Off the Page

You know how there are people who talk about reading cookbooks in bed, just for the pleasure of the reading? Susan Musgrave's A Taste of Haida Gwaii is precisely the kind of cookbook they're talking about. For example, the chief appeal of the following recipe for Dulce de Leche Buttermilk Ice Cream is not actually the inevitable delicious, but lines like, "When things end up burnt in my kitchen there isn’t usually a happy ending. My burnt messes never end up starring in a Winning Desserts of the World cookbook. They go over the cliff onto the riverbank where the ravens and eagles do daily fly-by’s hoping for a fiasco in my kitchen."

Amazing. 

But yes, enjoy the ice cream too. Technically (by which we mean seasonally, and not by the school calendar) there still remain weeks and weeks of summer. 

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I have combined Smitten Kitchen’s Buttermilk Ice Cream and Dulce de Leche Ice Cream recipes to come up with a recipe that is the best of both worlds.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup (250 mL) heavy cream

3/4 cup (190 mL) dulce de leche (purchased, or homemade, see Aside)

6 large egg yolks

1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk

1 tbsp (15 mL) vanilla or one whole vanilla bean, scraped and simmered with the cream

Pinch of salt

Sprinkling of edible gold flake …

Top-rated food blogger Renée Kohlman's All the Sweet Things is a gorgeous celebration of dessert with traditional tastes and unexpected twists on the familiar. This recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream is incredible, and will never be as delicious as it is right now with strawberries plump, ripe and abundant. Enjoy! 

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I have stacks of cookbooks all around my house. Most of these books are too beautiful to be stuffed away into a cupboard. Now and then I’ll cozy up with one of them to read while sipping tea on a lazy afternoon, or when I'm nestled in bed—you know, to encourage sweet dreams. Nigel Slater’s Ripe is one of my favourite go-to books for such times, as much for the photographs as the writing. Devoted to all things fruit, this book is an education and an inspiration. From that inspiration, I came up with this recipe on a sweltering July day when I had a mountain of strawberries practically bursting with ripeness.

There’s no need for an ice cream maker here; all you need is a food processor, a mixer and a handful of ingredients. The result? A fresh, creamy taste, with deep strawberry flavour and just a murmur of balsamic. Simple. Sensational.

Makes about 4 cups

3 3/4 cups fresh, ripe strawberries, rinsed

1/2 cup superfine sugar

2 tsp balsamic vi …