Strawberry Lemon Sorbet

If you are looking for a light, refreshing alternative to ice cream this month I have the recipe for you. When I say light, I don’t necessarily mean healthy, it does have 2 cups of sugar (or more)…it’s just not heavy and custardy like a traditional ice cream.

I love strawberry lemonade so when I was making ice cream for a gathering recently I thought it would be a nice combination. I looked around and found this recipe which uses a whole lemon. I had never heard of using a whole lemon in a recipe until I made Whole Lemon Blueberry Walnut Muffins and I was amazed by the lemon flavor it imparted in the muffins. For the sorbet though, I think the rind may have made the sorbet just a touch bitter so when I make this again I will add more sugar to balance it out. My strawberries may not have been sweet enough too. I’m not really sure which it was but it just needed a bit more sweetness for me. I think maybe 1/4-1/2 cup more sugar would have done it for me. If you like a really tart lemonade, then it’s probably just perfect the way it’s written.

It was a gorgeous color and really refreshing in the heat. Definitely a delicious treat to cool off with this summer!

Strawberry Lemon Sorbet
recipe from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

1 lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar (or more if your strawberries aren’t very sweet or you don’t like it super tart)
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons

1. Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor, and pulse until combined. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Puree the strawberries in a food processor, and add to the lemon mixture, along with the juice of 1 lemon. Taste and add more juice as desired. The lemon flavor should be intense but should not overpower the strawberries. Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until frozen.

Recipe linked to Cast Party Wednesday and Full Plate Thursday.

Pumpkin Applesauce

Whenever possible, I like to make homemade versions of typically store-bought foods. That way you are really able to control the quality and quantity of ingredients that go into your product. Although I do occasionally buy applesauce from the grocery store, I love being able to make it fresh for my little man. The draw of store-bought applesauce is all the fun, creative flavors and combinations without any sugar added. So really, it’s not a bad thing to purchase. But I still love making things homemade, they always seem to taste better that way.

Pumpkin applesauce was something I had never thought of and totally jumped on as I knew Noah would adore it. I also love that this can be frozen for future use. Another great perk? It can be used as a replacement for oil in baking recipes to make the treats healthier.

Pumpkin Applesauce
recipe from Pennies on a Platter

2 1/2 pounds apples, peeled or unpeeled, cored and chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Mix together the apples, cinnamon, lemon juice and water in a medium sized pot. Cook over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very soft. Remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin puree and vanilla.

2. For chunky applesauce: Use a potato masher to mash the apples to desired consistency.

3. For smooth applesauce: Transfer the apples to a food processor and pulse to desired consistency.

4. Serve at room temperature or cold. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

Ok, so I’m not a fruit for dessert kind of person. I just don’t enjoy cooked fruit, it get mushy and weird….not my thing. But Joel loves apple pie. For the past few Thanksgivings I have made this pie for him with lots of success and raves. Although I am not a fan, the crumbly streusel topping does make it much more appeal. m a total sucker for streusel. My mom took the leftovers to work and two people told her it was the best apple pie they had ever had. Score!

As I’ve said before, I struggle with crusts and dough of all kind. Pie crust is a huge frustration for me. I can never get the edge perfectly beautiful which angers me. While perusing Pinterest one day I came across some amazing decorative pie crust edges that I knew would fix my frustration. I fell in love with the braided crust and knew it was something I hopefully couldn’t mess up. And I didn’t! It turned out so cute. There was a little hiccup because I didn’t roll out the dough long enough to make one braid to fit across the whole pie. I ended up with 3 braids that didn’t match up perfectly when placed on the edge so my mom cut out several little leaves to put in those spots to cover up the imperfections.

It almost looked to good to eat….but only for a minute. In all the Thanksgiving hustle and bustle I forgot to take a picture of a slice of it but you get the gist of the crunchy, apple goodness.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie
recipe from food.com

For Pie:
Premade pie crust (two if you are doing a braided edge)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples

Crumb Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Caramel topping
Pecans

1. Prepare pastry for single-crust pie, being careful not to stretch dough too much.

2. Place single crust in pie plate and trim and crimp the edge or click here for directions for braiding the crust.

3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add apple slices and gently toss until they are coated well.Transfer mixture to pie.

4. FOR CRUMB TOPPING: Stir together brown sugar, flour, and oats. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until topping resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apple mixture in pie.

5. To prevent over-browning while baking, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.

6. Remove foil and bake 25 to 30 minutes more, or until top is golden.

7. Drizzle top with caramel topping; sprinkle with pecans. Cool on wire rack and serve.

Recipe linked to Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweets for a Saturday, Everyday Sisters Sharing Sundays, Mangia Monday, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Crazy Sweet Tuesday and 2 Maids a Baking.

Apple Crisp

I recently got to get together with the MOPS (Mother’s of Preschoolers) group from my church and we made apple crisp. It took a lot of proding to get me to join MOPS.  I’m quite shy when you first meet me and it takes awhile for me to warm up and really be comfortable with people. Social situations where I don’t know many people make me uncomfortable so I usually avoid them but I finally decided to stop worrying and just go. And I’m so glad I did. I have already made a lot of great friends that are so sweet and pretty darn funny too! It’s so great to have some social time where I can get together with other mom’s and just talk about life, our kids, our family and many entertaining topics.

We had so much fun making apple crisp together and I’m so mad that I forgot to bring my camera to capture some shots of all the ladies peeling, chopping and mixing. We used a recipe from one of the MOPS mom’s and it was so good! It would have been perfect topped with Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.

Apple Crisp

8 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used a mixture of Granny Smith, Fuji and Honeycrisp)
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups Old Fashioned Oats

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place apple slices in a 13 x 9-in. pan. Sprinkle with granulated sugar and cinnamon.
2. Combine flour, brown sugar, oats and butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of apples and bake for about 1 hour (mine only took about 50 minutes but my oven seems to cook faster than what most recipes state).

Recipe linked to these wonderful link parties:
Recipe Sharing Monday
Totally Tasty Tuesday
Bake with Bizzy
These Chicks Cooked
Full Plate Thursday
Fat Camp Friday
Friday Potluck
Fusion Friday’s
Seasonal Inspiration
Sweets This Week
Friday Food
Holiday Sweet Swap
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
What I Whipped Up Wednesday
Cast Party Wednesday

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

 

Ice cream truly is the one food I cannot resist. It doesn’t matter how much food I’ve eaten, if ice cream is mentioned my ears perk up and my belly says yes. It almost always makes me sick to my stomach but I do it every time…and it’s always worth it.

Joel and I were craving ice cream but wanted to try something unique that we hadn’t eaten before. We just happened to have an abundance of blueberries so I searched around some blogs and came across this recipe. It was definitely unique! I had never heard of putting sour cream in ice cream so I just had to try it. The finished product doesn’t have a sour cream taste but it had quite a tanginess. The blueberries give the ice cream a sweetness and a beautiful purple color. I would have prefered a stronger blueberry flavor so next time I may experiment by adding more blueberries and maybe decreasing the amount of sour cream slightly.

It’s totally worth a try if you are looking for something creamy, tangy and unique!

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream
recipe from Laura’s Recipe Collection
makes 1 quart

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain before using)
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

1. In a medium sauce pan bring the blueberries, sugar, salt, lemon zest and lemon juice to a boil. When the mixture is boiling and the berries burst, about 3 minutes, remove from heat.

2. Pour the mixture into a blender and puree until relatively smooth (it will never be completely smooth). Pour the heavy cream and sour cream into the blender and mix until combined.

3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and chill completely in the refrigerator.

4. Pour into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacture instructions. Freeze in an air tight container.

Fruit Pizza

This is one of my husband’s favorite desserts. It’s easy, delicious and super adaptable to personal preferences. We like strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, bananas and kiwi’s but you can add whatever fruits are your favorite to make it the perfect fruit pizza for your taste. Other tasty additions would be mandarin oranges, raspberries, blackberries or super ripe peaches.

This is a great dessert to bring to summer barbeques and is always a hit. What’s not to like with a sugar cookie crust, creamy sweet frosting and fresh, seasonal fruit? If your kids love to help in the kitchen, this is a great recipe to get them involved. They can help press the cookie dough in the pizza pan, spread the frosting and arrange the fruit on top. It’s especially great if they are picky eaters because they will be more likely to eat the fruit if they helped put it together.

If you want to add bananas to the pizza, I recommend waiting until just before serving so that they do not brown. Please try this easy fruit pizza, you won’t regret it!

Fruit Pizza

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup cool whip
Roll of sugar cookie dough, found in refrigerated section
Assorted sliced fruit

1. Press sugar cookie dough into a pizza pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Cool.

2. Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cool whip together then spread over the cooled crust.

3. Top with desired fruit and enjoy.

Apple Hand Pies

Joel loves apple pie. But I am no good at making them. The crust is always all wrong, it’s sticky and ends up tough. I can never crimp the edges and it always looks like a big, hot mess. When I asked Joel what dessert sounded good, he suggested apple pie since he never has it. I cringed and then a magical thought popped into my head. Why not hand pies? I’ve been seeing them all over the blog world recently and figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to give them a whirl.

I searched online and found a recipe that sounded relatively easy. And luckily it turned out to be. The dough came together so easily in the food processor and I literally only had to knead it twice. It rolled out thinly without much effort. The only little problem I had with the dough is all the chilling time it required.

It is super important for the butter to be cold and diced into small chunks.

The pie crust should look like sand when it is ready to be kneaded.

Then simply knead the dough until it comes together then refrigerate for an hour (or overnight as I did).

I didn’t have the right size biscuit cutter (4 1/2 inches) so I used one of Noah’s baby bowls to cut the mini pie crusts which worked out perfectly. I got exactly 15 crusts out of the dough just as the recipe stated.

Fill the pies with 1 tablespoon of filling then crimp closed with a fork.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar, bake and enjoy!

Apple Hand Pies
recipe from DisneyFamily.com

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks frozen butter, cut into little cubes
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup ice-cold water
4 teaspoons lemon juice
2 large granny smith apples, peeled and cut in large dice
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Place flour, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment. Pulse just until it looks like coarse sand. In another bowl, whisk together sour cream, water and lemon juice. Slowly drizzle in the liquid mixture to the flour and butter, pulsing just until a rough ball forms. Pour out onto a lightly floured board and knead until just combined. Pat dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.
2. Meanwhile make apple filling. Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add apples and sauté for 3 minutes or until beginning to soften slightly. Add cinnamon and brown sugar. Cook for 2 minutes more, or until brown sugar melts. Remove from heat and cool completely.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator and cut in half. Roll each portion of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 of an inch. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut into circles, about 4 1/2 inches in diameter (the rim of a small bowl works well if you don’t have a biscuit cutter that size). Place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment. Scraps can be re-rolled and cut again. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator and repeat with the other ball of dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Place about 1 tablespoon of apple filling on each round. Lightly brush edges with water, and fold over, using a fork to crimp edges together. Place back in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. Remove from fridge. Brush the tops of each pie with an egg wash (whisk 1 egg yolk with 2 teaspoons of water), and sprinkle with sugar. Pierce each pie with the tip of a knife. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is linked to:
Sweet as Sugar Cookies
A Well-Seasoned Life
This Week’s Craving
Holiday Sweet Swap

Fruit Infused Rum

I hope that you all had a great 4th of July! We drove down to Nebraska where my parents live and had a great time. We spent the whole weekend either outside swimming, at the zoo and of course blowing up lots of explosives! It was great spending lots of time with our family and friends. Living so far away we really cherish the time we get to share with our loved ones.

Speaking of summer and outside fun, I have the perfect idea to spice up your summer cocktails. Infuse your favorite liquor with you favorite summer fruits.  Many bottled liquors and mixes taste artificial but this is sure to taste pure, especially if you use fruit that is in season. The possibilities are endless with this booze infusion.  Combine your favorite liquor and fruit to create a fresh, clean tasting liquor that you cannot find in any store.

I just started a pineapple rum and a strawberry rum about a week ago so I have not tasted them yet but I wanted to share this with you now so that you could try it out this summer.

First, clean and prep your fruit. Get rid of anything you wouldn’t eat (pit, cores, stems, seeds, skins depending on the fruit). Then dice into chunks and place them in a clean mason jar.

Pour in your liquor then seal the jar tightly and store in the fridge until you reach your desired taste. It could take as little a week or as long as a month depending on the strength of the fruit.

Use your imagination to create your combinations. We aren’t big drinkers and the only liquor we really like is rum so we stuck to that but tequila, gin or vodka would also work perfectly for this. Try cherry vodka or mango tequila.

I’m thinking of using my infused rums for daiquiris, mojitos or homemade spiked lemonade.

Idea from bonappetit.com.

Linked to Everyday Sisters Sharing Sunday!

Cheesecake Filled Strawberries

I am a perfectionist. I expect everything to be done just right (especially when I am doing it myself). I put way too much stress on myself because I won’t let anyone help me, then it all builds up and I crack. This is something I’m trying to work on and admitting it should be my first step, right? All this talk is currently in relation to Noah’s upcoming FIRST birthday party. Of course everything has to be planned out weeks, if not months, ahead of time. Everything has to be homemade and I usually won’t accept any help that is offered (I’m stubborn too). My mantra is to “let people help and let things go” this time around. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Well, with the festivities only weeks away my brain is on overload which quickly causes my stress level and blood pressure to rise.  But when I saw these beautiful berries at Herzog’s Country Fresh I knew that they would help melt the stress away, if only for a few minutes. And what could be better than stuffing them with a cheesecake-like filling? Dipping them in chocolate too? Is that what you said? I thought of that but decided to use a little restraint but oh that would be good!

The original filling recipe tasted too much like plain ole’ cream cheese to me so I added quite a bit more powdered sugar to sweeten them up. It turned out a little runny but was really yummy (like pumpkin roll filling if you have ever had it). My strawberries were pretty small so I used a 1/4 teaspoon to scoop out the middles. Then I piped in the sweet cream cheese. Cut a bit of the bottom off of the strawberry before hand if you want them to stand up.

Cheesecake Filled Strawberries
12-24 strawberries, depending on size
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Optional toppings:
Blueberries
Slivered almonds
Melted chocolate

1. Clean and dry strawberries. Slice off top and a bit of the bottom of the berries then scoop out the tops.
2. Place cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla in a food processor. Place the filling in a piping bag and pipe into the strawberries. Top with blueberries or other topping options.

Linked on Cupcake Apothecary and Everyday Sisters Sharing Sunday!

Classic Southern Dessert Series: Lemon Bars

I just bought the most amazing dessert cookbook, Classic Southern Desserts by Southern Living and I am loving pretty much every recipe in it.  I am a true Southern girl at heart although we only lived in the South for about 5 years.  Because I am digging this cookbook so much, I decided to start my first series on this blog.  Occasionally, I will feature a recipe from this book and the first is Lemon Bars.

I love just about any lemon dessert you may throw at me but I have never made or eaten lemon bars.  I truly do not know how I have gone almost 25 years without trying them out.  It really is a shame that I have wasted all this time and I may have to make up for it with these little babies.

Lemon Bars
Recipe from Classic Southern Desserts by Southern Living

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 4 ingredients; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Pat mixture into a greased 13×9 baking dish. Bake for 18 minutes or until golden.
2. Combine 2 cups granulated sugar and cornstarch. Add eggs and next 3 ingredients; beat well. Pour mixture over crust.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set. Let cool completely and chill well.
4. Sift 1/4 cup powdered sugar over top. Cut into bars.

Linked to Cupcake Apothecary, Sweet as Sugar Cookies, Everyday Sisters and Sharing Sundays.