vietnamese iced coffee granita sundae

Did you know that only EIGHT percent of New Year's resolutions actually get achieved? Crazy right? Remember that time I made an epic New Year's resolution to post a blog every week? Well.... I'm definitely not part of that 8%. 

So where have I been you ask? Suffering the miserable life of an undergraduate college student taking two too many classes, working one too many jobs and having the joy of commuting between two equally as dysfunctional households on different sides of one giant lake. Woe is me, lol. But it's over with. Finally!!! Somehow, I even managed to do well in school (after announcing that "everybody has a bad semester, and I'm okay that this one is mine") and even won an award for it! Oh, I went to a freezing cold New York, bleached my entire scalp, and drunk texted Molly Yeh about cheese fries in Texas in this period, too. 

Rest assured, I'm not leaving again. I've missed all of my lovely internet friends way too much and will spending the next few days cooped up in bed post-wisdom teeth surgery being paranoid about dry sockets and making the rounds visiting all of your pretty blogs. :)  Let's celebrate with some dessert! 

A few days ago, French Market Coffee sent me a giant box of coffee and challenged me to create a killer New Orleans-themed recipe. I obviously obliged, because coffee is the sole reason why I got through this semester from hell and coffee plus dessert is the greatest combination like.... ever. 

Now I know what you're thinking, Vietnamese iced coffee .... New Orleans??? Did you know that New Orleans has thriving Vietnamese population and a killer Viet restaurant scene? Did you know that my diet pretty much consists of nothing but banh mi and spring rolls? Did you know that Vietnamese is the fourth most spoken language in the entire state of Louisiana? Did you know that I just looked that up on Wikipedia? Bam. 

Because Vietnamese iced coffee is the delicious marriage of chicory coffee and condensed milk, I figured I would deconstruct it and turn it into something even more delicious than the drink itself.

The result: granita sundaes. Granitas are generally served alone or with a bit of whipped cream, but I truly believe in calorie-loading so I covered mine in layers upon layers of ice cream. Condensed milk ice cream, to be exact. On top of all of that, I covered the whole deal in even more condensed milk, because why not? 

I know this all sounds potentially stressful, but this dessert is super easy! The granita is literally just coffee and sugar, mixed, frozen, and sloshed around with a fork a few times. The ice cream is a no-churn situation, with only three ingredients and a quick freeze. You can even lie and act like you broke out that fancy Cuisinart ice cream maker that you've never used, I won't tell! Promise!

Brb, I'll be eating the leftover granita for the rest of my summer.

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Chicory Coffee Granita 

• 2 cups hot brewed French Market Coffee & Chicory chicory coffee 
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

make: 

In a medium-sized bowl, dissolve the sugar in the hot coffee. Once dissolved, stir in vanilla. Transfer the mixture into an 8-inch metal baking pan. Freeze the mixture, making sure to stir the mixture vigorously with a fork every 30 minutes until slushy, about 2 hours. 

Condensed Milk Ice Cream 

• 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream 
• 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste or extract 
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk, plus extra for drizzling

make: 

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cold heavy cream and vanilla on high until soft peaks form. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue whipping until high peaks form. Transfer the mixture into a bowl or loaf pan and freeze until set, at least four hours or overnight. 

When ready to serve, layer the granita and ice cream in a bowl or coffee mug. Drizzle with extra condensed milk! 

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This post is sponsored by French Market Coffee. All opinions are my own and this sundae is literally amazing so don't be fooled. 

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magic bar milkshakes

Hello, old friends! 

Waaaaay too much has happened since we've last spoken. In no specific order: Mardi Gras left me with a broken knee and a broken phone and well... broke, Lady Gaga won like all of the Oscar's ever, I was featured as Yahoo's Blogger of the Week, and we all freaked out over a damn dress. (It's blue and black, let's be real.) Something's totally in the water right now. 

When life errs on the crazier side, I crave more simple pleasures. It makes sense really: when my mind is occupied with trying to be a student and a person at the same time, that special compartment where I dream up chicken and waffles cakes and king cake fries sometimes gets lost in the background. Right now, I'm on a major bar kick.... 

Magic bars. Seven layer bars. Hello Dolly bars. Whatever you call them, they're freaking delicious. 

While they're perfect on their own, I've recently discovered that magic bar milkshakes are the new frontier. Caramel and vanilla ice cream blended with graham crackers, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips, then topped with condensed milk whipped cream, toasted coconut, pecans, and actual magic bar pieces. 

Spring Break diet, who? 

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Magic Bar Milkshakes 

(makes two delicious milkshakes) 

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup caramel ice cream 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 graham crackers 
• 4 tablespoons butterscotch chips
• 2 tablespoons semisweet or milk chocolate chips 
• 1/2 cup sweetened coconut, toasted 
• 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped
• chopped magic bars (optional)

make: 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream and condensed milk and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside. 

In a blender, combine the ice creams, milk, graham crackers, butterscotch and chocolate chips. Blend together until smooth. Immediately pour into glasses and top with condensed milk whipped cream, toasted coconut, and magic bar pieces. 

 

Cornbread Tres Leches with Maraschino Popcorn

I've been surrounded by corn lately.

No really, I poured corn kernels all over myself in a "corn crib" a few weeks ago and I swear I found a piece of corn lodged in between my car seats or just casually chilling in my shoe every other day. I probably shouldn't be annoyed, considering the fact that I have a whole Facebook album devoted entirely to pictures of me and corn, but wanted corn kernels are taking over my life and driving me crazy. The strangest part about this whole corn situation is that I don't even like corn that much. 

I'm currently in the process of planning the ultimate Thanksgiving dinner and between all of the stuffing, potatoes, mac and cheese, bread (and butter) recipes I'm sifting through, I've got carbs on my mind. My current dilemma is over breads, because these pretzel parker rolls and this harvest focaccia and the thought of hot buttery cornbread all sound equally delicious. I was this close to saying screw it and deciding on all three, but that would be overkill for my oven AND my thighs, so I decided to make cornbread this weekend. Things took a turn for the sweeter side really quickly and before I knew it, I was brainstorming how to deploy my cornbread into desserts. 

Cornbread trifles? Nah, Molly made those. Cornbread bread pudding? That's already been done. Then it hit me, cornbread tres leches has the potential to warrant the reaction of a handful of 100 emojis and, despite it being a bit reachy, doesn't it just make sense? Tres leches is Mexican. Corn plays a huge role in Mexican cuisine. Graham Blackall is a genius. (Joking!) So I did it. And it's kinda the best tres leches that I've ever had. Far too often, I find tres leches to be cloyingly sweet, but the cornmeal adds a much needed balance that catapults tres leches into the upper echelons of dessert enjoyment. 

I know what you're thinking right now. "Uhm.... popcorn?" To be honest, there's really not more reason than me want to be as corny as possible. (Get it?) In all seriousness, I've always been a tad bit disgusted when people cover their tres leches in cool whip and maraschino cherries. Even though I'm the epitome of dessert trashiness at times, imitation whipped cream and cherries straight from a jar is just a little too uninspired for me. To sustain the utmost level of corniness in this dessert, I decided to top the cake with a marshmallow whipped cream and white chocolate-cherry glazed popcorn. 

Off kilter, maybe. Delicious? Oh yes.  

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Cornbread Tres Leches 

(adapted from this lovely recipe)

• 2 14oz. cans sweetened condensed milk 
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• a dash of cinnamon 
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cup sugar 
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons honey or agave 
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and cinnamon. Whisk the mixture until completely smooth. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the mixture and refrigerate; you'll use this for plating when you serve the tres leches. Set the rest of the liquid mixture aside; this will be used to soak the cornbread. 

Preheat oven to 350F and grease and flour a 9x13 baking dish. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Once combined, add in the oil, melted butter, honey, eggs, & milk and stir. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. 

Using a skewer or straw, poke holes throughout the warm cornbread. Pour half of the milk mixture from earlier over the cornbread. Once the bread is soaked, pour the remainder of the milk mixture on the cake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. (The longer the flavors can mingle, the better!)

When you're ready to serve, whip up a batch of the whipped cream and top the tres leches with it and the cherry popcorn. Before plating the tres leches, pour a layer of the milk mixture that you set aside in the refrigerator on the plate for extra triple milky goodness. 

Marshmallow Whipped Cream

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 7oz. container marshmallow cream 

Directions: 

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add in the marshmallow cream and whip until fully combined. 

White Chocolate Cherry Popcorn

(inspired by Jessica!) 

• 5 cups popcorn (from a bag or popped yourself, just don't use movie theatre butter lol) 
• 1/2 cup white chocolate
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla paste or extract
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 tablespoons maraschino cherry syrup (from the jar) 

Directions: 

Place the popcorn in a large mixing bowl. 

Melt the white chocolate over a double broiler or in the microwave. If using microwave, make sure to heat the chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring after each time. Pour over the popcorn. 

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, and cherry syrup and mix until a glaze forms. Pour over the popcorn. 

Mix the popcorn until all pieces are thoroughly coated. Transfer the mixture to a wax paper-lined baking tray and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate before removing to serve