…I’m afraid of success. You read that right. Don’t get me wrong, I like to succeed and I feel I have succeeded in many aspects of my life. I’m just used to getting back up and trying again after falling. I’m all about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and giving it another go. When you fall you know you can still rise and try again. If you succeed, while that’s great, where do you go from there? You strive to stay successful, but if you never fall how do you retain that? Have you reached your peak, is that the end of the climb? Not at all. With each step you take you learn from your last attempt. Nobody is successful all the time, at everything, but you adjust and try again. You maybe take smaller, surer, less risky steps and grow from there.
Usually when I have one of my “hmm, I wonder…” moments I’ll try to figure out where I might have a “well that didn’t go according to the plan” moments. On one of my last “hmm” moments, I was inspired by a friend who just got an ice cream maker and made what may have been her first sorbet. I got nostalgic for my ice cream maker and the first time I made ice cream and the endless possibilities loose in my brain (I’m still working on the logistics of those), when I swear a light bulb went off in my head and I thought about Brazilian flan ice cream-pudim de leite condensado. Oh, the excitement was palpable. Out came the ice cream maker from storage, I swear I was as giddy as a five year old. Now, the basics for ice cream are milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Pretty much the ingredients for flan give or take a few. Instead of sugar, flan consists of the following:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can of milk (use the can from condensed milk to measure)
2-3 large eggs (depending on the level of creaminess you enjoy)
*Now it’s important to mention that my intention was to make ice cream therefore, in place of the milk I used heavy cream (whipping cream to be precise).
I added the condensed milk in a bowl, with the heavy cream, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and three eggs. I whisked them all together to incorporate them fully before putting them on a double boiler, continuously whisking so not to scramble the eggs. Once the mixture was warm, I transferred it from the bowl to a pot over medium heat and stirred continuously, again in fear of scrambled eggs. Once the mixture was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, you can take it off the heat, transfer it to a bowl and let it cool with a plastic wrap pressed right on the mixture to avoid a thick film on it. Place in the refrigerator and let cool before adding it to your chilled ice cream maker to churn. You can make a caramel sauce and once your ice cream is ready to freeze you can swirl the caramel sauce for a more flan look. Or, you can also melt sugar with a tablespoon of water for a hardened sugar that can be shattered into little pieces and sprinkled on top of your ice cream for some crunch. I did leave mine plain and I did have it with some sliced strawberries, unfortunately it didn’t make it to the photo taking stage.
Oh well, I’ll just have to try it again.
Chrissie xo
Chrissie's Kitchen Delights 