Watermelon Sorbetto

 

Summer sneaked up on us. . late-April was deceptive with it's sudden stormy showers and cool evening breezes. For a while we grew complacent, duped ourselves into believing these mild days were here to stay. But then, just like that, the nip in the air was gone. Now early mornings are often motionless, hot. By noon the sun is glaring and the heat stifling. 

Soon appetites will begin waning and the kids will beg for things that are cool and scoop-able. The best way to indulge my children's summer dreams: this delicious sorbetto. 

The sorbetto is made with fresh watermelon juice and a whisper of lime to add a hint of tartness. The amount of sweetness is just right and does not overpower the fruit's natural flavor. David Lebovitz recommends throwing in some mini-chocolate chips for fun (to mimic watermelon seeds). I've never done this but maybe I will the next time I make a batch. Personally, I don't think it needs any chocolate: there couldn't be a simpler, more delicious dessert to round off your meal.

This sorbet is best made in an ice cream maker, but I often skip that step and freeze the mixture directly in popsicle molds. The recipe can be found on Page 112 of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, or because I am too lazy to type it out you can find it here.

Sunday Sweets: Almond and Chocolate Chunk Biscotti

There can never be such a thing as too much chocolate. And this choc-almond studded biscotti found no lack of contenders in my house. This was my very first attempt at making biscotti and is also the first recipe I've tried from the newest addition to my collection of cookbooks: Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz. 

Ryan, a fellow-baker from BWD, suggested we start baking our way through another book and after much deliberation we decided on this new collection of recipes by David Lebovitz. We'll slowly go through each recipe in the book and anyone is welcome to join in. Details can be found here. 

Baking this biscotti turned out to be deceptively simple. I prepared ingredients for half the recipe, shaped the dough into one log and then placed it in the oven to bake for the first twenty minutes. It came out looking perfect. So far so good. But then, given the 90F+ heat, my hot kitchen and the concentration of chocolate in this recipe, I was faced with a gooey mess each time I cut into the log. There was melted chocolate all over the place and it made it completely impossible to get the thinner slices I was aiming for. 

Skeptical, and a little frustrated, I popped the slices in the oven for another 20 minutes and mentally prepared myself for the alternatively titled 'disasters in baking' blog post I was going to write about the whole experience. I needn't have worried because whatever they lacked in appearance was more than compensated by flavor. They were a tad bit sweet for me so I would either cut down the amount of sugar in the recipe or simply use bittersweet chocolate. I never expected my kids to care for biscotti so they surprised me by going through the whole batch pretty quickly and, like DL, taking some along to snack on during our very long flight the next day. 

This first recipe was chosen by Ryan and can be found on Page 216 of Ready for Dessert. Please hop over to Ryans' blog to check out her take on the biscotti. Next up we'll make Orange Cardamom Flan chosen by me. If you'd like to be part of our baking challenges, please drop us an email at sundayssweets at gmail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along!

Cherry Frozen Yogurt

So I've been on a bit of a frozen-yogurt and sorbet kick lately.

With temperatures at 109F, can you blame me? It's hard to think about eating anything that isn't cool and refreshing. And once I got started, there was no stopping me: I now have a couple of kinds of frozen yogurts and sorbets stocked up in the freezer and am constantly dreaming up new ways to whizz fruit with simple syrup. 

This recipe is actually a spin off from the strawberry frozen yogurt that I made some time back. I had on hand a box of cherries that turned out too sour for consumption and I figured I could not really go wrong if I used David Lebovitz's recipe with cherries instead of strawberries. 

The only thing I did differently was that I cooked the cherries with the sugar prior to adding them to the yogurt and also used far more sugar than the other recipe had asked for. I may have added a little too much sugar, but you can change that when you try this out for yourself - for you must: because this frozen yogurt was, in one word, awesome. 

Cherry Frozen Yogurt

slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

450g cherries, pitted

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (I used somewhere between 3/4 -1 cup sugar and it was just a tiny bit too sweet for my taste)

1 cup low-fat yogurt

1 tsp lemon juice 

Add the cherries and sugar together in a small pan and cook over medium heat for approx. 10 mins. There's no need to add water because the sugar helps to release the cherry juices and helps soften them. 

Once the cherries are cooked, remove from heat and cool before adding to the yogurt and lemon juice in a blender. Whizz everything together until well-combined. There will be lots of un-blended cherry bits that you can either leave in (if you like the texture) or strain the yogurt mixture if  you'd prefer a smoother frozen yogurt. 

Cover and cool the yogurt mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour and then freeze according to the manufacturers' instructions on your ice cream maker. 

If like me, you don't have an ice cream maker , cover and freeze for 1 hour. Remove from freezer and either use a fork to break up the frozen edges and mix everything up. Or whisk again (I used a hand blender this time to blend everything up and felt I had a creamier texture this way). 

Repeat this process 2 more times and then finally freeze for 4-5 hours before digging right in. 

David Lebovitz's No-Recipe Cherry Jam

Part of the fun of having a food blog is that you get to make things you wouldn't ordinarily think of. 

Like .. cherry jam. My inability to find cherry jam at my local grocery store was all the inspiration I needed to make it from scratch for the BWD challenge  two weeks ago  (Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte).

An online search for a simple recipe that wouldn't require preservatives led me to DL's no-recipe cherry jam . And that's what it was - not a recipe,  but step-by-step instructions on how to make the jam. It seemed simple enough, not much unlike my previous attempts at making strawberry jam.

I wanted a thick jam - almost like cherry preserves. So, here is what I did:

from David Lebovitz's recipe for no-recipe Cherry Jam

2 pounds cherries (half sour, fresh ones + half dark, sweet & pitted frozen)

2.5 cups sugar (roughly - since I had just under 4 cups of cooked cherries)

zest and juice of 2 whole lemons

a few drops of pure almond extract

Rinse cherries, remove pits and stems. Chop them roughly into small pieces - but leave some whole or simply halved to get texture. 

Add the cherries to a large stockpot. Add  just enough water to cover & mix in the lemon juice and zest. 

Cook the cherries over medium heat until they are wilted and completely soft. This took me about 25 minutes. Once they are cooked, measure how much of the cherry & juice mixture you have and add in 3/4 of the amount of sugar. I somewhat under 4 cups so I added roughly 2.5 cups of sugar. 

Stir the sugar and cherries and cook over moderate to high heat. While you are cooking the jam, place a small plate in the freezer. 

Keep stirring the jam and scraping the bottom as you go so that you don't end up burning the mixture. If you use a thermometer - you'll see that the jam will jel at around 220 - 230F. 

If you don't have a thermometer - use the frozen plate to test the doneness of your jam. Once it begins to look thicker & seems to be gelling, take it off the heat and spoon out a small amount onto the plate and return it to the freezer. Remove after a few minutes and test by nudging with your finger. If it wrinkles, it means it's done. If it seems runny, cook the jam a little longer and test again. 

Once it's done, take it off the heat and add a few drops of almond extract. Ladle into jars, seal and let cool at room temperature before putting it in the fridge to cool.

According to DL, the jam keeps for a few months. In my case, it has lasted barely two weeks and I was able to save only a few tablespoons of jam in order to take these photos. 

Here, I smothered it on the Tender Shortcakes I made this week. And what a blend of flavors this was: slightly sour cherry from the jam and the hint of ginger in the shortcakes. 

One word: yum.

David Lebovitz's Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Summer is almost around the corner.

And that should be excuse enough to start making ice cream. 

The one thing I don't own is an ice cream maker (not for long) even though I am quite a bit of a kitchen appliance/gadget junkie.

I compulsively and impulsively buy things for my kitchen the way other people buy clothes or shoes.

I'm hopeless, really. 

The lack of an appliance doesn't stop me from making ice cream. Sure: making it without one is more labor intensive and a serious time commitment but worth each minute of effort & all the hours spent whisking, freezing, whisking, freezing and waiting . . 

I have several pounds of strawberries to get through and have been on the lookout for simple strawberry recipes that involve ingredients I already have on hand so that there is no mad rush to the grocery store. 

Today is a lazy day, so anything I made today couldn't possibly require me to do anything but spend most of my time with the hubby & kids all morning.

I finally found just what I was looking for.