Ben and Jerry’s Raspberry Ice Cream

This was the first ice cream we ever made in our KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker attachment, and we wanted to experience the magic again. It was absolutely amazing. The wonderful thing about making your own ice cream is choosing your own ingredients. This time, we were fortunate enough to have organic raspberries from Door to Door Organics, which were super rich in flavor. I also picked up the lemon from there, and the heavy cream and whole milk both came from Calder Brother’s Dairy, which is a dairy farm about 30 minutes from my house. Even the eggs (yes, eggs) were local and cage-free. So, here’s my hippie-style raspberry ice cream!

Oh, as a note, we added shavings of dark chocolate this time, which compliment the raspberry flavor, but are totally optional.

Raspberry Ice Cream

Ingredients (makes generous half gallon):
3 pints raspberries
Juice from 1 lemon
2.25 cups sugar, divided in half
3 eggs or egg substitute
3 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups whole milk

Directions:
Freeze your ice cream maker 24 hours in advance according to the instructions of your machine.

In a large bowl with a lid, place your cleaned raspberries. Add the juice from the lemon and 1.125 cups sugar. Stir gently to mix and place in the fridge. Stir this mixture every 30 minutes for 2 hours.

Fresh Raspberries

Raspberries becoming syrup!

In your mixing bowl, whisk eggs until light and fluffy. Add the remaining sugar, then add the heavy cream and milk a little at a time until completely mixed. Then pour the juices off the raspberries into the mixture. Puree the remaining raspberries using a potato masher or another similar device. Add the raspberry bits to the mixture. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Freeze the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

A few weeks ago, I went to go visit my Mother in Boston. We had a great time outlet shopping (they have a White House/Black Market outlet up there… I know, right!) and cooking and talking. I love my mom very much.

Mom (with lots of makeup, on my wedding day):

While I visited, we had a BBQ at one of her friend’s houses. My mom’s friend brought a desert from the local grocery store. I looked at it, I hadn’t even tasted it… and I knew I had to figure out how to make this. It was a light chocolate cake with a peanut butter sauce on top and a whipped chocolate frosting around the outside, garnished with peanut butter cups.

This is my take on that desert. I wanted a thicker peanut butter sauce that was on that dish as well as a more simple Cool Whip topping.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients:
1 box cake mix, plus the stuff it calls for (You can make this from scratch, I did not have time)
1.5 cups Peanut Butter, creamy, reduced fat
3/4 cup sugar, plus a bit extra
4 tbsp butter
Cool Whip
Peanut butter cups
Chocolate, for shaving

Directions:
Bake the cake. I used 2 round cake pans, I froze the second cake though. You do not want more than one layer here, so you can make 2 separate cakes or save half for later. Once the cake is done, allow to sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, place it on your final platter or cake carrier base. On the stove over med-low heat, melt the butter, pb, and sugar. It is really important to taste this sauce as it melts, make sure it is sweet enough. Heat to about 200 degrees.

Poor over the cake slowly, then use a spatula to coat just the top of the cake, allow the sauce to pour over the sides. Place the entire platter in the fridge for 1 hour to allow it to cool again.

Now its time to add the cool/sweet topping such as cool whip, whipped cream, or whatever else you want to use. I used lite cool whip and I put it in my decorative frosting thingy to make pretty tufts of cool whip. A short cut here, get the spray can of cool whip.

Top with shaved chocolate and pieces of peanut butter cup. Serve chilled, possibly to the cutest baby you can find:

Root Beer Floats that fit your diet!

Root beer floats? How amazing! How decadent!

50 calories. Zero fat. Enjoy this diet-friendly treat. Cheers!

Root Beer Floats

Ingredients:
6 tbsp fat free Cool Whip, frozen
Diet A&W Root Beer

You know the rest!