Earlier in the summer when I promised a lemon-based popsicle, I was certain that it would be similar to early June's lime pop - simple and direct. But, as July closed in around me, I started to feel panicked that the summer would end without me having made any berry ice cream. As I have already made plenty of berry pops, I decided to join the two pursuits (lemon and berry ice cream). That is how I ended up making a popsicle that asks a lot of the definition of what a popsicle is (for those curious, it is "a piece of flavored ice or ice cream on a stick"). The best way to make ice cream cookies is to choose two pans that you have that are the same size and use those to bake your cookie. I used medium sized loaf pans, because I wasn't trying to make a large quantity of sandwiches. If you were making many, I would recommend a large pyrex. One of the pans should have parchment (along with spray) that is cut in such a way that it protects the bottom and also gives you two strips to pull the contents of the pan out of the pan. I hope that made sense. Bake the cookie while you are churning your ice cream. Let the cookies cool and then scoop your still soft ice cream onto the (somewhat cooled) cookie with the parchment paper below. Gently place the second cookie layer on top and freeze three layers in pan until frozen solid, then cut them up. I used a short bread, because I felt that that would be the best way to showcase the lemon, but in general I would say that shortbread is a terrible idea and that you should make a chewy, sturdy cookie for this task. Also, I linked my favorite super easy summer berry ice cream recipe in this week's email. Use it when you need to make fast ice cream! Use it when you don't need to make fast ice cream but still probably should.
Lemon Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwich Popsicles Yield: 12 small popsicles | Prep Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 7 hours Ingredients For the shortbread (thanks Martha) 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt 1 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan 5 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar For the ice cream (thanks NYT) 1 ¼ cups raspberries 2 cups heavy cream ⅓ cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, as needed ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt Directions Prepare your ice cream liquid per the NYT recipe. Chill the liquid. While the liquid is chilling, make the shortbread according to Martha's instructions, baking the dough in two separate pans of equal size. While the cookies are baking, churn your ice cream. Let the cookies cool a bit out of the oven and then scoop the just-churned ice cream onto the first cookie, layering the second cookie on top. Freeze until solid, then cut into your desired size and slide onto popsicle stick.
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Every part of me wishes that I loved figs. They are such an elegant, grown up thing to like. Sadly, the sweetness is not enough to combat the repulsion I feel at the squiggly innards of the fruit. Now that I have you feeling appetized, let me debut this week's popsicle: a fig and ricotta pop. I was able to put aside my personal distrust of the fig this week. I love and respect ricotta and knew (even though I knew I would not Personally love it) that these two delicate, fancy ingredients would harmonize well in a popsicle. They did just that! Fig and Ricotta Popsicles
Yield: 4 popsicles | Prep Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 7 hours Ingredients 2 figs ⅓ c ricotta ½ c whole milk Squeeze of honey Pinch of salt Directions Slice figs into thin slices and position against molds in a way that displays their beauty. In a separate bowl, mix ricotta, milk, honey, and salt. Pour mixture into molds, adjusting figs so that they can be seen as needed. Freeze until solid. In the summer of 2012, I went on a hike with two Peters. At around 11am we rallied to get on a bus and take a drive to the beginning of a trail that would take us to some swimming pools. We slapped on a thin layer of sunscreen, chugged our water glasses, and did absolutely nothing else to prepare. Quickly into our hike things went wrong. I slit my foot open because I had chosen to wear flip flops. We realized that we had brought no water and that none of us had thought to look at the bus schedule of the return bus. Refusing to let these small items get in our way, we pushed deeper into the forest, eventually coming across the spectacular cut-into-the-river swimming pools we had hoped for. As the hours got longer, we started thinking more and more about the reality that we would, eventually, need to get back to camp's luxuries (primarily bacterial disinfectant and water). When we arrived back at the bus drop-off-location we found a posted schedule letting us know that the next bus to arrive would be the following morning. Wearily, we began the long, hobbled walk back to camp with a single motivating thought in mind: pie. I have had a lot of good pie in my life, but the pie we had every night of that trip to Stehekin is unquestionably the best. Whatever berry the cooks could find would be danced into a big flaky crust and served warm to us as we sat on the main lodge's expansive porch each night. The porch looked out over wildflower fields and, beyond, forest rising into mountains. As we ate the warm pie, just-whipped cream would be passed around, still in the bowl it had been whipped in. So, one can understand our motivation as we wearily traipsed down the road to camp, singing sea shanties that we didn't know and predicting what that night's berry would be any time we got weak. We made it back in time for olallieberry pie and learned no lessons from the whole experience except that pie is delicious. I didn't make a berry pie popsicle for the project because I have so many things I want to do with berries that it felt like a more wide-reaching task to take on rhubarb. The popsicles have vanilla ice cream, pie filling, and pieces of crust on the bottom (the crust is hard to see but trust me, it is there). This popsicle was the first time where I really failed. I tried to make perfect crust rounds that would fit around the sticks. I did not cut the holes big enough and they crumbled when I attempted to place them around the popsicle sticks. Still crust though. So not too big of a fail. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Popsicles
Yield: 4 popsicles | Prep Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 7 hours Ingredients 8 tbsp vanilla ice cream 1/4 lb rhubarb, cut into pieces 1/4 lb strawberries, hulled and cut into pieces 1/3 c sugar 1 tbsp cornstarch Lemon zest A bit of pie crust (I like this recipe) Directions Put 2 tbsp ice cream into each mold and freeze until solid. While freezing, combine rhubarb, strawberry, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon zest and place in a loaf cake pan. Roll out piece of pie crust and cut shapes that, once expanded while cooking, will fit into popsicle mold (remembering to cut out a large enough hole for the stick to go through). Bake crust and filling until crust is golden and filling is broken down and bubbly. Once filling has cooled, pour into molds. Once the filling has started to harden, add crust pieces on top. Freeze until solid. The perfect s'more, to me, is a classic graham cracker, a square of dark chocolate that has been pre melted onto the graham cracker, and a marshmallow that is two steps beyond golden. Of course, I will eat any form of s'more, whether it be milk chocolate as the chocolate, a chocolate chip cookie as the cracker, or just nothing but a burnt marshmallow on a stick. To me, a s'more is the most universally satisfying dessert because the person consuming the s'more is usually also the architect of the s'more. You picked out the perfect graham, you nearly burnt your hand flesh trying to push your cracker deep enough into the fire to get your chocolate to melt (that might be unique to me), and you worked your way towards the marshmallow doneness that you desired (even if there were a few slow-paced drops into the fire along the way). I love s'mores so much also because the existence of a s'more most often also means a moment of gathering. While I have eaten cake, ice cream, and cookies (to name a few) alone, I have never gone to the trouble of making a s'more on my own. Making s'mores is an event in itself: it brings people together and leaves them to watch the fire move into the night or to judge the doneness of other's marshmallows. Creating a s'mores popsicle was daunting, of course. How does one turn a food that is so decidedly warm into something cold? For the marshmallow I made marshmallows and then funneled the warm, loose mixture into the molds and let them harden. For the middle, I made a simple chocolate and milk mixture, and for the base I mixed homemade graham crackers with honey and pressed them into a crust. Once the popsicle had been layered, I used my blow torch to toast the top marshmallow. Making this s'more was a very involved process, and I'm not sure I would recommend this popsicle for anyone who is looking for a speedy treat. But it was a labor of someone who really loves s'mores.
Before I launch into the recipe I want to note that I used this recipe to make my marshmallows and this recipe (with graham flour instead of normal whole wheat) to make my graham crackers. If you want to use store bought marshmallows and melt them down and store bought graham crackers, definitely do that. Also to make the middle I just combined milk and chocolate powder (not cocoa...just the powder for chocolate milk). S'more Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: Really depends | Total Time: 8 hours Ingredients 1 ½ lbs marshmallow liquid 2 c milk 2 tbsp chocolate powder 3 graham cracker sheets 1 tbsp honey Directions Pour marshmallow liquid into first third of popsicle mold (make sure to sift a little powder sugar in before to prevent sticking) and let harden. While hardening, mix together milk and chocolate powder. Pour over hardened marshmallow, filling mold two thirds of the way full. Let harden. While hardening, crush graham crackers and mix with honey. Press together into mold and insert popsicle stick. Freeze until solid. To serve, brûlée marshmallow top until golden brown. My love for Martha Stewart is a twisted throb of irony and deep genuineness. On a recent library-cook-book-trip I came across Martha’s second ever entertaining book. In her introduction, she prided herself on having taken the time between her books to realize that hosting doesn’t have to be a huge, grandiose task. At the end of the book’s introduction she proudly said that the table-scapes she had included in this new book needed only to be started two to three days before the scheduled event. Martha! Kudos on the downscale. I do love her though, and as such I knew I would eventually try a few of her popsicle recipes. This week’s popsicle is adapted from her recipe. My perfect Fourth of July would most likely make Martha weep, as all I want out of the day is a lazy ice cream sundae (or a strawberry, blueberry, yogurt popsicle!) and an evening spent outside with friends and family. Make these as sweet or un-sweet as you want, but keep in mind that the sugar content will determine how creamily the popsicle freezes.
Firecracker Popsicles Yield: 6 popsicles | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 7 hours Ingredients 1 cup blueberries 1 cup strawberries 2 tbsp sugar 1 cup yogurt 1 tsp honey 1 tbsp milk Directions Cook blueberries with 1 tbsp sugar and a dash of water until broken down. Blend mixture to desired texture and place in a bowl. Cook strawberries with 1 tbsp sugar and a dash of water until broken down. Blend mixture to desired texture and place in a bowl. In a third bowl, mix yogurt with honey and enough milk to match the consistency of the other mixtures. Alternate pouring the three liquids into the molds, forming layers. Using a spoon or wooden stick, mix the three liquids until artistically blended to your liking. Freeze until solid. |