Pistachio ice cream, with chocolate soufflé

My family and I had the best time sitting down to this dessert last Sunday afternoon. It started with a batch of homemade pistachio ice cream, then I made chocolate soufflé to go with it.  Boy oh boy, was it a treat!

I had a moment of pride bringing this to the table, feeling a little amazed I made it with my two little hands.  A few years ago, I wouldn't have thought it possible to create so many restaurant dishes and desserts at home.  But now, I know that many things that seem hard aren't so hard at all; it just takes a little planning and concentration.  

It actually started with the ice cream.  Months ago, I was looking through this breakfast cookbook and among the recipes, I found one for pistachio ice cream.  Like I've said before, pistachio desserts are always especially good for some reason!  I love everything from pistachio cake to macarons, cookies, and biscotti, and a scoop of pistachio ice cream/gelato is always a treat when I can get my hands on it.  So I was very interested in this relatively simple pistachio ice cream recipe I found myself looking at. 

Funny thing though...when I set out to make the ice cream, I looked up pistachio ice cream recipes online to do some comparison and found the exact same recipe on epicurious.com that's credited to a different source.  It made me scratch my head a bit but I'll just leave that alone and say that as far as results go, I am very happy with this pistachio ice cream!  It turned out full of pistachio flavor - with a little almond extract in the background that I think compliments it quite well.  

The pistachio flavor comes from grinding pistachios with some sugar and flavoring/cooking the milk with this mixture (which is later strained and discarded). Stirring some chopped pistachios into the ice cream adds texture and reinforces the pistachio flavor. This recipe leans closer to gelato given more milk than cream (2:1 ratio) in it, and I think it works really well in cases like this where you want the delicate nutty flavor to shine through.  So basically, I can now have excellent pistachio ice cream/gelato at home anytime I feel like it!  

I was thinking a special ice cream/gelato flavor like pistachio needed to be used or showcased somehow.  I noticed that the epicurious recipe, which is sourced to a restaurant that was once in PA, mentioned that the ice cream was served with warm chocolate soufflés.  Well, it took me no time at all to decide to copy that idea!

I made chocolate soufflés using a David Lebovitz recipe I've posted about in the past.  All in all, the chocolate soufflé with the pistachio ice cream was just...fabulous.  I made four of these and the three of us wiped the ramekins clean in no time at all. That's the thing with both soufflé and ice cream - they're meant to be devoured without hesitation.

When it's all gone, it leaves you wanting more but I can savor the memory of this for a while yet...

Chocolate Grand Marnier soufflé

A few nights ago, my husband and I had one of our fairly regular at-home date nights, which I really savor.  We had spaghetti carbonara along with salad (aren't we good to include the salad) and for dessert, I decided to make a chocolate Grand Marnier soufflé.  It is almost Valentine's Day, afterall, so a chocolate dessert is practically a must. 

I just noticed that I've been posting a few of these spoonable custard type chocolate desserts lately but I think we can definitely make room for this one.  There's something special about a piping hot soufflé straight out of the oven; it says "special occasion" but you can make it any night of the week.  For this one, I took the base chocolate soufflé recipe I've used before and tweaked it - mainly adding a good splash of Grand Marnier.  Instead of crème anglaise, I topped this one with some cold freshly whipped cream. 

I can't emphasize enough how perfect the combination of something cold is against a steaming hot soufflé.  And as I've said before, it is a real treat but not difficult to make.  My husband and I don't drink very much but he really enjoys things like chocolate with liqueur or something alcoholic in it (like champagne truffles).  I loved watching him enjoy his soufflé even more than eating it myself.