TWD: (Not Quite) Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Tuesdays With Dorie begins the month of May with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream. Ice cream – yay! Last Wednesday, which is about four days before I typically start my Tuesdays With Dorie recipes, I decided to get to work and announced to Josh that “I can burn sugar with the best of them!” He quickly agreed that he’d seen it many times. So what did I do? I added the milk and cream to the sugar before it had browned enough and ended up with sugar ice cream - totally not burnt. It wasn’t a total loss, though: I added some vanilla and chocolate chunks to the mixture, and it became chocolate chip ice cream. Josh actually said it was one of the best ice creams I’ve ever made. Luckily I was ahead of schedule and had time to give the ice cream another try on Sunday morning. This time I was slightly less anxious about rendering the sugar to an unpalatably burnt stage, but I think I was still a little gun shy. The ice cream did have a pleasant caramelly flavor, though, so there were no complaints here.



Josh rated the ice cream a 9 for Deliciousness and I gave the recipe a 4.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2. (Josh also thought I should point out that photo with the enormous portion of ice cream was after our long run on Sunday.) Many thanks to Becky of Project Domestication (awesome name!) for selecting ice cream! You can find the recipe on Becky’s site and visit the TWD site to see what the rest of the group thought.



Dorie suggested several different types of cookies to pair the ice cream with. I had made all of them at some point, and though I had enjoyed them, I decided to make a different sugar cookie recipe. I think some of my other cookbooks tend to feel neglected. I made Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies from Martha Stewart’s Cookies, which are an excellent classic chewy sugar cookie. They also received a 9 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 3.6. Here’s the recipe.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies from Martha Stewart’s Cookies
Printable recipe

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Put sugars and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed 30 seconds. Add butter; mix until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Mix in eggs one at a time, and then the lemon juice. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

Using a 2-inch ice cream scoop (I used a smaller one), drop dough onto lined baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Flatten cookies slightly; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Lightly brush with a wet pastry brush; sprinkle with more sanding sugar. (Note: I did not bother with the double layer of sugar; I just rolled each flattened cookie in sanding sugar.)

Bake cookies until golden, about 15 minutes (mine only took 10-11 minutes, since they were smaller), rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 days. I made half a recipe, and it yielded over two dozen small cookies.