Goodbye 2007

Well, 2007 was a big year for me. I graduated, got a job and got a new camera. I also did a lot of cooking and baking in my small kitchen. Here are a few things that really stood out.

Paul gave me Dorrie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." This has been my most used cookbook this year.

My Summer of Ice-Cream, inspired by my ice-cream mentor Yannick.

I rediscovered rice, after I friend came by to teach me how to cook it. (While I technically learned to cook rice in the last days of last year, my rice cooking really took of in 2007).

And just this week I discoved both David Lebovitz's delicious brownies from "The Perfect Scoop" and the fun of the reverse lens macro.
All the best for 2008.

Mascarpone Ice-Cream

This ice-cream arose from a happy accident: I had some mascarpone that needed to be used up and I also was planning to bake a cake for Paul's birthday. The cake I baked was Grandmother's Very Creamy Chocolate Cake. (It was very good, very dense, very rich and most importantly, very easy.) However, the recipe suggested that it needed a creamy accompaniment....and I had this mascarpone to use up. I think you can see the obvious solution.


There is a mascarpone ice-cream recipe in The Perfect Scoop. But it's a custard based recipe, which can be a lot of work. Fresh from the success of last week's cinnamon molasses ice-cream I was ready to try the no custard technique again (i.e. the lazy way).

What really makes this recipe is the excellent vanilla paste that my brother gave me for my birthday. The flavour of this ice-cream is very similar to the filling in tiramisu, and I think it is one of my new favourites.

Mascarpone Ice-Cream

1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla

1. Dissolve sugar in milk.
2. Whisk in mascarpone, whipping cream and vanilla.
3. Freeze in your ice-cream maker according to directions.