Making the Bitter Sweet

Hi there! Rebecca is right, my absence from blogging has been inexcusable (although not as inexcusable as her failure to take a picture of our lovely lime meringue pie before it was gobbled up, ahem). I had such a wonderful time with her, Adam, Simon, and Leo in Los Angeles last month, but since then it's been back to real life, and back to baking.

Right now we're in a period of the Jewish calendar known as the Nine Days. This appropriately named period is the nine days leading up to the fast day of Tisha B'Av, a very sad holiday that commemorates the destruction of both temples in Jerusalem some two millennia ago. Among other restrictions, we don't eat meat during this time, because meat is considered a luxury that brings us happiness. The only time you can eat meat is if you've had a siyyum (i.e. if someone has finished a piece of learning), or on Shabbat. I promise, this random lesson in Jewish history and tradition gets relevant. 

So I decided to take advantage of it being Shabbat and made steak for some friends who were coming over for dinner, which meant I had to find a parve dessert, which could only mean one thing - Couldn't Be Parve! I was in luck because I found not one, but two recipes! One was for rhubarb sorbet; the other, for sugar cookies that Shoshana suggests you serve with it. The sugar cookies were good - they mostly tasted like sugar cookies, which is all you can ask for from a parve cookie. What I liked about them is that, unlike most butter-based sugar cookies, you don't have to chill the dough at all to get them to maintain their shape while they bake, so they're great if you're in a hurry, since the dough takes all of three minutes to throw together.

The rhubarb sorbet was fantastic. It was also very easy to make, as most sorbets are, but it was a lot creamier than I expected, almost more like ice cream. Rhubarb is one of those super-summery foods, and I've been making a lot of stuff with it this summer, I thought it was very appropriate for the occasion, because it's quite bitter, but dump a ton of sugar on it and it becomes sweet and delicious. The Nine Days are also bitter, but if you dump Shabbat on it...whatever, you know what I'm getting at. You can find the sorbet recipe here and the cookie recipe here. 

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Each Peach (Pear) Plum

Summer is here!  That means more time for baking and lots and lots and lots of delicious fruit at the farmer's market.  Here in LA, there is a farmer's market everywhere you turn.  We love going to Culver City, La Cienega, Beverly Hills (because our cucumber lady is there) and Mar Vista, but if you are an LA person and there are other markets you like, let me know!

There is one particular stand at the Culver City market that has a huge variety of amazing stone fruit.  They have all the standards, but also lots of interesting things, like donut peaches, red velvet apricots, pluots, and other deliciousness.

This plum ice cream came about because my husband thought he had purchased red velvet apricots for apricot ice cream.  After going back and forth and a lot of tasting, we decided they were plums, but that did not stop me from making ice cream out of them.  I used David Lebovitz's recipe for plum ice cream and the only thing I should have done was taste it before freezing it because it was so so tart.  It verged on being too tart and I should have added more sugar, but we have enjoyed eating it (although we haven't served it to guests).

After plum ice cream, I decided to make peach sorbet.  Haagen Daaz peach sorbet is one of my favorite things and this sorbet tasted exactly like that.  Sometimes when I make sorbet, it is too icy, but this one was smooth and almost creamy, even though there is no dairy in it.  Another David Lebovitz gem that is sure to make a re-appearance in our house.  You can find the recipe here.

I hope you enjoy these refreshing summer treat.  Don't forget -- when you see delicious fruit at your local market, sorbet or ice cream is always a great way to go.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Dark Chocolate Sorbet

I come not to praise Dorie Greenspan's chocolate sorbet recipe, but to...okay, I come to praise it. There's just so much to praise!
1) It is easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. No warming milk and pouring warm mixtures onto egg yolks while whisking constantly and scraping things into other things. Just throw the ingredients together, heat 'em up, and blammo. You're all set to make your sorbet (after you chill the mixture and freeze your ice cream maker's bowl for at least 8 hours, of course).
2) It is deliciously creamy, even though the recipe includes no cream! Will wonders never cease? In fact, although the recipe doesn't call for any specific kind of milk, I've only ever used skim, and it's been as creamy as one could ask for.
3) As far as things this tasty go, it's relatively healthful, especially if you use skim milk. Great for keeping off those holiday pounds!!!! LOL!!!!!
4) Dark chocolate. Need I say more?
So this holiday season, enjoy a nice steaming freezing churned chocolate-water-milk-sugar concoction. It drive you to that other chocolate-water-milk-sugar concoction known as hot cocoa, but you won't regret it! You can find the recipe here.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Keeping It in the Family

Note: Today's double-header is brought to you by Sarah and the Baking Sisters' dad, Irv.

If you're like me, then you believe that there are certain things that define summer. Beautiful sunset walks along the Hudson in Riverside Park...

Sunflowers...

And these small, ripe, intensely flavorful strawberries that start to pop up in farmers' markets around June.

For me, this summer has also brought some exciting news - I finally got a job! I started last week and I love it so far. Conveniently, the night before I started my job happened to be Erev Rosh Chodesh Av. For those of you scratching your heads, that means "the evening of the first day of the month of Av" (Av being the fifth month on the Jewish calendar, and Jewish days starting at sunset.) Despite my happy employment news, Av is considered the saddest month on the Jewish calendar because both of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed on the Ninth of Av, plus a lot of other sodding things supposedly happened on that date that I won't get into here. One of the ways that we show our sadness is by not eating meat or doing various other happy things for the nine days leading up to the Ninth of Av. So between our impending meat deprivation and my entry into the world of wage labor, the situation obviously called for some meat. And when the situation obviously calls for some meat, there is an equally obvious call for parve dessert.

My contribution came in the form of brownie bites from Kosher by Design: Short on Time. They are a snap to put together, they are moist and fudgy and last for ages, and when I gave one to my friend she didn't even realize they were parve! You obviously don't have to cut them just the way the recipe says but I agree with Susie Fishbein that it's waaaay fun to eat the edges around the brownie circles. I didn't do all that business with flipping the brownies out of the pan; I found that if you just use a biscuit cutter, they come out pretty easily. I also didn't roll them into balls because in my experience that's always made a huge crumbly mess, but if you want to try it best of luck to you.

Brownie Bites

From Kosher by Design: Short on Time (page 240)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted margarine, melted and placed in refrigerator to cool for 10 minutes

3/4 cup good-quality Dutch process cocoa powder

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

2 cups sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Coating: confectioner's sugar, cocoa powder, chopped nuts, edible glitter, colored sanding sugars

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a 7- by 11-inch brownie pan with parchment paper and coat with non-stick cooking spray.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine the melted margarine, cocoa powder, oil, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla. Beat to combine.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place into the refrigerator for 20 minutes or until cool enough to handle.

When the brownies are cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan. Flip the brownie out onto a piece of parchment paper on a hard word surface in one whole piece. Using a 1 1/2 inch diameter round cookie cutter, cut circles from the center of the brownie, leaving the harder crust. Roll the circles between the palms of your hands to form into balls, and roll into coating of your choice.

Store in airtight container.

Over to you, Dad!

The Baking Sisters’ father is glad to be back for a guest blog. When Sarah graduated from college and returned home with her ice cream maker, I decided to experiment. (I guess it’s in my blood, since my father owned a drive-in ice cream store when I was growing up, and I worked there every summer when I was a teenager.) This recipe was one of my best finds.

Everyone knows that there are two kinds of strawberries: those made for travelling and those made for eating. The travelling kind – the ones you get in the supermarket year-round that are bred to make it across the country in one piece – look beautiful but are hard and white on the inside and have no taste. The eating kind are small, sometimes misshapen, but red all the way through and almost oozing sweet juice. So while summer lasts, get to a greenmarket or farm stand and buy some locally-grown berries. Then turn them into this amazing strawberry sorbet with flavor even more intense than the berries themselves. You can make it with “travelling” berries, but why bother?

This recipe is adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. It makes about 4 cups.

1-1/3 lbs. (yes, pounds) fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled

1 cup sugar

1-1/3 tsp. kirsch (optional, but it adds a nice punch)

1-1/3 tsp. freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Slice the strawberries and toss them in a medium bowl with the sugar and kirsch, stirring until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover and let stand for one hour, stirring every so often.

Puree the strawberries and their liquid with the lemon juice and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth (I prefer the blender). There is no need to strain out the seeds.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Enjoy, and plan to make more soon, since this batch won’t last.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Blood Orange Sorbet

This morning, I was listening to the radio and they were talking about the 2-3 months in Los Angeles when the produce pickings are slimmer than the rest of the year.  As someone who comes from the east coast, I find the amount of produce in LA farmer's markets in the dead of winter astonishing, so I'm not totally sure what they are talking about.  For example, at every farmer's market we go to (and there are more than one for each day of the week) there are always at least 2 or 3 stalls selling beautiful and tasty citrus.  There is every variety -- from regular oranges and grapefruits to pomelos, Meyer lemons and blood oranges.

Ever since I first saw the blood oranges in the farmer's market, I knew I had to make sorbet out of them.  They have such an amazing color and delicious taste that I knew the sorbet would not only be beautiful but tasty as well.

This sorbet combined two different types of blood oranges.  One was a very, very dark red (it did have a blood-like color) and one was much lighter, almost an orangey-peach color.  Combined, they made the lovely color you see above.  I could look at that beautiful sorbet all day, if I didn't know it tasted so good and so it usually ends up in my mouth!

This sorbet was very simple.  Combine 1/4 cup of sugar for every cup of blood orange juice.  Heat in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves, chill and then freeze in your ice cream maker.  The hardest part about this was juicing all those oranges, but it was totally worth it!  

A Festive New Years/Shabbat Treat

Are you looking for something delicious and festive, but not too heavy, to serve after Shabbat dinner this week in honor of New Year's Eve?  Look no further because this icy, apple treat is for you.  It is crisp and light, and can be made parve if you are kosher and having a meat dinner.

I am a big fan of Matinelli's sparkling cider.  I don't drink it that much but I saw it in the grocery store on sale, 2 for $5 and it seemed like a good time to make David Lebovitz's Green Apple and Sparkling Cider Sorbet, which I have had my eye on since I got the book.  

This sorbet was a snap to put together, as most sorbets are.  You boil the cider, sugar and some water together, then dump in some apples and let it all sit until the apples are soft.  The only hard part was pushing the apple mixture through a strainer, so that you got all the flavor and none of the lumps.  Then you are good to churn.    

The sparkling cider adds nice flavor to the sorbet, but that bubbly feeling is lost. Since the bubbles are half the fun, Sarah and I decided to put the sorbet in a glass with a splash of cider over it.  That way, you get the bubbles and the flavor and a festive, New Year's Look.

Happy New Year and Shabbat Shalom!  May 2011 bring you and your family many blessings.

Here is the recipe, from The Perfect Scoop:

Sparking Cinder and Green Apple Sorbet

4 Granny Smith or green pippin apples (2 pounds), preferably unsprayed

2 cups sparkling dry apple cider, with or without alcohol

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste

Quarter the apples and remove the cores and seeds. Cut the unpeeled apples into 1-inch chunks.

Combine the cider, sugar and water, and bring to a boil in a medium, nonreactive saucepan. Add the apples, reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer the apple chunks for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and let the apples steep until the mixture is room temperature.

Pass the apples and their liquid through a food mill fitted with a fine disk, or use a coarse-mesh strainer and press firmly on the apples to extract their pulp and all the liquid into a container. Discard the apple peels — they've given up their flavor at this point. Add the lemon juice. Taste and add more if you wish, since sparkling apple ciders can vary in sweetness.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacture's instructions.

Makes about 3 cups.