This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs the theme is Summer Lovin'. What better way to celebrate summer than with ice cream, right? I've been eyeballing Bittman's recipe for Coconut Ice Cream for a long time and thought this was the perfect chance to make it. When I was through making the ice cream I had 6 leftover egg whites and thought it would make a great start for an Angel Food Cake. Feeling on a roll, I went ahead and researched Bittman's sauces and decided to go ahead and make a Mango Sauce. I ended up with a very summery, tropical dessert that was light and delicious!
The coconut ice cream was made with both heavy cream and coconut milk. It was a very thick and creamy custard-based ice cream with little shreds of toasted coconut running through it. I kept wanting to dress it up and turn it into a fancy ice cream sundae, but it was best served on it's own with more toasted coconut on top. I enjoyed the ice cream, but my favorite of all three recipes was the Angel Food Cake and the Mango Sauce.
Coconut Ice Cream
Adapted from HTCE by Mark Bittman
2 cups cream, milk or half and half
1/2 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted in dry skillet until lightly browned if you like
1 cup canned or fresh coconut milk
Place the cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a heavy medium saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally, until steam arises from the cream.
Using a whisk or electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup sugar with the egg yolks until light yellow and thick, 2 to 4 minutes. Beat 1/2 cup hot cream into this, then gradually stir this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining cream. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly, until the mixture reaches 175 to 180F, or is slightly thickened; do not boil. (There will be a thick coating on the back of a spoon, one that will hold the outline of your finger after you pass it through).
Stir in the coconut and coconut milk. Pour into a covered container. Chill to 40F (you can hasten this process by setting the bowl in a large bowl filled with a mixture of ice and water; stir occasionally), then churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Serve immediately or freeze; use within 2 days, "warming" in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before serving.
Let's talk about Angel Food Cake for a minute. Do you love it like I do? I find it so irresistibly light, delicate, and sweet. You can eat it on it's own, which is perfectly delicious or you can pair it with almost anything. You can even serve it toasted. What a wonderfully versatile dessert!
Bittman's recipe calls for cake flour, which I can almost never find. Did you know that with a little work you can make your own cake flour? For every cup of cake flour needed: Sift one cup of all-purpose flour twice. Remove 2 tablespoons of the a/p flour and add in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. The cornstarch has to be incorporated extremely well. The final mixture of a/p flour and cornstarch will need to be sifted at least five times. It was a little bit of a process, but I found it much easier than running all over town for cake flour.
Angel Food Cake
Adapted from HTCE by Mark Bittman
1 cup (about 4.5 ozs) cake flour, sifted
1 - 1/2 cups sugar
9 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat oven to 325F. Sift together the flour and 1/2 cup of the sugar.
Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt and cream of tartar and continue to beat until they hold soft peaks; the tops of the whites should droop a little bit when you remove the beaters. Beat in the remaining sugar and vanilla and almond extracts and continue to beat until the peaks become a little stiffer.
Gradually and gently fold in the flour mixture, using a rubber spatula or your hand. Turn the batter into an ungreased 9- or 10- inch tube pan (not one with ridged sides) and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the cake is firm, resilient, and nicely browned.
Invert the cake onto a rack and let cool for about an hour. Cut carefully around the sides of the cake and remove. Cool completely around the sides of the cake and remove. Cool completely before slicing with a serrated knife or pulling apart with two forks. Angel Food Cake is best the day it is made; it becomes stale quickly (although is wonderful toasted).
I saved the best part of this dessert for last....the Mango Sauce. The Mango Sauce is perfectly delicious. Absolutely wonderful. I super duper highly recommend it!! It was great with the Angel Food Cake.
Mango Sauce
Adapted from HTCE by Mark Bittman
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups mango, pitted, peeled and diced
Combine the water, sugar and butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, shaking and stirring, until the mixture is thick and syrupy but not browned.
Toss in the fruit and cook over low heat until the fruit begins to break up and release its juices, about 4-5 minutes, possibly longer. (You may required a little more water). Serve warm or at room temperature. This sauce keeps well, refrigerated, for up to a week.
Notes/Results: Each of these components were great on their own, but paired together they made a wonderful tropical dessert. I enjoyed the ice cream, but was really impressed with the Angel Food Cake and especially impressed with the Mango Sauce. I will definitely make the cake and the Mango Sauce again. I left my Mango Sauce chunky, but it would also be just as tasty and probably more visually appealing if pureed into a smooth sauce.
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