Summer Fun: Strawberry Peach Lemonade and Cold Brewed Ice Coffee

Summer is wrapping up and back to school supplies are on sale all over town. But before its too late, its time to taste some of the fantastic flavors of the summer before its too late.

I was reading a list the other day of 50 things to do before the end of summer. Sadly, I hadn't done more than a hand full of them. But with summer being a year-round season in FL, I don't feel too badly. Plus, as any Floridian knows its best to do "summer fun" in the winter when you don't want to just sit inside an air conditioned building.

On my list of summer completes:
Outdoor concert
Beach
Frozen Custard
Watching thunderstorms roll in
Eating fresh produce
Summer fruit pie
Make lemonade from scratch...

Strawberry Peach Lemonade
1 cup sugar
4 large lemons (3/4 cup of juice)
1 cup strawberries
1 large ripe peach

Combine the sugar with 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Boil the sugar and water for a minute or until the sugar has completely dissolved into the water. Set aside to cool.

Squeeze the lemons. Put the strawberries and peach (minus the pit) into a blender. Add the lemon juice to the blender and pulse until completely liquid. Strain the lemon and fruit mix through a mesh strainer into a pitcher to remove seeds and pulp. Add simple syrup (sugar mix) and add another 4 cups of cold water. Serve over ice.

Also really good with Malibu rum!

If you're at all like me, you enjoy a nice glass of iced coffee on summer mornings. But if you've ever brewed yourself a pot of coffee in the hopes of making yourself some iced coffee, you've likely been disappointed by the results. Cold coffee, but bitter and in need of a lot of additives to make it drinkable.

The trick to good iced coffee it to "cold brew" it! It allows the mellow cocoa flavors to develop without the bitterness of cooled hot coffee.

Cold Brewed Ice Coffee
1 cup coffee grounds
4 cups water
Cream and sugar to taste


Put the coffee grounds into a large bowl with the 4 cups of water, stir. Let it sit (covered) overnight, or at least 6 hours. Strain with a coffee filter in a mesh strainer. This is your coffee base. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

To make in the morning: Mix your coffee base with 1 cup of water. Cream and sugar. Add ice as desired. Enjoy!

Takes less time to make in the morning than brewing normal coffee or stopping into dunkins!

Bumbleberry Pie

Bumbleberry Pie??? What is a Bumbleberry??? 

There is no such thing as a bumbleberry. In this case, bumbleberry refers to a bunch of yummy summer fruits: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples (kinda fall-ish, but whatever), rhubarb, peaches, apricots, etc. Pretty much any fruits you love thrown together in a pie. Yum!

   PIE!!!

Quick note: This pie crust is different than other's I've made. I usually use shortening, but this one called for butter. It was good, flaky, and didn't melt completely when being rolled out in my 80 degree kitchen. I'll probably use it again, but I still love the texture of a shortening crust. It will probably depend on the ambient temp.

Crust:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup cold butter (mine was frozen)
1/4 cup cold water

You can always double the crust recipe if you are worried about not having enough for your pan and the lattice top.

       FILLING:

1 medium tart apple, peeled and diced
1 cup diced fresh or frozen rhubarb, thawed (If you can find it. If not substitute for another fruit. I used a peach)
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed and drained (I would use blackberries next time)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed and drained
1 cup sliced fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture ensembles coarse crumbs (This can also be done in a food processor. Just pulse until you get a fine sand like mix).

Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until a ball forms. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough to fit a 9-in. pie plate. Transfer pastry to pie plate. Trim pastry to within 1 in. beyond edge of plate.

In a large bowl, combine the filling ingredients; pour into crust. Roll out the remaining pastry; make a lattice crust. Seal and flute edges. Cover edges loosely with foil.

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°; remove foil. Bake 40-45 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Banana Cake with Nutella Frosting

Behold the power of Pinterest. Karin found this recipe and gave me a strong hint that she thought I should make it. I took the hint.

Karin and I are both huge fans of banana cakes/breads/assorted desserts, as well as nutella. And when you put the two together... WOW.

The best thing about this cake (besides its sheer awesomeness) is that its a really easy cake to make and you can use up those overripe bananas that no one in the house will eat or that you've thrown in the freezer with good intentions (I think we all have a few black bananas in the back of our freezers).

Without further ado:

Banana Cake with Nutella Frosting (via http://thegingersnapgirl.blogspot.com)

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar (the original recipe call for superfine sugar, but regular worked just fine)
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 9 x 13 cake pan with parchment paper.  Or alternatively you can butter and flour the pan, knocking off excess flour.  

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside.  Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat on low until just combined.  Add in vanilla and mashed bananas and mix until just combined.  With mixer on low add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.  Add half the buttermilk.  Alternate flour and buttermilk, starting and ending with buttermilk.  Do not over mix.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake on center rack for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then turn cake out onto a cooling rack and remove parchment (or just leave it in the pan and serve it from there).  Allow cake to cool completely before frosting (or, if you're impatient like me, put the frosting on while its still warm and dig in. either way).

For the frosting:

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup Nutella
3 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, sifted
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream (or condensed milk) (or skim milk... with all that butter it will be fine)

In a stand mixer beat butter and Nutella on medium, about 1 minute until fully combined.  Add in confectioners sugar 1 cup at a time.  Mixture will appear crumbly.  Add in 2 tablespoons of cream and continue beating on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes.  Add additional tablespoons of cream until the frosting reaches a soft, spreadable consistency.  I used 4 tablespoons in total.  Generously spread frosting over cooled cake.  For a smooth finish, run your knife or offset spatula under hot water and gently smooth the surface, rinsing off it off after each swipe (or just dollop it on and enjoy).  

This cake is so moist and tender

warm cake, gooey frosting, large fork

Also... just to give you a peak into my valentines creations:

Home-dipped chocolate strawberries