Sugar High Friday – Eggnog Ice Cream Profiteroles. Oh, with Chocolate Sauce!

I’ve only participated in Sugar High Friday one other time, and they forgot to list me, much to my dismay.  Really, though, my main problem with participating every month has not been hurt feelings (imagine the poor blogger who hosts, trying to keep all these entries straight – stuff happens!), but rather trying to find out exactly WHO is hosting in time to actually make something and post.  I tell you, it ain’t always easy.  This month, however, I lucked out, because the wonderful Anita of Dessert First is our hostess, and I read her blog all the time.  Her theme?  Spice!

In this case, necessity was the mother of invention:  I had a pint of cream that I needed to use up, and fast.  I also happened to have my ice cream maker’s container stashed in the freezer, and I needed some room for other things.  So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

I took a basic ice cream recipe, and added some nutmeg and a shot of rum, plus TWO vanilla beans that were pretty shriveled, but which revived nicely in the cream.  Then I stuffed some homemade profiteroles with the ice cream, drizzled it with Trader Joe’s chocolate sauce and proceeded to inhaled one of these.  I showed remarkable restraint, I must say.  The next day, I had another.  I think my mouth experienced nirvana.  There are some good commercial ice creams out there, but NOTHING beats homemade!

Be sure to head back over to Dessert First on October 31 for Anita’s roundup of this month’s participants.  Recipe after the jump . . . .

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Adapted from a recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

(makes 20-24 fat cream puffs, or more if you make them smaller)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 4-5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium, and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly.  A slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan. You
need to keep stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a food processor.   Wait a couple minutes to allow the dough to cool a bit.  Add the eggs one at a time, pulsing between each addition to incorporate it into the dough.  After you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, but that’s okay, just keep going. As you keep working the dough, it will come back together, usually by the time you have added the third egg. After the addition of the 4th egg, the dough should be thick and shiny, and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.  IF IT DOES NOT, add the fifth egg.  If it does, then you don’t need to use the fifth egg at all.

4) The dough should be still warm. You need to form the cream puffs right away, while the dough is still warm.

Forming the cream puffs:

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or silicone baking mats.

2) Fill a large pastry bag (or a disposable gallon-sized bag) fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.  Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in swirls, about 1.5 inches across.  Leave about 2 inches space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.  The original recipe says that the dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs, and I was able to get about as many cream puffs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the puffs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for another 8 minutes or until the cream puffs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

4) When the cream puffs are done, remove them to a cooling rack.  As you do so, gently pierce the side of each puff with a sharp knife.  This allows steam to escape, and helps prevent the puffs from getting soggy.

Eggnog Ice Cream

(note:  this is a mild eggnog flavor – if you want it stronger, increase the rum and nutmeg)

Makes about 2 quarts

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup 1% milk
3 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (up to 1/4 tsp. is fine)
1 fresh plump vanilla bean, or a couple of shriveled old ones
1 Tbsp. dark rum
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

 Prepare an ice bath and have a clean bowl and a large strainer on hand.

Pour the cream and milk into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Split and scrape the vanilla bean(s) and add the vanilla seeds and the empty pod(s) to the pot.  Heat the mixture to just below the boiling point. You will see steam coming up, and maybe a few small bubbles around the edges, but don’t let it get any farther than that. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, nutmeg, and the salt to combine well. Very gradually, in a thin stream, whisk in about 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture.  Return the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Cook the custard over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard coats the back of the spoon and leaves a trail when you run your finger across the back of it.

Quickly strain the custard into a large bowl, discarding the used pods and other items caught by the strainer.  Whisk the vanilla extract and rum into the custard. Place the bowl with the custard in the ice bath and cool, stirring often. Press plastic wrap directly over the cooled custard surface to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate overnight.  I’ve tried this recipe by only refrigerating this for about 4 to 5 hours, and the ice cream never hardened, so I really recommend at least 8 hours in the refrigerator.

Whisk the mixture well and pour it in your ice cream maker.  Churn according to instructions.  Transfer the ice cream to containers and freeze.