Mousse/Moose Creations

It’s Moose Tracks day. I find this a very interesting name for an ice cream, it’s definitely very Canadian and it’s perfect because it’ll be Canada Day in a few days so you can make your mousse/moose treat to celebrate. The first thing came to our minds were cute little moose and chocolate mousse so we’re combining to the two to make a divine and cute treat.

We decided to make chocolate mousse in chocolate cups topped with a homemade cute little moose toppers.

To make the moose toppers, Nicole used her handy dandy Silhouette. We picked out a moose we liked and cut it out on red, brown, and white cardstock and then we glued a toothpick between two of the moose heads to make a nice little topper. (They're also great for cupcakes!) It’s super easy; take a look...

First off, you’ll want to make your chocolate edible cups so that they are properly set.

You’ll need a 6 or 12 cup muffin pan. Fill each one of the cups with water and place a popsicle stick in each cup. Freeze until completely solid. We also did some mini muffin cups as well.

We did this a few night before we made the mousse just to make sure that they set.

Right before you are ready to “make” your cups, melt the chocolate. We are melting some white and some semi-sweet chocolate so we can have a variety of cups.

Take your muffin tins out of the freezer and let them warm up for only a minute.

Now remove the ice molds from the tins and submerge in the melted chocolate of your choice. Make sure you don’t fully submerge just dip up to the top rim.

Place the molded chocolate on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Give the chocolate a minute or so to set and then they should just wiggle off of the ice and you should have a cute little chocolate cup.

***Ok, so above was how they were supposed to work, but in real life...not so much. We ended up improvising and using another technique to make the cups which worked just fine. Our ice molded perfectly but we had a problem with taking them out. The ice melted so fast that they were wet, so when we dipped them into the chocolate, they didn't stick and over time made our chocolate chunky. After trying quite a few times, we ended up with a few successful ones and then Nicole used the chocolate to coat the inside of a muffin liner and then we put them in the fridge to harden. It worked out fine in the end. Maybe you'll have more success than us so give both ways a try and see what happens.***

Now to make the mousse for the moose to go into.

You will need:

300 grams of semisweet chocolate chips

4 eggs

½ sugar

2 cups of whipped cream, more if you want to put some on top

Mix the eggs with the sugar and whip until medium peaks form, about 8 minutes. 

While whipping, melt the chocolate chips.

Whisk the chocolate into the whipped eggs and sugar. Set aside in a large bowl.

Whip the 2 cups of whipping cream. When it looks very thick, take out 1 cup and fold into the egg and chocolate mix and then whip the rest of the cream until peaks form and fold the rest into the chocolate mixture.

Now this is the part where you’ll scoop your mousse into the little chocolate cups if you make them or you can scoop it into ramekins to set as well. 

Make sure you let your mousse set for about 3 hours in the fridge before serving. You can top with just the moose toppers or add on some whipped cream and fruit if you like. 

Banana Splits and Homemade Ice Cream

So we have a very exciting and fun Summer theme planned out this year. We are picking some very unusual ice cream flavour names and then creating things that come from the inspiration of that name. Some will be baked goods, some will be crafts, and some will be fun activities.

To kick the ice cream theme off, we are going to share with you how to make the very popular classic, a banana split, from scratch (with your own homemade ice creams).

I love to make my own homemade ice creams in the Summer. I often try out new flavours, but also stick to many classic ones as well. I sometimes make frozen yogurt as well with my ice cream maker.

For the banana splits, we’re sticking with the basics, chocolate and vanilla.

I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker which I love. I always keep the bowl in the freezer so that it stays nice and cold. Having a completely frozen bowl and really cold ingredients are keys to success when making your own ice cream otherwise it can affect the process and it turns icy and slushy instead of creamy.

Usually the day before I make my ice cream, I’ll mix the ingredients and then let them get cold in the fridge.

For the vanilla ice cream, mix 1 ½ cup of whole milk with 1 cup of sugar. Then add in 3 cups of heavy cream along with 1 ½ tbsp. of vanilla. Chill overnight.

For the chocolate ice cream, mix 1 cup of cocoa powder with 2/3 cup of sugar, ½ cup of brown packed sugar, and then stir in 1 ½ cups of whole milk. Add in 3 ¼ cups of heavy cream along with 1 tbsp. of vanilla. Chill overnight.

When mixing day comes, I follow the machine’s instructions and pour the mix into a frozen bowl right out of the freezer. For the vanilla, it usually takes about 45 minutes for it to thicken up and for the chocolate, about 30 minutes. Once the ice cream is mixed, transfer into a Tupperware container and freeze. It’ll be soft serve for the first few hours, so if you want a more frozen ice cream, then let the ice cream stay in the freezer overnight.

Other than bananas, no banana split is complete without toppings so before you have your banana split/sundae party, gather up some toppings. You can use crushed pineapple, sprinkles, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, Maraschinos cherries, whipped cream, and sauces. Speaking of sauces, I have included my famous gooey butterscotch sauce that you can drizzle on top.

Butterscotch Sauce:

In a sauce pan on medium heat, mix 1 cup of packed brown sugar, 2 tbsp. of butter, and 1 tbsp. of vanilla. Heat until all dissolved and bubbling. Usually 3-4 minutes. You can use after cooling slightly or if you want a thicker sauce, then let it cool sompletely.

A good fudge sauce is one that you’ll see us using as a glaze in a future post about Boston Cream cupcakes, but I like it as an ice cream sauce too.

Chocolate Fudge Sauce/ Glaze:

1 cup of semisweet chocolate

2/3 cup of heavy cream

¼ cup of light corn syrup

½ tsp. of vanilla

Microwave the chocolate, cream, corn syrup, and vanilla all together in a heatproof bowl. Stir every 30 seconds for 1-2 minutes until all of the ingredients are melted and smooth. Let it thicken for about 20 minutes.

Now it’s time to assemble your splits. There is no right or wrong way; make it exactly how you like it.

Donuts for Dad

 

It’s almost Father’s Day and if you have a Dad that loves a sweet treat, then this is the place to be because we are making mini donuts for Dad. You can wrap some up on a plate and bring them to Dad for his Father’s Day treat this weekend.

You can use one of those donut baking pans and do them in the oven, but these recipes will work best if you have a mini donut maker like this.

We are making three types of donuts, sour cream (plain), chocolate, and buttermilk spice.

I mixed all of the dry ingredients in separate bowls and then their corresponding wet ingredients in other separate bowls. It makes it a lot easier when you start doing all of your mixing.

The following are the ingredients and instructions for each of the batters.

Sour Cream Donuts:

1 ½ cups of flour

1/3 cup of sugar

1 Tbsp. of baking powder

½ tsp. of salt

½ cup of milk

¼ cup of vegetable oil

¼ cup of sour cream

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Stir all of the dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl mix the wet. Add the dry ingredients to your mixer’s bowl and then beat in the wet ingredients until smooth. Make sure you don’t over mix. 

Set aside.

Chocolate Donuts:

1 ¼ cups of flour

½ cup of cocoa

½ cup of sugar

1 Tbsp. of baking powder

1 egg

¾ cup of buttermilk or see buttermilk recipe below

¼ cup of vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Stir all of the dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl mix the wet. 

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, then you can make some up really quick. Just add 2 ¼ tsp. of lemon juice or white vinegar into a glass measuring cup and then add enough milk to equal ¾ cup. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients to your mixer’s bowl and then beat in the wet ingredients until smooth. Make sure you don’t over mix. Set aside.

Buttermilk Spice Donuts:

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups of buttermilk

½ tsp. of vanilla

2 cups of flour

4 tsp. of baking powder

½ tsp. of baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

Once again mix all of the dry ingredients together. Beat together the oil and eggs and then stir in the buttermilk (follow the above recipe for homemade buttermilk; even though it calls for 1 ¼ cups still make the above amount seen in the Chocolate Donut recipe).

Now add the wet into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth being careful not to over mix.

After making your batter(s), you can now start cooking the donuts. If you have a mini donut maker, be sure to follow the instructions for cooking that comes with it. I preheat mine as according to the instructions and then I brush on a little oil so they don’t stick. I scoop in about a tablespoon of batter into each of the molds and cook for 3-4 minutes. 

Cool the donuts on a wire rack as you continue to bake the rest.

While all the donuts are cooling down, you can make the glazes.

You can put whatever glaze on whatever type of donuts you want. We put a vanilla glaze on some of the sour cream donuts and a chocolate glaze on some too and then we put a chocolate glaze on the chocolate donuts and dusted the buttermilk ones with cinnamon and sugar.

Vanilla Glaze – Melt ¼ cup of butter and then add 1 1/3 cups of icing sugar and stir until well blended. Stir in the vanilla and blend in 1 Tbsp. of hot water.

Chocolate Glaze – Whisk ¾ cups of icing sugar with 2 Tbsp. of cocoa, 2 Tbsp. of half and half, and 1 tsp. of vanilla until well mixed.

To ice/glaze the donuts, we just dipped the tops in the glaze that we wanted so that the tops got completely covered. Depending how thick you make the glaze, you could spread it on with a knife also.

Cinnamon Topping – Just mix 1 cup of sugar with 2 Tbsp. of cinnamon and mix well. We made the buttermilk donuts last and while they were still warm, we brush them with a little bit of melted butter and then dip the tops in the sugar mixture. If you want the entire donut covered, brush the donuts all over with butter and then put your sugar mix in a brown paper bag and toss the donuts in there so that they get covered.

The finished products...

If you don't have a donut maker, but still want to make some donuts for your dad, then try this recipe for mini Snickerdoodle Donut Muffins. We tried it a couple months ago, and it was pretty yummy!