Basil Ice Cream

I have quite a lot of basil at the moment. True, it smells like pesto (minus the garlic, of course) but it really is delicious with a subtle anise flavour. I'd make this again.

You Will Need:

3-4 cups fresh basil leaves
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks

Steep the basil leaves in the milk and cream for 20 minutes, then strain. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light. Whisk in the hot milk/cream, then return to a pan and cook to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat, strain through a sieve into a bowl, and chill in an ice bath until custard is cold. I make ice cream in a metal tray in the freezer, whisking with a fork every 30 minutes until firm. If you have a machine, go ahead and use it. Makes about 1 pint.

Strawberry and Sparkling Grape Sorbet

I still had a couple bottles of non-alcoholic white grape juice left from New Year's Eve, and this made good use of one bottle.

You Will Need:

1 quart strawberries, well-mashed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sparkling non-alcoholic grape juice

Mash the strawberries and force them through a sieve to remove seeds. This is a pain in the behind, but worth it. Whisk in the sugar, then whisk in the sparkling juice. Keep whisking until the sugar dissolves (it goes pretty quickly with the carbonation). Place in a freezer tray and freeze 30 minutes. Scrape with a fork and mash. Return to fridge and repeat every 30 minutes until form. Scrape into a container and freeze until firm before serving. Makes about 1 1/2 pints.

Remember Those Uninteresting Cheesecake Bars?

I made them more interesting.

Is there anything that can't be made better by putting it on a stick, dipping it in chocolate, and freezing it? OK, maybe not kidneys, or beef jerky, or cod. Cod would be bad. But these? These were greatly improved with the addition of chocolate. And a stick. Because I live in America, and that's a civic duty to impale our most nutritionally lacking food, and either fry it or coat it in chocolate. Look, I don't make the rules.

Chocolate coated cheesecake on a stick. How's that for recycling?

Coffee and Orange Ice Cream (Mocca og Appelsinis) Gourmet April 1973

The original recipe called for three cups of heavy cream and uncooked egg yolks. That gave me pause. Still, I liked the idea, and wondered how it would work with a few changes. I'm pleased to report that it was indeed delicious, and much, much safer to consume. I'll post the original recipe followed by how I made mine. I served it with an orange sauce, and some bittersweet chocolate-and then I posed it like some sort of foodie douchebag (spell check does not know the expression, "douchebag") for the photograph. Oooh, look, I made a fancy dessert out of cheap chocolate and store-brand instant coffee.

Yeah, I don't know what's with my mood of late either. I think it must be the menopause. *Shrugs*

Recipe as it appeared in gourmet magazine, April 1973:

In a large bowl beat 4 egg yolks until they are light and lemon colored. Gradually beat in 2/3 cup sugar, beating until mixture is almost white. Fold in 3 tablespoons instant espresso, dissolved in 2 tablespoons heated orange flavored liquer, and 2 tablespoons orange rind. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat 3 cups heavy cream until it holds soft peaks. Fold the yolk mixture into the whipped cream. Cover the bowl with foil, and freeze for 1 1/2 hours. Wash the beaters and chill them in the freezer. Beat the partially frozen cream at high speed for 30 seconds, or until it is smooth. Pour into a 1 3/4 quart decorative metal mold rinsed in cold water. Cover with foil and freeze for at least 12 hours. Five minutes before serving, unmold it onto a platter.

OK, here's my take with less potential for food borne illness:

In a heat-proof bowl, combine 3 egg yolks with 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup whole milk, 1 cup heavy cream, 2 teaspoons instant coffee, and the grated zest of 4 oranges. Heat until steaming. Whisk into egg/sugar mixture slowly in a stream. return mixture to pan, cook until it registers 175 degrees F. on a thermometer. Remove from heat, strain through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl, and chill in an icewater bath until cool. Transfer to a freezer tray for 1 hour. Meanwhile, whip 1 cup of heavy cream keep chilled.

When ice cream is frozen but not solid, beat with a mixer in a bowl until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream. Transfer to mould, and freeze until firm (mine took about 4 hours). Unmould, decorate, and serve.

For the orange sauce:

1 cup orange juice
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream

Combine orange juice and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook, until reduced by half. Remove from heat, stir in cream, and cool. Store in fridge. Makes about 1/2 pint.

Blueberry/Grapefruit Sorbet, Chocolate/Prune Sorbet

I'm still experimenting with sorbets, and the results have been nice. If I made the prune one again, I'd use much less sugar, and perhaps a squeeze of orange or lemon juice, but no matter, both containers will be gone in a day.

For the blueberry/grapefruit:

1 pint blueberries
1 cup water
1 cup fresh squeezed pink grapefruit juice
1 1/2 cups sugar (you can reduce this to 1 if you like)

In a heavy pot, combine the water and blueberries. Bring to a boil and cook until they pop (watch to make sure it does not boil over. Strain into a bowl and then force the blueberries through a fine mesh sieve (this takes some time, but it is nice to not have seeds in your sorbet). Return to pan and whisk in sugar over medium heat. Whisk just until dissolved. remove from heat, chill. When cool, mix with grapefruit juice and begin freezing in a glass or metal pan. The first freeze will take about an hour. Break up any crystals forming around edge with a fork and do this every thirty minutes for a couple hours until it is a slushy, thickened texture. Transfer to a plastic container and freeze several hours.

For the chocolate/prune sorbet:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar (you can reduce this to 3/4)
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 cup unsweetened prune juice

Combine waster and sugar in a heavy pot. Whisk over medium heat until dissolved. Whisk in the cocoa until combined. Cool. Stir in prune juice. Freeze following method above.

Lime Sorbet

A quick and simple sorbet you can make without an ice cream maker.

You Will Need:

1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

In a small pot, combine sugar and water over moderate heat and whisk until sugar dissolves. Cool to room temperature. Mix with lime juice. Transfer to a freezer tray (mine is an 8x8 glass pan) and chill one hour. With a fork, scrape down the frozen parts clinging to sides and return to freezer. Every thirty minutes scrape and break up the frozen parts until it comes together in a thick slush. (about 2 hours). Transfer to a plastic container and freeze several hours to firm.

Cherry Granita

You can make this using bottled cherry juice, but since the fruit is in season, I decided to use fresh.

You Will Need:

2 cups cherry juice (directions for extracting juice follow below)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
A generous squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

To extract juice from cherries:

Place pitted and lightly crushed cherries in a large pot. For each quart of cherries, add 1/4 cup water. Cover, and simmer until quite soft (about 30 minutes). Strain through a jelly bag, or a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth into a bowl.

Combine sugar and water in a pan and whisk over heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir into juice. Add lemon juice if using. Pour into a large glass or metal tray (mine is 9x13) and place in the freezer. Every 20 minutes, use a whisk to give it a stir, and break up the ice. When it can no longer be whisked, use a fork and continue until you get the texture you like (about 2 hours).

It keeps surprisingly well in a plastic container.

Fresh Apple Sorbet

Don't let the awful photo mislead you-this is wonderful sorbet. The colour is the loveliest pink, and the flavour is delicate, yet unmistakably apple. It does not taste like frozen apple juice.

You Will Need:

2 quarts cut-up apples. You need not peel or core, but cut off the blossom and stem ends.
2 cups water
Confectioner's sugar to taste

In a large pot, bring the apples to a simmer and cover. Let cook until fruit is soft. Strain through a jelly bag into a bowl (or layers of cheesecloth in a sieve) and chill.
Remove a small amount of juice (about 1/4 cup) and mix in confectioner's sugar until smooth. Then, add back to the juice. Process in an ice cream maker, or freeze in a metal or glass tray, breaking up with a food processor before serving.

Mandarin Orange Sherbet

Made without eggs or cream, this is a really nice, light treat to take advantage of the lovely Australian oranges in stores now. I like the Australian citrus-it tastes like our citrus did twenty-five years ago before they hybrided all the flavour out of the varieties. Can't beat the texture either-nary a bad one in the bag.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups of Mandarin orange juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, whisk together the juice and sugar over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, and chill until quite cold. Mix extract with milk and then whisk into the juice/sugar mixture. Process in an ice cream maker.

Lime Granita With Star Anise And Ginger

I knew I would find a good use for all those ten cent limes. If granita isn't your thing, you could always make marmalade, but I would encourage you to give this recipe a try. It would also make a good base for a spritzer with seltzer water, if you didn't want to freeze it. A scoop of the frozen stuff would probably be incredible in a glass of ginger ale. I think I might need to try that tonight. I wouldn't recommend it as a sorbet however, as the weight of sugar to liquid is so high, it might not freeze hard enough. I once burned out the motor of an ice cream freezer finding that out.
You Will Need:

1 cup of lime juice, strained of pulp
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
2 -3 slices of fresh ginger
3 pieces of star anise

Juice the limes and set aside. I find that running the limes under hot water and then rolling them on the counter before juicing helps them give up more juice.

In a small pot, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil, whisking until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to a simmer, add the ginger and star anise and simmer ten minutes. Remove from heat, let cool. Combine with juice and place in a glass or metal dish and let it sit in the freezer for several hours, stirring and scraping with a fork about every half hour. When it is all solid, transfer it to a tightly sealed container and keep frozen.

We Don't Do "Bomb" Pops

-But somehow, Nonviolent Pacifist Pops with gelatin doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

I was inspired by THIS recipe, but I knew Danny wouldn't go for strawberries with balsamic vinegar, and honey didn't sound too great either. The cheesecake layer was more work than I wanted, so I went ahead and made a small batch of strawberry and blueberry instead. I wanted to post a link to the original because it is an excellent tutorial if you feel inspired to do something impressive. Danny is impressed enough by the fact I'm making ice-lollies, I don't need to go out on a limb and make them fancy.

This will make enough for ten small pops.

For the strawberry:

2 cups crushed strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the blueberry

2 cups crushed blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the gelatin

2 cups warm water
1/2 packet unflavoured gelatin

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin on the water and let soak a few minutes before stirring to dissolve.

Mix the strawberry and blueberry slurries separately in the blender washing it out between batches. Add half the softened gelatin to each as you blend.

Pour first layer into dixie cups. Chill about twenty minutes or until set but not completely frozen. Insert stick. Pour in the second layer. Return to freezer until firm (about two hours).

Blood Orange Sorbet

Did I mention this is easy? Well, it is. The hardest part is juicing the oranges. You can do that, right?

You Will Need:

1 cup blood orange juice, strained

1/3 cup caster sugar

Juice oranges, strain and mix with sugar. Process in ice cream maker. Freeze until set.

What did I tell you? Easy, right?

Grapefruit Mousse

Yes, it is impressive, but what a pain in the arse. But look, it didn't slide off the plate onto the kitchen floor, and unlike most things I make, is somewhat level.

The recipe may be found HERE.

Watermelon Sorbet

Photos are still messed-up, but everyone knows what watermelon sorbet looks like-hint, it is a beautiful pink.

The recipe comes from the Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and it is easily one of the best things I've made. The smell alone is so filled with enjoyment you almost don't need to eat the sorbet (you'll want to, of course).

What better way to use those last watermelons of summer?

This recipe called for 3 cups of watermelon juice. For me that was half of a small round melon, but it will vary depending upon the moisture of the fruit. Note to locals-we purchased ours at the Fontenelle Farm stand just outside of Fremont. The had quite a few of them, but seeing how they are that good, word is bound to get out soon. I'd prioritise getting over there if you want one.

You Will Need:

3 cups watermelon juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 envelope unflavoured gelatin
Juice f one lemon

Mash watermelon in a bowl with a potato masher to extract juice. Strain. Mix the first three ingredients together. Remove 1/4 cup to a saucepan. Soften gelatin in lemon juice and then add to pan over very low heat until dissolved. Add to first mixture and process in ice-cream maker according to directions. Makes 1 quart.