I’ve always wanted to make an apricot sorbet. Fortunately, I was able to find some dried apricots at the local farmers market last week. When I was a kid we actually had apricot trees in our yard. Actually, a lot of people had apricot trees since Silicon Valley was once full of fruit orchards. I remember empty lots between houses that contained neat rows of apricot trees. Those lots are now long gone, replaced by homes, though Apple’s Steve Jobs tore down an adjacent house in Palo Alto to put an orchard back. My grandparents also had a couple apricot trees in their yard; they would pick them and dry them nearly every year. They have since moved but still give us dried apricots every year from a nearby fruit stand.

I couldn’t find too many recipes for apricot sorbet on the web, but fortunately one cookbook in my collection, Sorbets and Ice Creams, by Lou Pappas, had a recipe for dried apricot sorbet. I actually prefer dried apricot over fresh ones—the flavor is stronger and the varied texture of the dried apricots is more interesting to me. When buying apricots I always seek out the slab variety since they taste better. If you can score some Blenheim apricots, still grown in Silicon Valley, so much the better.

The sorbet that defies ice
When I first made this recipe I skipped adding water since it usually just makes for an icy sorbet, but the resulting sorbet was really strong—a little too strong, actually. The dried apricot flavor is surprisingly powerful, so don’t be afraid to add more water (and sugar if necessary) to make it appeal to less fanatic apricot fans. This sorbet is so smooth that you can really adjust the water level to suit your tastes without risk of iciness. A week in the freezer and this sorbet is still perfectly smooth. When serving, start with small portions since a little apricot flavor goes a long way.

Ingredients for making Dried Apricot Sorbet.

Add 2 cups of apricot nectar and 1 cup water to dried apricots in medium saucepan.

Apricots will become plump after simmering in nectar and water for 20 minutes.

Purée apricots with 3/4 cups of sugar, keeping hand over lid during mixing to prevent hot liquid from blowing lid off.

Pour 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice into cooled purée.

Add 1/3 cup limoncello. You could also use Grand Marnier.

Adjust strength of apricot flavor by adding additional water as needed, 1/4 cup at a time.

Once mixture has chilled to less than 45° F, pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to your maker’s instructions.

Transfer frozen sorbet to dedicated container to ripen in freezer.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Dried Apricot Sorbet recipe page.

I love blogs. Sharing is great, especially when it is being done by people that are passionate about their subject. Food blogs that share recipes are even better, but occasionally I come across a blog entry that features photos of a very delicious looking recipe. I continue reading, hoping to find the list of ingredients that starts any given recipe only to discover that it is being withheld since it is actually a <airquote>family secret</airquote>. A photo blog I could forgive, but what on earth is it doing on a food blog?

Family Recipe Withholder’s Worst Nightmare?
OK, here is the doomsday scenario: someone finds your secret family recipe and at the next gathering—let’s say at a reunion or even more public like a church potluck—you both bring the same dish. The problem is: everyone likes their version more than yours. Not only do they have your family’s recipe, but they are now stealing the inheritance that was rightfully yours. The nerve! If only there was a family recipe court (I just now trademarked that, by the way). HELLO—reality check! Does this really ever happen? More importantly, if the recipe was really improved, isn’t that a good thing?

Legitimate reasons why a recipe should be kept a secret:

1. It’s a trade secret. This means you compete with other businesses using the recipe. Unless you are competing with another classroom for funds, bake sales don’t fall into this category.
2. You don’t know the recipe. Perhaps you were high as a kite or were winging it and are now desperately soliciting assistance from others to reverse engineer the recipe from the few crumbs that are left.
3. You promised you wouldn’t share it. Honor is good, but did the person that shared the recipe with you have a good reason to keep it a secret? And if so, how dare they share it with you? Shame on them!
4. The recipe, delightful as it may be, was handed down from a relative that is now reviled for gruesome acts against humanity; revealing your direct lineage to them would be too much shame to bear upon your family. Think of the children, after all.

Do you want to know the real secret?
It isn’t the recipe. Who hasn’t gotten the recipe they have had prepared for them every year during the holidays and found disappointment that it tasted different when they made it themselves. The reason your relative’s recipe tastes so good is quite simply because your relative made it. It is their technique, their choice of brand or fresh local ingredients, their 50 year old mixer or oven, and possibly even their consistent disregard for one or more steps indicated in the recipe. Yes, the recipe is important, but ingredients, technique and sometimes even equipment play equally important roles in the creation of any dish.

It doesn’t hurt to ask.
I ran into an old friend from high school recently at my high school reunion. After he saw my blog he mentioned he had an interesting family recipe that he would share with me if I was interested. Naturally, I emailed him back and he sent me the recipe. Among questions about the recipe itself, I asked him if it was alright if I posted the recipe online—even though he just emailed the recipe to a food blogger. To my relief, he was delighted that I would feature the recipe and I asked if he had any interesting family anecdotes I could share. I’ll be posting his recipe this fall. It’s good to share, after all.

I remember making this recipe for peanut butter cookies with my mom when I was a kid. I loved to press down on the dough with a fork after she rolled them. More than a decade passed before I tried making them again when I was in college. My dad had recently bought me my own mixmaster electric mixer, similar to my mom’s Sunbeam mixmaster. Although my new Sunbeam mixer now had a light bulb to illuminate the bowl, the body was entirely plastic and the power was definitely not the same. It worked fine for all my other baking needs until I made this recipe, which resulted in smoke pouring out the back of the mixer. It still worked afterwards, but it was never the same and would stutter at lower speeds. In the mixer’s defense I will admit that I had used hydrogenated peanut butter, which is considerably thicker than real peanut butter. Although I now have a wonderful 75th anniversary KitchenAid stand mixer, I still have to recommend you choose your peanut butter wisely.

It’s all about the peanut butter.
The key to a good peanut butter cookie is using real peanut butter. Sure, I grew up with and thoroughly enjoyed Jif and Skippy (creamy, please), but now that I am older I appreciate natural, un-hydrogenated peanut butter (I also like broccoli now, though I still don’t care for zucchini). Nevertheless, I still have fond memories of fighting my sister to be first to swipe a finger in a brand new jar of peanut butter. I was put off at first by natural peanut butter. Look at all that oil on top—and the peanut butter underneath has a rough and dry texture. Mixing only seemed to get oil everywhere. Gross! I have since learned that you can easily reincorporate natural peanut butter by repeatedly plunging a knife into it for several minutes. Eventually you will be able to stir it and the peanut butter will be nice and smooth. Store in the refrigerator and it won’t separate again (at least not for a really long time—too long).

These cookies are soft with just a hint of crunch on the edges. If you like your peanut butter cookies crunchier, just cook another minute or two. These cookies are surprisingly forgiving to over-baking. I think they look best with a 4 tined fork, but use whatever you have handy.

Ingredients for making Peanut Butter Criss-Cross Cookies.

Cream butter, eggs and sugars together until well blended.

Stir natural peanut butter until texture is smooth.

Add 1 cup of peanut butter to dough and mix.

Add 1 teaspoon vanilla to dough.

Gradually add blended flour, baking soda and salt into dough, scraping down bowl occasionally.

Roll dough into 1 1/4 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Press gently with fork to make criss-cross impression.

Bake in 375° F. oven for 11 – 13 minutes. Let cool 1 – 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Peanut Butter Criss-Cross recipe page.

When I was a kid, my favorite cookie was not the chocolate chip cookie. Hey, I liked chocolate chip cookies—and I still do—but the cookie I loved was not available in any store. The cookies I liked the most were the homemade spice cookies that my mom and I used to make in the mid 1970s. Dominated by clove, cinnamon and nutmeg, this cookie was unlike any other that emerged from lunch boxes in grade school.

After my mom and I would make the cookies she would put them away in a ceramic cookie jar. I remember that it was very difficult to remove the lid of the cookie jar without being heard, but I managed to succeed on a few occasions. I would go on to make these cookies by myself and even had a note in the recipe about decreased batch size when my mom or sister was around.

I made these for a class event in junior high, but I forgot one egg and they came out dry. I had since forgotten about them until just a few years ago when I called my mom up for the recipe. I was excited to make them again—I knew that the smell would bring back memories. Sure enough, as soon as I was mixing in the spices and flour into the butter, eggs, and sugar, it all came back. Soft in the middle, with just a little crunch on the edges, these cookies are unique and delicious.

Ingredients for making Spice Cookies.

Cream butter eggs and sugars together until light and fluffy.

Mix, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, clove and cinnamon together with flour.

After gradually mixing dry ingredients into creamed butter, eggs and sugar, roll dough into balls with hands and gently roll in sugar.

Bake in 375° F. oven for 10 – 12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets.

Promptly remove from cookies sheets onto cooling rack.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Spice Cookies recipe page.

With all the sorbets that I have been making recently, my son has been requesting that I make an orange sorbet. Orange sorbet? Really? It just sounds so average, doesn’t it? Maybe if it was still just for breakfast I could make it. Maybe I could just take him to the mall for an Orange Julius and call it a day. When I was at the farmer’s market last weekend, I saw some beautiful tangelos. I wasn’t sure what tangelos were, but they looked and smelled enough like an orange that I figured I would make some for my son.

What in the world is a Tangelo?
Tangelos are a hybrid of a tangerine and pomelo (or grapefruit). I don’t know what a pomelo is either. Between you and me, they are very similar to oranges, but with a subtle tangerine smell and plentiful, sweet juice.

How do other people make orange sorbet?
I looked around for some recipes for ideas, since I wasn’t sure if I should add water or not. Many recipes called for boiling the zest to extract flavor and this usually meant added water unless you want to boil juice. Cafe Fernando has a great recipe for orange sorbet with no added water. Meanwhile, Cafe Lynnylu has a great blood orange sorbet recipe with one cup of water. On the other end of the spectrum, Gluten-Free Girl has a blood orange sorbet recipe with 2 cups of water to one cup juice.

Ask an expert.
I emailed David Lebovitz about water content in sorbets to find out if it should be added for less juicy fruits or when the flavor needs to be toned down—like lemons. David said he only adds water for lime and lemon sorbets. You can also add egg whites but he doesn’t like to go that route. I’ve never added egg whites to sorbet, but I see it in many sorbet recipes, and that is probably how Gluten-Free Girl can have so much water in the sorbet and maintain a good texture. I decided to skip the egg whites and I didn’t want to boil juice, so I ended up boiling just enough water to dissolve the sugar and extract flavor from the zest. I also thought I would add Cointreau instead of Grand Marnier since it has a stronger orange flavor.

Would my son like it?
My son can be pretty picky, and I debated even telling him the tangelos I bought were oranges, but he seemed ok with the fact that they weren’t really oranges. The subtly distinctive flavor of tangelos combined with Cointreau yielded this delicious sorbet recipe that everyone—my son included—enjoyed.

Ingredients for making Tangelo Sorbet.

Use a microplane grater to remove the zest from one tangelo.

Gently boil sugar, water and tangelo zest for 5 minutes.

Juice enough tangelos until you have about 4 cups of juice.

Pour tangelo juice through chinois or strainer to remove pulp and seeds.

Add 1/4 cup of Cointreau (optional).

Chill mixture in ice bath until colder than 45° F.

Pour chilled mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to maker’s instructions.

Once sorbet has finished freezing, transfer to dedicated container and let ripen in freezer for several hours.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Tangelo Sorbet recipe page.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had a desire to make a new sorbet recipe. Every visit to the store I would check out the produce section, looking for some fruit that I hadn’t made a sorbet with before. At some point I want to try out a kiwi or melon sorbet, but I have been in the mood for something a little less subtle lately. I’ve also been tempted to cruise the local fruit stand, where I can always find fruits and berries never seen at the supermarket. As fate would have it, a coworker at my new job would intervene with several bags of peaches from her yard. Peaches in hand, I went in looking for a recipe for peach sorbet.

In Search of the Perfect Recipe
I was surprised to discover that there weren’t any peach sorbet recipes in my library of cookbooks, so I went online for some ideas. It turns out that the internet wasn’t too great a resource either, though I did find a good recipe at Pinch My Salt. Most of the other recipes I found contained additional water and also called for brandy, amaretto or marsala liqueurs. Having made peach ice cream a decade ago with almond extract (should have used amaretto!), I can attest to the successful pairing of peaches with these kinds of flavors, but I wanted a recipe for peach sorbet that was light and fresh. With a few ideas, I set out to create my own recipe.

The Rational Recipe
Many peach sorbets called for either orange or lemon juice, so I opted for both. I hoped that the orange juice would broaden the delicate peach flavor a little while the lemon juice would add to the freshness factor. I originally planned to add a cup of water to the sorbet, as seen in the ingredients photo below, but later decided against it. I can understand adding water for lemon sorbet, but peaches have such a delicate flavor it seemed silly to dilute them. This just left me with a liqueur to choose. I’ve made sorbets with and without liqueur, and I swear by the extra complexity and, more importantly, the softer texture that alcohol lends to a sorbet. I was reluctant to just go with just limoncello since I was afraid it the lemon flavor would outshine the peach. In the end I decided to go with a mix of Grand Marnier and limoncello.

The Results are in…
To my astonishment, I actually accomplished what I set out to do! This sorbet is bright and refreshing—perfect for a hot summer’s day. Like a lot of sorbets, this peach sorbet recipe is no-cook, so you can whip it up in no time and be eating it for dessert. The peaches I used are pretty small, so if you use larger peaches you can reduce the number to about nine or ten. The goal is to get about 4 cups of loosely packed, sliced peaches—and I’m not talking about canned!

Ingredients for making Peach Sorbet.

Pour the juice from one orange and one lemon into blender.

Peel and pit around 16 small peaches and add to the juice the in blender.

Pour 1 1/3 cups of sugar into blender.

Add 2 tablespoons of limoncello.

Add 3 tablespoons of Grand Marnier.

Purée peach mixture until smooth, about 1 minute.

After chilling mixture to less than 45° F, freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Transfer frozen sorbet to dedicated container to ripen in freezer.

The recipe pictured above, with detailed instructions and complete photo gallery can be found on the Peach Sorbet recipe page.