TWD: Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet

Doing icecream is one of my favourite things to do in summer. I especially like doing french-style icecream, which is not for everybody, as it involves uncooked eggs you have to temper. But I like the creaminess of custard-based icecream more and for me, in the end it is easier to handle. I don't have an ice-machine, therefore Philadelphia style icecream tends to get too hard and have too many ice-crystals.

The same is true for sorbets and sherbets. Therefore, the recipe for Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet choosen by Steph for this weeks TWD was an "oh, I don't know, can't I just make ice-cream?"-recipe. But I decided to stick to my "duties" and try it out. And I am glad I did. The sorbet is in fact a sherbet, as it includes dairy (milk), and ice-crystals were no problem - I guess thanks to the fat in the chocolate. It is really a creamy sorbet - yes, these kind of things exist! :o]
Find the recipe in Dorie's book on p. 431 or go to Steph's page "A Whisk and A Spoon".

I made some fresh/dried-apricot icream (combined from the two recipes in David Lebovitz' "Perfect Scoop"), too, so I am going to bring this mix tomorrow to my office, sprinkled with some roasted pinenuts. If my colleagues don't like it, they don't deserve it!!

This recipe is really a good alternative to "real" icecream because it is so much faster, easier, and does not involve so many pots, bowls and utensils.

TWD: Cream Scones

Scones! I'm in love with those treats ever since I first had them (what is not so long ago, because Scones are not very usual in continental Europe. First scone-experience: February 2010, NYC. No Joke!).

And I can't say it often enough: I'm pretty happy we have so many breakfast treats left to bake. I strongly belive that there are people who make wonderful, exciting cakes and there are people who are good in baking "dry stuff" like bread, Viennoisserie, scones and biscuits. Maybe simple cakes, too. No, I know, these things are not really "dry" at all. It's just to describe the difference to creamy cakes.
Guess I am the second kind of person.

I followed the recipe for Cream Scones just as written in Dorie's book on p. 12 - you can find the recipe on Lynne's page "Cafe LynnyLu", too. She picked this easy, fast and at the same time great recipe for this week's TWD!
The heavy cream gives the rceipe a special touch.

But: I was wondering, where the raisins come in? Must have a blind spot or anything.Well, I changed them for dried apricots, anyway, because I LOVE dried apricots and could not imagine rasins in these.

Wonderful, wonderful recipe! Am going to re-do, and re-do, and re-do...

P.S.: If anybody knows the "flowers" in the picture - that gives an extra 10 points for beeing a bloomer-nerd! Found them at my market. I once read  about this plant, because it has the same name as an cookbook-author, but this was in a spice-context - so I would never have expected them to be sold at the flower stand!

TWD: Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Big surprise!

First surprise: I thought we have chocolate cookies on the schedule, this week again. Didn't read the monthly preview thoroughly.
Second surprise: I am not a huge chocolate lover, so I would never make chocolate muffins on my own. But - I really really liked these!

For the melted chocolate I used bittersweet as in the recipe. But for the chunks I used white chocolate. Not extremely creative, I know, but a bit. Looking at the dough I had the feeling, some more chocolate chunks would do no harm. I took about 3 ounces - more would still have been no problem. Afterwards I saw that some other members also recommended to use more chunks.

Well, I ended up with pretty good Dark-White Chocolate Chunk Muffins, some of the few ones I really like!

Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for chosing this unexpected good and easy recipe! Go to her page for the recipe, or have a look at page 18 in Dorie's book.