Toasted Milk in your Instant Pot (or other electric pressure cooker)

There was more ... but I used it!

A bunch of people in a group I'm in were talking about a recipe on Serious Eats for toasted cream, and it got me curious. I wanted to try it right away, but I didn't have any heavy cream in the house.

And since I had just gone shopping, I wasn't planning another shopping excursion soon.

See, I'm trying to cut back on shopping. For a lot of reasons. None of which matter here.

So there I was, with this recipe nagging at me, and I had no heavy cream.

But I had plenty of milk.

Since I have way to many kitchen gadgets, I had both options for toasting the milk - either sous vide for 24 hours or pressure cooked for 2 hours.

Having the patience of a gnat, I opted for the pressure cooked version.

There are two other options. Either with baking soda or without. The baking soda increases the browning of the milk. I decided to add the baking soda, to get the maximum effect.

Just in case the recipe didn't work, I cooked just one cup instead of a pint. I mean, milk isn't expensive, but I still didn't want to waste any.

Oddly, the Serious Eats recipe suggests using a 12-ounce canning jar, but all I had were pints and half pints. Since I wanted to leave some head space in the jar, I opted for the pint jar with 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda. Since there are only two ingredients in this recipe, it's pretty easy to scale. You'll need 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of milk (or, if you're using their recipe, cream) or 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per pint of milk, if that's easier to measure.

But, seriously, since the baking soda is optional, you could leave it out or use a tad less and it's not going to ruin anything.

The result was interesting. The color of the milk was surprising, and it also made me think that the milk would be sweet. Like caramel. But it wasn't. It just tasted more complex. Toasty.

I tried the milk in my morning coffee, and something very interesting happened. The milk tasted a whole lot richer, like I had put half-and-half in my coffee instead of whole milk.

I haven't tried the milk in anything else yet, but I have plenty of ideas.

Toasted Milk

1 or 2 cups of whole milk
1/8 teaspoon baking soda per cup of milk (optional, but recommended)

Place the milk in a pint canning jar along with the baking soda. Make sure there's some head space above the milk. Use less milk if necessary, or use two jars. Stir well to combine. Place a standard canning jar lid on, finger-tight. You don't want it completely tight, since the air needs to escape during the cooking.

Place a rack in your electric pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot or similar brand) and add about an inch of water. Or eyeball it to just below the rack.

Add the jar. Or jars. Seriously, after you try it, you're going to make this by the quart.

Put the lid on, close the vent, set the pressure to high, and cook for 2 hours.

Let the pressure release naturally, then remove the lid and carefully remove the jars. Make sure you don't set them on a cold surface, like a granite counter. I usually put them on a towel or a wooden cutting board. Let them cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Use this like you'd use any milk - for coffee or other drinks, or for baking.

And yes, if you want it even richer, use heavy cream. For details on why this works, check out the Serious Eats explanation.

Acid Trip and Eggs with Vinegar #AbramsDinnerParty

I'm participating in the Abrams Dinner Party, where I get cookbooks (and a little swag) from the publisher. Since I'm a bit of a cookbook hoarder, this is great for me.

Once of the books I got was Acid Trip, which is all about vinegar.

I adore tart foods, so a book about vinegar is right up my alley. I mean, I've even made my own vinegar from wine. There's a jar of it in the pantry right now.

When I first got this book, I bookmarked a whole bunch of recipes to try:

• Fried Egg with a Spoonful of Vinegar
• Beurre Noisette Dressing
• Brown Butter Balsamic Mushrooms with Hazeluts and Sage
• Seasonal Tomatoes with Raspberry Vinegar
• Vinegar Pie

Out of that list, I've made a few similar dishes, and wanted to revisit them. In particular, the egg with vinegar was calling to me. I'd made a similar dish, but used red wine vinegar. The flavor was lovely, but the look was ... not great.

The recipe in this book calls for white wine vinegar, which makes a whole lot more sense in terms of presentation. So I just had to do it. Breakfast for dinner just happens to be one of my favorite things ever.

If this sound a little weird, it's really not. The acid helps to cut the richness of the egg yolk, and adds another dimension of flavor. I love eating tomatoes with eggs, but never thought about why - it's that hit of acid. In this case, you can add that acid without needing to have fresh tomatoes on hand.

Yum!

I think the vinegar pie is next on my list. How about you?

Fried Egg with a Spoonful of Vinegar
Adapted from Acid Trip by Michael Harlan Turkell

1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Chopped herbs

Fry an egg they way you like it, with ample butter. (They suggested cooking on medium-high until the edges are a little brown. I opted for a more gently-cooked basted egg, instead.)

Place the egg on a warm plate and season with salt and pepper.

While the pan is still hot, add the white wine vinegar and allow to reduce by half.

Spoon the reduced vinegar over the egg and garnish with chopped herbs. (They suggested parsley or tarragon, but the only fresh herbs I had on hand were cilantro and chives. I opted for chives.)

Serve immediately. I suggest some toast on the side. Yum.

This post is sponsored by ABRAMS Books, as part of the ABRAMS Dinner Party. Look for more posts with the hashtags #AcidTrip and #VinegarCookbook.

Will it Bread Machine? Rich bread with eggs and milk

I'll confess. I use my bread machine a lot more than most folks would imagine.

As much as I love the process of making bread, I don't always have time, and there are days when there are so many other things going on in the kitchen that there's just no way to find an unused swath of kitchen counter space to make the process pleasant.

I have a few basic recipes that I know will work, and I even wrote some recipes a bread machine (this Gourmia bread machine), so I'm comfortable with creating recipes. But the one thing I learned from my long association with bread machines is that not every traditional bread recipe will work in a bread machine.

But sometimes I throw caution to the wind, like with this recipe from a cookbook. Once again I'm making recipes from a cookbook that's being passed around in a cookbook group I belong to. The book is Small Victories by Julia Turshen.


The recipe, as written was for raspberry jam buns, but the last thing I needed was a batch of sweet buns. There were variations (called spin-offs in the book) for cinnamon rolls, garlic buns, herb goat cheese buns, monkey bread, salami or prosciutto bread, and buttery dinner rolls.

I considered making the dinner rolls, but still didn't want to fuss that much, so I decided to just toss all the ingredients in the machine and let 'er rip. I didn't warm the milk, as the instructions said, and the butter was straight from the refrigerator rather than at room temperature. It all went in, as is.

I used Red Star Platinum Yeast rather than regular active dry, but otherwise I used all the ingredients suggested. If you're using a different brand of active dry yeast than Red Star, you might need to soften the yeast in liquid before kneading since some of the active dry yeasts from other brands have a larger granule size that won't dissolve if it's put directly into the dough. If you use Platinum, Red Star Active Dry or any rapid or bread machine yeast, you don't need to soften the yeast before proceeding.

Bread Machine Egg and Milk Loaf
Inspired by Small Victories by Julia Turshen

3/4 cup whole milk
2 1/4 teaspoons Red Star Platinum Yeast*
2 eggs
3 1/4 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I suggest 1 1/4 teaspoons)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss it all in the bread machine. I'd suggest cutting the butter into at least 4 pieces so it kneads into the dough easier. If you don't have Platinum yeast, that's fine - just use whatever yeast you like to use in your bread machine.

I used the basic bread setting, 2 1/2 pound loaf, and a medium crust. When I make this again, I'll use a light crust setting so the crust doesn't get quite as dark on the bottom and sides. It wasn't bad, and it wasn't burned, but is was a little darker and thicker that it needed to be.

And that's it. Set the machine, wait until it's done, and remove the loaf when it's done.

Sous Vide Scrambled Eggs

If you're scratching your head and wondering if I've gone off the deep end with all of these sous vide recipes lately ... well, maybe.

But also, I got a few cookbooks with sous vide recipes that I wanted to try. I recently bought Richard Blais's book Try This At Home, and when I browsed through it, the sous vide scrambled eggs caught my eye.

They're not really a recipe, I guess, but more of a side note about cooking technique. The actual recipe was Riley's Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus and Hollandaise.

I didn't make the asparagus or the hollandaise. But I used the sous vide method to cook some eggs.

The Recipe(ish):

Basically, you whisk together 4 eggs and a tablespoon of milk, along with salt and/or pepper to make you happy.

Preheat the sous vide water to 168 degrees, then drop the bag in for 10 minutes.

Fish the bag out, mush the eggs around in the bag (you'll see some very yellow uncooked yolk in the center of the eggs in the bag) and drop it back into the water for another five minutes, or however long it takes for the eggs to set.

The Results

The first time I tried this, there was a bit too much of the super-loose egg for my taste, so I decided to cook the eggs longer the next time. Then I decided I wanted the eggs a little firmer, too, so I increased the temperature.

Honestly, I'm still fiddling with this. It's not that the recipe is bad, it's just that everyone's taste in eggs is a little different. I think for me, the sweet spot will be somewhere around 171 degrees. Maybe 170. See, it's not that much different from his favorite temperature, but it does make a difference when cooking something like eggs where they can go from custard to curd in the blink of an eye.

As for the book, there are some recipes here than I'm pretty sure I'll make, a lot that I will use as inspiration or that I'll make one component but not the whole shebang, and then a bunch more that I'll probably try as-is.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Click here for a coloring book version of this!

Vanilla ice cream might sound ... well, plain vanilla. But it's a good test of a new ice cream book. And just because I made unadorned vanilla ice cream doesn't mean I ate it that way. I had plenty of dulce de leche to use up from my recent sous vide experiments.

And to be honest, I like vanilla ice cream a lot. If it's made well, and it's rich and creamy, and it was made with good vanilla extract, it can stand on its own, without strong flavor covering the vanilla-ness.

Speaking of books, this recipe was from The Homemade Ice Cream Recipe Book by Robin Donovan. I got it from the publisher and immediately started to browse. The first thing that struck me was that many of the recipe used the same proportion of cream to milk to eggs - two cups of cream to one cup of milk to six eggs.

At first, I thought, uh oh, there are going to be a bunch of recipes that are all the same except one will have vanilla extract and another will have mint. But after looking more, that's not the case. That ratio happens to be a very good one for making a rich ice cream, so it makes sense that it's used over and over.

The funny thing is that I got another book recently (not an ice cream book) that had an ice cream recipe with the same ratio. Like I said, it makes good ice cream. And it's the right amount to fit into most home ice cream makers, so that's probably the reason it's so common.

The first chapter with recipes is called Classics and Standouts, and it's the more common flavors, from vanilla to mint chip to cookies and cream. The next is chocolatey flavors, followed by nutty, fruity, and party flavors, followed by a chapter of sherbets and frozen yogurts. It finishes with a chapter of cones, toppings, and other non-ice cream recipes.

I already have a couple of ice cream books, but it's always fun to try new recipes. The brown butter pecan is definitely on my list to try. Meanwhile, I was really happy with this vanilla. It uses a little less sugar than my standard for this amount - I usually use 3/4 cup, while this uses 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons. And I was perfectly happy with that level of sweetness, AND the texture of the ice cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted The Homemade Ice Cream Recipe Book by Robin Donovan

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

The recipe suggests cooking this mixture in a double boiler. I've done that and I've also cooked it on the stove. And I've cooked it in the Kitchenaid Precise Heat Bowl, which is very precise and won't overcook the mixture. Do it any way you're comfortable - the key is to heat it slowly and never let it get so hot that the eggs begin to scramble, because that's just ugly.

Combine the cream, sugar, egg yolks, and salt in your preferred cooking vessel. Heat slowly, stirring continuously, until it thickens and reaches a temperature of 170-175 degrees.

Strain the mixture though a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Add the milk and vanilla to the bowl and stir well. To speed cooling you can set this bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice water and stir until it has cooled down. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. When frozen, transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.

I received the cookbook from the publisher at no cost to me.

Cholaca Chocolate ice Cream

Thanks to blogger events sponsored by Sprouts (the grocery store, not bean sprouts or anything peculiar like that), I keep finding new products that I absolutely go crazy over. This time around, it's a chocolate product called Cholaca.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Liquid cacao. You have to try this.

This stuff is like liquid happiness. Which, actually, it is, since it boosts seratonin levels, and that's the stuff that makes you happy. Plus, it has theobromine, which boosts energy. After sampling way more Cholaca products than a normal person would consume on a normal day (except maybe for Ira, who runs the company) I was feeling energized and happy. In a good way.

And without the jitters that I sometimes get with coffee. Which is awesome.

The first thing I sampled was a special concoction that Ira had discovered when he went into the kitchen for an afternoon pick-me-up of Cholaca, while a co-worked was grabbing a can of Coke. Ira had the bright idea to pour a little Cholaca into some Coke. He was telling a few of us about this, and when we expressed curiosity (horror? amazement?) he skedaddled off and came back with a can of coke and some Cholaca. So of course we had to try that. It was different, but good.

And that's where the epic chocolate journey started.

This is where it ended. Mmm. Ice cream.
Download this photo as a coloring book page!

So anyway, the main product that Cholaca makes is a liquid cacao that's emulsified with water to make it drinkable. There are three different versions, but the only difference is the sweetness level. The original has just a little coconut sugar. There's a sweet version that has a little more coconut sugar. And there's an unsweetened version. They suggest a 2-ounce shot as an energy booster and happiness maker. Or mix it with some milk and heat it up for a crazy good hot chocolate.

If you've read this blog more than once, you probably know that I don't like coconut. However (mysteriously) coconut sugar is fine. Probably because it's made from the sap and not the fruit. Just like maple syrup is made from maple sap and not ... uh ... some other part of the tree.

So anyway, the next thing we tried was a straight-up shot of Cholaca that was served in a cute little jar. I polished that off in no time. And then we moved on to hot chocolate. Oh heck yeah. The hot chocolate was freaking amazing. And not overly sugary.

And then the chocolate wafers appeared. Wafers! These are intended as baking chocolate and are totally unsweetened. Right now, there are two different types available based on the country of origin, so you can choose Cholaca wafers from Ecuador or from Peru.

Have you ever tasted unsweetened chocolate? It's pretty ... not so good. But I ate a couple wafers while we decorated gingerbread cookies. The wafers were actually very nice, thanks to the high level of cocoa butter that's in them (this is what Ira told me).

By that time I was super-happy and made a demented gingerbread dude with part of his arm eaten by a shark. He got a little smudged during the trip home, but I think it only adds to the appeal.

Download this photo as a coloring book page!

And then we made a sugar scrub using white sugar, coconut sugar, cholaca, olive oil, and coconut oil. At that point, I wanted to just dive in and eat the scrub, coconut and all, but I decided I should behave myself.

And then there were the parting gifts from Cholaca. We each got a bottle of Cholaca (we got to choose between original and sweet) and some of those wafers. And a cute mug. And the jar of sugar scrub (I put mine in a different container when I got it home) and of course we brought home the cookies, too. No, they didn't give us ice cream to take home.

Oh, and if you're wondering how I made ice cream when that bottle of Cholaca seems to be full, it's because I immediately bought MORE of it.

Oh! Those wafers! I've set mine aside to bake with. I have ideas. Ira popped in during the cookie decorating to mention that the wafers might not be a perfect substitute for regular baking chocolate in a recipe because of the high cocoa butter content.

No worries. I think I can handle that.

At some point during the evening, I mentioned that I wanted to put Ira in a bottle and take him home with me. I have no idea what that even means, but his enthusiasm was obvious. He loves his job. He loves chocolate. He wants everyone to get to know the best chocolate in the entire world!!! Yup, he really loves his product. But he talked about it in an engaging way, and not in a pushy way and he spent some time talking about where the cacao is grown and how he's helping the local farmers. It was really interesting, but I was itching use the Cholaca in a recipe.

I had the good sense not to start cooking when I got home (although I was tempted) but it wasn't long before I decided to use some of the liquid Cholaca to make ice cream. The wafers will have to wait a bit, but I already have sooooo many ideas.

Okay, many of the ideas involve me hoarding the wafers and popping them into my mouth on a regular basis. But I might have to make brownies. Or ... something.

But first, Cholaca ice cream.

This is a very creamy ice cream, and not crazy sweet. It's not a super-dark-chocolate ice cream, so if that's what you're looking for, you'll need to add more chocolate in some form. I liked it the way it was, though.

Cholaca Chocolate Ice Cream

1 cup heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Cholaca original
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix everything together until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved. If the mixture isn't super-cold (most of the ingredients should be cold, except that sugar, right?) place it in the refrigerator to get a little chillier.

Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instruction.

Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm. There is likely to be a little bit that doesn't fit in your container. I suggest you eat that right away. Quality control is very important, you know.

Thanks to Sprouts for sponsoring the event, supplying additional non-Cholaca goodies, and of course thanks to Cholaca for hosting and supplying their products. 

Malted Milk Ice Cream

The weather here is still swinging wildly between nice and chilly, and my cooking has been keeping pace with the weather. The other day, I made soup from leftovers (no recipe for you there, sorry!) and a batch of ice cream.

This is a quick and easy recipe - no need for cooking anything. Just mix, refrigerate, and churn. And if you've got an ice cream maker with its own compressor, like the Breville ice cream maker that I have, you don't even need to chill the mixture.

If you have an ice cream maker with a bowl that needs to be frozen before churning, you'll get the best result if your ice cream base is cold before you start to churn.

Malted Milk Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 can chocolate sweetened condensed milk (this is sold seasonally - I stocked up - if you can't find it, use regular sweetened condensed milk and add chocolate syrup to taste.)
1/2 cup malted milk powder (the kind you mix with cold milk - not the one you need to heat)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients, mix well, and chill until cold.

Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.

Very vanilla rice pudding under pressure

I'm a huge fan of rice pudding, and I keep fiddling around with recipes. This one is vaguely based on another one I made recently. And that recipe was based on a recipe in the Great Big Pressure Cooker Book.

I totally love that book. The best thing about it is that it gives you variations for both electric and stovetop cookers. I happen to have both types of cookers.

Sometimes I even use both pressure cookers for different things at the same time. It happens.

So, anyway, I loved that original rice pudding recipe and made it several times. But this time I decided to switch it up a bit to make it a little, um ... looser. Creamier. And since the Instant Pot has a button labeled "porridge" I decided to use that to cook the rice. Hey, might as well make it easy, right?

Very Vanilla Rice Pudding (Instant Pot recipe)

1/2 cup arborio rice
2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (you can use less. I'm a vanilla fiend)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg

Put the rice, milk, sugar, water, vanilla extract, and salt in the Instant Pot. Put the lid on and make sure the knob is set for sealing rather than venting.

Press the "porridge" button and make sure it's set for 20 minutes. When the time is up, let it sit at the "keep warm" setting for 30 minutes, then turn off the machine and turn the knob to vent any remaining steam. Remove the cover.

Whisk the egg in a bowl. Add small ladles full of the hot rice pudding to the egg, stirring constantly. When you've added about a cup of the rice pudding to the egg and the mixture is warm, pour the egg mixture back into the Instant Pot, stirring as you add it.

Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Don't let it boil. Transfer to a storage container and allow it to cool a bit, then refrigerate.

Serve chilled with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired. A dollop of whipped cream is nice, too. Just sayin.

I received the Instant Pot through 37 Cooks for a post on the group blog. I am not obligated to continue posting about it on my blog. I'm just having fun.

Homemade Creme Fraiche in the Instant Pot

The Instant Pot is hugely popular these days. It's quite interesting to me. Pressure cookers have been around since grandma's day. Slow cookers have been around quite a long time, too.

Electric pressure cookers are a little newer, but until the Instant Pot came along, they weren't all that popular.

The Instant Pot, however, has a cult-like following. People name them. There are Facebook groups devoted to the pot. It's ... amazing.

37 Cooks, a group blog I belong to, is doing a challenge using the Instant Pot, so I've been experimenting with different things. While I'm completely comfortable with both stovetop and electric pressure cookers, the Instant Pot is indeed different.

For one thing, it has a LOT more buttons. It has buttons for steaming and for soup and for meat and for yogurt.

And it has a freakishly friendly beeping sound. It's cute rather than annoying.

When I saw the yogurt button, I knew I had to use it to make ... creme fraiche.

You didn't see that coming, did you?

If you've never used creme fraiche, it's a lot like sour cream or Mexican crema or similar productus. If you're looking for creme fraiche at a grocery store, it's likely to come in a small tub for a high price - if you can find it at all.

I make creme fraiche quite often, even when I don't actually need it for something specific, because I know I can find a use for it. You see, I make it whenever I have leftover buttermilk and leftover heavy cream at the same time. Which happens a lot more often than you'd imagine.

As I've experimented with different ways of making it, I've found that it doesn't need to be heated - leaving it at room temperature overnight is sufficient.

On the other hand, if I put it somewhere a little bit warm, like near the stove when I'm cooking, or in the oven with the light on (right next to the yogurt jars that might be in there), it seems to work better. So of course I had to try making creme fraiche using the yogurt setting in the Instant Pot. Of course.

Creme Fraiche

3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup buttermilk

Place the cream and buttermilk in a jar. Stir.

Place the jar on a rack in the Instant Pot. Close the lid and set the cooker for yogurt and 6 hours. When the time is up, taste the creme fraiche. It will be a lot looser than after it's chilled, but taste for tartness. If you want it more tart, cook for an additional 2 hours or more.

Refrigerate the creme fraiche.

Homemade Yogurt (KitchenAid Precise Heat Bowl)

Okay, you'll probably see a lot of recipes that use the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl because:

1) I spent a decent amount of money on this thing, and it wants to justify its existence in my kitchen.

and

2) I'm having fun testing it to see what works well.

and

3) I don't see a lot of recipe for it online. So I think it would be helpful for people to have some recipes to use.

and

4) Although the recipes here are written featuring the bowl, they could certainly be adapted for people who have fancy things like slow cookers or stoves. The advantage of this bowl over other sorts of cookers is that you can set an exact temperature. It makes sense for some things, and is just convenient for others. But still, the recipes can be made using other methods.

This time, I tackled yogurt.

I've made a lot of yogurt using a lot of different methods, mostly using low-tech methods like putting the yogurt mixture in a quart jar in the oven with the light on. Or putting it in a very-well-insulated container. Neither of those allow precise temperatures. So I figured I'd give it a shot in the magical precise bowl.

And, hey, it worked really well. Possibly the best result I've had so far.

Homemade Yogurt

1.5 liters* whole milk
1 7-ounce** container Fage Total*** yogurt

Put the milk in the Precise Heat Bowl with the cover on. Heat to 180**** degrees.

Turn the heat down to 110 degrees and wait for the temperature to go down. The bowl will beep a few times at first, but then it will stay silent. It won't tell you when it's down to 110 degrees, so you'll need to check it once in a while. You can remove the lid for faster cooling, and if you're puttering around in the kitchen, you can stir it a few time.

The milk will probably form a skin on as it cools. You can skim that off or whisk it in. Your choice.

When the milk is at 115 degrees or below, whisk in the yogurt. Set the timer for you preferred time. Four hours is about the minimum and will result in a very mild yogurt. I prefer 6-8 hours, which results in a yogurt that's a little more tart.

You can use the yogurt as-is, or strain it to make a Greek-style yogurt. I prefer it strained. A lot of people strain through cheesecloth or jelly bags, but I find that a fine-mesh strainer works just fine. I refrigerate the yogurt first, since that also helps it thicken a bit. Then I gently scoop the yogurt into the strainer and it doesn't fall through the holes. Obviously, if you push at the yogurt, it will go through the holes. So don't do that. Just lay it in there gently. As it thickens at the bottom, you can gently move the yogurt from the bottom to allow it to strain some more.

Once the yogurt is strained and is as thick as I want it, I put it in a bowl an whisk the heck out of it to make it smooth and silky because that's what I like. You could also use a stick blender, rather than hand-whisking. It will seem a little thinner after whisking, but will thicken again as it sits.

Depending on how thick you like your yogurt, you'll end up with about a quart of yogurt and a pint of whey (the liquid that drains). I use the whey instead of water when making bread, but you can discard it. Or use it in soup. Or ... there are a lot of other uses.

*This doesn't need to be super-precise. 6 cups of milk is close enough. I used Fairlife milk which comes in a 1.5 liter container, so it was a convenient amount for you. If you want more yogurt, you can use a half-gallon of milk.

**You don't actually need to use the whole container. It will work just fine with less. But I didn't need yogurt for any immediate use, and I knew I was going to have a lot of yogurt later. So I tossed in the whole thing. But if you're scooping out of a larger container, 1/4 cup will be fine.

***Use any plain yogurt you like as long as it has active cultures. I'd suggest reading the label and choosing on that's just milk and cultures. Thickeners and sweeteners and whatnot aren't needed.

****I've tried this heating to 160 degrees, which is what many commercial yogurt starters suggest, and the results were pretty much identical. Any temperature between the two should be fine.

White Chocolate and Hibiscus Ice Cream

The great thing about having an ice cream maker is that I can make ice cream any time I want to - and any flavor I like.

And then sometimes it starts with a flavor or product that I want to use in an interesting way. Sometimes it's something I found in a store. Sometimes it's something I found hiding in a corner of the pantry. Sometimes it's a new product that I got from a company.

This time around, I had some hibiscus flowers in syrup that I wanted to use. They came to me through 37 Cooks from the Wild Hibiscus Flower Company, and I thought the flavor would be lovely in ice cream.

If you're not familiar with 37 Cooks, go check out the blog and see what we've been up to lately.

When I was brainstorming the ice cream recipe, I decided that I wanted something besides hibiscus flavor. I chose white chocolate for its mild flavor, and I added a bit of vanilla for the deepness of flavor it adds.

And ... I decided to make the ice cream eggless, to let the delicate flavors shine through.

The result is a creamy ice cream with a sweet, fruity, floral flavor. The color is a very pale mauve; barely discernible unless you're looking for the color.

For the white chocolate, I used a bar of Lindt white chocolate, which weighed 4.4 ounces. If you buy a different brand that is a little larger or smaller, it's perfectly fine.

White Chocolate and Hibiscus Ice Cream

4.4 ounces (a little more or less is fine) white chocolate
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup hibiscus syrup (from hibiscus flowers in syrup)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar

Chop the white chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup. Add the milk. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirred after each heating session, until the chocolate melts completely.

Combine all of the ingredients, including the milk and chocolate mixture in a bowl. Stir until the sugar is completely melted. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture until it is completely chilled. I usually mix it up the day before I want to churn it.

When the mixture is fully chilled, churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a container and freeze until firm.

I received product from Wild Hibiscus Flower Company through 37 Cooks in order to create recipes.