Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

Success at last!!!!!

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream

4 cups of half and half (or 2 cups of whole milk & 2 cups of cream)

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

3 tsp of vanilla essence (more or less according to taste)

Cup of broken pieces Hokey Pokey (recipe in previous post)

Beat eggs with 1 cup of half and half. Put to one side.

Bring sugar, vanilla and remaining three cups of half and half to boil.

Slowly pour in egg mixture continuously bating the mixture with a whisk.

Cook mixture over a low heat until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Chill and then freeze according to your ice cream maker's instruction. Towards the end of the freezing time, add the broken up pieces of Hokey Pokey.

Enjoy!

Hokey Pokey

For awhile I've had a hankering for some homemade Hokey Pokey ice cream. Making the vanilla ice cream was a breeze. However making the Hokey Pokey was a different story all together!!!

Finally, after numerous tries and almost a jar of golden syrup, I managed to make some Hokey Pokey. It's such a simple recipe, one that I've made many times when in NZ. However, apparently it's a little harder to make at altitude. The sugar for one, does not melt easily, leaving a crystallised mess in the bottom of the pan, that would not froth up.

After perusing a number of websites, that dealt with high altitude baking and candy making, I tried using my heaviest pot and also keeping a lid on the pot while the sugar and golden syrup were melting over low heat. It worked, even though it did take almost 30 minutes before I could bring it to boiling stage and add the baking soda.

Hokey Pokey

5 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp baking soda

Melt sugar and golden syrup over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, being careful not to burn the mixture. Remove from heat, add the baking soda and stir. The mixture will froth up. While mixture is still frothing pour into a buttered dish and let set. Don't spread in out as it will spread by itself. Once cold, break into pieces.

Pavlova.....

What to do with 6 egg whites left over from another ice cream experiment? Make a pavlova of course!

Pavlova is the national New Zealand dessert. The Australians claim that they invented it, however, published recipes in NZ cookbooks, firmly mark the pavlova as a Kiwi icon.

Making a pavlova, here at high altitude, has had it's challenges. No matter what I did, my pavs never came out like they did back home. That was, until an online aquaintance sent me a recipe for a never fail pavlova. The recipe sounds a bit odd, in that you use boiling water and beat all the ingredients together. However, it works and I'm back to making loftier pavs.


ELIZABETH MANNING'S NEVER FAIL PAVLOVA - By Catherine Manning

6 egg whites
2 cups sugar
4 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch in the US)
6 tbsp boiling water
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp vinegar (white)

Put all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 15 - 20 minutes or until very stiff. When you pull the beaters out, the mixture should stand up in stiff peaks. (I find at altitude, I usually have to beat the mixture for 30 minutes or more.)

Pile on to baking paper on an oven tray. You can also use aluminium foil on the baking tray. Lightly dust with cornflour so the pav won't stick. Pile it up high and do not spread out, as the pav will spread while cooking. Use a fork to mark ridges up the side.

Put in the middle of a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 250 deg F. Cook for 2 hours. Turn oven off and leave the pav in the oven, with door closed, overnight or until the oven is cold. This takes at least 6 - 8 hours. (Do not open the oven at any point during the cooking or cooling. Not even a quick peak!! This may cause the pav to fall.)

Cut around the top of the pav with a sharp knife and allow the top to drop into the pav. This forms a shell for the cream. Fill with whipped cream (NOT THE TYPE IN THE AEROSAL CAN) and decorate with fruit or topping of your choice.

For whipped cream topping

Whip at least a pint of whipping cream and a tbsp of sugar till the cream has stiff peaks. Spread over pav.

Serve and enjoy!!

Good Golly, Miss Molly....

Hot August Nights is back in town. For those of you not familiar with H.A.N, it's a celebration of the culture, music and cars of the 50's, 60's and the early 70's. Many of the cars also hail from the 20's, 30's and up.


It's held in the Reno and Sparks areas and is basically a week long party of music, cruises and so on.

My Grandfather had a car similar to the yellow one above. It was a great treat to go for a ride in it. I remember it being a rather bumpy ride. No smooth riding suspensions in that baby and the seat was hard buttoned leather. It was my Grandad's pride and I remember many happy afternoons helping him wash and polish it.

The blue one above, gave me a little start when I saw it from a distance. I was expecting a wrathful car owner to descend on the two little *kids*. It wasn't until I got a little closer, that I realised they were a couple of dolls. It also help when I took my sunglasses off, LOL. They were rather cute and the car wasn't half bad as well.

My favourite for the day,was the 1937 Ford Oze, pictured to the below. The car was called 'Bad to the Bone' and the paintwork was awesome. Took me awhile to get some pictures as the car was surrounded by a herd of drooling men. Mind you, I was doing a fair bit of drooling myself. Wouldn't mind waking up one morning and finding that parked in the garage!!