I know it seems a bit crazy to be sharing an ice cream recipe in the middle of February, but yesterday it was 45 degrees outside! I was so hot and sweaty that I put on my swimsuit and went out back to sunbathe by the big pile of rapidly melting snow! Then I died of hypothermia. True story.

Honestly, though, I had planned on holding on to this recipe until it warmed up outside for real, but I just haven’t had the time to get in the kitchen lately. I’ve been busy with contractors making a mess of my house and staring at the pictures of my brand new nephew.  What’s that? You wanna stare too?

He’s even sweeter than this ice cream recipe I’m about to share with you.

Before I share though, I would like to take a moment to assure you that my children do not, in fact, sit around and eat sugar by the spoonful all day long. I know it seems as though all I do is bake goodies filled with sugar (and butter and, sometimes, bacon), but I’m actually pretty strict about my kids’ diet. They get one of each treat that I make and then the rest gets shipped off to work with my husband. Every now and then I’ll keep something around long enough for them to get two or three pieces, but that’s pretty rare. I figure they get enough sugar in the breakfast cereal they eat every morning, so I honestly try to limit sugar for the rest of the day.

You can imagine their surprise when I offered up ice cream for a snack, both because it meant something more complicated than me handing them a banana (the usual snack of choice) and because it was ice cream! At ten in the morning!

What they didn’t know was that their snack was still just a banana. My version of “ice cream” was just a frozen banana pureed in a blender. They were so excited that I felt a little bad for them and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. They gobbled it up.

I’ve since made banana ice cream with a big spoonful of peanut butter mixed in. It gives it great flavor and the kids get a little protein. You could also stir in a bit of honey if you were feeling particularly nice, or better yet, drizzle in some chocolate syrup.

Banana “Ice Cream”

• One banana, with brown streaks, but not so far gone that it’s just mush
• optional: chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, chocolate syrup, nutella, or anything else you’d like to mix in

A brown-ish banana will work best for this, because it will be softer. Peel and slice the banana into chunks and place them in a bag or bowl in the freezer until completely frozen. Put the chunks of frozen banana in a food processor or blender and process until creamy. Mix in any other goodies you’d like and serve immediately!

When I think of coffee cake, I think of a crumbly cake, preferably with a streusel topping, that you serve with coffee (much like this one).  I do not think of pastry dough and rolling pins, but this Raspberry Coffee Cake has shown me the light. The crust is so flaky and tender and the inside is just oozing with red raspberry preserves. It’s a raspberry lovers dream come true, but you could also make this with just about any other type of preserve you wanted. You could also use a seedless raspberry jam (which I usually buy, but my husband did the shopping this week) if you are scared of all the seeds.

The dough is a mixture of flour, butter, cream cheese, milk, a little salt, and some baking powder. It’s so simple! You just cut in the butter and cream cheese, pour in the milk and give it a quick mix, and then knead it just a tiny bit until you have this scraggly lump of dough.

Don’t be intimadated by this pastry dough! I had zero problems and the dough came out perfectly light and flaky! If the girl who relies on store bought pie crusts can master this dough, so can you.

Roll the dough out, transfer it to a baking sheet, and spread the middle third of the dough with preserves.

Slice the outer thirds of the dough diagonally, careful to leave a bit of space around the preserves, in about one to two inch thick strips.  Start on one side of the dough and flip one strip of dough over on top of the preserves.  Switch sides and just keep alternating back and forth until all the strips of dough are covering the preserves and you have a fancy braided looking coffee cake.

This bakes in just 12 to 15 minutes.

I forgot to line my pan with wax paper and my kids are really going to hate me for that when it comes time to wash the dishes. Oh well, I’ll just give them a big chunk of this as an apology.

Whip up some powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla and drizzle it over the top. You won’t regret it.

Mm! Perfect for breakfast, brunch, with coffee, or as a dessert. Heck, I might even eat this for dinner.

Raspberry Coffee Cake
Recipe from The Luna Cafe

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (recipe says unsalted, but I used salted butter)
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup raspberry preserves (or preserves of your choice)

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the butter and cream cheese. Pour on the milk and stir just until combined. Turn out on a floured surface and knead lightly 4 or 5 times. Do not overwork the dough! Roll the dough out on wax paper into an 8 x 12 inch rectangle. Transfer dough to a lightly greased (or wax paper lined) baking sheet. Mark the dough with a knife lengthwise into thirds. Spread preserves down the center third of the dough. Make diagonal cuts every couple of  inches on the outer thirds of the dough. Do nut cut into the preserves. Fold strips over the preserves, first from one side, then from other until you have folded over all the strips of dough. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until dough is fully cooked and lightly browned on top.

Icing

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla

Stir together and drizzle over the coffee cake.

(The recipe posted on Luna Cafe does show how to fold the dough over to make the braided shape if you need a visual!)

I know I’ve mentioned my love of raspberries before, but let me just say it again. I love raspberries. They are sweet and tart and juicy and delicious. They’re like candy. Yummy, tasty, healthy candy.

I don’t bake with raspberries that often because I usually eat them raw as soon as I buy them. I have no self control.

The other day though, the grocery store had some delicious looking raspberries and I bought enough to eat as a snack when I got home and enough to bake this scrumptious Raspberry Buttermilk Cake with.

This batter is a cinch to whip up. Mix it, dump it in your cake pan (I used a 9 inch springform pan) and then scatter a cup of raspberries over the top. Sprinkle with sugar and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes.

The cake develops a gorgeous crackly sugar crust on the top as it bakes. The inside is so light and airy with raspberries hiding here and there.

Let me just say this one more time: I love raspberries. Oh, and I love cake too. So, if you’re wondering if you should make this, the answer is yes. Go make it right now.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Recipe from Gourmet

There are moments in a girl’s life that she knows she will remember forever. Moments that make a lasting impact. I had one of those moments a few days ago. I was standing in my parent’s kitchen one evening and I glanced down at the counter. There was a gorcery ad laying there and I picked it up. Hold on to your hats, because this is where things get exciting. The ad listed 6 ounce containers of fresh blackberries for just one dollar. One dollar! I normally spend three or four times that for blackberries!

Needless to say, I ran right home and spent hours pouring over blackberry recipes. I finally settled on Blackberry Pie Bars from Joy the Baker and then I went to the store, found that they were all out of the $1.00 blackberries, wept, and then went to another store and purchased $2.00 blackberries.

And you know what? I don’t even care that I paid twice as much. Those $2.00 blackberries made something delicious.

Enough with the chit chat. Let’s make blackberry pie bars.

To start, zest one lemon into a bowl with 3/4 cups of sugar. Using the back of a spoon rub the zest into the sugar for a few minutes. Oh, man. I don’t even want to tell you how delicious this is. Just do it. And then lick it. And then cry tears of joy.

To the bowl of your mixer, add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cups of cold butter (cut into cubes), a dash of salt, and the sugar/lemon zest mixture. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until you get a nice chunky dough. Go ahead. Eat a few chunks, I won’t tell.

In a greased 9 x 13 pan, press half of the dough along the bottom. Pop the dough into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Let the dough cool for 10 minutes while you make the blackberry filling.

Whisk 2 eggs in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and 1/2 cup of flour. Mix well and then fold in 3 cups of blackberries. (Thaw and drain your blackberries first if you are using frozen!)

Pour your blackberry mixture over the dough and spread it out evenly.

Grab your reserved dough and sprinkle the rest of it over the top of the berry mixture.

Yum.

Pop it into the oven for about 50-60 minutes or until the top is just getting golden brown.

At this point, I contemplated getting out my video camera so you could see the berry mixture bubbling up between the cracks of the dough. The sound of the bubbling berries was beautiful. Then I realized that maybe I was taking my love of bubbling baked goods too far and I settled for a regular old picture.

Look at those delicious berries.

Have I said “yum” yet?

Yum.

Blackberry Pie Bars
Adapted from Joy the Baker

For the dough:

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of salt

1. Rub zest of lemon into sugar using the back of the spoon creating a lemon scented sugar.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, dump in flour, sugar/lemon zest mixture, butter and salt. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until the dough comes together in small chunks.

3. Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 pan. Set aside the remaining dough.

4. Bake the dough for 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Let cool for 10 minutes.

For the filling:

2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 cups blackberries (if using frozen, thaw and drain first)

1. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, sour cream and flour to the eggs. Mix well and then fold blackberries.

2. Pour blackberries over baked crust and spread evenly.

3. Sprinkle the reserved dough on top of the blackberry mixture and bake for 50-60 minutes.

4. Let cool one hour before serving.

The other day I was browsing Foodgawker trying to decide what to make for Father’s Day dinner and I came across a gorgeous picture for a Strawberry Crostada and knew that I had found my desert. I don’t make a lot of fruit deserts or pies, so I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this, but I needn’t have worried. This turned out delicious and nobody even knew that I used a store bought pie crust. Until now. Darn it.

Let’s make this, shall we?

First things first, hull and slice 1 1/2 pounds of ripe, juicy strawberries. Sprinkle them with two tablespoons of sugar (or a bit more if your berries are very tart) and try your best not to eat them all. I had to slap myself on the hand a few times. I love strawberries sprinkled with sugar.

Grab 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and mix it up with 2 tablespoons of flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla.

Now, either make a pie crust or buy it in a box at the grocery store. Pillsbury makes a mean pie crust, if you’re feeling intimidated or lazy.

Lay your pie crust flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using an off-set spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture all over the pie crust leaving a one inch border around the edges.

Pile your strawberries on top.

You’ll have quite a pile of berries, but they’ll bake down. Don’t be afraid.

Work your way around the crust and fold the edges over about every inch or so. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. The crust should be a gorgeous light golden color, the strawberries should cook down, and the juices should be oozing.

Excuse me, I think I need to go eat another piece of this right now.

Strawberry Crostada
Adapted from Salt and Chocolate

1 1/2 pounds strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling (or more, to taste)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 pie crust, store bough or homemade

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Hull and slice strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar and set aside.

2. Mix together cream cheese, flour, sugar and vanilla.

3. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper and place the pie crust on the parchment paper. Using an off-set spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture on the pie crust leaving a one inch border around the edge. Pile the strawberries on top of the cream cheese mixture. Work your way around the pie crust folding the edges up every one inch or so.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.