July is National Ice Cream month - no better time to celebrate when there's no food group better than ice cream to help cool your sweaty brow in the heat of summer.
You can always go to your favorite grocery store and pick up a gallon or two, but why not make it yourself without the need of an ice-cream freezer? There are numerous no-churn recipes and lately I've been experimenting with several of them to come up with a creamy, flavorful version.
Anne BralySome call for canned pie topping, which I've found doesn't make the flavor come through very well. Others call for putting the finished product in your refrigerator's freezer, then taking it out and stirring every 30 minutes during the first three hours to prevent the formation of ice crystals. That just takes too much time.
So what I found to work perfectly, making the ice cream just as smooth if not smoother than what you can get in the store, is to gently press plastic wrap over the surface of the ice cream and cover the top of the container with another piece of plastic wrap, then put it in the freezer and leave it alone. It's best - creamy and hard with no ice crystal - after about 18 hours.
If you make it today, you'll have it ready for dessert tomorrow evening. It's so easy to make your own, taking less than 15 minutes from start to finish.
Cream Cheese-Cherry No-Churn Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 (10-ounce) jar maraschino cherries
1 (8-ounce) package light (or regular) cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk (nonfat OK)
With an electric or stand mixer, whip cream until stiff peaks form. Scrape into another bowl and set aside.
While cream is whipping, drain cherries, reserving juice. Remove stems from cherries, if needed, and roughly chop. Transfer whipped cream to another bowl.
In the bowl of the mixer, beat cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together until smooth. Add 1/3 cup of reserved cherry juice to mixture and stir until well incorporated. Add chopped cherries.
Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture carefully by hand. Pour mixture into a loaf pan or other container, and if you want to, gently pour a little more of the cherry juice on top and draw a knife through the ice cream so cherry swirls appear. Cover with plastic wrap, placing wrap directly on top of mixture and gently pressing it on the surface of the ice cream. This will help prevent formation of ice crystals. Cover top of container with another sheet of plastic wrap or lid.
Freeze until desired firmness, 8-10 hours or overnight.
Note: This recipe is quite versatile and equally good for chocolate ice cream. Substitute 1 cup chocolate sauce for the cherries and cherry juice, blend it with the cream cheese-condensed milk mixture, fold in the whipped cream and pour into a loaf pan. To finish _ for effect and for extra chocolatey deliciousness _ drizzle 1/4 cup chocolate sauce over the top and pull a knife through it, creating swirls as you go. Then cover and freeze.
ICE CREAM SANDWICH
How many times have you wanted an ice cream sandwich made with your favorite ice cream? But the choices are limited. There's the classic vanilla ice cream sandwich, and I've seen chocolate ice cream used, but that's about it. Now you can make your own, using any kind of the creamy confection you want.
The new Sweet Spot Ice Cream Sandwich Maker from Chef'n lets you do it yourself. Simply make the sandwich part using your favorite brownie recipe or the one provided in the instruction booklet, then spread it in the shallow silicone molds, bake, cool, spread with your favorite ice cream - maybe some you've made yourself, press the molds together and freeze for about an hour, and ta-da! It's done. It's that simple - and inexpensive. You can find it at Walmart, amazon.com, Williams-Sonoma or surlatable.com for under $20. The kids will love it.
NEW RESTAURANT
Chattanooga's restaurant scene expands with the long-awaited opening of Chuy's, offering a really fun, wickedly delicious take on Tex-Mex fare. The decor is an interesting mix of styles - half Mexican, half vintage auto with a spattering of odes to Elvis Presley mixed in. Like I said, interesting.
And the food offers much the same: the expected - burritos, fajitas and taco salads; the unexpected - Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken (fried chicken with potato chip breading); and the trendy - fish tacos or shrimp, if you like. Enjoy any of these dishes with some of the freshest guacamole in the city and a cold glass of sangria. Chuy's is located at 2271 Gunbarrel Road.
Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.