Super Shortcut Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

When I saw a recipe for two ingredient ice cream from Cookies and Cups on Pinterest, I knew it wouldn't leave my head until I made it.

Just cream and sweetened condensed milk. I mean, two ingredients? No ice cream maker?? No frozen solid brick of shudder-inducing ice crystals??? It couldn't be.

But it totally worked. The texture is soft and light. It tastes like real, homemade ice cream. It's a little on the sweet side, but it's so little work I don't feel I have the right to complain.

I whipped up a batch for my lovey on Valentine's day, because ice cream is his favorite food on the planet. It worked out much better than last year, when I tried to make a batch of 'healthy' valentine's day ice cream out of almond milk. It was a terrifyingly weird gritty slushy mess. I showed it to him so that he knew I tried, but I did not allow him to eat it.

This year went much better.

To make the strawberry heart, just slice a strawberry crosswise to get a circle, then trim it down into a heart shape. Plop it right on top before you freeze it. Cuteness!

[PS - I tragically don't have a stand mixer, so I used a hand mixer to whip the cream and it worked just fine.]

Super Shortcut Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 batch basic 2 ingredient ice cream

[do not include vanilla]

1 pint strawberries

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp vodka

1 ripe banana

1. Cut strawberries and banana into bite sized chunks.
2. Mix strawberries, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
3. Mix vodka into cooled strawberries [this helps prevent the liquid in them from freezing too hard].
4. Mix up ice cream according to recipe. Stir in strawberry mixture and bananas.
5. Pour into glass or plastic containers and freeze overnight.

Blueberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

I really didn't know whether to call this frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Yes, it contains my new favorite thing, greek yogurt, and no, there isn't cream or half and half in it. It's actually not even that bad for you. So frozen yogurt?

But this tastes nothing like frozen yogurt. This tastes like rich, creamy, velvety ice cream.

It's both. It's neither.

Fro-cream? Ice-yo? I just don't know.

If this recipe sounds familiar, I did post recently about an actual blueberry cheesecake. If you're thinking to yourself, oh my gawd, is she recycling recipes? Thing is, there was a bag of frozen blueberries I needed to finish off, I had a big thing of greek yogurt just sitting in the fridge, and it was hot as hades in LA when I made this on Tuesday. And it's not really the same thing at all.

So I present to you, blueberry cheesecake froyo.

Blueberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt

1 6oz package blueberries [about 1.5 c]

1/8 c sugar

1.5 tsp lemon juice

3 oz cream cheese

1.5 c nonfat greek yogurt

1.5 c milk [I used 1%]

1/2 c sugar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp vodka

1. In a small ovenproof dish, mix blueberries, 1/8 c sugar, and lemon juice. Let sit a few minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove and chill completely.
2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese lightly until whipped. Add yogurt and beat until well combined.
3. Add milk and 1/2 c sugar and beat, scraping down the bowl very thoroughly so there aren't any lumps.
4. Add vanilla, vodka and lemon zest. Beat until just combined.
5. Freeze milk mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. In the last minute of churning, add chilled blueberries. Pour into a container and freeze overnight.

Peach Champagne Sorbet

There's been a spare bottle of champagne kicking around my fridge for a while now. That's probably not a problem that most people have, but my fridge is not most people's. Instead of waiting for a celebratory occasion to pop the cork [although I don't really need an excuse], I thought I'd use it to whip up a batch of refreshing summery sorbet.

I thought just using the champagne would be a little too much, and I didn't want to water down the flavor, so I decided to mix it with peaches. It was light and delicious and perfect for the hot summer barbeque I brought it to.

Invite a friend over when you make this, as you'll have about 2 glasses of extra champagne left over if you open a new bottle. Or just drink them both yourself.

Peach Champagne Sorbet

3 medium sized ripe peaches (the ripest you can find!)

1/2 cup cooled 1:1 simple syrup (recipe follows)

1 cup peach juice

2 cups champagne (I used Barefoot Bubbly)

1. Peel and pit peaches and slice into chunks. Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth.

2. Whisk puree, syrup, juice, and champagne together in a bowl. Pour into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions.

3. Pour into container, cover and freeze for a few hours or overnight.

4. Serve alone or put a scoop in a glass and top with more champagne.

1:1 Simple Syrup

This is great to use for sweetening cold drinks because the sugar is already dissolved. Put it out on your drink mix table at your next party! You can make it in any quantity, just use the same amount of sugar and water.

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat on medium heat until liquid is clear.

2. Remove from heat. Cool. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Keeps for about two months.

Maple Candied Bacon Ice Cream

That's right.

Bacon. And ice cream. Together.

Some of you just let out an unbridled squeal of joy. Others shuddered.

Just hear me out for a second. How many times have you dipped your breakfast bacon in the leftover maple syrup on your pancake plate? If even only once then you have tasted one of the most delicious, delightful, delectable food combinations on the planet - the salty crunch of heaven-sent bacon dripping in the amber, smoky sweetness of maple syrup.

This is that deliciousness in ice cream form.

And if you're going to make ice cream from scratch, if you're going to go through all that trouble [although it really is quite easy], you should probably make something that you can't just go the store and buy, right?

Ok, done with the justification.

When I brought this concoction along with me to a 4th of July barbeque this weekend, even the most skeptical were soon shoveling it into their mouths with reckless abandon, all the while questioning how they were eating meat-filled ice cream and enjoying it so immensely.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, you could still make the candied bacon and put it on some regular vanilla ice cream with a drizzling of maple syrup [bacon sundae anyone?]. Or just devour it on its own. The brown sugar melts and hardens around the bacon, giving it a crunchy sweet shell that you can just snap in half. Seriously, heaven. Recipe after the jump...