roasted plum ice cream with cardamom

What's with all the posts featuring cold treats lately you ask? Well... it's sweltering in Portland right now and while I have taken the time to cook a few hot meals, all I really want to think about is frozen treats - and lots of them! The struggle is real. 

While I hope you're not experiencing the same heat I am, I do know that there can never be too many recipes for frozen treats in the dog days of summer. never. never. never. 

So today, I bring you a roasted plum ice cream with a bit of cardamom to keep things exciting. But first, a confession. I actually made my ice cream with a mixture of plums and pluots (the cross between a plum and an apricot), because well, we didn't have pluots in Michigan and the produce guy at New Seasons let me taste some of the vast selection of varieties they were offering and I just couldn't turn them down. 

So, use plums, use pluots, heck - you could even use apricots! But if you want to maintain a beautiful color, I do recommend using at least a few plums in the mix. I used mostly yellow pluots, but the addition of a few strikingly red plums sure made a difference in the final color! 

You'll notice that this recipe has a more complex custard process than I've shared in the past, whipping egg yolks to a silky creamy texture rather than just whisking hot milk into them. I learned this base from Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune in making her brown sugar ice cream with a balsamic reduction swirl a few months ago and I've been hooked ever since. It creates the most perfectly silky ice cream which has been gawked over by everyone I've served it to. I promise, you won't be disappointed! 

Once the custard and fruit purees are made, you'll swirl the bright fruit into the creamy custard, and if you're anything like me smile as the two slowly swirl together into a consistent colorful pink! Then, after a bit of chilling, it's on to the churn! Don't forget to sample over and over again as it nears fully churned... the absolute best part of making ice cream in my mind! 

ingredients: 

6 egg yolks 

2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1 tsp ground vanilla, 1/2 a vanilla bean (scraped) or 2 tsp vanilla extract 

10 cardamom pods, cracked 

2 pounds fresh plums or pluots 

1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

instructions: 

First, we'll create our roasted plum puree. Halve your plums, removing the pits, and place them on a baking sheet with the skin side down. Roast at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, until they're tender and the juices are starting to spill out on to the pan. Place the plums into a blender, taking care to scrape up any juices on your baking sheet and add those to the blender (you don't want to lose that condensed flavor magic!). Add ground cardamom and puree until smooth. Place your puree in the fridge to cool. 

Now, the custard! Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, a hand mixer, or a really super strong arm - whisk together the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar until it doubles in size, lightens to a pale yellow, and gains a silky ribbony texture. This should take a few minutes. 

Heat the cream, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cardamom pods, and ground or bean vanilla (wait until later in the process if you're using the extract) to a scald, which is before a simmer but nice and steamy. 

With the mixer running, slowly pour the cream mixture into the yolks until fully combined to temper your eggs. Then pour the mixture back into the pot and heat over medium heat until your custard has formed (if you don't feel comfortable knowing when that is, use a thermometer and look for 180 degrees). While it's heating, use a silicone spatula to gently scrape the bottom of the pan and stir slowly. 

When you've reached 180 degrees, strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl, and set that bowl into a larger one with a bit of ice and water in it to create a cooling water bath. Spin the inner bowl with one hand, while holding your spatula in the custard like a rudder to help the mixture cool evenly. 

Once it has cooled significantly, stir in the plum puree (and the vanilla extract if you're using it) until fully combined and let chill for a few hours. 

Churn based on your machine's instructions. I have a Cuisinart 2 Quart ice cream maker, and this recipe filled it to the brim. If your machine is smaller, you may want to churn this in two batches, or cut the recipe by a bit! 

lemon tart topped with oregon berries!

This week, Babes and I attended our very first Portland potluck - thrown by a coworker of his we’ve both known for some years now, with the intention of welcoming us to town.

We had tacos piled high with all sorts of glory, perfect tangy slaw with lime zest, and phyllo cups filled with spiced zucchini and black beans. Sitting outside on a beautiful evening, we ate wonderfully and shared great laughter and conversation. Then, we ate this amazing tart while a fire kept us warm. I couldn’t quite imagine a better way to get settled into a new place! 

I have to confess, I love bringing show-stopper-esque dishes to potlucks. I might not always be fond of attention, but I sure do love when folks ooooh and ahhhh over something I’ve made completely from scratch. There is nothing humble about it, but I’m good at making beautiful and delicious things and I love to share them with other people! So this showy tart was the obvious choice for a first potluck in a new place. Plus, I knew I just had to make something with Oregon berries! 

I’ve always loved lemon tarts topped with fresh berries, but never attempted one myself. So despite knowing there was a chance at failure, I was 100% convinced this was the thing to make after reading the recipe for a blackberry version of this tart over at Hummingbird High. Michelle combines a lemon cream filling from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco with a brown butter crust recipe from French pastry instructor, Paule Caillat. She then promptly tells us not to bother making any other recipe from her blog. This is the only important one. I wouldn’t be me if I could just read that and NOT make the tart, right? 

And the best part, it turned out perfectly! 

So, here it is - topped with fresh strawberries and blueberries from one of the many Portland Farmers Markets. I know this seems decadent and beautiful, but I promise - with just a few crafty skills you can definitely make this. With a little patience and a steady hand, you too can make a few pints of berries look just as perfect! But, if you’re feeling rushed, a whole bunch of berries sprinkled over the top would also be totally beautiful!   

ingredients: 

crust: 

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 6 squares 

1 tbsp vegetable oil 

3 Tbsp water 

1 Tbsp sugar 

pinch of salt 

1 cup flour, or 5oz 

filling: 

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

3 large eggs 

1 large egg yolk 

3/4 cup suar 

pinch of salt 

1 cup unsalted butter, cold 

1 pint strawberries 

about 1/2 cup blueberries 

instructions: 

• First, we'll make the crust. Place butter, vegetable oil, water, sugar, and salt in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-high heat. Let mixture come to a gentle boil and let cook 5-10 minutes, or until the butter has just started turning a golden brown and smells nutty. 

• Remove from heat and start adding flour, a tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly. When the dough comes together, let it sit a few minutes until it is cool enough to handle. 

• Turn dough into a 9 inch tart pan, and use hands to press the dough into an even layer across the bottom and sides of the pan. 

• Bake crust at 410 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until it appears a golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. 

• While the crust is cooling, you can get started on the filling! Create a double boiler by resting a rimmed glass or stainless steel bowl in a medium saucepan with a few inches of water in the bottom. The water should not touch the bottom of your bowl. 

• While your water is heating over medium heat, whisk together lemon juice, eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and salt in the bowl. Continue whisking and cooking the mixture for about ten minutes, until it gets thick enough for your whisk to leave a trail and registers 180 on a quick-read thermometer (if you like to temp your food!). Be sure you're continuously whisking the entire time so as not to let the eggs cook too fast. 

• Remove bowl from saucepan, and stir gently while the curd cools for a minute or two. 

• Once it's cooled to about 140 degrees, add butter one tablespoon at a time, using an immersion blender (or a regular one if you don't have an immersion blender) to completely integrate the butter before adding the next piece. 

• Once you've incorporated all the butter, fill your tart crust with the cream, and top with berries! 

• I quartered strawberries, then started on the outer edge placing a full ring of berry quarters around the outside of the circle. I moved inward from there, placing a second ring of strawberry quarters, then circles of blueberries until reaching the center and just filling it in with a few. 

If you like, garnish with a small pile of lemon zest! 

simple strawberry coconut popsicles!

Before we dive into these divine popsicles, I just want to let out a quick I'm sorry! I've been letting this blog go by the wayside for the past week or two, and am definitely going to continue to do so for at least three or four weeks more. You see, I'm moving across the country in just two short weeks and taking an amazingly wonderful few weeks to do so! In the meantime, I’ll do my best to share a few quick and easy recipes with you. And when I return, there will be a brand new (to-me) 1920s kitchen for our continued exploration together! 

I sure am going to miss the crystal blue waters of Lake Michigan! 

This road trip of ours will start of course from our dear home in Traverse City, Michigan. We’ll spend an evening saying farewell to my family just a short trip north in Petoskey, then head to the shores of Lake Superior where we’ll spend a night (and a bit of exploration!) at the Porcupine Mountains before heading on to the Apostle Islands in Minnesota where we’ll explore magnificent cliffs and caves via kayak. Then it’s onward to Duluth for 4th of July celebrations with family and friends before making some big progress westward and away from our beloved great lakes! 

The Presque Isle River, from my last visit to Porcupine Mountains! 

The western adventures will start with a quick stop in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, then the main attraction of a week in Montana! Montana will bring camping and day-hikes exploring the wild of Glacier National Park, and a long weekend with a few old friends in Butte where the Montana Folk Festival will be happening. 

While there may not be blog posts, there will surely be a million and a half photos of the adventure - so come follow along on social media while we make our way west! You can find me most actively on Instagram and Facebook.  #tootsweetgoeswest

Now… a million paragraphs later, for the popsicles! I’ve made these before in a number of different variations, including roasting the strawberries and toasting coconut flakes to mix into the coconut layers. They’ve always tasted great, no matter what variations I take on - but for this recipe, I wanted to simplify things and make these something you can throw together in less than twenty minutes. 

You see, I’ve been writing a monthly piece for The Awesome Mitten - featuring a different awesome local Michigan ingredient each month. The post always includes three recipes for that ingredient which are super simple and require very few ingredients. For June, I just had to choose strawberries (because really, what else is worthy of the produce-of-the-month title?). So here we have it - super duper simple strawberry coconut popsicles! 

Ingredients: 

1 quart strawberries, greens removed

1/2 tsp ground vanilla, or 1tsp vanilla extract

1 – 14oz can of coconut milk (use the full fat kind!)

1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions: 

Puree the strawberries and vanilla with a blender until totally smooth. If you’re picky about seeds, strain through a fine mesh sieve. I never take that step, and the seeds are not very noticeable in the final product. 

In a small bowl, whisk together coconut milk and maple syrup until no clumps of coconut cream remain.

Using a small measuring cup or spoon (or just pouring), layer strawberry puree and coconut milk into popsicle molds. Unless you use a small spoon and do this very very gently, they’re going to swirl together, and that’s alright! I think they taste best when you get a bit of coconut and a bit of strawberry in each bite! I usually aim for two layers of each in every popsicle.

Let freeze until fully solidified (overnight will do it), then enjoy!