Orange Sherbet and Lime Ice Cream

Summer is winding down, some of the local schools are already in session, but in Southern California our hot weather is really just beginning. Late August thru mid September are some of our hottest days so there is still plenty of time to enjoy a cool, fruity treat. If we are lucky we will have warm weather until late October and we can continue swimming and eating on the patio almost until Halloween. This Orange Sherbet comes from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and the Lime Ice Cream is from the blog  La Casserole Carree. Vibi has a beautiful blog and I knew that this ice cream would make it to the freezer in record time, since we had a bag full of limes just waiting to be squeezed and zested.

Orange Sherbet

The America's Test Kitchen Family cookbook

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh orange juice

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoon Triple Sec or vodka

2/3 cup heavy cream

1. In a  bowl add sugar, salt and orange zest. Rub with your fingers to release the oils in the zest.  Your sugar with be moist and orange colored. Add the orange juice, lemon juice and triple Sec and stir until sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

2.In a second chilled bowl whip the cream to soft peaks. While whisking constantly, pour the chilled juice mixture down the side of the bowl into the whipped cream. Once the juice is completely incorporated into the cream transfer the mixture to your ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions.

printable recipe

 

All ice cream is welcome around here, especially the ones made with fresh fruit juice. The sherbet was just like all those 50-50 bars that we ate as kids and who can resist the fresh orange/sweet vanilla combo? The lime ice cream quickly became a new favorite, with its perfect balance of sweet, tart, and citrus flavors. The zest is the most flavorful part of these fruits, and that one simple addition makes such a huge flavor impact without adding more ingredients or more work, so don't skip that part! These both have just a few simple ingredients and are a tasty way to cool down as we head into some of our warmest days yet.

Lime Ice Cream

adapted from La Casserole Carree

2 large eggs

⅔ cup sugar

Zest of 2 limes, finely chopped

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs, sugar and lime zest until pale and thick, about 5 minutes.

Add milk and cream, beat until well mixed. Transfer the mixture to a heavy saucepan and cook on medium heat to 170 °, stirring regularly.

Remove from heat and let cool .

Add lime juice, mix well. (My mixture looked a little curdled so I pureed it with my immersion blender.)

Transfer the mixture to a clean bowl, cover and refrigerate until well chilled
When properly cooled, pour into ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions.

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Dig in!

Ice Cream Sandwich

The dog days of summer are the time when memories are made. School is out, the kids are free to run and play, and whenever we look back on that stretch of scorching days (or weeks, sometimes) we always remember the things we did trying to stay cool- running through the sprinklers, spending days at the beach, hours in the pool, and eating every kind of popsicle, ice cream and frozen fruit imaginable. Although we haven't had weeks of 100 degree weather here, it is still hot enough to devour our favorite homemade ice cream treats. This time around we made ice cream sandwiches. We used Dorie Greenspan's Carmel Crunch Bars as a buttery brown sugar base for vanilla ice cream.

The tasty shortbread cookie is flavored with espresso, chocolate, and bits of rich toffee, and becomes the perfect portable (and edible) container for our favorite vanilla ice cream. Since there are usually only three of us at home, I halve most recipes, but this time I made the whole thing, and was glad I did. I made a bunch of mini sandwiches and it was nice to have a pre-made stash of cold treats in the freezer that we could snack on for the week. I know we will be making these again this summer, trying lots of other combinations of cookie and ice cream!

Carmel Crunch Bars

Baking:from my home to yours- Dorie Greenspan

Bars

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks unsalted butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ounces bittersweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped

Topping:

6 ounces bittersweet or milk chocolate, finely copped

3/4 cup Heath Toffee Bits

Prepare pan: butter a 9x13 pan, line with foil, butter foil. Pre heat oven to 375degrees F.

Whisk together flour, espresso powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a mixer bowl  beat butter for 3 minutes until smooth.  Add sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Add dry ingredients, and mix until they just disappear into the batter. Add chopped chocolate and mix quickly just to incorporate.

Scrape the dough into your prepared pan and smooth into a thin even layer.  Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the base is bubbly. Remove pan from oven and turn off the oven.

Scatter the chopped chocolate evenly over the top of the  hot base and pop the pan back into the oven for 2-3 minutes, until the chocolate is soft. Remove from oven and immediately spread the chocolate over the bars using an offset spatula. Sprinkle the toffee bits over the chocolate and press them down lightly with your fingertips. Cool to room temperature.

Using the foil edges lift the bars from the pan and place on a cutting board and cut into desired sizes. We made our sandwiches about 2x4

For ice cream bars: Line a 9x13 pan with foil.  Spread and even layer of your favorite ice cream over the bottom of the pan.  Place in freezer and chill until firm. Using the foil liner lift the ice cream sheet from the pan and cut to match the dimensions of your crunch bars. Layer ice cream between two crunch bars. place bars on a rimmed cookie sheet and return to the freezer until firm.

printable recipe

Stay cool and enjoy the rest of your summer.

White Chocolate Mousse

When the temperature heats up it is nice to have cool sweet treats to enjoy. We do make a lot of ice cream, but sometimes we want something a little different. Most of all we don't want to spend a lot of time in a warm kitchen.

This simple and deliciously silky mousse fits the bill. It comes from Claire Robinson's Five Ingredient Fix cookbook and couldn't be easier to make. If you dress it up with some fresh fruit you have an easy and elegant dessert in just a few minutes, with no oven required. I am not usually a fan of white chocolate desserts, as I find them too sweet, without much of a flavor other than sugar. This mousse, however, was not to sweet and with some fresh blueberries on top, it was a nice cool dessert we enjoyed on the patio after dinner. It is also nice that this is entirely make ahead, perfect for when you have some guests, and don't want to go back to work in the kitchen after dinner.

White Chocolate Mousse

via Five Ingredient Fix by Claire Robinson

Ingredients:
7 ounces white chocolate chopped into small pieces
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
fruit for garnish

Directions

In a large glass bowl, place the chopped white chocolate and set aside.

Add the egg yolks and sugar to a small bowl and whisk until pale in color.

In a saucepan over low heat, bring 1/4 cup of the cream to a simmer and slowly add the cream into the yolk and sugar mixture to temper. Pour the creamy mixture back into pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of it.

Pour hot mix into a fine mesh sieve placed directly over bowl with the chopped chocolate. Stir until completely smooth.

In another bowl, whip remaining 1 cup of the cream to almost stiff peaks. Fold half the whipped cream into the white chocolate mix to lighten and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Spoon the white chocolate mousse into 4 serving cups and refrigerate until set, approximately 1 hour. *We thought you could definitely stretch this to 6 or even  8 small  servings with some fruit*

Strawberry and Peach Blender Ice Creams

 In Southern California, it is really ice cream season year round, but it always tastes just a little bit better on a hot summer's day.  When we were children it was a special treat to make ice cream. We had to have plenty of ice, rock salt, friends willing to turn the crank, and of course my Dad, who would do the final turns when it was too difficult for our tired arms. After all that work, there was nothing better than that first bite of homemade ice cream. Although making ice cream the old fashioned way is fun, I love my new, no pre-freezing required ice cream machine. The only wait time is chilling the custard, but the great thing about both of these ice creams is that they are made in the blender and do not have a cooked base, so they can be ready to churn in minutes. These kind of desserts are perfect for those summer days when it is too hot to turn on the stove and you can't wait 24 hours for your ice cream.

Nothing is easier to make than this peach ice cream. It is light, delicate and silky smooth, and is really nothing more than peaches and cream. Since we have a large crop of peaches, we did make two versions- one with diced peaches marinated in amaretto and one without. We were split on which was better. Mr. Mimi and I liked the chunks of peaches, while Boy Mimi preferred the smooth one, so it is just a matter of personal ice cream taste.

Peach Ice Cream

This is really just a method and we make it with almost any type of fruit.

Peaches

Lemon

Sugar

Cream

Amaretto, or almond extract

Peel and pit peaches, add to blender with the juice of one lemon. Puree until smooth. To 2 1/2 cups of peach puree we added 1/2 cup sugar, but the amount of sugar depend on the sweetness of the peaches so adjust as necessary, remembering that when frozen it will taste less sweet. We added 1 cup cream and pureed until thick. Taste your ice cream and if the flavor is too mild add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon almond extract or a couple tablespoons amaretto.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according the manufacturer's directions. If you like, chop up some additional peaches to add at the ending of churning for a chunky peach ice cream. We let our peaches sit in a tablespoon of amaretto while the ice cream was turning.

printable recipe

The recipe for the Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream comes from my friend Kim at Stirring the Pot. It is also a blender ice cream, creamy and smooth with a fresh strawberry flavor balanced by the slight cream cheese flavor in the background. Next time we might bake a graham cracker crust, and add some crumbled pieces to make it even more like a cheesecake.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Adapted from Food.com and Stirring the Pot
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup fresh pureed strawberry
1 cup half and half or cream


Blend all ingredients until smooth. Chill ingredients for about 1 hour, or until cold, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

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Links: Foodie Fridays at Designs by Gollum

Double Blueberry Tart

Nothing says summer more than the abundance of fresh fruit available in Southern California. We are spoiled with piles of fragrant strawberries, perfectly ripe peaches, and dark sweet cherries, to name a few. When you can get several baskets of fresh blueberries for just a few dollars, you have the chance to try some new recipes- if you can stay away from the old favorites!

 

This double blueberry tart is one of our family favorites. Everyone loves the fresh blueberry flavor, and I love that it is one of the fastest desserts to put together. It travels well and is perfect for a BBQ or a picnic at the beach during the long summer evenings.

 This tart only has a few simple ingredients and comes together quickly. The filling gets thick and sweet, and is excellent stirred into some Greek yogurt in the morning, and spooned over some ice cream after an afternoon of swimming. The recipe comes from The Best of Sunset published 1987, and I have been making it every summer since then!

Double Blueberry Tart
adapted from The Best of Sunset (1987)

6 cups blueberries
9 tablespoons sugar- you can use a bit less if the berries are super sweet
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1  tart crust
Slightly sweetened whipped cram

1. Combine 4 1/2 cups of blueberries, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often until the berries are as thick as soft jam, 12-15 minutes. Let cool. When filling has cooled, pour into a fully baked tart crust, spreading evenly over the crust. Top with remaining fresh blueberries to completely cover the surface.
Serve topped with whipped cream.

Sweet Tart Dough
via Baking: from my home to yours

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons butter
1 beaten egg yolk

Combine flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor, pulse until mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolk and process until dough just comes together. Turn the dough out on your work surface and lightly knead until all the dough comes together. Gently press dough into a 9 inch tart pan. Freeze for 30 minutes. Press a lightly buttered sheet of foil against the crust (the freezing eliminates the need for weighs).  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5-8 minutes until golden brown.

4th of July Cookies

The minute my neighbor Mrs. M handed me her latest Martha Stewart magaine, I knew I would make these cookies from the cover. It just so happened that Mini Me was home from school for the week and she wanted to make cookies, so we grabbed our aprons and set to work. These cookies were not only gorgeous to look at, but really fun and easy to make.

 We made our favorite sugar cookie recipe and a big batch royal icing, and had an afternoon of fun. Although these are just in time for the 4th of July, we thought they would be a fun and easy idea to tailor to any holiday color scheme with the pretty pattern.

I don't have any how to pictures- we were having so much fun I forgot to pick up my camera. I'm sure you could find them on the Martha Stewart web site. I think the trick is to have your icing very thin to get the fluid motion as the colors flow together.

Steps:

1. Outline and flood your cookies with royal icing. We used white for the background.
2. Pipe a dot of color in the center followed by concentric circles of color. On the cookie below the center dot was navy blue followed by three rings of red and ending with a blue ring. Now drag a toothpick from the outer edge to the center of the cookie. Start in center and drag the tooth pick back to the edge of the icing, making a "V" shape with the toothpick. Repeat the process all the way around the cookie

To get some variety you can vary the width of your colored rings and how close together you drag your toothpick to the center to make different patterns. You might only drag the tooth pick from the center, or only from the edge into the center. You can use several different sized cookies, or make some in only two colors instead of three. There are so many ways to do these and they all turn out beautiful, so have fun!

Happy July 4th!

Links:This Chick Cooks
Cast Party at the Lady Behind the Curtain
Foodie Fridays at Designs by Gollum

Humming Bird Cupcakes

 Mimi Jr. decided to make these yummy tropical cupcake for her friend's birthday. The recipe for these Hummingbird cupcakes is from Martha Stewart Cupcakes. They were kind of a cross between carrot cake and banana bread, with the chunks of pineapple, crunchy walnuts and dash of cinnamon bringing everything together into a unique but delicious cupcake. They were very moist and flavorful without being too sweet. Unfrosted, they would make a great breakfast muffin, but everything is good with a swirl of cream cheese frosting so we definitely couldn't leave that out for these birthday cupcakes.

The sweet, slightly crispy dried pineapple flower was the perfect decoration for these cupcakes. It adds to the tropical feel of these treats, was easy to make, and tasted good! These were great for an early summer birthday, but would also be fun for a luau themed party or barbecue. We think diced mango would be a fun addition to add some more tropical flavor and texture to these delicious cupcakes.

Humming Bird Cupcakes

via Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large)
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup chopped walnuts, or pecans
1 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
Cream Cheese Frosting - We did  not use Martha's recipe. Our favorite recipe is below.
Dried Pineapple Flowers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center. Line cupcake pan with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
2 .In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, vanilla, and sugar until combined, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. Beat at medium speed until mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together banana, pineapple, walnuts, and coconut. Add to egg mixture, mixing until combined. Stir in flour mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes. (ours were done closer to 22 minutes)
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cupcakes have cooled, frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with dried pineapple flowers, if desired. Serve at room temperature.
printable recipe

Cream Cheese Frosting
via Cooks Illustrated
Ingredients:

1 cup (2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted 
16 ounces cream cheese, cut in to 8 pieces, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch of salt

Directions
1.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add cream cheese, 1 piece at a time, and beat until incorporated.
2.Beat in vanilla and salt.Continue beating until light and fluffy. Refrigerate until ready to use.

printable recipe

Pineapple flowers
Martha Stewart
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line two baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
2.Cut top and bottom off pineapple, and slice off all the skin, but leave pineapple whole. Using a small melon ball-er, remove and discard pineapple "eyes." Using a sharp knife, cut pineapple crosswise into very thin slices. Transfer slices to baking sheets. Bake until tops look dried, about 30 minutes. Flip slices; bake until completely dried, 25 to 30 minutes more. Pinch center of each pineapple slice to shape into a cone, and let cool in a clean egg carton or muffin tin to form flowers. Refrigerate in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Ours took forever to dry in the oven and they had a caramelized edges which were delicious, but made them slightly brown, not as yellow as the pictures in the book. Martha's pineapple flowers were very yellow just like the freshly cut pineapple and I think that could be achieved if you used a food dehydrator instead of the oven.

Enjoy!

Link:Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
This Chick Cooks

Busy Bees

You could say that Mimi Jr. and I have been busy as bees making cookies. Mimi Jr. works with a very creative and talented woman, L, who was planning a bee themed birthday party for her six year old daughter, T.  She asked Mimi Jr. if we would help out and make some bee cookies for the party. Never one to turn down an opportunity to make cookies, Mimi Jr. said yes. L sent over some ideas, and based on the pictures she showed us, we created these buzzing bee sugar cookies.

We used our favorite sugar cookie recipe and royal icing to make our cookies. Since we had to make 100 of these, we spread out the work over a few days.

First we searched the internet for a bee that we liked and then used it to make a template for our bees. We printed out a sheet of bees and covered it with a sheet of wax paper that we taped to the kitchen island. Then with royal icing we traced over and flooded the the bees wings. When these were dry, we did the head and body, making sure the colors touched so we could peel them off in one piece. We fit 20 bees on each piece of wax paper, and just moved the printed paper to another space on the island and topped it with more wax paper for each new set of 20. We let these dry completely. When the cookies were baked, we flooded them with a pale yellow color and placed the dried bees on top of the almost dry flood icing. When the flood icing was completely dry we added the final details- we did the eyes and mouth with a food writer, and piped the antena and flight path with royal icing.

This was our first real "cookie order" for someone other than family, and we learned a few things along the way. Wait until your flood is almost dry to attach your detail so the wet icing doesn't make the colors from the bee/detail  bleed, and don't press them down too hard or your flood icing will wrinkle around the detail.

L made this gorgeous bee hive cake and matching cupcakes with toppers that coordinated with the party invitation. For the boys she had worker bee hard hats, and she made some cute flower headbands for the girls. Party favors included a yellow beach pail filled with assorted black and yellow candy and toys. No detail was over looked in her party planning, and her daughter's excited face made everything worth it.

The worker bees and a crown, for the birthday queen

Happy Birthday T, and Thank You L for letting us create the cookies for your bee-autiful party!

Link: Foodie Fridays at Designs by Gollum
         Cast Party  At the Lady Behind the Curtain