Let me lay out some facts for you:

My bed has an electric blanket on it this winter.  My fears of spontaneous combustion are usurped by my complete inability to actually get out of my warm bed.  

Yes… I’m totally writing this from bed.  Try and stop me.  This cozy just won’t quit. 

I have exactly zero interest in turning on my oven for the next week… mostly because my oven isn’t in arms length of my bed.  I really don’t want to get out of bed.  

Yes… I’m talking a lot about my bed right now.  Maybe I’m obsessed.  Maybe this is unhealthy.

But!  There is one reason I’m getting out of bed tomorrow.  Vacation.  Holy hell!  I’m going on vacation!  I’m going to a gorgeous spa/ bed and breakfast situation in San Luis Obispo… all by myself.  There’s a bathtub.  Not just any bathtub… but a soaking tub… next to a fireplace.  Oh.  My.  God.  I only plan on leaving that soaking tub in an extreme prune state.  

If you’re in San Luis Obispo and you think you can lure me out of my soaking tub… we should totally have lunch!

Before all the soaking begins… here’s a deep purple Blackberry Granita.  I suggest eating in in bed, under the covers, while watching your third Netflix romantic comedy.  Don’t worry.  No judgements.  This granita just tastes better that way.  

This recipe was inspired by two things:  the need to put a stop to my Christmas cookie binge, and my desire to have a dessert without actually having to turn my oven on.  

The result is surprisingly comforting.  Sweet blackberry ice combined with lightly sweetened soft whipped cream.  It’s uncomplicated, refreshing and simply delicious.  

Blackberry Granita with Whipped Cream

Print this Recipe!

3 cups water

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 heaping cups frozen blackberries (un-thawed)

juice of 1 lime

2 teaspoons vodka (optional)

whipped cream (sweetened as much as you like)

In a medium saucepan heat water and sugar until sugar dissolves.  Add frozen blackberries and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes over medium heat.  Stir to break blackberries up a bit as they cook.  

Once blackberries are broken and cooked, place half of the blackberry and liquid mixture in a blender.  Pulse and blend until a berries are broken down into a puree.  Place a fine mesh strainer over the pot containing the other half of liquid and berries, and strain the puree into the pan.  The end result is berry pieces, whole berries, blackberry liquid and the juice from the puree.  

Add lime and vodka (is using).  The vodka helps the mixture not freeze so solid, but is not entirely necessary. 

Place mixture into a 9×13-inch pan and place in freezer.  Set timer for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, scrape any ice crystals that have formed towards the center of the pan.  Set timer for another hour and again scrape the ice crystals towards the center of the pan.  Continue until all of the liquid has formed ice crystals.  

Serve with soft whipped cream.  Yum!

Oooooh geez!  

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  

I received an overwhelming response to my rooftop picnic plans.  You and you and you over there…. you guys are rad!  

I’ll send out email invitations later today.  Keep your eyes peeled.  

Unfortunately, because of the huge response, I am unable to extend an invitation to each and every one of you.  I received more requests than I have room for.  Bummer.  Total bummer.  But stay close!  I’ll let you know as more spaces become available.  I want to see as many of your smiling faces as possible.  Wait…. have I mentioned that I’m shy?  I guess on August 23rd I’m not shy… not shy at all.

Let’s not forget the virtual picnic!  More details on that as the date approaches.

I have this nasty little habit that shouldn’t bother you in the least… unless of course you’re one of the unlucky people in the world that might have to share a pint of ice cream with me.  

See… I’m a picker.  I will shamelessly pick out every good morsel of ice cream chunky goodness from a pint, leaving only half melted ice cream for you.  Cookie Dough Ice Cream is only Cookie Dough Ice Cream until I get my paws on it for five minutes.  After a cool five minutes, that pint is just a sad excuse for vanilla ice cream.  Don’t even get me started of Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream.  I’ve got enough skills to dig out every ounce of peanut butter in seconds flat.

It’s a shameless habit.  It’s terrible and selfish… and it’ll never change.  I can’t help myself. 

Cookie No-Dough Ice Cream may have just solved my ice cream picking issue.  Instead of having vanilla ice cream with chunks of cookie dough embedded within it, this ice cream… the entire ice cream is the flavor of cookie dough!  Holy heck balls!  That’s amazing.  Yea.. it is. 

This ice cream is thickened with egg yolks.  Some ice creams are thickened with cornstarch.  I think egg yolks are the way to go, creating a super luscious and velvety ice cream.  The thing with thickening custards with egg yolks is that they’re very easily over cooked.  I do it all the time.  I did it with this batch of ice cream.  

There’s a point after you’ve tempered the egg yolks, when you’re reheating the whole custard, stirring constantly, and you’ll test the concoction to see if it coats the back of a spoon.  Coat the back of the spoon with custard.  Run a finger down the center of the custard, and if a line remains separating the two custard halves, then your custard is thick enough.  170 degrees F is you have a nifty thermometer.  

Now… if you overcook the custard, it’ll look a little grainy.  Why?  Because the egg yolks cooked.  Yikes!  Not to worry.  All is not lost.  Simply run the custard through a fine mesh strainer before cooling and freezing.  Run it through a strainer twice if you have to.  No shame in that.  Keep on trucking!

Ooooh… and this is the ice cream maker I use.  I kinda love it. 

Cookie No Dough Ice Cream

     recipe from Claire at The Kitchy Kitchen (how cute is she!?)  ((seriously!!!?)

     Print this Recipe!

A few weeks ago I threw a little idea out into the world:  a Joy the Baker picnic.

Well… holy heck!  We’re doing it!

Joy the Baker is throwing a rooftop cupcake party smack dab in the middle of gorgeous downtown Los Angeles.  Consider it a room with a view (the view pictured above silly!)… and no roof and tons of cupcakes and sweet tea.  

Sunday August 23rd from 2pm until 7pm.  Downtown Los Angeles.  

This event is not a pot luck situation.  It’s more of a eat-all-the-Joy-the-Baker-cupcakes-you-can situation.  

If you’d like to attend, send an email to joythebakerpicnic (at) gmail (dot) com

I’ll email you the fancypants invitation late next week.  

Now… a girl can only make so may cupcakes.  In the event that I have to limit the guest list, invitations will go out on a first come, first serve basis.  Get your emails in!

Not in Los Angeles?  Don’t fret!  I have plans for you to play along wherever you live.  You might call it a virtual picnic!  Stay tuned for that!

I want to see your shining faces!

I like you.  I like you a lot.  I mean it… and I don’t think I’ve told you in a while.  Sweet.  I’m glad you’re here.

Would now be a good time to tell you that I have a serious, though not lasting, aversion to my kitchen these days?   I have an even more serious aversion to my oven.  For reals.

It’s just that… well, it’s summer!  There seems to be so many museums to visit, brunches to have, friends to laugh with, wine to drink… and somehow none of this fun takes place in my kitchen.

Amazingly, and through the miracle that is my freezer, I’ve managed to throw together a lovely and waaaay super easy summer recipe.  It’s apple pie meets snow cone, minus the cone, plus a hint of awesome.

If it’s summer in your part of the globe… please please please make this.  Remember when you were a kid and used to freeze juice in the ice cube tray?  Dangit!  Why were those cubes always so rock solid!?  This Apple Pie Granita is the adult version of such childhood endeavours.  Super sweet!

Apple Pie Granita

recipe from um… Emeril Lagasse

Print this recipe!

3 cups natural, unfiltered apple juice

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

pinch of ground allspice

Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium high heat.  Heat and stir until all of the sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes.  Pour into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.  Place in the freezer until icy around the edges, about 1 hour.  Using a fork, scrape the icy shards towards the center of the dish.  Freeze again for another hour and again scrape the icy shards.  Continue freezing and scraping until slushy throughout.  Eat standing at the open freezer door, or place in small dishes and serve immediately.

Lovely friends… hi.  Dear readers… hello.

Let’s talk about keeping it classy.  Hot dang! I try hard to keep it classy.  Holy smokes… do I ever fail sometimes.

Let’s discuss classy versus not classy, and what the heck chocolate dipped bananas have to do with anything.

Classy:  a tastefully short summer sundress.  Not class:  booty shorts that awkwardly bunch in the crotch.

Classy:  gracefully switching from wine to water at the company picnic.  Not classy:  maybe getting drunk and punching the sous chef in the face.  Oops.

Classy:  How much I love listening to public radio.  Not classy:  How much I love to watch The Real Housewives of  New Jersey.  Guilty… but why do they yell so much?

Classy: Enjoying mini chocolate dipped bananas on a summer afternoon.  Not as classy:  Trying to gnaw your way through a giant chocolate dipped banana.  It’s just not pretty friends.  Let’s try to avoid this scene this summer.  I think we all know why.

In case you’re wondering what I’ll be eating all summer, the answer is homemade kettle corn and these little lovelies.  Gracious heavens, how have I not come to these sooner!?  Use the best chocolate you can get your hands on.  I used a Valrhona 70% chocolate.  How about nuts!?  Heck yes!  I liked chopped honey roasted peanuts, but walnuts or toasted pecans would be lovely too.

Mini Chocolate Dipped Bananas

Print this recipe!

3 firm but ripe bananas

9- 12 wooden popsicle sticks or lollipop sticks

2 cups chocolate chips or chunks, melted

1/2 cup nuts of your choice, pulverized in the food processor or finely chopped.

Peel three firm bananas and slice each banana into thirds or fourths.  Each banana slice should be about 3 inches tall.

Place wooden sticks or lollipop sticks through the center of one end of the banana slice, about 2 inches deep.

Place of a tray or plate, making sure that the bananas do not touch, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for four hours, or overnight.

Using a food processor, pulse the nuts until they are chopped very fine.  You can also do this by hand, it just takes a bit longer.  Place in a bowl and set aside for the dipping.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler.  Simmer 3 inches of water in a pot, place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and, once the water is simmering, place the bowl of chocolate over the simmering water.  The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.  Stir the chocolate pieces  occasionally until they’re all melted.

Remove bananas from the freezer, dip in chocolate, roll in nuts and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  When all the bananas are dipped, return to the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.  Once hard, wrap individually in plastic wrap and store in the freezer until you’re ready to snack on them.  Yum!  I think they’re best eaten when thawed at room temperature for about 7 minutes.

I still write letters.

I still hand write letters in a festive card with a return address sticker.  I might even decorate the envelope with a rubbe-stamped dolphin stampede.

I still write letters and I still have pen pals.

My favorite pen pal?   My grandmother.  I call her Mommom.  She’s rad.  I don’t know how she would feel about me calling her rad.  She writes me short letters during the break she takes on her morning walk.  These letters are usually written from her favorite bagel shop.  Letters always include some sort of loving greeting, an update about her walking adventures and the bagel shop, something about an upcoming trailer trip, inquiries about my little sister, and an abrupt closing.  Short, sweet and to the point.

The best part about being pen pals with Mommom is that she will not let me slack off.  If  I haven’t written her a letter in a few weeks, I’ll get another letter urging me to, if I know what’s good for me, write my grandmother back.  If for some reason I don’t get to that letter in adequate time… well, I’m liable to hurt my grandmother’s feelings.  Hurt grandmother feelings, of course, leads to all sorts of guilt from all sorts of family members.  News of pen pal activity, or inactivity travels fast in my family.

Letter writing isn’t a chore.  It’s a nice break from simultaneously writing an email and checking my blog stats and watching stupid cat videos.   Letter writing is not technology multi-tasking.  It’s easy, breezy, simple… all about just sendin’ a little love.

Then there’s cobbler, which couldn’t be any more simple and delicious.  This easy cobbler is like letter writing, in baking form.  Spend a little time baking up a little love with this cobbler.  Sit down with a nice warm slice and write a letter to someone.  It’s supreme.

This cobbler just couldn’t be easier to throw together.  I used delicious golden nectarines as the filing, but feel free to use fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or peaches in any combination.  You can also use frozen fruit, although it should be thawed and drained before incorporated.  Enjoy summer the easy way.

Easy Nectarine and Cream Cobbler

adapted from The Pastry Queen

Print this recipe!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of cloves

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 cup milk (low fat milk will work fine)

3 cups sliced nectarines, skins left on

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the butter in a medium saute pan set over medium high heat until it bubbles and turns a nut brown color.  Watch the butter closely, as it can go from browned to burnt in just a few seconds.  The butter will have all sorts of browned bits in it.  That’s good!

Pour the butter into an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking dish.  Do not try a pie baking dish.  I did.  Overflow!

In a medium bowl, stir together the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder and spices.  Add milk and stir.

Pour the mixture on top of the melted butter.  Here’s the hard part:  do not stir!  Without mixing, arrange the fruit evenly over the top of the batter.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake the cobbler for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top turns golden brown.  Amazingly, the batter will migrate from the bottom of the pan to cover the fruit.  Yum!  Serve warm with slightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

… eat watermelon, in a park, in a row with several friends, quickly, in a race-type situation.  See who finishes first.  Crown them the winner.

Call it a Watermelon Eating Contest.

It’s summer.  Summer is fun.  Watermelon is summer fun.

Here are five Watermelon Eating Contest tips, from a photographer not a participant.

Just before the race, it’s not a bad idea to lick your lips and stretch out the back.  You’ll need every advantage.  No… pregnant women do not have to eat twice the amount of watermelon.  It doesn’t work that way.

Positioning is important.

Cool sunglasses might prevent watermelon splatter.  No?  Feel free to cast them aside.

White is not the ideal shirt color for such a contest.  Rest easy,  this is nothing a little Tide can’t fix.

Thorough.  If not speedy, please do be thorough.  Heck… might as well enjoy the melon!

Happy Summer!  What are you doing for fun times?

]]> http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/06/its-summer-i-think-you-should/feed/ 45 http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/06/peach-brulee/ http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/06/peach-brulee/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:35:54 +0000 joythebaker http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/?p=808

Reason #457 why I love this warm weather, sunny spring that leads into summertime:  the ponytail.

It’s bouncy, it’s festive, it helps me look like I’m having a good time even when I’m just standing in line at the grocery store, and it makes me feel like a cheerleader… which is strangely satisfying.

The ponytail is simple and uncomplicated.  I think I’m going to make the ponytail, and the fun simplicity it represents, the theme for the lovely summer we’re working towards.

I think that summer fruit is so fun and just bursting with bright flavors.   Most need very little fuss when it comes to preparation.  Why complicate something that’s already lovely?

This Peach Brulee is just three ingredients and it’s a gorgeous way to start the day.  Make it for breakfast and top the warm peaches with thick Greek yogurt, or make enough peach halves to serve after a big dinner with friends and family.  For one or for many, this simple peach recipe shows off the best of what’s in store for us this summer.  Go forth and broil…. and please sport a ponytail this summer.  It’s rad.

Peach Brulee

for one serving, but can easily be increased according to your needs

adapted from Good Food on kcrw

Print this recipe!

1 peach, cut in half with pit removed

2 spoonfuls brown sugar

2 spoonfuls sour cream, creme fraiche, yogurt or whipped cream

Turn on the oven’s broiler.  Cut peach in half, remove pit and place in a broiler safe pan, cut side up.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the tops of he peaches.  Place in the broiler, very close to the flame.  Stand by the oven, you don’t have time to check the mail.  Check the peaches every minute, the sugar will brown in about 2 minutes, if not sooner.

Remove from the oven once the sugar has become brown and toasted.  Let cool for one minute.  Carefully place peach halves on a plate and dollop the center of the peach with a touch of sour cream or creme fraiche or yogurt.  Serve immediately.

These bourbon laden treats were inspired by two things:  those still spring, but almost summer days that give you a hint at just how blazing hot this summer is going to be, and… this weekend’s Kentucky Derby.

Here’s what I know about Spring:

It’s green.  Once we get past the Easter Bunny stage, it’s all about blooming flowers and May showers.  Spring makes me feel like I’m in love with the world… probably because I am.

Here’s what I know about the Kentucky Derby:

Horses.  Hats.  Mint Juleps.

Here’s what I know about bourbon:

Dang, it’s good!

Here, for your Spring and Derby pleasure, are Mint Julep two ways.

The first is a classic Mint Julep cocktail.  If you’re from the South and think that somehow this recipe is not a classic version, then please accept my humble apologies as a native Californian.  This is the (ooooh so delicious) way I’ve had Mint Juleps foreva-eva-eva.

The second version is all of the Mint Julep fix-ins on watermelon cubes.  Brilliant, right?  So refreshing, so fun, and just the perfect way to get ready for the summer sun.

Mint Julep, the cocktail

makes 1 drink  adapted from Chow

Print this recipe!

• 3 sprigs fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
• 2 ounces bourbon
• club soda or filtered water
• sprinkle of powdered sugar

Muddle the leaves from two mint sprigs with teaspoons of water and sugar in a highball or collins glass.

Once the mint is bruised and the mixtures is super fragrant, fill the cup with ice cubes.  Pour in bourbon, and top with club soda or water and garnish with the remaining mint sprig and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Mint Julep, the watermelon

adapted from Gourmet May 2005

• 2 tablespoons bourbon or blended whiskey
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint plus 2 tablespoons whole small fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 small, seedless watermelon (about 2 pounds of diced watermelon, I just used a small mixing bowl full of diced melon)

Stir together bourbon, chopped mint, and sugar in a small bowl. Let stand 20 minutes (to allow flavors to develop).

Meanwhile, trim, peel, and dice a watermelon.  Place in a medium mixing bowl.  Pour bourbon mixture through a sieve onto watermelon. If you leave the chopped mint in the mixture, pour it all over the watermelon, and don’t serve it immediately, they’ll eventually turn brown and icky.  I learned the hard way.  Add whole mint leaves and gently toss to combine.  Place in the fridge to chill until serving.