Raspberry Popsicles with Dark Chocolate Drizzle

Poison ivy and raspberry bushes—when I was a kid, these were the two plants my dad always pointed out to me on camping trips. This summer, as we hiked through Big Elk Meadows (which is not a meadow and there were no elk), the wild raspberries were copious. The dry creek was spotted with small bushes, each of them ripe with red gems. Those wild berries were far better than the ones growing in my own backyard, and not just because we were eating them outside. They were juicier and sweeter. We ate the ripest ones and left the others for the birds.

These popsicles are an end of summer hoorah! A sweet-tart cool down for mid-afternoon.

Raspberry Popsicles with Dark Chocolate Drizzle

Published September 10, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

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Serves: 6   |    Active Time: 20 active minutes

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Ingredients:

12 ounces fresh raspberries

1/4 teaspoon lemon or lime juice

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Optional: 1-2 tablespoons raw sugar or coconut sugar

Equipment: Popsicle molds and popsicle sticks

Directions:

1. Place raspberries in a blender and purée.
2. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a sauce pan, and pour raspberry puree through sieve in order to remove seeds. All of the juice should go through the sieve (into the pot), and you should be left with just seeds in the sieve. Discard of seeds.
3. Place raspberry purée on stove over low heat and stir in lemon juice. Bring to a slow simmer, and add sugar to taste. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Allow mixture to cool, about 10 minutes.
4. Pour raspberry mixture into popsicle molds with popsicle sticks and freeze for 8 hours, until frozen solid.
5. When popsicles are frozen, prep the chocolate: melt chocolate in microwave (at 30 second increments, stirring in between each until smooth), or in a double boiler.
6. Remove popsicles from molds, and drizzle with chocolate. Allow chocolate to set. Serve immediately, or store in air-tight container until ready to eat.

No-Churn, 5-Ingredient Pistachio Ice Cream

One of the first fare-weather recipes I shared this year was for No-Churn Rhubarb Crisp Ice Cream. There is some debate in the house on whether making a rhubarb crisp and turning it into ice cream is a good use of time, but I’ll tell you where I stand: ice cream is delicious.

In that same blog post, I promised to share some of the other recipe adaptions I had tried, including this winner, which causes no hot debates in the house. Other than who is getting the last scoop, of course. All you need is 5 ingredients, including real pistachios. (Real pistachios are important—something anyone who has ever bought a pistachio ice cream that tasted more like pistachio liquor than actual pistachios will understand).

No-Churn, 5-Ingredient Pistachio Ice Cream

Published July 23, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

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Serves: 12   |    Active Time: 20 active minutes

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Ingredients:

2/3 cup shelled, roasted, unsalted pistachios, divided

1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups whipping cream 

Directions:

1. Place half (1/3 cup) of pistachios in a blender, and blend on high until a paste begins to form. Add sweetened condensed milk, salt, and vanilla to blender and blend again until fully combined and smooth. Transfer for a small mixing bowl.
2. In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, beat whipping cream with electric beaters until firm peaks form.
3. Gently fold 1 cup of the whipped cream into the pistachio mixture until combined. Then, scape pistachio mixture into the rest of the whipped cream, gently folding it in. Do not over mix (you want as much air in the whipping cream as possible!). A few streaks of green or white are OK.
4. Scrape the ice cream mixture into a glass pyrex with air-tight lid (about 9x5 inches, or equivalent volume). Place lid on container, and place flat in freezer for 2 hours.
5. After 2 hours, gently swirl in remaining pistachios to taste, and sprinkle some pistachios on top. Place lid back on ice cream and freeze for at least 3 more hours before serving.

Gluten-Free Banana Nut Snacking Cake

This recipe for banana pecan cake stemmed from a well-loved recipe on the New York Times.

Following recipes has never been my style—I’m guess many of you are the same way. I like to have an outline, but then I go from there: Frosting? Hmm, too much sugar for an afternoon snack for me. Will this work with a gluten-free flour blend? Let’s give it a shot. Ingredient by ingredient I swap in and swap out. This is how I like to navigate a kitchen, and I find, when I follow my gut, I like the output more.

Everyone has unique tastes and preferences. It’s for that reason that I hope everyone will do some tweaking and twisting while they prep their dinners. It’s for their own good! There have been countless times when I followed a recipe to a “T” and later regretted it, wishing I had swerved in a different direction.

Gluten-Free Banana Nut Snacking Cake

Published April 16, 2019 by Caitlin Sherwood

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Serves: 9   |    Active Time: 50 minutes

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Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter melted

1/3 cup light brown sugar or coconut sugar

1 cup mashed ripe banana (2-3 bananas) 

2 large eggs 

1/4 cup greek yogurt 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups measure for measure gluten-free flour blend (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (affiliatel ink))

3/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

Optional- 1/4 cup pecan pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and fit a 9 inch square baking dish with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract using an electric mixer.
3. Add flour, salt, and baking soda and blend until a uniform batter forms.
4. Spread batter in an even layer in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with pecan pieces.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick, inserted into the middle, comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool 10 minutes, then lift from baking dish and slice into squares. Serve.