Summer Recipes

Summer Cookie Shake Recipe:

• Prep time: 5 min

• Cook time: 2 min

• Ready in: 7 min

• Yields: 2

Ingredients

• 3 Cups vanilla ice cream

• 1 1/2 Cups milk

• 8 Oreo cookies

Instructions

1. Combine the vanilla ice cream and milk in a blender and mix on low speed until smooth. Stir the shake mixture with a spoon if needed.

2. Break Oreo Cookies while adding them to the blender, mix on low speed 5 to 10 seconds or until the cookies have been blended and chopped into the shake.

3. Let a few of the large portions of the gourmet cookies remain in the mixture! That is what makes this tasty shake.

4. Pour shake into two 12 Oz glasses and serve!

Summer Watermelon Sugar Cookies:

Description It doesn’t get any cuter than these watermelon sugar cookies! Made with a delicious buttery sugar cookie dough and royal icing, everyone will flip for them.

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• optional for added flavor: 1/4 teaspoon watermelon flavor*

Royal Icing

• 4 cups (480g) confectioners’ sugar

• 3 Tablespoons meringue powder

• 9–10 Tablespoons room temperature water

• green/pink food coloring

• 1/3 cup (60g) mini chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and watermelon extract (if using) and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. If the dough seems too soft, you can add 1 Tablespoon more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.

4. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat (I prefer the nonstick silicone mat) to about 1/4″ thickness. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly ¼-inch thick.

5. Stack the pieces, with parchment paper between the two, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days. If chilling for more than a couple hours, cover the top dough piece with a single piece of parchment paper.

6. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a 3-inch circle cookie cutter, cut into circles. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd dough piece. Cut each circle in half to form slices.

7. Arrange cookies on a baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

8. Make the icing: In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 5 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 10-12 seconds. If it’s too thick, add a little more water. On particularly dry days, I need to use 12-14 Tablespoons! If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar. Separate icing into 3 bowls, making sure 1 bowl has about 2/3 of the icing. This is for the pink. The others will have 1/3 of the icing each. Stir pink coloring into the larger amount of icing and green into one of the other bowls. Keep the last bowl of icing white.

9. Add green icing to a piping bag fitted with round icing tip #5. Line green icing around the round bottom of each cookie. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator to set the icing for 15 minutes. Add white icing to a piping bag fitted with the same round icing tip. Line white icing right above green icing. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator to set the icing for 15 minutes. Add pink icing to a piping bag fitted with the same round icing tip. Pipe pink icing onto the rest of the watermelon slice. Top with mini chocolate chips as “seeds.” Icing will completely set in 2-3 hours at room temperature.

10. Decorated or plain cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Milan's Notes:

1. Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill as directed in step 5– no need to chill for 1-2 hours, 45 minutes should be plenty.

2. Special Tools: KitchenAid Stand Mixer | Rolling Pin | Round Cookie Cutters | Silpat Baking Mat | Americolor Soft Gel Paste | Icing Bags | Round Decorating Tip #5

3. Watermelon Flavor: The watermelon flavoring is pretty similar to the flavor of a watermelon jolly rancher. It’s tasty, but if that’s not your thing– try using 1 teaspoon of either lemon or orange extract instead. You can find those in the baking aisle of any major grocery store.

How To Make Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder, approximately 1/2 cup 3 cups half-and-half 1 cup heavy cream 8 large egg yolks 9 ounces sugar 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Place the cocoa powder along with 1 cup of the half-and-half into a medium saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Add the remaining half-and-half and the heavy cream. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.

2. In a medium mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the sugar and whisk to combine. Temper the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar by gradually adding small amounts, until about 1/3 of the cream mixture has been added. Pour in the remainder and return the entire mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F. Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 4 to 8 hours or until the temperature reaches 40 degrees F or below.

3. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Serve as is for soft serve or freeze for another 3 to 4 hours to allow the ice cream to harden.