Two more things to keep you cool

Last week Doug and I were hit by an awful stomach virus, courtesy of our germy sweet nephew. It was so bad, we haven't been sick like that the whole time we've been together. There was a lot of lying in bed, moaning, sweating, lying in the bathroom floor, drinking Gatorade and eating Saltines. We missed two days of work, which is a rarity for both of us. In six years at my current job I've only ever called in sick once before. Anyway, we got better thankfully, but neither one of us felt like eating much. My desire to bake/cook was greatly diminished this past weekend too. However, I did crave light, cold treats and they didn't require much effort either. 

First, there's Watermelon-Lemonade Sorbet from the Jeni's Ice Cream cookbook. Seriously easy, watermelon puree + lemon simple syrup + a whirl in the ice cream make + a trip to the freezer = done. This sorbet tastes like summer. 

 

The second thing is vanilla yogurt popsicles with raspberry puree. I have four sets of popsicle molds (I was a little indulgent last summer shopping on Amazon.com) and I never used these particular ones but dug them out to use for this recipe. The 'recipe' is just one container of raspberries tossed in the food chopper with a dash of lemon juice and a little less than 1/2 cup of sugar, pureed. Then I alternated filling the molds with the puree and vanilla yogurt. I wanted to use Greek yogurt but I only had a little bit and because it's so thick it was hard to get in the molds than the regular yogurt. I really liked the way these turned out and the molds release much easier than I thought they would. Plus they're relatively healthy, they could be made healthier by using fat free yogurt and stevia or agave for the sweetener.

Considering we still have at least 6 more weeks of 90+ degree temperatures I am sure I'll be using the popsicle molds some more.

Some things to keep you cool

For several years now I've heard about Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio via Ravelry via TNNA. I was seriously close to ordering pints online before but the pricey shipping stopped me. Lucky for me (and everyone really) Jeni Britton Bauer (the Jeni) has written an ice cream 'cookbook'. I picked it up a few weeks ago and it has so many delicious-looking recipes in it for all seasons of the year. I cannot wait to make the Pumpkin Five Spice in the fall. My favorite part of all the recipes is that none of them use eggs. I just don't like homemade ice cream with egg yolks, the texture always seems weird to me. Instead the ice creams in Jeni's book are made with whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt, cream cheese and then whatever the flavor components are. Perfect! The book is also just really well put together with lovely photos and cute artwork.

 

The first recipe I made was Pistachio and it is perfect! I used pre-roasted/pre-salted pistachios but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I was so anxious to try it and it did not disappoint. The pistachios make the ice cream a pretty pale green. 

The second recipe I made was the Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk. We've passed prime strawberry season here but I picked up some non-local berries at the grocery store. To achieve the maximum strawberry flavor, you slice the berries, toss them with sugar and lemon juice and roast them for about eight minutes in the oven. After that you puree them in the food processor. Since you only use 1/2 cup of the puree, there's a lot leftover and I'll tell you what I did with the leftovers below.

I love, love, love this flavor. The pistachio is wonderful too but the strawberry is my favorite of the two. However, I managed to get some tiny cornstarch clumps so I guess I didn't get the cornstarch mixture fully incorporated. The flavor of the ice cream wasn't hurt though but I'll be more careful next time.

With the leftover strawberry puree I added a small amount of vanilla bean paste and a small container of vanilla yogurt. After I whisked it all together I poured the mixture into some of my popsicle molds and froze them.They turned out really well, not too sweet and lots of strawberry flavor. These particular molds remind me of a unicorn horn.

I love this book so much and I anticipate making many more of the recipes, mainly the Sweet Corn Black Raspberry!

Cold treats

No Tuesdays with Dorie today, but visit the TWD site for the complete blogroll and Kimberly's blog at Only Creative Opportunities for this week's recipe.

Did you see this story about how June was the warmest June on record globally? I believe it. Memphis is always unbearable in the summer but it seems other areas of the world were also pretty hot. I'm unbelievably thankful for Mr. Carrier's invention.At least the heat has given me an excuse to use those popsicle molds I bought a couple of months ago and pull out the ice cream maker. I love coffee, Doug and I have coffee most evenings and I have a latte in the mornings. For ice cream inspiration I popped over to David Lebovitz's site and stumbled upon his recipe for Vietnamese coffee popsicles. I had never actually had Vietnamese coffee but after reading his description I made the coffee and the popsicles at home. The coffee was really, really good and has left me yearning to go to have 'real' Vietnamese coffee (i.e. not made by me). It seems sweetened condensed milk gets bad rap but it definitely has it uses.The ice cream was another David Lebovitz recipe, Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream. I made it without the caramel bits because I was short on time. I liked this ice cream but I think I overcooked the custard because the texture was off. I'm not a huge fan of ice creams with egg custards because I tend to cook it for too long leaving something to be desired with the end product.