Cheese Danishes

I love turnovers or hand pies. They're just so convenient and portable to eat, no utensils required!

For our fruit recipe exchange, I received these cheese danishes. I made these for as another snack for the get together I had. We all played this board game called Quelf. It was a pretty interesting game, as none of us played it before, and I had to crawl under a table at one point! One of the things we had to do whenever anybody rolled a 1 on the die was to yell "all hail the Chinese cheese biscuit!", which was quite coincidental because I had just served these.

I originally had some difficulty using the puff pastry since I took it out of the fridge ahead of time. I was concerned that it had not fully thawed in the fridge. BIG mistake! It made the dough too tough to work with. Make sure the dough is cold, straight from the fridge, or you'll have a tough time unfolding!

A few changes I made were using Neufchâtel cheese to lighten it up, using reconstituted lemon peel from Penzeys, and using the leftover egg whites as a wash. It came out great and everybody enjoyed it, even the cheese haters! I double this to feed everybody and as I thought, I had some cheese filling left. I ended up throwing it away, but I'm sure it can be used to spread on bread or something!

Remember to check out Sarah's blog for the full round up including my submission for blueberry buckle!

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Cheese and Fruit Preserve Danishes

made by cathy's kitchen journey
adapted from Simple Gourmet Cooking




ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, separated (reserve whites for egg wash)
• 2 TBSP ricotta cheese
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 box frozen puff pastry, defrosted in refrigerator
• 8 TBSP fruit preserves (I used raspberry)

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. Cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, lemon zest, vanilla, and salt and mix until just combined (do not whip). Turn off the mixer, and set mixture aside
3. Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface and roll it slightly with a lightly floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. (Use one at a time, leaving one in the fridge until ready to use.) Using a sharp knife or pastry cutter, cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife.
4. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares (I used a cookie scoop). If using, place an additional tablespoon of desired filling into each pastry.
5. Brush the edge of each pastry with the egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so that they stick together tightly. Crimp the edges together with a fork to seal.
6. Lightly brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the danishes for 15 minutes.
7. Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and light brown. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 servings

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Pear Pie

To tell you that I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while is an understatement. I saw this recipe almost 3 years ago, and I just got around to making it.

I don't really have any excuse other than we usually don't have pears on hand. Since pears are one of the fruits we don't buy often I totally forgot about this recipe until now. Whole Foods had some organic pears on sale, so I remembered this recipe when I snatched some up.

Lately, I've had a bit of bad luck with pie crusts. Since I need to make a dairy free crust for Gary, I haven't found the right crust, until now! This crust rolled out wonderfully, and it didn't crack while I was rolling it out. I think I've found the one! Gary also thought the crust worked out well and that it had a buttery aspect to even though I didn't use butter.

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Pear Pie
crust adapted from Being Vegan and Getting Away with It
pie filling adapted from Honey and Jam

ingredients:
pie crust:
1 cup all purpose flour (plus more as needed and for dusting)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup non hydrogenated shortening
4 TBSP ice water

filling:
2-3 ripe pears, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch thickness (I used 2 pears and it was sufficient)
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter (I used earth balance)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten

directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F (175°s C).

prepare pie crust:
In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour and salt. Cut in shortening using a fork or pastry cutter until the mixture looks like course crumbs. Slowly pour in water while mixing with fork in a circle. Once all the water is in, knead and form the dough into a ball. If the dough is sticky, sprinkle Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for 10 minutes. (I skipped this and it was still fine.

Roll out dough for a 9" pie pan and place in pan. Cut off excess dough from the edges and flute or press edges with a fork.

prepare filling:
Peel and cut pears in half. Remove cores and slice into 1/4 inch thickness (approx). Place the pear slices down in the pie crust with the small ends toward the center to create a circular design in one layer. Chop excess pears and place in the center.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until light and fluffy. Stir in flour and vanilla. Pour mixture over the top of the pears to completely cover.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, until pears are soft and custard is set in the center. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

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Key Lime Bars

For the July 4 holiday, I was stumped when I was deciding on a dessert. I saw these and wanted to make it, but it wasn't dairy free, thus me making the brownies. However, I really wanted to make these since they looked so good, so I ended up making both.



I'm glad I made these, because they turned out beautifully. I'm not really a heavy dessert person, so these were still light from the citrus even though there was so much butter and eggs. These were a hit at the bbq as well, and I heard it was great with vanilla ice cream!

Also, I love key lime pie, so I thought key lime juice would be great instead of lemon. Since I'm in NY, key limes are hard to get by. I used some bottled juice I picked up from Fairway, and it worked wonderfully.

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Key Lime Bars
adapted from: allrecipes.com via I was Born to Cook

ingredients:
crust:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour

batter:
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup key lime juice

directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C).

In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Mix in 2 cups of flour. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lime juice. Reserve 1 cup of batter for dyeing (eyeball it). This is totally optional. You can pour all the batter over the crust without the marbling effect.

Pour batter over the baked crust.

Dip a fork or small whisk into green gel food coloring or add a few drops of liquid food coloring. Whisk into the reserved batter. Pour over the pan to create lines in the middle (it's ok if it's messy). Using a toothpick, drag through the batter to create a marbled look.

Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting. The bars will firm up as they cool.

Makes 24 squares.

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Vanilla Bean Cake with Lemon Lime Curd & Swiss Meringue

This cake was a slight adaptation of one that I previously made. My sister requested a lemon and vanilla cake like the one I’ve made previously for her daughter’s birthday. I decided to use the same recipe but adapted it slightly.

From what I recall, the first one I made had thick layers of cake. I wanted to fill the layers in between with some more curd, so I made a lemon layer and a lime layer. You can’t really tell, but they are two different flavors. I also took into consideration my family’s tastes since they don’t like sweets. I decided to make a Swiss meringue buttercream to use up the extra egg whites from the extra layer of curd. It was a perfect complement to the cake!

Although the curds tasted different when I was making them, they sort of meshed together in the end and tasted the same. None-the-less, the cake was a nice an refreshing spring cake.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Lemon and Lime Curd Filling and Swiss Meringue Frosting
cake and frosting adapted from: Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes
curd fillings from: Williams Sonoma

ingredients:

cake:	lemon curd:	frosting
3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour	5 egg yolks	5 egg whites
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder	1/2 cup sugar	1 cup plus 2 TBSP granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt	1/4 cup fresh lemon juice	pinch of salt
1 TBSP vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean	Grated zest of 2 lemons	1 pound butter (4 sticks)
1 cup plus 2 TBSP milk	6 TBSP (3/4 stick) unsalted butter	1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar	lime curd:
5 large egg whites at room temp	repeat above, replacing lemon w/lime (about 3 limes)

directions:
prepare curds:
In a heavy saucepan before turning on the heat, combine the egg yolks and sugar and whisk vigorously for 1 minute.

Add the lemon juice and zest and whisk for 1 minute more. Set the pan over low heat and cook gently, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool, stirring occasionally. Cover tightly and refrigerate before using. Makes about 1 cup.

repeat with lime curd

*make sure the remaining 5 egg whites are in separate bowls. 5 will be for the cake, 5 for the frosting.

bake the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour or spray two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir vanilla seeds into milk.

Cream butter in your mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture to batter, alternating with the milk, and betting until just combined after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in 2 batches.

Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out cleanly when inserted in the center. Allow to cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

make the frosting:
Place egg whites, sugar, and salt in the heatproof bowl of your stand mixer. Place over over a small pot of simmering water. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is warm to the touch and no longer grainy. (test this by rubbing it with your fingertips.)

Transfer the bowl to the mixer. Using the whisk attachment, starting at low speed, and gradually increasing to medium-high. Whisk until stiff peaks form and continue to whisk until fluffy and glossy, about 10 minutes. At the end, the bottom of the bowl should be cool.

Reduce the speed to low. Cut the butter into tablespoon sizes, and gradually into the bowl. After adding all the butter, whisk in the vanilla.

Switch over to the paddle attachment, and continue to beat on low to get rid of all the air bubbles. Scrape the bowl, then continue to beat until completely smooth.

assemble the cake:
Cut each cake in half. You should have 4 layers now.

Place one layer on a cake board. Place some frosting in a piping bag or freezer bag. Pipe a line of frosting along the edge of the cake layer.

Pour lemon curd in the center and spread into an even layer. Place other cake layer on top. Spread a layer of frosting. Add the third cake layer, then top with the lime curd. Add the final cake layer, frost cake with remaining frosting and decorate as desired.

Store in fridge until serving.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Lemon Curd Filling

I hate it when a recipe calls for only egg yolks (or whites) because I end up stuck with finding another use for the rest of the egg. Many times, end up throwing it away. I was going to bake a cake for Gary’s parents’ birthday, and I started off looking for a filling. The lemon curd was what I went with, but now I had to find something to use up the 5 egg whites. I then saw that Martha’s vanilla bean cupcake recipe calls for 5 egg whites exactly. Perfect!

The cake came together very well. It wasn’t too sweet, just like his parents like it. The cake was light and almost angel food cake-like. Since this made a tall layer cake, I probably add another filling between the layers (I heard raspberry is nice with lemon curd), or half the cake recipe.

I used the same frosting I used for the Japanese Strawberry Shortcake for this, and it worked very well.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Lemon Curd Filling
cake adapted from: Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes
lemon curd filling from: Williams Sonoma
frosting as see in previous recipe

 printable recipe

ingredients:

cake:	lemon curd:	frosting
3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour	5 egg yolks	1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder	1/2 cup sugar	4 tsp cold water
1/4 tsp salt	1/4 cup fresh lemon juice	1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
1 TBSP pure vanilla extract	Grated zest of 2 lemons	1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup plus 2 TBSP milk	6 TBSP (3/4 stick) unsalted butter	1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites at room temp

directions:
prepare lemon curd:
In a heavy saucepan before turning on the heat, combine the egg yolks and sugar and whisk vigorously for 1 minute.

Add the lemon juice and zest and whisk for 1 minute more. Set the pan over low heat and cook gently, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool, stirring occasionally. Cover tightly and refrigerate before using. Makes about 1 cup.

bake the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour or spray two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir vanilla into milk.

Cream butter in your mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture to batter, alternating with the milk, and betting until just combined after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in remaining whites in 2 batches.

Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out cleanly when inserted in the center. Allow to cool completely on wire racks before frosting.

make the frosting:
Place mixing bowl in the fridge to cool down.

Put the cold water in a small saucepan.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes (do not stir).  Place the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves.  Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature.

In a cold mixing bowl and using a the wire whisk attachment, combine the whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla and beat until slightly thickened.  Reduce speed of mixer and gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture.  Then whip the mixture at high speed until stiff.

assemble the cake:
Place one layer on a cake board. Place some frosting in a piping bag or freezer bag. Pipe a line of frosting along the edge of the cake layer.

Pour lemon curd in the center and spread into an even layer. Place other cake layer on top.

Frost cake with remaining frosting and decorate as desired.

Store in fridge until serving.

Lychee Blueberry Eyeballs

Need a fun sweet drink garnish? These eyeballs would be perfect! Although they look really gross, they’re rather tasty.

During my company Halloween party, I was in charge of making the punch. I chose a red velvet punch and decided to add these eyeballs as drink garnishes. They taste great even without a drink!

Some of my coworkers were hesitant to try them because they looked so gross! One of my coworkers added this to a shot of vodka. What a great idea!

I wasn’t able to get fresh blueberries, so I used frozen. I defrosted them enough so that it wasn’t mushy, but soft enough to pierce a toothpick through. At the end the blueberries got too mushy, so if you can get fresh, that would be better. The mushy blueberries ended up staining my fingers and under my nails.

Lychee Blueberry Eyeballs
adapted: from Squidoo
printable recipe

ingredients:
1 can lychees, drained and patted dry (a 20 oz can yields about 18 lychees)
red fruit preserves (strawberry, raspberry or cherry) I used strawberry
blueberries

directions:
Fill lychees with preserves, enough to fill half way. Add a blueberry.

Pierce with a toothpick to hold everything together.

Use to garnish your favorite sweet punch drink.

Cranberry Nut Loaf

When I found out that Wendy from Simply Me was looking for guest bloggers, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me. Wendy is cooking her way through Simply in Season. In one year, she would be cooking her way through the first cookbook which focuses on local and produce in season. I thought this was a fantastic idea.

However with the upcoming fall season, she hit a roadblock. There were several recipes that used cranberries, but the poor girl is allergic! Well, we (fellow bloggers and I) came to the rescue!

I chose to make this cranberry nut loaf because it sounded pretty simple, and something I would eat as well. I looked at the ingredients, and it was definitely something I would normally make!

At first, the recipe didn’t mention what kind of cranberries to use (dried or fresh). I ended up using fresh because I guess that’s the point of the book…use fresh! I didn’t have any trouble making this except for some runaway cranberries while trying to chop them. Have you ever tried to coarsely chop cranberries? I ended up pulsing it a few times in my food processor. I also wasn’t too clear when the directions called for 2 TBSP grated orange peel. I assumed the zest of an orange…so that’s what I did.

Cranberry Nut Loaf
adapted from: Simply in Season
printable recipe

ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup ground flax seed meal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 egg
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup oil
zest of one orange
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans (divided) (I used pecans)

directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients: flour through salt. Set aside

In another bowl, mix together wet ingredients: egg through vanilla, until combined. Add dry ingredients to wet.

Fold in cranberries and half the nuts. Pour batter in the prepared pan. Top with remaining nuts. Bake in preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert and remove from pan, allow to cool completely before slicing.

Gary was upset when I mentioned I was going to bring this to work…so we ended up eating this ourselves. We ended up eating almost half the loaf ourselves. The flax meal made this very filling, and we ended up spoiling our dinners that way. Needless to say, this was a hit!

I think next time for portion control, I will try making this in muffin form.

Blueberry Buckle

Over labor day weekend, Gary, my sister, and I all visited some friends in Quincy, MA. They invited us to a lobster bake/bbq. I asked around about what desserts to bring to a lobster bake, and most people said that they always have blueberry cake or blueberry pie after eating lobster. Well, why break tradition if that’s the case.

I found this recipe using ingredients that I could adapt to dairy free cooking. I thought it was a great dessert. The cake itself was not too sweet and it was moist as well. I thought the crumb top was a bit too sweet for my tastes, but Gary loved it.

The changes I made was doubling the recipe, using soy milk, using margarine instead of butter and subbing half the sugar in topping for brown sugar. I thought it was suitable as a coffee cake as well. It doesn’t have to be just for dessert.



Blueberry Buckle
adapted from: allrecipes.com (this recipe below has already been doubled for a 9x13 pan)

ingredients:
cake:
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used soy)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh blueberries

topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used margarine)

directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C). Grease one 9x13 inch pan.

For the cake:
In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In your stand mixer, cream together sugar, shortening, and egg.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, alternating with milk. Stir in blueberries. Pour into prepared pan.

To make topping:

In a small bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter or margarine. Beat together until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over cake batter.

Bake at 375° F (190° C) for 50-60 minutes or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Avocado Ice Cream

I don’t know if you’re weirded out by my choices of ice cream flavors yet, but there are more odd ones to come!

I was lucky enough to get a copy of The Vegan Scoop once it was available at my library. There were plenty of good flavors to try out, but one that I’ve noticed before was the avocado flavor. When I saw it in the William-Sonoma book, I was interested. Then I saw it on Good Eats, when Alton Brown made all sorts of stuff with avocados (including buttercream frosting).

I was talking to my bro and sis about  my latest ice cream post, and  how I can make make weird flavors like that, and others that include basil, wasabi, and avocado. They told they can get wasabi and black sesame ice cream easily. Sure, you’re in NY, in the middle of Chinatown, within walking distance of the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory…of course you would be able get all that. Not everybody can though. Especially if I want to make it dairy free! And to be honest, I wouldn’t want to pay a couple of dollars for a scoop, when I can get a whole pint for that price.

So, here’s my latest venture in ice cream. I’ll soon get to the “normal” flavors, but for now, I’m having fun with the fun summer fruits. I’m not sure how I feel about this ice cream yet. It tastes like…well…it tastes like avocado! I usually don’t eat it plain. It’s always either in guacamole, sushi, or a salad. So eating it plain on a spoon is still new to me. Gary’s dad would love it though. He eats avocados plain as is.

I didn’t have soy creamer as the recipe states, so I pureed some silken tofu for this. Hey, soy milk and tofu come from the same source, so of course it would work!

Avocado Ice Cream
adapted from: The Vegan Scoop
printable recipe

ingredients:
1 package Mori-nu silken soft tofu, blended
3 ripe hass avocados
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cup soy milk

directions:
In a blender, blend the tofu until smooth. Add in avocado meat, sugar, and lime juice. Blend until smooth and combined. Mixture will be thick.

Transfer avocado mixture to a large bowl. Add a bit of soy milk into the blender and mix again to get the remaining puree out if needed. Add soy milk to the bowl. Whisk the mixture until fully combined.

Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze per your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Healthy Blueberry Orange Muffins

I really need to learn to check my ingredients before I even think about baking anything! I originally found a recipe for zucchini blueberry bread that I was going to turn into muffins. However, I failed to realize my zucchini was no longer any good.

That recipe called for 3 eggs…which of course, I already cracked into my bowl. I had to find a recipe that used up the eggs, stat! Allrecipes.com to the rescue! I ended up finding this recipe for orange blueberry bread that used ingredients I had on hand. However, it called for 2 eggs. I used their handy serving calculator to change it to 18 servings rather than 12.

That however, wasn’t the only change I made. I used half whole wheat flour, subbed applesauce for the margarine, used soy milk, and added flax seed to the mix. I also didn’t use nearly as much orange zest (I gave up after one orange) as the recipe called for, so the orange taste wasn’t as prominent. The result? A low cal healthy(ish) muffin that’s not too sweet, and perfect for breakfast!

Healthy Blueberry Orange Muffins
loosely adapted from: allrecipes.com
makes 18-24 muffins

Ingredients:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup ground flaxseed
1 cup packed brown sugar
1½ tablespoon baking powder
1½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup plus 2 TBSP apple sauce
3 eggs
2 tablespoons orange zest
¾ cup milk (I used soy)
¾ cup orange juice
1 pint fresh blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly spray the muffin tin (or line with muffin liners).

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients. Beat at low speed just until moistened. Then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in the blueberries. Pour batter into muffin tins about ¾ full. I used a cookie scoop for this. It’s about a ¼ cup full.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

I think this tastes best warm. Heat in a microwave for a few seconds before eating. (Or eat it all after it comes out of the oven!) :)

Mango Sorbet

I’m not a huge fan of mangoes, however Gary loves it. We first saw mango sorbet at Trader Joes. We bought it, and it was done in a few days. I didn’t have any of course. The flavor doesn’t appeal to me.

A few months ago, I bought a bag of frozen mangoes on sale at the supermarket. I intended to replicate the TJ’s sorbet when I found the right recipe. I saw this recipe and decided to try it. After Gary’s first taste from the spatula, he loved it! He said it’s even better than the TJ’s one. Of course! It’s homemade!

Now, since I didn’t have any of it, I’m just going to have to take his word on it. I only had a small taste, but since I don’t like mangoes, my opinion doesn’t count.

My changes with the recipe are indicated below.

Mango Sorbet
adapted from: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 ripe mangoes, about 1/2 lb each (I used a 1 lb bag of frozen mangoes)
juice of 1 lime (I omitted)
splash of vodka (my addition, optional)

Directions:
Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan . Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves completely and the syrup is clear. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Peel the mangoes and cut as much of the fruit as you can away from the pits. If using the frozen mangoes, allow to thaw while the syrup is coming to room temperature, about 30-45 minutes.

Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until completely smooth, about 30 seconds. Cover and refrigerate until cold or overnight. (Because I used frozen mangoes and it was slightly frozen, the mixture was cold enough to go directly into the ice cream maker.)

Stir the chilled mixture, then freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When finished, the sorbet will be soft but ready to eat. For firmer sorbet, transfer to a freezer save container and freeze at least 2 hours.

Kiwi Sorbet

This past weekend was the the first hot and humid day so far this summer. We haven't had any scorchers lately, but this was the type of weather where you want to lay down, have plenty of cold drinks or just have something cold and refreshing. It was the perfect time to whip out the ice cream maker and use up the kiwis I bought.

I first saw this recipe in The Ultimate Ice Cream Book, and thought it was something I had to make. The original recipe called for lime juice as well to the recipe, but I didn't have any, so I omitted it. Also, as I look at the recipe again, I totally read the recipe wrong! For some odd reason, I thought it said 1/3 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar…so that’s all I added. However. It tasted fine to me! So, it all depends on the ripeness of your kiwi! Mine was super ripe, so it was a lot sweeter. Remember to taste the kiwi to gauge the amount of sugar you use.

Let me tell you, this was so light, tart and refreshing! I love tart fruits and this sorbet is something you can't buy at the supermarket...or at least, I've never seen this flavor in my supermarket.

Kiwi Sorbet
adapted from: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar (use as little or as much as you need…I used way less than this)
1 1/2 lb kiwi (about 6-8 medium)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
juice of 1 lime (I omitted)

Directions:
Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and boil the syrup for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let the syrup cool to room temperature.

Peel the kiwis and cut into quarters. Place the fruit in a blender with the cool syrup, lime juice, and vanilla. Blend on low until the mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Refrigerate until cold or overnight.

Stir the chilled mixture, then freeze in 1 or 2 batches in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When finished, the sorbet will be soft but ready to eat. For firmer sorbet, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 2 hours.