Jim Beam and Vanilla Bean

So its back the the lab again. I was at the liquor store the other day just wandering aimless stumbling into boxes when I came across the bourbon section. I’m a fan of Jim Beam and I saw they had something new, a maple bourbon. Now, I was expecting a bourbon with a hint of maple added. What I found in the bottle was a viscous maple syrup with a touch of bourbon added. Is was very sweet and while I contemplated putting it on pancakes, I decided to try it on some ice cream instead. Its seems we have a winner just in time for summer!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, I used blue bunny premium

• Jim Beam Maple Bourbon

OK, making this creation is terribly easy. Put two well packed scoops of vanilla ice cream into a deep bowl. Then carefully splash the bourbon over it. Garnish with a cherry! Enjoy a taste of Vermont summer treat.

This also works quite well if you skip the dish and put the ice cream on a warm waffle.

Captain’s Liquored Bananas

Bananas ar forty nine cents a pound at Best Yet market this week! So… let’s make some for dessert. I haven’t made bananas foster in quite some time. So, with a fresh carton of vanilla ice cream and some ‘on sale bananas’ let’s get these two together. Now THAT’S cooking with rum!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp banana liqueur
• 2 under ripe bananas, sliced in half lengthwise
• 1/4 cup Captain Morgan spiced rum
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

Melt butter in a heavy skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir until sugar dissolves. Add banana liqueur and bring sauce to simmer. Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side, carefully spooning sauce over bananas as they are cooking. Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish. Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum. If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own. If not, using stick flame, carefully ignite and continue cooking until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. If sauce is too thin, cook for 1 to 2 minutes until it is syrupy in consistency. Add orange zest and stir to combine. Immediately spoon the sauce over bananas and serve. Serve with ice cream.

Lydia Buckingham – Cranberry Apple Pie

Another pie adaptation from the Colonial Cookbook, comes from the recipe of Lydia Buckingham of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. This cranberry apple pie would have been cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven over a fire in a kitchen not unlike the colonial kitchen you can see at the William Floyd Estate in Mastic Beach. There is a good deal of wet ingredients in this pie, so break out the pie birds to vent the steam and lets make some dessert!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Filling:

• ¾ cup cranberries
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup brandy
• 8 large Macintosh apples peeled, paired, cored, and sliced
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Pie:

• 1 pie shell
• 1 piece of piecrust dough for the cover
• 1 medium egg, 1 tbsp milk, ¼ tsp cinnamon for the wash

Mix the cranberries and brown sugar and let them stand for about an hour. Plump the raisins in the brandy for about an hour. In a large bowl mix the remaining filler ingredients; then add in the cranberry and raisin mixtures. Stir to combine. Place the pie bird in the shell and pour the filling in. cover with an upper crust. In a small bowl whisk the egg, milk, and cinnamon wash. Brush the wash over the crust. Place the pie on a pre-heated 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 40 minutes.

This pie is nice to serve warm with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

If you get a chance, visit the William Floyd Estate to see a colonial kitchen.

 

Peach Sauce

A red pepper sauce, and a blueberry sauce, bet you where thinking of something white to add to our list, but nope, I’m diverting off track once again for something peachy. It was the vanilla ice cream that got me thinking that if I added a bit more sweet to the peach glaze that I often use on pork… by golly it just might work…

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 1 cup sliced peeled fresh peaches
• 1 teaspoon amaretto

In a saucepan, bring water, sugar, cornstarch and nutmeg to a boil. Boil this for about a minute to get everything all dissolved. Now add peaches. Bring to a boil and cook for another 1 or 2 minutes. Remove this from the heat and stir in the liquor. Serve over vanilla ice cream.

peach sauce with ice cream

Blueberry Sauce

So what to do with this abundance of blueberries, especially since I made something red for the forth of July, a red pepper sauce, how about a blue sauce… A sauce made from blueberries that goes nicely with vanilla ice cream… hmmm…

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 tsp. each cinnamon & nutmeg
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 2/3 c. water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 pt. (1 lb.) blueberries, washed & picked over
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• Lemon zest, grated

Place sugar, spices and salt in a heavy saucepan. Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water and add to saucepan. Heat to boiling, reduce to simmer and stir to smooth. Add blueberries and cook over moderate heat until smooth and thick, 20 to 30 minutes. Taste and add more sugar if needed. Add lemon juice only to taste; you may not want to use all of it. Add zest to taste. Serve warm or cold.

simple blueberry sauce