Leche Merengada - with love from Spain

It's so delicious, I keep offering it to everyone, so that I can excuse having more of it myself. It's taste is traditional spanish, so every spoonful loads me up with wonderful memories. Leche Merengada is a cinnamon-and-lemon-flavoured frozen meringue. I recommend you try it with a shot of hot espresso poured over.

you need:
500ml whole milk (soy milk works the same for me)
100g  sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cinnamon stick or a small amount of ground cinnamon
1 lemon, unsprayed
2 large egg whites

Heat the milk in a saucepan, adding the cinnamon, the salt and 3/4 of the sugar. Zest the lemon directly into the mixture. Once the sugar has dissolved transfer the mixture to a bowl and chill thoroughly.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Whip in the remaining sugar and continue beating until the whites are stiff and glossy.

Remove the cinnamon sticks (if using) and fold the milk into the meringue. Now it's time for the ice cream machine! Leche Merengada takes a bit longer to freeze than a sorbet or traditional ice cream, but it's worth the wait.

summer of sorbets: the apricot

Already at the very first tasting yesterday night the apricot sorbet reached a high score in our internal ranking.  Close behind strawberry and cantaloupe, though clearly in front of cherry, mango and some fruit/Rosé compositions.

Do you also have a predilection for preparing things differently each year? I definitely do. One year it's jellies and jams, next year a variety of french clafoutis, this year seems to become a sorbet and ice cream year... Any psychologists among you to analyse that? (No, the ice cream maker is not new...)

Apricot Sorbet ( from David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop)

1kg ripe fresh apricots

250ml (1 cup) water

200g (1 cup) sugar

3 drops almond or 

vanilla extract

Split the apricots in half, remove the pits and cut each apricot into small pieces. Cook the apricots with the water, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the sugar and let cool to room temperature.

Purée the mixture in a blender until smooth. Stir in the almond or vanilla extract.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker. Enjoy!

The next one is already in the pipeline: a raspberry sherbet...

a sweet surprise: homemade meringue with yoghurt and morello cherries

Mother's Day and no capuccino in bed?  served by my loving children?

The yoghurt breakfast they later surprised me with was actually a much better treat than the expected capuccino! In one of my cookbooks they had looked up how to prepare meringue. (We were talking about meringue on the occasion of our last-Friday-late-night-Creme Brulée, more exactly about what you can do with remaining egg whites...).

Once cooled down they mixed it with plain yoghurt and with the morello cherries, they had found in the freezer. Ah, and even they thought about TAKING PHOTOS before offering it to me!!  Simply adorable....

I warmly recommend to try the recipe (from Rose Bakery):

Meringue

4 egg whites
200g superfine sugar
1 ts natural  vanilla
1 ts vinegar
1 ts cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then slowly add the sugar. Beat constantly until the meringe is thick and glossy. Add the vanilla, vinegar and cream of tartar and fold in well.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the meringue starts to turn slightly brown and crisp.

Once cooled down, my children spooned it in small pieces over  the creamy plain yoghurt and topped it with defrosted morello cherries.
Enjoy!

Mascarpone Yoghurt with Muscobado Sugar and Red Fruit

So soft and sweet and rich! It absolutely has the potential to make you addict. It's summer and happiness. Exactly what I need in this moment.... And it's so easy to prepare:

For 4 servings


250g          Mascarpone
200g          mild plain creamy yoghurt
3-4 ts         Muscobado sugar plus additional Muscobado for the topping
fresh or soft dried red fruit

Mix Mascarpone,yoghurt and sugar.
Spoon it in glasses and top generously with more Muscobado sugar and red fruit.
Enjoy!