Chicken Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Almond Milk Ice Cream

Tonight was full of new stuff. We had a chicken, broccoli and cheddar soup for dinner, and for dessert, almond milk ice cream. Both were gambles since I hadn't made either before, but they turned out pretty good considering. The soup was really creamy and chock full of broccoli, which in short means it was delicious.

Ingredients:

1 cup onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups chicken broth

1 package of broccoli, chopped

2.5 cups milk (we used 2%)

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp pepper

8 oz cheddar cheese, sliced
2 chicken breasts, chopped to bite size pieces

Procedure:

1. Sweat onions and garlic in a non stick sauce pan over medium high heat

2. Add broth and broccoli

3. Bring to a boil then reduce to medium heat

4. Cook for 10 minutes
5. Fry chicken breasts in a separate pan 

6. In a separate bowl mix milk and cornstarch till well blended

7. Add to saucepan

8. Cook approximately 5 minutes or until it slightly thickens

9. Add pepper

10. Remove from heat and add cheese

11. Stir till it melts

12. Blend 1/3 of soup and return to pan.
13. Add chicken to soup.

14. Stir smooth and serve

Pictures!

Onions and garlic in pan

Adding broccoli and broth

Marc slicing up the cheese from a block

After adding the milk and cornstarch mixture

We used an immersion blender to blend some of it. Much easier than moving it back and forth between pan and blender.

For dessert I experimented with Almond Milk. It's super yummy by itself, so I wanted to see how it would work as a substitute for whole milk in ice cream. If you're unfamiliar with almond milk you can read more about it and how it compares to cow's milk here. Ice cream is really easy to make, so long as you have something with which to churn it. Lucky for us, my mother gifted us one for Christmas a few years back. Here's the recipe I used for this:

Ingredients

1.25 cups heavy cream

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 and 1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups almond milk

Procedure

1. Combine almond milk and sugar in a large bowl

2. Mix until sugar dissolves

3. Add in heavy cream and vanilla

4 Stir to combine

5. Add to ice cream maker and churn for 20-25 minutes until thickened

6. Freeze 

Pictures:

In the ice cream maker

After getting out of the ice cream maker, but before heading to the freezer

I tried to take a picture of it dished up for me this evening. Alas, after three attempts and none of them coming out good I gave up and ate my ice cream. It's really important to enjoy these things - especially when the wee one is in bed! The ice cream was awesome. It was creamy and tasty without feeling oily or greasy. Marc commented that things he would have changed included: putting more into his bowl and adding nuts as a mix-in to the ice cream. I'll take those as some good criticisms!

Have you ever used almond milk? Would you try it?

Flourless Chocolate Cake

As promised here is the recipe for the flourless chocolate cake. The jury is still out on whether this is absolutely phenomenal or just pretty good. Either way it was a nice little treat and the meringue is delicious.

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces, 

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

6 large eggs

3/4 cup turbinado sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup stout beer (we used Guinness)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Note: Turbinado sugar is "Sugar in the Raw." 

For the meringue:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 inch spring-form pan

3. Line base of pan with parchment paper and snap together

4. Using a double-boiler set up, melt the bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate until melted

5. Remove from heat and set to side.

6. Put eggs, turbinado sugar and salt in a stand mixer bowl

7. Warm bowl over the heat of the double boiler base

8. Whisk until warm

9. Remove from heat and lock into stand mixer

10. Beat on medium speed with whisk attachment until tripled in volume

11. Meanwhile, bring beer and vanilla to a low boil

12. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in beer mixture

13. Once incorporated, add chocolate

14. Gradually beat in butter until well mixed

15. Pour into pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes.

16. Allow to cool for one hour before attempting to remove from pan.

Meringue:

1. Microwave chocolate, butter and corn syrup for 30 seconds until melted*

2. Whisk sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and 1/3 cup of water in a bowl

3. Put bowl over simmering water and beat with a hand-held mixer gradually increasing in speed to form soft peaks

4. Remove from heat and continue beating until stiff peaks arrive

5. Fold in vanilla

6. Fold in chocolate

7. Slap on top of cake.

*REMEMBER that chocolate can appear normal shaped but actually be melted. Be sure to give this mix a stir after the initial 30 seconds. If it still needs more heat, pop it back in for another 30 seconds and then try again.

Pictures

Chocolate chopped up

Spring-form pan lined with parchment

Beer and vanilla preparing to boil

Eggs, sugar and salt whirling about

Incorporating the butter

Mommy's little helper

Meringue base

Off the heat being whipped about

And on top of the cake

So it's not nearly as pretty as it could be, but I'm ok with that. It was a suitable Valentine's Day dessert. Honestly though, I think I could skip the cake and just eat the meringue. :)

Do you eat dessert? How often?