189. Italian Lemon Ice (p. 860)

It's Labor Day weekend, which means that the summer's over. I can't believe how fast it's gone by, and more importantly, I can't believe how little I've used my ice cream maker this summer.

One of the few times I did use my ice cream maker was to make this recipe* for Italian Lemon Ice.

This refreshing treat was really east to make. All I did was make a simple syrup by boiling some sugar and water, and then adding copious amounts of lemon juice and zest, and just a pinch of salt. I chilled the syrup in the refrigerator and then froze it in the ice cream maker. Finally, I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours to firm up.

This Italian ice was pretty good. It was cold and clean, and its intense puckery lemon flavor was a real wake-up call to the palate. The texture was very nice, too. I was afraid that it was going to be too much like a sno-cone, or worse, like a block of ice, but it was smooth and scoopable.

One of the other times I used my ice cream maker this summer was when I made the Sorbetto di Uva (Concord Grape Sorbet) from the September issue of Gourmet. When I saw the picture of this sorbet in the magazine, it grabbed me immediately. And the recipe looked so simple, I decided that I just had to make it the next time I came across Concord grapes at the supermarket. Well, wouldn't you know it, the very next time I went to the store, there they were! (I don't think that I've ever seen Concord grapes at Stop and Shop, so I think it was destiny.) All I had to do was puree the grapes, put them through a fine mesh sieve to remove the skins and seeds, and mix the puree with some super-fine sugar. I chilled the mixture and then froze it in the ice cream maker. The resulting sorbet was smooth, silky with an intense grape flavor. I thought it was just great!

Now, even though summer's coming to an end, that doesn't mean that the ice cream maker's going into mothballs. No sir, there are plenty of fall and winter ice creams in The Book: maple walnut, Grape Nuts, rum currant, eggnog... I can't wait.

Date Cooked: July 27, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A-

*This recipe is not on epicurious.com.

43. Lemon Bars (p. 691)

Ever since Kevin gushed about this recipe, I've been looking forward to making these lemon bars. And do you know what, he was right, they're fantastic!

The base of these bars is a simple shortbread made by pulsing together flour, sugar, cold butter and just a bit of salt. The result is a coarse meal that you press into the bottom of a baking dish. The Book calls for a nine-inch square baking pan. I don't have one (and neither does Kevin, so I wonder if it's an odd size?) so I improvised by using a rectangle pan with almost the same surface area (I knew that grade-school math would come in handy for something someday). The shortbread bakes in the oven for a while until "pale golden brown."

While the shortbread is baking, it's time to make the lemon custard. The Book's directions are simple ... perhaps too simple. All it says is "Whisk together eggs, granulated sugar, flour, heavy cream, zest, juice and salt in a bowl until combined." So, that's what I did. I just dumped all of the ingredients in a big bowl and started whisking away. The result was lumpy with little globs of eggy flour floating throughout. It took me a while to get it smoothed out. Next time I make these (and there will be a next time ... these things are great!) I'll add the ingredients one at a time to make sure that they all get incorporated evenly. The custard is poured over the baked shortbread and the whole thing goes back in the oven until the custard sets.

Once completely cooled (in the refrigerator for at least four hours), cut into 24 bars, dust with confectioner's sugar and enjoy. These bars were excellent. The shortbread crust was sweet and buttery with just the right density. The lemon custard was zesty without being too puckery, and sweet without being cloying. A perfectly balanced bar, and just the thing to end any springtime or summer dinner.

Date Cooked: August 16, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Medium
Rating: A

12. Lemon Buttermilk Sherbet (p. 860)

Have you ever noticed that most recipes that use buttermilk only call for a little bit of it (half-cup here, two-thirds of a cup there)? Yet, I've never seen buttermilk sold in anything smaller than a quart size. Now, I'm not about to follow Harry Truman's lead (legend has it that instead of staying up to watch the returns on election night in 1948, Truman had a ham sandwich and a glass of buttermilk and went to bed early), so I usually end up throwing away all of the leftover buttermilk. (But first, the carton often gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator where it's forgotten for a few weeks until it starts breathing and knocking on the refrigerator door to be let out, and then it gets thrown out.) But in these days of rising food costs (I wouldn't be surprised if M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf becomes a bestseller again) waste not, want not is the motto.

A few days ago, my wife made a couscous dish from Cooking Light that called for a small amount of buttermilk. I resolved not to throw away the remaining buttermilk, and I went straight to The Book's index to find recipes using buttermilk. I came across this great sherbet.

This recipe couldn't be easier. It's just buttermilk (a nice two-cup portion ... only about a quarter-cup left in my carton, dare me to drink it?), corn syrup, lemon zest and juice, and sugar. Mix it all up, chill for a while, and then put it in an ice cream maker. Let me just say that I'm getting reacquainted with my Cuisinart ice cream maker after the machine's long sabbatical in our attic. A few weeks ago, I made the Watermelon Sorbet from Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food. It was great, and the ice cream maker is a breeze to use. I don't know why this poor appliance was banished to the attic (like the crazy wife in Jane Eyre), while my never-used bread maker and cappuccino machine manged to keep prime real estate on my kitchen baker's rack. Well, the situation has been remedied. The bread maker has been retired to the attic, and the cappuccino maker was sold at our recent yard sale.

This sherbet was excellent. Tart and refreshing. The lemon juice, zest and buttermilk give it a tang and zing that is sure to make you pucker. My wife thought that it was too much, though. It had a nice creaminess without being too rich. The only problem that I had with the recipe was that as the sherbet mixture churned in the ice cream maker, some of the zest got caught on the machine's mixing arm resulting in some pretty large clumps of zest throughout the sherbet ... an unpleasant surprise if you get a spoonful of that!

I enjoyed this sherbet with some of the leftover Brown Sugar-Ginger Crisps that I had stashed in the freezer. Delicious! I think that lemon and ginger are best friends.

Date Cooked: June 28, 2008
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A