Creme Brulee - Tasty Tuesday!

Yes, I know.  It's summer.  And it's still hot and yucky most places in the country.  My general rule is that my oven doesn't go on, but I make exceptions sometimes.  There are days when it's cool in the morning, and I know I want a special creamy and cool dessert.  And so I present you with creme brulee.

Is there anything better than that crunch of the sugar shell and then the luscious interior that leaves you licking your spoon and wanting more?  This is such a great summer dessert.  There's even the fun of playing with fire when making it - all the better!

And yeah, it is sorta easy.  Way easier than you would expect given what you pay for it in restaurants.  Four ingredients.  That's it.  Really.

Creme Brulee

Ingredients:
4 c heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized
8 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
2 vanilla beans*

*Vanilla beans are awesome.  I love them.  Use them.  But if you can't, go ahead and use 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste, my new favorite ingredient

Directions:
Cut the vanilla beans in half, and use the back of a knife to carefully scrape out the seeds.  If you are not using the seeds, skip the vanilla for now.  Add the cream and the seeds to a heavy pot and turn the heat to medium.  Add the beans, too - why not; it just adds more flavor.  Scald the cream, which means you want it to start to steam and have a few tiny bubbles but do not let it actually boil.  When it just barely starts to have a skin form, it's done.  Remove the vanilla beans and scrape them one last time to get any more seeds out, adding those to the cream, too.

While the cream scalds, prepare your eggs.  Separate the whites from the yolks (save the whites for meringues or angel food cake or a whole bunch of egg white omelettes).  Place the yolks into a large bowl and whisk them until they're incorporated.  Add the sugar to the yolks and whisk until the yolks are lightened in color.

When the cream is scalded, add just a couple tablespoons of cream to the eggs while whisking the eggs to temper them.  Add a little more cream and keep whisking.  Once the eggs are brought up to temperature, add the remaining cream, still whisking so that you don't cook the eggs.  Scrambled eggs in cream? Eww.  If you didn't use vanilla beans, now is the time to add your vanilla bean paste.

Place six ramekins into a baking dish.  Ladle the creme brulee mixture into the ramekins.  To minimize how much I need to carry the liquid, I do my ladling with the baking dish sitting on my stove over my oven.  Smart me, right?  Once they're evenly distributed, place the baking dish in your oven.  Then, use a tea kettle to carefully add boiling water to the baking dish so that it covers at least two-thirds of the ramekins, being sure not to spill any of the water into the ramekins (see, me being smart again).

Bake the creme brulee for 25-35 minutes, until the centers are just set.  It will take longer if you let the cream cool before mixing it with the eggs.  Once baked, let the ramekins cool in the fridge.  When you are ready to serve them, sprinkle a good layer of sugar (brown sugar is awesome - just sayin') atop the creme brulee and use a torch to melt the sugar, starting in the center and then carefully circling out to the edges.  Don't make your crust ahead, but the rest can be done a day or two in advance and kept in the fridge.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Watermelon Granita - Tasty Tuesday!

There are some things I love about summer.  The fresh produce, spending time outside, grilling almost all our meals - those are the things that I love.  Of course sometimes I get a little carried away.  I'll buy a dozen mangoes and realize we can't eat quite that many.  Or I'll buy out the avocado section because they're really good and cheap, but then I need to do something with all of them.  Or I'll buy a huge watermelon that we can't eat fast enough.

Fortunately, there's always a solution.  I'll make my mango custard.  Or I'll freeze the sliced avocado (yes, it works - or I'll make guac and freeze that, which actually works better).  And for watermelon?  That's easy.  I make watermelon granita.

What?  You've never had it?  It's super easy, it's just about completely allergen free, and it tastes amazing on a hot day.  It's sweet and crunchy and frozen.  I've posted before about my mojito granita, but watermelon is pretty awesome, too.

Watermelon Granita

Ingredients:
10 pound watermelon (or so), flesh only and cubed-ish
2 limes
1/2 t salt
1/2 c water*
1/2 c sugar*

*Taste your watermelon before you start.  If it's bland, you may need more of the simple syrup you'll make.  My watermelon this time was blah, so I ended up doubling the sugar content.  Usually this is plenty.

Directions:
Make a simple syrup.  Place the water and sugar in a small pot, and bring to a boil.  Let it boil for two to three minutes, then remove it from the heat.  The sugar will be completely dissolved in the water, so nothing will be crunchy when you eat it.  Super simple, right?

While you're making the simple syrup, cut up your watermelon so you have chunks of the pink flesh.  Place them in a blender and liquefy them.  If there are any seeds, make sure you remove them first.  Pour the watermelon - made in batches, depending on the size of your blender - into a metal 13x9 pan (because it conducts the cold better, trust me).

Pour your simple syrup (which is fine cooled and actually better that way) into the pan with the watermelon, along with the salt.  Zest the limes into the watermelon mixture, and then juice them into it.  Try one lime juiced first and do a taste test after you've gently stirred the mixture.  If it needs more sugar at this point, make some more simple syrup.  If it needs the second lime (mine usually does), add it.

The next part is the hardest of the whole thing.  Get the pan into your freezer without spilling anything.  And yes, I have succeeded at this before.  Let it freeze for a half hour or so.  Pull it from the freezer, and you'll see where it's started to freeze at the top and around the edges.  Use a fork to scrape across the frozen parts to separate the ice crystals.  Place it in the freezer, and continue doing this until the granita is completely frozen and it is made up of little bits of icy chunks.  If you're anything like me, set a timer so you remember to scrape it each time.  If you forget, you can melt it and start over - not that I've ever had to do this before - and it's just fine.

Once it's ready, place all of it in a sealed container and serve frozen.  It will stay good for a couple weeks, but it's so good and so healthy, it will never last that long, right?

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Todayis the last day of school for the wee ones.  As a special treat, I decided to make them something that reminds me of summer.  There are certain foods that just scream summer to me, blueberries and lemons chief among them.  And voila, I decided to make blueberry crumb bars.  I edited them to make them dairy free, but use butter if you can.  Mmmm, butter!
And yes, these were a huge hit.  I'm storing them in the fridge because I want a cool treat in the heat of summer, and they do really well there.  So what foods scream summer to you?

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 c butter (or butter substitute for me), room temperature
1 1/2 c sugar, divided
3 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 lemon - zest and juice
4 c blueberries - I used frozen, use fresh if you have them
2 T cornstarch
1/2 t nutmeg, fresh grated

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 glass baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the butter and the egg and butter.  Add the baking powder, lemon zest, cinnamon, and salt, and mix well.  Add 1 cup of the sugar and the flour and mix until it's crumbly but not overmixed.

In another bowl, mix together the blueberries, cornstarch (use 4 t instead of 2 T if using fresh blueberries), remaining 1/2 c sugar, lemon juice, and a little nutmeg together.

Pour a little over half the dough crumbs into your prepared pan and pat them down.  Pour the blueberries atop that, then sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top of the blueberries.

Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes, until the top is a beautiful golden brown color.  Let this cool completely befor you cut it so that it doesn't juice all over the place.  Store it in the fridge for a great cool sweet treat.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.

Peach Coconut Milk Ice Cream - Tasty Tuesday!

I love ice cream in the summer.  There's nothing like that cool and creamy yumminess on a roasting hot summer day.  I used to make ice cream and frozen yogurt all the time, but with Little Miss' dairy allergy, I haven't made ice cream in years.  With summer coming up, I'm going back to using my awesome machine and making ice cream that is fun and also has ingredients I can pronounce in it.

With Memorial Day yesterday, I took my chance to start making good on my ice cream resolution.  With the dairy allergy, I decided to make a dairy alternative ice cream.  Have you ever had coconut milk ice cream?  It is so good and creamy and delicious, and no, it doesn't make everything taste like coconut.  It's lighter and more refreshing than regular ice cream, I think.

Peach Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups coconut milk (the full fat will give you the creamiest results)
2 cups peaches - separated (it's not peach season; I used good quality jarred peaches)
2 T brown sugar (yep, brown - yum)
1 t lemon juice
1/2 juice - not syrup - from the peaches, or simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar, boiled then cooled)

Directions:
Before you start, ensure you have sufficiently chilled your bucket for your ice cream - assuming you're using a machine that requires you to have a frozen bucket.  Mine needs to be in the freezer overnight, and now that I'm making ice cream again, I'm keeping my buckets in the freezer permanently.

Place the coconut milk, 1 cup of the peaches, brown sugar, lemon juice, and peach juice into a blender.  Blend on high for a minute or so until it's completely incorporated.  Add the remaining cup of peaches and blend on low for ten second, just until the peaches are chopped into bite size pieces.  Honestly, this is one of those times when I fall in love with my Vita-Mix all over again.

Taste test the ice cream base - someone's gotta! - and ensure that it's too your liking.  I don't like my ice cream super sweet, so you may need to doctor it a bit to get it perfect for you.  That isn't to say that this isn't sweet - it definitely is - but it isn't syrupy.

Prepare your ice cream maker.  You don't want to take your bucket out of the freezer until this point, or it will start to melt.  Carefully pour your base into your ice cream maker, and turn it on.  Let it churn for 20-30 minutes.  You don't want it to go too long, but let it start to get a little solidified and have plenty of air incorporated.

Pour your almost ice cream into a container that you can seal and put in the freezer for two to three hours, and you're ready to go.  This ice cream does best when you let it warm up just a little bit by sitting out 10 to 15 minutes before serving.  It will keep in the freezer, but it's best in the first few days after you make it, but it's good no matter what!  We served this with fresh fruit atop it yesterday, and it was awesome.

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.