Frozen Lemon Cheesecake with berries & caramelized pistachios

This is an eggless version of one of my oldest and most favorite desserts, the frozen lemon cheesecake. I actually made it as a dessert for New Year’s Eve, which we spent in Long Beach with dear friends. I normally make it with raw eggs at home since Swedish eggs don’t have salmonella. I’m sure most Californian eggs are perfectly safe to use but to be on the very safe side, I decided to make version without eggs. Instead of eggs - and sugar - it uses sweetened condensed milk. I’m going to say that the end result is very, very close.

And very, very good. Also quite a bit easier to make.

You can top this with whatever you’d like of course, and whatever berries are in season where you are. We found some super tasty strawberries that I macerated with lime and a little brown sugar, and then I quickly caramelized some pistachios that tasted much better than they look in the photo, I promise. (And all that there’s too this is melting sugar in a small pan, non stick unless you love to clean up, add the nuts, and let them be well coated, turn out on a non-stick surface and cool. Add a very light sprinkling of salt if desired)

Everything can and should be made well in advance. Just remember to bring out the cheesecake a little while before you want to eat - maybe half an hour or so - so that it’s not frozen solid.

Frozen Lemon Cheesecake with berries & caramelized pistachios

Crust:
about 220 g graham crackers
3/4 stick butter, melted (about 85 g

Process crackers into crumbs. Add butter. Press hot crumbs into a springform pan. Place in freezer while you make the filling.

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small package cream cheese (about 8 oz)
Whipping cream, about 450 ml
Zest from 1 lemon
Dash of vanilla

Stir together cream cheese, vanilla and lemon zest and stir until smooth. Add condensed milk and stir again.

Whip the cream and fold it all together. Pour the filling on top of the crust, freeze overnight or at least for a few hours.

Thaw for a little while before serving and top with whatever berries you’d like.

Easy homemade kulfi

I LOVE kulfi - Indian ice cream with saffron, cardamom and pistachios. The traditional method is not that easy or quick - but my way is! Super easy! Prep takes all of five minutes but then you have to wait patiently for six hours or until fully frozen. 

I like to use small silicone cups for this, perfect size for single servings 

Easy kulfi 

Serves 6

1 can (400 g) sweetened condensed milk

200 ml heavy cream 

100 ml milk

1/2 g saffron (1 sachet)

1 tsp cardamom

Handful roasted but unsalted pistachios

Pinch of salt

Open the can of condensed milk. Stir in a bowl with cream, milk and the spices. Crush or finely chop the pistachios and add those. 

Divide between cups and freeze. 

Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

So, Titus turned four in May. He insisted on an ice cream cake. Unfortunately, he only likes vanilla ice cream. I figured it might be a bit boring.. but hey, it's his cake. And he loved it. So did all the guests! I served strawberries on the side - the birthday boy didn't have any, though. (And he didn't appreciate the chocolate cookies I used as decoration, either.. sigh.)

Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

200 ml full-fat milk
100 ml sugar (I used home made vanilla sugar)
1 tsp commercial vanilla sugar (or go ahead and use a scraped out vanilla bean if you happen to have one)
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
300 ml cream (full-fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the milk with the sugar, vanilla sugar and salt until steaming hot (but not boiling). Cover with a lid, and remove from the heat, and let it sit to infuse for about 30 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl. Re-heat the milk mixture, and when it's warm, add a little to the egg yolks and stir well. Pour the now-tempered egg yolks into the saucepan, and heat everything gently until slightly thickened. Stir all the time.

Take a clean bowl that has a lid, and place a sieve on top. Add the cream and the vanilla extract. Then sieve the contents of your saucepan into the bowl as well. Stir to mix, and cover with a lid. Let this cool completely, ideally over night.

Run in your ice cream machine until frozen, then pour into a small springform tin. Place in the freezer for at least four hours.

Decorate as you see fit... or more fun, let your toddler do it!

Lime Ice Cream with Berry Sauce

We're having very, very, very warm weather at the moment (well, for Sweden) so I'm trying my best to cool down. Ice cream is always good, and I've been trying out a bunch of different smoothies from the smoothie contest as well! (I hope I can announce a winner this weekend, so stay tuned for that.)

This is a super fast ice cream that I made a few weeks ago, as a light dessert. It doesn't contain eggs, so there's no need to make a custard and let it sit overnight. Instead, you do all of your hard work - not so hard - in a food processor. There's a similar recipe in my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, but using lemons. Will definitely try that, too!

The berry sauce should be fairly sweet to go with the tart ice cream. I use a white baking syrup which I imagine is close to corn syrup. You can use honey instead, if you'd like.

Lime Ice Cream
zest from two large limes
125 g sugar
125 ml fresh-sqeezed lime juice (I needed three large limes for this)
200 ml milk
300 ml cream (full-fat)

Zest the lime directly into a food processor, and add sugar and lime juice. Mix until the sugar has dissolved - about five minutes. Add milk and cream, and process for a few more minutes, until it's well mixed and starts to thicken.

Place the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour, then freeze in an ice cream maker.

Berry Sauce:
150 g strawberries
150 g raspberries
3-4 tbsp white baking syrup

I used frozen berries - semi-thawed, but it'll be just as good - maybe better using fresh berries. Mix berries in a blender and add syrup gradually. Taste to see that it's sweet enough, and not overly sweet. Serve with the ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Limeglass med bärsås