Muscadine & Scuppernong Sorbet

Muscadines & scuppernongs. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

As sure as shootin' that a hurricane will blow through and send Weather Channel reporters scrambling to the Gulf Coast, the wild grapes of autumn will appear in farmers markets and supermarket produce stands in late August and early September. Scuppernongs, (the green ones) and muscadines (the purple ones) are cultivated wild grapes, meant for eating out of hand and in recipes.

 If you’ve never tasted wild grapes, be prepared for a thick skin and a bright, sweet burst of juicy grape flesh. In the store, look for clean, unblemished grapes in the quart package. (And I'm sure I'm not the only shopper who does this - checking the package bottom to ensure berries and grapes are fresh - that's where the spoilage first appears.) Although the grapes can be quite large, sometimes the size of small plums, look for smaller grapes - the flavor will be more concentrated.

Muscadines & scuppernongs. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I've always considered wild grapes to be an out-of-hand food until last fall, when Ritz-Carlton Atlanta Chef Brian Jones served muscadines in a palate-cleansing sorbet at the Atlanta Grill. Chef Jones is a Southerner with an affection for our native foodways, including wild grapes.

Grapes in food processor. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Inspired by Chef Brian, I replicated the muscadine sorbet, adding scuppernongs into the mix. With an ice cream maker, sorbets are very simple to make – just crushed fruit and simple syrup, strained and frozen. I have a Krups LaGlaciere that’s about 10 years old – the most difficult part is remembering to put the canister in the freezer overnight before making the sorbet. 

Wild grape sorbet. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Wild Grape Sorbet from Muscadines & Scuppernongs

I made this at home using vanilla sugar (simply a split vanilla bean placed in a jar of granulated sugar) for extra oomph, but plain granulated sugar works just the same. The recipe can also be frozen in popsicle molds, perfect for children, because my kids loved this!

1 cup water

½ cup sugar

1 slice lemon

1 quart muscadines, washed and dried

Ice cream maker

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water and sugar and lemon; stir until sugar is dissolved.  Let cool to room temperature.

2. Place clean grapes in a food processor, pulse to a coarse grind. Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and transfer pulp to strainer. With the back of a spatula, press juice from the pulp. Be patient and gentle; this step takes time to get all the juice out of the pulp. Discard solids.

3. Combine juice and simple syrup. Place in refrigerator to chill, then freeze according to ice cream maker's instructions.

 Inspired by Chef Brian Jones' muscadine sorbet at the Atlanta Grill, Ritz-Carlton downtown.

Text and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer. 

Wild grapes of autumn

Muscadine sorbet. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The muscadine season in Georgia lasts just a couple of months in autumn, but like it is with the sweetest watermelons of June or the juiciest heirloom tomatoes of August, it’s worth the wait. Paulk Family Vineyards in Wray, in middle Georgia, is the country’s largest grower of muscadines, a wild but cultivated grape. Muscadines are considered the "superfruit of the South" - the University of Georgia studied the grapes and determined that they have high levels of ellagic acid, which inhibits the growth of abnormal cells, and very high total antioxidants, according to Paulk's website.

Muscadine grapes. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 If you’ve never tasted a muscadine, be prepared for a thick skin and a bright, sweet burst of juicy grape flesh. In the store, look for clean, unblemished grapes in the quart package. (And I'm sure I'm not the only shopper who does this - checking the package bottom to ensure berries and grapes are fresh - that's where the spoilage first appears.) With muscadines, look for smaller grapes - the flavor will be more concentrated.

Ritz-Carlton Atlanta Chef Brian Jones serves muscadines in a palate-cleansing sorbet at the Atlanta Grill. Chef Jones is a Southerner with an affection for our native foodways, including muscadine grapes. He uses them in house-made jams and jellies (more on this tomorrow!), crushed and infused in vodka, and in a syrup for waffles and pancakes.

Inspired by Chef Brian, I replicated the muscadine sorbet. With an ice cream maker, sorbets are very simple to make – just crushed fruit and simple syrup, strained and frozen. I have a Krups LaGlaciere that’s about 10 years old – the most difficult part is remembering to put the canister in the freezer overnight before making the sorbet.

Muscadine Sorbet

I made this at home using vanilla sugar (simply a split vanilla bean placed in a jar of granulated sugar) for extra oomph, but plain granulated sugar works just the same. The recipe can also be frozen in popsicle molds, perfect for children, because my kids loved this!

1 cup water

½ cup sugar

1 quart muscadines, washed and dried

Ice cream maker

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water and sugar, stir until sugar is dissolved.  Let cool to room temperature.

2. Place clean grapes in a food processor, pulse to a coarse grind. Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and transfer pulp to strainer. With the back of a spatula, press juice from the pulp. Be patient and gentle; this step takes time to get all the juice out of the pulp. Discard solids.

3. Combine juice and simple syrup. Place in refrigerator to chill, then freeze according to ice cream maker's instructions.

Stay tuned for Chef Brian's muscadine jam recipe tomorrow!

Inspired by Chef Brian Jones' muscadine sorbet at the Atlanta Grill, Ritz-Carlton downtown.

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer. 

Muscadine jam recipe provided by Brian Jones of Ritz-Carlton Atlanta.

Easy ice cream, vegan and gluten-free

Banana soft-serve ice cream. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Looking for a simple frozen dessert recipe? One that will please vegans, the gluten-free crowd, the lactose intolerant, diabetics and kids big or small? Try this one-ingredient frozen dessert that doesn’t even require an ice cream maker – banana soft serve.


It’s a tasty and frugal dessert that can be whipped up in just a few hours. Purchase over-ripe bananas from a local Atlanta supermarket, peel and slice them, freeze for a couple of hours and blitz in the food processor for a minute or two, until it’s fluffy and smooth. The soft serve dessert may be eaten right away or frozen for a scoopable texture.

Sliced bananas, ready for the freezer. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

In its purest state, this is an easy dessert to please guests with dietary challenges, but it’s also a blank canvas for culinary upgrades. A bit of honey (not vegan, though)  or agave nectar and lemon can perk up the flavors, and mix-ins such as chocolate chips dress up the dessert.

Super-ripe bananas. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Banana Soft Serve “Ice Cream”

Serves 4 to 6

6 medium ripe bananas

Optional: Juice of ½ lemon, 2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

Mix-ins such as chocolate chips, chopped peanuts or almonds, fresh berries.

1. Peel bananas and slice into 1-inch chunks. Place in a zipper lock bag and freeze for at least two hours.

2. Remove bag from freezer and place banana chunks into bowl of food processor. Add lemon and honey or agave nectar, if using.

3. Process for one minute, then check consistency of frozen banana puree. If mixture still has chunks, continue processing in 10 second intervals until it reaches the desired texture.

4. Serve immediately, with mix-ins. The banana soft serve may be stored in airtight container in the freezer.

If you have extra uber-ripe bananas, make my favorite banana bread or create an elegant and easy ice cream topping.




Best banana bread - ever! Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Splendid Ice Cream with Cherries (!)

Goat cheese ice cream with roasted cherries by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

An artist’s eye and confectioner’s soul have led Jeni Britton Bauer to create rich, flavorful ice creams that tempt the palate. Bauer is the founder of “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams” with 10 stores in her native Ohio and now expanding into Tennessee. Her revolutionary flavors and ice cream bases are tailored to at-home ice cream artists in her new book, “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home” (Artisan, 2011).

Jeni Britton Bauer by Stacy Newgent

In Jeni’s Splendid stores, Bauer and her employees use fresh local produce in their unusual flavor combinations, all made by hand in small batches. Salty Caramel is her signature flavor, and just perusing the book turns up mouth-watering temptations like Roasted Cherry Goat Cheese, Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry, Backyard Mint, Sweet Basil and Honeyed Pine Nut, Watermelon Lemonade Sorbet, and the Buckeye State Ice Cream: Honeyed Peanut Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Freckles.

The flavors are intriguing, but technique is what grabbed me – Jeni’s ice creams do not use eggs, instead substituting a cornstarch slurry to thicken the ice cream base and finishing with a smidge of cream cheese. Unlike my go-to custard-style ice cream, Jeni’s recipes yield a scoop-able frozen cream that is not the least bit grainy, but smooth and rich.

In the charming intro to the book, Jeni tells the story of her business and the pursuit of the ultimate ice cream. It’s a tale of an art student seeking fulfillment and small business success –there are lessons beyond the kitchen that can be found in here.

The kitchen is where the book really shines – the 100 recipes are arranged according to season, highlighting what’s fresh and in the markets during each month. Extras include tutorials for sundaes, a luscious-looking Baked Alaska Pie (Jeni’s a fan of Italian Meringue, too!), and recipes for marshmallows, cake and assorted sweet mix-ins and accessories (Honey Butterscotch Sauce is kind of calling my name right now).

It’s no secret that I love cookbooks – I read them compulsively to relax and gather ideas for feeding my family. It’s rare for me, though, to bookmark recipes that I intend to come back to. I couldn’t find sticky notes, so I tore up a scribble pad and marked all the flavors I want need to make. Tres Leches Ice Cream (“airy morsels of meringue and cubes of buttery cake in a light coconut-milk and cow’s milk ice cream”). Wild Berry Lavender Ice Cream (“intense lavender with hints of exotic spices and brambly berry flavors”). Do yourself a flavor and pick up a pack of sticky notes when you buy a copy of “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.” If you don't have an ice cream maker, start shopping now. I've used a Krups LaGlaciere countertop model for at least 10 years and I love it. If you do have an ice cream maker, consider getting a second one - you're going to want to try every recipe in the book.

Chopped dark cherries ready for roasting by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Roasted Cherry Goat Cheese Ice Cream

Cherries are my husband's favorite fruit, so it was natural to gravitate to this recipe. The roasted cherries are dead easy, and I will use the oven-roasting technique again: sugar + cornstarch + fruit + oven heat = syrupy roasted fruit bliss. The verdict on taste: "frozen fudge" - and that's a good thing - a slight tang from the goat cheese gives a kiss of spring to the sweet fruit and creamy dairy texture.

Makes 1 quart ice cream

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup (about 4 ounces) fresh goat cheese
1 ½ ounce (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
Roasted Cherries (see below)

1. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the goat cheese, cream cheese, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

2. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn surup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

3. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

4. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, alternating it with layers of the cherries and ending with a spoonful of cherries; do not mix. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Goat cheese ice cream with roasted cherries by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Roasted Cherries
Makes about 1 ¼ cups

2 cups pitted fresh or frozen (not thawed) red or black cherries
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Combine the cherries, sugar and cornstarch in a 9-inch square baking dish, tossing to mix. Roast for 30 to 45 minutes, until the juices are thickened and bubbly, stirring every 15 minutes. Let cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator.

From JENI’S SPLENDID ICE CREAMS AT HOME by Jeni Britton Bauer, Artisan Books, Copyright © 2011, Author photograph by Stacy Newgent.

"Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home" by Jeni Britton Bauer, hardcover, 217 pages. $23.95 list price. The publisher sent me a review copy. There was no compensation for this review and my opinions are my own. They're lovely opinions, aren't they?

Not-so-plain Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla ice cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Sometimes, I get so distracted by trying to something new that I forget that the classics are classics for a reason - they never let you down. My most recent example: my baby girl turned 13 last week, thir-teen! and she requested a rich chocolate birthday cake. Not my go-to chocolate pound cake, but something a little fancier. I found a pretty Ina Garten chocolate layer cake that filled the bill and started baking. Now, I've been putting together cakes for a long time, and this has never happened to me - when I pulled the layers out of the oven, they sank into themselves, becoming dark chocolate Frisbees.

Time for Plan B: my hasn't-failed-me-yet fudgy brownie recipe with a side of homemade vanilla ice cream. I love to make ice cream at home.

Ice cream freezer by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

And no, that's not my everyday ice cream maker - just a $4 estate sale find from a few years ago. I use a Krups La Glaciere, the kind with the canister you pop into the freezer (really, it's best to just keep it in the freezer all summer long so it's always ready for ice cream-making).

You can make this ice cream ahead of time and let it harden in the freezer, but I think it's best served soft, just out of the canister. The generous dose of cream fluffs up, creating a silky mouthfeel. Served alongside a warm, fudgy brownie, it's a winning birthday dessert.


Not-So-Plain Vanilla Ice Cream

¾ cup sugar

2 cups whole milk

2 eggs

1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract


1. Prepare your ice cream maker before beginning the recipe. I use a Krups La Glaciere that requires the canister to be frozen about a day in advance. It resides in my freezer during prime ice cream-making months. If going the rock salt-and-ice route, make sure you have plenty of salt and ice, the canister is clean and that you have a place to churn the ice cream, and if it requires hand-cranking, gather the excited young’uns together and tell them they’re about to experience one of the great joys of childhood: cranking ice cream.

2. In a medium saucepan, and I use nonstick, combine sugar and eggs over medium heat. Heat milk in measuring cup in microwave for one minute to take the refrigerator chill off of it and then whisk it into egg mixture. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking all the while, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a metal spoon, about 10 minutes.

3. Have ready a bowl and sieve. Remove custard from heat and pour through sieve to remove any egg solids, (discard the solids, of course). Let custard cool, then place in airtight container and refrigerate for up to two days.

4. When ready to freeze, add whipping cream and vanilla and freeze according to ice cream maker’s instructions. This ice cream is fluffy and soft served from the ice cream maker. Place any leftover ice cream in an airtight container and store in freezer.

Brownie and vanilla ice cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Lemon love affair continues: Lemon Ice cream

Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

If you're a regular reader of A Cook and Her Books, then you've already seen this ice cream - it's the melting blob in the puddle of Blackberry Doobie, a delicious old-fashioned and very Southern dessert. (Preserve a bit of Southern history and make it with the fresh blackberries in the markets now.)

Blackberry Doobie with Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This ice cream makes me so happy that I just feel the need to give it its own post, its own little corner of the blogosphere. Because, you know, when life gives you lemons...

You haul out the Krups, the eggs and the half-n-half and make Lemon Ice Cream!

Lemon-Ginger Ice Cream
The ginger is optional, but quite delicious. Look for candied ginger near the Asian ingredients.(You can also make your own candied by ginger by cooking sliced ginger in a sugar syrup.)


3 lemons, zested and juiced

2/3 cup sugar

4 cups half-and-half, divided

5 egg yolks, whites saved for another purpose (angel food cake!)

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 2-inch slices crystallized ginger, finely diced, divided

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 cup of half-and-half, the sugar, the lemon zest and ½ of the chopped, crystallized ginger. Stir with a whisk until sugar is dissolved and let it come to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for at least 15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until thick and lemony in color. Slowly add the half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats a spoon. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl.

3. Add ½ cup of lemon juice, the vanilla, and the remaining chopped, crystallized ginger to the strained custard, whisking until combined. Add 3 cups half-and-half, whisking again. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Store in airtight container in freezer.





Lemons by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.
 

Blackberry winter

Blackberry Doobie with Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Spring comes early in Georgia, and like the best dinner guest, knows when to leave. We can spend Easter afternoon in flip-flops and shorts and Mother’s Day poolside, but every now and then we get a taste of what the old-timers call blackberry winter, a cold snap just as the wild blackberries come into fruit. Blackberry winter is in contrast to Indian summer, the warmish spell in autumn. The chilly temps are said to sweeten the ripening berries.

Evening temperatures usually hover in the 50s in late April, rising to the 60s in May, just enough chill in the air to make you grab a sweater before leaving for work in the morning. Every now and then the white witch of winter will sweep her frosty gaze across the land in May, and we scurry to locate sweatshirts and long pants and only recently forgotten socks. In addition to the wardrobe change, blackberry winter can put a hurting on tender annuals and other blooming glories of spring, like azaleas and rhododendrons, turning their vibrant blooms to brown mush.

Blackberries by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Blackberry winter visited us last week, two nights of temps in the upper 30s, which meant making a place inside for the herb seedlings I’d left in pots on the porch. Down went a bathmat by the front door, and I placed upon it pots of chives, basil (both sweet and purple ruffle), Italian parsley, rosemary and thyme. (I will consider myself a true gardening success if I can get the thyme and rosemary to grow – both plants can put up with the suffocating heat of July and August in north Georgia, but I need to get them through a frosty May first.)

Blackberry, the plant, and I are old friends. I don’t have the barefoot memories of picking berries as a youngster, but since we cleared the land for our house, I know a lot about the thorny vines. We pull on our long pants and long sleeves and gingerly approach the fearsome plants, more afraid of the chiggers, (some call them red bugs), than the skin-piercing thorns. My granddaddy used to dust his ankles with stinky sulfur powder to keep the chiggers away when he went hiking. On our scrubby, woodsy acres, we’ve pursued the wild blackberries, pulling them up by the roots, until they’re nearly gone. To be honest, I don’t miss the tiny, seedy berries, and I certainly don’t miss the thorns and red bugs. I do, however, like to pick a couple pints of fat blackberries from the market and make Bellwether’s blackberry doobie, an old-fashioned stewed fruit dessert with buttery dumplings that soak up the sweet, tart berry juice. I serve this bubbling fruit stew with frosty lemon ginger ice cream – a month of weather extremes reflected in dessert.




Bellwether's Blackberry Doobie with Lemon Ginger Ice Cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books




Bellwether’s Blackberry Doobie
Bellwether Vance is a wonderful, witty writer and cook on the Florida Gulf Coast. Her stories appear on Open Salon every couple of weeks and I look forward to her posts as much as I do my children's artwork (that is to say, very, very much - they are treasures). This is her Blackberry Doobie recipe taught to her by her grandmother.

For the blackberry broth:

2 (12 oz.) packages fresh blackberries

Water to cover

½ cup of sugar (or more, depending on the sweetness of the blackberries)

Juice of ½ lemon

1. Place the berries in a medium saucepan and add enough water to cover the blackberries. Stir in the other ingredients. Simmer over medium heat for fifteen minutes - tasting and adjusting the sweetness and acidity along the way. Set aside to steep and cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Strain using a fine-mesh strainer, and return the strained juice to the saucepan. Heat to a low boil.

For the dumplings:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes

½ cup buttermilk (whole, if you can find it)

1. Combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Add the buttermilk, kneading it into a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press out to ¼-inch thickness. Using a knife, cut into strips that measure about 1 ½ inches wide and 2 ½ inches long.

2. Drop the dumplings, one at a time, into the bubbling broth. Once all the dumplings are in, lower the heat slightly and let it simmer at a slow bubble for 10-12 minutes, stirring gently every few minutes. Remove from the heat and let it sit for at least 20 minutes to cool and thicken. Serve warm with a scoop of lemon-ginger ice cream.



Lemon-Ginger Ice Cream

3 lemons, zested and juiced

2/3 cup sugar

4 cups half-and-half, divided

5 egg yolks, whites saved for another purpose (angel food cake!)

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 2-inch slices crystallized ginger, finely diced, divided

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 cup of half-and-half, the sugar, the lemon zest and ½ of the chopped, crystallized ginger. Stir with a whisk until sugar is dissolved and let it come to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for at least15 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until thick and lemony in color. Slowly add the half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats a spoon. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large bowl.

3. Add ½ cup of lemon juice, the vanilla, and the remaining chopped, crystallized ginger to the strained custard, whisking until combined. Add 3 cups half-and-half, whisking again. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Store in airtight container in freezer.

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

Don't Bother Me, I'm on Vacation: April Fools!



Ice Cream Sand Castle by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Oh, girls, guess where we’re going for spring break? The sandy beaches of Florida, where you can dip your toesies in the warm Gulf waters and frolic in the sand. You can build sand castles all day long, instead of staying at home in Georgia, watching the cherry blossoms fall.

April Fools!

Instead of digging our feet into the sand, we'll dig our spoons into a sand castle cake made of ice cream. This cake is fairly simple to make, just molded ice cream coated with sugar. The time-consuming part is two stages in the freezer. If you're making this for a party, be sure to start a day or two ahead of serving time.

Sand Castle Ice Cream Cake

1 gallon light-colored ice cream, such as vanilla

3 cups natural cane sugar (you could also use sifted light brown sugar)

Clean sand pail and castle molds

1. Soften ice cream either at room temperature for about 15 minutes or in the microwave for 30 seconds. Scoop or spoon soft ice cream into sand castle mold. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid, about 3 hours, or overnight.

2. Remove molds from freezer. Fill sink with several inches of hot-as-you-can-stand-it water. Dip mold into water until it releases the ice cream.

3. This is the part where you do as I say rather than as I did: Coat the molded ice cream with sugar, cover with plastic wrap and return to the freezer until ready to serve.

4. At serving time, take ice cream out of the freezer, unwrap and turn out onto sugar bed. Arrange molds attractively. Cover sand castles with additional sugar, if needed, then decorate with small paper flags and candy.

The recipe is adapted from ideas in "The Family Baker" by Susan Purdy and Family Fun magazine. By the way, I have a lot of respect for food stylists - this was a bear to photograph - it looked more like a sand castle before I took the picture on a hot afternoon! Decidedly unprofessional, but certainly delicious according to the kid-tasters!

Text and images copyright Lucy Mercer, 2010.

Warm, hot, icy and spicy: An ice cream sandwich for Valentine's Day

I wrote this story in February 2010 for the Salon Kitchen Challenge. My assignment was to create a recipe using chocolate and chile together. It's a flavor combination that I love - both in savory and sweet dishes. When I thought about chocolate chile ganache, as in a truffle, I thought how nice it would be to have something cold and creamy to counteract the heat. That's how I ended up with cinnamon ice cream, chocolate cookies and chocolate-chile ganache. It's still one of my favorite creations, and worth making again very soon, to eat, and to take another picture - this one doesn't do them justice. 

Some days, I feel just like a minivan mom, which in fact, I am. But underneath this practical exterior beats the heart of Bizet's Carmen, a Gypsy vixen in Spain who sings in French and drives the men crazy. In my fantasies, I wear a red dress, sing like Jessye Norman and vamp like Jessica Rabbit.

I may be in my car, in an endless carpool line, but my mind is in sunny Seville, and after I dance and sing, I’m left to wonder: “What will I serve my lover Don Jose for Valentine’s Day?” To the strains of “Habanera,” I compose a dessert of fire and ice, cinnamon ice cream and chile-laced ganache sandwiched between chocolate cookies. Rich chocolate, spicy cinnamon and sweet cream tease your taste buds then the chile hits the back of your mouth and lingers near your throat. This cool dessert sizzles, and it’s meant to be eaten with your hands. Now, that’s sexy.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Ice Cream Sandwiches with Chile Chocolate Ganache
There are three components to the sandwiches: ice cream, cookies and chile ganache. All three elements can be made in advance. Assembly should take place a few hours before serving so they can set up.

Yield: 8 sandwiches.


Cinnamon Ice Cream

1 ½ cups whole milk

1 ½ cups heavy cream

¾ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

7 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, cream, sugar, pinch of salt and cinnamon stick and heat until scalding, which means that little bubbles will appear inside the perimeter of the pan. Remove pan from heat and let the cinnamon steep for 15 minutes.

2. Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar together. Slowly add some of the cooled cream mixture to the eggs, tempering them. Now, reverse and add the egg mixture slowly to the cream, whisking constantly to completely incorporate the eggs.

3. Cook the mixture over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The doneness test is when the custard is thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard the cinnamon stick and any flotsam.

4. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. I use a Krups with the canister that you keep in the freezer. Once ice cream is complete, store in an airtight container in the freezer.

Chocolate Cookies

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon salt


1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and nearly white-colored. Beat in the egg, cooled and melted chocolate, and vanilla extract.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, and salt. Pour into the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined.

3. Shape dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Chill for one hour in the fridge.

4. Preheat oven to 400. On a floured surface, roll out dough to ¼ inch thick and use a 3-inch round cutter to cut out cookies. Roll scraps with scraps and cut until all the dough is used. Carefully transfer (an offset spatula is handy for this task) the cookies to a Silpat-lined cookie sheet.

5. Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes or until the edges are just crisp. Set on wire rack to cool. After five minutes, use a spatula to remove cookies and place them on the wire rack to cool completely. If not using right away, place in an airtight container and store at room temperature.

Chile Ganache

Kid friendly note: the cinnamon ice cream and the cookie are kid pleasers, the chile ganache for serious chile heads only. Make some ganache without the chile for the kids, or make the sandwiches plain without the ganache. Leftover chile ganache can be chilled and rolled into truffles; dust with cocoa powder and additional chile powder.

8 oz. cream

8 oz. dark chocolate such as Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa or Green & Black’s Organic Dark 70%

1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (this is gringo heat, two teaspoons is fiery Gypsy heat)

1. Bring cream to scald, just below boiling, with bubbles on the perimeter. Break chocolate into pieces in a bowl. Pour warm cream over chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Cool to room temperature. Store in refrigerator.

Assembly

You’ll need a roll of plastic wrap in addition to the cookies, ganache and ice cream. If the ice cream is too hard to scoop, zap in microwave for 15 seconds at a time.


1. On a sheet of plastic wrap, place one cookie. Scoop the ice cream onto the cookie. Spoon a generous portion of ganache on a second cookie, place the two together and gently squeeze until the filling just meets the edge. Wrap in plastic and place in freezer. Continue with remaining cookies. Store cookies in an airtight container in freezer.

L'amour! L'amour! L'amour! L'amour!
L'amour est enfant de Bohème,
il n'a jamais, jamais connu de loi;
si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime:
si je t'aime, prends garde à toi!

Baked Aleutian Cupcakes & HMFPIC

Peaches by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

"HMFPIC - You Know Where"

If you hold Macon, Georgia, near to your heart then you recognize the acronym HMFPIC from the classified ad placed in the Macon Telegraph & News each June 1st. The ad didn't announce a clandestine meeting, but an ice cream event - Homemade Fresh Peach Ice Cream at Len Berg’s restaurant on Post Office Alley next to the Federal Courthouse.

Macon is close to Fort Valley in nearby Peach County, home of the Blue Bird Bus Company and the sweet Georgia peaches at Lane Southern Orchards. When the first peaches were picked and brought to Len Berg’s, they were churned into a creamy vanilla custard ice cream. To get the word out, each June 1, Maconites could look in the back pages of the Telegraph, not in a display ad, but the classifieds, for the cryptic message: “HMFPIC - You Know Where.”

Len Berg's was an original - in business from 1908 until it closed just a few years ago. The building was small, with unusually low ceilings, but the location, especially to feed the lunch crowd, was great - in the downtown business district close to both the Federal and the County courthouses. The menu was classic meat-and-two-or-three, with excellent Southern vegetables. I managed to get to Len Berg’s a few years before it closed. I had some tasty fried chicken and a pimento cheese sandwich - this is kind of a Macon thing, like chicken and waffles everywhere else. And we concluded with HMFPIC.



Peaches and cream ice cream by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



I make my own HMFPIC and the key is to use dead ripe peaches, the soft fragrant fruit that is just hours from being compost. Here’s my version of peach ice cream, using these gorgeous California peaches - I know, I should be ashamed, but the market had California peaches, not Georgia ones. They are pretty, though, aren’t they?

Georgia Peach Ice Cream

I have a tried and true custard recipe for vanilla ice cream, but this recipe, adapted from "Beans, Greens and Sweet Georgia Peaches" by Savannah food writer Damon Lee Fowler, is divine in its simplicity. This is truly peaches and cream, frozen with sugar and salt and vanilla, simply delicious and easy.

4 large, ripe peaches

Juice of one-half lemon

1 cup sugar, divided

1 quart heavy cream

Salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Peel the peaches, halve and rough chop. Place them in a food processor and pulse a few times until the mixture is a coarse puree. Place the peaches in a bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar. Let sit at room temperature for one half hour.

2. In another bowl, dissolve remaining 3/4 cup sugar in the cream. Add a pinch of salt and pour the cream over the peaches, stirring to combine. Let this mixture sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours and up to a day before freezing it in an ice cream maker. Follow manufacturer's instructions for freezing the ice cream.

I use a Krups ice cream maker, the kind with the canister that goes in the freezer. I’ve had many kinds of ice cream freezers through the years, beginning with the hand-crank kind that required ritual layering of ice and rock salt. I found this cute ice cream maker at an estate sale for $4. I’m hoping the American Pickers will stop at my house and offer $10, then I’ll know I did well. Hey, Paul Hinrichs, betcha don’t have one of these!

Hand-cranked ice cream maker by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

You can finish reading the story here, but if you’re the kind of person, like me, who enjoys a culinary challenge, then get ready to make the coolest cupcakes you’ve ever seen - Baked Alaska cupcakes, or as I’ve come to call them, Baked Aleutians.

Baked Aleutian Cupcakes by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

This is my year of Baked Alaska. I turned one out in February for the SKC Frozen Treats category, in honor of the Jamaican bobsled team of the Calgary Olympics. It was a Roasted Banana Coconut Ice Cream with Blue Mountain Coffee Ganache in Pound Cake smothered in a marshmallowy Italian Meringue. It was exquisite and yummy and a glorious pain in the patootie to make - cake, ice cream, ganache, meringue. Take a picture and eat.

Upon seeing that the category for this week was ice cream and that frozen desserts such as Baked Alaska were welcome, I emailed Francis Lam informing him that I had made my Baked Alaska for 2010, but (I’m not sure where this even came from) I might make a Baked Alaska cupcake. Just off the top of my head, I wrote that it would have to be called Baked Aleutians. Francis’ reply - if I made Baked Aleutians, that would be genius. That my friends is a gauntlet, the glove on the ground that I can’t ignore. It was time to don my apron and attack the kitchen.

The gauntlet: my oven mitt. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Baked Aleutians with Fresh Peach Ice Cream

Baked Alaska and Baked Aleutians require three elements: cake, ice cream and meringue. The cake and ice cream are baker's choice; the meringue is fairly straightforward. Here's how to put it together:

1. For one dozen cupcakes, you will need pound cake baked in muffin tins with paper liners. After they are baked, scoop out a small portion of the filling so the ice cream has a cup to hold it.

2. Scoop of ice cream. I used Fresh Peach Ice Cream for a dreamy taste of Georgia summer.

Hollowed-out cupcakes ready for ice cream. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

3. A generous swirl of meringue. This is a glorious thing to have in one’s repertoire. Shirley Corriher’s Italian meringue from "Bakewise" is tried and true and will launch this dessert into the stratosphere.

4. You can be fancy and pipe the meringue, but I used a spoon and swirled it onto the ice cream. If you're the kind to use a pastry bag, you probably have a brulee torch on hand, too, and that does a beautiful job. The assembled cupcakes toasted in an oven set on 375° for 10 minutes.

I served the Baked Aleutians in a sea of caramel sauce.

Baked Aleutians Cupcakes with Peaches and Cream Ice Cream and Caramel Sauce by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Text and images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.

With special thanks to Abrawang, who left the Aleutians joke as a comment on my previous Baked Alaska story.

Marcus Samuelsson's lesson on rum and mango mojitos



Marcus Samuelsson's mango mojito by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


On my wrist, I wear a golden reminder of the brutal past of slavery in the Caribbean. It’s a charm of a sugar mill, a common sight in St. Croix, now in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the charm was crafted by Brian Bishop, an artisan creating jewelry in Christiansted. Bishop makes the mills accurate as they exist today - mostly abandoned, metal parts rusted or gone entirely, with trees growing through the doorless entries.

Crucian Gold charm bracelet by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The sugar mills are from the time when the Virgin Islands were a stop on the slave trade, the Triangle Trade as it was known. The Dutch who settled the islands in the 17th century enslaved Africans who were brought to the islands to plant and process the sugar. The sugar, usually in the form of molasses or sugar cane juice, was then taken to the American colonies, usually Boston, to be distilled into rum. The rum, in turn was loaded onto ships and sent to Africa were it was traded for more slaves. The Triangle trade - molasses, rum, humans, molasses, rum, humans.

When contemplating rum, as with many foods, the modern interpretation is vastly different from the historical truth. Rum today is the essence of the tourist-dependent Caribbean - a fruity, umbrella’d cocktail on a sun-bleached beach beside the deep blue sea. A good book, a comfy chair, a cooling drink, and hours spent trying to find the horizon, the place where cerulean sky and azure sea meet. Rum, with its sharp acetone fragrance, is made for fruit, especially the tropical bounty of the Caribbean - pineapple, mango and coconut distract you from the kick.

I suppose I could open up a copy of Mr. Boston's to come up with a recipe to spotlight rum, but in this case, I decided to consult a master, Top Chef Masters Season Two winner, celebrity chef and all-around nice guy Marcus Samuelsson.



Marcus Samuelsson by Pedro Soto/Foodie Atlanta


That’s right, cutie pie competitor Marcus Samuelsson, he of the engaging grin and fierce competitive streak, not to mention spiffy candy-apple red Chuck Taylors, showcased on the most recent season of the reality show that pits seasoned chefs mano a mano in food challenges. Samuelsson bested a field of 16 big-name chefs, coming out on top with a three course meal that described his culinary journey across three continents.

When I asked Marcus about rum drinks, he said immediately, “Well, do you know about rum and Barbados and the slave trade?” Samuelsson has a duality that’s apparent once you know his intriguing biography - born Kassaham Tsegie in Ethiopia 39 years ago, he lost his mother at age 3 in a tuberculosis outbreak, was then adopted by parents in Sweden, his identity changed with one airplane flight - he became Marcus Samuelsson. He found his art at his Swedish grandmother’s apron strings while learning to cook meatballs with lingonberry sauce and other comfort foods, then went on to apprentice at fine European restaurants and eventually emigrated to this country 20 years ago.

What a curious gift to see in a bottle of rum the duality of your ancestry, biological and adopted - the enslaved and the enslaver. To identify with the Africans who were forcefully taken from their homes and families to work in harsh conditions half a world away, and at the same time the Europeans who traded humans for molasses and rum. I want someday to ask Marcus more about this, but today he just had time for a recipe - dark rum (he insisted it must be dark rum), infused with mango, muddled with mint, strained and poured over ice. I'm not one to argue with the chef, especially the one who beat Susur Lee for the Top Chef Master title. (And the drink is delicious.)

Marcus Samuelsson's Mango Mojito by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Marcus’ Mango Mojito

In a large measuring bowl, place three cups of cubed mango from about 3 or 4 fruits. Fill to 4 cup mark with dark rum (I used Cruzan Rum). Chill overnight or for several days - (due to deadlines, I haven’t tested this recipe beyond the two-day mark). When ready to serve, pull out your favorite highball glass, muddle some mint leaves in the bottom, fill with ice, strain infused mango rum over all, and garnish with mint.

In Marcus‘ trademark “why do, when you can overdo” spirit (after all, his fried chicken recipe takes three days, my friends, three days to reproduce to his exacting standards), I created a Caribbean mango sorbet using the flavors of his prescribed drink. I kept it kid-friendly, using rum extract, but there’s no reason that if you’re feeding grown-ups, you couldn’t use rum-infused mango chunks from the above drink, folding them into the sorbet while it is still soft.

Mango and lime sorbet by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Sugar Mill Mango Mint Mojito Sorbet

We call the pit the “mango bone” in our house, it’s a favorite treat of my youngest daughter. When you cut up the fruit, save the mango bones and simmer them in the syrup to intensify the mango flavor. You will need an ice cream mixer for this recipe - I use a Krups with a freezable container.

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 to 4 mangoes to yield 2 cups cut fruit, saving the mango bones

2 teaspoons lime juice from ½ lime

3 or 4 mint leaves, chopped

1 teaspoon rum extract

1. In a saucepan over moderate heat, place sugar, water and mango bones. Let come to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, add lime juice, mint leaves and rum extract and let cool. After at least 15 minutes, strain through a sieve and pour in container of ice cream machine. Follow manufacturer's instructions from here. Store leftovers, those precious leftovers, in the freezer. Trust me, they won't last long.

Text and Images © 2010, Lucy Mercer, with the exception of the picture of Marcus Samuelsson, which is provided by Pedro Soto of Foodie Atlanta.

Check out Brian Bishop’s spectacular jewelry at Crucian Gold.

If you visit St. Croix today, be sure to spend a morning at the restored working sugar plantation, the Whim Great House, complete with a working windmill/sugar mill.

Marcus Samuelsson and Lucy Mercer by Susan Loper.

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Chocolate Ice Milk

My ice cream maker has been getting quite a workout lately. In the past few weeks, I've turned out cinnamon ice cream, coconut-banana ice cream and chocolate ice milk. I have a Krups LaGlaciere, circa mid-90s. It's a handy ice cream maker, definitely easier than the electric or hand-churn types of my youth that required rock salt and patience. The hard part of the Krups is remembering to put the canister in the freezer a few hours before churning time. It's easiest if I just store the canister full-time in the freezer, that way, I can make ice cream whenever the mood strikes.

The chocolate ice milk was a hit with my family, surprising since it's made with bittersweet chocolate. It began life as a failed experiment - I just thought I'd see what happens when you use milk instead of cream when making ganache. Left with grainy, rich dark chocolate syrup, I decided to try freezing, adding vanilla and sugar before churning. The resulting icy treat was rich and chocolaty, more dense than the usual ice cream, but a decidedly yummy dessert.

Chocolate Ice Milk

8 ounces whole milk

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, such as Hershey's Special Dark, broken into pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring whole milk to a simmer. Pour over broken chocolate in a bowl and stir, stir, stir until smooth. Add vanilla and granulated sugar. Let cool. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Baked Alaska (because who would eat Baked Canada?)

We are an Olympics family, in enthusiasm, if not in the sense of actually competing in any sport in a world class level, or for that matter, on a neighborhood block level. Each night since February 12th, we gather the girls, and instead of telling stories by a cozy fire, we watch sports history unfold to the flickering light of broadcast television. The Winter Olympics games in Vancouver are thrilling, I grant you, but my heart longs for the innocent Olympics of my youth, when the Games unfolded without a script. These are cynical times and as exciting as it is to watch Apolo Ohno and Shaun White, it’s just not the same as the other Canadian Olympics, 1988’s party in Calgary. When athletes like nearsighted part-time plasterer Eddie (“the Eagle”) Edwards could fly from a 90-meter ski jump and Jamaicans could cheer on their very own bobsled team.

What better symbol of the Olympic dream has there ever been than the Jamaican bobsled team? They may not have ever seen snow or temperatures cooler than 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but they knew how to run. In honor of the Jamaican team (which did not qualify for Vancouver) I’ve created a dessert of contrasts: a Baked Alaska (closest I could get to Canada) with Roasted Banana Coconut Ice Cream and Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Ganache. It is the essence of the Caribbean encased in a marshmallowy meringue igloo.

This dessert has many components and is an ideal way to fill your time while you watch ESPN’s coverage of Olympic curling. The length of the recipe may be daunting, but if Apolo Ohno can return to the short track after winning “Dancing with the Stars,” then you can certainly pick yourself up and put this together. There are four main components: pound cake, which can be storebought or homemade; roasted banana coconut ice cream (the roasted refers to the banana, not the ice cream); Blue Mountain coffee ganache; and Italian meringue.

Baked Alaska with
Roasted Banana Coconut Ice Cream

This recipe yields four igloos and one loaf. You can make a half recipe, using just one pound cake, which is plenty for eight servings (your guests will need to share igloos, though). And, yeah, I know, there are no igloos in Vancouver.

First, you will need to make:

Coconut Ice Cream with Roasted Banana Chunks

adapted from The Family Baker by Susan Purdy

3 medium bananas, peeled and sliced into 3-inch pieces

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 (13.5 oz.) can unsweetened coconut milk

1 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons light corn syrup

½ cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Place the banana pieces in a baking dish and toss with the canola oil. Bake for about 15 minutes, until soft and brown. Let the banana cool, then mash with a fork.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine coconut milk, heavy cream, corn syrup, sugar, pinches of salt and allspice. Stir for about five minutes, until bubbles appear around the perimeter of the pan. Remove from heat and add vanilla and coconut extracts.

3. Freeze coconut mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. After about five minutes of freezing, add the mashed banana to the ice cream and continue to freeze. It’s best to fill the cake while the ice cream is still soft, but if you want to make this ahead, freeze the ice cream first, then soften a few minutes at room temperature. A 15 to 30 second zap in the microwave accomplishes the same softening.

You may stop here and enjoy this tropical treat, or you can surrender your kitchen and a few hours' work to a sublime dessert. For the Baked Alaska, you will need three additional items: a couple loaves of pound cake (my recipe is top-notch), a batch of Italian meringue (more on that later) and a recipe of ganache.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Ganache

4 oz. heavy cream

4 oz. dark chocolate, such as Godiva Chocolatier Extra Dark Santo Domingo Chocolate (85% cacao)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons brewed Blue Mountain coffee

1. In a saucepan over a low flame, heat cream to just under a boil. In a bowl, break up chocolate pieces. Pour warm cream over chocolate and ask a pint-size helper to stir until smooth. Add vanilla and slowly stir in coffee. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Begin Assembly:

1. Carve out a boat in one pound cake loaf. Cut off sides and scoop out middle. Save cake bits for another purpose, like feeding any stray helpers who wander into the kitchen. For the igloos, out of the remaining loaf, use a 3-inch and a 2-inch ring to cut out four large circles and four small circles and place on foil-lined baking sheet.

2. When ice cream is ready, scoop four large and four small scoops into shallow containers and place in freezer (these are for the igloos). Fill cavity of pound cake loaf with remaining ice cream. Spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache on top of ice cream. Smooth top and wrap in foil. Place filled loaf in freezer.

3. Make Italian meringue according to your favorite recipe, or use Shirley Corriher’s recipe from "Bakewise." Which is a bit of a pain, but beautiful and your children will be absolutely thrilled when they taste this giant marshmallow.

4. Minutes before serving, have all components at hand and crank up the oven to 475. Have a foil-lined baking sheet ready. For the igloos: Put down a big circle and a little circle of cake, then place a spoonful of ganache on each cake round. Place frozen scoops of ice cream on each circle, then cover with meringue piling high. Bake in 475 degree oven for 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve immediately.

5. For the loaf: cover with meringue, mounding over the top and swirling in a pretty pattern. Bake at 475 for three to five minutes. Slice and serve immediately. Any leftovers should be frozen. They will not be as lovely the next day, but certainly tasty.

Serve the Baked Alaska to friends while watching the closing ceremonies. Think of all that snow and then turn off the tv and dream of the islands, palm trees blowing in the tropical breeze, a steel drum in the background..Pass the Dutchie, indeed.