Even with Summer coming to an end, we’ve been getting some steaming hot weather in Brisbane this last week. I thought I would try to get one more summery dish in, as a bit of a farewell to the season.  I’ve been experimenting with desserts of the frozen nature, an wanted to share 2 in particular with you. Quick, have a go at these before the weather turns cool!  This passionfruit semifreddo was my January special.  It was so popular, I think I knocked it out about 3 times in 1 week! It is so light and subtle.  And it’s hard to go wrong with beautiful passionfruit.

On our week off in Byron, I went right into cooking mode. With loads of limes to enjoy from the lime tree in beautiful Newrybar, I didn’t want them to become just the garnish for Josh’s Coronas.   Jamie came to the rescue with a recipe for lemon sherbet in the pages of Jamie’s Italy. In contrast to the semifreddo, the sherbet was very sweet and sharp, and more refreshing.  I made 2 lots, one with just lemons, and one with a combination of lemons and limes. The lemon lime combo was the winner…and disappeared too quickly for me to get a photo, but here’s the lemon sherbet.

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Macarons are one of those indulgent treats that you only have once every so often. For me, this is just because they aren’t available on every street corner like they are in paris. But now that I have the perfect recipe, this never has to be a problem again! Macarons are a parisian specialty, famous for their thin, crisp outer layer (similar to a meringue, but a little drier) which crumbles when bitten into, revealing a soft and  slightly chewy centre with a beautiful, subtle, sweet almond flavour.  Once you have the basic recipe, you can experiment with the flavours until your heart’s content. I used the recipe from ‘ottolenghi the cookbook’, but substituted the flavours to better suit my tastebuds. The flavours in the cookbook are lime with basil filling, and salty peanut with caramel filling I”m going to try this one next time). I have made chocolate with pistachio filling, and pandanus with coconut filling. Thanks to Louise, Josh’s mother, who had a beautiful chocolate cake topped with macarons at her 50th, which inspired me to post this recipe. (more…)

Making iceblocks takes me back to my primary school years. It was one of those things my sister and I would always look forward to making in the summer months. The flavours we made were not particularly exciting or creative… usually orange juice or lemon juice, but it was nevertheless exciting to come home  after a hot day and pull out a perfectly moulded, home made, resfreshing iceblock.

I have tried to be a little more creative with my more recent rediscovery of iceblocks… but you be the judge. The original ice block holders were much simpler… i wish i still had them.

The photos are a mish mash of a few different varieties i tried …some are of the strawberry, yoghurt and honey variety. I drizzled honey around the iceblock moulds before pouring the mixture in, but this really only works if you use frozen berries, otherwise the honey just sinks to the bottom of the mould. Others are of the berry and yoghurt variety.  My favourite so far has been the watermelon, ginger beer and frozen blueberry iceblock (no photos of this one sorry).

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