Starbound: Banana Split

An eerie silver glow stabs through the cold darkness. You pull out your flashlight and try to find some relatively safe footing for an opportunity to reach the goal. Although your resourceful crewmate has constructed a flourishing greenhouse out of nothing but sickly green dirt, it has still been a week since your ship ran out of fuel in orbit of this foreign planet and you are starting to get homesick. Homesick? Perhaps just plain sick. The last you ate, you greedily grabbed from the wrong food storage and found a fistful of nuts and bolts to be quite the opposite of satiating. Bucket Bizmark will rue the day he mixed his Glitch rations with your delicious ice cream. But enough of that, this precious silver isn’t going to mine itself and that distress beacon isn’t going to build itself. You mindlessly reach out with your pick and take a swing without taking the usual precautions. The ring of stone on metal echoes through the tunnels in a low rumble. As you wind up for a second strike, you notice the rumble is getting louder. You glance downward just as the gravel you are standing on shakes itself apart and falls, revealing a dark abyss of uncertainty and probably a broken ankle.

I loved Terraria and when I heard several of the people who created that game were working on another project called Starbound, I got super excited. This past month they released the beta of the game and I have spent many hours already on it. My favorite new additions to Starbound include the planet hopping, the food creation and the need for farming. While playing with friends, we each took different roles. Some would run off to different planets trying to find new resources in order to upgrade our armor. Others would stay on the current planet and find what interesting creatures or dungeons exist. I on the other hand typically stayed near the home base, building it up, tending to the farm and creating edible treats for everyone.

With all the food in Starbound, I knew I had to recreate one of the delicious treats. One evening, my husband was roaming around on a different planet and found a new cooking recipe, banana splits. That was the moment I knew what the first recipe from this game was going to be. Homemade ice cream is my latest favorite dessert to make and I had to share these with you. This week we will be exploring three different classic ice cream flavors – vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. With my ice cream maker, it takes a bit of time to make each of the flavors. I have the Kitchen Aid attachment, so between each flavor I had to let the attachment defrost completely, wash it and then let it freeze for at least 15 hours before making the next flavor. These all store great in the freezer and should last for about three weeks (or until you forget about your new years’ resolution and eat it all).

Required Equipment: Bowls, Blender, Whisk, Spoons, Sauce Pan, Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients:
Vanilla Ice Cream
– 2 cups heavy cream
– 1 cup half and half
– ¾ cup sugar
– pinch of salt
– 1 vanilla bean, split and scrapped
– 1 tsp vanilla extract

Starting with the vanilla ice cream – combine 1 cup of the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla bean into a sauce pan over medium high heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and transfer to a bowl.

Add the remaining heavy cream, half and half and vanilla extract to the bowl. Cover and allow the mixture to refrigerate for at least three hours. When you are ready to use your ice cream maker, be sure to remove the vanilla bean and follow the instructions on your ice cream maker.

Strawberry Ice Cream (Recipe from “The perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz)
– 1 lb strawberries, tops removes and cut in half
– ¾ cup sugar
– 1 tbsp vodka
– 1 cup sour cream
– 1 cup heavy cream
– 1 tsp lemon juice

For the strawberry ice cream, begin by placing the strawberries, sugar and vodka in a bowl. Allow them to sit for at least an hour at room temperature.

Place the strawberries in a blender and pulse a few times (you want to keep the strawberries nice and chunky). Add the sour cream, heavy cream and lemon juice. Pulse a few times again until everything is well incorporated. Place the mixture in a bowl, cover and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least three hours. When ready follow the instructions on your ice cream maker to make the ice cream.

Chocolate Ice Cream
– 2 ½ cups heavy cream
– ½ cup cocoa powder
– ¾ cup sugar
– pinch of salt
– 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
– 1 cup milk
– 2 tsp vanilla

Last but not least the chocolate ice cream! In a sauce pan, over medium heat, combine heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Bring to a light simmer.

Add the chopped chocolate and let it melt. Once it is completely melted in, remove the mixture from the heat and place into a bowl. Add the milk and vanilla extract and stir together. Cover the mixture and allow it to refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Once again follow the instructions on your ice cream maker from this point on.