Sweet and Cold

There is nothing better on hot summer days than some frozen foods, especially sweet ones. I may have slightly sensitive teeth but I absolutely love being able to eat ice cream on a hot summer day. Yet, as fun as it is to take a container out of the fridge and serve it up, serving it up yourself some homemade frozen treats that were just made only a few hours ago. With kids especially, this sort of activity is a good way to make something in the summer without turning your house into an oven itself. So we’re going to examine a few favorites and give some tips on how to make your summer a lot cooler.

Sometimes, you just need to take care of a lot of cold raspberries...

First off when it comes to making cool treats, the easiest way to make them without adding a ton of sugar is to use fruits. Not only is it better for you, but it allows you to make sure your fruit does not go to waste. As anyone who has bought fruit from the store knows, it tends to go bad fast even if you leave it in the fridge. So to help save money, freezing does wonders. Though there are a few things to keep in mind when you freeze fruit: always peel, wash, de-pit or core your fruit. Anything you don’t want on your fruit when you eat it, get rid of it. Also, any large fruits that are say, bigger than a strawberry, should be cut up so they store and freeze better. As I’ve mentioned before, temperature equilibrium is a factor and if the warmer object is big, it will take longer to become cold. Also, don’t try to freeze watermelons as it has way too much water to turn into anything but a giant ice cube that falls apart when it starts to thaw.

In general, the steps are the same: wash/dry fruit, get rid of nasty bits, slice, dry again (less moisture the better when freezing so it won’t fall apart when it thaws), and put the fruit on a tray in the freezer to freeze for several hours or overnight. After that, remove them from the tray and put them into a bag that is sealed tight and put them back in the freezer until you need them. I would always go for overnight myself if only because that makes sure they are nice and frozen.

One of the easiest frozen treats to make with this frozen fruit is to add juice, a mold of some sort and some Popsicle sticks to make fruit pops. This can be done in any shape or size, just think of whatever molds that you have that can go into the freezer. I am fond of the ice cube tray myself, if you use that you can not only make tiny Popsicle but flavored ice cubes as well. Another that might work is jello molds, but I have yet to really experiment with that, however I do have a few trays that I could always attempt to use. Lastly, if you just want a fruit snack with no juice but tastes really good, frozen bananas are always a must in my opinion, especially those covered in chocolate. You can really have a lot of fun with them and it can help use up your bananas when it is too hot to make banana bread.

Another quick treat to make with your freshly frozen fruit is sorbet. Sorbet, in its basic form is just frozen fruit and sugar mixed in a blender to make a puree. Then, you freeze it for several hours and enjoy when you’re satisfied with the results. It is the air caused by the blending that helps keep those cold crystals little so it is nice and smooth on your tongue. There is an issue though, that if you don’t use a stabilizer the air will leave the sorbet and turn it stiff in the freezer. One of my favorites for this is liquor, as it can add an additional flavor to the sorbet. However, if you are making this with young kids, gelatin or pectin are good substitutes.

Lastly, we have everyone’s favorite: ice cream. The beauty of ice cream is that for as many flavors as there are, there are plenty of techniques to use as well. There is the rock salt in a bag trick that has you shaking an ice cream bag that is inside a bag of rock salt to cool it down (extra fun with kids, they love moving it around), not to mention using a blender. You can also hand whip it if you are making it with heavy whipping cream or something like that. Lastly, you can always get an ice cream maker and follow the instructions on the machine to keep churning out ice cream for as long as you like. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it gives you an idea of how many different ways there are to make ice cream.

So, what are your favorite frozen treats to make? My boyfriend got me into making sorbet but I really like the idea of making chocolate banana pops again. I made them once when I was young and have never gotten the chance to as normally, my bananas magically turn into bread for some reason. Give your favorites below, and feel free to message me on twitter @TChefette. I hope you all enjoy your cold treats and I will see you next Horror Tuesday!