One of K1's favorite ice cream toppings is a mysterious entity known as Magic Shell. Aside from the fact that things like "artificial color" make me feel like a Bad Parent, we seem to accumulate a large quantity of nearly-empty plastic bottles of the stuff, and I want to cut our consumable footprint wherever possible. Follow me below the dingledoodlesquigglie dKosagnocchidividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor to see what Casa Brillig discovered in the latest Cook's Illustrated ...
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Mr. Brillig wanted to make ice cream, and while the custard was cooling, he found a recipe in the latest issue of Cook's Illustrated for homemade Magic Shell. Utterly simple, almost too good to be true. So of course we tried it immediately!
Here's the entire recipe:
2 parts coconut oil + 3 parts bittersweet chocolate + pinch of salt. Microwave several minutes on 50% power until melted. Stir until smooth, cool to room temperature, drizzle over ice cream. Eat.
(Hey, I didn't say it was lowfat. And coconut oil, according to wikipedia, contains "a large proportion of lauric acid, a saturated fat that raises blood cholesterol levels by increasing the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol." I'm not drinking the stuff by the cup, so I'm ok with it :-))
The "magic" in the ingredients is Coconut Oil, which is solid at room temperature, and becomes brittle when cold. There are two basic varieties out there, virgin and refined. Refined is far more highly processed and has no coconut taste or smell, while virgin is less processed. More flavor versus no flavor? We used Virgin Coconut Oil, aka VCO.
Knowing the kids would want to be able to make this themselves, and NOT wanting them chopping blocks of chocolate with knives, I immediately altered the recipe to use chocolate chips. I am absolutely SURE it would be even better with block chocolate, and it's what we'll do for an adult dessert party in the future.
OK, here's the pictures:
Ingredients:
Coconut oil:
Melted VCO + white chocolate chips + salt:
We stored it in little glass jars at room temp, not that it will last very long!
White and chocolate majikshell™ over vanilla ice cream:
Next I'll try adding a few peanut butter chips to make "Reeses" flavor. I hope you enjoy!
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From lcbo:
I'd like to recommend Quicklund's comment on the subject of fact checking for top comments.
From blueoregon:
I'd like to nominate plf15's comment in Black Kos' diary, I swear a light appeared over my head.
From Dave in Northridge:
They start early today! In Matt Bors' diary Sandwich Patriots, merrywidow shared this.
Kos' diary Yo wingnuts, you have every reason to be disappointed on gay marriage elicited this from Steveningen.
From leu2500:
I got a kick out of this exchange, from Gooserock to lcbo to Hey338Too in Torta's diary on the bind Romney is in over his taxes.
From happymisanthropy:
What keeps Rmoney awake at night? hulibow knows.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Jed Lewison on Rmoney's superpower. From David Nir's Mitt Romney cleverly waits until he's back from his trip to insult Israel.
Joan McCarter's diary on poor Papa John contained this witty thread begun by mrmyster, with special mention to suzq's reply.
Top Mojo for yesterday, August 6th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic!
1) La la la la la. I can't hear you. by BOHICA — 173
2) Sherwood Forest - Where all the trees by Calvino Partigiani — 149
3) That's my president! nt by litho — 145
4) Romney's people calling somebody else a liar? by Dallasdoc — 142
5) Where are the indictments for the Bush by One Pissed Off Liberal — 129
6) Cowardly Democrats by The Lone Apple — 123
7) Don't You Love "The Land of the Free?" by JekyllnHyde — 114
8) This might actually be it by cskendrick — 114
9) How about the FBI puts as much effort into by greendem — 110
10) How many times will a fish go after the same bait? by TFinSF — 107
11) The follow up question should be by timewarp — 107
12) Thank you for your outrage here by RFK Lives — 100
13) Rich People, Mormon Church, Republicans, by Gooserock — 99
14) Oh come on! by Lisa Lockwood — 95
15) Ya done good CV by high uintas — 95
16) Thanks, bobswern! by DerAmi — 90
17) Check your e-mail. by Most Awesome Nana — 90
18) There it is. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 89
19) Indeed. He lied about his taxes when he ran for by JTinDC — 88
20) Mitt Romney: The man who offends everyone by blue aardvark — 88
21) More about this from ABC News. by dewtx — 82
22) I've been following Twitter by Kristina40 — 81
23) Send this info to Balloon Juice as well. They do a by baghavadgita — 81
24) You'll say a lot of things when they put by One Pissed Off Liberal — 81
25) Mitt the Twit by JekyllnHyde — 80
26) People like spine! by No one gets out alive — 77
27) Apparently, a lot of times! by pollwatcher — 77
28) Wingers now expect their pols to embrace by TXdem — 76
29) How would a president experienced at avoiding by RJDixon74135 — 76
30) Bumpersticker words win... by skip945 — 76
31) Here we go again by joanneleon — 76
Top Pictures for yesterday, August 6th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!
(NOTE: Missing images in the Quilt were removed because either (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments; or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which did not have permissions set to allow others, ie Yours Truly, to use it.)