DISCLAIMER: So be forewarned that some of the upcoming posts aren’t going to be seasonal for most of my lovely readers. I see that there are Autumnal posts all over the blogosphere, and although the weather is a little less humid here, we are still very much in the throes of summertime, here in Florida! (OH HOW I MISS THE FALL!!!)

We are going to be heading to New England for our annual trip in October and my goal is to post all my backlog before then. So that when I come back, I have all fresh material!

So before this gets too out of date, here are the lovely ice cream recipes for you that I promised over a week ago! *blush*

Here are the next two installments of the Ice Cream Diaries…

Lemon-Ricotta Ice Cream

I had some leftover ricotta cheese in the fridge and I had seen Laurie from Dalla Mia Cucina make a Ricotta and Rum Gelato and I thought – there you go! That’s what I want to do with my leftover ricotta! I had about a cup left, so I decided to fill in the rest with whole milk and Greek yogurt.

A while back I had made some lemon-ricotta muffins that I found on Rosa’s Yum Yums that were awesome so I decided that I wanted to make lemon-ricotta ice cream. Also I have been trying to find a solution to the super hard ice cream texture that most of our ice cream has (to the point that we have to take it out of the freezer 40 minutes before we want to eat it!!!), and since I know vodka doesn’t freeze, I put a nice shot of vanilla vodka into the mix. Just for texture purposes! It worked really well! So now I know the trick to making softer ice cream!

Click through for recipe and for the Mango-Organe Sorbetto….AND the MEME!

Lemon-Ricotta Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 TBS vanilla extract
1/2 cup raw sugar
rind from one lemon
1 shot of vanilla vodka

METHOD:

In a large mixing bowl blend ricotta, yogurt, milk and sugar until well blended. Add vanilla and lemon rind and mix for another minute. Stir in the vanilla vodka. Pour mixture into the bowl of your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers directions. My ice cream maker calls for a churning time of 25 minutes. This time I let it go for about 40.

Mango-Orange Sorbetto
(sorry no picture)

Our friends Erin and Chris from The Olive Notes were having a potluck dinner at their house in which the theme was Foods made with Alcohol. Immediately I knew what I wanted to make! I had a few mangoes in the fridge and I knew how well this experiment of mine was going with making ice cream with booze, so I decided to spread the wealth! This is super refreshing and great for those last days of summer! The perfect adult slushie!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 half mangoes
pinch of salt
3 cups water
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 0z. vanilla vodka
1/2 cup pure Valencia OJ

METHOD:

Puree the mango with the sugar in a food processor. In a large bowl combine the water and agave and add the mango puree. Stir in vodka and orange juice. Pour mixture into the bowl of your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturers directions.

MEME

Okay, my friend Alex, from Just Cook It! tagged me for a 6 random facts meme and awarded me with the ‘Brilliante Blog Award’ (among a few others) ages ago. So today I am getting the chance to do it and give you all six random facts about me!

1) I have two favorite authors: Tom Robbins and Anne Rice
2) My favorite cartoon as a child was The Smurfs
3) I have a weakness for French fries and milkshakes
4) I love thunderstorms
5) I hate cooked celery
6) I love hiking in birch tree forests

I was so excited to see that this month’s challenge was for éclairs! We are at my mom’s this weekend, and unfortunately although we brought the camera to take the photos, we did not bring the cable to download them. So I will have to put pictures up on Tuesday when we are back!

Anyway, I have always wanted to make them, and although there were things the recipe called for that I had never made in the past – namely choux pastry and pastry cream, the process didn’t look too difficult.

I waited until this weekend to do the challenge, because I have a really small kitchen and not a lot of pastry equipment, like pastry bags and tips and the like. But my mom does, and she has made cream puffs many times before. This was a crazy month for me, and so I felt this challenge had a better chance of getting finished, if I had her help. So I waited until yesterday to do the challenge, so I could do this fun project with her.

When Roberto and I arrived here yesterday afternoon, I hadn’t even gotten the challenge ingredients yet. But I knew that I wanted to do vanilla pastry cream with some kind of summer fruits and the chocolate glaze on top. The only requirement for this challenge is that we use the recipe for the choux pastry and have one chocolate component – whether it be chocolate pastry cream or chocolate glaze on top. So we went to the store after dinner and there was an abundance of beautiful fruits. We got kadota and black mission figs, fresh blackberries and blueberries, and something I had never had before, fresh currants. They were very reminiscent of the lignonberries I had eaten when I lived in Norway, but again, I had never eaten lingnonberries Both the currants and blackberries were tart, so I decided to combine them with the sweeter fruits.

We made 3 different fillings. Regular vanilla pastry cream, pastry cream mixed with currants and blueberries and the other with pastry cream mixed with black figs and blackberries. We also made 2 different shapes – éclair and puffs. Of course, as per Meeta and Tony’s specifications, we made a chocolate glaze for the tops. Everything turned out beautifully, except that a lot of the éclairs and puffs fell. My friend Judy, warned me that this might happen in sweltering humid Florida heat, but the cream and fruit perked them right up, and they turned out really wonderful. We finished the project at 11:30 last night, but before retiring, we each tried one of each flavor, and it was really hard to pick a favorite. All I can say is that I am glad there are some left and I don’t think I will turn them into ice cream. Although I am not too sure what I am going to do with the extra pastry cream!

If you want to try your hand at éclairs, please check out the wonderful recipe that follows after the cut by Pierre Hermé.

Thanks to Meeta and Tony for this awesome challenge!

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

2. Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3. Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:

1.The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1. Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2. The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream. 

3. Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:

1. If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

2. The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Cream Puff Dough
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

METHOD:

1. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil. 

2. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth. 

3. Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.

You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4. The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:

1. Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.
2. You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona Guanaja, melted
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature (Do not include if you want vanilla pastry cream)

METHOD:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.  In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2. Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3. Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled.  Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4. Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:

1. The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
2. In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
3. Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

METHOD:

1. In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula. 

2. Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:

1. If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.
2. It is best to glaze the éclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104  F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

INGREDIENTS:

4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 g) water
½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

METHOD:

1. Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly.  Then reduce the heat  to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2. It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:

1. You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler

These were the cookies growing up that really set our family Christmas cookies apart from the cookies you saw on other families’ tables. These are the cookies that my Nana made every year for my Pap who came here from Sicily when he was 3 years old because they were his absolute favorite. His most clear memory of his life in Sicily was sitting on the porch of his Nana, waiting for cookies. Perhaps the cookie he was waiting for was a Cuccidata, perhaps not. But I like to think it was. Sicilians are known for their love affair with sweets and make some of the best in the world.

The fig is so under-rated here in America. People just really don’t know what to do with figs. I am a huge lover of this sensual fruit. I have shown my adoration of it on pizza, on salad and even as a jam. It can be sweet, savory or in between. There are endless ways to use this beautiful fruit, but one of the best ways is in these cookies. Dried figs are mixed with raisins, a ground whole orange (peel and all) and walnuts to create a filling for one of the softest best smelling dough I have ever worked with. Then the fun part is in true colorful, Sicilian fashion, get crazy with the colors and decoration – colored icing, sprinkles and this year, chocolate really make each one of these cookies special. These cookies mean Christmas for the DiPiazza family. So I made these with my mom to honor the generations of DiPiazzas before us. Hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:

8 cups flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
10 tsp baking powder
1 cup + 2 TBS unsalted butter, softened
6 large eggs
1 tsp salt
1 ¼ cup heavy cream (or 1 cup cream and ¼ cup milk)
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

2 packages dried figs (soaked in hot water for ½ hour)
4 cups raisins
½ cup sugar
½ cup water
1 orange, ground
2 cups walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon

Icing:

1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
2-3 TBS milk
¼ tsp vanilla
colored sprinkles

METHOD:

Mix all dry ingredients together and all wet ingredients together in separate bowls. Mix wet ingredients in an electric mixer. Add dry ingredients to the wet gradually until all incorporated. Roll dough into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Flatten dough out and cut into strips 2x 4 inches. Put 1 TBS of filling in each strip and roll over, cut side down, and place on a cookie sheet.

Shape into a crescent. Make two slits on the top of each crescent with a sharp knife. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes until light brown. Frost when cooled and sprinkle with sprinkles.

Makes @ 60 cookies

As everyone here knows, I am obsessed with figs and fig recipes. Their exterior beauty is exotic and captivating, while the soft, creamy sweet fruit on the inside is so unexpected. I just adore the fig and since summer is drawing to an end, I am posting two more fig recipes I think you will enjoy:
Parmesan Stuffed Figs with Balsamic Reduction and Drunken Figs.

There is just something magical about the pairing of figs and balsamic vinegar. The sweet, syrupy richness of the vinegar cutting through the sweetness of the fig is unparalleled.

To make the Balsamic Reduction:

Heat a saucepan over high heat. Add ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar to the pan and reduce liquid by half. Take pan off of heat immediately.

To make the stuffed figs:

While the balsamic is reducing, heat your broiler on high. Cut the figs in half lengthwise, (but do not cut all the way through). Stuff with Parmesan cheese, cheddar is also good (you can also then wrap the figs with prosciutto), place under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes or until cheese is browned. Serve with balsamic reduction drizzled over top.

Drunken Figs:

This recipe is just too easy! However, it is gorgeous, delicious and elegant so I had to post it. You will love this and if you are like me, you will from now on into infinity have a bowl of wine soaked figs in your fridge – to snack on, to put over ice cream, pound cake, angel food cake or whatever floats you boat!

INGEDIENTS:

1 package of dried figs
red wine – Lambrusco works great as it is a sweet wine to begin with, but merlot, shiraz, zinfandel or pinot noir would work great too!

METHOD:

Place dried figs in a glass bowl, cover with wine. Place in fridge. DONE

I saw a recipe for fresh fig pizza with blue cheese in Vegetarian Times years ago. I have a huge collection of recipes I have torn out of magazines and newspapers, printed from online, etc etc over the years. These are recipes that have given me inspiration on creating new flavors and dishes. Every time I move, which seems to have been quite a few times over these past few years, I go through the box and get rid of the ones I will never make or have lost their lustor.

This recipe has stuck with me over the years and I finally decided to try my version of it. As you know from my recent post about figs, fresh figs are finally in season and so I have been eating quite a lot of them! Since Roberto is always looking for a good ITALIAN pizza crust – (no New York style crust, here)– to no avail yet in a restaurant, we have been trying to devise our own. The secret to a great Italian pizza crust is of course the high temperatures in which they are quickly cooked. So I decided to finish the pizzas by grilling them off at the end, in a 600 F grill to get it to the right consistency. It definitely got the Roman’s seal of approval. I also drizzled the pizzas with olive oil and balsamic vinegar when they came out of the grill to give it a little something extra!
Buon Appetito!

INGREDIENTS:

1 store bought pizza crust – -I divided it into 3 pieces for 3 individual pizzas
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
5 0z blue cheese, crumbled
5 ripe figs cut into pieces
3 TBS fig preserves – leftover from the DB Bagels challenge
2 sprigs fresh sage, julienned
arugala to top
salt & pepper to taste

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 500 F and preheat grill. Form the pizza crusts. Place on a well oiled cookie sheet and place in a 500 F oven for about 5 minutes. Remove crusts. Spread 1/3 of fig preserves on each crust. Sprinkle with blue cheese, figs and sage, salt and pepper. Once the grill is about 600 F, place pizzas on the grill, close lid and bake for about 3 minutes. Remove pizzas from grill, top wit arugala and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic.

Enjoy with a nice glass of Shiraz!

Now if this is not mouth watering, I really don’t know what is.
Have I mentioned how much I love figs? They are just so magnificent – They look like strange little pods from the outside, but when you open them up they are so lucious and delicate and gorgeous! They take my breath away! I love figs so much that to look at them in person makes my heart leap, my mouth water and my eyes to fill with tears…well at least that is what they did when I saw Sylvia’s Rocket Salad with Grilled Figs and Goat Cheese
a few weeks back. That was when I was beginning to despair about ever finding fresh figs again! Since we moved to Florida, it has been like acclimating to everything – the weather, the culture, the driving, and the availability of well-loved ingredients! I took for granted in the past the easy availability of certain favorite ingredients living in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast where there was always a plethora of ethnic markets, including Mediterranean. But having moved to Florida, I have had trouble finding things like, hazelnuts, pomegranate syrup and FRESH FIGS! So I began to loose hope of having fresh figs again and when fig season began and I saw recipes like the one on Sylvia’s blog I began to feel a little crushed and a deep longing for figs, glorious figs. My luck was about to change.
One day at the grocery store recently while I was perusing the tropical fruit aisle (one of the great things about moving to Florida – there is a tropical fruit aisle!) something I often do so I can try new and exotic fruits, I saw a little place card for fresh Turkish Figs and my broken heart began to mend! My beloved figs were there! Yes, they were $8 for about 10 of them, which I knew was ridiculous but at this point I was ready to throw caution to the wind, they were there and I wanted them! Once I brought them home I knew I needed to eat them fast – as they rot quickly! So I had two recipes in mind – Sylvia’s salad and Fresh Fig and Sage Grilled Pizza. Here is Sylvia’s Recipe as she posted it!
It is heavenly!

Stay tuned for the Pizza recipe!

Rocket Salad with grilled figs and goat cheese

4 mature figs
1 bunch of rocket lettuce
20 gr pine nuts
40 gr fresh goat cheese
Balsamic Aceto
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Prosciutto is a cured paper-thin ham. The most well known is the kind from the region of Parma in Italy. It can be used for sandwiches, in omelets, on pizza or in Antipasti (appetizers). In this recipe it is paired with fresh figs, a sweet, soft fruit found all over the Mediterranean region.
Serve this as an appetizer with some crusty bread and cheese, like a good parmigiano reggiano and a glass of wine.

INGREDIENTS:

8 ripe green or black figs, washed
(If you can’t find fresh figs, you can always rehydrate dried ones by placing them in a bowl and covering with boiling water until they soften)

12 slices of prosciutto

METHOD:
Place the slices of prosciutto on a large serving plate.
Cut each fig into 1/4 but do not cut all the way through the base of the fruit so it opens like a flower. Fig skins are usually tender, so they can be eaten along with the fruit and seeds inside. Arrange the figs on top of the prosciutto and serve with crusty bread and cheese.

Enjoy!
serves 4