No Churn Pistachio Ice Cream
and some testing notes
new on bbs
No Churn Pistachio Ice Cream
Smooth pistachio ice cream made with freshly roasted pistachio paste. This is an easy no churn recipe, made by whipping heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk.
poppin’ lately
Black Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
I almost never talk about this recipe because if I find it difficult to find black raspberries (and I’m at the market every week), others probably much less successful (or even familiar). But over the years since sharing it, I’ve observed that when these berries are in season, this page gets some love (and apparently quite a few people have these trees in their backyard, I want one too now!).
No Bake Pistachio Cheesecake
Have you made it? I’m begging you for a review 🙏
Midnight Chocolate Ice Cream
Made with a combination of black cocoa and dark chocolate to produce the deepest chocolatey taste imaginable. Perfect for those indulgent summer afternoons when only a rich frozen treat will do.
Raspberry Ice Cream
Creamy raspberry ice cream made from a custard base of egg yolks, cream and fresh or frozen raspberries.
From July’s Archives
2024: Roasted Blueberry Cheesecake & Ice Cream Sandwich Cake
2023: Blueberry Breakfast Cake (it’s called ‘breakfast’ because it’s really simple and quick to make and has the interior texture of a muffin)
2021: Milk Chocolate Cake (this one is one layer, made with natural cocoa which I don’t use often, and is covered in the most delectable brown butter milk chocolate buttercream)
2020: Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches (I have a nutella ice cream recipe there but you can make any no churn *like pistachio* or even use storebought)
2019: Caramelized White Chocolate Fudgesicles (they taste like a creamy ice cream werther’s caramel but like back when they were rich and good)
a baker’s review
“I made it! I halved this recipe by girlmath and a bit of good ol give it a try faith and it came out perfectly! I ended up using a chocolate nut pie shell which is not very deep and it came out like a charm. I did a whipped cream topping sans cocoa and shaved chocolate on top. It looked pretty and tasted delishhhh. Hello summer no oven baking! Thanks Sam and another hit in the books from you!” Dee on No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake
weekly reads
““We make 7,000 meals a day,” he says, thrusting a hot, fresh kebab into the outstretched palms of a woman in a flowing black robe. That evening, Albayati’s team of 15 volunteers will serve nearly 500 pounds of shawarma with assembly-line efficiency. At breakfast tomorrow, there will be bubbling cauldrons of makhlama—eggs and tomatoes seasoned with bahar asfar, a blend of turmeric, cumin, coriander, and cardamom—to tend. Then it’ll be lunchtime: hacked-up roast chicken, fluffy timman anbar (yellow rice), and rib-sticking fasolia yabsa (white beans simmered in tomato sauce). A few stalls away, silver-bearded men dig into boiled pacha (sheep’s head), their fingers dripping with grease. Behind them, a pot of kubba (dumplings in broth) simmers away on the dusty roadside, and a group of teenagers serve mugs of Iraqi coffee, squeeze pomegranate juice into plastic cups, and pat napkins into hands.” What 22 Million People Eat at the World’s Largest Pilgrimage Site, Saveur.
“Another factor in people eating food with their hands in South Asia is the collectivist conscience of the region. This type of consumption fosters a sense of togetherness, particularly during communal meals in which people often share dishes and eat food from the same plate. Meals are viewed as a time for human connection when people come together and appreciate their network of relationships. Most South Asians, born American or immigrated to the United States, have encountered at least once this moment of cultural friction. We think first of the multiple moments we had with our non-South Asian friends sharing an Indian meal, and experiencing the mental colonia of having to eat with our hands in front of them. To many, the practice is alien. We think, second, of the emphasis on Western cutlery etiquette drilled into us as a minor in school in India. Through “personality development” classes after school, we learnt which hand to hold the fork and knife with. We learnt (and forgot) the different angular positions to make with our cutlery to signal whether we were continuing to eat, or taking a break from our meal, or that we were done. This pretension of an invisible server seemed comical to us.” Why Eating with your Hands in America has Become Political, Brown History.
“This sweet originated in the city of Nablus that is known for their goat cheese which is the main component of this dish. The dish is made in very large copper pans with a special kunafa dough placed at the bottom. Food coloring is usually added, giving the kunafa its vibrant orange color. Then the unsalted goat cheese is added. Unsalted cheese in Palestine is known as sweet cheese as it is the cheese that is used to make sweets. This cheese is better known as Nabulsi cheese in Palestine and internationally. The pan is then cooked on a flame, and then it is turned upside down and a sweet syrup made from sugar and water is added in addition to ground pistachios. The interesting thing about this sweet is that the people of Nablus traditionally eat it in a pita bread in the morning for breakfast where you can find Palestinians lining up with fresh pita bread from the bakery to get their morning dose of kunafa. Most other Palestinian cities are known for their savory breakfasts, and eat kunafa as a desert after a meal, but in Nablus, you can have it from breakfast until dinner.” Made in Palestine, I Come From There.
Also see:
How to Help the Survivors and Families of the July 2025 Hill Country Floods, Eater. (incl. a list of local businesses in Texas accepting donations).
a baker’s (testing) notes
When I have time to bake these days, I’m baking to test, to create, to try. We are in the process of moving (into a house, finally - yay!) and I’m looking for ways to use open containers. I thought I’d share a two recent experiments with you today.
1
‘chocolate’ sourdough: the basic idea was to adapt the usual sourdough base I make (380g water, 520g bread flour, 100g fed starter, & salt) and to it add dutch process cocoa (Noor’s gorgeous ig breads are behind this inspo). My notes are now packed so I can’t tell you how much cocoa I added, but I can tell you what changes I made to account for the added cocoa and what I know it does:
Cocoa can dry out a baked good: I increased the water.
Cocoa can impact yeast activity (due to it’s pH): I increased the starter, added a bit of sugar, and increased the bulk rise time.
I usually bake my sourdough in loaf pans (so I can slice it up for sandwich bread for my daughters ) and it’s been awhile since I pulled out the ol’ dutch oven but I was so happy with the result: the hydration was excellent, the scattered and irregular ‘holes’ looked great and, ah, I realized how much I missed those chubby bunny sliced shapes.
The bread does do funny things to your brain though; I am always surprised by the lack of sweetness in a ‘chocolate’ bread when it has this dark and rich look. I’m going to tackle this one again once we’re settled; I want to bloom the cocoa (obviously) and see what I can do to make it a tad sweeter (8 suggested chocolate chips so there’s an idea…).
2
We were at one of 8’s friend’s birthday parties a while ago and in lieu of cupcakes, the parents had brought cookies from a local bakery. They mentioned that their family’s favorite cookie in the box was the ‘cookies and cream/oreo’; the kind where oreo bits are added to what should would be a chocolate chip cookie dough. Idk ok, the very idea of this cookie is aggravating to me. It’s already a cookie, why would you put it in another cookie when you could put dark chocolate chunks in that cookie dough base? Where are the chocolate puddles to look forward to? Won’t it be just dry bits??
But given my chosen work, I will literally try any baked good you offer me if you tell me it’s your favorite. I reluctantly admitted to myself that it was good even if it wasn’t my kind of cookie. Ofc, 8 exclaimed, ‘the best thing about those cookies was the oreos in them!’ to which I inwardly groaned (whenever I make a pie with an oreo crust, she tells me the oreo is her favorite part and I die a death the size of one of those damn cookies). Earlier this week I noticed an open container of the 365 brand, so I tried to recreate them for her.
I used this ‘four thick & chunky ccc’ recipe of mine which is quite popular; relatively easy to make, and produces big ‘bakery style’ cookies. I scooped them smaller to get a few more and stirred in about ten chopped cookies.
As predicted the cookies didn’t spread like usual since they lacked the chocolate bits to melt and push the dough out more. More surprisingly, I found that oreos change the cookie itself and I think it’s because the ‘creme’ filling mixes into the dough, and the additional sugar and fat impact its composition. The cookies spread less, puffed up, had a craggly appearence, and a really unique flavor. My girls loved them (esp 8, heh) and my husband said they ‘smell like popcorn but taste like pie crust’, and tbh I don’t know what to do with that, but it didn’t sound too bad. I don’t know if I’ll revisit this one tbh - but if I do, there will be chocolate!!
sam
Awesome recipes. Thank you so very much. You are a person after my own heart.