baked alaska bars
+ a blueberry lemon cookie ice cream
or - what happens when I want to make you a baked alaska but want it to be sheet pan style: easily made, sliced and handed out. All the layers (including the ice cream) are homemade.
also hi - I’m early bc of the holiday!
new on bbs
Baked Alaska Bars
An ice cream cake with four delicious layers: chocolate cake, homemade no churn vanilla ice cream, homemade no churn chocolate ice cream, and a torched meringue finish - baked alaska style.
frozen sandos
Ice Cream Sandwich Cake
Two soft chocolatey and fudgy cake layers sandwiching a thick layer of vanilla ice cream. These cake layers are easy and quick (you need a bowl and a whisk, they bake up in less than 15 minutes) and the vanilla filling can be made with a store-bought or no churn vanilla ice cream.
Brownie Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Lemon curd ice cream with bits of chopped chocolate sits between two chewy brownie cookies (ok you don’t have to do the lemon curd ;p)
Chewy Ice Cream Cone Cookies
Brown sugar cookies made with ground up sugar cones! These cookies have a deep, caramel-like flavor and are fantastic for sandwiching with ice cream.
Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake
An ice cream cake made of cookie dough dreams: two layers of edible chocolate chip cookie dough and in between.
From the (early) July Archives
2025: Oreo Cheesecake (no bake)
2024: Blueberry Cheesecake (it’s so purple and that blueberry flavor won’t miss)
2023: Blueberry Breakfast Cake (you can use all oat flour here if you want)
2022: Blueberry Curd (with lemon - if you want no lemon, add more bluebs)
2021: Almond Blueberry Scones (squeeze some of the berries afterwards for a gorgeous purple glaze)
2020: Mason Jar Ice Cream (unlimited flavor combinations)
2019: Lemon & Orange Cake (tastes like sunshine!)
2018: Blueberry Ice Cream (it’s purple too ;p)
baker’s review
“Amazing! I started making these thinking it was the recipe for the sourdough blondies that I’ve made before, but these turned out just as great! Made it with white chocolate chips instead and they got eaten very quickly.” Taylor on Thick & Gooey Chocolate Chip Blondies
reads
“The kitchens would have been stiflingly hot, especially in the summer, [Dana] Connett said. Food 250 years ago was cooked in hearths. [Adrian] Miller said the rations for the enslaved could be cornmeal, sweet potatoes, rice, a jug of molasses and a couple of pounds of smoked, pickled, salted or dried meat, usually pork. A lot of the time, they had to supplement their diet by hunting, fishing and foraging. These enslaved people provided the base for what American food is today, he said. “At some point, it’s pretty clear that once enslaved cooks had the basics, they were allowed to riff. … You start to see the hand of African cooks.” He points to red pepper and okra as examples of ingredients. “Their influence was so pronounced that we don’t even think about it now as something foreign. It’s just American cooking,” Miller said.” Food defined social hierarchy in 1776. Here’s what was on the table, NPR.
““I think one of the things that ... has not gotten through to the public, especially the public outside of Maine, is just the uniqueness [of this] crop,” [Seth] Kroeck says. “Especially when you’re talking about comparing it to a larger highbush blueberry, it really is a different animal ... Part of telling that story, in addition to the health [benefits], is also this backstory of its history and its value to Maine. In a country where you can go to Applebee’s anywhere and fill up your gas tank at a Costco anywhere, [it is] important to really recognize the regionalisms that make us all unique. You can’t get that when you go to Arizona, and you can’t get that when you go to Washington state.” This deep sense of regional pride and historical responsibility continues to motivate Maine’s agricultural community as they prepare for future harvests. For growers like Kroeck, honoring the millennia of history and the generations of farmers and Indigenous communities who came before means ensuring the land stays productive.” Wild, Regional, Irreplaceable: Why Maine’s Blueberries Are Worth Saving, The Packer.
“You won’t find lists of ingredients followed by numbered instructions—the familiar format of today’s recipes. Randolph wrote as though she were speaking to the reader, and some might also hear the voices of enslaved cooks. Although they were denied an education or publishing opportunities of their own, the Black chefs who influenced Randolph left their imprint on the book. Words with West African origins, like “ochra,” are peppered throughout. Yet it never explicitly credits those men and women of African descent. Although she came from a notable slaveholding family, Randolph understood that her business success was dependent on the Black Virginians who had been integrating foodways from different lands since 1619, when the first enslaved Africans arrived.” There Was No American Regional Cuisine Until One ‘Virginia Housewife’ Thought to Compile a Diverse Collection of Recipes, Smithsonian Magazine.
a recipe, for you
I have this blueberry ice cream recipe from very early in my blogging days and have experimented with doing it no churn over the years. I think this one might be my favorite version so far: blueberries roasted just like the original (yes that color is natural) folded into a basic no churn base. Here I’ve added bits of lemon cookie dough, something I’ve never done before (though I have shared a few of the choc chip variety).
A color note: the color of your ice cream depends on two things; what type of berries they are and whether or not you decide to add lemon to the base. Lemon, as an acid, turns the base more magenta. Left as is, you’ll have more of a soft (sometimes grayish) purple.