Tag: ice cream

The Colours of Summer – Strawberry Sorbet

So the sun is out, the sky is blue and there are still so many sweet, sweet strawberries. What more could you ask for? Today at least, it really feels like summer. One of the things I love about this season is the number of colours around. The blue green of the ocean, the bright and pastel colours of all the flowers in bloom, gorgeous yellow sun. In 2011 I figured that this year should herald a new swimming costume and towel in honour of the first summer in years i’ve actually been able to spend at the beach.

Pretty lilac and icecream colours!

To go with this new injection of colour, I felt it was time I made an icy treat worthy of being a post swim snack. Strawberry Sorbet. Mmmmmmmm a very simple recipe with few ingredients and minimal prep time. Just the thing to make on a day like today.

This recipe is very very easy to make, as long as you have lots of pretty little strawberries at your disposal. You need to puree your washed and de-headed strawberries in a blender until smooth. Always make sure you clean your blender properly. When I took the lid off to put in the strawberries, there was an awful smell in my blender. I took it apart and realised I hadn’t washed it properly the last time I used it and some of the seals had dried up mould on them. Um… extra protein? No! I cleaned that sucker thoroughly this time – before AND after strawberrying.

It’s clean now. I promise!

Then you need to pop some sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel in a pan with some water and cook to dissolve the sugar.

Add the strawberry puree and a few tablespoons of milk. (This seemed to curdle a little so I probably wouldn’t bother with the milk next time)

Churn in your machine

And voila! Sweet, soft, icy strawberry sorbet. Best thing to cool you down on a hot summer day.

And it matches my sunburn. Ouch!

So. lovely readers, what do you love most about summer? Or do you hate summer and can’t wait until winter? Im intrigued!

Strawberry Sorbet – From Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

Ingredients

500g fresh strawberries, stalks and leaves removed

180g sugar

Juice of half a lemon

One fairly long strip of lemon peel (I used a vegetable peeler – try not to get any pith with your peel)

375 ml water

4 tbsp milk (optional)

Method

1. Puree the strawberries until they are totally smooth (I sieved the mixture afterwards because I HATE seeds in my icecream, but if you like to include them, just put the mixture into a medium sized bowl and bother sieving)

2. Put the sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel in a pan with the water and bring to the boil. Cook, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved then take off the heat and cool for 10 minutes

3. Take out the lemon peel and pour the sugar mixture into the strawberrry puree.

4. Here is where you add the milk if you want to. When I added it to mine, it seemed to curdle and didnt combine properly until I mixed it very vigorously. It didn’t seem to harm the sorbet at all so I would say go with it unless you have an objection to milk. I might skip this step though next time.

5. Put your mixture into the fridge until it is completely chilled. You might want to do this overnight. Then add to your ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturers instructions.

Vanilla Icecream Pudding Surprise! (Another belated christmas post)

Since I made my confession about strawberries I have been feeling lighter, less freakish, so good in fact that I feel I must make another confession. I love everything that comes with a traditional Christmas – turkey, ham, roasted veggies (particularly roasted veggies! mmmmmm…) cranberry sauce, mustard. Christmas lunch and dinner leaves me completely full and happy. However, and be prepared because you may not believe me when I say, I almost never eat dessert at Christmas.

*whistles*

Yes, you read that correctly. This is the only meal all year that I do not finish with something sweet. Why? I don’t like fruit pudding, I don’t like fruit cake, I don’t like mince pies. It may seem like I don’t like fruit full stop, but that is not the case at all! It’s something to do with the combination of dried fruit, mixed peel and booze that just puts me off Christmas desserts. So this year, when I was given a mission by the mothership to make Christmas dessert, I decided to make a pudding but not of the traditional kind.

Enter…

Vanilla Icecream Pudding Surprise!

One of my birthday gifts from my beautiful mother was a Cuisinart Icecream Machine. I had been trying to make a decent icecream in it since November, but nothing was going to plan. Icecreams were too eggy, too icy, not setting, just plain sucky. This was going to be a Christmas showdown between me and that icecream. Armed with a recipe from the brilliant Guillaume Brahimi, I felt up to the challenge.

I followed the recipe exactly (I like to cut corners and substitute a bit here and there, but not this time baby!)

It looked pretty good churning away so I got to work on the ‘surprise’ part of the dish

What else would it be?

Guillaume’s recipe uses Mars Bars and Toblerone but I wanted to add the Cherry Ripe to make it a bit more festive, and because they were sitting in my cupboard begging to be used. And who can ignore a cry for help from a poor little chocolate bar? I only used 1.5 bars of each type of chocolate 1. so I could snack without detracting from the finished product and 2. because, well, it was just too much to put 6 full bars of chocolate in

I got a-chopping (and a-snacking!)

When the icecream was churned, I added the chocolate and poured it into the pudding basin

don’t forget to line your pudding basin with cling wrap so that you can get your pudding out when you want to eat it

you can use the overhang to cover the icecream to protect it in the freezer

Like this! Then pop it in the freezer overnight to set properly

Even though I lined the pudding basin with cling wrap, I still needed to dip the bottom of the bowl in hot water for a few seconds to help it come out properly. I made a chocolate sauce to go with the pud because it didnt feel like the usual custard and cream would be appropriate. However, I won’t post the recipe because although it was ok, it wasnt amazing and therefore not blog worthy.

mmmmm pud

yummo!

The icecream was smooth and creamy and vanilla-y and, studded with chocolate it was the perfect end to christmas day.

Although I made this recipe as a delicious christmas pud, you could do it in any shape or with any surprise. Im thinking M&Ms, nutella, snickers, oreos, the possibilities are endless! It’s almost like a Cold Rock at home. Mmmmmm…

So, my lovelies, if you made this icecream, what surprise would you add?

Vanilla Icecream Pudding Surprise – Adapted from the Christmas Tree Icecream Recipe by Guillaume Brahimi (published in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Living December 14, 2010)

Ingredients

375ml milk

375ml pouring cream (I used pure cream)

3 vanilla beans

8 egg yolks

150g caster sugar

1.5 Mars Bars (roughly chopped)

1.5 Toblerone bars (roughly chopped)

1.5 Cherry Ripe bars (roughly chopped)

Method

1. Bring the milk and cream to the boil

2. Slice the vanilla beans in half lengthways, scrape the seeds out and add to the milk and cream

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until well combined, then gradually add a third of the hot milk mixture and combine. Do this very gradually so as not to cook the eggs!

4. Put the egg and sugar mixture back into the pan with the remaining liquid and stir over medium heat until the custard reaches 80-85 degrees celsius or until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon

5. Immediately remove from heat and strain the mixture into a bowl (I had my bowl in an ice bath to make sure the mixture absolutely stopped cooking) and chill overnight

6. Churn in an icecream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While the icecream is churning, line your mould with cling wrap leaving enough around the edges to fold over the top of the icecream

7. Once the icecream has reached desired consistency, stir in your chocolate and pour into the mould, folding the cling wrap over the top to protect it from the freezer. Freeze overnight or for 24 hours until set

8. To remove, dip the bottom of the mould in hot water for a few seconds and use the edges of the cling wrap to lift it out of the mould. Drizzle with the sauce of your choice and enjoy!

Swiss Swirl Ice cream Cake! (Daring Bakers Challenge 2010)

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Well, this month was a challenge and a half! Although I have been able to finish most challenges a few weeks before the deadline, some how I found myself pulling this baby together last night in the nick of time. It wasn’t that I found the recipe unappealing (I love ice cream as much as the next woman) but I think I lacked motivation this month in pulling together a recipe that largely consisted of ice cream, in the dead of winter. Some how, trudging home in the cold and the rain after a long day at the chalkface didn’t make me want to complete this recipe. However, this is absolutely something i’m going to pull out when Summertime decides to roll around!

This culinary journey was not without its hiccups. I had considerable difficulty with the initial swiss roll recipe. For reasons unknown, no matter how closely I followed the recipe the damn thing would not rise! I made a few batches of flat, rubbery swiss rolls before finally baking my end product. After reading a few different recipes I decided to try whipping the egg and sugar mixture over a double boiler. Finally, I had the thick, creamy consistency required by the recipe. Finally, I had a light, spongy swiss roll!

And of course, my first alteration to the recipe was to make it a different colour…

Pink! Yes, i’m predictable.

I had decided that I was going to steer clear of my traditional chocolate on chocolate on chocolate approach. After seeing the amazing creations of many fellow Daring Bakers I knew it was high time I experimented a bit! So instead of vanilla ice cream, I tried…

Rosewater! P.s. I  whipped that cream by hand baby!

I had to go with chocolate sauce for the middle because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a sauce to go with rosewater ice cream.

I have to mention here that I did find the sauce mesmerising. It was like looking into a swirling galaxy

A cross section of swiss roll, ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Next came the final layer of ice cream. But what flavour to go with rosewater? I have to admit that I did cop  out a little bit in this section. I thought that pistachio ice cream would go nicely with the other flavours in this cake. However, I decided to make this ice cream on a night where I was just too tired and over it to do a good job. So I blended up a bunch of pistachios and whacked them in the ice cream.

While the texture was a little grainy as a result of my laziness, the flavour was delicate and pistachio-y

I held my breath while inverting the cake… and crossed my fingers!

Success!!

Cross section!

Thanks again Daring Bakers for a truly challenging  month! This is absolutely a recipe I will use again when the weather turns. However, I suspect I may return to my chocolate overload ways 😀

Alterations to the Recipe

I only slightly altered the recipe which you can find here.

1. I whipped my egg mixture for the swiss roll over a double boiler until it reached the desired consistency

2. I added about 4 or 5 teaspoons of rosewater to the vanilla icecream mixture instead of the vanilla

3. I added just over half a cup of pistachios (ground well) to the second ice cream mixture rather than adding cocoa or chocolate flavouring