Sugar High Friday #21: "Fresh Peaches 'n' Cream" Sorbet/Ice Cream Swirl

Ice Ice Baby, it’s brain freeze time
Get out your freezer and start to rhyme
Don’t do no hand-crank, got some higher tech
I ain’t talkin’ pacojet, no, not yet
Decisions, decisions, it’s all about flava
Something delish, to make ‘em all rave-uh

Yo it’s simple, vanilla’s the flash
Playin' the back-up to a seasonal splash
A little taste makes you shiver and shout
Sweet summer peaches, that’s what I’m about
Peel ‘em, puree ‘em, mix ‘em with liqueur
Put it in the freezer, can’t happen no quicker

Marble that vanilla, make it swirl,
Peaches 'n' Cream for Big G and bad girl.

Thanks to Sarah, this month's edition of Jennifer's brainchild  Sugar High Friday helped me discover that I share Sarah's feeling about my own abilities as a rapper. I, too, am probably more suited to making ice-cream than writing Vanilla Ice parodies, a talent break-down for which I find myself immensely grateful.  Yes, I know you are too.

About a year and a half ago, my brother and SIL bought us a Cuisinart ice-cream maker with an extra canister.  Although we’ve made ice-cream several times, this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of two canisters by making two flavors, one right after the other.  We now have a LOT of ice cream in the freezer, particularly since last week we had some Ben & Jerry’s coupons and decided to stock up.  The beneficiaries of this creamy frozen treasure trove will be our apartment-swapping friends Betty, Alma and Martín, who will arrive here from San Francisco as we wend our way west next week to take over their home in the Mission after a week's stay with friends in Berkeley.  That's fine; we plan to spend a lot of time at Mitchell's.

“Peaches and Cream” Sorbet/Ice-Cream Swirl
This turned out even better than I'd hoped.  We've been enjoying it late at night on warm evenings, when it's just right to satisfy the desire for something cool and lightly sweet but not too sticky.  Neither heavy nor cloying, it seems to strike a nice balance between luxurious and refreshing.   

Part I:  Simple But Excellent Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
I created this a couple of weeks ago.  I had just baked a peach-apricot-blueberry pie but knew that even if I wanted homemade ice-cream with it, I didn’t have enough patience remaining to a) stand over the stove making a custard in the heat, b) chill it down, and then c) freeze it.  G commented that this actually tastes more like “frozen custard” than the usual custard-based vanilla.  After some thought, I figured this was probably due to the condensed milk, which has a pronounced “cooked-milk” flavor.  This ice-cream is amazingly simple and yields very fast, extraordinarily creamy and delicious results.  The only planning ahead you need to do is to remember to freeze the inner canister of your ice-cream maker if you have one that requires 6 to 24 hours in your fridge’s little tiny freezing compartment or in your big ol’ freezer.

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups excellent heavy cream*
1/2 - 1 cup whole milk
1 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon best-quality vanilla extract (Nielsen Massey preferred)
pinch salt

Stir together the condensed milk and 2 cups of the cream.  Split open the vanilla bean and scrape as many of the seeds as you can into the milk/cream mixture (and then of course put the spent bean into the container of vanilla sugar in your pantry).  Add the vanilla extract and the salt.  Taste.  If it’s way too achingly sweet for you, add 1/2 cup of milk and taste it again.  Add more milk if you need to.  You want it to be just a little too sweet for your taste, since when the mixture is eaten frozen it will dull the palate and not taste quite as sweet as it does at room temp.   Many condensed milk ice-cream recipes call for sugar in addition to what’s already in the condensed milk, which makes my teeth hurt just to think about it.  When it reaches the desired level of sweetness, pour it into your ice-cream maker and freeze. 

*Get the best, heaviest organic cream you can find – I like Vermont-based Butterworks Farm Jersey cream, or failing that, Ronnybrook Farm Dairy (which is not strictly organic) or Organic Valley, which I find the best brands to be had in my area.

Part II:  Peach Sorbet (adapted from Cooks Illustrated, July 1995)
This is an incredibly aromatic and refreshing sorbet, quite delectable all by itself.  The quality of the ingredients are key here, of course.  Your peaches should be local, fragrant, recently picked and perfectly ripe, probably from a farmers’ market.  Try to obtain a really good peach liqueur (crème de pêche, crème de peche de vigne, or liqueur pêches).  Either something French or one made by a small artisanal grower will be exponentially better than the syrupy, often artificially-flavored schnapps or fruit cordials from big liquor industry producers in the U.S.

6 beautifully ripe peaches, blanched and peeled
1/2 cup water
juice of 1/2 lime
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons crème de pêche or other good peach liquer

Slice and pit the peaches.  Purée them in the food processor.  Pour the puree into a bowl, and add the sugar and liqueur.  Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, then chill the mixture until cold in the refrigerator.  Freeze in the ice-cream maker. 

Part III:  Assembly

Make the vanilla first, and let it freeze a bit while the peach sorbet is churning.  Get your containers ready – you’re going to need about 5 pint containers.  It’s up to you to decide how many you want of the mixed swirl, and whether or not you want a pint or so of just peach sorbet and one of just vanilla.  When the peach sorbet is thick and nicely frozen, you have to work quickly.  Take the vanilla ice-cream out of the freezer and put some into the desired container. Make deep swirly grooves and valleys in it with a spoon.  Pack the sorbet into the valleys, and fold and swirl them together some more, making an effort not to actually mix the two ices.  You want to maintain them as separate ribbons in the frozen dessert.  Cover and freeze again until fairly solid but still scoopable.  Repeat until you’ve filled up all your containers.  When ready, serve in beautiful dishes with lovely homemade madeleines or something good like that. 

Makes about 5 pints – 3 mixed, and one each of peach and vanilla.

Comments

[Ivonne]

Well done! Brava! The ice cream/sorbet looks so refreshing and I for one loved the rap!

[Tanna]

That's awesome. I'm always so surprised when I read something like that and it actually works.
That looks excellent!

[Cyd Bus]

The peaches look scrumptious. Here in Montana , owning a greenhouse has been a way of providing our guests here at the Fish Creek House B&B with quality, fresh and mostly organic fruits and vegetables. Right now the strawberries are just divine and offer us the chance to serve dessert ... for breakfast!

What better way to conjure up memories of the joys of youth than strawberry shortcake? Summers spent upstate NY at the Pine Hill Arms Hotel inspired this recipe.. Strawberry shortcake consists of sliced strawberries that have been macerated with whipped cream served over a white cake or biscuit. I'm from the camp that insists that strawberry shortcake is made with a biscuit, not a cake. Growing up we always made the shortcake biscuits with Bisquick baking mix, which now, thankfully, has a zero-transfat version of their product. The best of course are biscuits made from scratch, using butter and cream. I've included recipes here for excellent homemade biscuits, and the Bisquick biscuits.

Strawberries and whipping cream:

3 baskets of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
Whipping cream
Vanilla

Remove the stems from the strawberries. Slice into thin (1/4" to 1/8") slices. Put into a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet the strawberries are to begin with) and mix into the strawberries. Set aside at room temperature to macerate (which means that the sugar will soften the strawberries and help release their juices).

After the strawberries have been sitting for 20 minutes or so, take a potato masher and mash them a little. Not too much, just enough to get more juice out of them.

Whip the cream, adding a drop or two of vanilla and a teaspoon of sugar.

To serve, break up one biscuit per person into big pieces into a bowl. Ladle strawberries over the biscuit. Add a dolop of whipped cream.

Biscuits from scratch

3 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Toss with a fork to combine. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork until the largest pieces of butter are the size of peas. (Or pulse several times in a food processor.) Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure. Make a well in the center of the flour and and pour the cream mixture into the well. Mix with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened and just combined; it should look shaggy and still fel a little dry. Gently knead by hand five or six times to create a loose ball.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat, cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 9 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

Makes 9 biscuits.

Bisquick biscuits:

2 1/3 cups Bisquick baking mix
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp sugar

The strawberry shortcake biscuit recipe used to be on the side of the Bisquick box. For some unfathomable reason, the company has started to print the recipe on the inside of the box. Talk about not understanding your customers! If you can't find the recipe, here it is:

Heat oven to 425°F. Stir baking mix, melted butter, milk, and 3 Tbsp of sugar in a mixing bowl until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls on to a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 6 biscuits.

[Columbus Foodie]

Wow oh wow. You've almost inspired me (heck, you *have* inspired me) to break out my ice cream maker and head out to the farmer's market this weekend to pick up what's left of this season's peaches. Calories be damned.

[Gloves Log]

It can never be complete without the wine. Such a delicious dinner.

[air max shoes]

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and pat it into an 8-inch square, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat, cover with plastic and chill for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Heat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the dough from refrigerator. Cut the dough into 9 even squares and spread them about 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits are medium golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes.

[lacoste 2010]

Wow oh wow. You've almost inspired me (heck, you *have* inspired me) to break out my ice cream maker and head out to the farmer's market this weekend to pick up what's left of this season's peaches. Calories be damned.

[ugg online]

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[Trent Williams Jersey]

It can never be complete without the wine. Such a delicious dinner.