4th of july Archives - The Midnight Baker

Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream

Perfect 4th of July treat! An all-natural strawberry ice cream just like the old-time ice cream parlor. Once you taste this, you will never eat store bought again.

June is strawberry season here in upstate New York. I live around several large farms who sell and do a pick-your-own deal. I used to pick my own years ago, but no longer. At my age standing out in the blazing sun for a few hours isn’t really my bag LOL. Now I just buy them at the stand or in the store. I’m surrounded by strawberries!

Just like the ice cream parlor

This ice cream is the real deal. Reminds me of my childhood back in Brooklyn when my mom would take me to Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor for a treat. They made their own and it always tasted so much better than store bought. Mainly because their ice cream was made with ingredients you can pronounce (unless you’re a chem professor).

No artificial ingredients

This ice cream is very rich. A little goes a long way. I would caution against any substitutions, but if you MUST, then replace the light cream with half and half cream. You can use WHOLE milk if you want, but it will get very VERY hard and icy–which to me is unpleasant to be honest.

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The Recipe

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Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream

Perfect 4th of July treat! An all-natural strawberry ice cream just like the old-time ice cream parlor. Once you taste this, you will never eat store bought again.

Prep Time3

Total Time3

Course: Comfort Foods, desserts

Cuisine: American

Keyword: ice cream, strawberries

Servings: 3 cups

Calories: 1286kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 cups heavy cream
1 cup light cream
3/4 cups sugar
4 egg yolks beaten
2 cups strawberries roughly diced
3 tbsp sugar
2-3 drops red food coloring optional

Instructions

Heat creams and sugar in a heavy 3 quart saucepan, until very hot but do NOT let it boil.
Remove about 1 cup of the hot cream and whisk it into the egg yolks (this is called "tempering"). Now, return egg yolk mixture to the saucepan, whisking it in and whisking constantly.
Heat until custard is 160 degrees F -OR- custard will coat the back of a spoon. This should take about 3-5 minutes after whisking in the yolks. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature--stirring now and then to prevent a thick skin from forming. You can just leave it be and remove the skin entirely. I prefer to prevent it from forming. Choice is yours.
Transfer custard to a covered container (I use a dollar store plastic pitcher for this) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Place strawberries in a small bowl and add the 3 tbs sugar, tossing to coat well. Cover and chill.
When ready to make ice cream, stir the fruit (including accumulated liquid), food coloring (if using) and custard together.
Follow directions of your ice cream maker to freeze. I use a Lello Gelato Jr. This is the machine with the compressor already in it so I don't have to freeze a bowl. In my machine, this recipe makes *2* batches as it makes 1 pint.

Nutrition

Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream

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Hot Fun in the Summertime (week #7)

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 23:00:00 +0000

So many wonderful summer recipes have been posted so far!

This party will take us up to the 4th of July, so I’m going to suggest some patriotic entries if my blogger friends have them!

I’ll start this off with something patriotic–and EASY! Requires 3 ingredients and your microwave!

Patriotic Cupcakes

FOR MY BLOGGER FRIENDS ADDING LINKS

Pin up to 3 links on each day the hop is open and do invite your other blogger friends.Party is open from Monday thru Friday. The following Monday, we start a new post with new recipes that again run through that week’s Friday. Each post will be marked with the week number.

I have a Pinterest board associated with the hop. Anyone who posts either has been or will be invited, so if I miss anyone, please contact me for an invitation. My boards are WELL TRAVELED so you will get engagement. I will also pin selected entries to some very large food boards I pin to over there. If we don’t follow each other already on Pinterest, please follow at least 1 of my non-group boards and I will follow you back–PLEASE let me know you have to be added!!! I try to go through the links, but sometimes I miss someone (not intentionally).

Here’s a button you can grab for your own blogs and other social media (you’ll just need to copy/paste what’s in the textbox):

An InLinkz Link-up

Follow The’s board Hot Fun in the Summertime Blog Hop on Pinterest.

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Aloha Pineapple Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Aloha Pineapple Chicken

The taste of Hawaii! Sweet and savory grilled chicken has tons of flavor and without marinating! Pineapple juice-based BBQ sauce is the secret.

Marinade And Basting Sauce

I have often used a variation of this sauce as a marinade and I have an upcoming post for a london broil that uses it.

When I made that marinade, I made double the amount, but I’d gotten to thinking that it would likely make a very good dipping sauce for pot stickers, etc. That led to an idea to reduce the sauce until it had a thicker consistency and use it as a BBQ sauce.

Great taste without marinating

I had a test run with it a few days prior to making what you see in these photos and I have to say, I was TOTALLY amazed that just brushing on some of that sauce infused the whole flavor through the chicken. Hard to believe, but it does!

Tastes Like It Marinated For Hoursa

The chicken tastes like you marinated it for hours. I’d venture a guess that if you marinated it in the sauce (don’t reduce it), then reduced some more sauce for the glaze, this would be unbelievably good! Certainly if you wanted to try that, it wouldn’t destroy anything and it would enhance it–but the flavor may be too powerful for some. If you wish to do this, use 1/2 the sauce to marinate and reduce the other half–just for food safety sake, I wouldn’t use what was contaminated by the raw chicken. Yes, you do boil and simmer so any salmonella would likely be killed, but the sauce would be impure due to liquid seeping out of the chicken. It’s best to use fresh for the reduced sauce.

The Recipe

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Aloha Pineapple Chicken

The taste of Hawaii! Sweet and savory grilled chicken has tons of flavor and without marinating! Pineapple juice-based BBQ sauce is the secret.

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Chicken, GRILLING

Cuisine: American

Keyword: grilled chicken

Servings: 6 -8

Calories: 648kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 whole frying chickens about 3 lbs each*

ALOHA PINEAPPLE SAUCE

8 oz pineapple juice
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 large garlic cloves crushed
1 tbsp mirin** or white wine

Instructions

*Pre-cut chicken parts may be substituted but they should be from smaller chickens as large parts take too long to cook on the grill to insure they are cooked to the proper temp.
**Mirin is best to use here, but if you can't find it in your store--it'd be in the Asian food section and a major brand is Kikkoman, then white wine will do.
Cut up chicken into serving pieces. I cut the chickens into quarters, but cut the wing off the breast.
Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10-15 minutes or until sauce is reduced by 50% and has a consistency like maple syrup. Cool to lukewarm then refrigerate until chilled. I recommend you make the sauce either very early in the day or the day before.
Preheat grill to low/med-low heat. If you have a thermometer installed in the lid, grill temp should be 300-350 degrees F.
Place chicken bone side down on grill. Close lid and cook for 20-25 minutes; turn chicken and cook for 20 minutes.
Turn up grill heat to med-high heat. Baste both sides of chicken with the sauce. Cook about 5 minutes on *each* side to crisp chicken.
FYI--internal temperature of chicken should be 180 degrees F for food safety -OR- juices should run clear.

Nutrition

Aloha Pineapple Chicken

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Citrus Tarragon Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 20 May 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Citrus Tarragon Chicken

This wonderfully citrus and tarragon-infused grilled chicken is excellent for summer BBQs.

Here comes summer–AT LAST! Memorial Day usually kicks off the summer cookout season, followed up by the 4th of July, and this is a perfect entry!

Tarragon is such a great herb for flavoring chicken. It wasn’t one I’d normally think of to be honest, but years ago my chef friend Klaus served me broiled chicken that was flavored with tarragon and I was hooked. He also used it in sauteed zucchini–try it. It’s wonderful.

Delicate herb and citrus flavor

The herb has a very slight anise-like flavor. If that’s not your dish of tea then thyme is a fine substitute in this or even rosemary (although with rosemary, I’d use only about 2 tsp in the marinade because it’s quite potent!).

I love this done on the grill, but you can do it in the oven as well. If I do this in the oven, I more often than not will pop it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown it more and crisp the skin.

Lovely done on the grill

This is very good served with my Smoky Two-Potato Salad and the chickens you see in the photographs were eaten with just that!

Citrus Tarragon Chicken

1 whole chicken, split or cut into quarters
Marinade:
2 whole limes
2 whole lemons (large ones)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbs dried tarragon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

For marinade–juice the limes and lemons, reserving the rinds.

In a small bowl, mix the lemon & lime juices and the rest of the marinade ingredients. Stir in the reserved lemon and lime rinds.

Make 1/4-inch deep slits on the meaty parts of the chicken–this helps the marinade infuse into the meat.

Place chicken in a large zipper freezer bag and pour marinade over chicken. Seal the bag, mush the contents a bit so the marinade and citrus rinds are distributed evenly. Place in refrigerator and marinate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight–I recommend strongly letting it marinate overnight!

Preheat BBQ grill to medium-low heat. Place chicken bone side down on the grill. Grill for 30 minutes (with the lid closed). Turn chicken and grill for an additional 30 minutes, or until internal temperature of chicken is 185 degrees F.

Alternately, this can be made in the oven by cooking it at 375 degrees F for 45-60 minutes, or until internal temp is 185 degrees F or juices run clear.

Serves 4.

Citrus Tarragon Chicken

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July 4th Cheesecake Popsicles

Judith Hannemann — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:00:00 +0000

Cheesecake Popsicles for 4th of July

The perfect pop for the 4th!

What a delicious way to celebrate Independence Day–or any other day!

These two-fruit cheescake pops are a treat for taste and texture.

First you have great granita-like fruit layers and a creamy and rich cheesecake center!

I made the cheesecake part with Neufchatel cheese–some like to call this “low-fat cream cheese” these days, but Neufchatel is and always has been a cheese in itself. It’s very similar to cream cheese, yet a lot lower in fat. It’s slightly more tangy too. Of course you can use regular cream cheese, but you may have to reduce the sugar every so slightly…taste first to see. In fact, do that even with my recipe. Taste varies, so you might find my amount too sweet or not sweet enough.

Feel free to change the berries too. I used raspberry for the red, but any red berry will do. Same with the blue layer.

I used the star-shaped popsicle mold for this…thought it appropriate LOL

Cheesecake Popsicles

1 cup red raspberries, thawed
1 cup blueberries or blackberries, thawed
3 tbs sugar
8 oz Neufchatel cheese
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup milk, light cream or half and half

NOTE: I used frozen berries. If you use fresh, cook each berry variety in a small saucepan with 1 tbs water just until berries are soft and begin to burst. This step is unnecessary if using frozen fruit.

Place blueberries in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tbs of the sugar.

Place raspberries in another bowl and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tbs of the sugar.

Let the berries stand for about 30 minutes (this is called “maceration”).

Mash the berries or process in a food processor, Ninja, or with a stick blender. Set aside.

Blend the Neufchatel, confectioner’s sugar and milk with a food processor, Ninja or stick blender.

Fill 1/3 of each mold with one flavor berry. Place molds in freezer for about 2 hours.

When berry layer is firm enough to support the cheesecake layer, fill another 1/3 of the mold with the cheescake mixture. Since this layer is pretty thick, you probably won’t have to freeze it to firm it up. I didn’t, but if you want to, probably an hour would do.

Fill the final 1/3 with the other berry flavor, *almost* to the top of the mold…remember, it will expand when frozen!

Place a wooden popsicle stick into each mold, leaving about 1 1/2-inches free at each end.

Cover and freeze for about 6 hours, preferably overnight.

Makes 6 pops.

July 4th Cheesecake Popsicles

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