I am Jennifer, Kimberly’s older sister.  I am a stay at home mom in Seattle of two lovely little boys and enjoy baking and cooking as much as I can (which with 2 little ones isn’t as often as I would like to).  This is my first attempt at food photography and food blogging, but hey you have to try everything once.

The inspiration for this recipe came from my sister in law’s love of fudge. I thought for Christmas that I would make her a few types of fudge.  So I set out on my search for some good recipes.  In my search through tastespotting.com I came across Not So Humble Pie.  She had some amazing fudge recipes so I decided to try them.  My favorite was the Bailey’s Vanilla Bean Fudge.  The result was a creamy and smooth vanilla fudge with a hint of Bailey’s.  This has become a new holiday favorite of ours – our entire family loved it.  Enjoy!

Bailey’s Vanilla Bean Fudge

Courtesy of Not So Humble Pie

2 cups granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream (40% milk fat)
1/2 cup plus one tablespoon Baileys Irish cream
2 cups good quality white chocolate chips
1/2 vanilla bean scraped, reserving seeds
7 ounce jar marshmallow creme

Line a 9×9 inch pan with foil and coat with a little butter or nonstick spray.

Combine sugar, butter, heavy cream and Irish creme into a heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, attach a candy thermometer and reduce the heat to a hair above medium low and cook for 7-10 minutes until your thermometer reads 234°F , stirring constantly.

Once your mixture hits the appropriate temperature, remove from heat and add the white chocolate chips, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the vanilla bean and marshmallow creme and mix until well blended.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and allow to cool on a wire rack until room temperature.

As promised, here is probably one of the best ice creams I have ever had, who would have thought fresh mint ice cream could be so good.

For Sean’s birthday I thought I would attempt to make mint chocolate ice cream, but instead of just plain ice cream I would put it into an oreo crust and make a pie.

In browsing around recipes it seems like most people steep the mint leaves in the warm half and half before finishing up the custard so I thought that sounded like a plan.

I had some pretty lofty goals though because I was making his birthday dinner on a week night.  I knew that I needed to do as much as I could before I went to work since I wasn’t even going to get home until 5;30 or so.  Also the ice cream has to chill for 6-8 hours before going in the ice cream maker.

Flash forward to me standing over the stove at 6:00am cursing the half and half for not heating up.  I failed to realized that the mint should steep for a few hours to really get enough of the minty taste.  As I am running out of time I resign to the fact that I am going to have to take an early lunch break to come home and finish the custard so that it can cool until I get home from work.

You can image my boss that morning when I email her to see if I can take my lunch break at 10 so I can finish making ice cream.  She couldn’t stop laughing.  Most people aren’t trying to make ice cream at 6:00 in the morning.

It was well worth all the trouble to make this ice cream, it is by far one of my favorite home made ice creams.  It taste creamy but not too heavy and so fresh.  I now have requests from my mother in law for this ice cream on her next birthday, she hasn’t even tasted it and she knows it is amazing.

Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Pie

About 2 cups fresh mint leaves

4 cups half and half

1 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 egg yolks

4 ounces dark chocolate

Tear mint leaves off the stems and put into a large bowl.  Using a pestle, pound the leaves until they are a little bruised.

Heat half in half, sugar and pinch of salt on the stove over medium heat until steaming and bubbling, making sure not to boil.

Once the half and half is heated remove from the heat and add the mint leaves and cover.  Now let them steep for 2-3 hours, the longer the better to really get the minty taste.

After 3 hours strain the mint leaves and put the half and half back on the stove.  As the half and half is heating up take your egg yolks and whisk them in a bowl.  Add a cup or so of the heated half and half and whisk until combined.  This will keep the egg from cooking in the half and half.  Add the egg mixture to the half and half and combine.

Heat the mixture until steaming and bubbling around the edges making sure to stir constantly, custard is done when it coats the back of the spoon.

Remove from the heat, add vanilla and let cool in the fridge until ready to use in your ice cream maker.  Add the chocolate chunks half way through the time in the ice cream maker.