WATERMELON MOJITOS

So far on The Vivid Kitchen, I've featured a fruity, refreshing sangria, a spicy margarita with beautiful winter grapefruit, and a bitter-infused Moscow mule by way of Berlin. When my sister generously brought me back a bottle of rum from her honeymoon in Kauai, I knew it was high time that I featured a recipe showcasing the "island" liquor.

Although rum isn't my first choice when it comes to liquor (that award goes to tequila), I can never say no to a great rum cocktail. I'm a sucker for tropical, tiki drinks like traditional piña coladas with all the bells and whistles, and will order just about anything that a tiki bar has to offer. Side note: my favorite tiki bar would definitely have to be Lost Lake in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago - if you ever have a chance to visit Chicago, set aside some time to get a drink or two at this bar! 

Today, we are focusing on the mojito and because it is summertime, we are enhancing the cocktail by adding fresh watermelon juice. After doing some research, it appears that bartenders actually hate making "traditional" mojitos for patrons due to the mess it makes and how time-consuming the muddling process is (the traditional method involves a step of muddling together lime juice, mint, and sugar). Yes, the process is a bit messy, albeit probably more so due to the added watermelon element, but I don't find it any more time-consuming than making a spicy margarita or an old fashioned. But for those who just can't simply bear the thought of adding any extra time between them and their mojito, there is actually an alternative method to making mojitos that requires zero muddling. In my favorite bar book, you have the option to use the "shaken method" which is pretty self-explanatory: add ingredients to a shaker, shake vigorously with ice, pour everything out into a glass, and top with club soda. Pretty simple. So to make it easy for everyone, I will include both methods, "traditional" and "shaken", today in my directions.

In order to get fresh watermelon juice, all you have to do is cube up some watermelon, add it to a blender and then pour over a fine-mesh strainer. This takes care of getting rid of any seeds or pulp, and leaves you with a perfect, smooth juice. The problem that I ever have with watermelon, and it is actually such a bummer, is when I buy a huge one and take it home only to find that it's not ripe! I always have thought that I am the master of choosing the "right" watermelon (I test to see if it sounds hollow, I look for the 'field patch', etc.), and yet I sometimes bring home an unsweet melon. If you just so happen to bring home a less-than-perfect watermelon, I would try to remedy the problem by adding another teaspoon of sugar to the recipe. What hurt could more sugar do? NOTHING!

Watermelon Mojitos

Makes 1 cocktail

Recipe adapted from The Ultimate Bar Book by Mittie Hellmich

Ingredients

• 1 oz. fresh lime juice

• 2-3 tsp. granulated sugar

• 6-8 fresh mint leaves

• 2.5 oz. light rum

• 3 oz. fresh watermelon juice

• Splash of soda water

Directions

Make the watermelon juice: Cut half of a small/medium watermelon into cubes. Place in a blender, and blend until puréed. Pour the juice over a fine mesh strainer to rid of any seeds and pulp. This will give you a couple cups of fresh juice, so you will definitely have leftovers for more mojitos. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Traditional Method: In the bottom of a highball glass, or any glass of your choosing, muddle the fresh lime juice, sugar, and mint leaves until the sugar is dissolved. Add the rum and watermelon juice. Top off with ice and soda water. 

Shaken Method: Place the fresh lime juice, sugar, mint leaves, rum, and watermelon juice with a handful of ice in a shaker and shake vigorously for about 10 seconds. Pour out all contents of the shaker (mint, ice, etc.) into a highball glass, or the glass of your choosing, and finish with a splash of soda water.

COFFEE TOFFEE ICE CREAM

If I haven't made it abundantly clear yet, ice cream (and sorbet, and gelato...) is my favorite thing to make in the kitchen when it comes to sweets. The Vivid Kitchen has been live for about four months now, and out of the 20 or so posts I've written so far, this marks my fourth recipe dedicated to the frozen treat. Personally, I believe making ice cream is the most rewarding dessert: from making the custard (if the recipe calls for it) to the hours you have to wait for it to chill, to watching it churn in your ice cream maker... makes the finished product that much better. 

On my Instagram account the other week, I asked my followers to partake in an Insta Story poll on which ice cream flavor they wanted me to make for the blog next. The options were either Mint Chocolate Chip or Coffee Toffee, with the former being a flavor I have made numerous times, while the latter I had not tried until this post. The poll results were very close, but Coffee Toffee just barely edged out Mint Chip. I was actually pretty satisfied with the results because I wanted to try something new, and I gotta say, I am thrilled with the outcome of today's recipe. 

This ice cream recipe is custard-based so there will be the added element of tempering your eggs on the stove top while trying not to make scrambled eggs (yuck), as well as one more step that involves using actual whole coffee beans. At one point in the directions, you will be "steeping" coffee beans in the milk mixture for about an hour, almost as if you were making sun tea with teabags. It's an vital process in ensuring that the coffee flavor will be very pronounced. 

When the custard is made and ready to chill before being transferred to your ice cream maker, the whole coffee beans actually will be taken out and discarded (according to the recipe from David Lebovitz, of course). But, instead of throwing away all of those coffee beans, I let them dry out for a couple of hours before blending them up in my Magic Bullet, or blender, and adding them to the churned ice cream. Not only did this step give the ice cream even more coffee flavor, but I think it made the ice cream look more appealing with its tiny specks of coffee throughout. This is an optional step, but I think it was well worth it.

Now, let's not forget the second part of the ice cream flavor we are featuring today: the toffee! When I thought of this cute rhyming ice cream flavor, I thought I was the only genius who had thought of this flavor combo, but alas, I was not (hello Ben & Jerry's). Regardless, the crunchy chocolate-covered toffee bits mixed in with the coffee base takes this ice cream to a whole different level of deliciousness. You can either use Heath or Skor bars (both available in your local grocery store).

Lastly, I don't know if any of you have been to Trader Joe's lately, but they recently started selling ice cream waffles cones! I've been wanting grocery stores to start selling them for years, but I've only ever been able to find the cheap-y (but still delicious) sugar cones. So now that my beloved Trader Joe's sells them, I couldn't be happier. The cones taste AMAZING and actually make the ice cream taste better, believe it or not. Please, go buy a couple of boxes now!

Side note: If caffeine for dessert aka before bedtime isn't your thing, you can absolutely buy a container of decaffeinated coffee beans instead. If you don't think you'll get use of the leftover decaffeinated beans, I would suggest buying exactly the amount the recipe calls for by getting the beans from the "bulk" section at your grocery store. 

Coffee Toffee Ice Cream

Yields about 1 quart of ice cream

Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 cup whole coffee beans, preferably dark-roasted

• Pinch of salt

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

• 5 large egg yolks

• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp. finely ground coffee OR espresso powder (I used the latter, since I always have this on hand for when I bake brownies)

• 8 oz. chocolate-covered toffee, chopped (Heath or Skor bars work perfectly)

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream. Once warmed up, turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let it sit at room temperature for an hour.

2. Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream into a large bowl and set a strainer over the top (use a bowl that will be able to fit over an ice bath for later).

3. After an hour, rewarm the mixture on the stove on medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Just as the coffee/milk mixture is beginning to simmer, gradually add some of it to the bowl of egg yolks, whisking constantly as to not scramble the eggs (this is called tempering). Once the egg yolk mixture temperature has raised, pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of your spatula or spoon.

4. Pour the custard mixture over the strainer to separate the whole coffee beans. Press down on the beans to make sure you get all the liquid. Stir the custard in with the heavy cream that is already in the bowl. Add in the vanilla extract and ground coffee/instant espresso. Let the ice cream base sit over an ice bath for about an hour before moving to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

5. Reserve about a 1/4 cup of the whole coffee beans that were left behind in the strainer and allow them to dry out on paper towels while the ice cream is chilling. Add them to a blender, and pulse until fine. Set aside.

6. Churn the ice cream in your maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. A couple of minutes before stopping the machine, sprinkle in 1-2 tablespoons of the finely ground coffee beans.

7. Transfer the finished ice cream into a bowl and stir in toffee bits. Freeze in an airtight container and enjoy, preferably in the Trader Joe's waffle cones!

LEMON BARS

In past blog posts I have spoken about my mom's side of the family, the Czech side, and shared with you the history of my Czech grandparents (including a recipe of theirs). Today, I am speaking about my paternal grandmother, or who my sister and I refer to as 'Grammy'. (Side note: Grammy is one of my biggest supporters of The Vivid Kitchen and always emails me her thoughts on my posts and pictures. So, hi Grammy!) 

Anyway! Grammy, who lives in Los Angeles, has been cooking and baking pretty much all her life, and is honestly amazing at both. She's actually taken cooking classes over the years, with her favorite class being "Cooking Cordon Bleu" that she took when she was living in Ottawa, Canada years ago. Despite the knowledge she gained from these classes, I know Grammy would qualify herself as a "home-cook": she loves cooking simple, yet delicious recipes that aren't fussy and always deliver on taste and flavor. 

Growing up, I would see Grammy just about every weekend, which meant I was fed very well and looked forward to whatever she was serving us. Besides the delicious dinners she would prepare for me and my sister (don't even get me started on how perfect her Thanksgiving dinner is every year), it's really all about her baked goods. To say that Grammy has a sweet tooth is a severe understatement - the lady loves her candy, chocolates, pies, cookies, etc. etc. etc. When we're together, we love talking about baking and certain recipes we've come across - in a sense, baking has brought us closer together. 

One of Grammy's desserts that I grew up eating constantly was her lemon bars. Lemon bars are a traditional American baked good that were invented in the early 1960s, and eventually made their way into every kitchen across the country when the cookbook Betty Crocker's Cooky Book published the recipe. The recipe starts off with making a shortbread crust that is pressed into a 9x13 baking dish, which is baked in the oven until firm and golden; then it is topped with a lemon custard-like filling that is once again baked in the oven until set. Super easy and straightforward. If you're eating a lemon bar, 99.99% of the time, it'll be dusted with confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar) because that's tradition, and I'll be damned if I didn't include this.

The recipe I am giving you today comes directly from Grammy: every ingredient and step follows what she sent me earlier this week, except for the addition of lemon zest that I included (I wanted to get the most use out of my lemons!). I also changed the quantity for the filling measurements by adding 50% more of each ingredient, except for the sugar. I did this because I wanted the filling layer to be a bit thicker, but didn’t feel the need to add any more sugar since I think it’s plenty sweet already.

The crust, which is a shortbread, is made with only three ingredients - butter, confectioners’ sugar and flour - and comes together in minutes. It is then pressed into a 9x13 baking dish and par-baked for about 15 minutes before adding the filling. Speaking of the filling, it’s made entirely with a blender and is, once again, as simple as it gets when it comes to the ingredients and directions. The moment the crust has been partially baked, you pull the pan out of the oven, pour the filling mixture in, and immediately return the pan back into the oven for another 20 or so minutes. The “hardest” part of this recipe is the chilling time: for best results, you want to let it cool at room temperature for about an hour and then pop it in the fridge for another two hours.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

For the filling:

• 6 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 cups granulated sugar

• 1.5 tbsp. lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

• 6 tbsp. all-purpose flour, sifted

• 3/4 tsp. baking powder

• Confectioners' sugar, to finish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a bowl, mix together melted butter, flour and sugar until well incorporated. The dough will be a bit crumbly. Transfer the dough to an ungreased 9x13 baking dish (alternatively, you can line the dish with a piece of parchment paper if you wish to pull the entire baked good out). Using your hands and/or an offset spatula, press down the dough evenly into the dish. It may seem like there isn’t enough to fill the pan, but trust me on this, it’ll spread perfectly the more you work it.

2. Bake the shortbread crust for about 15-17 minutes, or until the dough has firmed up and is lightly golden.

3. While the crust is baking, work on the filling. In a blender, mix the eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice for about 30 seconds. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and blend for another 15 seconds.

4. When the crust is done, pull it out of the oven and immediately pour the lemon filling over the top of the hot crust and place back into the oven. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the filling is set.

5. Cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour and then refrigerate it for 2 hours more before cutting into the lemon squares. When ready to serve, dust the lemon bars with confectioners’ sugar and cut them with a sharp knife. They can either be stored at room temperature or in the fridge.