Ice cream - quick and easy recipes - page 4

This recipe from author and former Gramercy Tavern managing partner Nick Mautone is a blend of Grand Marnier and iced tea that makes a perfect summer-afternoon cooler. Game plan: We like this Basic Iced Tea recipe for this cooler. Make the tea and refrigerate it up to 8 hours in advance.

You don’t need to pull out the ice cream maker for this elegant cold dessert. Just blend frozen pineapple with rum, lime juice, simple syrup, and ice, then freeze the mixture until solid and scoopable. This tart, tropical sorbet hits the mark as both an after-dinner cocktail and a dessert.

During his glory days, golfer Arnold Palmer drank a blend of iced tea and lemonade, a drink that became known, aptly, as the Arnold Palmer. This spiked version given to us by author and former Gramercy Tavern managing partner Nick Mautone substitutes citrus-flavored rum and limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur, for the lemonade. What to buy: If you don’t have citrus-flavored rum, you can use unflavored light rum, add freshly squeezed lemon juice and lime juice as desired.

This elegant, floral, blush-tinged cocktail is a great way to use up a bunch of grapes. Muddle fresh red grapes with pisco—a brandy actually made from grapes—shake with ice, and strain before topping with champagne and a lemon twist. What to buy: Pisco is a brandy distilled from South American white Muscat grapes. It can be found at well-stocked liquor stores or online.

Abigail Gullo, head bar chef at SoBou restaurant in New Orleans, celebrates the flavor of ripe figs by muddling them with elderflower liqueur and shaking them in a cocktail shaker with vodka, lots of lemon juice, and agave nectar. This floral, sweet-tart drink is a refreshing way to enjoy fresh figs.

Instead of whisking the ingredients by hand or hauling out the heavy stand mixer, let the blender do all the work in this easy eggnog recipe. Blend eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved, then add milk, rum, and bourbon. Finish by blending in heavy cream, and then let the eggnog chill in the refrigerator for an hour so the flavors come together. Serve with ice and freshly grated nutmeg on top.

Herbal Yellow Chartreuse is shaken with orange liqueur, orange juice, and heavy cream in this frothy after-dinner drink. If you can’t find Yellow Chartreuse, you can use Galliano instead.

This classic after-dinner drink is said to be an adaptation of a gin-based cocktail named the Alexander. While both are shaken with crème de cacao and heavy cream, this version has brandy swapped in for the gin. Sip this creamy tipple after the holiday feast as you chat on the couch with friends and family.

This light, delicate cocktail combines the dry, salty flavor of manzanilla sherry with herbaceous gin and floral elderflower liqueur. Stir together a few of these for guests as an elegant after-dinner drink. What to buy: Manzanilla sherry, made in the coastal town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda in southern Spain, is a very dry sherry with a touch of saltiness from the sea. You can find it in the wine section of well-stocked grocery or liquor stores or online.

This fortified wine cocktail with deep caramel flavors is a twist on the Adonis cocktail, which usually uses fino sherry and sweet vermouth. Here, we stir together rich cream sherry, both dry and sweet vermouths, and some orange bitters, then garnish with an orange twist.

One night I was enjoying a couple of these cocktails with a friend who got to the bottom of his glass quicker than expected. I warned him that the blend of fino sherry, citrus juice, Cointreau, and allspice liqueur is dangerously easy to gulp, explaining that I’d made that mistake before at the start of an evening and it was soon the end of me. He laughed and said, “Well, then this cocktail is your alpha and omega … your beginning and end!”

This blended summer drink was given to us by Tres Restaurant (formerly known as Tres Agaves). It comes together in only a few minutes and can easily be doubled or tripled to serve a crowd. Just blend tequila, watermelon, lime juice, and agave nectar and pour over ice. A basil leaf garnish adds a bit of fragrant spice.

Indian spiced tea—masala chai—has a lovely delicacy and a fortifying strength. We harnessed both qualities for these refreshing milkshakes that should help you get through the muggiest summer afternoon. Chai tea bags are handy, but we suggest making your own sachet, using cheesecloth and a good-quality masala chai, a blend of loose-leaf black tea with whole spices such as cardamom pods, cloves, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, cinnamon, and dried ginger.

Christopher Longoria of restaurant 1760 in San Francisco devised this beautifully colored, wonderfully aromatic cocktail to highlight mezcal in a way that smooths out its rustic edges. It’s bright and sophisticated, not to mention wickedly strong. What to buy: You’ll need a bottle of Hangar 1 Kaffir Lime Vodka and a moderately smoky mezcal, such as Del Maguey’s Vida. Special equipment: A wooden muddler is best for crushing the basil, and a four-prong bar strainer is a handy tool.

Substituting tangerine juice for lime in a margarita is a revelation. The taste is gentler, a little sweeter, and far more aromatic—the tangerine flavor acts as a shadow for the orange liqueur, amplifying its presence. If you can get a Meyer lemon to garnish with (it adds a final burst of citrus perfume), go for it. If not, a regular Eureka lemon will do just fine.

Who doesn’t love a good G&T? Well, the Spanish certainly do. Condé Nast Traveler reported that Spain is home to the biggest gin drinker population (per capita) in the the world. Although this refreshing take on the classic gin and tonic would be great on a hot summer day, we’d be happy to sip on one (or a few) as a pre- or post-dinner libation all year round. Perhaps make a batch to wash down a feast of our homemade paella recipe.