COCOA NIB VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM (low carb)

I think it’s about time I bought a new ice cream maker.  Don’t get me wrong…my vintage “Snoopy” Donvier ice cream maker has performed admirably for me all these years.  The trouble is, the capacity of this little low-tech-frozen-canister-crank-by-hand contraption is its capacity.  I can only make two cups at any one time. 

Also, when you add lovely hard chunky things like organic cocoa nibs--it becomes a pain to crank.  The ice cream created by this Donvier is not full of air (like the cheapy stuff you buy at the supermarket).  The best ice creams I’ve churned out from this trusty ol’ Donvier are custard-based.   I like the chew of a custard-based ice cream much more than the aerated stuff.

This ice cream rocks!  It’s low carb (no sugar!) because I’ve used Splenda.  Don’t smirk at me.   It’s summer and I am working on maintaining my girlish figure so I can go buy a new bathing suit!  To make it über-yummy I went decadent and squeezed in a whole vanilla bean’s worth of seeds into the custard base.  Then prior to cranking the mixture, I tossed in some lightly toasted organic cocoa nibs in there to boot.  I dipped in a spoon and gave it a lick in the midst of cranking.  I couldn’t resist.  It was awesome!  The cocoa nibs were crunchy, chocolatey and kind of nutty.  Ice cream is the perfect place to substitute Splenda for sugar because it's hardly noticeable.  This ice cream was just sweet enough, rich, had a nice creamy mouth-feel and tasted like a gourmet brand ice cream.  

Cocoa nibs have antioxidant powers and are so good for you.  The nibs I used were organic.   I can wax on about how wonderful they are, but to be brief, apparently they also have more magnesium than any other food; chromium(again more than any other food) and high levels of Vitamin C.

The ice cream looked gorgeous with all the dark nibs and vanilla flecks.   I had used organic free range eggs in the recipe.  The yolks were a deep yellow and imbued the custard with a warm hue.  With the other half of my ice cream base, I made a batch of matcha ice cream.  Green tea also has great antioxidant properties and with these two ice creams, I shall preserve my youthful glow!  That’s the plan anyway.

CHOCOLATE TWEED ANGEL FOOD CAKE

I don’t generally like angel food cake.  Often, I find it tooth-achingly sweet and the angel food cakes I’ve had in the past are often cottony and dry in texture.  Instead, I am a huge fan of chiffon cakes and have many favourite recipes I repeatedly make when I want to make a cake that doesn’t require frosting and can be eaten out of hand to satisfy my cake-tooth.

So why am I making an angel food cake if I profess to not even like them?  What is so appealing to me about angel food is its lack of added fat and the seemingly saintly virtue of having less of all the bad things like refined sugar and white cake flour (look ma, fewer calories and saturated fat!)  There is no leavening agent either.   Wouldn’t it be great if an angel food cake were so virtuous and tasted good too? and was not dry but moist? and not cottony?  or overly sweet? 

Today I am embarking on an angel food cake recipe quest.  Just like my chiffon quest, my macaron quest, my chocolate cupcake quest and my epic journey with the Wilton Castle Cake (aka Ariel’s Underwater Castle), I’ll be following recipe instructions to the letter and researching my subject matter to ensure proper technique and ingredients are employed to yield best results.  I’ll be testing a bunch of recipes from my vast collection of cookbooks and my favourite food blogs in order to find a foolproof recipe that yields angel food characteristics that I deem important:

• a  tender crumb; not a cottony texture
• not overly sweet
• flavourful and tasty!

First, I am going to give Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Rose’s Heavenly Cakes another try with her gorgeous-looking “Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake”.  The picture in her cookbook  is enticing with its “Chocolate-Spangled Whipped Cream” frosting and dark chocolate garnish of Valrhona Les Perles  studded all over the frosting.  What I find particularly attractive about this cake is its name!    I like a recipe to have a creative name indicative of its qualities.  The texture seemed moist but mind you, if it’s layered and frosted with Whipped Cream frosting of course it should be moist.  I would like to eat this angel food cake sans frosting just to be purist and test whether it is capable of being eaten out of hand on its own.  I don’t expect it to be as moist and tender as chiffon, but I would like to see it come pretty close!  wishful thinking?

All went well as I followed the recipe exactly and weighed all my ingredients.  When I do a recipe quest, I never stray from the exact instructions.  I do not adapt.  I do not substitute.  This way I can have a better idea of whether or not the original recipe works well or not.  If it does, on subsequent testing, then I go about adapting flavours and stuff.  The instructions were easy to follow and I appreciate how angel food cake doesn’t require a whole whack of ingredients. 

Even the baking time was brief compared to baking a chiffon.  It was almost half the time in the oven compared to a chiffon.  I brought the cake out of the oven when it was golden brown and had the deep cracks that were indicated in the instructions.  I immediately turned it upside down and allowed it to cool for about 2 hours before even attempting to try to remove it from the pan.
Hit the link for the verdict and scroll to bottom to see the recipe.