GourmAndrea

Jello Popsicles

It has been sooooo hot here and I remembered my husband saying his mom used to make Jello popsicles when he was a kid and there is no better time than now for a cool treat! These are so easy to make they are in the freezer in 5 min flat. I love these rocket molds from Superstore.

Jello Posicles

1 package Jello

1 package Kool-Aid

1 cup of sugar (this could definately be reduced)

2 cups hot water

-Mix ingredients together until dissolved then add 2 cups of cold water then pour into molds and freeze (you can wait until partially frozen to add sticks if you like)

Browned Butter,Petit Fours and Baked Alaskas!

"The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”."

This month was a biggie one requirement was to make a browned butter pound cake and a homemade ice cream and use them to make either Petit Fours or Baked Alaska's. I decided to do both because I am a DaringBaker! hehe. The recipes for this months challenge may be found here.

 So browned butter, something I have never made before I thought it would be hard but it was really quite simple. You just put it in a pan and keep an eye on it until the milk solids turn a dark chocolate brown. This was something I had a hard time imagining are they on the top or the bottom?? ect so this picture is of the browned butter held up to the light and the dark part is the darkened milk solids.

 

This cake comes out nice and firm so perfect for shaping. I chose to do a lot of the cutting while it was semi frozen, to make it extra sturdy. My original idea was to do some flowers against a grass background (dyed coconut) but they ended up looking more like stars. I used a pistachio ice cream for the filling that post can be found here. 

 
This is what it look like before and then after taking a dip in a chocolate bath.

 

 
 And continuing on with the longest post ever......Part 2 Baked Alaska's. The idea for these is you use the browned butter cake as the base. You then put ice cream on top of that then pipe some meringue (which acts as an insulator) covering the whole thing. To finish it off, depending, on your mood you can pull out the blowtorch and brown the outside or you can bake it hence; the "baked" part.

I decided to do two flavors the first one is lemon, a play on lemon meringue pie.

 

 

 

Then the other flavor I chose was chocolate chip and I put a Werther's caramel in the middle of it.

 

Thank goodness for the ice cream maker I got for my for my birthday last year, I cant imagine these past two challenges without one!!!

Pistachio Ice Cream

This recipe is so simple it does not have a custard base so there is no cooking or long chilling times. It has both almond and vanilla extract in it and they both bring a good depth of flavor to the ice cream. I did add some green food colouring add the end because I wanted it to have a green tint to it, in retrospect it would be easier to add while it is still a liquid if desired.

I got this recipe from the booklet that came with my Cuisinart ice cream maker ( I love it, so easy to use.)

Pistachio Ice Cream

Makes about 14 1/2 cup servings

1 1/3 cups whole milk, well chilled

1 1/8 cups granulated sugar

3 cups heavy cream, well chilled

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp pure almond extract

1 1/2 cups shelled pistachios, roughly chopped us plain or lightly salted. Do not use red pistachios. (I put mine in my food processor until they were breadcrumb consistency.)

1.) In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine the whole milk and sugar 1-2 minutes until sugar is dissolved.

2.) Then mix in the heavy cream and then the extracts.

3.) Turn the machine on; pour mixture into freezer bowl,and let mix until thickened, 20-25 min. In the last 5 min stir in the pistachio's

It will look like this just after adding the pistachios.

 

I decided to add food colouring at this point because I like the green tinge but it is optional.

Here is a link to the original recipe, the nutritional information is there as well if you would like to see that.

Ice Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home. July's Daring Baker recipe can be found here.

 

This was such a great challenge and I had so much fun making it. It makes for a beautiful presentation and it is quite simple to put together. I broke it down over two days, I made the jelly roll cake and ice cream bases on one day. I then froze the ice cream and made the fudge sauce on the second day. After I assembled (giving two hours freeze time for each layer) I froze it overnight to make sure it had frozen fully and served it on the third day.

I decided to make a raspberry jellyroll cake,  I got the recipe from a blog called Food and Fun and the recipe with videos can be found here. 

 Right out of the oven.

 

After it has been rolled and cooled in a tea towel.

 

Spread with jam and then roll back up and that's it so easy but sooo delicious!

To assemble this dessert you do it backwards you build it starting with cake into a bowl and then you put ice cream,fudge sauce then ice cream again. You then invert the bowl and voila a rainbow like effect.

  
  This is roasted strawberry sherbet, it is amazing! To see my post about it click here. Next time I would switch the vanilla and strawberry around because the vanilla melts faster 
 
 

  
 
 
 
 

 

  This was the fudge sauce the one thing I really wasn't crazy about. I thought it tasted like those chocolate pudding cups. Something I overdosed when I was younger so it put me off. In the dessert the flavor wasn't overwhelming, it didn't add or take away anything. This picture is when I just put it in but I did babysit it as it froze and pushed it up on the sides so I would get a more even layer.

I wonder how well a ganache would work in the middle or a textural layer candied nuts,pop rocks (kids would love that) ect... Anyone have any ideas?

 

 

 

 

  This is the last layer, vanilla ice cream. I got the recipe from the Joy of Baking site you can find it here. It is a custard based ice cream yum something I would never kick out of my ice box! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a friend say it was even better than Dairy Queen, that still makes me giggle. 

Thank You Sunita for such a fun summery challenge.

Roasted Strawberry Sherbet

I got this recipe from the Joy of Baking site you can find the recipe here.

 This recipe was adapted from a Canadian blog called  Baking Obsession. This recipe delivers an amazingly fresh fruity tangy sherbet. 

The strawberries are roasted in the oven with corn syrup until they reach a syrupy consistency and the flavors become intensely concentrated. This made my house smell incredible.

You then puree the berries with sugar and lemon juice. Stir in some yogurt, making it nice and tangy and add some whipping cream. It is so easy to make and I don't see why any fruit wouldn't work just as well. I was thinking of trying to do peaches next time. 

I used this sherbet in the July Daring Bakers challenge to read that post please click here.