The Salty Pilgrim (& a virtual potluck!)

Do you ever dream up what the Big Gay Ice Cream menu would have looked like in 1621? Nope. Okay, definitely just me.

A few weeks back, Renee from Will Frolic for Food contacted me and bunch of other bloggers about participating in a huge virtual Friendsgiving potluck in collaboration with J. Q. Dickinson Salt-Works and I immediately jumped on board. I mean, wouldn't you want to have two Thanksgivings in a single week too? Sure, the first of the two may be virtual and you can't actually eat any of the food, but I'm sure that we'd all feel a little bit less guilty that way anyways. 

Given my inability to cook real people food (read: anything that isn't sugar), I hopped on the dessert train faster than Michelle Obama could turn up with a root vegetable. Then came the panic over what to make...

I'm not one for pumpkin or sweet potato pies, so the classics were out of the picture for this Thanksgiving spread. I thought to myself — and probably out loud, too — "hmmm, what type of dessert is the farthest from traditional for a Thanksgiving dinner?"

Ice cream sundaes. 

Disclaimer: If your annual Thanksgiving celebration is complete with a sundae bar, I have two questions for you: 1) who the hell are you? and 2) where is my invitation? 

It took milliseconds before I was thinking of ways to reimagine Big Gay Ice Cream's Salty Pimp for turkey day. I don't know how many pimps were roaming around Plymouth County, but my speculation is that the number was preeeeetty low, so I made the executive decision to rename this sundae the Salty Pilgrim and make it all types of first harvest inspired. 

In case you're unaware of the Salty Pimp, it's a cone of vanilla soft serve, dulce de leche, chocolate shell, and flakes of sea salt. Aside from shedding its overtly sexual nature and being much more PC, the Salty Pilgrim is composed of the following:

• Sweet Corn Ice Cream (not soft serve, but just go with the flow)
• Sweet Potato Caramel 
• Valrhona Dulcey Magic Shell (v important !!!!!!!!!!!!) 
• J. Q. Dickinson Sea Salt flakes  

and holy Jamestown, is it delicious! One bite in and my mom was doing the whole *eyes wide open, gasping for air, and kind of muttering "holy shit" under her breath* thing she does whenever I make something really freaking good. I prepped a sundae for my dad later on last night. He practically moaned, then said "you need to give this to somebody. People need to have this in their life." So there you go, a damn harvest sundae called the Salty Pilgrim is Trey Blackall approved. (and that's QUITE the feat!)

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Disclaimer: this post is part of a virtual Friendsgiving potluck with J. Q. Dickinson Salt-Works. All opinions are mine, like the fact that this salt is soooo bomb! 

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Sweet Corn Ice Cream

(adapted from this Jeni's recipe)

• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 tsp. cornstarch
• 1 ear of corn
• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

Directions

1Make the ice cream: In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside. Cut kernels off cob of corn and cut cob into large chunks; reserve kernels and cob together. In a 4-qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk and the cream, sugar, syrup, and salt; add corn kernels and cob and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture through a fine strainer into a bowl and discard corn solids. 

Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Then whisk in remaining milk mixture. Pour mixture into a plastic bag; seal, and submerge in a bowl of ice water until chilled. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer's instructions. 

Sweet Potato Caramel

(adapted from Crazy for Crust)

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced into tablespoons
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sweet potato puree
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• a dash of black pepper
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt 

Directions

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, heat the sugar over medium-low heat. Cook the sugar until it melts and turns into an amber caramel, stirring often. Add the butter and stir until combined, it will bubble up like crazy here. Add half of the heavy cream, stir to combine, and then stir in the remaining half. Add the sweet potato, spices, salt, and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. 

Pour the caramel into a jar and store at room temperature or refrigerated. 

Valrhona Dulcey Magic Shell 

• 160 grams Valrhona Dulcey, chopped
• 100 grams coconut oil 

Directions

In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and oil together in 30 second increments, stirring after each one, until melted. Store at room temperature. 

Cranberry Orange Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Icing

Over the weekend, I decided to do take out my mixer and test some recipes for Thanksgiving! After a few hours and an exploded bag of powdered sugar (it was literally EVERYWHERE), my kitchen counter was covered in desserts. The best? This cake. 

I've been brainstorming over the perfect cake for Thanksgiving dinner, and then I remembered the most delicious Lemon Blueberry Cake that I made this summer. It was a such a hit with my friends and family, that I had been dreaming up variations ever since! 

Cranberry and orange is one of my absolute favorite flavor combinations for the holidays. It was a no-brainer that I just had to make this cake this holiday season. So I did, and damn was it good. The cake is perfectly most and has a light orange flavor, studded with fresh cranberries throughout. My favorite part is the icing. I took my traditional cream cheese icing and added both orange zest and orange juice. I swear I could've eaten the whole bowl if I had no self-restraint! And on top of all of that, cranberry syrup! 

Seriously, y'all. Make this. You won't regret it. 

Cranberry Orange Cake

• 2 cups and 6 tablespoons cake flour
•  2 tsp baking powder
•  1 tsp salt
•  2 ½ cups fresh cranberries
•  1 cup whole milk
•  2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp orange zest
•  1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup pecans (optional, but we all thought they would be perfect!)

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

•  1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
•  2 lb. powdered sugar (the big bags!)
• zest and juice of 1 orange
•   vanilla to taste

Cranberry Orange Syrup

•  1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
•  ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup orange juice
•  ½ cup light corn syrup, maple syrup, or honey

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 9” round cake pans.

Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, combines cranberries and 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture and coat the berries. Set aside. Stir whole milk, vanilla, and orange zest in small bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add the in flour mixture alternately with milk mixture. (Start with the flour, then add half of the milk, more flour, the rest of the milk, more flour). Fold in cranberries and pecans. Divide batter equally among pans.

Bake cakes until set, about 25 minutes.

For the icing:

Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Add extracts, zest, and juice and blend once more.

For the syrup:

 Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to boil. Simmer the mixture for 7-12 minutes, until the cranberries pop. Remove from heat and let cool before topping the iced cake. 

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