Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Ice Cream

This post is way overdue! Summer has gone by way too quickly for my liking. Between our big trip in June, weddings, and activities with friends (most of them includes food of course!), I have realized how much behind I have been in my blogging activity.


We went strawberry picking during the 4th of July weekend and I came home with a tummy full of fresh strawberries and about 11 lbs of these homegrown goodness. Since Red gave me an early birthday present of ice-cream attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer, I knew right away that we were going to make some sort of strawberry frozen treats. I can eat ice-cream every day, and this was the one thing that I had to give up so I could fit into my wedding dress last year (yea, that's right, I grew 1/2 inch four weeks after I bought my dress!).

At first, we thought about gelato (couldn't find a recipe that we thought was original enough?), and then we wanted to try frozen yogurt (and this did not go well! Who would have though that we could not, I repeat, could not, find a whole-milk yogurt in any of the grocery stores around where I live!). Thankfully, we found this Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream & Dessert Book.

We decided to use our strawberries to make Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Ice Cream. We did not have a whole milk in the house, so used skim milk instead, and we could not taste a difference! The other thing that we noticed was that this treat was a little bit sweeter than my liking, although Red liked it the way it was. I think the challenge here would be to balance the natural sweetness of the fruits and how much sugar to add into the mix! I loved having chunks of strawberries in my ice cream.

Either way, we absolutely loved this recipe, and would probably use this base recipe for our future ice-cream adventures!

Sweet Cream Base
Adapted from Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream & Dessert Book

2 large eggs
¾ cups sugar
1 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, and then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.
Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
Makes 1 quart.

Strawberry

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/3 cups sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
Sweet Cream base

Combine the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.
Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Prepare the Sweet Cream Base. Mash the strawberries to a puree and stir into the cream base.
Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Make generous 1 quart.

Ricotta Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries

I have been eyeing this recipe from Giada since I first saw her making it on Food Network. I have made a couple of Ina Garten's pound cake recipes, all of which are yummy. But I really wanted to test how ricotta can play into this recipe.

I did make three modifications to this recipe... not in purpose, really. But for convenience purpose. I didn't have cake flour on hand, so I decided to just use regular all-purpose flour. I measured 1.5 cups, and took out 2 TBSP out. I also substituted Amaretto for Grand Marnier, which I thought worked out well considering this recipe uses grated orange zest. And it did. Finally, I didn't have the exact pan that she used, so I used my bundt cake pan.

Overall, we really enjoyed this cake. Go ahead and try it, and let me know!!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature, plus more to grease the baking pan
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 orange, zested
2 tablespoons Amaretto
Powdered sugar, for dusting
1 pint strawberries, hulled and quartered or 3 oranges, cut into supremes

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, ricotta, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time. Add the vanilla, orange zest, and Amaretto until combined.

Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a mesh sieve, dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar.

Meanwhile, place the strawberries (or orange supremes) in a small bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Let sit until the juices have pooled around the strawberries.

To serve, slice the cake and serve with a spoonful of strawberries and their juices over the top of the cake.