Yoghurt Week: Banana Bread

Hello, and welcome to yoghurt week at the Sweetest Kitchen! What does this mean? It means that Im going to be posting a recipe featuring yoghurt each day this week. If you love yoghurt and incorporating it into your baking and cooking, then this is the place you want to be.

Ill first clue you in as to why theres even a yoghurt week in the first place. Its all thanks to Chobani Australia (and Kristy, from Southern In-Law, who passed my details on to Chobani!)! Chobani Australia contacted me a few weeks ago and offered to send me some of their Greek yoghurt to sample. Of course I accepted the offer, but I didnt expect to receive a gigantic box full of 12 pots of fruit-flavored Greek yoghurt, a huge tub of plain Greek yoghurt, a set of popsicle molds, and an organic cotton oven mitt and apron! I was speechless and feeling extremely lucky to have received this generous gift. I was especially excited about the oven mitt too how did they know that I was in dire need of a new oven mitt? I actually almost bought one a few days earlier, but decided against it. This Chobani-branded oven mitt is a real winner, so Im glad I didnt buy the one I was looking at before.

Anyway. Im going to kick yoghurt week off with the very first recipe I baked using Chobani Greek yoghurt banana bread! Or is that, CHOnana bread?

The recipe is based on one from Martha Stewart, I just replaced the sour cream in her recipe with Chobani 2% Greek yoghurt, and added an extra banana (the smallest one from the bunch). And let me tell you, Ive made so many loaves of banana bread in my life that I thought were delicious, but they were nothing compared to this CHOnana bread. Ill never be baking any other banana bread recipe again, as this one is just out of this world.

Even the batter was irresistible.

The bread was so moist and bursting with the flavor of bananas. Pecans were a wonderful addition. You wont be able to tell this has yoghurt in it, but I guarantee youll be able to taste a slight tang. It brings the bread to life and makes it stand out from all the other recipes Ive tried.

If youre after the perfect banana bread recipe, give this one a go it wont disappoint! Use Chobani brand yoghurt if youre able to; otherwise, aim for a good quality, thick and creamy Greek yoghurt.

Thank you for having a look at the first recipe of yoghurt week! I hope to see you back tomorrow for the next one!

Banana (CHOnana) Bread
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (generously rounded!) mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup good-quality Greek yoghurt (Chobani 2% preferred)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, yoghurt, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in pecans, and pour into prepared pan.

Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

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Banana Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ive had a real thing for banana breads and cakes lately. In fact, I just now took a loaf of banana bread out of the oven before I sat down to write this post about banana cake. Bananas have been abundant in our kitchen, leading to some quite ripe bananas here and there. Im not sure what you all do with over-ripe bananas, but I immediately start searching for a banana bread or banana cake recipe; one that I havent used before or one that calls for ingredients that I have on hand already. I came across a highly-rated banana cake recipe on my go-to recipe site, taste.com.au, a while ago and had bookmarked it.

Last week, when I was faced with a handful of soft, black-spotted bananas, I turned to this recipe. Its super quick and easy, and in no time, youll be enjoying a delicious banana cake.

Some of the reviews of this recipe said the cake was too sweet and the reviewers had reduced the amount of sugar. I took their advice and only added 225g of sugar, instead of 315g. Just make sure your bananas are really over-ripe, and they will provide extra sweetness so that you could probably cut down on the sugar a little bit more if you like. The only other change I made was to use 3 medium bananas instead of 2 large.

Okay, Ill admit, I didnt actually make the frosting. I used the brand new lemon cream cheese frosting from Philadelphia, which I also used to frost these red velvet zombie Halloween cupcakes. The frosting was a perfect match for banana cake, as well as the red velvet cupcakes! It made the preparation time for this cake even less.

The recipe uses buttermilk, but if you want to cheat, remember that you can make your own buttermilk by using 1 cup of regular milk and 1 tablespoon of either fresh lemon juice or white vinegar. Give a gentle stir and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then measure out how much is needed for the recipe.

The cake was nice fresh from the oven, but I actually preferred it cold, straight from the refrigerator! The refrigerator makes the cake firm and the firmness seemed to suit the cake well, if you know what I mean? The photos I am showing you in this post is of the cake fresh from the oven, when it was fluffy and soft. The cake has an obvious firmer look when served cold from the refrigerator.

I normally dont make the same recipe twice, but this cake is a real winner and Im sure Ill be making it again. Its just the thing for a morning or afternoon tea with coffee and a couple of friends.

Do you have a go-to recipe for sharing with friends that everyone loves? If you dont yet, try this cake; Im sure it will be loved!

Banana Cake With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from taste.com.au & Australian Good Taste magazine, September 2007
Serves 8

Ingredients
Melted butter, to grease
125g butter, at room temperature
225g caster sugar
1 1/4 cups mashed overripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml buttermilk
225g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 banana, extra, to decorate
Fresh lemon juice, to brush
250g tub Philadelphia Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Brush a round 20cm (base measurement) cake pan with melted butter to grease. Line the base and side of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar, banana, eggs and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor, and process for 2 minutes or until well combined. Add the buttermilk and process until combined.

Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda, and process until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Shake the pan to settle the mixture.

Bake in oven for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside in the pan for 10 minutes to cool slightly, before transferring the cake to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frost the cooled cake with Philadelphia Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (or prepare the original frosting recipe used with this cake). Peel and thinly slice the 1 extra banana and brush 1 cut side of each slice with lemon juice. Arrange the banana slices, lemon juice side up, around the edge of the frosting to serve. Serve immediately. Store leftovers in the refrigerator 2-3 days.

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Adriano Zumbos Box Mixes Review

A lot of you may not know who Adriano Zumbo is; hes a very famous patissier here in Sydney. Hes been featured on MasterChef Australia where contestants had to bake and prepare his wild desserts, including an outrageous croquembouche, a macaron tower of olive, beetroot and raspberry macarons, and an unbelievable gingerbread house. You can even buy these things from his shop, but youll have be prepared to pay from $105 for the croquembouche and $400 for the macaron tower!

Recently, what Adrian Zumbo has really become famous for is his macarons. He makes such bizarre flavors that hes created a Zumbaron craze. Zumbaron is a combination of his last name, Zumbo, and macaron. If you live in or near Sydney, you can find these Zumbarons in the brand new Zumbaron trucks sort of like a food truck, only selling macarons! I think this is pretty cool and one day Ill have to get myself into Sydney to stop by one of these Zumbaron vehicles.

Adriano himself looks to be a fun, quirky guy who is a child at heart, but he takes his desserts pretty seriously. I was surprised to see box mixes with his name on them in my grocery store a couple of weeks ago because this just didnt seem like something he would do. At $7.80 per box, I was reluctant to try the macaron mixes, but I snapped up a salted caramel one. The next time I was at the shop I bought the brownie mix. Ill start with a review of the macarons.

I was expecting these macarons to turn out quite well. Despite having issues with Donna Hays macaron box mix, I had higher hopes for Adriano Zumbos. What I absolutely love about Adrianos mixes is that there is a video available online at every step of the way. Simply visit his website, or use a QR scanner on your smartphone to scan the QR code that is printed on the box. The videos are high quality, as well as being clear and easy to understand. With the macaron mix, it comes with meringue mixture, almond mixture, caramel filling mixture, 2 large piping bags and a cardstock circle template to trace circles on the baking paper. All you need to add is plain water to the meringue mix, and butter to the caramel filling.

Using Instagram, I documented my time spent making these. Making macarons is usually quite easy, its just the technique and knowing when to stop mixing that makes macarons so tricky. I watched Adrianos video of the mixing step a couple of times and felt confident about the way I was doing it. I piped the mixture onto the circles I had traced and let it set for 10 minutes, as per instructions. However, I do know that you should be able to touch the macaron batter without having the batter end up on your finger, and after 10 minutes, it was still leaving batter on my finger. I let the trays set another 20 minutes, then put them in the oven.

Here is where I was going against my gut feeling. The instructions said to bake the macarons at 160C. In my experience, that temperature is too high. However, I still had faith in Adrianos instructions, so 160C it was. Within minutes, though, the macarons had risen quickly and the top of each macaron had cracked. None of the shells developed feet. Definitely, the oven temperature was too high. This batch of 24 macaron shells was obviously ruined. The photo of this batch is in the collage below, bottom left. I took this batch out a bit too early as well, so they were a little under-baked.

For the next batch of macarons, I lowered the temperature of the oven by 30 degrees and also stuck a wooden spoon in the oven door (something Ive done previously for macarons). This batch did better, although I still got some cracked shells. None of these shells developed feet, either. The photo of this batch is in the collage below, bottom right. I also noticed that the macaron shells were very orange, while the photo of the macaron on the box was a light caramel-color.

I tried to think of anything I could have done wrong, other than the oven temperature. I felt confident that I had mixed the batter properly, though.

I was very disappointed with my shells, but I still prepared the filling and sandwiched the macarons together. I expected them to taste nice, but I wasnt even impressed with that either. The filling tasted more like butter than caramel. I was expecting these macarons to be so delicious; it was a huge let-down.

I am reluctant to give this box mix a thumbs-down because I do know of people who have had success with it, but it just hasnt worked for me. I was thinking Id give these salted caramel macarons another go a few months down the road, but after tasting them, I think Ill pass. I was so disappointed that I didnt even bother to take photos of them with my real camera!

Now, just to prove to you that I have made macarons before, from-scratch, here are the first ones I ever made Nutella/coffee macarons, matcha macarons, chocolate/peanut butter macarons, and my favorite were these lemon macarons (I know all those posts are missing photos, I promise Ill get them up sometime in the next 24 hours!). With the experience Ive had of Donna Hays and Adriano Zumbos macaron mixes, I think Ill just stick with homemade macarons from now on!

Youd probably think that Adrianos brownie mix turned out just as bad as the macarons, but it was the complete opposite. I really loved the brownie mix. I hate to keep comparing Donna Hay and Adriano, but Adrianos brownies were heaps better than Donnas.

There are also video instructions for the brownies, but I certainly dont need to watch instructions to make brownies; this is like second nature to me! This box comes with the brownie mix, which includes white chocolate chips, and a separate packet for chocolate chunks. I under-baked these slightly and they were so deliciously and sinfully gooey. They became quite hard by the next day and I did not like them cold. I heated up them in the microwave, just until the chocolate was gooey again, and they basically tasted like they were fresh from the oven. Id definitely make this box mix again.

I would still recommend giving Adrianos mixes a go, if you have a spare $7.80 to spend on a gourmet packet mix. If youre having trouble deciding between Donna Hays and Adriano Zumbos, Id not hesitate in telling you to buy Adrianos!

If youve prepared Adrianos macaron mix either the salted caramel or passionfruit, please, leave a comment and let me know how they turned out; Id love to hear about it!

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

Before I begin this post, I just want to apologize for the lack of updates in recent weeks. We have been having a stressful time at home and even went through the process of changing schools for my daughter, which consumed heaps of time and energy. I had complete bakers block, but Im getting back in the swing of things and hope to bring you more delicious recipes. Now, on with the post

If youre on Pinterest, you may have seen a certain recipe of mine floating around there. These peanut butter chocolate chip blondies I made a year ago have went viral on Pinterest. It only happened recently; previously these homemade chocolate peanut butter cups were the most popular recipe on my blog, with visitors coming mostly from Pinterest or FoodGawker. Im not even sure how they were so popular as I think the pictures for those chocolate peanut butter cups are just terrible! Well, as the blondies have been earning my blog thousands of visits from Pinterest each week, I decided to do a recipe-flashback post by baking the blondies again and, hopefully, taking better photos.

I have to be honest and say that this isnt particularly one of my favorite recipes; it seems that I raved about this recipe in the original post, but it just didnt do the same for me the second time around. It was just okay. Its quick and easy and its one of those recipes where you probably already have everything to make it in your pantry. The blondies, when finished, taste great, but only fresh from the oven, in my opinion. Once they cool, they start to become too firm and stale rather quickly. You must make sure theyre eaten before the end of the day after baking, Id recommend. This is something I also pointed out in my first post about these blondies.

Its not the sort of recipe that will absolutely wow you, but they do have a gorgeous, brownie-like flaky top.

And those gooey chocolate chips? You simply cannot beat that.

Another must for this recipe you must not overbake the blondies. In doing so, you would lose that overall gooey-ness that youve come to expect from a blondie. The same goes for brownies as well. No overbaking!

Im not sure if these photos are any better than my originals, with the red and white stripey plate, but I had a lot of fun baking this recipe again and taking the photos. And Ill admit, I actually messed up the recipe by adding double the amount of butter! I have no idea how I managed that, but luckily I had enough ingredients to start over. You wouldnt believe how greasy-looking the batter looked! I had actually prepared the entire recipe and was trying to spread the batter out in the pan when I noticed something was really wrong. It was so greasy and wouldnt spread out properly. Im just glad I noticed it before I placed it in the oven!

Anyway, if youre craving peanut butter and chocolate, or just simply something sweet, by all means, give this recipe a go. Just dont expect it to knock your socks off just because its been viral on Pinterest! If you decide to bake a batch, let me know what you think!

Note that I have halved the original recipe to fit in an 88-inch square pan.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Adapted from Handle The Heat & My Kitchen Addiction
Makes about 16 squares, depending on how big you cut them

Ingredients
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup natural peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips (I probably used closer to 1/2 cup!)

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease an 88 square pan and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the butter & sugar mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared dry ingredients, and stir to create a thick, smooth batter. Fold in half the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, spreading the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and lightly press them into the batter.

Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Allow to cool in the pan. Cut into squares and serve.

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Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a scary (and safe) Halloween this year! Halloween isnt very popular in Australia (although more and more Aussies seem to be celebrating in recent years), but that doesnt mean you wont see Halloween stuff in the shops, or trick-or-treaters on your doorstep. We havent celebrated Halloween in a few years not since my ever-popular zombie cupcakes and spider pumpkin dulce de leche cupcakes, anyway. Did you even realize that my zombie cupcakes are featured on the Bake It Pretty product page for the zombie hands? That totally blew me away when I saw that!

Well, since my kids are getting older, I decided to treat them to a Halloween feast last night. The day before Halloween, I bought a sackful of decor from a dollar shop and decorated our dining room table with spooky stuff while the kids were at school.

I then got to work on some Halloween desserts, which I really had a lot of fun with. I started with these bloody zombie cupcakes, made especially for my 5-year-old son, who, for some reason, has a thing for zombies.

These are red velvet cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting; the clotty, gelatinous-looking blood is actually boysenberry sauce! For my sons amusement, though, they were zombie blood cupcakes with bone frosting and fresh zombie blood. He took it rather seriously and thought they were pretty cool! I havent used these zombie hands since 2009, so I had a lot of fun incorporating them into these cupcakes. The recipe for the cupcakes comes from Brown Eyed Baker, but I used Philadelphias brand new cream cheese frosting to make the process a bit quicker. The cupcakes and frosting were really delicious together, and the fresh blood boysenberry sauce (which was store-bought) added a nice little fresh touch. As previously mentioned, you can get the zombie hand cupcake toppers from Bake It Pretty.

Next up were these witches fingers. These cookies were a major wow-factor for the entire family, and, unfortunately, were a little too creepy; everyone refused to eat them!

They scared my 3-year-old, even after I had repeatedly assured him that they were just cookies. My husband took one bite and decided he couldnt handle eating the rest. What a sissy! Anyway, theyre just a basic sugar cookie dough with a bit of green food coloring mixed in; the blood is just red icing gel; the fingernails are blanched almonds. I was actually quite impressed with these. It was amazing to make these witch fingers because they do indeed look quite life-like! The recipe comes from Annies Eats.

The kids came home to see these cupcakes and fingers on our Halloween-themed table and they were simply delighted! They continued to talk about it and gather around it for the entire rest of the night!

For the savory foods, the kids got to help once they were returned home from school. We made deviled eggs with olive spiders

I used my own recipe for the deviled eggs and I got the olive spider idea from She Knows. This was pretty easy, but it was time-consuming chopping the olives and getting them in the right place for that spider effect.

And lastly, mummy pizzas and hot dogs!

We put a little too much cheese on our mummy pizzas, so after they baked, it all melted together and it didnt look so mummy-ish anymore! We love cheese though. This idea came from Curry and Comfort.

The mummy hot dogs were easy, but a little tricky to do as the weather was so warm, which made the pastry sticky and difficult to work with. We still got those dogs wrapped up though, and they were the most popular of the savory food. This idea came from Damn Delicious.

The only thing we were unlucky with last night was that we only had 3 trick-or-treaters! Last year, we had so many that we ran out of candy. Were in a different house this year, however, so Im presuming there either arent a lot of kids around our neighborhood, or Halloween isnt celebrated much in this suburb. Oh well, at least the kids had a fun Halloween feast and a great spooky night!

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Biscoff Ice Cream With Brownie Chunks and Fudge Swirls

Do you love Biscoff? And chocolate? And ice cream? If you answered yes to all three questions, then youre going to love this post. Ill show you what Im talking about

Okay, this looks like a bowl full of mess, youre right. Let me explain what happened to this bowl of ice cream, though. I churned the ice cream last week and put it in the freezer to harden up, so that it would look better for photographing. When the time came, later in the day, I set up the area where Id be taking the pictures. I then scooped the ice cream into the bowl, drizzled melted Biscoff over it and crumbled a Biscoff cookie on top. I got my camera from my camera bag, turned it on, and framed my first photo. I clicked the shutter. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that my camera battery was dead. And my ice cream was melting.

I put the bowl of ice cream into the freezer, and put my camera battery in the charger. About 5 minutes later, I removed the battery and put it back in the camera. I took the ice cream out of the freezer and placed it back on the set I had prepared. It was pretty much too late for the ice cream, though, as it had already melted quite a bit.

Since I got my new ice cream maker, I have noticed that homemade ice cream melts faster than store-bought. If Im going to photograph my homemade ice cream in future, I have to remember to be sure my camera battery is charged!

So that explains why my ice cream looks so messy, but yet to be explained is what this ice cream actually is. Its a delicious combination of Biscoff ice cream, gooey chocolate brownies and chocolate fudge swirl. Its better than any tub of Ben & Jerrys (no offense, Ben & Jerry!). In fact, I hid the container of this ice cream behind bags of frozen peas and raspberries, and a couple boxes of frozen fish, just so that no one would find it.

Actually, I did share some with my 7-year-old daughter, who loved it just as much as I did.

Just to be extra-extravagant, I warmed a scoop of Biscoff spread and drizzled it on top of the ice cream. But I couldnt stop there. I also crumbled a Biscoff cookie over the entire bowl. *blush* This is getting kind of embarrassingly extravagant.

Let me talk you through the various recipes I used for this decadent ice cream First up, the ice cream base. Its my adaptation of Billy Laws peanut butter ice cream recipe, which you can find in his new cookbook, Have You Eaten? (click here to buy). I made the peanut butter ice cream earlier and loved it, and thought it would be even better if I substituted creamy Biscoff spread for the peanut butter. What an excellent idea this turned out to be! Besides leaving out the peanut butter and replacing the full amount with Biscoff, I also completely left out the honey. Buy Billys book for the original recipe, and just do what I did to make Biscoff ice cream. Alternatively, choose an existing Biscoff ice cream recipe by searching on Google, or substitute Biscoff for peanut butter in most peanut butter ice cream recipes.

Next, the brownies. Again, this is a recipe from Billy Laws cookbook. These brownies are the ultimate brownies. So fudgey and chocolatey and delicious. Billys original recipe also uses peanut butter and macadamias, but I left these out. To add brownies to your Biscoff ice cream, buy Billys cookbook for his recipe, or choose your own fudgey brownie recipe. To use them in your ice cream, follow the recipe to prepare the brownies, and after they have cooled completely, cut the batch in half and place one half in the freezer. The other half you can give to friends or family. I recommend putting the brownies in the freezer so that they will be easier and cleaner to cut into small chunks. Once frozen, use a sharp knife to cut the brownie into bite-size chunks. Use as many or as little chunks as you like. Once cut, place the chunks in a ziploc bag, or something air-tight, and put them back in the freezer until needed.

Lastly, for the fudge swirl, I used this recipe.

Now, to get this ice cream and add-ins all in the same bowl. assuming you have already made the ice cream base and it has been chilled completely in the refrigerator, churn it in your ice cream maker as per instructions. Once finished, scoop out some ice cream and spread it out on the bottom of a freezer-safe container so that its flat. Toss some brownie chunks on top and drizzle over a bit of fudge sauce. Working quickly, before the fudge sauce sets, swirl the fudge into the ice cream with the tip of a butter knife. Then repeat the layering. Cover the ice cream tightly and freeze until set (or eat straight away, if youre into that sort of thing).

To serve it the way I did, just melt a few scoops of Biscoff spread in the microwave (about 10-15 seconds, or just until warm and its of drizzle-able consistency), pour it on top of the ice cream, then crumble a Biscoff cookie over the entire bowl. If youre in Australia, you wont be able to find Biscoff spread, unfortunately, unless you have a friend traveling to the US or your family lives there. Luckily, I have family in the US that can send some to me. However, I can help you out with the Biscoff cookies as a local confectionery shop has just started selling these tasty little morsels. Read my post about where you can find this shop, or information on how you can have a package of them posted to you.

And what does my ice cream actually look like when its not all melted?

It looks beautiful and delicious!

Before you leave, be sure to check out my other Biscoff recipes:

• Biscoff & chocolate striped popsicles
• No-bake chocolate Biscoff bars
• Biscoff pumpkin pie

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Strawberry, Basil & Black Pepper Ice Cream + Ice Cream Maker Giveaway!

What is it about ice cream that makes it one of the worlds most loved comfort foods? Many nights, after having a hard day, Ive cuddled up on the sofa with a small tub of ice cream after everyone else is asleep (Ive eaten more tubs of Ben & Jerrys than I care to admit!); it always makes me feel better. Theres just something special about ice cream.

Ive tried making my own ice cream before, with the hand-churning method, but never really got excellent results. This is where you prepare your ice cream mixture, freeze it, then every 2 hours, take it out, scrape it into the bowl of an electric mixer, mix it to break up the ice crystals, scrape it back into the freezer bowl, freeze it, and repeat the entire process another 3 times. How annoying! And can you believe I have never owned an ice cream maker in my entire life? Yes, I do live under a rock.

Ice cream makers basically do the hand-churning method for you. All you need to do is turn it on, pour your ice cream mixture in, and leave it for 15-20 minutes to churn the mixture, in a way that is similar to a stand mixer. After that youll have a soft-serve consistency, and if you would like it to be firmer, just pour it into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours, scoop it out and enjoy.

If you were to take a look at my Firefox bookmarks, youd find heaps of ice cream recipes. Even though Ive never had an ice cream maker, a girl can dream, right?

Last week, my dreams came true, when Kitchenware Direct, my go-to shop for kitchen supplies, heard my ice cream maker pleas and sent me one of my very own (and they have one for you, too!). I immediately gave my red Cuisinart ice cream maker a test run with this dark chocolate sorbet

I used my cherished Valrhona cocoa powder for this recipe and the results were spectacularly dark and delightfully creamy. This was an easy recipe, consisting of pantry staples (cocoa powder, sugar, and vanilla) and water. I wasnt sure what to expect with my first go at sorbet and found that when the ice cream maker had been going for 20 minutes, the consistency of the sorbet was like a super-thick milkshake. I froze it for a few hours (it was about six, I think) to get it to scoopable consistency. It was really silky and smooth, I was quite pleased with myself!

I didnt realize what an ice cream maker actually was. It reminds me of my Zoku Quick Pop Maker; they both have a silvery surface that freezes liquids instantly (and wet fingers!). The ice cream maker has a big paddle attachment (sort of like a stand mixer) to keep the mixture constantly moving, ensuring the end result is creamy and smooth. Theres only one button on this machine, which is the on/off switch.

While I gave the ice cream maker a test run with a sorbet, I wanted to make ice cream for my official review post. I chose a recipe in the latest issue of delicious. magazine for strawberry, basil and black pepper ice cream by one of my favorite food bloggers, Katie Quinn Davies from What Katie Ate. I had never tried basil and strawberry together before, although I had heard it is a great combination. But what is this about black pepper? I couldnt resist making this recipe.

Fresh strawberries, lemon, lime and basil! The strawberries will need to sit in the refrigerator to macerate with a bit of juice from the lemon and lime and some sugar for 2 hours. Afterwards, half of the strawberries will go in a blender, along with a few basil leaves and fresh finely ground black pepper to puree. The rest of the strawberries are to be crushed with a potato masher and set aside. Milk, cream and vanilla beans are added to the pureed strawberries. This mixture then goes into the ice cream maker.

Dont be too concerned about the size of this machine, by the way. Its actually quite compact and fits easily into our cabinets. Compared with our kettle, it isnt too much larger.

According to reviews of this product on Kitchenware Direct, a common complaint seemed to be the noise of the machine while it was churning. Personally, I didnt find the noise to be too loud. My food processor is much louder than this ice cream maker is!

After 10 minutes of churning, the crushed strawberries are added to the mixture. After 20 minutes, I turned off the machine. The ice cream was at a very soft, soft-serve consistency. I had a taste and was surprised at how wonderfully tasty it was! I scraped out the ice cream into a freezer-safe container and froze it overnight.

Scraping out the ice cream from the freezer bowl is a little tricky. Youll need to use a silicone spoon or spatula as a hard plastic or metal one will damage the bowl. And once the machine stops churning, the ice cream starts sticking to the bowl. So Ive discovered that you have to be pretty quick to scrape out the ice cream easily!

The next morning, I sampled some ice cream. The texture was just like the ice cream Im used to and scooped out easily. The flavor was brilliant! With the first bites, you can really taste the basil, and as you eat more, you start tasting the fresh strawberries. Every few bites, theres a slight tingle from a piece of black pepper. My only complaint is that it left a sort of greasy-mouth feel for some reason, which was a little odd.

((Update: Ive discovered a possible cause or two of this greasy-mouth feel. It could be that there is too much fat content in the ice cream, however, I doubt this is the reason in my case as I was just simply following a recipe. The other cause is over-churning, which could turn all that cream into butter! Just like how youre not supposed to whisk cream too much, otherwise itll turn into butter? It appears the same thing goes for ice cream makers, and this, I believe, is the cause of the greasy feeling I experienced. Since writing this post, I have made two more batches of ice cream; one was matcha, and it had the greasy feeling as well. The next batch was peanut butter, and I was sure not to over-churn. I churned the peanut butter ice cream for only 15 minutes, whereas I had been churning my ice creams for 20 minutes. The peanut butter ice cream did not have a greasy feeling whatsoever. Problem solved!))

But I can overlook that because this is some mighty delicious ice cream.

I am absolutely thrilled to own my first ever ice cream maker and am now looking forward to working through my extensive list of ice cream recipes that Ive bookmarked. I can guarantee you that there will be Biscoff ice cream, peanut butter ice cream and matcha ice cream to begin with, then Ill work on some more interesting flavors.

Recipes for the dark chocolate sorbet and strawberry, basil & black pepper ice cream are at the very end of this post.

GIVEAWAY!

Now, how about this giveaway? If you live in Australia, you can enter to win your very own ice cream maker, just like mine, in your own choice of color red, blue, orange, pink, yellow, or green.

Here are the rules:

1. Open to Australian residents only.
2. Prize is one Cuisinart 1.5 litre ice cream maker in the color of the winners choice, provided by Kitchenware Direct.
3. Leave one comment only on this post and tell me your favorite ice cream flavor for extra entries, as below, please leave a separate comment.
4. For one extra entry, tweet about this giveaway and be sure to tag me (@jamieanne), then leave another comment here telling me about your tweet.
5. For another extra entry, post about this giveaway on Facebook by liking my page, The Sweetest Kitchen, and tagging it in your post, then leave yet another comment here telling me about your post.
6. This giveaway closes on Monday, October 29 at 11AM (AEST).
7. One winner will be selected and notified by email, after which the winner will need to respond within 3 days or another winner will be selected, so be sure to include an active email address.

Good luck!

This competition & review is made possible by Brad from Kitcheware Direct.

Dark Chocolate Sorbet
Adapted from Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker instruction booklet
Makes about 5 cups

Ingredients
3 cups water
1 2/3 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt
1 2/3 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)

Method
Combine water, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook mixture, stirring often, until sugar is completely dissolved.

Gradually add cocoa powder to sugar mixture while whisking constantly until smooth. Add vanilla and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours, or overnight.

Churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturers instructions. The sorbet will be soft and creamy; transfer to an air-tight freezer-safe container and place in the freezer for a few hours until desired consistency is reached. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving.

Strawberry, Basil & Black Pepper Ice Cream
Adapted from delicious. magazine, October 2012
Makes 1.5 litres

Ingredients
195g fresh strawberries, hulled, quartered
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
165g caster sugar, divided
about 7 medium-sized fresh basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon fresh finely ground black bepper
190ml whole milk
250ml thickened cream
150ml thin cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

Method
Place strawberries in a bowl with the lemon and lime juices and 55g sugar. Mix well, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours to macerate.

Place half the macerated strawberries in a food processor, along with the basil and pepper. Whiz for a few minutes to form a juicy pulp, then set aside. Crush the remaining macerated strawberries with a potato masher and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, whisk the milk and remaining 110g sugar together for 2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Add creams, strawberry and basil puree, and vanilla seeds, then gently stir together. Chill overnight, if possible, or for at least 6-8 hours.

Churn the chilled strawberry mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions, adding the crushed strawberries 10 minutes before the end of churning. If you prefer a firmer ice cream, freeze for a few hours before serving.

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