Cranberry Upside Downer & Ice Cream

I’ve been making ice creams for the past 10 days.. and boy, have I been having fun. You see,  I have history with ice cream and it’s a long, long love-affair-kinda-history. And in keeping with the love-affair angle, I have a big, dark secret when it comes to the frozen creamy stuff… When I was a little girl – really little – I used to wake up early – no alarm needed – sneak downstairs, open the gigantic stand freezer in our pantry, drag over a chair, climb up and grab the Dixie Cups (those little paper cups filled with van & choco ice cream. remember them?). With spoon in hand, I would carefully carve out the vanilla portions (I didn’t care for the chocolate back then), gobble them down and then pop the lids back on, return them to the freezer, slide the chair back into position and toddle back up to bed. My secret was safe.. until it was dessert time.. The Dixie’s were distributed around the dinner table and opened… oops. Busted. My brothers were furious, yelling and carrying on but my dad would always through his head back and laugh.  Ultimately, the parents decided that I must be stopped so, nightly, they padlocked the freezer and tucked the key into “a secret hiding spot”. Seeing how I was a stubborn type even at that age, the hidden key was hardly a deterrent .. just meant I had to get up earlier…

With that off my chest, I need to explain about all the ice creams I’m making and why I’m not sharing any of those recipes today. Let’s start with a few of the flavors I’ve been making (and eating): Maple-Bacon-Pecan; Chocolate-Cherry- Chipotle; Buttered Popcorn Gelato and the list goes on… Amazing, right? All of these recipes spring from the genius brain of the ever-amazing Hedy Goldsmith ~ Pastry Chef  at Micheal’s Genuine in Miami. Lucky me.. I’m helping Hedy with her first cookbook and I’ve been test-driving the Frozens chapter. So here I was “stuck” with all these ice creams bulging from my freezer (and quite possible, if not definitely, from my waistline). Because I do what I do, my kitchen is filled with tons of sweet stuff at the end of my work day and I usually give away all but a smidge of the goods to friends and strangers alike (ok.. not strangers, that would be creepy).  Most desserts are easy to share  but the frozen thing makes traveling difficult if not impossible. So… instead of taking the ice creams to the friends, I invited the friends over to meet the ice creams.

Could I just serve drinks and ice creams? Well, if I had it my way, I would have but it seemed sensible and grown-up to offer up something savory:  Gumbo YaYa courtesy of Jamie Shannon and Fine Cooking – the recipe is legendary and truly amazing. And, being a baker, I thought it would nice to offer folks something other than just ice cream for dessert. So I whipped up this cute little upside downer to serve alongside Hedy’s creations. With dinner done and dusted, I pulled out all of the “frozens”, opened ’em up, passed around plates and spoons and let everyone dig in. And they dug in hard. Go Hard or Go Home, right? We tasted, discussed, tasted again, and again until the containers were empty and all bellies were about to burst. And then I remembered the Upside Downer… Thank God it makes a great breakfast too.

Here’s hoping you end every day sweetly,

Abby

ps.. don’t forget to check the bottom of the recipe for some fun “Switch-Ins”. I’ve included a short-cut caramel for those timid folks who don’t want to make the real thing – the pic at the top of the post is shows the ‘short-cut’ caramel is still glamorous!

And one last thing.. while I’m terrible at taking “how-to” shots, I thought that it would be helpful to show caramel at the perfect and not-so perfect stages. The tops drops are nowhere near cooked enough… bottom left is almost there… bottom right is just about perfect!

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Dried Cranberry Upside Downer

For the caramel:
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water

For the Fruit:
7 ounces dried cranberries
1 cup cranberry juice

For the Cake:
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (you can use up to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon instead)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350°F and lightly butter the sides of a 9×2-inch round cake pan.
Make the caramel:
In a heavy saucepan, stir the sugar and water together. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat to high and boil until the sugar is light amber. Swirl the pan over the heat to evenly distribute the caramel. Continue to cook until the caramel is a deep amber. Immediately pour into the baking pan and quickly swirl each to evenly coat the bottom. The pan is hot — be careful. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the fruit:
In a small saucepan, combine the cranberries and the juice. Simmer until the cranberries are plump and tender and the juice is reduced, about 10 minutes. Strain and reserve ¼ cup liquid. Spread the fruit over the caramel.

Make the cake:
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Beat the butter with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar; continue beating, on medium-high speed, until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly after each addition. Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over the butter and mix on low speed just blended. Add the buttermilk, reserved 1/4 cup juice and vanilla and mix until just blended. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the remaining flour. Spoon large dollops of the batter over the fruit and spread in an even layer.

Bake until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Immediately run a paring knife around the inside edge of the pan. Set a flat serving plate on top of the pan and invert the cake. Let the inverted pan rest for about 5 minutes to let the topping settle. Gently remove the pan and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Switch-Ins:
You know me, I encourage folks to experiment with my recipes but sometimes they need a nudge so, when I can,  I offer a few ingredient swaps to get them going on their creative way. So please use these suggestions as a starting point.

• Instead of Cranberry juice, “switch-in” a citrus juice (orange, tangerine, grapefruit) or Apple juice, or even one of the flavored cranberry juices like cran-raspberry.
• Instead of dried cranberries, “switch-in” any type of dried fruit or even a combo. Dried cherries would be great as would apricots or apples. Just use about the same amount and cut up the larger fruits so the behave like the cranberries
• OK.. And if you are really afraid to make “real” caramel.. Which you really shouldn’t be.. You can switch-in the following:
• Make a brown sugar caramel:
  In a small saucepan, combine 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 5 tablespoons unsalted butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Bring to a boil and pour into the prepared pan, swirling to coat the bottom evenly. Scatter in the fruit evenly over the caramel.

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And a final shot of my “Downer” made with cranberries and “real” caramel..

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