This year we’ve really experienced the dog days of summer.
In the unrelenting heat any opportunity to cool down is a bonus.
The last thing you want to do is spend hours in a hot kitchen, so maybe it’s time to fire up the outdoor grill.
To complement your barbecued entrees, a quick-to-prepare ice cream dessert is just the ticket.
Make these in the cool morning hours and stash them in the freezer, ready to serve as a refreshing finish to your al fresco dinner.
Feel free to substitute any favourite flavour of ice cream for the ones in the recipes below, but be sure to use a premium brand.
Bargain brands tend to not freeze as hard as the better brands and they definitely don’t taste as good.
Peanutty Crunch Dessert
½ cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup corn syrup
4 cups crispy rice cereal
and approximately 2 litres of vanilla ice cream, softened, one 1.66-litre carton of ice cream is OK (place ice cream in the refrigerator until it’s just soft enough to spread, you don’t want it to be runny)
1 cup coarsely chopped Spanish peanuts
Purchased chocolate sundae topping to garnish
In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter and corn syrup until well blended; stir in rice cereal until coated. Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan.
Spread the softened ice cream over the cereal mixture and sprinkle with peanuts; drizzle chocolate topping over peanuts.
Cover pan with aluminum foil and freeze for at least four hours before cutting into squares to serve. Makes 12 servings.
Caramel Pecan Ice Cream Dessert
This is very rich, so make the servings on the small side.
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup butter, melted
1½ cups caramel ice cream topping
About 2 litres of vanilla ice cream (1.66 litres is OK), softened
Preheat oven to 400° F. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, pecans, brown sugar and oatmeal. Add the melted butter and mix well.
Turn the mixture out onto a large rimmed baking sheet; bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Allow mixture to cool slightly then crumble it, and allow it to cool completely. Line a 13x9-inch pan with waxed paper along the bottom and up the sides, with extra paper extending off the sides to form “handles” (this makes it easy to remove the whole frozen dessert from the pan so you can easily cut it into squares).
Press half of the cooled crumble into the pan; drizzle half of the caramel sauce over top.
Gently spread the softened ice cream over the crumb mixture then sprinkle on the remaining crumble and pat it down gently. Drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over top.
Cover pan and freeze until ice cream is hard; remove pan from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to make it easier to cut into squares.
Makes 12 servings.
Mocha Fudge Ice Cream Dessert
3¾ cups crushed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
½ cup butter, melted
2 cups fudge ice cream topping, warmed slightly
About 2 litres coffee ice cream (1.66 litres is OK), softened
2 cups (one small carton) frozen whipped topping, thawed
Chocolate syrup to garnish (optional)
In a medium bowl, combine the crushed cookies and melted butter; press into the bottom and partially up the sides of a 13x9-inch pan. Freeze until firm, about one hour.
Spread the fudge topping evenly over the crust and return pan to freezer for 30 minutes. Spread the softened ice cream over the crust then spread the whipped topping over the ice cream (if the ice cream is quite soft return the pan to the freezer to let it firm up before spreading with whipped topping).
Freeze dessert for at least four hours or until ice cream is completely frozen again. Cut into squares to serve and drizzle with chocolate syrup if desired. Makes 12 servings.
Angela Shellard is a self-described foodie. She has done informal catering for various functions. Contact: [email protected].
