Crazy for Ice Cream

Last week A couple of weeks ago (I've been meaning to post this for a while)
we went a little crazy in the kitchen.

I may have lost my mind, evidenced by homemade waffle cones. We scored the waffle cone maker half off retail at Tuesday Morning, and armed with a recipe from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream I couldn't resist. My technique needs to be perfected but they sure were tasty!

We made our third batch of Salty Caramel Ice Cream and our first batch of Banana, both Jeni's recipes as well.  I don't have her book yet, but received a packet with a good amount of recipes in the class that I took.  Here is the Banana base with delicious Vanilla Bean seeds.

We also made homemade shell toppings.  First I attempted the Caramelized White Chocolate that I had tasted in class on Banana Ice cream (it tastes like Dulce de Leche).  I burned it, and burned my hand badly, leading to a ginormous blister that is finally healing after a week.  

I was out of white chocolate that night after burning the first batch so I used dark chocolate.  I prefered that one after all, and it was much easier to make, only having to melt it and not caramelize it.

Despite preferring the dark chocolate, I was determined to get the Caramelized White Chocolate right.  I burned it a second time but finally had success and no more burning myself on my third try.  The trick is doing it on the lowest heat, stirring constantly and using a thick bottomed pot.

 

The inspiration for all this craziness was sharing ice cream with my family, which we did last Friday night.

Karlie getting some chocolate topping

My Salty Caramel Cone with Dark Chocolate Shell Topping

Silly Ice Cream Face

I am in love with the Salty Caramel ice cream and we have served it with this Chocolate Cake (as a single layer/half recipe with chocolate ganache instead of icing, highly reccommended) for a friends birthday a few weeks ago and now with Dark Chocolate coating, both divine!

I don't have time to type out these recipes, so here are some links:
Caramelized White Chocolate Bombe

Banana Ice Cream
Salty Caramel Ice Cream

 For the rest of the recipes you'll have to purchase the book!  
Hint, dark chocolate shell coating recipe is the same as the white chocolate only you just melt it over low heat and it's done.  Try it, you'll love it!