifteen people attended—four of whom I had never met before!—and most of what I heard from the kitchen was belly laughs, clinking glasses, plate-scraping, and other signs of inevitable food coma. I am thrilled with how things turned out—killer food, drinks, and folks and tons of ideas for the next go-around.

I started doing Olly Oxen Free last year as a way of incubating my ideas for owning a food business. I've definitely learned a lot on the technical and creative side—timing, menu balance, space, pricing, feel—but the payoff comes in seeing an arguably random assortment of people share a meal and conversations together. To orchestrate a space that brings people into the ritual of a meal has become the most satisfying part of putting an in-house restaurant together.

I waxed poetic a few weeks back here, but let's get into the menu again! There were hot-out-the-oven cheddar twists and castelvetrano olives out when folks arrived, and Bobbie made sure to sling a St. Germain cocktail into everyone’s hands while they hung out in the makeshift bar area. The first course was a bowl of spicy cauliflower soup drizzled with hot chili oil and crispy fried shallots (no picture though, dang). Then came the watercress, arugula, and mesclun salad with pine nuts and green goddess dressing with lots of tarragon.

This is Joey’s half-eaten (mea culpa) third course of cornbread and mushroom-stuffed apples with truffled macaroni and cheeses. The homemade cornbread was tossed with grilled onions, celery, sage, thyme, and buttery mushrooms and stuffed into honeycrisp apples that were baked until they puffed got all bubbly. The macaroni was baked with sharp cheddar, gruyere, and a truffled sheep’s and cow’s blended cheese. Truffles Forever.

The final course was a parfait of this molasses gingerbread with this salted caramel sauce, layered with sweetened vanilla whipped cream. I could eat this parfait for the rest of my (consequently short) life and be totally at ease. And look! The thrift store treated me right that weekend because I found exactly 15 old-timey and adorable sundae cups the Saturday before Olly Oxen Free.

And here’s a final shot of some of the awesome folks who came out to be a part of Olly Oxen Free! My sister and I are joining forces for the next one, which is almost sure to include blue cheese, corn, fried things, and icebox cake. I totally can't wait.

Blood Orange Tart with Salted Caramel

I remember thinking about marriage a lot before I turned 20. I suppose that it could have either been a Herculean feat or a total delusion since I was living in a half-naked co-op in Berkeley and I had a long-distance boyfriend at the time, but my obsessive plotting dissipated once I left for France and got knocked down a couple of life ladder rungs. I never regained the ideas that I had about marriage—though the handful of heteronormative design blogs that I read aren't doing much to help me form a realistic conception of healthy relationships—and until recently it didn't have a real place in my life. Now a few of my most favorite friends are married or planning weddings, and I find myself learning something about relationships each time I hear a new story or listen to a stranger give a toast to my friends.

And so this weekend found me celebrating the upcoming wedding of my dear friends Ruben and Joaquin, who are getting married in November as all of their adoring friends (what seems like thousands!) root them on in Dia de los Muertos style. I made three desserts for the evening, including this blood orange tart with salted caramel, and even though everyone seemed to love the food, it was totally forgettable compared to the toasts that had people blubbering and the dancing that ensued. I shouldn't sell this dessert short though: The tart is a great reprieve from and celebration of winter, and the bitter orange goes perfectly with the salted caramel. Please don't stick around long enough to see me turn that into a metaphor, just go make this and congratulate yourself for having so many friends with real and inspiring relationships. 

Blood Orange Tart with Salted Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Zoe Nathan via Lottie + Doof

Per L + D's suggestion, I used a different caramel than the one Nathan suggested, and I ultimately decided on a different crust recipe as well. I tried Nathan's crust when I made the tart early in the week, and my method may be at fault here, but I found it to be too dry and difficult to work with. When I made this again for the party, I swapped in my favorite all-butter crust recipe and upped the sugar to match the level that Nathan used. It was much more to my liking!

Blood Orange Tart

One-half recipe all-butter crust (recipe and directions over here!) with 2 TBSP total sugar

8 to 10 medium blood oranges, about 7 ounces each (I used 8)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, thinly sliced

1 large egg yolk mixed with two tablespoons of water

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon raw sugar for dusting the crust

1.  Once you've made your pastry and it has chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes, roll it out on a lightly floured surface into an 11-inch circle. Transfer the pastry to a sheet of parchment paper on the back of a cookie sheet and let chill while you prepare the oranges, or at least 15 minutes. The oranges actually took me exactly 45 minutes to prep, so you could put your crust in the fridge, start prepping the oranges, take a break to roll out the crust, then carry on with the recipe.

2.  Peel your oranges and keep them intact as much as possible. Using a very sharp knife, gently slice the pith off of the outsides of all. Pick your two most intact and beautifully colored oranges and slice them crosswise into thin rounds.  Set aside. Set up a sieve over a bowl and carefully segment your remaining oranges, slicing between the pith to extract just the pieces of fruit. You'll need a generous cup of slices. Gently shake the slices to remove excess juice; save the juice for a different use.

3.  Leaving a two-inch border of crust all around, arrange the orange segments on the pastry. Sprinkle two tablespoons of granulated sugar and sliced tablespoon of butter over the top. Fold edges of pastry over the fruit, pleating as you go and leaving most of the fruit uncovered. Use a pastry brush to spread egg wash on the crust, and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Finally, arrange the orange circles over the top and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of granulated sugar. Freeze tart for at least four hours, preferably overnight.

4.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake tart on the back of the cookie sheet directly from the freezer for one hour and 15 minutes, until the crust is deep brown and the fruit is bubbling. You may want to put some foil on the rack below the tart to catch any drips. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for a half-hour, then remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the caramel!

Deep Dark Salted Caramel

1 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons salted butter (or unsalted + 1/4 teaspoon sea salt), cut into one-inch pieces

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1.  Pour the sugar into a three-quart pot set over medium-high heat and allow the sugar to melt, whisking occasionally to ensure even cooking. Once sugar is melted, continue to cook until it turns a deep copper color (I like to push caramel to the edge of burnt; go lighter if you don't). With the heat still on, add the butter and whisk like crazy, then whisk in the cream until you have a smooth sauce. Turn the heat off and enjoy! Leftovers will keep in the fridge for awhile!

Olly Oxen Free: In-House Restaurant!

Clicky to enlarge to readable proportions!

Amid all of the bellyaching baking and sweet tooth pursuits is my fairly new secret cafe endeavor in DC. Olly Oxen Free was borne out of an ambition to anticipate what it might be like to start a food joint some day, and although it's still in its babyhood -- especially in terms of frequency -- this in-house cafe has already been a huge source of education for me. It seems tremendously difficult to come up with new, creative food ideas all of the time, and the first thing I've learned is to always be open to inspiration and to experiment as much as possible. February 13 will mark just the second installment of Olly Oxen Free, although this is at least the tenth menu that I've created for it, and I could not be more excited to get started. The last iteration focused on timing, and this time I'm going to work harder on the ambiance and improving the balance of flavors and proportions -- though I admit that this menu tends toward the rich. I hope that Olly Oxen Free one days leads to collaborations and a new feeling to my community here, but for now I'm really enjoying the anticipation and how this project keeps me on my creative toes! 

Oh, and if you're local and interested in attending, shoot me an email! So far the guest list is lookin' real nice.