It was 4 am. I crept down to the kitchen to get some water. Soon, I found myself standing at the counter eating spoonfuls of the ice cream that I had made 5 hours earlier. The water forgotten, I smiled. The ice cream was good - really good. I was also smiling as it brought back memories of times not too long ago when 4 am bowls of ice cream were a regular thing. In fact, it wasn't limited to 4 am. Breakfast, painful lunch meetings, pre-dinner, post-dinner - I was always eating ice cream.
I cut back when I had a health "issue". Reducing saturated fat was one of the many things suggested to ease trigeminal neuralgia pain.Honestly, I don't know if it made a difference. But I was in too much pain to not try it. After surgery, the hospitality director visited to see how I was doing. She asked if there was anything that I needed. I immediately said chocolate ice cream. My friends and family laughed. But I was serious. I had given up chocolate about two months before surgery in another effort to reduce pain. I NEEDED chocolate ice cream. How else were we going to know if the surgery was successful?
July is National Ice Cream month. This is the one food holiday that I've been celebrating for years. The Farm Store down the street always has a sign up every July - there's no forgetting what July is all about. So considering my obsession with ice cream, I was more than excited when
Camilla chose ice cream as this month's Foodie Extravaganza theme.
I actually had a brownie chunk ice cream planned until one night I was eating toasted oats and I wondered how that would work in ice cream. I was a bit hesitant at first. I love toasted oats and I love baking with oats. But once my oats get wet, I shudder and walk away. I just cannot do wet oats. I'm looking at you, porridge! If the oats got soggy in the ice cream, I'd be heartbroken. I remembered sprinkling sugar over my toasted oats once and when it melted, I had a great crunch. I found an oat praline recipe from David Lebovitz'
Perfect Scoop which was exactly what I wanted.
It's pretty hot in South Florida right now - mid nineties - so this no churn ice cream melted quite quickly! But what better way to spend a 95 F day? Ice cream is still pretty awesome on 5 F days too, though.
Oat & Dulce de Leche Swirl Ice cream
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Yield: ~4 cups (or what I call one serving)
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Ingredients
Oat Praline
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
Ice Cream Base
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon rum
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/2 cup dulce de leche
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Directions
Praline: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a rimmed baking pan with foil and spread oats on the pan in a tin layer.
Bake until toasted and fragrant. It will take about 7 - 10 minutes. Be sure to pay attention to it! Burnt oats are not as tasty.
Place sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar has melted and is amber coloured. Do not walk away from it! You can gently swirl the pan but do not stir.
As soon as the sugar is amber coloured, add the toasted oats to the pan. Stir quickly to coat the oats completely. Return the mixture to the foil-covered baking pan. Spread out as thinly as you can and sprinkle with salt. Allow to cool completely.
Break into chunks and try not to eat all of it. The size depends on your ice cream chunk-size preference.
Ice Cream: In a large bowl, mix together condensed milk, yogurt. rum and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold small portions at a time into the condensed milk mixture. Next, fold in the oat praline pieces. Then gently swirl in the dulce de leche.
Place in a covered-freezer safe container and freeze for at least 6 hours.
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Notes
- After attempting to melt sugar (because let's be honest, I'm rarely ever successful), I usually immediately fill the pan with water and return it to the fire. The hot water will quickly dissolve any remaining sugar and make it so much easier to clean. I wish I knew this when I was ten and got hardened sugar stuck in my mother's pot and melted a spatula. Story for another time.
- If you don't use condensed milk in your tea and coffee, the rest of the condensed milk can be used to make the dulce de leche. Bake in a foil-covered baking dish at 425 F. The dish should be placed in a water bath. It will take about an hour or so for it to caramelize. You could also do it in a water bath on the stove top or in a slow cooker. Be sure to check the water bath often. You don't want it to dry out.
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Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. This month - Camilla of
Culinary Adventures with Camilla is hosting - she invited bloggers to come up with creative ice cream creations.
So during this first full month of summer, it's all about ice cream. But that can include gelato, semi-freddo, and even popsicles. Go wild!
We hope you all enjoy our delicious frozen creations this month and come back to see what we bring for you next month.
Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page
Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our
Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board! Looking for our previous parties? Check them out
HERE.
