Easy "Homemade" Peach Ice Cream & Mini Snickerdoodle Cookies

 

I love really simple desserts - especially when we're entertaining... or is it that I always make really simple desserts when we're entertaining because I run out of time?  One of my favorite easy desserts to serve is ice cream and cookies.  I make the dough ahead of time, put them in balls on baking sheets and then put them in the oven just as we're finishing dinner.  I serve the warm cookies with cold ice cream and everyone goes crazy.   In the Fall, I make ginger cookies and serve them with caramel ice cream, during the holidays I make chocolate cookies paired with butter pecan... endless options.

When we lived in Concord, we spent most of our summer nights at a local creamery that made the best peach ice cream.  Nothing that I have found is even close.  So, any time I walk in the grocery store and smell fresh peaches, I make my own non-homemade homemade peach ice cream.  I put our favorite (Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla) ice cream in the food processor with some peach slices (skin and all) and give it a whirl.  If we're not going to eat it right away, I put it back in the freezer to harden.

I love how this little dessert looks in the Enamelware Mini Dessert Pots from my store.  I have lots of great desserts planned for them (individual blackberry cobblers!), but they also work great as ramekins on a buffet to hold dips and spreads.

Mini Snickerdoodles



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1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or regular vanilla)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
.....
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cream together butter, shortening and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time until combined.  Add vanilla.  Add flower, salt and baking powder, stirring until just combined. 

Chill mixture for 15-30 minutes.  Roll in very small 3/4-inch balls.  Roll them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 5-6 minutes at 350 degrees.  Should be taken out of the oven just before cooked through so they stay soft.



 

Black Cherry, Blueberry & Vanilla Ice Cream Float

*I'm re-posting this from last year because this has been my go-to even this summer.  It is such an easy and festive (and easy...) dessert.  Try it with crumbled graham crackers on top if you want to have some fun : )

.....

Don't you love that just when you think you've tried everything new, you find something that is immediately your new all-time favorite?  Mike and I recently had dinner at his favorite new restaurant, Rye (for those that are local).  It is a sort of upscale southern comfort food type place with an emphasis on fresh and local.

We usually opt for a slice of banana cream and lemon meringue pie for dessert.  As the server was describing couple next to us was ooh-iing and ahhing over their float so much, that I was swayed to give it a try.  Their version was vanilla ice cream, lemon-blueberry sorbet, house-made cherry soda, and topped with soft swiss meringue and a salted crumble. 


I made a very simplified version that has been my new after dinner obsession.  At some point I will go to all of the trouble of making the swiss meringue and creating a salted cookie crumble topping, but for now, this is my favorite super easy and so delicious dessert for the summer.

Black Cherry, Blueberry & Vanilla Ice Cream Float

Vanilla Ice Cream
Blueberries
Black Cherry Soda 

The key is to make sure the ice cream, the glass and the soda are all very, very cold.  This creates the magical slushy vanilla, cherry mixture of the float.

You can see my helping hands finishing the blueberry garnish.  Wouldn't this be so festive for the 4th, too!?