Frozen Goodies

My popsicle molds get a lot of use. When I was a kid living in Texas, I remember always having frozen orange juice or grape juice popsicles, and a lot of times that's still what I'll have in my freezer. But I also need some chocolate now and then...

All the recipes I found for fudgsicles involved mixing up a box of instant pudding and then freezing it, which I was not going to do. Then I saw a recipe in Martha Stewart FOOD for vanilla pudding pops. I tried a batch (which I infused with cardamom pods - yum.) So then I took the chocolate pudding recipe I usually use, and tweaked it a little bit...then stuck it in the freezer. I think I have made it two or three times this summer.

Later in the summer my dad made some incredible strawberry jam. One batch didn't set, so he was left with some strawberry syrup. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it...(see the picture above!) I used this recipe for lemon pudding, then swirled the strawberry syrup through it. I can't even begin to express HOW GOOD these are!

Fudgsicles

- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- generous 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, starch and salt in a saucepan. Whisk in milk, then yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until first bubbles appear, then cook another minute (pudding will be starting to thicken.) Take off heat. Pour through seive, then add vanilla. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.

Lemon Cornmeal Cookies

I have been wanting to try this recipe for awhile now. Then yesterday, after one of my most favorite co-workers worked her last day with me after quitting her job (I still can't believe it is true!), I decided to go home and drown my sorrows in these cookies. The recipe came out of a Martha Stewart Food Christmas cookie magazine. The recipe seemed a little odd to me, but I wanted to try it anyways because the photo looked so promising. Of course my cookies looked nothing like the ones in her picture. It turns out that these cookies are heavenly when they are warm out of the oven - lemony and buttery, but dense like shortbread, with a cornmealy crunch. The next day, however, they are just flavorful hockey pucks. That is when I discovered how lovely they are when softened by a little bit of melting blueberry frozen yogurt, or dipped into a hot cup of tea. So there is no need to worry that my lemony hockey pucks will end up in the garbage. These cookies are good enough (and easy enough) that I can imagine trying them again. But I may add a tiny bit of leavening, and also try a finer ground cornmeal or corn flour. Into half of my cookies I squashed a dried tart cherry. Next time I would definitely do that to all of them.

Lemon Cornmeal Cookies (adapted from Everyday Food, Holiday 2006)

- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup cornmeal (I reccommend finer rather than coarse, or maybe a mix of the two?)
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 12 Tbsp butter, at room temp
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 egg
- 24-36 dried tart cherries (optional)

Oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in small bowl. Beat together butter, sugar, lemon zest, and egg. Mix in dry ingredients. Roll dough into balls, using a heaping tablespoon of dough. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet lined with parchment. Flatten dough to 3/4" thickness. Squish a cherry into the center of each cookie. Bake until browned around the edges, about 20-25 minutes.

I am submitting these to the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. This is the 17th one, and the theme is cornmeal. I imagine the round up with be up soon, so check it out!

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt...

...good enough for a cold and rainy Seattle day. This stuff is way better than the sum of its parts. When I had my first taste, I honestly did a quick mental scan, trying to recall if I had accidentally dumped in a pint of heavy cream without realizing it. The texture is wonderful (requires a ten or fifteen minute thaw at room temperature before serving), but the flavor! I went back and tasted the plain yogurt left-overs, and that didn't explain this stuff either. Whatever. It is just good. Creamy and fruity and just sweet enough.

Of course this came from David Lebovitz's fabulous and amazing new book, The Perfect Scoop, which I finally have in my possession. Anyone with an ice cream maker that does not yet have this book needs to go out and buy it immediately! I think I have already read it cover to cover twice, and my lilliputian freezer is the only thing keeping me from making every recipe.

I used Greek-style yogurt, and frozen wild blueberries. (The recipe calls for straining out the blueberry seeds. All I will say is that I have a strange compulsion that prevented me from doing that - therefore my yogurt was unstrained.)

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt, from The Perfect Scoop

- 1 1/2 cups plain Greek-style yogurt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 cups blueberries
- 1 tsp kirsch
- 2 tsp lemon juice

Place yogurt, sugar, and blueberries in food processor and mix well. (Strain.) Stir in kirsch and lemon juice and chill for 1 hour. Place in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Lemon Sorbet

I finally tried out my ice cream maker! Of course it was way easier than I had expected, and now I can't wait to try out all of the fabulous-looking recipes that have been popping up lately. A friend had put in a request for lemon sorbet, and sorbet didn't have the intimidation factor of actual ice cream, AND the Sugar High Friday event is requesting white food! So here we are.

I found different versions of this recipe on several different blogs. Some of them included alcohol and I wish I had made the trip to the liquor store because my sorbet ended up freezing up too hard. But the flavor was perfect - not too sweet, and very lemony. And while the texture worked itself out after being left on the kitchen counter for a little while, I'll definitely try it with the booze next time.

Lemon Sorbet

- 1 cup lemon juice
- 2 1/2 cups water
- zest of 2or 3 lemons (I added some orange zest too)
- 3/4 cups sugar

Place zest, sugar, and water in sauce pan and warm until sugar is melted. Chill completely, then add juice. Put in ice cream maker, according to directions. Makes about 1 quart.

Frozen Cherry Mousse and Chocolate Malt Sandwiches

I am new to the world of food blogs, and I must confess that I was slow to figure out why so many bloggers would suddenly be inspired to make the same thing... I LOVE Donna Hay, so when the meaning of "HHDD" finally became clear to me, I decided I needed to participate. I anxiously awaited the theme, and then honestly had no idea what to make of mousse! It is not something that would normally find its way onto my table, but then that is the whole idea behind a challenge, right?

This mousse recipe was adapted from a raspberry mousse torte I found on epicurious. I got rid of the liquor, and swapped cherries for the raspberries. The cookies I have been making forever, and were modified from a recipe that came from an old Pillsbury cookbook.

Frozen Cherry and White Chocolate Mousse

- 1 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin***
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 2/3 cup cherry puree*
- 1/3 cup of juice from cherries*
- 12 ounces white chocolate, chopped
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla

*Note on the cherries: I used the jarred morello cherries from Trader Joe's. It required just over one jar to get the puree, and that provided more than enough juice. I drained the cherries, reserving the juice, then tossed them into the food processor until I had 1 2/3 cup.

**I used two disposable foil cake pans from the grocery store for the mousse. They were 12 inches x 8 1/2 inches. I lined them with parchment paper. I am thinking that one of my large baking sheets would have worked fine.

***For the record, this was the first (and probably last) time gelatin has ever entered my kitchen.

Place juice in large saucepan. Sprinkle with gelatin and allow to sit for about 20 minutes. Add puree and sugar, stir over medium heat until mixture begins to steam, just shy of a simmer. Add white chocolate and mix until it has all melted. Stick in refrigerator for about two hours, stirring about every 20-25 minutes.

When cherry-chocolate mixture is cool, beat whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until whipped cream has stiff peaks. Fold in cherry mixture, then beat briefly for another 10-15 seconds. Pour into the two prepared pans and freeze until firm.

Chocolate Malt Cookies

- 1 cup butter, softened but cool
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup malted milk powder*

*This is what I mean by "malted milk powder"

Oven to 375 degrees, baking sheets lined with parchment.

Beat butter and sugars. Add baking soda and beat. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and chocolate. Beat in flour and malted milk powder.

I used an ice cream scoop (1 tablespoon capacity) to form these cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Edges will be set, cookies will be puffy and appear underdone. Leave on cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to wire rack to cool completely.








When cookies are cool, find a round cookie cutter that approximates the circumference of your cookies, and cut out circles of mousse to make your sandwiches. Return sandwiches to freezer and store in airtight container. Serve these directly out of the freezer.
In the end, I will probably opt for ice cream or pudding when craving a dairy-style sugar bomb, rather than repeating this recipe. However, I wasn't exactly disappointed with the results. I found my sandwiches to be quite tasty. I just can't say they are worth how labor intensive they turned out to be!

PS: Go see the HHDD#11 mousse round-up!