5 star cookbook review for No-Churn Ice Cream by Leslie Bilderback, the bestselling author of Mug Cakes and The Spiralized Kitchen. No-Churn Ice Cream is OUT NOW!
No-Churn Ice Cream by Leslie Bilderback
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I LOVE stuffing my face with yummy goodness. Therefore, I figured if I love to eat, then it might make sense to learn how to cook. In 2005, I began to collect cookbooks from famed chefs and was constantly disappointed by how difficult it was to replicate their recipes. User error is bound to happen. However, when pals who grew up cooking assisted in my kitchen ventures, had to take a moment to decipher what the chef was attempting to teach the reader, I knew the issue wasn’t 100% my fault.
This is why Leslie Bilderback, CMB (certified master baker) has now become one of my favorite cookbook authors. No-Churn Ice Cream: Over 100 Simply Delicious No-Machine Frozen Treats was such a joy to look through that I couldn’t wait to attempt to make one of her amazing mouthwatering dishes. Not only is the book filled with easy to understand recipes, but No-Churn Ice Cream also provides the reader detailed tips on cooking sugar in a section titled, “sugar 101”. This helps novices like myself understand when sugar is boiling, has turned to caramel, or when it’s burnt. The cookbook also provides a glossary! This was fantastic, because I didn’t need to run to Internet to figure out what pâte à choux or bain-marie meant. If the sugar 101 and the glossary wasn’t glorious enough for this now wannabe dessert chef, Leslie Bilderback in No-Churn Ice Cream provides readers with recipe variations, a fruit sauce cooking chart, and why one type of equipment is better than another when making certain types of ice cream. As a bonus, Leslie Bilderback also shows us other easy frozen desserts to create alongside all the ice cream loveliness she has supplied us.
No-Churn Ice Cream: Over 100 Simply Delicious No-Machine Frozen Treats makes life easy because you only need a freezer, a whisk or electric mixer, a can opener, a bowl, and a freezeable container to make Leslie Bilderback’s collection of mouthwatering treats. And I planned to test that theory. Trying to decide which yummy recipe I wanted to attempt to replicate first was the difficult part. I kid you not, each recipe sounds amazing and those with images, automatically make you want to try to make those first. After an hour of going back and forth over 6 recipes, I decided that chocolate ice cream was my first love when it came to desserts, this should be the first recipe I try from the cookbook. The ingredients needed were bittersweet chocolate, milk, sweetened condensed milk, pure vanilla extract, unsweetened cocoa powder, lemon juice, salt, and heavy cream. All things I luckily had in my pantry. I busted out my stand mixer, set-up my knife and chopping board, pulled out a pot and my 9 x 9 dish, and got to work.
All went well with bringing the milk to a near boil, then pouring this over the melted chocolate and stirring into this mixture the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, cocoa powder, lemon juice, and salt. Everything was fine folding the glorious chocolate concoction into the whipped heavy cream. My kitchen disaster only struck when I went to transfer the soon to be ice cream to the freezer. Yep, user error occurred when I tripped over my feline and splatter everything over the cat, the floor, and myself. I already taste tested the product prior to attempting to freeze, and it was delicious! If I wasn’t a germaphobe I would have scooped everything off the floor and myself and just popped what was left into the freezer. But I am, and chocolate isn’t great for animals. So I quickly wiped myself down, wrangled the feline, and got her cleaned. I mourned my first attempt at no-churn ice cream and cleaned up my kitchen.
Don’t fret too much for me, I went back into a feline free kitchen and successfully made Leslie Bilderback’s No-Churn Ice Cream chocolate ice cream and it was amazing. Even added cayenne chili pepper to the mix to spice things up a bit. Next up I plan to make Leslie Bilderback’s tomato-cucumber sorbet, Indian rose water sherbet, agave-lime sherbet, and California date ice cream. At least one of these recipe attempts will be fully documented on We So Nerdy.
I highly recommend you go out and get No-Churn Ice Cream: Over 100 Simply Delicious No-Machine Frozen Treats by Leslie Bilderback. When you make one or all of the simple and amazing desserts she offers up in this amazeballs cookbook I hope you come back and share your no-churn ice cream adventures with me.
Cookbook Details
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Retail: $22.99
Length: 168 pages
Pictures: 45 color photographs throughout
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Leslie Bilderback is a certified master baker, chef, and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy. The author of Mug Cakes, she began her career as a pastry chef, and played a major role in several of California’s most well-regarded and innovative restaurants, including Sedona, Postrio, Zola’s, Angeli, and Georgia. (via St. Martins Griffin)