Berry ice cream and cinnamon walnut palmiers

I had leftover puff pastry in my freezer for god knows how long. And I don't think anyone in the family, aside from me is a huge fan of puff pastry.

I was going to use up the leftovers to make palmier cookies. The pretty ice cream sandwich cookies seen here made me want to make my own too. I had leftover cream from making the chocolate mango mousse cake, and Sis was leaving for her America trip, I wanted to finish the cream quickly to make an ice cream for her to try before she left. The cookies will be made only after she's gone, cos she's not a puff pastry lover anyway.

The below ice cream sandwiches? For me and me alone... 

 

Berry ice cream and cinnamon walnut palmiers

Cinnamon walnut palmiers

I sorta just made up my own recipe to go along with the puff pastry dough I have since it was a square block and not in sheets as most recipes state and I didn't want to miscalculate ingredients proportions. What I did first was to toast a handful of walnuts, chop them finely, and mix in a healthy dash of cinnamon and some granulated white sugar. Then I roll out the thawed pastry block into a rectangular shape, sprinkle the cinnamon walnut sugar mixture on the dough and started rolling. I left them in the fridge overnight before slicing and baking them the next day.

The cookies were sweet, I mean, doh, it's rolled in sugar. But if taken in small quantities, were perfect for any sweet cravings. I reckon these would be good with a cup of black coffee, or during tea break, when you're hit with the snack munchies urge. I baked them slightly longer to ensure the cookies are crunchy and wouldn't lose their crispness easily. I also stored them in the fridge to ensure they wouldn't turn soft/soggy. Double precautions are a must cos I love my cookies crisp. (:

For the ice cream, I knew I wanted something fruity, like the raspberry flavour shown in the above site. I cooked some raspberries and blueberries together on the stove, added a little sugar and mashed them up with a fork. I didn't puree the mixture as I like the crunchy raspberry seeds and the texture of small chunks of fruits (blueberries) in my ice cream. I didn't want to use a custard base ice cream recipe and decided to try out David Lebovitz's recipe for Vanilla ice cream, Philadelphia style. I know I know, I've used so many of his recipes already that I should just go out and buy a copy of his book I will. Soon. I promise. (:

The ice cream melted so fast in the time span I took to scoop it, make the ice cream sandwiches and position them for the photograph. Shows how hot Singapore can get when the weather is hot. Can't complain, cos if it's not sweating hot, the only other weather would be cold and rainy. Seriously, there's only three seasons in Singapore - hot, sweating hot, and cold and rainy. Snigger. And I have a love/hate with rainy weather. Love it cos it's not hot for once, and hate it cos that means the sky is gloomy and I can't get get decent lighting. Ha!

Berry compote; Cinnamon walnut palmiers

The berry sauce smelled so good and was so addictive that I couldn't stop dipping a spoon into the mixture to sample it like half a zillion times. I wanted pretty pinkish swirls in the ice cream, but I must have ended up stirring the mixture a little too zealously and the berry sauce sort of melded into the half churned ice cream even before I knew it. Oh well, can't complain, the pretty pink hue was gorgeous to say the least. ;)

Couldn't resist adding more pink (pomegranate seeds) to the already pink settings

The ice cream texture was different from the usual Vanilla ice cream recipe I use (with egg yolks), but not in an unpleasant way of course. The fruit flavour was really prominent, which I loved. In fact, I couldn't believe it was so creamy even without any egg yolks in it (probably also because I wanted to use up all the cream I had and replaced some of the milk with additional cream...). I served my Sis a scoop of this the night before she left for her trip and she said it was really good. (: Another thumbs up for home made ice cream.

I was telling Sis how much an ice cream maker costs (the cheapest is around $99?) today, and she was like, "That's cheap! Cheaper than a coffee machine..." Ha! I might get an ice cream maker by the end of the year perhaps? ;)

Oh, and the stack of three ice cream sandwiches? I was just kidding about having them all to myself, I shared them with my Dad. ;)