Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Ice Cream Sandwiches, Patriotic Cupcakes, Popsicles!

For a treats post, Jordon and I have been having fun making different summer treats! Here are a few we have enjoyed:

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches:

Shirley requested these for her birthday dinner and I have to say... the cookie recipe I used really wasn't my favorite... I wish I had used something different. Oh well. Does everyone have the thin, yellow cookie cook book Grandma Long put together for all of the couples for Christmas a couple years ago? I used a chocolate cookie recipe out of there for the outsides of the sandwich and honestly, it just wasn't chocolatey enough for me. It didn't have the rich chocolate flavor you need for a truly delicious ice cream sandwich. If I could do it over again, I'd use a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe instead... or I would have used a chocolate cake mix to make the chocolate cookies... Just sayin.

We put a scoop of ice cream on the cookie, topped it with another cookie, and then rolled the cookie in sprinkles. For this to work, you need to make sure the ice cream is bulging out the sides of the cookies so they catch the sprinkles. Also, it would be a fun variation to use different flavors of ice cream instead of just vanilla - like cookies and cream, strawberry, chocolate, etc. But this being for a birthday celebration, I tried to stay pretty safe in my choices. :)

Jord was the expert on the assembly line as shown...




This was back on June 30th and it's sad that I can't really remember but... I think we may have substituted apple sauce for half of the oil in the recipe... perhaps that is where we went wrong with the flavor and texture of the cookie? Is that a valid substitution for cookies? I know it is stellar in cakes but do any of you know about cookies?

Patriotic Cupcakes!!

Now THESE, have been some of my favorite cupcakes I've made or eaten! They have lots of fun flavors in each cupcake, are moist (thanks to the yogurt used), and are delicious!! Heather, I'm sorry I didn't have them done before you and Ty had to leave! :(

The recipe? From OBB: Seasons of course! In the summer section. :) They are a bit time-intensive on making them, but again SO good and a fun holiday treat. The 4th of July is my absolute favorite holiday of the entire year so I am a-okay going out of my way to make a fun treat for this day!!

I should have taken a picture of each step as I did it, but once you mix up the batter, you divide it evenly between three bowls, these will become the colors of the three layers for each cupcake. Add one 6 oz carton of blueberry yogurt to one bowl with blue food coloring, one 6 oz carton of strawbery yogurt to another bowl with red food coloring, and one 6 oz carton of coconut (I used pina colada since we had that) to the third bowl. Mix each bowl until you have the color you want and then you layer each color in each paper cupcake liner/cup.

The recipe explains all of this, but I do want to explain an error I made that will hopefully help you guys if you ever make these. I started with blue as my bottom layer and added WAY too much to each cupcake liner so that I ran out of blue and ended up with a couple of red and white cupcakes (Keri was happy I was apparently celebrating Canada Day as well...). :) So what I would do if I could do it again, would be to add only a small amount of blue to each liner and then go back and add more after I've put some in each liner. Also, since I had added too much blue but still had two other colors to add, my cupcake liners ended up being SUPER full and I was afraid they were going to spill over while cooking. Thankfully they didn't. PHEW! Anyway, I would follow that same tactic with the remaining colors as well.

I definitely toasted the coconut and added that on top of the frosting. It made a DELICIOUS addition! But I was so so sad that I totally forgot to bring my strawberries and blueberries over to my mom's to put on top of the coconut/frosting! So just imagine that there are slices of strawberry and a couple of blueberries on top of the one in the picture. Fortunately, my mom had some blueberries I could use... bah! My forgetful mind sometimes... Anyway, here are a couple of pics. One is of my friend Gen and I having fun frosting the cupcakes in a variety of ways and then the finished product!





Berry Creamsicles:

Again, I got this recipe from OBB: Seasons and have been anxious to make my own popsicles! The recipe is super easy and all of the steps they include are awesome. I didn't change anything - I just used raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries and I used a substitution for half and half since we didn't have any. Other than that, everything was the same! We have enjoyed them! Depending on how much pulp you like, you'll want to blend the berries for a longer time so that it is more liquid than chunky. Ours were a bit chunky and I think I'd rather it be more liquid. Next time... And can I give a shoutout for Costco berries?! They are amazing! Usually when I buy a carton of strawberries in the store there are at least 3 or more of them that aren't good and have to be tossed out and the whole carton maybe lasts a week... if we're lucky. The strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries I bought at Costco were ALL good and last for at least TWO weeks. We're still eating the blueberries about a month later... Yes you have to buy a lot when you get them at Costco but they're cheaper than buying them in smaller cartons at the store, they taste better, ARE better, and last longer. Just a shopping tip. :)



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