These Vanilla Cardamom Sugar Cookies have been in the works since before Christmas.
I have been experimenting with different levels of cardamom versus vanilla, making sure the cookie is nice a chewy, and determining the right chill time and cookie size and I am really happy with this final result!
So let’s get right into it! These Vanilla Cardamom Sugar Cookies are a cardamom flavored sugar cookie rolled in vanilla cardamom sugar before baking resulting in a delicious, chewy cookie that is sure to become a favorite.
Ingredients:
Vanilla Cardamom Sugar:
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 vanilla bean, scraped
Cardamom Cookies:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
These Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are a bit out of my cookie baking comfort zone. I tend to stay away from any holiday cookies that use royal icing — I don’t usually have the patience for decorating cookies so I lean toward drop cookies for most of the ones I make.
But this year, I figured it was time to try a fairly easy decorated holiday cookie – Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies!
These sugar cookies are topped with royal icing and then are decorated with strings of Christmas lights which are made with black icing and mini M&M’s.
The resulting Christmas Lights Sugar Cookies are colorful, fun, and oh so tasty!
Ingredients (makes approximately 2 dozen cookies)
Sugar Cookies:
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks (reserve your egg whites!)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract (can substitute vanilla extract to make nut free)
If you’ve never had Homemade Corn Ice Cream before, you’re in for a treat!
It’s summer, which means there is an abundance of corn at the moment. I am a member of a CSA (Penn Farm CSA in New Castle, DE run by students at William Penn High School), so I’ve received about half a dozen ears of corn the last few weeks — that’s a lot of corn! So I decided to use some of those sweet cobs to make Corn Ice Cream. (If you, too, have quite a bit of corn on hand, try one of my corn-filled recipes!)
The natural sweetness of corn makes it a perfect choice for ice cream. The addition of egg yolks to this recipe makes a beautifully creamy and decadent Corn Ice Cream!
Why yes, I am still making ridiculous amounts of ice cream in my spare time. There are so many different flavors to try to make! I was inspired to make my latest recipe for Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream by my mother-in-law who loves all things blueberries.
With blueberries in season, what better time to make this delicious treat?
To make this Blueberry Ice Cream, you unsurprisingly need a lot of blueberries – 4 cups – not including adding optional whole blueberries at the end. So it is truly filled with blueberry goodness!
Ingredients:
4 cups fresh blueberries, plus more if desired for mixing in
Today I am sharing a super versatile recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream that is a result of, well, me having way too much cream cheese on hand.
Recently, some of my husband’s friends came to visit and brought us New York bagels (always a welcome gift in our house!), and a good 1 1/2 pounds cream cheese. Even after all the bagels were gone, we still had 12 oz of cream cheese left!
So what better way to use up all that extra cream cheese than with this recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream?
You may recall that I made a cream cheese-based ice cream with my recipe for Irish Potato Candy Ice Cream, and I loved it so much, I knew I’d be making more cream cheese-based ice creams soon!
This recipe is very simple and works well on its own or as a base for some more creative Cheesecake Ice Cream recipes — strawberry, cherry, chocolate, whatever makes you happy!
I’m back with yet another new ice cream recipe that I’ve been dreaming about for months: Strawberry Basil Ice Cream.
As the weather gets warmer, the in season produce just gets better, which means a bunch of new inspiration for ice cream flavors. We are entering the beginning of strawberry season now, so I was excited to make this Strawberry Basil Ice Cream!
This recipe for Strawberry Basil Ice Cream steeps fresh basil in the cream and sugar base, which adds a subtle basil flavor under the more prominent strawberry flavor. If you want a more prominent basil flavor, you can absolutely mix in some freshly chopped basil when churning your ice cream!
This recipe for Tahini Millionaire Ice Cream is inspired by one of my favorite dessert recipes on this blog: my Tahini Millionaire Bars. If you haven’t tried my Tahini Millionaire Bars yet, I strongly suggest you check out that recipe!
So what is Tahini Millionaire Ice Cream? It is tahini flavored ice cream with homemade salted caramel and chocolate ganache swirls, and it is going to be one of your new favorite ice cream flavors!
Ingredients (makes about 1 quart):
Tahini Ice Cream:
1 cup tahini, stirred well
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Homemade Caramel (you can also use store bought):
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
Note: I was sent apples from Stemilt in order to create this Irish Apple Cake recipe. Opinions are mine alone.
I am pretty sure most countries and regions have some form of apple cake recipe. And why wouldn’t they, apple cake is delicious! Irish Apple Cake is a spiced cake with loads of apples within the batter. The cake has a nice crunchy crust and is traditionally served with a custard sauce.
Stemilt, a family owned and operated fruit company based in Wenatchee, Washington, was kind enough to send me a care package of beautiful apples, including some granny smith apples.
With it being St. Patrick’s Day, I knew I had to make an Irish Apple Cake with the apples, of course.
The tartness and juiciness of granny smith apples make them a perfect choice for an Irish Apple cake!
The Irish Apple Cake recipe below is lightly adapted from Stemilt, and their version incorporates whiskey into the sauce for a more modern spin. Yum!
In case you’ve never heard of Irish Potatoes, they are a Philadelphia treat that shows up around St. Patrick’s Day each year. Named for looking like little potatoes, Irish Potatoes are a confection of cream cheese and coconut, rolled in cinnamon. Inspired by this delicious treat, I decided it was about time I made Irish Potato Candy Ice Cream!
So, what is in Irish Potato Candy Ice Cream? It is a cream cheese-based ice cream, flavored with cinnamon with coconut flakes stirred in.
The result is wonderfully reminiscent of Philly’s favorite St. Patrick’s Day treat!
Irish Cream Ice Cream. Not only is it way too fun to say, but it tastes absolutely delicious as well!
Irish cream is an alcohol-based beverage made with cream (obviously), whiskey, and other flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, making it a perfect flavor for a tasty ice cream.
You know how much I love homemade ice cream, so I’m excited to share this new recipe! I’m making this Irish Cream Ice Cream in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, but this is sure to become a year-round favorite flavor!
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Irish cream liqueur (such as Baileys Irish Cream)
I’m back with another cookie recipe using some of my favorite OXO tools, specifically OXO’s cookie press, disk set, and Ceramic Pan!
Every year, OXO supports Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and the fight against pediatric cancer. Before I share my cookie recipe for Spritz Cookies, I want to share a bit about Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer (CFKC) is a nonprofit founded by two OXO employees after their son, Liam, was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Through grassroots bake sales across the country, CFKC raises funds to develop new, improved and less toxic treatments for childhood cancer. Liam Witt’s legacy lives on as the organization works toward a cure for pediatric cancer, helping children and families everywhere.
Every year, OXO supports CFKC by encouraging people to bake and share.
For every cookie baked, OXO donates $1 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer up to $100,000, so here is my new cookie this year to support the cause and spread the word!
Here are some of my old cookie swap and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer posts, in case you’re in a baking mood:
With Thanksgiving so late this year, I hope you’ll forgive me for sharing a Christmas cookie recipe before Black Friday; these Cannoli Cookies are too good to keep a secret!
If you’re a cannoli lover, these Cannoli Cookies are sure to impress, especially because they are quite a bit easier to make than homemade cannolis!
Cannoli Cookies are spiced ricotta cookies with chocolate chips, pistachios, and orange zest, delivering the flavors of a classic cannoli in cookie form!
I had no clue that Election Cake used to be a thing until I saw an article recently about this lost tradition! Recipes for Election Cake are found back to the late 18th century, but apparently the tradition has fallen off in recent years.
This yeasted spiced bundt fruitcake was traditionally prepared prior to Election Day and served to hungry voters.
For years, I was the machine inspector for every general and primary election in my South Philly polling location, so any attention I can bring to voting is super important to me! I am also down for any and all food holidays so let’s bring back Election Cake!
I don’t have a ton of experience using yeast, so I looked up a recipe from NY Times Food. Because of the yeast, there are two proofing times in this recipe, so set aside 4 to 6 hours to make this cake.
Ingredients (serves 10):
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
Every year, without fail, I end up with a ridiculous amount of candy leftover after the trick-or-treaters have gone. I have made Day After Halloween Brownies in the past, but this year, because it is still so warm, I decided to make Homemade Halloween Candy Ice Cream using my leftover candy!
This recipe for Halloween Candy Ice Cream can be adapted for any candy you would like in your ice cream. I went with an assortment of chocolate candy: mini candy bars, Reece’s, M&M’s, Kit-Kats, and Snickers, because that’s what I had on hand.
Feel free to add in whatever candy you have leftover, just make sure it ends up being about 2 cups of chopped candy.
