Blueberry Yogurt Popsicles

中文： 蓝莓酸奶冰棍

During such a hot summer time, are you looking for a different way to beat the summer heat other ice cream?  Try these blueberry yogurt popsicles.  They are super easy and simple to make.  But the flavor is super fantastic.  Not to mention their look is gorgeous too! O(∩_∩)O~   

One bite, I know you will want a second bite, a third bit…O(∩_∩)O~ 

Ingredients：

3 cups fresh blueberries
2/3 cup sugar (use more if you have sweet tooth)
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar (for the yogurt)

Directions：

 

Add blueberries, sugar and lemon juice to a medium sauce pan . 

Heat over high heat until the mixture boils.  Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for another couple minutes. 

With a hand blender, blend the blueberries and syrup together. 

Allow the blueberry sauce to cool down to room temperature.

Mix the Greek yogurt and sugar until the sugar melts.  Spoon the yogurt into the bottom of each popsicle mold .  And then pour in the blueberry sauce.

When dark purple blueberry sauce and creamy white yogurt collide together, they will form beautiful patterns. 

Cover with popsicle lid and insert popsicle sticks.

Freeze for at least 4 to 6 hours or overnight.

Quickly run the mold under running hot water for seconds.  It will help to release the popsicles. 

The real blueberry popsicles made with real blueberries!

 Trust me, after tasting these, you will never want to go back the grocery store bought popsicles O(∩_∩)O~

Espresso Float with Chocolate Ice Cream

Somebody ordered an espresso float with ice cream when I was standing in line in a cute local coffee store.  I copied his order.  And guess what?  I was hooked immediately!  How come I never thought about pairing ice cream with espresso together? 

It is really easy and simple to DIY it at home too. 

Ingredients：(1 serving)

2 shots of espresso
1 to 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream
caramel sauce (optional)

Directions：

Make double shots espresso with espresso machine.

If you find double shots are too strong, switch to single shot.

Add a big scoop of chocolate ice cream.  You can use any other flavor ice cream too.  I think chocolate ice cream is a better choice to go with espresso than other ice creams.

There is no way I am going to stop at 1 scoop.  I must have 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream！O(∩_∩)O~

I made my own chocolate ice cream too so that I can make sure I get real dark and intense chocolate flavor in the ice cream.  Top it with homemade caramel sauce.  It goes so well with freshly pumped espresso coffee.

Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

 中文： 树莓酸奶冰激凌

Well, I was actually planning on making ice cream.  But there was no eggs left in my refrigerator, so I changed to frozen yogurt, which turned out to be a great sweet surprise too.

When making ice cream or frozen yogurt, I always go with fruit jam instead of fresh fruits. Jams contain less water and are packed with more intense flavor.  They usually contain more sugar too.  All these help ice cream and frozen yogurt freeze beautifully without getting too much ice particles in them.

I use homemade yogurt and homemade raspberry jam and blueberry jam.  Store bought ones would work fine too.

For homemade yogurt:

 http://www.yankitchen.com/english-blog/homemade-blueberry-yogurt

 

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of plain yogurt
4 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup blueberry jam

 

Directions：

Freeze the ice cream for at least 24 hours before ice cream process.  Refrigerate both yogurt and jams for at 4 hours or overnight.   

Homemade version yogurt

Start the ice cream machine.  Add yogurt and honey.  Let the machine run for 15 minutes.

Add raspberry jam and blueberry jam.  Run the machine for another 5 to 10 minutes. 

Transfer the frozen yogurt to a glass container with lid.  Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.  You can also serve it as soft served frozen yogurt right out of ice cream machine.  It is very good too. 

 

Thanks to the raspberry jam and blueberry jam, the frozen yogurt has this beautiful bright purple color and very intense berry flavors.  O(∩_∩)O~。。。

Enjoy!

Grilled Peach with Ice cream

Summer is coming! O(∩_∩)O~。。。More and more fresh seasonal fruits are popping up in the market.  I bought some yellow peaches on my last grocery shopping trip.  They turn out to be quite tasteless and disappointing.  So I give them a little makeover.  I grill them with brown sugar and top with a couple scoops of ice cream.  Wow! What a huge difference in flavors!  

Ingredients:

4 to 6 yellow peaches
3 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons cooking oil
a couple scoops of ice cream (I prefer vanilla or coffee flavor ice cream)

Directions：

Rinse and pat dry the peaches.  Remove peach cores and cut each peach into 6 wedges. 

In a big bowl, toss the peach wedges with oil and brown sugar until they are evenly coated. 

Heat a grilled pan on medium high.  When the pan gets hot, places peach wedges onto the grill pan cut side down.  Grill about 2 minutes each sides or until they get beautiful grill mark and brown sugar gets caramelized. 

Remove the pan from heat.  Transfer peaches to a bowl or plate, and top them with a couple scoops of ice cream.  I use coffee ice cream this time.  They really go well together. 

Actually you can grill a lot of other fruits in the same way.  But I think the peaches work a lot better than others. O(∩_∩)O~