Roasted Peach and Graham Cracker Crunch Ice Cream

Oh my peaches, what a scorcher we're having here in Toronto. But guess what? No complaints because I complain enough during the icy cold winters we have. I am embracing the hot weather with open arms (because it keeps me cool) and eating lots and lots of ice cream.

It's currently peach season (yay) and I don't even know if I had to roast these, but I was inspired after seeing How Sweet It Is's post here. The peaches were sweet enough on their own, so I felt that roasting them might have made them a tad sour. But I gave it a try anyways. Mixing in 4 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt before laying them out on a baking tray and roasting for half an hour.

But you know what I did love from that recipe? The graham cracker crumble! I need to make this for every ice cream topping! Simply mix 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs with 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter. It'll become nice and chunky, giving you a good crunchy texture in the ice cream.

I didn't follow the recipe fully as I switched to use Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream's base. So there was churning and freezing involved, which means I did not get to taste the fruit of my labours until the next day.

I sprinkled the graham cracker crumble, tossed in some peaches, then poured the ice cream base over. Repeated again with another layer of graham cracker crumble, peaches, and ice cream. Ending with the crumble and peaches on top.

Noticed my new ice cream container? Yes, I thought purchasing one would be a good investment for all the ice cream I'm going to make in the future. I found it at Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma also carried one with a white rim instead of red. Howard firmly made me get the red one from Crate & Barrel because it was cheaper. Hmph! Aesthetically I preferred the all-white Tovolo storage tub, but financially, it just didn't make sense. The packaging does say that it's dishwasher safe, but I found that there was a bit of warping and well, you see the freezer burn on my peaches. Going to hand wash this from now on. The tub also doesn't hold a lot, if I hadn't accidentally spilled some of my ice cream mixture when I was pouring it into the ice cream machine, this would have overflowed in the tub because of the extra goodies I added in.

I wish I could say that the combination was perfect, but the texture of the ice cream came out icy. Noooooo! I wonder if it was all the delicious peach juices that came out after I roasted it? The ice cream is particularly more icy there, but it's fine around the graham cracker crumble. I'm starting to understand why the cookbook mixes jam into the recipe instead of actual fruit. Ah, we live and learn, but I'm still eating it and shivering along the way as it's keeping my body temperature down this summer.

Cook the Cover: Canadian Living July 2014

You don't even know how excited I was to see this cover recipe!

Grilled peach? It's one of our favourite summertime desserts, made popular last year when we repeatedly had grilled pound cake with grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream. There's something wonderful in seeing grilled marks on fruits and vegetables, something different from the usual meat selection.

This sundae is pretty easy to make and the raspberry sauce can be made ahead of time so that when you're ready to eat, all you have to do is grill the peaches and scoop the ice cream. Almond slivers can be optional, but they provide a nice crunchy texture if you have the time to give them a quick toss in the oven.

Grilled Peach Melba Sundae
Shopping List: unsalted butter, brown sugar, peaches, vanilla ice cream, raspberries, sliced almonds, granulated sugar, lemons, and cornstarch.

I love summer for the abundance of fruits!

Here's me showing you that a scale is the best thing you can invest in when you're following recipes. It works so much better. For the sauce, I have a cup of raspberries there and showing you what 250 ml of raspberries look like. There's a huge difference!

The raspberry sundae sauce is super easy, just throw in the raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, and 1 tbsp water in a blender. Strain the sauce through a sieve into a saucepan (discard seeds). Cook the sauce over medium heat, stirring, for about 2 minutes until it is warmed through.

Whisk the cornstarch with 1 tbsp water and then stir it into raspberry mixture. Bring the sauce to a boil, keep stirring until it thickens, about 1 minute. Transfer to bowl (or jar in my case) and cover and refrigerate to cool completely, about 40 minutes. You can even make this sauce a week in advance and leave it in the fridge until you need it.

Remove the skin from the peaches and cut them into wedges. Mix softened butter with brown sugar.

Heat the grill pan over medium heat (or if you have a barbecue, use that) and place wedges on to get the charred markings. Turn over to do the same. Near the end, brush the butter and brown sugar mixture on and flip once. You have to watch carefully as it caramelizes very quickly. Remove from the grill and let it cool.

Serve with ice cream, raspberry sauce, raspberries, and toasted almond slivers.

Yes?

Yes to grilled peaches.

Yes to raspberries.

If you've never grilled fruits before.
Do it.

If you've never grilled peaches before.
I highly recommend that you do it.

There's just a wonderful mix of flavour and aroma when a peach is getting its grill marks on. Come on, there's no excuse, this is an easy sundae to make and a sure crowd-pleaser. I don't know how else I should convince you!

See what other bloggers thought about the recipe here.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by Canadian Living and I received compensation for it. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of this recipe. All opinions are our own.

Minamoto Kitchoan

Minamoto Kitchoan

509 Madison Avenue

New York City, NY 10022

1-212-489-3747

During my research stage before our trip, I was looking for places with dessert (no surprise here) and came across Minamoto Kitchoan. I'm so glad I pinned it to our map because it was such a surprising treat!

The store looks like a museum or a jewelry store, bright lights and edible jewels on display.

We believe that everything in the display cases are non perishable replicas. A lot of detail went into these inedible pieces and they sometimes show you a cross section of the dessert.

Look! A baumkuchen! I only know what that is because it was once featured in an episode of Yumeiro Patissiere (see episode summary here). Look at all the layers in the ring, I've never seen one for sale before and was tempted to get one. But to buy a whole cake (no slices), I just couldn't do it.

Howard's not a fan of red bean paste, but I adore it. Red bean ice cream, red bean pudding, and now look at all of these red bean fillings!

Gasp! Bunnies! Way too cute to ignore. We bought a box to bring home as a gift. It came nicely gift wrapped and the bunnies were individually wrapped inside the box to ensure freshness. As it was described to us, these "rabbit cakes" are baked "manjyu" (buns filled with bean paste) with Yuzu flavour.

These were quite beautiful. The Kingyo is a Japanese style jelly using natural fruit flavours.

We bought the Peach Sherbet to try. One of the neat features of this treat is that it can be eaten as a jelly or if you freeze it, it becomes a sherbet! They have the jelly ones in baskets for purchases, but if you're like us and wanted to try the sherbet, let them know and they'll grab one from the freezer for you and provide you with spoon and napkin too!

This was one of the highlights from all of the desserts I made Howard tried. Probably his favourite as it was refreshing and delicious.

We also tried the Ayashirabe, as we were told it was their most popular item. It's a condensed milk and sweet white bean paste with yolk wrapped in Japanese crepe. After eating it, we can see why it's one of their bestsellers. The filling isn't overly sweet and that crepe has the best flavour and aroma to it!

There was also this exquisitely wrapped white peach jelly that Howard coveted. But the price point was a bit too high for us to justify. Although, it does look lovely and the whole peach surrounded by jelly sounds like it would be another fun treat.

Peach Cinny Buns

Good afternoon friends! I hope you're enjoying the Civic holiday long weekend, I always feel extra lucky when I can sleep in on a Monday and make breakfast.

We've been spoiling ourselves with the lovely peaches that have come in. Last night, we grilled some with pound cake and served it with ice cream. A simple but flavourful dessert, not to mention, easy to assemble. This morning, we chopped some up to lay over a spread of cinnamon paste and then wrapped it in a soft and chewy dough.

Peach Cinny Buns
Makes 24 cinny buns

1 1/3 cups of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups of milk
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon of salt
6 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of active dry yeast
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
Chopped peaches from 3 peaches

1. In a saucepan, add 1/3 cup of unsalted butter, milk, granulated sugar, and salt over medium heat. Stir until the butter has completely melted. The mixture shouldn't reach a boil or bubbling.
2. Using a stand mixer with a dough hook, add in 5 1/2 cups of flour and the yeast. Give it a quick and short mix so that it's all incorporated. Then add the warm mixture from the saucepan in. Mix on low until the dough starts to form. 
3. Add the eggs and mix on low until the dough is smooth.
4. Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Set the bowl aside in a warm spot in your kitchen. Allow the dough to rise - about an hour.

While you wait, dice up the three peaches. Clean a few bowls and utensils because it's time to make the filling!

If like me, you only have one stand mixer, you're going to need that bowl clean. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and cream the remaining 1 cup of unsalted butter and dark brown sugar on medium until it's light and fluffy. Add the cinnamon and the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and mix on low until it becomes a soft paste.

Once the dough has risen, remove the plastic wrap and give the dough a few punches. Go ahead. Don't be afraid to show to the dough who's boss. Take it out onto your work area and knead it down. If you have limited table-top space like yours truly, divide the dough in half. Use a rolling pin to flatten it into a large rectangle about 1-1.5 cm thick.

Using a knife or spatula, spread the cinnamon paste on top of the dough. Go right up to the edges and even out the layer. Top it up with some diced peaches.

Then, take a deep breathe, put on a brave face, and roll the dough. I found it easier to roll away from myself. Pinch the openings so that you seal everything inside. Try to flatten it too so that it doesn't taper out into a point.

Take a sharp knife and cut the dough into equal rounds about 4 cm thick.

Place them in a deep baking pan as shown above. Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F). Then bake the cinny buns for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the cinny buns to cool. Take them out of the pan after 10-15 minutes and serve warm.

Now that's a glorious morning. But you can make it even better!

Taking some icing sugar and mix it with milk (or water or heavy cream) until you get a nice runny glaze.

Proceed to pour it over your peach cinny bun. Only share the icing if you have to. Enjoy!

Dulce Strawberry, Peach, and Mango Cobbler

We meant to make a Dulce Peach Cobbler dessert for our friend's holiday potluck party on the weekend. It was going to be a nod to one of our favourite dessert at this little barbecue place near their house.

But after searching two grocery stores and not finding the frozen peach, we eventually picked up a bag of frozen strawberry, peaches, and mangoes.

This was fine by us, those are still three of our favourite fruits!

Dulce Strawberry, Peach, and Mango Cobbler
Recipe adapted from Robin Hood® Bake Some Memories™ Recipe Booklet
(Makes 8 servings)

Filling:
1 can (300 mL) of Eagle Brand® Dulce de Leche caramel flavoured sauce
1 bag (600 g) of Europe’s Best® Caribbean Treasure, frozen

Topping:
1 cup (250 mL) of Robin Hood® all-purpose flour
½ cup (125 mL) of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¾ cup (175 mL) of unsalted butter
¼ cup (50 mL) of boiling water

Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F). Grease a deep 9” round dish. Or if you want to make individual servings like us, eight cocottes (notice our red, green, and white ones - keeping it festive) or ramekins.

To make the filling, pour the dulce de leche over the frozen fruits and mix them together in your dish.

To make the topping, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Blend in the butter using your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in the water and mix with a spatula. Scoop out the batter and drop it over the fruit mixture. The topping spreads when it bakes, so don't worry about how neat it looks. If you like, you can sprinkle ⅓ cup of sliced almonds, walnuts, or chopped pecans.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 55-60 minutes or until the topping is golden. You can also insert a toothpick in the centre, if it comes out clean, it's ready!

We like eating these after 15 minutes of cooling. There's something very comforting about eating warm cobbler by the fireplace in the winter.

I like to mix the cobbler up so that I get a bit of everything in each bite. Yum! The cobbler was delicious on its own, but feel free to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with it!

Look! The elusive peach!

Disclaimer: This holiday season, A Baked Creation partnered up with Robin Hood®, who is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their annual Holiday Recipe Collection. They were kind enough to send us a baking package with Robin Hood® all-purpose flour and Eagle Brand® Dulce de Leche caramel flavoured sauce.

Molly's Cupcakes

One of the reasons that I have been meaning to visit Chicago is Molly's Cupcakes. Then, they opened a location in New York and I just about jumped and yelled "yay!" That doesn't mean I won't be visiting Chicago (maybe next year?) soon.

So we walked over here right after trying the cupcakes at Sweet Revenge. Already, you can see the contrast of the store front. Bright colours and a group playing a game of Jenga in the front.

Molly's Cupcakes

228 Bleecker Street

New York, NY 10014

(212) 414-2253

Look! Swing seats! They don't really swing, but such a fun way to design the cupcake bar area.

They have a large display case filled with cupcakes and other baked goods. I love that each cupcake label is clearly labeled and includes a cute illustration.

How do we choose? Molly's Cupcakes has the classic flavours: chocolate, vanilla, carrot, banana, and red velvet. Then they have center-filled ones: the Ron Bennington, chocolate mousse, Kahlua, chocolate raspberry, Boston cream, mixed berry, cookie monster, cookies and cream, blueberry cheesecake, butterscotch caramel, and cake batter. That's not all, they also do seasonal cupcakes.

I picked the peach cobbler, one of the center-filled cupcakes. Here's the rundown of my delicious treat: vanilla cupcake, cinnamon peach puree, brown sugar streusel, whipped cream, and topped with a sliced peach.

Howard and I both enjoyed the crunchy top of the vanilla cupcake and the peach filling inside - keeping the cupcake pretty moist.

Molly's Cupcakes also has a wall full of board games! Look around and everyone is enjoying a cupcake over conversation or a game - a great atmosphere. Since the couple beside us was having fun playing Connect Four, I challenged Howard to a game. Best out of seven. Domo was our referee.

Fine, Howard ended up winning - four to three, but I still had a blast. This was the one moment during our trip that I felt like a New Yorker. We were relaxing on a Sunday afternoon at a bakery, not in a rush to get to our next destination.

We highly recommend that you visit Molly's Cupcakes on your next trip to New York for a cupcake or to relax! Howard even said that this was his favourite cupcake spot from this trip!