Summertime...

It's a warm, bright summer day and I'm craving something sweet. Although I'm not allowing myself desserts right now, I've got a couple ideas on my mind for the ultimate mid-afternoon-on-a-Friday-in-June snack.

 - Strawberry Sorbet
Prepare fresh strawberries by washing them and removing the hulls. Crush two-thirds into a paste then add the remaining third that have been sliced. Add sugar to taste and mix evenly. Put into freezer-proof container and freeze until solid. Add fresh mint leaves for extra flavor when serving (or eat right out of the bowl).

- Brownie Sundae
Bake up a tray of your favorite brownies - but take them out of the oven just when the edges are cooked. Let it cool for 20 minutes. Spread your favorite flavor of ice cream (I recommend mint chocolate chip or coffee) evenly across the surface. Pop into freezer until the ice cream has hardened (if you can wait that long). Top with fudge sauce, honey roasted peanuts or whatever you're craving.

- Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Save time and throw your dough for a batch of chocolate chip cookies into an un-greased 10 inch pie pan. Bake until the top is slightly golden brown - the center should be gooey. Slice, er, spoon out portions and top with vanilla ice cream a la mode.

Hmmm. The strawberry sorbet isn't exactly a dessert... or is it?

From a Mother's Perspective...

(The following is a narrative composed by my mom about this past week's exciting events that started in the kitchen and culminated last night with the auction of the top five cakes from the contest)

Skippy's Goshen Country Fair Hershey's Cocoa Cake won first place on Thursday night.  She was all by herself in our kitchen and could actually focus without interruption.  The entry had to be an original cake, with recipe submitted... and it needed a name, so before she delivered it to the judges, one of the kids suggested Raspberry Patch (there were two round layers, split in half - one layer I think had raspberries and cream filling, the others were a ganache frosting)....but the top was covered with fresh raspberries, with fresh mint leaves from out front around the edge of the top.  The whole effect was really cool.

Ice Box Cake

The recipe for the Ice Box Cake is very simple, except finding the correct Chocolate wafers - by Nabisco. This is a favorite around here, and it always a hit whenever we serve it, whether at birthdays or having international students for dinner!

Ice Box Cake

I quart Heavy Whipping Cream, chilled

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

2 boxes chocolate wafers

Strawberries to garnish if desired

Whip the cream with an electric beater, and add in the sugar to sweeten. Keep whipping till soft peaks form. Should be between 5-8 minutes depending on the temperature of the cream and the speed of the beater...

Put a dollop of the cream onto the cake plate to help the 1st layer stick... place one wafer in the middle of the plate, then put 6 in a circle around it. Put 1/2 cup to 3/4 whipped cream over the wafers and spread to the sides evenly.

Repeat until you run out of whipped cream or wafers... whichever happens first! I like to try and arrange the ascending layers so that they don't match up and so it is easier to slice... the second layer should have the wafers rotated so they overlap the layer below - in other words, stagger the layers.

If you are out of the wafers and have cream left, you can "ice" the sides and make it smooth all around.

Chill at least an hour before serving. You can arrange strawberries around the base of the cake or on top of the cake...



Yes, I did get a little carried away with the strawberries! This was a cake to serve 18 at my brother's birthday in February. I apologize for the quality of the pictures... a disposable camera was the only thing on hand.

It can be messy to slice, so just have something to scrape the cake cutter on to get the blade clean...

Yum, yum!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Enter into the land of warm, delicious cookies. Today we have the very first recipe that I ever memorized, and one of the first recipes that I made by myself. It came after years of watching mom whip these up in less than 20 minutes, taking turns with my siblings for mixing the dough, and sampling the batter for quality control. When I first made these by myself I kept running downstairs to ask my mom "How much sugar?" and "How much vanilla?" and "How do you know when they are done?"

A note on the side - we sometimes keep our chocolate chips in the freezer, and I've found that the chips hold their shape better during baking.


Here's the Scoop:

2 sticks salted Butter
1 c White sugar
1 c Brown sugar
2 TBS Vanilla extract (or imitation)
2 Eggs
1 TSP Salt
1 TSP Baking soda
2 1/2 c Flour (unbleached, all-purpose)
12 oz SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS (or your favorite kind of chocolate chips)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Soften butter in a microwave-safe bowl large enough to hold the entire batch. Be careful not to MELT the butter.

Cream together brown and white sugars until it "is all one color."


Add vanilla and the two eggs. Batter should be smooth and shiny with no lumps of brown sugar dotting the surface.

Then mix in the salt and baking soda.

Add the flour - starting with about 2 1/4 cups, the add the rest if necessary. Do not overmix.


The dough should be sticky but able to hold shape. Add the extra flour if the dough seems too "wet." Be careful not to overmix. It is at this step that I find myself repeatedly testing the dough to make sure it is just the right consistency!

Pour in the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Lightly mix just enough to make sure they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto un-greased cookie sheets. Try to place most of the chocolate chips on the top of the cookie to make them visually appealing.

Bake in 350 F oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on how you like your cookies.

Once baked to desired doneness, take out of oven and drop the cookie sheet onto the ledge of your sink. Be careful not to let it fall to the floor. This step is optional, but it takes out the extra air from the cookies and is very simple once you practice it a couple of hundred times.