Lemon cheesecake ice cream

I make no apologies as to my blogging (in)frequency.

What drives me to actually blog something on this hot spring day (35 bloody degrees in spring and some people still deny global freakin warming....aaahhh!) ? Food porn of course. 

I could have blogged the awesome veggo san choy bao I made. Lovely crispy iceberg, soft tofu and just the right amount of salty soy...but hey, I really am just not organised some days. We spent the morning at the beach (oh, an upside to global warming!) and the kidlets were too frazzled and needing food too quickly for me to photograph it!

Gratuitous family fun beach shot!

So what you get instead is LEMON CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM!!!!! Yep. I'm shouting. It was that good it deserves shouting. And squealing (but I haven't figured out how to type girly squeals.)

So without further ado, 

Lemon Cheesecake Ice cream

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup Ricotta

1 cup Thickened Cream

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 lemon rind zested. 

Handful of toasted nuts (optional)

Make a quick sugar syrup by combining sugar and water in a saucepan and boiling until sugar disolves. Remove from heat immediately. 

Add lemon juice (I used 3 lemons, you probably won't need this many, but since the kids hid my juicer...and hairbrush... and the remote I squeezed the lemons by hand) and zest and pour into another bowl to cool. 

In a separate bowl mix the ricotta and cream (you don't need to spend too much time doing this as the ice cream maker will do the bulk of the job for you). 

Add lemon mixture to cream / ricotta. Stir until combined and add to ice cream maker. You will need to do this step rather quickly as the lemon juice will begin to separate the cream, don't worry, it all comes out great in the end. Turn your icecream maker on and follow manufacturers directions (mine takes about 20 minutes). 

If you are using toasted nuts, go ahead and toast them now. I used pecans as they were what I had in the cupboard, but I suspect macadamias or almonds would taste better. A biscuit or shortbread crumble would also probably be unreal.

If it is 35 degrees I suggest pouring yourself a drink while you wait for your machine to magic up the icecream (white wine spritzers were my choice tonight, alcohol and and water with ice...how can you go wrong?)

Lemon Cheesecake Icecream

Serve in little bowls. This served 4 of us (including two little people servings), but was very rich and could have served six with less piggy appetites. 

Til next time. 

CC

A whole lotta lemon

A friend popped over last week bearing a whole lotta lemons from her tree which sparked a serious lemon meringue pie craving. No  problem....whip up some eggs and STOP! Egg is a bit of a swear word in our house thanks to little Mr Anaphylaxis.
Chuckles (aged almost 2.5) has egg and peanut allergies much to my amazement (those things are supposed to happen to other peoples kids!). As a result we are an egg free house which can be annoying when you love baking. It really hasn't changed things that much in the scheme of things, I adapt recipes, we don't eat fritatta and every now and then my husband and I dump Chuckles in childcare and have a naughty breakfast in a cafe with lots of poached eggs. Some parents have a cheeky drink, we have a cheeky eggs bene.

Anyway this is what I came up with to satisfy the lemon craving. Sweetened condensed milk mixed with lemon and shoved between puff pastry, mmmmm!

Lemon Tartlets

1/2 tin sweetened condensed milk
Lemon juice to taste (abut 2?)
Puff Pastry
Fresh fruit..Banana, Strawberries, Kiwi Fruit.

Grease a muffin tin and place rough circles of pastry in tins. These should be blind baked, but I was far too lazy, so if you don't mind them "rustic" don't bother. Brush with milk and bake for about 10 minutes or until brown.

Mix sweetened condensed milk with lemons tasting often to achieve correct lemony taste.  Whack it it the fridge. Once pastry cases are filled top with lemon mixture, fruit and serve with cream or ice cream for dessert.

They taste better if you let them sit in the fridge overnight...if you can. I think they would make a great addition to a high tea.

Matchsticks

Lemon curd as above
Whipped cream
Puff pastry
Sugar

Grate a little lemon rind over puff pastry and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until lightly golden (10 minutes). Once cool spread lemon and cream between puff pastry. Three tiered high. Eat! (A little messy but yum!)