Tag: ice cream

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Very Merry Blackberry Ice

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Many of you are wondering what kind of treat to serve for your 4th of July celebration. It has to be tasty, should ideally not be too filling and still feel good after a full meal, good for a hot barbecue day, but at the same time, you don’t want to go overboard on the calories either. I got just the treat for you: ice cold and healthy and you don’t even need an ice cream maker!
To your rescue comes…

Three ingredient blackberry ice!

I have not read up on my ice box deserts lately, but I suspect that this should actually be called ‘gelato’, since I am not only using cream…imagevery very exited about my animal cracker cookie cutters 🙂

image You can vary the amount of sugar you add to this, depending on how sweet the berries are. Just remember to start this half a day in advance or use already frozen berries.

Ingredients

  • 12 oz (big carton/box) blackberries
  • 6oz box raspberries or some strawberries
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 cup to 1 cup half & half, whole milk or cream

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Directions

  1. Wash and gently dry the berries by shaking them a little in a colander. Place back into original container and freeze until rock hard, about 6 hours (depends on the freezer)
  2. In the bowl of a good food processor, combine the berries and the sugar, pulse until everything is crushed and starts to resemble a powder.
  3. With the machine running, in a slow stream add milk or half & half through the feed hole on the lid of the blender bowl. You may have to scrape down the sides once or so as you are going through this, but work quickly as the berries will start to thaw rapidly as you are processing them. Keep adding half&half until the berries and the dairy form a creamy mass. The ice cream will be quite soft (almost like soft serve) either eat right away, or place in the freezer for approximately 15 to 20 minutes to firm up a bit before serving. image
  4. Enjoy with animal crackers or any other crunchy item you enjoy 🙂

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© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

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Egg Nog Ice Cream

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All year I wait for Egg Nog Season 🙂 Who doesn’t love that thick, sweet, delicious beverage that comes with Christmas time and disappears from the shelves before it gets warmer again? I think the question really is, what was first Egg Nog or Winter?  *grin* And it appears I am not the only one that feels that way, it seems pretty much every culture in the western world has their own recipe for this (western dairy drinking cultures, that is). From Egg Nog in the english speaking world, to “Eierlikör” in german, and the italian “Zabaglione” isn’t that different either, even Rocky  drank it (hmm okay so he skipped the booze, skipped the sugar…he just wasn’t as refined as the rest of us) The basic recipe is always along the lines of eggs, cream, sugar, spices and some sort of liquor, from Rum to Cognac to Madeira to Brandy to Vermouth, anything goes it seems.

And while you are most certainly welcome to make your own Egg Nog (knock yourself out, just be sure to use very fresh eggs), this one is definitely for the lazy. But thanks to that I am now (finally) the proud owner of a tiled back splash in my kitchen. Yaha, all by myself. So I think it’s okay to take some tasty shortcuts every so often, specially if you are eating right most of the time, a treat here and there is not going to do any harm. And since Wawa has such great ready-made Egg Nog in their dairy department, I don’t really feel too bad about this desert. Use your favorite brand, I tried some fancier and pricier ones, but prefer the taste of Wawa’s Egg Nog.

Did you know:

  • Egg Nog in Canadian french is called: Lait de Poule (Chicken Milk)
  • The term Egg Nog is though to come from ‘egg and grog’ a colonial term for the drink made with rum and eggs

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You need:

  • Egg Nog (I would get about 1 qt, drink the rest 🙂 )
  •  2 tbsp dark Rum or Cognac for every 2 cups of Egg Nog, optional
  • Special equipment needed: Ice Cream maker

Depending on the size of your ice cream maker, you can make less or more of this. My little machine holds about 2 1/2 cups. You want to be careful not to fill the freezer bowl too much, since the volume will increase as the ingredients freeze. Also make sure you have the freezer canister frozen for at least 24 hours (or whatever it says in your user manual) unless you use a manual one, in which case I believe you need ice cubes and salt.

Directions

  1. Turn on your ice cream maker, pour 2 1/2 cups of chilled Egg Nog into the freezer canister, add rum, if using.
  2. Churn until thick and creamy, (in mine, this process takes about 10 to 15 minutes) turn off and transfer ice cream to freezer proof container to harden completely.
  3. Freeze at least overnight before serving.
  4. When you’re ready to serve, place ice cream in the fridge for a little to soften a bit so it can be scooped better

Serve with Caramellinis or cookie of choice or coffee or Kahlua coffee liquor or more egg nog 🙂

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