Back to the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie cake.  This is a cross between a gigantic peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and a cake, so it’s sort of difficult to classify it as either a cookie or a cake, in my opinion.  It has the texture and appearance of a cookie, not the soft, tender crumb of a cake.  The only way in which it resembles a cake is that it’s about 10 inches in diameter.

You can call it whatever you like, but chances are when you taste it, the only thing you’re going to be calling it is absolutely delicious.

I baked mine in a tart pan with a removable base because I don’t have a 10-inch round cake pan.  It made it super easy to remove the cookie cake when it was cool (er, well, it was almost cool when I removed it, I just couldn’t wait any longer!).

This has got to be one of my most favorite foods that I have baked.  My only regret is that I over-baked it just by a couple of minutes (it was slightly dry, not gooey-looking like the pictures at Almost Bourdain).  My oven is hard to figure out.  It’s basically brand new (just about 7 months old) and it is fan-forced.  It doesn’t really brown anything, so it’s sometimes hard to figure out when something is done.

No matter, this cookie cake was just the most scrumptious thing ever.

And I will definitely be making this one again soon.

The original recipe that inspired Ellie from Almost Bourdain to make this cookie cake called for semisweet chocolate chips to be used, but Ellie used milk chocolate chips.  I decided to use milk chocolate chips too.  I normally don’t like milk chocolate that much, but coupled with the peanut butter I thought it would taste great.  I made sure to choose a good quality milk chocolate (I chose Cadbury, which isn’t top of the line, of course, but I do like Cadbury milk chocolate) to give me a better chance of liking it!  Even though I loved the cookie cake with the milk chocolate chips, I’ll try semisweet, or even dark, chocolate chips next time I make this.

This was a big hit with my 2-year-old son, who even sneaked into the cupboard and stole some when I wasn’t looking!

Recipe Source
Ellie from Almost Bourdain

And on a separate note, just a quick reminder that coming up on July 1 the first ever Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge ingredient will be announced. For more information on this brand new monthly cupcake challenge that I have started, read this page.

In this particular case, I was at the library browsing through the small selection of back issues of delicious. magazine.  That’s when I saw it.  A photo on the cover of November 2009′s issue that looked like a stack of Heaven with Heaven sauce and Heaven cream and a scattering of Heaven thrown on top.  I clutched on to it immediately.

What was actually on the cover was a beautifully arranged stack of 3 coconut pancakes. In between the layers was a hearty creamy dollop of creme fraiche and sliced bananas. From the very top of the stack of pancakes, caramel sauce drizzled down and scattered about the stack was shredded coconut and a dusting of icing sugar.

Oh. My. God. The photo looked fantastic. And then, I made it for myself.

My stack looks sort of similar to the photo on the cover, but it doesn’t have the elegance that the cover photo did!  But in the end, it didn’t matter to me one single bit what it looked like, because this is one of the most delicious stacks of pancakes I have ever eaten.  Ever.

Let’s start with the caramel sauce.  It is drop-dead easy to make – just throw the ingredients into a saucepan and simmer for a few minutes.  And it’s super sweet.  But that’s okay, because the tang from the creme fraiche balances everything out perfectly.

What you’ll find most time-consuming is that the eggs for the pancakes are separated.  The yolks are whisked along with the regular ingredients (milk, flour, baking powder, etc.) and the whites are whisked to stiff peaks then gently folded into the batter.  I used my stand mixer to do that because I don’t have the patience to do it by hand (unlike Jonathan on MasterChef Australia, have you seen that guy whisk egg whites?  Wow, he’s like a human KitchenAid!).

Anyway, you’ll get about 9 pancakes.  Divide them up into groups of three, layer with a dollop of creme fraiche and sliced bananas, give the caramel sauce a stir, then drizzle over the pancakes.  Lastly, dust the whole plate with icing sugar and sprinkle with shredded coconut.  And there you have it, one of the most divine, heavenly, indulgent dishes you could ever have the pleasure of eating.

My pictures just don’t do it justice, really.

Just a quick tip – I had to whisk my creme fraiche to get it all nice and creamy, otherwise it was firm, like a block of tofu.  It was the first time I have ever had creme fraiche.  I could never eat this stuff on its own, it packs quite a tangy punch for me, but it was perfect with these pancakes.

Coconut Pancakes With Caramel Sauce, Bananas And Creme Fraiche
Adapted from delicious. magazine, November 2009
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
4 eggs, separated
1 cup (250ml) coconut milk
1 cup (150g) plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
3 ripe bananas
Unsalted butter, melted, to grease
Creme fraiche, icing sugar and shredded coconut, to serve

Caramel sauce:
50g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup firmly packed (100g) brown sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
150ml thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
For caramel sauce, stir all ingredients in a pan over low heat to dissolve sugar, then simmer for 5 minutes, until thickened. Set aside.

For pancakes, place egg yolks, coconut milk and a pinch of salt in a bowl and whisk until combined. Gently fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Mash 1 banana and fold in to combine. In another bowl, whisk egg whites to stiff peaks, then fold into the batter.

Heat a non-stick frypan over medium-low heat and brush with butter. Using a heaped tablespoon of batter for each pancake, add 3-4 spoonfuls to pan and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until golden and cooked. Keep warm, while continuing with the remaining batter to make a total of 9 pancakes.

Slice remaining bananas. Arrange the pancakes in stacks on serving plates, alternating with banana slices and creme fraiche. Drizzle with caramel sauce, then dust with icing sugar and sprinkle with coconut.

To Valli Little, the creator of these pancakes – YOU ROCK!

Here’s the photo from the cover of the magazine that made me fall in love:

See what I mean?

I also got an Eco Cup because I mentioned earlier that I’d like to take a cup of coffee along with me on those cold, early mornings when I have to walk my daughter to preschool, but I didn’t have a nice travel cup.

And now I do.  It looks almost just like a takeaway paper coffee cup, but it’s not.  The cup is porcelain and the sleeve and lid are silicone.  Apparently I can use it at coffee shops, if I request for the barista to fill it instead of a paper cup.  Neat!

I also got Julie Goodwin’s cookbook, Our Family Table.  Julie Goodwin was the winner of the first MasterChef series in Australia, last year.  It’s a brand new book, only being released within the past month.  It’s a nice little cookbook and very stylish.  The recipes are easy enough even for a novice.

I’ve already made one of the recipes in Julie’s book, treacle scones.  Apparently the recipe comes from Julie’s great-grandmother, who enjoyed them when she herself was only a little child.

The were so easy and quick to bake up.  I had never made scones before and haven’t actually eaten that many of them.  I decided to make these because I haven’t anything to enjoy with a cup of coffee in the morning for breakfast!

Mmm, I had one with blueberry jam.  Very nice!  The only thing I did differently from the recipe was to use honey instead of treacle, because I have no treacle.  So I guess that my scones aren’t technically treacle scones.

I’m sorry I can’t share the recipe for these scones with you, as, of course, the book has a copyright on it.  I’ve noticed that some cookbooks state that no part of the book may be reproduced in any form, etc., and other cookbooks don’t.  If the cookbook doesn’t have this in it, then I would post it here.  But Julie’s cookbook does, so I’m going to respect the copyright so I won’t get into any trouble!  If you’re interested in baking treacle scones, do an internet search and I’m sure you can find a similar recipe.  :)

To get back in the swing of things, I have a sort of Japanese-theme for this post.  We’ll start off with teriyaki beef sushi.  If you read my new “About” page, you will learn that sushi is my ultimate favorite food.  I love sushi with raw salmon the best, but this recipe that I found in the March 2010 issue of Australia’s Recipes + is pretty good too.

I’m really sorry for the poor quality of the photo.  The sun had already set and lighting was dim in the house.  I keep saying it’s time to make my own lightbox, but haven’t gotten around to that yet.

Anyway, what we have here is a thinly sliced expensive rump steak that has been stir-fried in a teriyaki marinade sauce and sprinkled in sesame seeds, matchstick carrots and cucumbers, seasoned sushi rice, all wrapped up into a seaweed cone.  It tastes great, but I think it tastes better completely chilled straight from the refrigerator, rather than eating it straight away.

My notes on this recipe for the sushi; I didn’t use all the sushi seasoning called for in the recipe.  I did not use peanut and sesame oils, I just used regular vegetable oil.  I also used a teriyaki marinade sauce instead of plain teriyaki sauce.  And it took a few tries before I finally was able to roll the seaweed into something that actually resembled a cone!

For dessert, let’s talk meringues.  I’ll start at the beginning.  I was just simply browsing my local newsagency and admiring the food magazines.  delicious. is one of my favorites, but it’s a rather expensive magazine and the food is slightly more upscale than what I’m used to making.  I hadn’t planned on buying this magazine, but a recipe inside caught my eye.  It was a pistachio meringue with green tea cream.  You know how much I love green tea.  I bought the magazine simply because of this one recipe, it looked brilliant and, well, delicious.

My pistachio meringue with green tea cream?  Nowhere near as marvelous-looking as the one in the magazine (and the dim lighting problem again).  I think I beat the egg whites too long, so it might have ended up a bit dry.  I’m not sure, I haven’t made a real meringue before.

In the end, it didn’t matter how long I beat the egg whites because this dessert was one of the best foods I have ever put in my mouth.  The taste sent me to a whole other world where only it and I existed.  Simply amazing.

I’ll have to make these again, but be a bit more careful with my egg whites.

Beef Teriyaki Sushi
Makes 8 cones
Adapted from Recipes + magazine, Marsh 2010 issue

Ingredients
1 cup sushi rice, uncooked (or use medium-grain rice)
1/4 cup sushi seasoning
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
500g beef rump steak, trimmed, thinly sliced
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted
4 nori sheets, halved
1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 medium cucumber, cut into matchsticks
Wasabi paste and pickled ginger to serve, optional

Method
Rinse rice in cold water; drain well.  Place in a heavy-based medium saucepan with 1 cup water.  Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to very low; cover tightly.  Simmer for 12 minutes.  Remove pan from heat; stand, covered for 10 minutes.

Spread rice in a large baking dish.  Sprinkle with sushi seasoning.  Using a flat spoon or spatula, slice through rice to coat grains evenly.  Fan rice to cool quickly.  Cover with a damp tea-towel.

Meanwhile, heat oils in a large frying pan over moderately high heat.  Add beef; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until seared.  Add sauce; cook and stir for 1 minute or until sauce has almost evaporated.  Set aside to cool.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

To make a cone: using slightly damp hands, place a nori rectangle on a flat surface.  Using a wet spoon, spread 2 tablespoons rice over half the sheet.  Top with a little carrot, cucumber and beef mixture diagonally across the rice (don’t overfill).  Roll sheet from the filled side on a diagonal to shape cone.  Serve with wasabi and pickled ginger.

Pistachio Meringues With Green Tea Cream
Makes 8 meringues
Adapted from delicious. magazine, April 2010 issue

Ingredients
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup (75g) unsalted pistachios, finely chopped
300ml thickened cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar mixture
1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons matcha (green tea powder)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 100C and line a baking tray with baking paper.  Place sugar in a stainless steel bowl and heat in the oven for 8-10 minutes until quite warm to touch.

Whisk egg whites in a clean, dry electric mixer on medium speed for 3-5 miutes until frothy.  Increase speed to medium-high, sprinkle in cream of tartar and gradually add sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, allowing 2-3 minutes between each addition.  Return sugar to oven to keep warm.  The meringue is ready when it is stiff and glossy (about 10-12 minutes).

Dab a little meringue under the corners of the baking paper to stick it down onto the tray.  Use a large spoon to dollop some of the meringue onto the tray (about the size of an apple), repeat to form 8-10 meringues.  Sprinkle with pistachios and bake for 2-2 1/2 hours until they’re dry and sound hollow if lightly tapped on the base.

When they are ready, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Once cool, store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

When you’re ready to serve, beat cream, icing sugar and green tea with electric beaters to soft peaks.  Carefully slice the meringues in half using a sharp serrated knife.  Dollop tea cream onto the base of each meringue, sit lids on top and serve.

Later on, I came to realize that a hot cross bun is a sweet, golden bun speckled with raisins and marked with a cross on top, and sold at Easter time.  The cross is supposed to symbolize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  Or at least that’s what Wikipedia tells me about hot cross buns.

Whatever the original meaning of hot cross buns, it is obvious that they have evolved over the years.  Hot cross buns can now be found studded with chocolate chips instead of dried fruits, and I recently even tasted a mocha-flavored hot cross bun.

Yeast, of course, is used to make these buns and for this reason I have been put off of ever making them myself.  It seems quite a few of us are a little nervous when it comes to baking with yeast.  I can’t quite explain it, but it just sounds scary.  If a recipe calls for yeast, I skip over it, never to look at it again!  One of these days I will face my fears, because I’d really like to make some good old-fashioned cinnamon rolls.

In the latest issue of delicious. magazine, April 2010, there is a recipe for hot cross muffins, or faux hot cross buns, if you will (original recipe is on this page, just scroll down).  Being a muffin recipe, you know that they will not be using yeast.  I had a look over the recipe and decided I’d try these out.  However, I’d be replacing the dried fruit with, you guessed it, chocolate chips.  Hey, this is The Sweetest Kitchen, isn’t it!?

The resulting muffin looks like a close relative of the traditional hot cross bun, tastes similar, but of course, lacks the original texture of the hot cross bun which is provided by the yeast.  The cross is made with from a simple, thick confectioners’ sugar glaze.  This is a dense, yet moist, muffin that tastes great warmed up with a cup of coffee for breakfast.  It’s super easy to whip up for quick treats during this long Easter weekend.

Hot Cross Muffins
Adapted from delicious. magazine
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
135g chocolate chips
21/2 cups (375g) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2/3 cup (165ml) sunflower oil
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
2 eggs
200g caster sugar, plus extra 2 tbs
80g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 12-hole muffin tray and line with paper cases.

Sift the flour, soda and spices into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs and sugar until combined. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Gently stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the mixture among muffin cases, then bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, place the extra 2 tbs sugar in a pan with 2 tbs water and simmer over low heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Brush the glaze over the muffins.

Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add lemon juice and just enough hot water to make a thick, pipable icing. Use a piping bag or drizzle from a spoon to draw a cross on each muffin, then serve.

It tastes amazing!  We used apples to dip into it, but it would taste great with bananas and strawberries as well.

This is my bonus World Nutella Day recipe for all you Nutella-lovers!

Nutella Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
Adapted from In Mama’s Kitchen
Print this recipe via Tasty Kitchen
Makes approx. 1/2 cup

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Nutella
3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk

Method
Thoroughly mix Nutella, cream cheese and salt until no streaks of cream cheese remain.  Mixture may be a little grainy-looking.  Slowly add milk a bit at a time and stir until milk is thoroughly mixed in.  You should end up with a nice smooth, creamy dip for your fruit.  Store in refrigerator.  To soften up the dip after removing from the refrigerator, just stick it in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds.

This month’s Taste Of Home magazine featured quite a few cheesecake recipes and they all looked amazing to me.  It made me wish that I liked cheesecakes!  I decided to try one of the recipes; maybe my tastes had changed since I last had cheesecake.  I chose the pumpkin cheesecake, because I love pumpkin.

Now, I’ve never made a cheesecake before, so I was entering new territory!  The process of putting it together was extremely easy.  I was looking forward to having a cheesecake that was as beautiful and yummy-looking as was in the picture in the magazine.

But, it ended up being not as pretty…

The graham cracker crust was soggy, for one.  Second, the topping was too brown.  It just didn’t have the mouth-watering look like the photo of the pumpkin cheesecake slice in the magazine!

The taste of the cheesecake though was to die for!  I loved it!  I couldn’t detect the taste of the cream cheese, although my mom said she could.  To me, it tasted like a pumpkin pie.  The brown sugar and chopped walnut crunchy topping was a great contrast in texture.

By the looks of the topping, it looks like I over-baked it.  The recipe said to bake until the center was set, but I realized I didn’t know what it would look like when the center was set because I’ve never made a cheesecake before!  It was still slightly wobbly in the center, but I didn’t want to bake it any longer because the topping looked over-done.

I will definitely be trying to make this cheesecake again.  For something different at Thanksgiving this year, I would highly recommend this recipe!

Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake
Adapted from Taste Of Home magazine, Oct/Nov 2009
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
5 eggs, lightly beaten

Topping:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts

Method

Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil (about 18 in. square).  Securely wrap foil around pan.  In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in melted butter.  Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of prepared pan.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth.  Beat in the pumpkin, cream, cinnamon and cloves until blended.  Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined.  Pour over crust.  Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 inch of hot water to larger pan.

Bake at 325F for 1 hour.  For topping, in a small bowl, combine butter and brown sugar.  Stir in walnuts.  Carefully sprinkle over hot cheesecake.  Bake 30 minutes longer or until center is just set.  Remove springform pan from water bath.  Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.  Refrigerate overnight.

Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a lot of people are scared, or reluctant, to bake cinnamon rolls from scratch because of the yeast, the waiting, the rolling, etc.  That’s fine though, because Cinnabon sells a great cinnamon roll, and you can even bake up a Pillsbury cinnamon roll from a tube in just 10 minutes.  But sometimes maybe you find yourself longing for a homemade cinnamon roll, and for those times, I recommend you print out the recipe for these super easy no-yeast cinnamon rolls right now!

See, I’m scared of baking with yeast too!  But I promise myself that I will one day face my fears about yeast.  That day is not today, however.  When I saw this recipe for no-yeast cinnamon rolls at Ezra Pound Cake I was so relieved to see that I really could make cinnamon rolls without yeast.

The process of making the cinnamon rolls was actually quite fun.  You don’t even have to roll out the dough, you just press it with your hands into a rectangle shape.  I contemplated putting the sliced cinnamon rolls in a cupcake liner (like this), but my rolls ended up being too wide to do that successfully.

What I like about these cinnamon rolls:  They are easy, quick, and yummy!  I had them for breakfast, warmed up in the microwave, with a cup of coffee.

What I didn’t like about these cinnamon rolls:  They were more dense and cake-like than I thought they would be.

What I would change the next time around:  I will be making these again, without a doubt, however, I think that next time I will add less nutmeg and more cinnamon.  It tasted more like a nutmeg roll than a cinnamon roll, I thought!  The other thing I will do differently is to make more of the glaze.  I didn’t think that there was enough (at least not enough to suit my tastes), so I will double the recipe for the glaze next time.

Find the recipe at Ezra Pound Cake.

You can also find another recipe for no-yeast cinnamon rolls at Don’t Forget Delicious, which look really yummy as well.

A few months ago, my mom challenged me to make divinity.  I’ve been trying to get around to taking up the challenge for a couple of months now and just yesterday I finally decided to do it.  I’ve researched as much as I can about how to make this candy and found so many tips, but generally the recipe is the same.

So, seeing as how it was a low humidity day (apparently you’re not supposed to even attempt this candy when the humidity is high), I gathered all my ingredients together and I began the task.  In a pan, I combined sugar, water, corn syrup and salt and heated it to 260F.  Meanwhile, I whipped the egg whites until stiff peaks formed.

When the sugar mixture reached 260F, I took it off the stove and began to pour the syrup slowly into the bowl of my stand mixer which was running on high speed.  This is when the trouble started.  Even though I was pouring the syrup down the side of the bowl, the whisk picked up the syrup and the syrup started spiraling in spiderweb-type strings all the way up the whisk and to where the whisk attaches to the mixer!  It was so stringy I couldn’t really stop it!  I turned off the mixer and unattached the string from the whisk.

The syrup was hardening pretty quickly on the whisk, which looked like it was covered in spiderwebs.  I turned the mixer on again and tried pouring an even smaller stream of syrup into the egg whites, which seemed to work well.  Then the mixer, while at full speed, started slowing down a bit and the motor took on a different sound that I didn’t much like.  This is a one-year-old KitchenAid, by the way.  The mixture in the bowl was getting very thick and I wasn’t even done pouring the syrup out yet.

Once I got all the syrup out, the mixture was very thick and very glossy.  Side note – I have just read before posting this that I should have kept beating the mixture until it lost its gloss, but I was scared to let the mixer run any longer!  I didn’t beat it for the recommended amount of time before I just had to turn it off.

The mixture was stiff, like I said, and it had no problem holding its shape.  So I decided to try to spoon it out onto wax paper.  Well, the mixture was so sticky and so stretchy that spooning it out was impossible.  I wondered what would happen if I tried to get the mixture into a pastry bag, used a large rounded tip and piped it out onto the wax paper.  So I tried it.

In the photo above, you can see three dollops of the mixture in the top left, which was from trying to use a spoon.  The rest of them have been piped out.  The piping formed a nice shape, so this is how I did the rest of them.  I used the rest of a jar of maraschino cherries to top some of them.

I thought I might have succeeded after all in making divinity, but it actually wasn’t done yet… I let the pieces cool and firm up on the wax paper for a few hours.  I tried to take one off the paper, but it stuck.  Trying to get it off turned the piece into a sticky glob.  I ate it anyway, and it did taste very nice, like a sweet marshmallow.  The texture was sort of marshmallowy as well, but thicker.  And it was very sticky.

So, I failed after all!  I put the pieces, still on wax paper, into the freezer and after doing this, the pieces came off rather easily.

I think the main thing I may have done wrong is not to have beaten it for long enough in the mixer.  But that confuses me, because it was already so thick and stiff.  If anyone reading this has made divinity successfully, please do share your tips and suggestions!

This is the recipe I used…

Divinity
Adapted from Recipezaar
Makes 40 pieces

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans or cherries (optional)

Method
In a 2 quart saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt. Cook to hardball stage, (260 degrees), stirring only until sugar dissolves.

Meanwhile, as temperature of syrup reaches 250 degrees, beat egg white till stiff peaks form.

When syrup reaches 260 degrees, very gradually add the syrup to egg whites, beating at high speed with electric mixer. Add vanilla and beat until candy holds its shape, 4-5 minutes. Stir in the chopped nuts or cherries, if desired.

Quickly drop candy from a teaspoon onto waxed paper, swirling the top of each piece. Let cool.

I have since found a recipe specifically from a book of KitchenAid stand mixer instructions and recipes which I may try next time.

I have also found a good blog post with some great tips, which I will definitely be taking into consideration next time.

Parke County is famous for its 32 covered bridges, and has festivals throughout the entire county each year to celebrate their bridges.  Throughout the county you’ll find some great seasonal foods and classic favorite foods such as baked potatoes, onion blossoms, barbecue chicken, sausages.  The smell of the air during the festival just screams FOOD at you!

Not only is food available everywhere you look at the festival, but there tents lined up at each of the festivals that are full of homemade arts and crafts.  These arts and crafts range from knitted blankets to animal skins, from children’s toys to kitchen brooms, and so on and so on.  You’ll even find more food under the tents – caramel apples, homemade fudge and cookies and sassafrass candy, to name a few.

It was in this area that I grew up, passing my local festival on my way to school each day, the smell of the food wafting in through the windows of the school bus.  On the weekend is when my mom and I would go have a look around the town square.  Now, there is always the same old stuff at the festival.  Nothing has changed since I used to go there during my school years.  But we still liked to go (or at least I did!) for the food!

One of our favorite foods was pumpkin ice cream.  I’ve never found pumpkin ice cream anywhere else except at the Covered Bridge Festival.  The ice cream basically tasted like pumpkin pie, but in ice cream form.  I loved it!  I can’t believe you can’t find pumpkin ice cream in the store, they should have it all year round!

I thought I’d never be able to have pumpkin ice cream again once I moved away from home.  So imagine my surprise when I read the inside of a Libby’s pumpkin pie mix label; it said…

Stir into softened vanilla ice cream to create your own easy pumpkin ice cream.

What!!  Unbelievable, I could have had pumpkin ice cream any time of the year and didn’t even know it!  I made the pumpkin ice cream almost immediately, adding the pumpkin pie mix until I could really taste it and the ice cream turned a lovely shade of light orange.

Incredibly, it tasted exactly like the pumpkin ice cream from the festival.  The only, and I do mean only, difference was that the festival’s pumpkin ice cream was as dark orange as the pumpkin pie mix itself.  My homemade ice cream was a very light orange.

This is the easiest ice cream you could ever make, and is the perfect solution for your leftover Libby’s pumpkin pie mix.  If you’d like to dress it up a little bit, toss some crushed Oreos on top.

This makes me realize that there should definitely be an Oreo cookie with pumpkin pie filling!

For a more exact recipe,

Easy Pumpkin Ice Cream
Adapted from Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Mix

Ingredients
2 quarts vanilla ice cream, softened
1 can (30 ounces) Libby’s pumpkin pie mix

Method
Combine ice cream and pumpkin pie mix in large bowl; stir until blended. Freeze in ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.

OR

To make recipe in home freezer, freeze mixture for 2 hours; beat with mixer for 30 seconds. Freeze for additional 2 hours or until firm.

I’ve also found that leftover Libby’s pumpkin pie mix is a great addition to oatmeal and pancakes.  :)