No churn Ice Cream and yummy Popsicles

So we had the hottest day on record yesterday, and today, it's raining! Talk about a typical British summer! However, the warm weather is set to continue for a little while longer and nothing helps you cool down like some ice cream!

I have a very old fridge/freezer. The freezer compartment is pretty limiting. It has 3 draws, and can't hold anything too large, so an ice cream maker is currently out of the picture. There is no way I could freeze anything of that size! This lead me to set up an Ice Cream board on Pinterest for any receipes that didn't require an Ice Cream maker. I also own a Zuko popsicle maker and plenty of molds, so made myself a Popsicle board too!

From my boards, I'm sharing my favourite recipes which include ones I have actually already made. I plan to make the rest during the summer holidays! We have a nice mix of the healthy and indulgent on this list, so whatever your preference, you should be able to find something to your taste here!

When I go out to eat at an Italian restaurant, I do enjoy a Semi Freddo for dessert. I wanted to try making my own, and found this recipe on the BBC Good Food page.

Coffee Semi Freddo. My mouth is drooling over the picture! Find the recipe here.

For those who like their food to be healthy and 'clean', this banana ice cream is a winner.

One Ingredient Chef shows you how to whip this up along with some tasty flavour combinations. Head over here for all the details.

Another healthy recipe that uses bananas is this Banana and Peanut butter ice cream from BBC Good Food.

Anything with peanut butter is alright with me! Find the recipe here.

Lemons are always refreshing and tasty, and as much as I love chocolate, lemon flavoured desserts always get my vote.

This lovely lemon ice cream features coconut milk and no sugar. Head over to Eat Healthy Eat Happy for all the details.

This gorgeous chocolate ice cream is so easy to make and so delicious.

The only thing I found with this recipe is that it needed a lot more thawing time than stated. However, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and it softens up nicely. Find the recipe here from Bright Eyed Baker.

How about some frozen yogurt instead?

Lovely flavour of mangoes screams summer! Head over to Cookie and Kate for the recipe.

For a truly indulgent treat, this Snickers Ice Cream is perfect!

Bye bye to the diet with this one! Find the recipe at Homemade by You here.

Let's move on to some hand held treats. Revisiting peanut butter and banana but in Popsicle form.

These look rich and indulgent.but are pretty healthy. The recipe can be found at My Fussy Eater.

I also love anything coconut flavoured. There is so much you can make with a can of coconut milk. I seem to always have a can or two in the cupboard!

Simple and healthy. Find the recipe at The Coconut Mama.

Now these homemade Fudge Popsicles are so fudgy and so delicious. These are on rotation in this house!

I strongly urge you to make these! The Brown Eyed Baker has this recipe here.

Do you like cookies? Chocolate Chip cookies?

Don't these look delicious from Got Chocolate? Find the recipe here.

Now of course kids love popsicles, but it's always nice to have something that is just for us adults, am I right?

These ones you don't/can't share with the kids! What a shame! Pimm's Cup Popsicles from Shutterbean. Perfect for Wimbledon fortnight. Find the recipe here.

The main thing that drew me to these popsicles was the rainbow of colour.

They look so inviting with those beautiful colours. Plus they are made with plenty of fruit! Find the recipe here from Skinny Taste.

Back to the bananas and more fruit!

These are healthy, no sugar, just fruit!  These are from Gimme Some Oven, and the recipe can be found here.

Ending on a lovely healthy note with these fruity popsicles.

More bananas help to make these delicious popsicles with the addition of some allspice! This recipe is from Off Beat and Inspired and can be found here.

There are even more recipes to be found on my boards, so head over there if none of these grab your fancy, but I highly doubt it!

Have a great weekend!

Soft and delicious no egg Brownies

Do you ever get in the mood just to bake and then realise you don't have all the ingredients you need to make the thing you are craving and it's cold and late and you just can't face the shops? Well that was me a few nights ago. I was sitting at home after having a lovely dinner and thought some brownies would be a nice way to round off the evening.  So I looked through my favourite book by The Hummingbird bakery to see what I would need to make their brownies. A really simple recipe with eggs, flour, chocolate, butter, and sugar, except I didn't have any eggs (the family had used them up that morning having poached eggs) and I hardly had any chocolate left thanks to already using some in another recipe. Urgh! 

I didn't relish the idea of heading to the shops late in the evening so decided to look around my kitchen to see what I could substitute. What I made by tweaking the original recipe were very very soft, fudgey brownies with flaky tops. These were certainly softer, almost fudge like in texture, not the same as a traditional brownie, but the taste was sweet, chocolaty and moreish!

Oh so good!

You can order the Hummingbird bakery book here which holds the original recipe. My recipe is shown below adapted with different ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

75g Dark chocolate chips

125g Nutella chocolate spread (about 2 heaping tablespoons)

175g butter or spread

165g caster or granulated sugar

130g plain flour

1 or 2 ripe bananas depending on whether you mind a slight banana taste to your brownies

Handful of walnuts (optional)

Icing sugar to dust

METHOD

Preheat oven to 170'C (325'F) Gas Mark 3. I used a special brownie tin to make these but you can use a sheet pan and cut the brownies once cooked. I sprayed the pan with cake release spray before adding the mix.

Mash your bananas until they are very smooth with very little lumps. 2 bananas will give these brownies a banana taste, 1 I doubt you would be able to tell was in there. I used 2 and whilst the dominant taste is chocolate, there is a hint of the banana. I am not a huge fan of bananas but I did enjoy these. Make sure you use very ripe bananas that are easy to mash. Set aside.

Melt your chocolate chips, Nutella and butter in the microwave in 20-30 second bursts. Give the mix a stir to help melt the chips into the butter rather than melting completely in the microwave. I did 30 seconds, stired well, put back in for another 20 seconds, stired and was done.

Add the sugar to this mix and stir well until all incorporated. Next add the flour and incorporate completely. Finally, stir in the mashed bananas until the mixture is smooth and add any nuts if using.

Spread into a sheet pan or add to cavities until almost full. Bake for 30 minutes approx. The brownies should be flaky on top but will still be soft when a toothpick is inserted. Do not let them overcook, else the edges become dry and hard. These can be dusted with icing sugar if liked.

Little soft mouthful's of heaven!

Who could resist one of these with a cup of coffee to cheer themselves up on a dreary January afternoon? What's more they are an ideal bake to make with the children who can just go to town on mashing those bananas!

Enjoy your week!

MUM'S BANANA BREAD

When I was a young girl, my Mum would bake a lot. Back then you didn't have such an array of ready made treats just waiting to be snapped up at the supermarket. I am so glad about this as I discovered my love of baking through my Mum and my Nan. 

My Mum had an index box which was crammed full of hand written recipes. The recipes had come from her Mum, Mother in law, Family Circle, basically any decent recipe was written down and filed. There would be favourites which would be used again and again and some which never saw the light of day! My Mum decided to get rid of her box of recipes as she had started to bake less and less as the years went by, but she saved those which had become family favourites (ie, those that I pestered her to make, even when I had left home!).

As a child I was a very fussy eater, so getting fruit and vegetables into me was a daily chore for my Mum. I detested most fruits, especially bananas (and to this day I cannot stand them!), but Mum's banana bread never tasted of the bananas, it just tasted yummy! She must have breathed a sigh of relief as I asked for a slice of this delicious bread!

The recipe is very simple and not very high on a banana taste. There is a hint there so if you like your banana bread to taste very much of bananas, add another banana or 2 into the mix!

Mmm, doesn't that look inviting??

The measurements for the recipe are in American cups. I come from a joint background of both American and English so have always had a set of baking cups for such recipes. These are easy to obtain or you can look up the equivalents using Google.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour 

2 3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter/marg/baking spread

2 eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (approx 2-3 bananas)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 1 cup raisins (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 350'c or 180'f.  Well grease or use cake release spray in your loaf pan. The loaf pan I have used is 1 1/2 litre.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar (I did this the old fashioned way with a fork, just as my Mum used to do)

Light and fluffy.

Add eggs once creamed and lightly beat them in.

Add dry ingredients and banana alternately, ending with dry ingredients. Stir in any walnuts or raisins you may be adding.

Pour into your pan and smooth over the top. 

The original recipe states to bake the bread for 1hr 10min, however, that has resulted in my bread being over cooked and a little burnt. I suggest checking your bread after 40 minutes and then 5 minute increments until it is done. The bread is done once the sides pull away from the pan and the top is golden brown. I do use a toothpick to check that it is fully cooked. In my oven the bread takes around 45 minutes to cook.

Well risen, golden brown and sides have pulled away from the pan. (Please excuse the state of my pan, it has been used many many times!)

Fresh out of the oven is lovely or when it has completely cooled. My Mum always used to spread some butter onto the bread once it was sliced and I love it this way, but it is equally as tasty without!

 Delicious!

This is a perfect recipe for anybody to have a go at. It is simple, easy, few ingredients and steps. Happy baking!