Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Flavors of a Suburban Childhood

Photobucket
Creamsicle Semifreddo

I've been a bit of a lazy blogger lately. I have been a very busy social networker though. In the past week or so, I have joined both twitter and foodbuzz. I think I have the whole twitter thing figured out. It's both kind of neat and pointless at the same time. I like being able to send immediate non-food related messages to fellow bloggers, but to be perfectly honest, I'm running low on witty repartee....

Why in god's name would anyone care what I'm eating for breakfast?
(Heritage Farms Flax Plus multigrain cereal. Keeps the digestive system on the regs...see what I mean?)

Foodbuzz still kind of confuses the hell out of me. The wine country blog I featured on my profile was accidentally posted twice and I can't figure out how to make one of them go away. And how do you get that nifty graphic to display on your blog? I'll get the hang of it eventually, as I usually do with these computer-related activities. I'm still kind of amazed that I keep a blog in the first place. I was born during the Carter administration, which means that growing up, Atari Pong was considered the penultimate in technological advances and mankind was just inches away from self-aware robots and hovercrafts. I realize that software techs in their forties are laughing their asses off at me, but yeah- when it comes to this interweb thingymajig, I'm on a bit of a slow learning curve.

Speaking of my youth- my dessert menu is experiencing a childhood kick lately. The fruit pies are always a big seller, mainly for their simplicity and the fact that it's hard to find a good slice o' pie in the city these days- but fruit pies, delicious and awesome as they are, are typically a favored by the "Jag" crowd.
Photobucket
It's time for a shout out to the young'uns- and to some of my favorite flavors as a kid. Memories of watching the Mariners lose at the now demolished Kingdome with my dad and eating chocolate malts became a malted chocolate mousse cake served with caramelized rice krispies. Mom taking us to McDonalds for an orange-vanilla swirl cone (which they don't sell anymore. Buttholes.) after going to the swimming pool has been translated to a creamsicle semifreddo.
Photobucket
Orange and vanilla has always been one of my favorite combos. It's right up there with burgers and beer. The semifreddo (which is basically just a frozen mousse- no ice cream maker required) has just a smidgen of an ingredient that I generally abhor: white chocolate. But when cut heartily with lots of cointreau and orange zest, you can barely tell it's there. It's minuscule- a whisper really, to help play up the vanilla bean and provide a really nice texture. White chocolate haters will most likely still enjoy this dessert.
Photobucket
On to the recipe:
Creamsicle Semifreddo

Mousse Base (can be made a day or two in advance):
1 3/4 cups whole milk
zest of 1 orange
2 T sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
1 T fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tsp cointreau*
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

combine the milk, zest, and vanilla bean in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover, and let steep to 2 hours.

whisk the yolks and salt together. bring the infused milk back to a simmer and temper it into the yolks. return mixture to pot and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula over low heat until mixture thickens slightly. Strain though a sieve into a container and chill. Once cooled, stir in the vanilla extract, orange juice, and cointreau.

semifreddo:
mousse base
12 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp sugar
2 T fresh squeezed orange juice
1 T cointreau

line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the cream, orange juice, sugar, and cointreau until very soft peaks form. set aside.
melt the white chocolate over a double boiler until no lumps remain. stir in the mousse base until smooth. fold in the whipped cream in 3 additions. continue folding gently until well combined. pour mousse into the prepped loaf pan and freeze over night. invert onto a frozen sheet pan and cut into 12 slices.

20 comments:

Chou said...

This sounds fabulous! I love all things orange, especially creamsicle--but homemade? That must be best of all. :)

Peabody said...

Mmm, I love creamsicle flavor. I made a Bavarian one time using that flavor as well. I will have to give this a try as it sounds great.

Emily said...

I saw on Twitter that you've had to work a lot, so that doesn't mean your lazy!
Congrats on Foodbuzz. I can't remember exactly how you get the Featured Publisher and advertising widget on your sidebar, but somewhere in their website there is an html code that you copy and paste. On Blogger, under "add a gadget" there's a section for html code, and you just paste it into there.

I think there are a few quirks in their website, so I'm not sure what to tell you on the double-post thing.

You are so smart! This is a good idea! I love it. I actually like white chocolate, by the way...

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Creamsicle is such a nice flavour! It does taste like childhood! I'm a bit confused by Foodbuzz as well...

Alicia Foodycat said...

Yum! I don't know what creamsicle is but that semifreddo sounds delicious!

Peter M said...

Creamsicles are one of my summertime faves...this is so bookmarked!

ley said...

That's brilliant! It looks amazingly yummy, and that chocolate malt cake sounds fantastic, too. You should transform more kid treats into fancy adult desserts! Yum.

Brittany said...

chou- thanks! I also love orange- can't wait for the winter varieties to start coming. I'm especially parital to sevilles.

peabody- I love bavarians, they are so underrated. creamsicle bavarian sounds amazing.

Em- Thanks chica, and yes, my assistant shattered the bones in her wrist while in Amsterdam- so I am working 7 days a week. I've been trying to get away with posting things about "what I've been up to" rather than actually baking stuff. I am racking up some pretty awesome OT tho.

coookie- yeah, it's just one of those things I'll have to tinker with for a week or two

foodycat- a standard creamsicle is an orange popsicle with vanilla ice cream in the middle- you need to try one, you won't be sorry...

Peter- me too, creamsicles and cherry coke slurpees remind me of summer as a kid (though I think I would gag at the slurpee now)

Ley- I will need to post that one too. If youlike whoppers, you'll like the cake.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

you mean the fact that i twittered that i had a good honeydew melon this morning did not make your day?

damn

yes, stupid. i am agreeing. but not stopping yet. maybe soon.

foodbuzz? i dunno. they lobbied for me hard in the very beginning - i just opted out of alla that. probably my mistake - but only time will tell.

but that semifreddo? that is totally awesome. AWESOME. and beautiful. what the hell are you doing making semifreddo in october? not that i'd turn it down. just feels summery. not that i'm criticizing - cause i so am not.

really, i think it's just envy...

peter said...

I remember a drink called a creamsicle- orange juice and vanilla vodka. Are you going to do a fudgesicle one next? I LOVE fudgesicles.

Anonymous said...

awesome stuff - a great looking desert, and a great post!

Foodbuzz confuses the crap out of me too. Seems like on the outside it wants to be a Facebook for the foodie world, I just find the layout of their website impossible though.

Anonymous said...

This looks absolultey delicious, I'm glad I stumbled upon your site!

www.chocolateshavings.ca

grace said...

ah, the creamsicle. definitely a favorite childhood treat of mine, and this is a great, more adult-oriented version of it. bravo!

Brittany said...

claudia- Oh I'm still gonna twitter. Having nothing interesting to say has never kept my mouth shut in the past, so why start now?

Peter- fuggicles ROCK. And they are low in fat. And they are chocolatey. Quite possibly , the perfect food.

Matt- I know, it's like myspace but more confusing. I'll get there-it will just take me longer than most peeps.

Jen & Oliver- thanks guys!

Grace- you mean theres no cointreau in the popsicle version? Damn, I've been jipped.

The Spiteful Chef said...

This post gave me total lady-wood. Also a freakish craving for a rootbeer float semifreddo. That may be in the works for this weekend. I do have some rootbeer schnapps floating around from one night where we mixed it with Budweiser Select *you should definitely try this--tastes just like rootbeer and makes other people more attractive*

Brittany said...

This so takes me back to my push pop days! Looks amazing!

Brooke said...

Brittany, the only reason this magic box is foreign to you is because you work in a kitchen. Now, if you were to sit on your ass all day long in front of this thing, you'd be a total computer geek.

You'd also have carpal tunnel, a huge ass, and no social life...except in cyberspace.

Why did McDonalds get rid of the orange creamsicle? I miss those.

Brittany said...

spiteful- heh. lady wood.
um....budweiser select and rootbeer schnaaps? Mixed together? Maybe I'll give it a try when I get pregnant.

Brittany- ooh push pops! The flinestones ones! I totally forgot about those!

Brooke- thanks for the vote of confidence, but we all know that I would never even be considered for a position at one of those high fallutin' computer-like jobs. You're the brains in this family, I'm the braun. It is totally fucked up that McDonalds got rid of the one edible item on their whole menu. sheesh.

Heather said...

I like white chocolate just fine - the first creme brulee I ever made included it!

The double-post thing happens when you manually post your blogpost in Foodbuzz. It will already add your post directly from your blog.

For the widget, the Add a Gadget thingy is on the Layout tab. Lemme know if you need other help!

Anonymous said...

Nackte Amateure

alte titten

Amateure Privat Cams





Thanks Norm!