The Perfect Scoop | My Sweet and Saucy

Posts Tagged ‘the perfect scoop’

Ice Cream Addiction

Friday, May 30th, 2008

So my ice cream addiction continues and my love affair with David Lebovitz’s book, “The Perfect Scoop“, keeps getting stronger and stronger. I tried out these two new recipes for a cooking class that I taught yesterday…more photos and recipes will come later with that posting, but for now I thought I’d wet your appetite by posting these two delicious recipes. I wanted to try one recipe that was rich and sinful and another recipe that was fruity and lighter, so my choices were “Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream” and “Apricot-Pistachio Ice Cream”. Both of these in my opinion were winners. Hands down everyone was more obsessed with trying to get a taste of the Chocolate-Peanut Butter one, but can you blame them…just hearing the title makes me want to make another pint. However to be fair, I thought that the Apricot-Pistachio one was quite yummy too. If you are an apricot lover then this one would be a huge winner for you! So enough chattering…here are the recipes!

Apricot-Pistachio Ice Cream

5 ounces dried California apricots, quartered

¾ cup white wine, sweet

½ cup shelled unsalted pistachio nuts

2/3 cup sugar

2 cups half-and-half

A few drops of lemon juice

In a small saucepan, warm the apricot pieces in the wine. Simmer for 5 minutes, cover, remove from the heat, and let stand for 1 hour. Coarsely chop the pistachio nuts.

Puree the apricots in a blender with the sugar, half-and-half, and lemon juice until smooth.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream makers according to the manufacturer’s directions. During the last few minutes of churning, add the chopped pistachio nuts.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2 cups half-and-half

¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder

½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

½ cup smooth peanut butter

Whisk together the first four ingredients in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil. Remove from the heat and whisk the peanut butter in until thoroughly combined.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream makers according to the manufacturer’s directions.

I would love to hear which one you would choose!

Tags: apricot pistachio ice cream, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, david lebovitz, ice cream maker, the perfect scoop
Posted in Desserts, Frozen Desserts, Recipes | 21 Comments »

Spoonfuls of Heaven

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Ever since I’ve started using my ice cream maker it seems as though I can’t stop! What also doesn’t help is to have cookbooks from David Lebovitz and Emily Luchetti sitting around with millions of tasty recipes just calling out to you. So instead of brushing aside this desire I decided to indulge and tried two recipes in one day. I tried David Lebovitz’s Lemon-Buttermilk Sherbet and Emily Luttetti’s Rhubarb Ice Cream with Strawberry Compote. Both were extremely delicious and I would highly recommend trying them out.

I had just gone to the farmer’s market the day before and had some delicious strawberries that were perfect with this dessert. This compote is served warm over the ice cream and makes for a yummy accompaniment. Since I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand (I ran out of sugar!) I swapped some out. I used sage honey that I had picked up from the farmer’s market in exchange for the sugar and used Cointreau instead of Grand Marnier.

Here are a couple more photos of the process…

And this is how my bowl looked about two minutes after tasting it…

Rhubarb Ice Cream

adapted from Classic Star Desserts

4 cups cut-up rhubarb (1 1/2″ pieces, from about 1 pound)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

large pinch of kosher salt

4 large egg yolks

1 cup whole milk

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

In a nonreactive saucepan, combine the first four ingredients and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until rhubarb is soft…about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Then place it in a food processor and puree until smooth. Strain through a medium-mesh sieve. Let cool to room temperature.

Prepare an ice bath. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. In a saucepan heat the milk and cream until small bubbles appear. While whisking constantly, pour the cream mixture into the yolk mixture. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until it coats your spoon or reaches 175 degrees (about 3-5 minutes).

Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve and back into the bowl and place it over the ice bath. Let cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally. Whisk in the rhubarb puree. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours.

Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker according to its directions. Place in the freezer to harder a little more, about 2 hours.

Strawberry Compote

1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons Grand Marnier (optional)

2 pints strawberries, hulled and quartered length-wise

1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) unsalted butter

In a large saute pan, combine the lemon juice, sugar and Grand Marnier and cook over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Add the strawberries and butter and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute or until the strawberries are warmed through. Place over ice cream and enjoy!

Well, here are the photos of David Lebovitz’s Lemon-Buttermilk Sherbet from his book, The Perfect Scoop. You can see the recipe and get inspiration for other ways to play with this dessert if you stop by Cannelle et Vanille. This is definitely one of my favorite blogs out there! Another blogger that recently tried this recipe to rave reviews was A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen. She also tried David’s recommendation of adding his decadent caramel sauce on top. Check out the photos…they are fabulous! Well, when I was trying to think of what I wanted to pair with this sherbet I kept eye-balling the box of ginger snap cookies I had just bought from Trader Joe’s and thought “What the heck…I’ll give it a try!” The flavor combo definitely has a kick to it, but I think I liked it. I tried to get another opinion, but my husband is bias since he doesn’t really love the taste of ginger snaps. So my taste buds liked it, but I don’t know if I would say that it is the ultimate pairing…basically it’s yummy and the mini ice cream sandwiches looked really cute!

Tags: classic star desserts, david lebovitz, emily luchetti, lemon buttermilk sherbet, Rhubarb ice cream, strawberry compote, the perfect scoop
Posted in Desserts, Frozen Desserts, Recipes | 26 Comments »

Mojito Granita

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

This is definitely a recipe must for everyone! I am not a drinker by any means…the only kind of drinks I like are girly, fruity ones and I still find those hard to drink since they have calories (and loads of them) and I figure that I could have a dessert instead, BUT this drink/dessert is the perfect combo for me! This recipe is from David Lebovitz’s book, The Perfect Scoop, a book soley devoted to ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and sweet accompaniments. He describes granita as “a shaved ice, made from a lightly sweetened fruit puree or another liquid.” Even though I have drooled over many recipes so far this was the first one I’ve tried. The simplicity of the recipe is amazing, which lends itself to the pure and simple fact that you have no reason not to try it. Well, if I haven’t convinced you already hopefully the photos will!

Mojito Granita

adapted by David Lebovitz’s, The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 quart

2 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup sugar

2 limes, preferably unsprayed

1 cup lightly packed fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 6 limes)

3 Tablespoons white or light rum

Add the water and sugar to a small, non reactive saucepan and then grate the zest from the two limes directly into the saucepan. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, so that the sugar completely dissolves. Reserve 5 mint leaves and then add the rest to the saucepan and take it off of the heat. Cover the pan for 8 minutes so that the mint infuses the liquid. Then uncover and let liquid come to room temperature.

Once liquid is cool, strain the mixture into a flat container that is approximately 8 to 12 inches across, with a 2 quart capacity. Make sure to squeeze all the yummy liquid out of the leaves and then discard them. Stir in the lime juice and rum and then finely chop the remaining 5 leaves and add them to the liquid (I choose just to use them as garnish). Place the container in the freezer and freeze for one hour. Once the edges begin to freeze, take a fork and break up the frozen parts and rack them toward the center. Return to the freezer and then check the mixture every 30 minutes and continue breaking up the ice particles until the mixture almost completely frozen or completely frozen (depending on your preference).

Here are some photos of the process…infusing the mint and then the stages of ice formation.

David suggests that you can serve it over any ice cream or sorbet (maybe mint ice cream), top it off with whipped cream, or simply pile the granita high in its own dish and enjoy it by itself…that is what I did!