how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker | coffee oreo parfait

This super cool technique to make ice cream without an ice cream maker (or liquid nitrogen) is not only comparable, perhaps even superseding it's churned variety, but is healthier, lighter, and so much more impressive. Plus, it's really easy.

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I love making things with really fancy french monikers because they sound so much more exotic and more difficult to make than their American counterparts. So in keeping with the theme, this week we'll be making a "sabayon", the French version of the Italian zabaglione. It's merely whisking egg yolks and wine together which I'm sure all of you can do. And we're turning the sabayon, usually served as a sauce for fruits and stuff, into a parfait which is a French frozen dessert with a texture similar to the love child of an ice cream and a mousse. Did you know parfait is the French word for "perfect". The more you chow. Just to be clear, French parfaits are completely different from layered yogurt, granola, and fruit parfaits we have in the states. I mean just look at the pictures. 

coming soon - how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker | coffee oreo parfait

Soon you'll be able to make the richest, smoothest, tastiest ice cream on the planet, and all without an ice cream maker. Wattttttt!!! I'll teach you how to make a super fancy sabayon folded with cream, coffee, and crushed oreos. Are you drooling? You should be drooling. 

easy chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies + white chocolate

The school year is officially in motion. The trees are blushing all different hues of red and oranges, fall is upon us. You know what that means right. PUMPKINS! Yay!!! I love pumpkins, pumpkins make me happy, happy happy happy. And you know what I love more than pumpkins, pumpkin cookies, chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies with white chocolate. To be completely honest I would be perfectly fine with just a chewy spiced oatmeal cookie but when you add pumpkin and white chocolate, God help me. I never told anyone this but I made two batches. shhh.

These cookies are so easy even your kids will be able to whip'em up. If you're looking for something fun to do with the family before the school year gets too hectic this is your recipe. Did I mention they're delicious? They're delicious. 

coming soon - chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies + white chocolate

banana bread makes another cameo. ;-)

You wouldn't believe how good these taste, believe me there's one in my mouth. hehe.

apple tart + spiced pastry cream + cinnamon shortbread

"Down the last rolling hill where the perfect untrampled grass met the erratic dirt, the maple trees blushed. The wind blew a subtle sweetness through the woods and it mixed with the grass as it came up and filled the air with the scent of autumn."

That's a snippet of the book I'm trying to write with my brother. But it's also a testament to how busy this past year has been. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has made our recipes and followed us from the very beginning. Over this past year, I've come across nothing but warmth and support from all of you in the food blogging universe, which you may be familiar, is notorious for being intensely cutthroat and competitive (or so I've been told, I'm still new to this). 

With our one year anniversary in concurrence with the official start of the autumn season I thought it would only be proper to make something that epitomizes the elegance and flavors of the new harvest. This decked out apple tart consists of a cinnamon shortbread tart shell, filled with a pastry cream spiked with autumn spices and topped with sliced apples. I mean does it get any better? (no it doesn't)

coming soon - apple tart + spiced pastry cream + cinnamon shortbread

In two days it'll be Chow Creations one year anniversary. And to celebrate this milestone (while at the same time welcoming the new harvest season ) here's an Apple Tart with a spice infused pastry cream so good you'll have to try to believe.  And as always, 

Chow!

mexican chocolate pound cake - minus the mexican chocolate

Chocolate porn. Don't be alarmed. Chow Creations is not yet another food blog to resolve to indecency to increase traffic. We simply listen to our viewers and the viewers say more porn, food porn that is. This week, after being away for quite awhile, I return with a mexican chocolate pound cake. Rich and dense however at the same time somehow fluffy and definitely chocolatey. This cake can certainly be the subject of many ahhh's and ohhh's of the next family gathering or church potluck. 

Despite it's lack of "mexican" chocolate, we make up for it with a heaping dose of cinnamon and many other tasty flavors including coconut, buttermilk, and "american" chocolate. Well I'm not sure if any chocolate is american seeing that they all come from Brazil or Columbia or some place of that nature, but it's certainly a chocolate which has an american stamp of approval seeing that it's fortified with tons of sugar and milk. Plus I'm using chocolate that's in "chip" form and you know americans love their chips. 

coming soon - mexican chocolate pound cake

Last week, or was it two weeks ago, (I'm still a little disorientated from just getting back from the caribbean) we had some serious porn on this site, manchego cheese porn that is. But instead of cheese porn, cause that gets cheesy after a while this week we're showcasing chocolate porn. That's right rich, fruity, delicious chocolate melted and folded into dense, yet at the same time fluffy pound cake, a post you guys shouldn't miss. This week. On Chow Creations. And as always, 

Chow!

homemade thin crust pizza + pesto + potato + manchego

It's one of those rare days in San Diego where the clouds congregate low and heavy in the sky, and they choke the air with their presence. They cried. Last week I made this awesome Manchego and Marcona Almond Pesto, which you should definitely check out, but I was beginning to get tired of the ol' pesto on bread or mixed into pasta. After hours of scribbling ideas into a notepad, ripping them out, and missing the trash bin, I decided what I needed was to whip up a batch of fresh pizza dough. 

I love making pizza, even making and kneading my own dough, but what I love most about making pizza is figuring out what to put on it. In the past I've tried Alfredo and Scampi, Sloppy Joe's, even a Quintuple Meat (Pepperoni, Ham, Bacon, Brisket, and Sausage) Pizza. This time I wanted to make something simple, simple but elegant, and I don't think it gets any simpler nor elegant than Pesto, Potato, and Manchego. Plus you won't guess how easy making your own pizza dough can be.

coming soon - homemade thin crust pizza + pesto + potato + manchego

pesto + manchego + marcona almond

Viewer Discretion Advised. This post is home to 99.9% of the manchego cheese porn on the internet. 

Chow Creations usually strays away from the lewd and cheesy concupiscence that inundates the food blogging universe, after all, we're not a pizza blog, wait, what do you mean the next post is a pizza, what happened to the cookies and cakes, and what type of lunatic creates an entire post for pesto, has this all been one sentence, no we're having a conversation, wait, who are you, who am I, *sings Who Am I from Les Mis for a couple minutes, and we're back. 

coming soon - pesto + manchego + marcona almond

simple potato salad + bacon + onion

Summer is passing by like a bullet train, but there's still time to have that barbeque or picnic you've been talking about since winter. This week I'm going to show you one of the easiest, most delicious side dishes that's going to knock everyone's socks off at the next shindig. 

Everyone has their go to potato salad recipe, however few of them are tasty, even less cook their potatoes right, and only one is as simple and delicious is this one. This my friends, is one of the easiest, make-ahead, delicious potato salads there is on the market. I'm talking about perfectly seasoned Al dente chunks of potato lightly coated in mayo and bacon drippings and simply folded with crispy bacon, caramelized onions, and spicy green onions. Plus, what makes this dish so great is that I'm sure all of you have the ingredients to make it right now!

coming soon - simple potato salad + bacon + onion