Day 9, Rum Yum

Rum? Really?

Well, not rum, but even better! Rum ice cream! Yesssss...
But speaking of making rum, that is on my to-do list starting now.

Philadelphia (no egg) style ice cream. What a stunning summer treat.
It smells a lot like rum. Let's hope I didn't go overboard and make this a drunken ice cream that won't freeze. I cannot wait until this is out of the freezer and I can try it. yum yum.

I also made hazelnut mocha ice cream a few days ago! It, of course, got eaten within two days of making it :) Let's hope this is just as much of a success. Will update after a taste test. :)

Update July 13:

Yeah well, this ice cream has a bit too high of an alcohol content. It melts very fast. I took this picture a few seconds after taking it out of the freezer. And it doesn't taste much like rum (if I do this recipe again, I'm trying dark rum), but it does smell like it. It kind of just tastes like a vanilla ice cream with an alcohol aftertaste. 

Day 4 ICE CREAM

Did I mention that crafting includes food, to me? Well it does. But only desserts because those are optional and therefore something of an artform.

Today, on day 4 of my month long challenge, I made ice cream (I made sorbet earlier in the week, but not as part of the challenge).
 I think the flavor I made is something like hazelnut mocha.

This is a very experimental recipe. I'm sort of low on essential ingredients so I got creative. I found a recipe for Nutella philly-style icecream (that means egg free...I had no eggs!) but had to alter the ingredients because I didn't have many of them. In the end, I ended up using a lot of heavy cream, chocolate, and turkish coffee (because it was there). I only tasted the mixture after boiling everything together and it was awesome. Like a mocha latte, but creamy and thick. I can't wait until it's done setting up in the freezer. Hopefully it's a success. This picture is after going through the ice cream maker. It's sort of like a slightly melted softserve. I may have to chill my recipes a bit longer it seems because this one didn't want to freeze. I'm sure it doesn't help that it's about 75* F in the kitchen or more.

Update July 8. I tried this icecream this morning after allowing it to fully freeze and oh my goodness it's sooooo good. It's really creamy and delicious. Yum. Great recipe!

Lemon Sorbet

Oh my goodness. So goooood.

We had a bucket of huge lemons from my aunt and uncle's lemon tree. They were starting to get soft and I didn't want to let them go to waste. So I came up with the brilliant (in my mind) idea to make lemon sorbet!
If you are a huge fan of lemon, like me, you will love this. It is so refreshing and absolutely delicious. And it's so simple!

(This isn't today's post for the month long challenge. That will come later. This is just an extra treat for a summer's day). 

What you'll need:

2 cups lemon juice
2 cups of water
2 cups of sugar (white or raw cane, no brown!)
Icecream maker

If your icecream maker has a freeze bowl, make sure it's fully frozen. You also might need ice and salt depending on your icecream maker.

Prepare simple syrup by combining 2 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and let cook about 15 minutes until the sugar dissolves and it reaches a very thin syrupy consistency. Allow it to cool and then put it in a container that you can stick in the fridge. It needs to be cold to make sorbet so allow it to chill for a few hours. I made mine the day before and let it stay in the fridge over night.

Next, combine 2 cups of lemon juice and 1&1/4 cups of the simple syrup in your icecream maker's bowl and follow directions to prepare icecream. After it reaches desired consistency, pop it in the freezer. Eat whenever you want!

If you don't have an icecream maker, not to worry.You can place the lemon and simple syrup mixture into any freezer-safe bowl and put it into the freezer and stirring with a fork every 30 minutes to keep the mixture from separating. It will be a slightly different consistency, but taste just as good.

Yum Yum, Plum Plum

Mmm...there's nothing like edible treats. Especially when making them helps you use up food that would have otherwise just rotted.
We had a large container in our refridgerator filled with mini-plums (they were called "Italian Prunes). You can use any kind of plum you want for this recipe, but I found these ones to have a really nice cherry-like taste and consistency after they had cooked.
I don't have a beautiful picture for you, because the pie was eaten and mutilated within a few hours, but I guarentee it was delicious. I stole this recipe from some website, but I tweaked it so I'm claiming it as my own! :)

Here is what you need.

Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup salted butter (slightly chilled)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons salted butter (room temperature)
Optional: 1/3 cup of chopped nuts

Filling:
5 cups plums, pitted and sliced
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Heat your oven to 370 F
To make the crust, in medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder. In a food processor (or mixer) blend your butter until it's somewhat smooth (some texture is fine). Then add your eggs, vanilla, milk, and lemon zest and blend all those ingredients. Gradually blend the dry ingredients into this mix. If the ingredients didn't mix all the way, hand kneed them until the dough comes together. Then stick it in the fridge to chill for an hour or two.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest (and nuts if you're using them). Then add the butter and mix it all together with your finger tips until well blended and crumbly. Set this aside.

To make the filling, put your pitted and sliced plums in a large bowl. In a separate, medium sized bowl mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well blended. Then pour over your plums and mix until evenly coated. Set aside.

Now you can put it all together. Roll out your pie crust to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Its pretty handy to do this on wax or parchment paper so it doesn't stick to anything and you can just flip it into the pan. The pan you'll need for this will need to be 9-inches in diameter. So if you're buying special pie tins, make sure you get the correct size. Anyway, flip the dough into the pan and carefully pat down the edges (you don't want to thin them, just lower them). If you're feeling brave you can put edges on your pie, but they tend to burn for me.
Pour the pie filling in and evenly cover with the crumbly topping. Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes (check on it after 35 minutes because ovens vary). Let it cool for a while and then dig in.

As a side note, if you're like me you will for some reason have enough dough leftover to make another pie. Well, I wasn't up for making another pie, so I just rolled these up into little balls and placed them on a cookie sheet, popped them in the oven for about 10 minutes. They're yummy little snacks because this dough is so sweet. If you're feeling adventurous you could make a little thumb print in each cookie and stuff a piece of sweetened (just sprinkle them with sugar and a dash of cinnamon) or dried fruit in the middle or just cook them with the imprint and plop your favorite jam on it later. Or, you can just cover them with whipped cream and eat them like that. It's all edible and delicious. Experiment.

Just so you know, this recipe can be used with cherries or apples as well.

Enjoy!