TwD: HONEY PEACH ICE CREAM

This ice cream rocks! Thanks to Tommi at Brown Interior for this week's awesome pick! Just in time for the summertime heat down here in Miami. I used good ol' Georgia peaches and clover honey. I love ice cream but have rarely made my own. My family makes it every July 4th, whipping out the ice cream machine and boxes of rock salt once a year to make a monstrous tub of homemade vanilla ice cream. A few times additional flavors have been added to match our favorites of the summer, toasted coconut and peaches are the ones I remember. We always try to eat as much as possible the first day - through brain freeze and all - when it's still sitting in the ice cream maker. After it hits the freezer, it's never as good.
I'm definitely looking forward to the ice cream in a couple of weeks! Yet, the large machine, the rock salt, the noise and monitoring so it doesn't catch, is quite an undertaking. I'm going to start searching for a lovely, little, hassle-free ice cream maker. In the meantime, I took a cue from Clothide's Chocolate and Zucchini for those sans ice cream makers. I made the recipe as directed, and then put it in the freezer, stirring about every hour or so. The ice cream will begin to freeze from the outside in, so the periodic stirring allows it to freeze more evenly. And it worked! The texture wasn't weird at all. Just creamy dreamy.

I'm surprised I liked the honey taste as much as I did. I'm more of a purist when it comes to fruit ice creams. This was divine though. I halved the recipe and boiled all the peaches in the honey (because I didn't read far enough ahead in the recipe). Next time (and there will definitely be a next time), I'll try just half in the honey and half added plain later. I'm hoping this will allow the peaches to stand alone in taste and mingle with the honey.

TwD: PARISIAN APPLE TARTLET

Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for picking the Parisian Apple Tartlet. This recipe is ultra-easy, and just as yummy! Check out Jessica's blog for the recipe.
Dorie's inspiration for this tartlet is from the Parisian bakeries, and the individual sweets people exit carrying and munching. I'm mentally filing it for any showers or teas in the future. I used Pepperridge Farm puff pastry and am already planning to try out mini tartlets with pears, peaches, and plums. The apples were great though I think I overloaded the pastry. Before baking, the apple pieces made a flower shape that fell apart in the oven so that afterward it looked more like a mini replica of Stone Henge. Edible historic sites...I'm sure there's a blog out there somewhere for it.

TwD: CINNAMON SQUARES

When I first saw that we were making Cinnamon Squares, I didn't think it would have chocolate. I thought it was an entire chocolate-free month! I love chocolate, but this chocolate and cinnamon duo was a bit much for me. The cake was yummy, though a little dry. I left it in the oven and thought I turned it off, when really I had left it cooking  somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes longer. Ooopsy. The icing was yummy, ummm, it's melted chocolate and butter stirred together. What's better than melted chocolate? Chocolate with butter! It sounds like a Paula Deen recipe. 
After putting half the batter in the pan, you layer with a cinnamon, sugar, and instant expresso mix, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and then add the other half of the batter. In the picture in the cookbook, Dorie's Cinnamon Squares have a lovely, playful wavy line through the middle. My chips went AWOL and all over the place. But still good. I opted for a piece with sour cream, as suggested in the Playing Around Section. I don't know, I really thought I was going to like this one, but it was all a little much. I would love to try the cinnamon bread sans chocolate as a more breakfast/brunch item. 

I gave most of the squares away to my co-worker for picking me up from the oral surgeon's. She shared them with the rest of the office who apparently loved them. I've still got a few in the freezer that I'm planning to pull out in a few weeks and try again. Perhaps when I'm craving something chocolate and over-the-top. Thanks to Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures for this week's pick!