Peach Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe)

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Peach Ice Cream

I didn't know that peach ice cream existed until I had it at a dairy farm last summer. It tasted so fresh and full of peach flavor. I was looking for an opportunity to make it and when I saw peaches on sale in our local grocery I bought and made this yummy ice cream.

When buying peaches, look for fruit that smell like what you want them to taste like. One good thing about peaches is that they ripen even after they have been picked. So you can buy them slightly ripe and finish ripening at home. But make sure to buy peaches that are heavy for their size but are not too hard (these will never ripen).

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Sweet Milk Ice Cream

Here's a recipe for ice cream that tastes like the kulfi we are used to eating in India. This recipe for Sweet milk ice cream is from King Arthur catalog. It is one of the few recipes that I made the same day I saw it.

Fortunately I had all the ingredients on hand and the ice cream base came together in no time, though I had to wait overnight to freeze and make the ice cream. This recipe is made from a predominantly milk base instead of a custard base (with eggs) but it is creamy and almost gelato-like. The tapioca starch takes the place of the eggs to stabilize the base, lending it a rich, creamy texture to the finished ice cream.

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Carrot Halwa Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Carrot Halwa Ice cream

Did you ever eat warm carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream? That is one extremely rich and decadent dessert to have (also a calorie bomb -- but you are allowed to indulge once in a while, not everyday, mind you!!). My mom and sister love this combination.

This ice cream combines carrot halwa and vanilla ice cream to make a flavor that is sure to be a hit at a Indian themed parties. Recipe is from here and it is just as it sounds, make some carrot halwa, make a vanilla ice cream base -- mix them both and churn.

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Dulche de Leche Ice Cream (Eggless recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Dulche de Leche Ice cream

Next ice cream I made this summer is this Dulche de Leche Ice cream. I had a bottle of dulche de leche in the fridge that my husband got from Argentina. It needed to used up and this ice cream from Smitten Kitchen sounded like the right recipe to make.

This is one of the most easy ice cream recipes I've made. All it needs is bringing milk and cream to boil and then stirring in dulche de leche and setting aside to chill, then churning it in the ice cream machine to finish making the ice cream. I swirled some dulche de leche while putting it into a container.

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Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Cookies & Cream Ice cream

My theme for the final week of this month's blogging marathon is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Since it is almost the end of summer (sigh -- why does it have to end so soon!!!), I thought it is time to post the ice creams that I made during summer.

First up is 'Cookies & cream ice cream'. I read somewhere that 'Cookies & Cream' flavor is one of the most popular ice cream flavor and I told this little tidbit to my son. From that point on he started pestering me to make it for him (thanks to the summer vacation, he had too much free time on his hands to pester me).

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Strawberry Crush (Strawberry Concentrate)

I wrote about the huge load of strawberries we got from strawberry picking in this post. After making those pancakes and the syrup, I still had a lot of them leftover. So I asked my blog buddies on whatsapp on how to use them up before they go bad.

Ever resourceful Vaishali gave her Strawberry crush recipe. She said it's her tried and tested recipe and I immediately set about to make the crush. Vaishali uses the crush in many different ways: as a sauce to serve chocolate desserts, to make popsicles and so on. Head over to Vaishali's blog for many more yummy ideas to use with strawberry crush.

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Summer fruit and Yogurt Popsicles

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking from Kid's Books/ TV shows

Dish: Yogurt & Summer fruit Popsicles

For the final day of this week's BM, I made these colorful and delicious fruit & yogurt popsicles. Since this is for Kid's Delight: Cooking from Story books/ TV Shows, being hosted by PJ, this recipe is from one of my son's books, Black Lagoon adventures.

The main character in the book starts a popsicle business in his neighborhood during summer vacation. But no one comes to buy them and the popsicles melt away into a puddle. He then decides to start lemonade business instead. I think this is were my son got the idea to start a lemonade stand. He bugged me for a long time to make lemonade, so he can open a lemonade stand in the front yard.

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Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream (3 Ingredient Recipe and No Ice Cream Maker required)

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: 3 Ingredient Recipes

Dish: Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream

For the final day of this week's marathon, I made this amazing 3-ingredient Roasted Strawberry Ice cream that needs no ice cream maker. I did a happy dance when I found this recipe while looking for 3 ingredient dishes. I had all the ingredients on hand and it just sounded too good not to try right away.

I already have 2 strawberry ice cream recipes on the blog -- one with strawberry puree and the other with condensed milk, orange liquer etc. If you click on the links and see, you'll notice that the first one looks a little icy whereas the second one is quite creamy. The second recipe is very easy to make -- just mix all the ingredients and then churn in the ice cream maker.

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Rose Shrikhand (Gulab Shrikand)

It's officially summer like in our neck of woods. My son has another week to go before his summer vacation starts -- he can't wait for this week to pass. I'm already worried on how to keep him busy without having to turn on the tv for the whole day. Also bored kids get hungry frequently, so it's better to keep him busy with something that interests him and hopefully we'll survive the summer.

Sorry, I digressed. Coming back to the Rose shrikhand. This is a perfect summer dessert, light, sweet and refreshing. Shrikhand/ Shrikand is a yogurt based dessert and it is traditionally flavored with saffron, cardamom and nuts.

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Shortcakes with Strawberry & Mango

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Seasonal Veggies & Fruits

Dish: Shortcakes with Strawberry-Mango 

For the final day of this week's marathon, I picked juicy strawberries and mangoes as my seasonal fruits. Spring brings in so many fresh and delicious produce that is very exciting to visit the farmers market or even the grocery store. So many varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables to choose, it is sometimes overwhelming. I feel like I have to buy everything because what if they are not there the next time I come to the store.

We have been enjoying strawberries a lot this season. My daughter loves them and she's been eating them for snack almost every day. She feels so disappointed when I tell her that we are out of strawberries. So strawberries have become a regular item on my grocery list now.

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Neapolitan Tarts (Chocolate crust with No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake filling)

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 23
Bake of the Day: Neapolitan Tarts (Chocolate crust with No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake) 

I can't believe we are almost at the end of April and our mega baking marathon is going to be done in 4 days. Time sure flies when we are having this much fun. If you want to know what I baked so far for the marathon, then check here.
For the final week I have some miscellaneous bakes, basically dishes that didn't really fall in any of my chosen themes for the previous weeks (breads, breakfast & cakes). First up is this Neapolitan tart -- with a chocolate crust and a no-bake strawberry cheesecake filling. 

Chocolate, Vanilla & Strawberry are the classic Neapolitan flavor combination (like in the ice cream). In this recipe, they are showcased in chocolate tarts filled with vanilla flavored strawberries. Recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine.

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Fresh Strawberry Cake

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 21

Bake of the Day: Celebration Cakes --  Fresh Strawberry Cake

I first saw this strawberry cake on Siri's blog. This cake recipe was making rounds in Facebook couple of months ago. A Strawberry Winter Cake movement was also started because it was strawberry season in India. All the cakes shared looked so amazing that I had to jump on the bandwagon and make this cake right away. This cake celebrates Summer in a delicious way!!

Even though it wasn't really strawberry season then (I still remember the super cold winter -- brrrrr), I found some decent strawberries and made this cake. It is a very pretty cake with whole strawberries beautifully arranged on top. I should have put the strawberries a little closer on top -- they seemed to have drifted apart after baking.

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Mango Jam (with Pectin)

It is officially the end of end of mango season. I was lucky enough to taste the final mangoes of the season in India. My mom and I ran to the market in the middle of a hot day as soon as we heard there're mangoes in the market. My daughter and I totally enjoyed the sweet Banganapalli mangoes, while the self proclaimed mango phobic person (my son) looked at us like we were crazy. It's been good 14 years that I ate a good Andhra mango.

I was excited to see some mangoes on our recent visit to the local Indian grocery and bought a whole crate out of sheer excitement, only to find that most of them had dark spots on them. They tasted super sweet and juicy, but the dark spots started to grow bigger by the day. With my husband travelling, I couldn't possibly eat all of them, so decided to make a jam with the rest of them -- this way at least we can preserve and relish the mangoes longer.

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Thai Sticky Rice with Mango

We are exploring the beautiful northern part of Thailand for this month's 'International Food Challenge'. Northern Thailand is blessed with the best scenery in the kingdom, it is the region with forests and mountains, rivers and waterfalls. It is the home to Thailand's hill tribes, whose conventions and customs differ from mainstream Thai culture. 

Rice is the staple of this region and they use both ordinary and glutinous varieties. Food is seasoned with fish sauce and chili peppers. Our host for this month, Sangeetha Priya, gave us some amazing Northern Thai dishes to try.

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Individual Summer Berry Trifles

This is the 4th dessert I'm posting in 4 days (cupcakes, cheesecakes and ice cream cake). My blog is definitely on sugar high more than the people eating them, because they were made at 4 different times and most of them were given away (thankfully!!). I actually have another dessert coming up on the blog later today. I think I will have to stop thinking about desserts and sugar for a while now.

Today's dessert is a great make ahead dish that is perfect to serve at summer parties. With the berry season in full swing, this is a great dessert to put them to use.

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Ice Cream Cake

Today's dessert is so simple to make that I feel silly posting a recipe for it. But it tasted amazing, so I felt I should share it here just so I remember to make it in the future. So if you are curious to know what it is, then let me tell you that it's nothing but softened ice cream with candy, cookies and nuts mixed in. 

I made this ice cream cake to serve the kids at our BBQ party last weekend. As I was looking for recipes, I found Nigella Lawson's ice cream cake and I loved the idea of mixing crunchy and chewy mix-ins into good old vanilla ice cream. Come to think of it, vanilla ice cream is like a blank canvas that can be flavored with just about anything.

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Individual No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecakes (in a bottle)

Summer is officially here and we are already in the middle of serious Grilling season. With 4th of July approaching real fast, I thought I will share some of my favorite dishes that can be made for your next backyard bbq or bring them to a potluck or even a picnic. 

First up is a no-bake cheesecake with layers of cookie crumbs, chocolate cheesecake filling, toffee bits and chopped nuts. Doesn't that sound delicious. These are a big hit every time I served them at parties. They are easy to make and can be made ahead of time, so you are ready to chill and enjoy your party.

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Butterscotch Ice Cream with Almond Praline topping (Eggless Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Summer Specials
Dish: Butterscotch Ice Cream with Almond Praline topping (Eggless Recipe)

We are starting another edition of blogging marathon today. Can't believe we are almost at the mid year mark and before we know it, it will be holiday season and a brand new year again. Hmmmm... time sure is flying. Coming back to the present, we have been enjoying nice warm temperatures for the past couple of days and hopefully this weather is here to stay.

My theme for this week is 'Summer Specials' and for the first day I have a sweet and cool ice cream. I think it was my sister who once asked for a ice cream with nuts and I started looking for recipes online. One of the search led me to Sruthi's Part time chef blog and her butterscotch ice cream got me with her amazing clicks. I made the ice cream right away.

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Vanilla Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe, No Ice cream maker needed)

This is my go-to recipe for Vanilla Ice cream. Recipe is from Eagle Brand site. It is super simple to make with just 4 ingredients. All that is needed is to mix all the ingredients and then churn in the ice cream maker. If you don't have ice cream maker, don't fret I've included the procedure to make it without the ice cream maker too.

Original recipe uses 4 cups of light cream or half-and-half, but I always have heavy cream and whole milk in the fridge, so that is what I used to make this ice cream. If you don't have ice cream maker, then use only Heavy Cream to get a creamy, smooth ice cream. Using light cream or half-n-half will make the ice cream too icy.

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Mocha Ice Cream (Eggless recipe)

It looks like Summer has almost come to an end (bahhhh). Good things pass way too quickly and this summer flew past at rapid speed. Didn't do anything fun to mention with the husband travelling most of the season. I guess the only fun thing that my son did was to learn swimming :-)

I want to post some of the summer recipes that I have in drafts before the season ends. I made this Mocha Ice cream from King Arthur flour site in June, around the beginning of Summer. It is very simple to put together and even my 5 year old loved it.

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