Dairy-Free Berry Gelato

This recipe has been a favorite of mine the last few weeks. I always crave ice cream when I don't feel well (I'm sure some of you can relate), but since we think dairy might be causing my migraines, ice cream is an unfortunate no-no. I started munching on frozen berries as an alternative, and eventually this recipe was born.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen berries (I prefer raspberries)
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
1 T flaxseed oil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Eat immediately. I must admit, I've been known to remove the blade and eat this directly from the food processor (unplugged, of course).

You can leave out the flaxseed oil if you don't have it, but I find it adds something to the flavor that definitely wasn't there when I was just using berries and almond milk. I think it adds that creamy, fatty flavor that real ice cream has.

Red, White, and Blue Pizza

Happy Independence day everyone! This is my favorite treat to make for Fourth of July parties. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Ingredients:


1 16-oz package of ready-made sugar cookie dough
1 pint blueberries
2 pints strawberries
8 oz. cream cheese (*do NOT use low-fat)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t vanilla


Before you start on the dough, take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator so it can come to room temperature.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a pizza pan or cookie tray covered with failed or parchment paper, smash/spread cookie dough to form whatever shape fruit pizza you would like. A rectangular pan makes a nice U.S. flag, for instance. Kraft suggests cutting the dough into cookies and pressing the cookies together to form a circle.


Bake your huge cookie at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let come to room temperature before attempting to frost. Wash fruit and slice strawberries while waiting for the cookie to cool and the cream cheese to come to room temperature.


When cream cheese is no longer cold, combine in a mixing bowl with sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. I learned the hard way that it is very important that the cream cheese is room temperature - within seconds of turning on the mixer, the whole chunk of cheese was stuck in the beaters.

Oops.

Spread the cream cheese frosting onto the cookie in a thin, even layer. Arrange strawberry slices and blueberries into whatever pattern you like. Refrigerate before serving to help the frosting set.

*Note: Kraft adds a step that I skipped because I ran out of time. Mix 1/4 cup apricot preserves with 1 tablespoon water, push through a sieve to remove lumps, and brush across the top of the pizza. This creates that clear glaze that you see on fruit pizzas in the store. I'm sure you could do this with other flavors of preserves too. Paula Deen drizzles melted chocolate chips on top, which certainly sounds amazing too.

References:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/philadelphia-fruit-pizza-57079.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fruit-pizza-recipe/index.html

Berry and Cream Crepes

Today I felt like being creative in the kitchen, but it was HOT in Cleveland - 93 degrees last time I checked. With an abundance of frozen fruit in my freezer (usually destined for smoothies), I decided crepes would involve the least amount of time standing over a stove.


I encountered a few problems immediately - I only had two eggs left, I was out of milk, and getting more of either involved going out into that ungodly heat. After some research and substitutions, I came up with the recipe below, which worked surprisingly well. I will not post my disastrous attempt at strawberry filling; instead, I merely suggest you use fresh strawberries to fill this crepe and top with either whipped cream or the mascarpone topping listed below.

Crepe soup, anyone?

Ingredients:


2 eggs
6 T all-purpose flour
2 t sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
2/3 cup milk (I substituted vanilla almond milk)
2 t coconut oil


Mix the above ingredients together in a blender; blend until smooth.


Topping:


1 12-oz container mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 T honey


Mix mascarpone and honey together in a bowl until smooth.


Heat a medium-sized nonstick frying pan on a little higher than medium heat. The heat level will vary by stove, so use your judgement. Be patient and let your pan get hot before you start.


Most recipes say to use a small amount of butter to grease the pan, but I found this made my crepe too flimsy, greasy, and very difficult to flip. On my second crepe, I used a dry pan, and it worked far better.


Pour enough batter into the pan to almost fill the pan with a very thin layer. Working quickly, use a tablespoon to spread batter throughout the pan and to thin out thick spots.

When crepe is almost cooked through, work a large spatula carefully under the edges and flip quickly. This may take a few tries to get the technique down; don't be discouraged if your first one falls apart or end up hanging halfway out of the pan (yep, I did that).

Yeah! A successful flip!

Spoon some berries into a line in the center and use the spatula to fold over the sides so that it looks like a burrito. Some people prefer to just fold in half, but I found it is easier to get the crepe out of the pan if it is folded in thirds. Don't overfill the crepe, or this will happen when you try to fold it:

I still can't believe I actually got this out of the pan without making a mess

My advice on successfully removing a crepe from the frying pan is this: pick up the frying pan and hold it over a plate. Tilt the frying pan and use the spatula to guide the crepe onto the plate. This works far better than trying to lift the whole crepe with a spatula and move it to the plate without falling apart.

The only one that made it to the plate intact

Top with a few dollops of the mascarpone topping. I tried putting the mascarpone on the inside, but it melted quickly, creating the soupy mess that you see above. Makes 2-4 crepes, depending on how large you make them and how many you accidentally destroy.

References:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Orange-Crepes-109044