Mincemeat Ice Cream Cake

I found the recipe for this Mincemeat Ice-Cream Cake after making Mincemeat Cookies last Christmas – I guess after not seeing or hearing about mincemeat pie filling for years, I was seeing it everywhere. This year, I used mincemeat pie filling to do some other baking, and when I had some left over, I wanted to find a way to use it up. I came across this recipe in an old cookbook that I’ve had since I was 12 years old – talk about old-fashioned! You can see by this photo of when I was about 4 years old – I loved Christmas. And apparently white fluffy stuffed kittens (which is a funny gift to have gotten because my mom hated cats in any form)! And baking – Christmas baking – but sometimes you need an easy recipe or two just to keep up with it all and make it easy on yourself.

That’s why I like this recipe. This is a great make-ahead dessert – easy to do, fast to make, and ready in the freezer when you need it! It has an old-fashioned kind of feel to it because mincemeat pie is an old-fashioned kind of pie. Using mincemeat gives a Christmas flavor to the dessert that’s really made for our fast-paced holidays. I love things you can have ready ahead of time, I love easy, and I love this recipe!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Mincemeat Ice-Cream Cake

Cut lengthwise into 3 even layers:

1 sponge, angel, or pound cake (I used a small frozen pound cake)

Stir to soften:

1 quart vanilla ice cream

Fold in:

1 cup prepared mincemeat (I used store bought, but you could use homemade, too)

1/2 cup slivered, blanched almonds, toasted (I used sliced almonds)

1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Spread between the cake layers and freeze firm (I put the layers back into the foil pan the cake cake in and froze it in there).

Before serving, spread top and sides with:

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Trim with sliced almonds and maraschino cherries.

I used the foil pan to put the cake back in to freeze, but first I put in some plastic wrap so it would be easier to get out later. Put in a layer of cake, a half of the ice cream, a layer of cake, the other half of the ice cream, and the last layer of cake. Cover with the plastic wrap and freeze. If you don’t know exactly when you’re going to use the cake, cover the whole thing with foil to give it a little more protection.

When I was ready to frost the cake, I took a slice off of the top because I thought it might be too high when frosting it with the whipped cream. I don’t really know why I thought that, and I found that it really wasn’t necessary.

Whipped cream makes a nice frosting for this cake.

At first I thought I’d just use sprinkles to decorate.

Oh, what the heck. I went ahead and used the sliced almonds and maraschino cherries to make flowers on top of it, too. Can you really ever have too much decoration? Can you ever make things too festive? I think not!

It’s really a pretty elegant dessert, for a make-ahead.

This cake has that delicious flavor of the mincemeat along with the freshness of the orange peel, and it is absolutely delicious! Anything this easy to make, and is make-ahead to boot, is ok in my book. This dessert screams Christmas, and any guests or even your family will love this delicious Mincemeat Ice-Cream Cake!

Lingonberry Ice Cream

I’ve had this recipe for Lingonberry Ice Cream forever, I’ve just never made it! This is the year! Merry Christmas to us! Whoa – am I glad I finally made this! It will be part of our holiday celebrations for YEARS to come! It couldn’t be easier to do – a great last-minute treat! Our ice cream maker isn’t big enough to hold all of this recipe – it makes a big batch – so we made half of a recipe. I’m sure our Scandinavian ancestors would be surprised to see us using the traditional lingonberries in this new-fangled recipe! However, I never have fresh lingonberries. We use lingonberry jam every year at Christmastime to make treats like Lingonberry Rolls, Swedish Rice Dessert, and Scandinavian Egg Sandwiches, so that’s what I used. I’m sure you can order the berries online if you wanted to try this authentically.

Here is the recipe as I made it (I’m giving the whole recipe, but I only made half of this recipe):

Lingonberry Ice Cream

Mix together:

3 cups pureed lingonberries (I didn’t want to order frozen fresh lingonberries online – I couldn’t find any locally – so I just used lingonberry jam for this part)

2 1/4 cups sugar

Divide:

the lingonberry/sugar mixture

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 cups half and half

2 cups heavy cream

2 Tablespoons vanilla

Blend each half separately.

Mix the halves together in a large container and freeze until half frozen – several hours.

Remove from freezer and follow directions on your ice cream freezer.

The ice cream will be soft when you’re done.

Pack in containers and harden in the freezer for several hours (you’ll see that we didn’t get that far).

Ridiculously simple ingredients – again – for a ridiculously delicious treat!

Mix it all well – the jam will break up just fine, and you can see the little lingonberries in there.

Into the ice cream freezer it goes!

How beautiful is this?! As you can see below, we couldn’t wait for it to harden in the freezer. If you don’t want to try this new recipe, just use your regular vanilla ice cream recipe and add some lingonberry jam to it – that would also be just as delicious!

Yep – we just went for it and enjoyed it “soft serve”! We’re just gonna go with that.

Sprinkle on colored sugar or sprinkles, and don’t forget – Swedish Pepparkakar are a must when enjoying this totally Scandinavian ice cream dessert.

I know you’re going to love this quick and easy, last-minute ice cream! It’s so delicious with it’s tangy lingonberries (a cranberry taste) and sweet cream goodness. I think our ancestors would have LOVED it! Serve it with your holiday cookie selection, and everyone will go crazy – it’s SO good! Try this Lingonberry Ice Cream and you’ll be hooked!

Chocolate Fondue

I love Chocolate Fondue! It’s something that’s reserved for only once or twice a year, because boy oh boy – it’s a real treat! Valentine’s day would be one of those times when this special treat would be allowed and welcome. If you can’t make a special treat like this for your valentine, who would you ever make it for? It’s another recipe that’s quick to make, easy to do, and is – I mean, this totally goes without saying – amazingly delicious! It’s also tremendously romantical. Light a fire in the fireplace or light some candles, and start melting – the chocolate, I mean – come on!

Speaking of romantical, I’m sharing a photo of these two very special valentines today – my mom and dad – which was taken before they headed out to their senior prom in 1958. For some reason this photo has a pink tint to it – perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Don’t they just look like a perfect couple? She’s got on that beautiful pink gown with the white gloves to match and he’s looking pretty dapper in the white tux coat and bow tie! She was probably telling him what to do and he was giving her a hard time about it! Ha! Two and a half years after this was taken, they were married, dad was in the Army, and the first of their two bouncing baby girls was born – me! When I look at this photo of them and the room behind them, it tells so many stories of their life to come. Sigh. Such a sweet picture. Ok – on to this romantical treat!

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Chocolate Fondue

In a saucepan, heat on low:

1-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)

1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/3 cup heavy cream or half-n-half (I used half-n-half)

Stir often until chocolate is completely melted and smooth – do not boil.

Add:

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add more milk, if necessary, depending on how thin you want it.

Pour chocolate mixture into a fondue pot to keep warm.

Serve with dippers:

strawberries

bananas

cookies

graham crackers

pretzels

marshmallows

the list is endless here!

Such simple ingredients make an amzaing treat!

Melt the chocolate and the milk and cream in the saucepan, then into the fondue pot with it!

Here is my platter of dippers: Strawberries, pretzel chips, marshmallows, Nilla wafers, Oreos.

Here you can see how the bowl keeps warm – with the little tea light candle underneath. This is really, really easy to do and it’s so pretty. You may want to serve this for more people than just you and your valentine. They’ll be impressed and very, very happy.

The chocolate is so smooth, so pretty, so chocolatey!

This is it – time for the special, special treat for that very special, special valentine! Round up their favorite things to dip, make up a batch of the delicious chocolate, and get romantical. Your valentine will be so, so, so happy that you took the 10 minutes it takes to make this special Chocolate Fondue treat – just for them!

 

 

Lingonberry Ricotta Toasts

I’m celebrating my Scandinavian heritage today, sharing an incredibly easy and delicious recipe for Lingonberry Ricotta Toasts. In August I tried to make homemade ricotta for the first time, and wrote a post for Homemade Ricotta on Toasts with Tomatoes. It was so easy and so tasty, I just knew I would make it again, and I came up with a totally different idea for when I do. For the Thanksgiving/Christmas/holiday season (and beyond) I think you should make this snack or appetizer. If you’ve never tried lingonberries, they taste a lot like cranberries – with a Scandinavian twist. It might seem so strange to make the Italian ricotta and pair it with the Scandinavian lingonberries, but it really isn’t. If you’ve ever tasted the Scandinavian dish called Ost Kaka, you know what I’m talkin’ about. It’s made a bit like ricotta, only there are eggs and sugar in it. Someday I will try and make Grandma’s recipe for Ost Kaka the real way, with rennet tablets dissolved in milk to make the curdled cheese needed to make it, but until then, you can read how I make Ost Kaka – the Easy Kind, which uses cottage cheese instead of having to make the cheese from scratch. As I said in August when I made the first batch of ricotta, I used beautiful, unbleached cheesecloth by Cheesecloth.com to make it. I love it so much – no bleachy smell, and you can use it for so many things in the kitchen.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Lingonberry Ricotta Toasts

Set over a large bowl:

a sieve lined with a double layer of dampened cheesecloth (if you don’t dampen the cheesecloth, it may spill out over the top of the sieve instead of draining properly – I also gave the cloth a good shake to get any bits of thread out of it)

Pour into a large stainless steel pot:

4 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream

Stir in:

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Bring to a full boil, stirring occasionally.

Turn off the heat and add:

3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar or lemon juice (I used white wine vinegar)

Allow to stand one minute (I did give it a little stir), until the vinegar causes it to curdle and separate.
Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth lined sieve, and allow to drain about 20 minutes (the longer your let it drain, the firmer the ricotta will be).
Discard the liquid that collects in the bottom of the bowl.
Transfer ricotta from the sieve to another bowl.
Discard remaining liquid and cheesecloth.
Use immediately (if you like it nice and warm) or refrigerate for up to 4 days.

I’m going to use the same photos and instruction for making the ricotta that I used when I first made it in August. This is just one more way to use that delicious and amazing homemade ricotta cheese.

Here is the beautiful, unbleached cheesecloth that I got from Cheesecloth.com. Love it!

Line a sieve with the dampened cheesecloth and put the sieve over a bowl.

Here are the ridiculously simple ingredients. It never ceases to amaze me how the simplest ingredients can make something so delicious. Amazing.

After you’re done heating the ingredients, pour the mixture into the cheesecloth lined sieve. I used two because I didn’t know if it would all fit into one – turns out it wouldn’t have all fit into one sieve.

After draining 20 minutes – this is how the amazing, creamy cheese comes out!

I toasted slices of baguette (drizzle with olive oil if you want) in the oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until they’re as toasted as you like them. You can also use any kind of crackers you want – even graham crackers would be nice.

All I did was spread some ricotta on the toasts, put a dollop of lingonberry jam on top of that, and sprinkle toasted, sliced almonds over all. Another option would be to stir the jam and sliced almonds right into the ricotta – maybe use it as a dip!

Lingonberry jam is just the best. Our family uses it all the time, especially during the holidays. It’s so festive and delicious, with an almost cranberry taste and tang. The jam goes so well with the creaminess of the ricotta, and I know you’re going to love it. This would make a perfect appetizer for your Thanksgiving celebration, your Christmas celebration, or any holiday celebration you have coming up. Maybe even New Year’s Eve! Try making your own ricotta – even though the holidays are coming up and everyone is so busy, this is easy to make, and is a very special treat for the very special people you’ll be entertaining. It’s a snap to make with the help of the beautiful cheesecloth from Cheesecloth.com, so there’s really no excuse to NOT make these tangy, tasty, tremendously delicious Lingonberry Ricotta Toasts!

 

Homemade Ricotta on Toasts with Tomatoes

I can’t wait to share this Homemade Ricotta on Toasts with Tomatoes today! This is something I’ve never tried to do before, and with the help of the unbleached, natural cheesecloth from Cheesecloth.com, I’m giving it a try! I love that Cheesecloth.com has an unbleached variety, because sometimes the cheesecloth that’s bleached white can have a bit of a bleachy smell, and who wants that? Not me! I LOVE this unbleached variety (plus its pretty). Who knew making your own ricotta cheese at home would be so easy? I loved making it! It’s like magic – only it’s science! It was easy to do, it was delicious, and I can’t wait to try it again. Let’s just get on with it so I can show you how I did it!

There are recipes for how to do this all over the internet, so I’m just going to type it out.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Homemade Ricotta

Set over a large bowl:

a sieve lined with a double layer of dampened cheesecloth (if you don’t dampen the cheesecloth, it may spill out over the top of the sieve instead of draining properly)

Pour into a large stainless steel pot:

4 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

Stir in:

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Bring to a full boil, stirring occasionally.

Turn off the heat and add:

3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar or lemon juice (I used white wine vinegar)

Allow to stand one minute (I did give it a little stir), until the vinegar causes it to curdle and separate.

Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth lined sieve and allow to drain about 20 minutes (the longer your let it drain, the firmer the ricotta will be).

Discard the liquid that collects in the bottom of the bowl.

Transfer ricotta from the sieve to another bowl.

Discard remaining liquid and cheesecloth.

Use immediately (if you like it nice and warm) or refrigerate for up to 4 days.

For the tomato topping (depending on taste), mix all together:

2-3 red, ripe tomatoes, chopped

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

4-6 Tablespoons balsamic or red wine vinegar

2-4 cloves garlic, minced

basil leaves, chopped (as much as you have in your garden or as much as you like)

Like I mentioned above, I LOVE this unbleached cheesecloth from Cheesecloth.com!

I cut the cheesecloth to the appropriate size and dampened it, then gave it a shake to get rid of any threads left on it from cutting it. Lay a double layer into your sieve over a bowl and you’re ready to drain the mixture.

4 simple imgreidents – that’s it!

Once your mixture has curdled, pour it into the sieve. My sieve is small, and I didn’t know if it would hold all of the mixture, so I made another sieve with cheesecloth using my colander (in the background).

It worked! Look how pretty! I got too excited and ripped the cheesecloth off and pulled a chunk off the side, but wow! I impressed myself!

I took the ricotta from both sieves, mixed them together, covered the bowl with plastic wrap, and put it all into the refrigerator until I needed it. It should last about 4-5 days covered in the frig.

I cut slices of a baguette, lightly drizzled olive oil on them, and baked them at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until they were crisp, but not too crisp.

Next I made the tomato bruschetta-type mixture to put on the top.

I originally wanted to make this tomato mixture with balsamic vinegar (above photo), but when I was about to pour it in, decided to use a lighter red wine vinegar instead.

OMG. Yum. The ricotta cheese is SOOOO smooth and creamy and delicious and the tomato mixture adds a punch of flavor.

I know ricotta cheese is an Italian thing, but the kitchen totally smelled like Grandma and Grandpa’s kitchen when I was making this – they were dairy farmers, after all. Watch for a Scandinavian idea using ricotta cheese later this fall! Making ricotta cheese at home was SO easy to do, especially when I used the unbleached cheesecloth from Cheesecloth.com. The ricotta cheese is simple, pure, and made from totally natural ingredients. I will be making this again and again and again. I have found a new appetizer that really packs a punch and is amazingly smooth and creamy at the same time! It’s so easy to do – try this fun little science experiment, make your own Homemade Ricotta Cheese on Toasts with Tomatoes, and be the hit of your next party!

 

 

 

Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream

My family has spent years working our way through the “Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book”. Seriously, the copyright on this particular book is 1987, and we have certainly been taking our time. Last weekend, after driving 21 hours straight through from Massachusetts to get home to Minnesota from vacation, we tackled the Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream. We were totally exhausted from that drive, but that’s how easy these recipes are. My husband magnanimously offered to go to the store to pick up things for a no-cook dinner, and ice cream was just what we needed to end the vacation on a high note – he also got the ingredients to make this ice cream. Looking through the book, it wasn’t hard to pick which kind to make (even though I was surprised we haven’t made this recipe before now – we date them when we make them). We ALL love Heath English Toffee Bars, so Heath Bar Crunch it was! I thought I’d better share this recipe now – it’s supposed to be in the upper 80’s and 90’s for temperatures through the weekend and into next week here in Minnesota. Summer is coming on strong here in June! We’re all gonna need some ice cream. Lots of ice cream.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream

Unwrap:

4 original Heath Bars (1 1/8 ounce each), or as many Fun Size bars as you want to stuff into the ice cream

Cut the candy bars into 1/2 to 1 inch chunks (about 1 cup).

Put into a bowl and freeze (I didn’t do this).

Whisk until light and fluffy (1 to 2 minutes):

2 large eggs (you can use pasteurized eggs if you’re concerned about using raw, but we used raw eggs and didn’t have a problem)

3/4 cup sugar

Whisk in the sugar a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.

Pour in:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Whisk to blend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

After the ice cream stiffens (about 2 minutes before it’s done), add the candy, then continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.

Makes a generous 1 quart.

Chop the candy bars as finely as you want. We like the chunks on the bigger side.

Put the ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker. When the ice cream is almost done, add the candy bar chunks. I use a Cuisinart brand ice cream maker with freezable containers. When I was growing up, we had an electric ice cream maker that used an inner container to hold the ice cream mixture and then you’d out that inside a larger one and put ice and salt around the inner container. Turn on the motor and away you go. My mother-in-law still has one that was even older than that – it has a crank. That one takes some work – it’s amazing what people will do for ice cream!

Once the ice cream is done, we put it into a container to put into the freezer. We have found that it’s also a good idea to have your container in the freezer before making the ice cream. You don’t have to do this, but the ice cream tends to melt a bit if you don’t. When the ice cream is done, put it into the container and put it back into the freezer for an hour or so to firm up. You can eat it immediately if you want to, but the ice cream is pretty soft.

After an hour or more, the ice cream firms up enough to make scoops. If you try to eat it right away, it’s is still tasty, just softer.

Oh my – this stuff is ridiculous!

Yes – we’re gonna need a lot of this stuff in the coming days and weeks. A lot. I highly recommend the “Ben And Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book” with its many delicious options, and I highly recommend cooling down with the Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream – you won’t be sorry!!!