So I know that summer is over in many parts of the world but for those of us that are beginning the long trek through fall and winter, it’s never too early to start planning ahead!

My Magazine Mondays submission for this week is actually a dish that I prepared before I left for vacation in August. It’s a trio of ice creams from the January 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine: Almond, Chocolate, and Pistachio Spumoni.

Spumoni is not a happy word for me because it reminds me of a flavour of ice cream that we’d buy when I was a kid from the local gelateria. It was a mix of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and had candied fruit thrown into it. It was horrid so when I first saw the word “spumoni”, I was a bit put off but then when I actually saw the flavours and also saw that there was on candied fruit in the recipe, I bookmarked it.

Perhaps one day I will tell you about my hate-on for candied fruit. One day. Just not today.

To get myself in the mood for my vacation to Italy, I whipped up the three flavours of custard, froze them and brought them to work. They were a hit with my personal favourite being the Almond flavour. The hardest part of the recipe was making sure that I started it early enough so that I could freeze all three batches in my ice cream machine (they have to frozen separately, obviously).

Remember, Magazine Mondays, is my weekly round-up of a magazine recipe that I’ve bookmarked but haven’t gotten to yet. You’re free to participate in what I like to call this non-event. Just send me the link to a magazine recipe you’ve posted. And remember, you don’t have to post it on a Monday. It can be any day of the week.

This week, I’m joined by the following MMers who got around to trying some magazine recipes:

Patricia of Brownies for Dinner made a gorgeous Brown Butter Pound Cake from the October 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Our regular contributor Tamy of 3 Sides of Crazy made Franks & Beans Cornbread Casserole.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Mushroom, Garlic and Gorgonzola Stuffed Bread from the Sept-Oct issue of Tallahassee magazine.

And our most loyal fan, Wandering Coyote of ReTorte, made Onion Bialys from Canadian Living.

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Ciao!

This is where I’m going for the next three weeks.

I can’t wait. My family, Mamma Cream Puff, the sun, the stars so close you can touch them, the sea and the mountains.

And the food.

I won’t be posting while I’m away so take care of yourselves and enjoy the rest of August!

I leave you with a little something to whet your appetite for when I return …

Ciao!

Oh, people!

Get thee to Food & Wine and print thee a copy of this recipe now! (Don’t forget the Vanilla-Caramel Sauce and the Mocha Fudge Sauce).

This is a winner by every standard that I use to judge recipes. Delicious. Beautiful to look at. Easy.

The only warning I give you is that you should prepare yourselves for arguments and possibly violence, as people will fight over this incredible dessert.

If you can make your own dulce de leche ice cream, great. If not, just buy the best quality ice cream you can find (you can also make this with lots of other ice cream flavours like vanilla or coffee).

While the original recipe yields one pie, I made four individual tartlets, which limited the arguments (to a degree) since we all had our own tartlet. The only problem as that we then founds ourselves coveting our neighbours tartlets.

Ah, the glory of sin!

Here’s a look at who joined me for this week’s edition of Magazine Mondays:

Janie of Panini Girl made Grilled Turkey Burgers with Cheddar and Smoky Aioli from Bon Appétit and “Le Cake” Aux Olives et au Reblochon from Gourmet.

Tamy of The Krazy Kitchen made Chocolate Upside Down Cake.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Herbed Focaccia from Canadian Living.

Margaret of Tea and Scones made Chicken Parmigiana from Taste of Home.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Ciao!

My submission for this week’s Magazine Mondays is from the July 2005 edition of Food & Wine: Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Pie.

Greeting Cream Puffs in Venice readers,

If you are awake and/or own a computer, you will already know that today is the reveal day for the February 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge. The individual known to you as Cream Puff is unable to post today so she has arranged for the delivery of a text message from her cell phone via this blog and the autmated blog posting team she has set up for just such emergencies. Please see below for the text of her message:

Hi all my BFFs! Can’t post 2day. Workasaurus attacking again. Help! Send George. Or Brad. Or 007. Didn’t make cake. Made cupcakes 4 u. Yum! Was so good & … oh … wait … Workasaurus on prowl. Hav 2 go. No … wait … wasn’t Workasaurus. That was stomach growling becuz was hungry. LOL!!! OK … TMI … BTW … want 2 thank Wendy & Dharm. Cupcakes EZ to make and delish. Ice cream soooooo good! GRATZ on gr8 challenge! OK now really have 2 go. Luv u 4ever! Will b back when Workasaurus gone. Ciao!

Cream Puff has advised our team to inform you that she prepared Chocolate Valentino Cupcakes with Wendy’s version of the ice cream with the addition of coconut and caramel. Cream Puff has further advised us to tell you that she will provide a recipe when she returns to her regularly scheduled blog posts.

Thank you Cream Puffs in Venice readers. This is an automated post. Please do not reply.

Regards,

Cream Puffs in Venice Automated Blog Posting Team

Note: The February 2009 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s Blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose a Chocolate Valentino with ice cream on the side. They provided two versions of a basic ice cream recipe for adaptation. Thank you so muhc to Wendy and Dharm for a fabulous challenge!.

It seems impossible but today is in fact the last day of summer.

As I’ve been telling so many people lately, I feel like I just blink and suddenly two or three months pass me by.

And to tell the truth, I still feel like I’m not fully back home, as though I’m straddling my time in Italy and my time since I’ve been back in Toronto. I feel a bit like I’m neither here nor there.

It’s unusual for me to be so reluctant to say goodbye to summer. It’s not my favourite season and the end of summer signals the beginning of my true seasonal love: the fall.

But these days my mind keeps replaying the three incredible weeks I spent in Italy and I’m just not ready to let go.

On my last night in Rome, I called my mother to go over my arrival time and flight information. I’m sure she sensed my reluctance to leave. Before we ended our conversation, she asked me to go out and have one last ice cream and to make it a lemon gelato, just for her (lemon gelato being her absolute favourite).

I stepped out into the hot Roman night and immediately veered off the beaten tourist path. I passed by countless gelaterias but couldn’t settle on which one to make the last one that I would visit before heading home.

And then quite by chance, I happened upon Il Gelato di San Crispino, a gelateria that I’d hoped to visit during my time in Rome but that had, up until that point, eluded me.

Without hesitating, I walked right in and ordered what is without question the very best lemon ice cream I have ever tasted.

It was so vibrant and so crisp that I felt like I was eating the most refreshing, cold lemon imagineable.

As I ate my gelato, leaning against the side of just another old, fading, beautiful Roman building, I silently thanked my mother for the best Roman goodbye that I could imagine.

Ciao!

Note: If you make it to Rome, you must visit Il Gelato di San Crispino, widely considered to be among Rome’s best gelaterias. The recipe for the lemon gelato that I made (pictured above) is from Olives & Oranges by Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox. If you’d like to try making lemon gelato at home, here are some great recipes:

http://nymag.com/restaurants/articles/recipes/lemongelato.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2058527_make-lemon-gelato.html

http://italianfood.about.com/od/gelatoandsherbet/r/blr0306.htm

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1620/lemon+gelato

Lest I be accused of being a big baby, I will not go on (and endlessly on) about how hot and humid this summer has been. Suffice it to say it’s all this Cream Puff can do to keep her pâte à choux from deflating and her pastry cream filling from just melting away. Sarah of The Delicious Life could not possibly have made a better choice for theme for this month’s edition of Sugar High Friday. “Ice ice baby” indeed!

While I initially thought about making an ice cream dish so that I could use my brand spanking new ice cream maker, circumstances ruled in favour of a dish that required no stove or small appliances. Even the slight noise from an ice cream maker is enough to put us all on edge in this weather. Instead, I opted for the simplest and perhaps most refreshing of sweets: the granita.

Granita is an Italian concoction that is traditionally associated with Sicily, but that can be found throughout Italy. While slightly more complicated recipes for granita can call for the use of an ice cream maker, the homiest version involves some water, some sugar, the flavour of your choice and your kitchen freezer. I must admit though that while my thoughts had been traveling in the general direction of a granita for this round of SHF, I did not fully make this decision until I happened to come across a recipe for a Meyer Lemon Granita in Viana La Place’s La Cucina Bella.

A delightful book, La Cucina Bella is a volume that has come to represent all of what I love best in my favourite cookbooks. It’s part cookbook, part memoir, part social commentary, part travel book and as the title would suggest, it has its eye on the beautiful cuisine of Italy.

La Place includes a recipe for a granita made with Meyer Lemons, which she says more closely mimic the taste of Italian lemons than your average, humble supermarket variety. While I could have gone out in search of Meyer Lemons as I do know a few places in Toronto that sell them, excuse my ineloquence, but it’s just too freakin’ hot. Instead, I followed La Place’s recommendation, used regular lemons and increased the sugar slightly to accommodate for the more tarty flavour.

The key to a successful granita is to ensure that before you start, your sugar is fully dissolved in the water. If it isn’t, the flavour of the granita will be uneven. Also, you must stir the granita as directed by the recipe. I stirred mine every half hour on the half hour! Of course part of this diligence was likely due to the fact that I enjoyed standing with the freezer door open and the cold air hitting my face but that’s neither here nor there.

La Place mentions in her book that granita is traditionally eaten with brioche and can even be enjoyed for breakfast on particularly hot mornings. While I am always interested in the practice of consuming brioche, regardless of time of day, I wanted something a bit more splashy so that I could serve my granita for dessert. I resorted to an old standby: strawberries stuffed with sweetened mascarpone.

Basically you take the best strawberries you can find, wash them and dry them and carefully split them open, being sure not to cut them all the way through. In a small bowl, whip together some mascarpone (at room temperature) with a bit of sugar (to taste) and lemon zest. Because I look for every opportunity to practice my piping skills, I piped the mascarpone filling into the strawberries. But you can just as easily spoon it in. For added effect, dip your strawberries in sugar (or vanilla sugar if you have it) just before stuffing them.

Okay. You know what. I have to go now. I seem to have developed a massive craving for granita al limone with mascarpone-stuffed strawberries.

Stay cool, people. Stay cool.

Ciao!

Granita al Limone con Fragole Ripiene di Mascarpone (Lemon Granita with Mascarpone-Stuffed Strawberries)

Adapted from La Cucina Bella by Viana La Place.

For the granita:

• 3 cups spring water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice

1. In a measuring cup, combine 1 cup of water with the sugar. Stir to dissolve.
2. In a metal pan large enough to accommodate the liquid, combine the sugar water with the remaining two cups of water and the lemon juice. Mix well and put in the freezer.
3. Every 30 minutes, stir the mixture with a fork. As the ice crystals form, you will have to use the fork to break up the granita.
4. Once it is completely frozen and you have a pan full of ice crystals, spoon the granita into a container with a tight fitting lid. This will keep in the freezer for several days.

For the strawberries:

• 1 cup mascarpone, room temperature
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 6 to 8 strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and split crosswise (not all the way through)

1. In a bowl, combine the mascarpone, vanilla sugar and lemon zest until smooth.
2. Place the mascarpone cream in a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or use a spoon to fill the strawberries.
3. Dip each strawberry in extra vanilla sugar.
4. Gently open each strawberry and either pipe or spoon in the cream.
5. Serve with the lemon granita.
6. Enjoy!

Note:  Check out the incredible Ilva’s post for SHF #21 on her blog, Lucullian Delights. She made granita al caffe e cardamomo, which is delightful indeed!

Technorati tags:  sugar high friday, SHF, lemon, granita, strawberries, mascarpone

I blame Sam.

Sam, of Sweet Pleasure:  Plaisir Sucré, is responsible for my being a bit lighter in the wallet this first day of July. When he announced his Ice Cream event, I smiled and was happy for I knew that I would be reading many posts about a subject that is near and dear to my heart … ice cream.

I imagined what Sam would create and what the ice cream-crazy among you would create. But I did not include myself in that group for you see, our family’s beloved ice cream maker kicked the bucket (pardon the pun) awhile ago.

When my brother and I were children and MP3 players and video games were nothing but a rumour, we would get gifts like books, puzzles, board games, and one particularly happy Christmas, a telescope! But I will never forget the year that my dear Uncle N bought us an ice cream maker.

My brother and I, both lovers of ice cream, were young enough that we’d never actually taken time to consider where it is that ice cream comes from. As long as there was a healthy supply in the freezer at home then we were happy. But we were also old enough to be mightily excited about the prospect of having our very own endless supply of ice cream.

That was an awesome gift.

Our ice cream maker was a Philips model that was tiny and adorable. I don’t recall how much ice cream it made but I doubt that it was more than a quart. It had a plastic lid through which you could watch the machine’s arm turn slowly. As it turned, it would scrape across the frozen insert (you had to freeze it ahead of time) and with each scrape, a little bit of heaven was formed. The machine took a long time to form what we would call a semblance of ice cream. And even after the machine had been turning for an hour, the texture of the ice cream was never completely firm. But we enjoyed the lovely softness of our ice cream and we didn’t mind at all.

While we indulged in the usual suspects … those being vanilla and chocolate … our favourite was coffee ice cream. I imagine that we fancied ourselves very grown up wolfing down coffee ice cream even though we couldn’t drink the actual liquid unless it was accompanied by lots of milk and served at breakfast.

We loved that machine. But it eventually gave out and we said goodbye. The years past and the memory of homemade ice cream began to fade. Even when I read Sam’s announcement of the ice cream event I didn’t think about buying a new machine.

Did I really need another small appliance?

But as time passed, I began researching ice cream makers. I was surprised at how many people own them now and slowly, my resolve began to fade. It faded completely when I purchased a copy of Lori Longbotham’s Luscious Berry Desserts, which  holds a recipe for Strawberry Crème Fraîche Ice Cream.

Surely it was a sign. It’s strawberry season. I have (always) crème fraîche in the refrigerator. It’s a long weekend and there’s plenty of time to make ice cream. So without hesitation, I stuffed my little Cream Puff self in the car and zipped off to buy my brand new ice cream maker which I already love dearly!

But I am still a bit lighter in the wallet. And what’s worse … I’m now obsessed with ice cream.

Sam, it’s all your fault!

Strawberry Crème Fraîche Ice Cream with Coconut, Vanilla Sugar and Lemon Zest

Adapted from Luscious Berry Desserts by Lori Longbotham.

• 2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vanilla sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream (35%)
• 1 cup crème fraîche
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• a pinch of salt

1. Place the strawberries and both sugars in the food processor. Process until the strawberries are puréed.
2. Place the purée in a bowl. Add the cream, crème fraîche, lemon juice, lemon zest, coconut extract and salt. Mix well.
3. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (the mixture should be very cold when you pour it into the ice cream maker).
4. Freeze the ice cream according to the instructions wit your ice cream maker. With my machine, it took about 25 minutes for the ice cream to be ready.
5. Once the ice cream is done, pack it into a container and freeze. Or just eat it right out of the machine.
6. Enjoy!

Note:  This recipe will make about a quart of ice cream.

Technorati tags:  strawberries, ice cream