Orange Genius

Today is the first day of summer, so it’s the perfect time for a cool, refreshing treat.  When I was a kid, on the rare occasion we found ourselves in a mall, I just had to have an Orange Julius.  I still love them, but as an adult I visit malls even less frequently and I’ve recently found the ingredients list for Orange Julius, and quite frankly, it’s frightening.  But I have good news!  Making your own is as easy as falling off a log (it’s getting on in the first place that’s difficult) and the fruity, frothy goodness is simply divine.  I’m going to show you the original as well as a triple berry version and a tropical one. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 orange
• ½ cup ice

 

Peel your orange and place the segments on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Slide that into the freezer for an hour.  You can do this ahead of time, and once the segments are frozen, just dump them into a freezer bag to be used in a moment’s notice. 

When you’re ready, pour 1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice into a blender.  I cheated a bit and bought fresh squeezed orange juice from Wegmans.  If you don’t have a store nearby that sells freshly squeezed juice, you’ll have to do your own.  I promise it’ll be worth the effort. 

Add a tablespoon of sugar.

A tablespoon of cream.

And ½ teaspoon vanilla.

At this time I have to give a quick shout out to Vita Mix.  I have had this thing for years, (it was one of the few things I moved across the country with me) and it is still the champion of blenders. 

Ok, back to the orangey goodness. 

Before adding anything else, turn your blender to a medium speed and allow it to run for about a minute.  There are two reasons for doing this.  First, it’s makes the cream nice and frothy.  Second, it gives the sugar a chance to dissolve. 

While that’s going, pull your frozen orange segments out of the freezer. 

Drop about half of them into the blender.

Ice cubes aren’t the easiest things to measure, but you want about ½ cup or so. 

Dump them in. 

Start the blender on low and slowly increase the speed.

Allow it to run on high for 30 seconds, until it’s nice and smooth.

Orange Julius has got nothin’ on this.  The frozen orange segments are the secret.  I’m sure loads of people have thought of it before me, but I've never seen it, and when the idea struck, I thought it was sheer genius. 

Next up is the triple berry version

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup frozen mixed berries
• ½ cup ice

It starts the same way as the last one.  Orange juice, sugar, cream, and vanilla go into the blender, then blend at medium speed for one minute. 

Frozen berries are also difficult to measure, so when I say ½ cup it looks something like this. 

Dump them into the blender. 

Add the ice and blend as before, starting on low speed and slowly increasing. 

Allow it to run on high for 30 seconds. 

Triple berry fabulousness. 

And last but not least is the tropical version. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup frozen mango
• 1 Tablespoon cream of coconut
• ½ cup ice

Same procedure as the others to start out, orange juice, sugar, cream, and vanilla into the blender. 

This time, though, add a tablespoon of cream of coconut before turning on the blender. 

While that’s mixing for 1 minute, measure out the frozen mango.

Add it to the blender. 

Add the ice and let ‘er rip.  Well… rip slowly at first. 

After another 30 seconds on high, you’ll have smooth, tropical, deliciousness. 

Now for a quick clean up tip.  A lot of people don’t realize blenders are basically self cleaning appliances.  Just squirt in a little dish soap.

Add some hot water.  

Then, turn the blender on starting at the lowest speed.  Slowly increase the speed until the sudsy stuff reaches the top of the blender then leave it at that speed for 1 minute.  Give it a quick rinse, and you’re done.  

Now drop in a straw, put your feet up, and enjoy cool, fruity, refreshing bliss. 

What’s your favorite “mall” treat?

Apple Pie-Rogies

Tiny apple pies. Because it's too hot to cook a whole one.

 

And because one of the requests on the cookie board was "apple cinnamon" and I really wanted to make the cookies that look just like tiny pies that Taneasha sent me a link to (it wasn't really a recipe since all it did was reshape premade dough and fill it with premade apple filling). But for some reason, that seemed like a lot of work. So instead I made perogies.

No, I don't understand how my brain works either.

Apple Pie-Rogies

the lovely crustiness

• 1 c butter
• 3 c sifted flour
• 1 c icing (powdered) sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 10 - 12 tbsp milk

the tasty fillingness

• 3 apples
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

apparently we're playing the game of "guess which ingredient isn't in the pic" again

Peel and dice your apples into small pieces.

Toss them into a pot with the rest of the filling stuff and set the burner to medium.

You're going to have to stir these from time to time, but not so often that you can't make the crust while they simmer.

Chop the butter into smallish chunks (and if you stole one of them for the filling, I promise I won't tell) and add the flour and the sugar and the salt to the bowl.

Yes we're making pastry. No you don't have to freak out.

Really, it's one of the easiest things to make. You just have to resist the urge to squish the dough between your fingers. It's gotta be one of those strange lizard-brain things, the urge to knead dough. Like cats do, and small children. Anyway, don't.

Cut the flour/sugar/salt into the butter until you have something that looks kinda like crumbs.

(pic of crumbs goes here... I forgot to take one, you have to use your imagination)

Sprinkle about 6 or 8 tbsp of the milk around on top of the crumbs and then using a wooden spoon CUT through the dough.

Don't stir, cut. From time to time, you'll need to scrape the spoon off. Keep adding a tbsp of milk at a time and cutting through the dough, until you get a shaggy mess that will hold together like damp sand.

You are allowed to squish it this one time only. :P

Turn the crumbly shaggy mess out onto the counter. Don't panic.

Like the nursery rhyme says, "pat it and roll it." Pat it down, then fold (roll) half of it on top of the other half, and keep doing that until it looks like this:

I know, I know, I need the in between pics so you'll believe me that it works and I'm not pulling some kind of Food Network bullshit, but I've only got two hands and they were both covered in shortcrust dough at the time (that's what we're making here: shortcrust dough).

Your apples should be done now by the way.

Chop the dough in half and roll out one half of it. You want it about 1/8 of an inch, or aboout 3 mm thick. 

Using a 2.5 inch cookie or biscuit cutter, or really big wine glass, you should be able to get just over a dozen from half the dough. Ultimately, between the two halves and rerolling the scraps, you should end up with about 3 dozen cookies.

Drop about a half teaspoon of filling on one side of the circle.

Fold over the other side and press the edges together.

I pressed mine with a fork: looks fancy and encourages the edges to stay together.

Oh, um, you should have preheated the oven to between 300 and 325. My oven was being a fucking wack job last night, and I have no idea how hot it was in there, but I'm guessing it was in that range.

Brush the tiny pies with an egg wash of one egg (also not in the ingredients pic) and a few tbsp of milk. You need these extra proteins on top to make sure the pies come out shiney and at least a little browned.

Poke a few holes in the top with a toothpick. If the steam has an easy way to get out it won't try busting through the pressed-together edges.

These take 16 - 18 minutes at whatever temperature my oven was. If the oven is too hot, you'll have very browned bottoms and still white tops. The top will be cooked, but it won't look that way.

They're tiny, they're tasty, they're totally worth the folding and forking.

That is some tender and flaky crust, lemme tell ya. And yes, you can do it too.

I really wanted to make some kind of glaze to go on these (perogies need sour cream), but it was late, and I didn't want to make more dishes, so I left them as is. Plus, I couldn't decide if I should try to make something with sour cream in keeping with the theme, or go with a caramel.

What would you glaze these with?