Monday, April 27, 2009

Maple Walnut Has Been Displaced.....

...as the greatest ice cream ever. Ah, how fickle is the heart of man.

Last week, when I went to the book sale, I found a "Weekend Cookbook". Now, unless company's coming, I really don't get why I want to cook more on the weekend, instead of doing what I want. But that's a philosophical difference between me and the rest of the world, doubtless exaggerated by the fact that I work from home, and so can just race to the kitchen if inspiration hits. (I found 2 more cookbooks this weekend,
so I guess I'm searching for a lot of inspiration.) Anyway, in the Weekend Cookbook was a recipe for strawberry-lemon sherbet. I read it, and promptly changed it a lot. This ice cream was made Friday afternoon, and gone Sunday afternoon, and my dearly beloved is whining at me to make more! more! more! I have to admit that it's outstanding, and relatively low calorie besides. There you go - diet ice cream! Who could ask for more?

STRAWBERRY SHERBET

4 cups frozen strawberries, piled loosely in the measuring cup

1-1/2 cups sugar
3 egg whites
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup milk

Rinse the frozen strawberries, if necessary, to remove any frost from them. Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar over the berries and let stand to thaw, or microwave for 3 to 5 minutes to thaw. Stir the sugar in completely. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff with 1/2 cup sugar. When the berries are thawed, puree them with the last 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice, and chill both the berry puree and egg whites until cold (1 to 3 hours). Stir the milk and cream into the puree, beat this mixture into the egg whites, and turn into your ice cream maker. Process according to manufacturer's directions.

And there you have it. With under 1000 calories in the whole batch, this is as close as one can get to "diet ice cream" and still have excellent flavor. And since I'm currently thawing berries for another batch, at the urging of my dearly beloved, I suppose this may indeed be "the greatest ice cream flavor ever!"

12 comments:

Pam said...

I am going to make this...soon. It's still pretty rainy and cold here but as soon as it warms up - this will be made.

noble pig said...

No, say it isn't so! Funny how we easily move on to next latest and greatest without looking back.

Christo Gonzales said...

I get the feeling that top spot is going to be pretty fleixible....

SissySees said...

That makes me feel cooler, which given the near-90 temps outside (oh, it will be 90+ in a couple of hours!), that's saying something!

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

If I can fit my bowl in the freezer this week, I am making this ice cream this weekend! It's perfect...so go make some more ice cream for your hyusband woman!
;-) LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

I like the "diet" word. This looks quite refreshing actually!

Lo said...

Maple walnut was trumped by ... a sherbet?? *craziness*

That said, this is probably just more proof that in season tastes best :) And sometimes "less" is really more!

Looks lovely and refreshing!

The Blonde Duck said...

If only Ben wasn't allergic to strawberries! This would be perfect!

Tatersmama said...

I woke up this morning to snowflakes (we're just heading into winter here in Oz) so ice cream has well and truly lost it's appeal for the time being...But I'm saving this one for next summer!
Yummmmmm!

pam said...

Perfect timing Marjie! We are just starting to get strawberries from our CSA.

Claire S. said...

This one is really tempting (just like all the others LOL), but without any hollow-legged kids in my house I just can't make ice cream as often as I'd like. This one will be made though...one of these days :-)

grace said...

maple walnut is a pretty stellar flavor, so i'm sure this is a delicious frozen concoction. of course, no ice cream/gelato/sherbet can compete with my favorite--cinamoo ice cream from maggie moo's. pure bliss. :)