Nectarine Sorbet

From my "cooking" class where I tasted and took home a delicious nectarine galette recipe, I also took home a refreshing nectarine sorbet recipe. Stone fruits are in season now, so this was a perfect time to make something out of the fresh fruits. 

Recipe was simple, but the instructor's recipe was more than my ice cream maker could handle. I had to tweak Robert Wemischner's recipe stone fruit sorbet recipe a little to suit my taste and my ice cream maker. From the class, we were told that it's best to let the ice cream/sorbet base rest overnight before churning it so that you get a more intense flavor. I did the same, but I don't think leaving the base overnight did anything to my sorbet.

Grab some fresh stone fruits from the store and try this recipe out! Feel free to use peaches, apricots, plums, any very ripe stone fruit will do!

NECTARINE SORBET RECIPE
Ingredients

• 4 Ripe Nectarines (about 2 Lbs)
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Water
• Zest from 1/2 Large Lemon
• Juice from 1 Large Lemon

Method
In a small pot, bring to boil sugar and water to make simple syrup (This will give you about 1-1/2 Cup and you will only use part of it). Set syrup aside and let it cool. 

Cut nectarines (keep the skin) into wedges and discard pits. Place cut nectarines, 1 cup of simple syrup, lemon zest and juice into a food processor or a blender and let it process until smooth. Slowly pour the blended nectarines through a fine sieve into a clean container. You will need to pour a little at a time, to avoid overflow. You'll need to stir the mixture constantly to get as much liquid through. Discard the remnants in the sieve.

Now, you can either store the sieved puree in the fridge over night before churning it or churn it right away in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer's instruction. I used a cuisinart 1.5 quart ice cream maker and processed the sorbet for about 30-35 minutes.

Transfer the sorbet into a container and freeze for about 2-3 hours before serving! Enjoy!

Simply June 

Ube Halaya Ice Cream

Weekends are the only time the husband and I (and sometimes Brady) travel outside of Thousand Oaks into the LA area to get Asian food or meet up with friends. With the horrendous LA traffic, we sometimes need to plan to leave the house earlier in the morning to avoid traffic and crazy LA drivers.

Over the past weekend, we ended up in West Covina to help a friend paint his new crib and since we're in the "Asian" neighborhood where it feels almost like home....we knew we had to eat up and stock up on Asian food. While we were waiting for out yummy Indonesian takeout in Walnut, I ventured into a Filipino bakery like store selling all sorts of Filipino sweets, snacks and pastries. Of course, I couldn't just window shop at those delectables; I had to get a few to sample. It's funny some of their desserts resemble and taste very similar to the Malaysian Kuihs. One of my Filipino friend and I are always teasing each other on "who copied who.

Anyway, before I get too carried away..... I got this container of Ube Halaya (again it looked a little like something we had in Malaysia except ours is made from Taro and this was made of Purple Yam). The texture wasn't what I expected as I expected something with a smoother texture and since I couldn't eat the the whole container as is...I decided to make some Ube Halaya Ice Cream!

Real quick on Ube Halaya. Ube means purple yam, while Halaya is a Filipino dessert where they boil and grate the yam and cook it with sugar, milk, coconut milk and butter (for greasing). I guess from googling a round the recipes will differ base on personal preference......

With that said, this batch of Ube Halaya ice cream was made using Kalahi Bakery's Ube Halaya. The sugar content might defer depending on the sweetness of your Ube Halaya... It's slightly grainy due to the ube... but I like it! =) Here's the recipe if you want to try it out. Maybe next time, I'll make my own ube halaya!

UBE (PURPLE YAM) HALAYA ICE CREAM RECIPE
Ingredients

• 6 Oz Ube Halaya
• 1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar (*Sugar measurement might differ based on the sweetness of your ube halaya)
• 3/4 Cup Half & Half, divided
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream

Method

In a medium bowl, heat 1/2 cup of half and half in the microwave for about 1 minute. Stir in sugar in the hot liquid until all sugar has melted. Pour mixture, remaining half & half, and ube halaya in a blender. Slowly pulse the mixture until most of the ube halaya is incorporated, then pour in heavy cream and continue to pulse the mixture until they are well incorporated. Don't worry if you still see tiny bits of the ube in the mixture; they add some texture to the ice cream. =)

Turn the ice cream maker on and pour mixture ion freezer bowl. Process ice cream until you get a soft serve consistency or according to the manufacturer's instruction. Since this was a smaller batch of ice cream, it only took me 20 minutes with my Cuisinart 1.5 Ice Cream Maker. Transfer ice cream into container and freeze for 2-3 hours before serving.

June's Comments: The ice cream was good for about a day, after a few days of storage the texture wasn't very desirable. =(

Simply June 

Green Tea Ice Cream (II)

Updated: August 17, 2009

After my first attempt at making the green tea ice cream, hubby suggested that I make the ice cream with a stronger green tea flavor. I increased the the amount of green tea powder in my next attempt and did not like the flavor or the texture much. It was a little too grainy/powdery for my liking.

So, here’s the green tea ice cream recipe that I like! =) The first time I made the ice cream, I used 3/4 cups of sugar which I found a lil too sweet. In this new recipe, I reduced the sugar to 2/3 cups.

GREEN TEA ICE CREAM RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp Green Tea Powder
• 2/3 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Milk, Divided
• 2 Cup Heavy Cream

Method:

Heat 1/2 cup of milk for about  40-60 seconds in the microwave. Slowly sieve the green tea powder into the hot milk while whisking the milk quickly until all powder has dissolved. Add sugar, milk and continue whisking until sugar is dissolved. Stir in heavy cream.

Turn the ice cream maker on and pour mixture into freezer bowl. Process ice cream until you get almost a soft serve consistency or according to the manufacturer’s instruction. This took me about 35-40 minutes with my Cuisinart 1.5 Quart Ice Cream Maker. Transfer ice cream into containers and freeze for 2-3 hours before serving.

***I found this bag of green tea powder for $7 at an Asian grocery store.

Can you say Bananahhh??

After watching another episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats featuring the many ways to eat a banana..I was left drooling at the banana ice cream he made. When I did my grocery shopping, I made sure I got a bunch of bananas to churn out some ice cream.

The ice cream though looked very pale and vanilla ice cream like, turned out lusciously delicious, so creamy, so “banana-ee”, and was so easy to make. When I first tasted the ice cream once I stopped the ice cream machine, the taste of the ice cream was just so-so. After freezing the ice cream for about 5-6 hours, it somehow tasted way better! You can find the original recipe HERE.

BANANA ICE CREAM RECIPE

Ingredients :

• 6 (approximately 2 1/4 pounds) ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Method :

Place bananas in freezer and freeze overnight. Remove bananas from freezer and allow to thaw for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Peel bananas and place in bowl of food processor along with the lemon juice. Process for 10 to 15 seconds. Add corn syrup and vanilla bean seeds and turn processor on. Slowly pour in the heavy cream. Process until smooth. Chill mixture in refrigerator until it reaches 40 degrees. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. Place mixture in an airtight container and freeze for 3 to 6 hours before serving.

June’s comments: I almost had frost bite peeling the semi frozen bananas. It might be a better idea to peel the banana first then freeze it. I wonder if it will make a huge difference to the texture of the banana though. It took me about 15-20 minutes to churn my ice cream in my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. The ice cream reached a soft served consistency and the paddle wasn’t able to turn as the volume of the churned ice cream was too much for my bowl to handle (it over flowed). Although on the food network site it said the recipe will give you about 1 quart of ice cream, I think it was more 1.5 quart-2 quart of ice cream. It was nevertheless very yummy, very velvety smooth and rich! =)

I took my homemade banana ice cream and created my version of a banana split sundae. Two scoops of banana ice cream dressed up with strawberry sauce, shaved chocolate, topped with a maraschino cherry and served up in a bowl instead of a boat shape ice cream bowl.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Here’s the strawberry ice cream recipe I promised after some slight improvising! This is made based on the recipe from my Cuisinart Ice Cream maker manual, with some slight changes. The first time I made this, I added strawberry preserve and fresh strawberries into my ice cream. I did not quite like the taste of the fresh strawberries in the ice cream and have dropped that from the recipe.

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
• 3/4 Cup Milk
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 3/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 5 Tbsp Low Sugar Strawberry Preserve (Smucker’s Low Sugar Strawberry Preserve)

Method:

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer (low speed) to mix milk and granulated sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in heavy cream, lemon juice, vanilla extract and strawberry preserve.

Turn the ice cream maker on and pour mixture into freezer bowl. Process ice cream until you get a soft serve consistency. This took me about 35-40 minutes with my Cuisinart 1.5 Quart Ice Cream Maker. Transfer ice cream into containers and freeze for 2-3 hours before serving.

Orange Strawberry Smoothie

Here’s an easy refreshing summer drink/smoothie, made with minimal ingredients! Great frozen treats for the hot summer days! =) No need to pay $3-4 per fruit smoothie from Jamba Juice or any of those Smoothie stand, just make your own smoothie!!! =P. This just cost me less than $3 to come up with some frozen goodness. =)

ORANGE STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 Oz) Bag Frozen Strawberries, Slightly Thawed (5-10 minutes)
• 2-3 Cups Orange Juice, Chilled
• 2-3 Tbsp Sugar (**Optional)

Method:

Add everything (usually skip the sugar) into a blender and just pulse for 2-3 seconds  at a time until everything has been blended and is smooth! I used the “Crush Ice” function on my Cuisinart blender. Adjust thickness of the smoothie by adding or reducing the juice. You may need to occasionally give the smoothie a stir to make sure everything has been blended. Be sure to turn the blender off when you do so! =P

With 2 cups of juice used; you get 5 cups worth of smoothie…enough for 2-3 servings. With 3 cups of juice; you get 6 cups worth of smoothie enough for 3-4 servings. =)

You can always add other frozen fruits such as mangoes or pineapple and blend it with your choice of juice =) Enjoy!

Mango Lychee Sorbet

Best part of having your own ice cream maker………..MAKING YOUR OWN FROZEN TREATS USING YOUR FAVORITE INGREDIENTS!!!!! Combining two of my favorite fruits for this summer sorbet….I thought this was pretty good….. but will definitely be better if I were to use fresh juicy sweet mangoes!

 

MANGO LYCHEE SORBET RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1 Lb Package Frozen Mangoes (I used Dole Frozen Mangoes)
• 1 - 20 Oz Can Lychee In Syrup ( I used Arroy-D Canned Lychees)
• 1/3 Cup Sugar
• 3 Tsp Lemon Juice

Method:

Let frozen mangoes thaw in the fridge. Strain Lychees and reserve syrup. In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup of reserve syrup, sugar and let mixture boil over medium heat. Stir mixture occasionally until all sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool and combine with remaining Lychee syrup. Add fruits, lemon juice and syrup in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a separate bowl and let puree cool in fridge for about 2 hours.

Churn puree according to your manufacturer’s instructions to make some yummilicious sorbet. I used a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker and processed the sorbet for about 30-35 minutes.

Transfer sorbet into containers and chill in freezer for about 2 hours before digging in to it. Enjoy!! This recipe gave me a little over 4 cups of Mango Lychee Sorbet.

Optional/Suggestion : Chill canned lychee a few hours before using. Reserve about 4 pieces of Lychees and 6 pieces of mango. Chopped them up, set aside and only add them at the last 5 minutes of churning the sorbet.