The Dessert Blog

You can make delicious Japanese ice cream at home, as good as any premium shop brand, if you select a good quality ice cream maker and follow a few guidelines. Ice cream makers can vary in cost from less than $100 to more than than $500. The more pricey models have built in freezing compressors, while the less costly Japanese ice cream makers are completely fine for use at your home and come in two basic types. There is the type that needs rock salt and ice to chill the ice cream concoction and the model that has a flask that is positioned in your freezer. Both of these Japanese ice cream makers have either an electric crank or a hand crank. Your families needs will help you choose which maker is correct for you.

You will need to buy a maker that uses rock salt and ice if you would like to make a huge amount of Japanese ice cream. The canister models will only make up to one and a half quarts of ice cream in a single batch. If you would like to make Japanese ice cream making into a great family activity, then you can opt for the hand-crank version, that also uses rock salt and ice. You need to turn the crank handle for a pretty long time, so every member of the family will get a turn. The electric crank is much easier. You will also get more reliable results owing to the bowl rotating at an even speed. Most electric crank Japanese ice cream makers have an automatic switch off feature included that will make the crank stop when the ice cream gets to the ideal thickness.

After you choose what kind of ice-cream maker is suitable for you, you will need to get the best Japanese ice cream recipe. Remember that the quicker the ice cream freezes, the better it will taste and the smoother the consistancy will be. It will be best to pre-mix all your ingredients and let them cool down for several hours before placing them in the Japanese ice cream maker. When the ice cream is ready, it will resemble soft-serve ice cream. You will get better results when you then place the flask in the freezer for a few hours. If your canister is plastic, think about removing the Japanese ice cream as soon as it is done, and placing it in a metal bowl covered with foil. The metal bowl allows the ice cream to freeze faster and become harder more quickly than a plastic container.

You can buy an ice cream mixture that is very easy to make into ice cream and really very quickly. While the mixes are convenient, the best homemade Japanese ice cream is made from choice quality, fresh ingredients. Milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, red bean, green tea, wasabi and cocoa if you desire will give you the most delicious ice cream. You can find many Japanese ice cream recipes, some which require cooking some which require no cooking. A lot of ice cream recipes contain eggs, but there are many recipes that do not use eggs if you or someone in your family is allergic.

Do you having baking traditions in your family? Is there one thing that you always bake together during a holiday? Is there one recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation? Have you shared those traditions and recipes with anyone?

This is a subject that really hits home for me because I lost some of our family recipes recently. It made me think about what happens to a recipe if no one knows about it or cares about where it goes. Nothing happens to it. It is lost to the world and may never be found again. What a truly tragic end for a great recipe (especially a baking recipe!). A wonderful cookie, pie, or cake is never made again. I really love sweets so this truly brings a tear to my eye!

A recipe is a gift. A gift of love. A gift of time and effort. A gift that can keep on giving because each time you make it, you enjoy it again. It is not only a gift from the person who created the recipe but also a gift from the person who gave it to you. Treasure those gifts and share them. A recipe and story shared is worth more than one just sitting in your recipe box. Perhaps you are waiting for just the right person or time to share it. I have been guilty of that one myself. But a recipe that isn’t shared is nothing but a piece of paper in box. It means nothing to anyone but you unless it is shared with someone else.

So how do you make sure your recipes and baking traditions are not lost?

Write them down. Of course your recipes are already written down in some form or another. But what about the funny family story or family baking tradition that goes with it? Make sure that story gets written down too.

Make sure someone in your family knows that this recipe and this family baking tradition are important to you. Make sure that they know you want it to be passed on in the family. No one will know how important it is to you unless you tell them. (So speak up!)

And last but not least, your baking assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to share one of your baking recipes (and the story that goes with it) this week with someone. Who knows, you may just start a baking tradition for that person and their family. And what better way is there to honor the gift of that recipe?

Happy Baking!

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The words, “recipe apple pie“, brought back 1,430,000 search results.

Just in Google! Yahoo! found 17,800,000 results, and msn found 10,200,000. And 6 of the first 10 results from each search engine were different. At this point, I’m already thinking that an internet search may not be the best way to find the best recipe for apple pie.

If you love apple pie as much as I do, you’ve spent some time looking for the best recipe. And how do you know it’s the best? You try it, of course.

As in: you use the recipe to bake an apple pie, then eat some and see what you think. So, if you’re searching using the phrase above, you’d need to bake 22 apple pies (which would take over 3 weeks, if you baked only one a day) just to get through the first page of search results on the top 3 search engines.

I thought there had to be a better way.

So I started over and, to maximize my chances for success, I only counted recipes from recipe sites that made it into the first 2 pages of results (I realize this is an arbitrary cut off point, but there are several million results, and only so many days when apples are in season). That meant I’d only need to test 14 different recipes.

That’s still too many.

So I narrowed it down further: the first decision was the crust – store-bought or handmade? I wanted a handmade crust, so I looked to see if it called for lard, shortening or butter. I avoid hydrogenated fats and had no lard, so I opted for butter it was. That helped eliminate some results.

Now it was down to 9 recipes (which would still require more than a week, if I only baked a pie a day), and I still wasn’t sure which kind of apples to use, which kind of extracts, which spices, how much sugar, etc… Who ever would have thought there were so many decisions to make when picking a recipe for apple pie? (But then who ever would have thought that a search for “recipe apple pie” would return so many results?)

At that point, I started thinking, “I’d gladly pay somebody to do this for me.”

I baked for a week (and I think I used nearlya bushel of apples), and I still wasn’t convinced\sure that I had the sells a downloadable cookbook called “Cooking with Apples“. The author said she’d been looking for the perfect apple pie recipe for years, and had collected a bunch of them (along with some 90 other apple recipes) and put them together into this cookbook. I decided to give it a try.

Boy, was I glad I did; there are 7 different apple pie recipes in the book, and every one I’ve tried is really good! (I’m not a big fan of sugarless recipes, so I haven’t tried that one yet, and probably won’t.) Just in case you’re curious: my favorite used Honey Crisp and Granny Smith apples, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice, lemon juice and lemon zest, almond and vanilla extract at about a 3 to 1 ratio, and had no flour or tapioca added to the filling at all.

For more delicious recipes, visit our pie recipes collection.

(ARA) - Barbecues are not just for summer anymore, but the rich flavors can be enjoyed year-round and even in-doors. As kids head back to school this fall, a great way to celebrate is with a Cowboy themed BBQ.

“Kids of all ages have an inner-cowboy screaming to come out” says Dotty Griffith, author of “The Contemporary Cowboy Cookbook” and an expert on entertaining and cooking cowboy-style “Whether you are rounding up the gang for a back-to-school bash or just celebrating a birthday, a cowboy themed party is an easy way to engage children, have fun, and create an experience that is sure to be unforgettable.”

Here are a few suggestions to help you “rustle up” a good time:

Lasso the Gang: Create eye-catching, mood-setting invitations with your kids by writing out the party details on construction paper, rolling them up in a colorful bandana and tying with twine. Also, consider finding horseshoes and attaching the invitation to them, or if the invitations can be hand-delivered attach them to a cowboy hat. At the craft store, try to pick up themed stickers or hand stamps to decorate the invitations.

Show-Stopper Props: For the truly adventurous wrangler host who wants a sure fire way to impress the kids, try any of the following rentable props to make them feel right at home on the ranch — OK Corral entrances, split-rail fences, bales of hay, long-horn steer or buffalo skulls, a covered wagon, three-dimensional farm animals like pigs, cows and lambs and a ranch scene mural for fun photos.

Character Building: Everyone loves to play dress-up, so encourage the children to come to the party donning a western-themed costume, i.e. a cowboy, cowgirl, or sheriff. At craft stores, look for straw cowboy hats and bandanas, just in case someone wants to touch up their outfit during the party.

What’s Cooking: As we all know, children can be very picky eaters. That’s why the simple cuisine of the Wild West – a true American BBQ — is so perfect, as it can be interactive and fun. To help capture the flavors of the west while putting together a down-home American ranch BBQ for the little cowboys, look for recipes and products that do double duty and will make the your job as head rancher look effortless.

Griffith suggests delighting kids with finger food appetizers like chicken strips and sliced vegetables and recommends using a bold, creamy Ranch dressing like new Wish-Bone Ranch-Up! as a dipping sauce. The dressing does its double duty with its easy squeeze bottle that is great for allowing kids to make designs on their plates and dip away. Pick an easy to serve main dish like hamburgers and allow kids to get creative when topping them with other kinds of easy to squeeze condiments, like colored ketchup or mustard. Griffith also suggests side dishes that are sweet and tangy like a coleslaw or potato salad using Western Dressing, which is known for its sweet and smooth taste. And save the best for last by serving an assortment of ice cream in spatter ware coffee mugs. (For more Wild West recipe ideas, go to www.wish-bone.com)

Serving It Up: Purchase cowboy-themed plates and cups at any craft store; set the table with white paper table cloths and allow kids to draw their favorite western scenes around their eating area. Use colored bandanas as napkins, turn Cowboy hats upside down to use as chips bowls and try to find plastic cowboy figurines at craft stores to decorate the table.

Musical Cowboy Hats: For a sure to please game, play musical cowboy hats and have kids walk around hats until the music stops. The one who manages to get a hat after each round wins.

Ready, Set, Draw: Create a craft area for the children and supply them with all the usual suspects, glue, crayons, glitter, etc, but add a little Wild West flare, by giving them twigs, grass and wildflowers to see what they come up with.

Kiddie Tunes: Divide the children into small groups and have one adult teach each group the words to a favorite campfire song like, “Old McDonald” or “Home on the Range.” After the kids have mastered the tune and the words, have each team put on a show for the other cowboys and cowgirls on the ranch.

Visit Idea Sparks for free kids recipes.

Great Cook Books For Kids
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Some popular Kid’s cook books help parents and children learn to interact in the kitchen. Kids love to cook and these cook books describe simple ways to cook nutritious meals with children in mind.

1) Burning Down the House, Cooking with Kids
This cooking with kids cookbook is a simple, easy to follow cookbook - containing recipes that allow a child’s mind to explore the wonders of cooking. The kid friendly cook book features recipes for breakfast to to bedtime. Recipes include Lemon Pancakes, Jazzy Popcorn, Peanut Butter Spaghetti and more.

Burning Down the House, Cooking With Kids (English)
Price range: $9.35 from 1 Seller
Publisher: T C Pub
Format: Paperback
MSRP: $ 9.95

2) Someone’s in the Kitchen with Mommy : 100 Easy Recipes and Fun Crafts for Parents and Kids
This cook book has more than than 100 easy kid friendly recipes and some fun craft projects that parents and children will enjoy together in the kitchen. The cookbook includes recipes for nutritious, low-fat, tasty snacks and meals for holidays, rainy days, or any day.

Someone’s in the Kitchen With Mommy (English)
(More Than 100 Easy Recipes and Fun Crafts for Parents and Kids - ISBN: 0809231425)
Price range: $5.75 (Refurb) - $23.95 from 7 Sellers
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Format: Hardcover
MSRP: $ 15.95
Adults and kids can enjoy creating nutritious, reduced fat, and yummy snacks and meals for holidays, rainy days, or any day! Someone’s in the Kitchen with Mommy contains 100 recipes that are not only fun to make but also look great too.

3) Kids In The Kitchen: 100 Delicious, Fun & Healthy Recipes to Cook & Bake
This is a kid approved cook book that has over 100 tasty, fun & nutritious recipes showing children the fundamentals of nutritious baking and cooking.
Fun & Healthy 100 Delicious Recipes to Cook & Bake - ISBN: 0806904461)
Price range: $2.95 (used) - $33.13 from 3 Sellers
Edition: Kids in the Kitchen : 100 Delicious, Fun & Healthy Recipes to Cook & Bake
Publisher: Sterling Pub Co Inc
Format: Paperback
MSRP: $ 13.95

The book has clear directions and color photos of ingredients and finished products in addition to the photographs of children hard at work.

4) American Heart Association Kids’ Cookbook
The American Heart Association Kid’s Cookbook (1 Release)
Author: American Heart Association

For more awesome kid approved ideas log onto http://www.kidapprovedmeals.com or visit Free Kid’s Recipes