Ice Cream with Homemade Magic Shell and Bammer's Jammers

You must click on these photos and get a close-up look at ice cream with homemade magic shell and Bammer's Jammers!

It all started when I saw photos and a recipe for Bammer’s Jammers on Bam’s Kitchen. BAM is one of my favorite food bloggers and she's good at it, carefully researching every recipe and testing them on her husband and teenage boys.

I knew I had to have it! Who (not me!) can resist a simple mixture of strawberries, cranberries, freshly grated ginger and honey?

Hmm, English muffins and peanut butter came quickly and persistently to mind.

A week later I finally remembered to pick up frozen strawberries at the supermarket. At the moment I’m typing this sentence (2:20 PM ET), the temperature has finally crept up to 24-degreesF. A delightful, sunny BRRR…. so no fresh, local strawberries this month.

Strawberries in hand, I quickly whipped up Bammer’s Jammers and fell in love after one taste straight from the pan. And, I was right. A perfect fit with an English muffin and peanut butter.

The first photo was ordinary and I wanted something with zing. That’s why the jar is tipped over and Bammer’s Jammers is swiftly running out of the jar. Quick, click!!

A few days later, it occurred to me that Bammer’s Jammers would taste good on a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Chocolate flashed through my mind, too. That’s how I came to search out a recipe for Homemade Magic Shell. I’ve made homemade magic shell before, but none of the recipes I tried inspired me to make it a second time.

This time, however, I’m totally sold and this recipe for Homemade Magic Shell from Instructables is a forever-keeper. Here’s why:
1. It’s made with coconut oil.
2. It only has two ingredients (for the basic recipe).
3. It hardens beautifully upon making contact with the ice cream.

Vanilla ice cream, Homemade Magic Shell and Bammer’s Jammers. “Nothing could be finer…”

My other blog is CORNING NY STEP BY STEP -- a view of the city where I live.

CORNING NY STEP BY STEP is now on Facebook. LIKE it and you’ll see when I post a new entry to that blog, plus there will be extra photos of people, places and things of Corning that didn’t make it into the blog.

Mango Chutney-Cranberry Muffins

I’ve become addicted to mango chutney ever since I bought it for South African Bobotie. Now you can always find a jar of chutney in my refrigerator and chutney in my muffins.

I’m also addicted to muffins and have used the same recipe for years, mixing things up by adding blueberries, chocolate chips, cranberries, craisins, nuts and numerous other special ingredients. There’s never been a ‘fail’ -- every addition is better than the one before.

At the time of my most recent craving for muffins, I was really at a loss--having only cranberries on hand yet wanting to kick the taste up a notch. That’s when I thought of the jar of mango chutney (mild version) in my refrigerator.

Combined with raw cranberries from the freezer, the mango chutney helped me to create a new all-time favorite. I’m a mild-heat sort of gal, but if you like it spicier and have that on hand, I say ‘go for it’!

My first tasting is always straight from the oven. Hot, yummy muffins! Let me tell you, hot (warm) chutney has quite a kick to it. After they cool, however, the spiciness of the chutney tones down to a perfect level of heat.




MANGO CHUTNEY-CRANBERRY MUFFINS
(makes 12)

Ingredients...

3/4-cup all-purpose (white) flour
3/4-cup whole wheat flour
3/4-cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4-tsp. salt
2/3-cup milk (I use skim)
1/4-cup vegetable oil
1 whole egg

1 cup whole raw cranberries
1/3-cup mild mango chutney


Directions...

1. Mix dry ingredients, using fingers if necessary

2. Combine liquid ingredients.

3. Stir dry and liquid ingredients together until all dry ingredients are wet. (Do not over-beat)

4. Fold in cranberries.

5. Pour into prepared muffin tin (oil/grease/butter).

6. Use back of a spoon to put a dip in the center top of each unbaked muffin, and then fill with heaping teaspoonful of chutney.

7. Bake in preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit oven for 25-35 minutes. (As a general rule, muffin baking time depends on what extra ingredients have been added.)


I'm already wondering what these same muffins would taste like with the cranberries replaced by fresh cut-up mangos!


***********


TV TRAY
As a single person, I sometimes (often?) take my meal to the living room and eat off a TV tray while watching a movie or documentary. TV tray meals are usually cobbled-together with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, no measurements recorded.



Whole wheat pasta ~ Oven-roasted green cabbage, tomatoes, carrots and celery (seasoned with EVOO, salt and pepper, basil and garlic powder).

Pear-Cranberry Pie

Yes, I’m enamored with cranberries and you will be, too, after you taste this Pear-Cranberry Pie. The sour flavor of the craberries combines beautifully with whatever sweetener you choose. And the color! Who can resist the bright, shiny reds of cranberries. No need to buy canned cranberries or canned cranberry sauce. It’s so easy to cook your own, starting with raw cranberries that can easily be stockpiled in your freezer.

Have you noticed the spot in the right-hand column that says “Looking for a recipe using a certain ingredient? Look here... ?” Well, type in ‘cranberry’ or ‘cranberries’ and you’ll find that Step by Step in the Kitchen already features several recipes using cranberries. Here’s one more to use up those cranberries in your freezer.

PEAR-CRANBERRY PIE
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients...

1/2-cup sugar
11 ounces frozen cranberries
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4-cup water
18 ounces Bosc pears
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
1/2-cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons butter
double pie crust

Directions...

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar, cranberries, cornstarch and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Lower heat if necessary. Stir gently. Boil one minute or until thickened. Set aside to cool.

2. Wash, peel, core and slice pears. Stir in lemon juice. Cover and set aside. Can be refrigerated.

3. Prepare your pie crust. Using a cookie cutter or some other method, cut small designs in the top crust. Or, cut several slits in the top crust after the pie is assembled.

4. Spread thickened cranberry mixture in pie pan on top of bottom crust.

5. Arrange pears on top of cranberry mixture.

6. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture on top of pears and then sprinkle with walnuts.

7. Divide butter into eight pieces and place on top of pie.

8. Add and attach top crust. Place pie plate on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil, in case of spillover. Tear off four strips of foil and attach to each other, end to end. Use to cover outer edge of pie crust.

9. Bake in preheated 450-degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350-degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Remove foil and bake approximately 30 minutes more until golden brown and the filling can be seen bubbling through the openings in the top crust.

I chose Bosc Pears for this pie. Brought them home from the supermarket and let them sit on the counter for several days to ripen. At that point, they were just as firm as when I bought them. Peeled, they are lovely with no blemishes. A melon-baller came in handy for removing the core (a grapefruit spoon will work just as well). Although the Bosc Pears were just mildly sweet, I chose not to add any sweetener other than the sugar-cinnamon mixture being sprinkled on top.

I have to declare this my favorite dessert and my favorite overall next to the Scallop and Salmon with a Cranberry and Nut Sauce.

Frosted Chocolate Cranberry Muffins with Grand Marnier

Muffins or cupcakes? They started out as plain muffins, until I took creative license and added cocoa, cranberries, pecans and Grand Marnier.

Coming out of the oven, these beauties cried out for more dark, creamy goodness, so I dipped them in melted chocolate and zig-zagged them with a decorating gel.

The end result was heavenly to look at and heavenly to bite into!

(The added ingredients, the ones which take them beyond the basic muffin, are in italics.)

CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY MUFFINS WITH GRAND MARNIER
(Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients....

3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup unbleached whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups raw cranberries, cut in half
2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1-1/2 tablespoons Grand Marnier (orange-flavored cognac-based liqueur)
2/3 cup chopped nuts
1-1/2 cups dark chocolate candy wafers
3.5 ounce (99 g) tube of Wilton Sparkle Gel

Directions...

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. Take raw cranberries out of the freezer and thaw for about five minutes before cutting in half. Stir into dry ingredients.
4. In small bowl, combine milk, oil, egg and Grand Marnier. Make a “well” in the center of the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients and stir just until mixed, no longer.
5. Gently fold in nuts.
6. Pour into prepared muffin tin (greased or oiled). Don’t use cupcake papers.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven 20 to 25 minutes.
8. When thoroughly cooled, dip top of each muffin in melted chocolate. Let set for a couple of minutes, then decorate with the Sparkle Gel.

Sometimes these ideas pop into my head in the evening when I really have a desire to cook but don’t want to heat the oven and wait for the finished product to cool. In this case, I mixed the muffin batter, greased the muffin tin and poured in the batter, covered the whole thing in plastic wrap and refrigerated it. In the morning, I took the muffin tin out of the refrigerator, uncovered it and let it sit on the counter while the oven preheated.