SpiceDish Saturday {April}: Sweet Tart Lemon Sherbet

I'm keeping this short. I don't want to spend time posting this post. I want to spend time making this recipe. SpiceDish sent us this recipe for her April post for SpiceDish Saturdays. Thanks, SpiceDish!

There are few recipes easier or more refreshing than this one. Perfect for a warm summer night out on the porch!

Sweet Tart Lemon Sherbet

1/3 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 ½ cups buttermilk

½ cup plain yogurt

¼ lemon juice

In a large bowl, mix water, sugar and zest. Let sit until sugar is completely dissolved, stirring occasionally. Chill for 15 mins. Whisk in buttermilk, yogurt and lemon juice. Freeze in ice cream maker.  

Enjoy!

SpiceDish Saturday {March}: Banana Pudding Ice Cream

When SpiceDish sent this recipe she merely said "I loooove this one." If that doesn't speak for itself, I don't know what does. Sure, you gotta like bananas, but if you do, sounds like you'll go bananas for this one (ok, sorry, I'm a bit punny right now!) And without further ado...

There is a southern restaurant in my neighborhood called The Front Porch. Fried chicken, grits, pickled okra and banana pudding. Delicious, rightly rich banana pudding served in a small Ball jar. I'm sort of addicted to it. Ok not sort of. Completely. The other night, while gorging myself of a serving of the pudding I decided that it just had to be made into a frozen treat. I make my own vanilla wafers but go ahead and use the boxed ones. They are just as delicious.

Banana Pudding Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
2 cups half and half
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas cut into slices and smashed
1 vanilla bean with seed scraped out
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers

Place the vanilla bean and seeds into a medium sauce pan. Warm the milk and half and half on medium heat don't let it boil. Beat the yolks with the sugar. Add the yolk mixture to ½ a cup of the cream mixture, then whisk the egg mixture and banana mush into the remaining cream.

Simmer the mixture until it thickens (to the point where it will coat the back of a spoon). Stir in the nutmeg and vanilla. Chill completely then freeze according to your ice-cream maker’s instructions. About five minutes before the ice cream is finished add the crushed wafers.

Thanks, SpiceDish!

What a Bust!

Tonight I am going totally off topic. EB of SpiceDish asked for a photo of the bust of myself from high school that I mentioned in my last post. Since EB is so good to us, I thought I would honor her request. Please keep in mind I was only a freshman in high school when I made this!

I could lie and say it's made of ice cream. (It's not. It's clay.)

Thanks to Dad for being so great and sending a photo so promptly!

SpiceDish Saturday {January}: Espresso Chip Frozen Yogurt

When EB of SpiceDish sent this recipe she said: “I HIGHLY recommend [this recipe]. I was kind of shocked how well it came out. Had it for breakfast this morning!” If I liked anything in the coffee family, I certainly would have, but I'll have to trust EB's opinion -- which is usually spot on...

It's that paradoxical time of year when our bodies crave lighter foods after months of feasting but we still have those cravings for sweet treats that became habitual. This is the perfect thing for these January days. It's sweet, but not too sweet, tart but not too tart, creamy but not too creamy.... you get the idea. It's also possibly one of the easiest recipes ever!

Espresso Chip Frozen Yogurt
1cup greek yogurt (either plain or vanilla)
¾ cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt
¾ cup whole milk
1 cup cold espresso
1 tbs crushed chocolate covered coffee beans

Whisk together all ingredients and chill completely. Freeze in your ice cream maker, 10 minutes for a shake, 20 for frozen yogurt.

Enjoy!

SpiceDish Saturday {December}: Christmas Ice Cream

I have an apology to EB of SpiceDish (as well as our fabulous readers!). EB has been so great about getting us new SpiceDish Saturday recipes and I completely missed the boat on this one, waiting until the last Saturday (and last day) of December to post her gorgeous recipe...which she aptly titles "Christmas Ice Cream." December always gets me -- I just fall so behind! In my defense, I kind of celebrate the holiday from Christmas to New Year's so I think it will still work as a great New Year's Eve treat. AND this is a "to file" for next year as well -- you can practice and practice for another 360 or so days now to have it perfectly mastered for next Christmas. 


Oh, and speaking of Christmas, wondering what to do with that Christmas check you got from Grandma? Head over to SpiceDish's Etsy shop, SpiceDish Vintage and pick up a new dish for your daily bowl of ice cream...! It was just recently that I discovered that our dear friend EB also keeps herself busy with a shop of vintage treasures!

Oh fruitcake, the much maligned dessert of the Christmas season. It's become cliché to hate on this lowly confection. When given as a gift, a single bite may be washed down with real star of the season-- egg nog. Rich, delicious, adored by legions of cream swilling fans. How can the fruitcake compete? It can't. Poor cake. In the spirit of “If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!” I've decided to comine these flavors into what can best be simply called “Christmas.” Yes, “Christmas” flavor ice cream. It combines all the flavors of fruit cake and egg nog and tastes, of Christmas. 

Enjoy-

1 cup whole milk 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

5 large egg yolks 

3/4 cup sugar 

2 cups chilled heavy cream 

2 tablespoons dark rum 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/4 tsp nutmeg 

1/4 tsp cinnamon

4 cloves (whole)

1 pkg crystallized (candied) ginger

1 pkg candied fruits for fruitcake

Bring milk, cloves, several pieces of ginger (to your taste),  and salt to a boil in a  saucepan over medium heat. Turn to low and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Let steep for 1 hour at room temp.

Remove ginger and cloves. Rewarm the mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together yolks and sugar.  Gradually add about 1/4 cup of the hot milk, whisking constantly. Slowly add yolks and milk to the saucepan whisking constantly. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, until mixture lightly, coats back of spatula. Place a mesh strainer over a clean bowl and pour mixture through. Add cream, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir until thoroughly combined. Cover and chill completely.  Once chilled, freeze in ice cream maker. 5 minutes before complete add the rum, a few tbs of the candied fruit pieces and a piece or two of chopped up ginger. (These should be added to taste, more ginger=spicier, more fruits=more to chew on).

The rum will keep the custard from freezing completely in the mixer so you will need to transfer it to an freezer safe container and let it harden for at least 4 hours. 

SpiceDish Saturday {November}: Salt & Pepper Ice Cream

After a break, the fabulous EB of SpiceDish returns for SpiceDish Saturdays. We are thrilled to have her back. What a treat have EB share some of her fabulously creative ice cream recipes on our blog. 

I don't know if we ever mentioned that Jessie of CakeSpy introduced us (virtually) to SpiceDish when we were first starting the blog -- and we became fast friends. A couple of weeks ago, we met Jessie in Boston while she was on her book tour. SpiceDish met Jessie in San Francisco at the end of October. So, if life is going according to plan, the next meet up should be between us gals at Scoopalicious and the ab fab SpiceDish herself. It seems only natural. We can't wait...for whenever that is!

Until then, we'll take SpiceDish Saturdays. Without further ado, here's SpiceDish!

This recipe may be a little strange to some of you, but it makes perfect sense to me. I had the luck to meet Fabrizia Lanza the olive oil expert a few nights ago at a talk she gave at 18 Reasons here in San Francisco. During her talk, Fabrizia treated us to vanilla ice cream drizzled with a fine extra-virgin olive oil. The fruity/sweet combination really worked! My mind immediately went to salty/sweet and I thought that a few bits of sea salt would really have put the treat over the top. On my walk home I decided that one more element would make it unexpected and perfect: pepper. Peppercorn ice cream actually. I went home, infused cream with rainbow peppercorns, drizzled the final product with a McEvoy Ranch olive oil, sprinkled some pink sea salt for crunch and color and voila! Delicious.


Salt & Pepper Ice Cream

1 ½  cups half & half
1/3 cups sugar
1 ½   tbs mixed color peppercorns- cracked
Pinch of sea salt
3 egg yolks
High quality extra virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
Pinch of pink sea salt (for topping)

Warm the half & half, sugar, pepper and salt in a medium saucepan. Turn off the heat and cover. Let sit for an hour. Set a strainer on top of a large bowl then re-warm the mixture. Whisk egg yolks in another medium sized bowl. Add a few tbs of the warmed mixture to the yolks and whisk. Continue until all of the mixture has been whisked into the eggs then add mixture back into saucepan on a low heat. Stir constantly, scraping the bottom of pan until the mixture thickens and coats your spoon. Pour through the strainer into bowl then cool over an ice bath.  Refrigerate until completely cooled then freeze in ice cream maker.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with pink sea salt just before serving.

Thanks SpiceDish! Can't wait to try this one!

SpiceDish Saturday {June}: Plain But Perfect Vanilla Gelato

It's actually Thursday as I write this. I am in New York with my best friend. The rain is coming down and there is no chance of going to the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (though no review, interview to follow next week and bonus points for any New Yorker who wants to try it for us!) My only comfort is hanging out with my oldest and dearest friend and doing what we do best -- watching silly sitcoms and eating junk. She's on the phone right now, and while my mind is craving sweets, I figure the best way to maybe calm this craving to to post one of SpiceDish's famous, delicious recipes. This one seems perfect for me to write about today -- while some people find vanilla boring, I find it to be the comforting best friend that brightens up a rainy day.

Thanks, EB!

Plain But Perfect Vanilla Gelato

2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 whole vanilla beans

In a thick bottomed saucepan, mix the milk and cream. Split your vanilla beans and scrape the seeds into the milk mixture. Drop the beans in. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. Let steep for 1 hour. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until whipped. Remove bean pods from milk mixture. Gradually pour the mixture into the egg yolks, and whisk constantly. Return mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Pour the mixture through a strainer and back into a large bowl. Cover, and chill completely in the fridge. Once chilled through, pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. You may need to put the gelato in a container, and ‘ripen’ it in the freezer until it is firm.

SpiceDish Saturday {May}: Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

We love us some SpiceDish Saturdays and we are so happy it's that time of month! I am especially excited for this one because my strawberries are growing like weeds (um, yeah...) and flowering like crazy. So, if Ernie the dog doesn't eat them, I'll have to make some of this when our strawberries start to appear...Thanks EB!

Okay folks, so it’s the beginning of strawberry season around these parts and I’m a sucker for ‘em. I always have been. I was not a Barbie girl. I was a Strawberry Shortcake girl. There’s just something about those little, dimple covered bombs of deliciousness. This recipe highlights the first, sweet berries of the season and is just the right balance of tart to that sweet.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

1 lb organic strawberries, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of sugar
1 ½ tsp lemon juice
The zest of 1 lemon
1 cup cream-top whole milk plain yogurt

Cover the strawberries with the sugar, add the lemon juice and the lemon zest. Stir well. Let sit for about 30-45 minutes. Squish the mixture with a potato masher until it resembles jam. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Stir in the yogurt and mix well. Freeze according to your mixer’s directions.

SpiceDish Saturday {April}: Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

It's time for April's SpiceDish Saturday. I'm particularly excited for this one. It's an exotic flavor and just so beautiful looking. It reminds me of those Brach's Jelly Nougats I used to LOVE when I was a kid. I recently rediscovered them at Chutter's (home of the longest candy counter) in Littleton, New Hampshire. But, I digress. Back to the subject at hand -- SpiceDish's amazing looking ice cream...

The world is thawing, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and new fresh flavors are everywhere. I was gifted with a large stash of lemons so perfect, they looked like plastic. Their fragrant, oil packed skin called out to be blended with rich cream an a little something special. I found the perfect something special at Bi-Rite the other day. Candied rose petals! This recipe would work fantastically with candied violets too.

Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

3 Large lemons (zested & juiced)
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups ½ & ½
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
4 tbs candied rose petals

Warm the ½ & ½, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a saucepan until just simmering. Remove from heat and let sit for1 hour. Re-warm mixture. While it warms, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Add several tablespoons of the cream mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk. Repeat procedure until the two mixtures are completely blended together. Return mixture to the saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly. The custard is cooked when it thickens and coats the spoon.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into your mixing bowl. Chill the mixture in the freezer for 20 minutes. Stir thoroughly and put into mixer. While the ice cream churns, crush 2 tbs of the rose petals (or lavender, or violet). 5 minutes before the mixture is finished churning add both the crushed and whole candied rose petals.

SpiceDish Saturday {March}: Brown Sugar Banana Bread Ice Cream

Happy SpiceDish Saturday!

Here’s another banana based ice cream for you. I just love a good banana flavored anything and I wanted something to complement my Panettone Bread Pudding. This one is crazy easy. No cooking, just mix and freeze!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Brown Sugar Banana Bread Ice Cream

3 frozen and thawed bananas
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup ½ & ½
½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp brandy
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp each of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, & ginger
Dash of salt
4 squares of cinnamon graham crackers, crushed

With a banana masher, mix the bananas, brown sugar, brandy, vanilla and spices. Whisk in the cream and ½ & ½. Chill for 30 minutes. Stir to mix completely and pour into your ice cream maker. While it is churning, crush the crackers. Pour the crackers into the maker 5 minutes before the mixture is finished churning.

SpiceDish Saturday {February}: Cocoa-Sour Cream-Blackberry Ice Cream

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's time for another SpiceDish Saturday. Without further ado...


This is one of those staring into the depths of your fridge "I have ½ tub of sour cream left over from tacos and the blackberries from the corner market were 99 cents but I have to eat them today or freeze them, man I am craving chocolate... agggghhh" type of recipes. It was born out of that exact conversation in my head. The sour cream adds a nice tang to the super sweet choco-sugar mixture and the berries are a nice (aha! Healthy!) surprise. A bit unexpected.

There's no custard base so it's really very easy and all the richness comes from the sour cream. Enjoy!

Cocoa-Sour Cream-Blackberry Ice Cream

1 ½ cups sour cream
1 cup sugar
4 tbs dutch cocoa
1 ½ cup frozen blackberries


Heat the sour cream, cocoa and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisking until it comes to a low simmer. Pour mixture into bowl and add blackberries. Cover and place in refrigerator until cooled completely. Once cooled, use a handheld immersion blender to blitz the mixture (if you don't have one a blender works just as well).

Pour into mixer and chill following directions.

Thanks, SpiceDish!

SpiceDish Saturday {January}: Champagne Sorbet

So it's time for another SpiceDish Saturday. I am going to let SpiceDish's post and pictures speak for itself! Thanks, SpiceDish!

I love champagne sorbet. It was a special occasion treat for me growing up. Every time there was a special occasion birthdays, anniversaries, graduations etc. my dad liked to go to a very small little French restaurant run by a Turkish chef. He always made champagne sorbet for us when we came in. It was the perfect palate cleanser. But beyond that it was perfectly pink, perfectly sweet and made my teenage self feel very grown up and sophisticated.

This is where you can use not leftover champagne, because lets face it… who has leftover champagne… but maybe you have that bottle that you passed out before you opened. This recipe is very easy. You can either make it in an ice cream maker or make it 'granita' style.

Champagne Sorbet

2 cups champagne (pink preferably) chilled
1/4 cup sparkling mineral water
3 tbsp grapefruit juice
1 1/4 cup fine granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS
Heat the water, grapefruit juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and chill completely. Once completely cold add the champagne and stir until well blended.

Either place in ice cream maker and freeze according to directions or pour mixture into shallow baking dish. Place in freezer and freeze mixture for 2 hours. With a fork, scrape and break up the mixture. Freeze another hour and then scrape again. Repeat until you achieve a frozen texture you like. I like to serve with a mint sprig.

SpiceDish Saturday {December}: Banana Spice Snap

Last month we started SpiceDish Saturday. Can't believe a month has gone by, but it has! I think the picture to the left is proof that we need not wait another minute to make this ice cream -- it looks SO yummy! So I will stop talking and give to you another recipe from the Ab Fab EB...AFEB...hmmm....

Call it a sign of the economic times, but I find that most of my recipes lately consist of leftovers or pantry items that I try to stretch as far as possible. This ice cream was no different.... and surprisingly led to great tasting results. Trying to rid myself of at least a few of the dozens of frozen bananas I have in the freezer, I decided to make banana ice cream. When making banana ice cream it's actually very important to use bananas that have been previously frozen (I could go into an Alton Brown like spiel here but lets just say it has to do with the formation of ice crystals and move on). I wanted to add some oomph to the banana with spices because, well, I love spice ice cream so I added ginger and then one upped the spice factor with a few crumbled ginger snaps I had sitting in the pantry. This is a surprisingly rich, creamy and decadent ice cream that also happens to be pretty easy to put together! Enjoy.


Banana Spice Snap

3/4 cup whole milk
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 ½ cups mashed banana that has been frozen and thawed (fresh banana will turn into frozen ice chunks!)
1 cup ginger snaps, broken in pieces
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 dash nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

Warm the milk, sugar and ginger in a saucepan. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat. Pour cream into a bowl and set a strainer on top of the bowl. In another bowl, whisk yolks. Add a few tbsp's of the milk to the yolks and whisk. Slowly add rest of the milk while whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into saucepan. Heat on medium. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Be sure to stir constantly so eggs don't harden. Pour the mixture, through the strainer, into the cream. Stir in well mushed banana and vanilla. (For a smoother texture, blend in blender). Cool over ice, then put in the fridge to cool completely. When cold, freeze in ice cream mixer (according to directions). 5 minutes before finished, add cookie pieces. If soft, ripen in the freezer for a few hours.

Thanks, AFEB!

P.S. Check out SpiceDish's site for some "Rubberized Awesomeness" -- totally up our alley. Really, this is rated G, people (as my friend Ashu would say).

New Feature: Spice Dish Saturday!

A while back the oh-so-fabulous Cakespy introduced us to EB of SpiceDish...with that introduction, we found a new friend, a charming person, and a ice cream maker a la mode! (ok, I just made up that expression -- what I am trying to say is she is AWESOME.) After following her wonderful blog and all the recipes she creates and/or tries, Tina and I had a wonderful idea -- let's invite SpiceDish to be a monthly guest blogger. So we asked and she said "yes!" How lucky we are!

Without further ado, here is the first installment of SpiceDish Saturday!

This is an ice cream for the adults out there who find themselves pulling melted skittles out of their carpets, bubble gum wads stuck in sox and new cavities in their kid's heads. This is a treat to that will use up that bit of pumpkin you have leftover from muffin making, the dregs of cocoa you haven't made hot chocolate with and what's leftover in those pumpkin heads full of 'fun-size' candy bars. It may feature kid-sized candy bits but its flavor is most decidedly adult. The deep chocolate base with a hint of vegetal pumpkin flavor both spiced by cinnamon is decadent all by itself, but the candy bits bring back those holiday memories.

Cocoa-Pumpkin Ice Cream With Goodies! (aka Holiday Aftermath)

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup dutch cocoa powder

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup pumpkin puree

½ tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Mixed mini-candy bars, chopped

In a saucepan add the milk, sugar, cocoa and salt. Heat while whisking until it froths up. Turn off the heat and add the pumpkin. Stir in. Chill until cold then freeze in your ice cream maker. 5 minutes before it is finished churning add the candy pieces. Enjoy!

We will enjoy! Thanks EB and welcome!

Beautiful photos courtesy of EB of SpiceDish as well!

Recipe: Cake Batter Ice Cream

A while back we posted a recipe for a very simple but amazing cake batter recipe. We got feedback from someone who said we should be careful because cake batter is meant to be cooked, and we should be aware of the possibility of Salmonella. Though I probably should be, I am not too worried about Salmonella and I love the original recipe. However, when making ice cream for 30-40 guests, I have to say I am a little more anxious about it, so I made a very good recipe by cooking the base.

For the recipe I used the Vanilla Ice Cream #1 (Pure and Simple) from Bruce Weinstein's The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More as a guide, but I changed it up a bit.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup Yellow Cake Mix (though I am sure other flavors would work well too!)
1 cup skim milk
2/3 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Beat the sugar into the eggs until thickened and pale yellow. Add the cake mix.

Bring the milk and half and half to a simmer in a medium sauce pan. Once simmering, remove from stove and pour the milk mixture into the egg, sugar and cake mix and beat until well mixed. Pour the entire mixture back into the sauce pan, and cook over low heat while mixing constantly until the mixture thickens. The mixture may start to "bake" -- if this happens, take it off the stove immediately, and then pour through a strainer into a clean bowl. Allow the mixture to cool for a bit and add the heavy cream.

Cover and refrigerate until cool.

Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

For an extra treat, I added rainbow sprinkles to the ice cream semi-frozen ice cream (about five minutes before I was ready to remove it from the ice cream maker.) Eat immediately or transfer to another container and freeze.


For another cake batter recipe that looks amazing, visit EB at SpiceDish.

We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to EB of SpiceDish! She was chosen at random to win some Scoopalicous treats as a celebration of our hundredth post! And Happy Blogiversary to EB!

Photo by Petr Kovar on stock.xchng.