cherry and almond ice cream pie

When I was a kid, I used to make ice cream pie quite a bit. The recipe was very easy and had lots of variations - it had a graham crumb crust filled with ice cream mixed with a can of fruit juice concentrate. If you want to try it, I would highly recommend a vanilla ice cream & lime aid concentrate combo. The vanilla and lime mixture is perfectly sweet-tart and sunny. I also enjoyed making this pie for the opportunity it gave me to eat a few spoonfuls of undiluted limeade concentrate. I had a very sophisticated childhood palate. 

This cherry & almond version of ice cream pie is a teeny bit more sophisticated but only the slightest bit more involved to make. I still used graham crumb crust, and store bought ice cream (feel free to make your own vanilla ice cream if you are so inclined), and added some caramelized almonds and some lovely, syrupy cherries. A slightly grown up but still very quick-to-prepare version of my childhood ice cream pie.

The amounts here don't need to be too exact, and the fruit and flavourings can be swapped out to whatever suits you and is on hand. Peaches would be really nice with the crunchy almonds if you prefer. 

cherry & almond ice cream pie:

• 2/3 cup flaked almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• large pinch salt 
• 3 cups pitted cherries, fresh or frozen both work 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• about 8 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1 1/3 cup graham crumbs or finely crushed amaretti cookies
• 1/3 cup butter, melted 

In a medium frying pan on medium heat, toast the almond until they just begin to colour. Sprinkle in 1/4 cup sugar and pinch of salt, stirring constantly until sugar melts and coats almonds and the nuts are deep brown. Cool nuts on parchment lined baking sheet. 

Bring ice cream out of the freezer to soften for about 15 minutes. 

In a small saucepan, combine cherries, 1/4 cup sugar, almond and vanilla extracts and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook over low heat until cherries soften and syrup thickens, about 10 minutes. Cool in the fridge. 

Combine graham crumbs and melted butter and press into a pie plate in an even layer. Scoop ice cream onto the crust and smoosh it down with your fingers. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the nuts onto the ice cream. Spoon cherries and syrup onto the ice cream and top with another 1/3 of the nuts. Scoop on more ice cream until the cherries are more or less covered, it doesn't need to be totally even or covered, it's nice if some cherries peek through. Freeze the pie for at least 5 hours or overnight. Slice and serve sprinkled with the remaining candied nuts. 

blackberry & pistachio gateau basque

Gateau Basque is a traditional French pastry from the Basque region. Despite the gateau in the name, it isn't a cake,  it's more like a pie or tart. But the dough is really quite different from other pie doughs, and it is fantastic. It gets puffy and light from a hefty dose of baking powder, but has a lovely fatty, rich toothsomeness from enriching almonds and eggs. It seems like there will be way too much dough, if you made an American style pie with this kind of dough-filling ratio, it would be an overwhelming dough monster. It seems like it would be too dry. But this super enriched dough is not excessive or overwhelming. It melds together with the pastry cream to make an almost frangipane-like alchemy on the inside, and a crisp, caramelized outside. It's just sweet enough without being cloying.

Gateau Basque is traditionally made with vanilla pastry cream and cherries, which is fantastic and feel free to do that instead. But I had some blackberries left over from fall in my freezer, and I needed to clear them out to make way for the rhubarb that is on it's way.  You can also just use jam without any extra fruit, or just use pastry cream (double the recipe), swap out or remove the nuts...choose the flavours that you like best. 

Note: pistachio paste here means pure ground pistachios, which you can buy or grind yourself if you have powerful food processor and a lot of pistachios. Use 6 tbs finely ground pistachios if you can find any paste or don't want to grind it for ages. The tart dough makes twice as much as you need - the extra will last a few days in the fridge or a couple months in in the freezer.  

dough

adapted from Food and Wine 

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbs baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla 
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup almond flour

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and almond flour in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and yolks, vanilla and almond extracts and beat until well mixed. Reduce speed and add flour mixture gradually until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape dough out onto a work surface and divide into four equal portions. Form them into disks and wrap in cling wrap. Chill at least 4 hours. 

pastry cream

adapted from Martha Stewart 

• 1/4 cup sugar 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 2 tbs cornstarch 
• pinch salt 
• 6 tbs pistachio paste
• 1 cup whole milk 

Combine sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, salt and pistachio paste in a small saucepan. Whisk in milk until smooth. Cook the mixture on medium heat, whisking constantly. When the mix comes to a boil, cook for 1 minute, continuing to whisk and scrape the bottom. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Chill, plastic wrap pressed directly on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. 

assembly

• 1/2 cup blackberry jam
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries 
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs milk 

Roll out one disc of dough to 1 cm thick, drape over tart shell so the dough rises up the sides of the pan. Trim away excess. Spread jam in an even layer over the bottom of the tart. Sprinkle blackberries over jam and cover with pastry cream. 

Roll out second dough disc to 1 cm thick. Place over the top of the tart and press around the edges to trim off excess dough. Gently press around the edges to seal. Score a grid pattern into the tart with a paring knife. Beat milk and egg together and brush all over the top of the tart. 

Bake at 350° on the lowest shelf of your oven for 20 minutes. Wrap the top of the tart in tin foil and move the tart to the upper shelf. Bake around 40 more minutes, until dark gold on top. Transfer to a rack to cool. 

leek and lobster pot pie

I think alliterative food tastes better. When I was thinking about making this, I saw lots of lobster and fennel pies and mushroom lobster pies, lobster pie with peas and carrots, but the sounds of leek and lobster has a pleasing quality.  Sleeker, smoother, just better. Plus, I thought it would be tasty. Pot pie is a great way to use intimidatingly expensive lobster because you only need a little bit. I used one lobster for two people, which makes the price of the lobster almost reasonable. This pie has all the warming, cozy casualness of a chicken pot pie, but with a hint of lobstronomous fanciness. You can also substitute whatever kind of seafood you like, salmon, shrimp or crab would work well too. Just make sure to choose an alliterative vegetable to go with your choice of seafood. Crab and cucumber anyone?

Also, did you know sometimes lobsters are blue? Incredibly, brilliantly blue. I think they might be the bluest things in nature. It's pretty great. 

I am so impressed with this rough puff pastry. It was incredibly fast and it is really, really close to puff pastry made the traditional (much more laborious) way. You can sub in regular puff pastry here if you want to-it's really fun to make and not very difficult, but it is time consuming. Or you can use store bought puff pastry, it will be great.

rough puff pastry

from Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking by way of Martha Stewart

• 1 1/4 cups cold butter

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

• a big pinch of salt

• 2/3 cup cold water

Chop one cup of butter into small cubes. Put them in the freezer. 

In a food processor, combine 1/4 cup butter, 2 cups flour and salt. Pulse until combined evenly. 

Add cold butter cubes and pulse twice very quickly. The butter will be in large chunks and not incorporated. Add about half the water and pulse very quickly again. Add more water if the mixture is still very dry. The dough will not come together or form a ball. 

Dump the contents of the food processor onto a clean work surface and roughly squish together. Roll dough out into a rectangle, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking. It will be crumbly and uncooperative at first, don't worry. Fold the short edges of the rectangle into the centre so they overlap. Roll out again into a rectangle and repeat this folding (check out this helpful video to see how). Wrap the dough tightly in cling wrap and chill. 

filling

• cooked meat from one lobster, or about 1 cup lobster meat chopped (frozen is fine)

• 3 sliced leeks, dark green leaves removed

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• one shallot

• 2 small yellow potatoes, cubed

• 1 cup white wine

• 1 cup cream

• 2 cups lobster or other seafood stock

In a frying pan over medium heat, sauté leeks, shallot and garlic until wilted and slightly translucent. Remove vegetables and set aside. Add wine, cream, stock and potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Add a little water as the potatoes cook if the liquid reduces too much. When potatoes are tender, combine with leeks and lobster meat. 

assembly

Note: I used a small (8") oval pan for this, you can use a small round or square pan, or two ramekins. This recipe serves two generously, but easily doubles or triples for a crowd. 

Heat oven to 425F. 

 Divide pastry in half. Wrap the remainder and chill or freeze for another use. Roll out pasty into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Trace the pie dish into the pastry with a paring knife and cut pastry to fit just inside the edge of the pan. Cut vents in the lid. 

Fill pan with the lobster mixture. Lay pastry lid over the mixture, pressing in gently. Brush with a little cream or beaten egg. Bake until the pastry is deeply golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Serve with a salad of lettuce and lotus root. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert