Lemon Poppy Polenta Cookies Sorbet Sandwiches - Sandwichuri cu sorbet de zmeura

It's ice cream time! Every day, at home or out, the summer demands the wonderful refreshing taste and chill of the frozen dessert. Between the supermarket (with gallons of icecream, the ice cream sandwiches, the popsicles or the drumsticks), the Pinkberry, the Baskin-Robbins, the gelateria or your neighborhood ice cream place, the variety is pretty impressive and the flavors are amazing.

Still, some of us, have tried making this at home, artisan ice cream, sometimes to see how much chemistry is involved and how yours (please read mine only, i don't know about your experiments) is not even close to the wonderful creaminess of the gelato you had last week, or, if you are more talented, gifted and experienced, to get something as good as, if not better, than the one you could buy. (mine sucks since i don't have an ice cream maker, and it came out as a granita always, not creamy at all).
Back in July, when we were in Oceanside, we had for dessert a wonderful and huge vanilla ice cream (where the flavor was amazing, you could see the black speckles from the vanilla bean), with caramel sauce and fried tortilla dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The Mexican flare, the fried tortilla and the cinnamon, was a nice combo with the creamy vanilla ice cream, and the textures worked fine together.
Now back at home, we've discovered a new place, which i don't think it is that new, but somehow we haven't noticed it until about 3-4 weeks ago. It is called Bellagio, and it is in the middle of the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Personally, we love this place 10 times more than the other one, half a block away, Angelato. Although this one doesn't have 100 flavors, but only about 20 (or less), we liked it sooo much, that now it is our first choice all the time. And because we are pretty conservative, how else could you call us when we order the same 5-6 flavors all the time, their selection of only 20 flavors it's more than sufficient. And those flavors are pistachio, hazelnut, cinnamon, pineapple and passion fruit. And every time it is hard to chose only 3 (that's called "the trouble"), and at teh same time to finish three pretty big scoops.

Last week, i wanted to make a dessert with ice cream, so i bought some Haagen-Dazs raspberry sorbet to use for this recipe and made only the cookies.

I didn't know if Clara is going to like the polenta used in these cookies, but the crunch and the lemon flavor was what we liked the most. And they were just wonderful eaten alone or in sandwiches with the sorbet.

This recipe comes from the Food & Wine website, and i substituted the huckleberry sorbet with raspberry and added 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract to the cookie dough.

Lemon Poppy Polenta Cookies for Ice Cream Sandwiches

1 cup instant polenta
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening, at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

*1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

In a food processor, combine the polenta, the flour, confectioners' sugar, baking powder and salt and pulse to blend. Add the butter, shortening, lemon extract and lemon zest and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the egg and poppy seeds and pulse just until the dough forms a ball. Pat the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic; refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 350 . Generously flour a work surface and rolling pin. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. Using a floured 2 1/4-inch round biscuit cutter, stamp out 28 cookies as close together as possible. Gather the dough scraps together and gently reroll the dough, then stamp out 4 more cookies. Carefully transfer the cookies to 2 ungreased baking sheets.
Bake the cookies until golden (it took me only 8-10 minutes, not 18 as recommended in the recipe; the first batch it almost burnt because i kept it 12 minutes). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets.
To form the sandwiches, scoop about 1/4 cup of the softened sorbet onto each of 16 cookies. Top the sorbet with the remaining cookies, pressing lightly to help evenly spread the sorbet. Set the sandwiches on a baking sheet and freeze for about 1 hour, or until the sorbet is firm.
MAKE AHEAD The cookies can be made up to 3 days ahead. Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container.

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Biscuiti de malai, mac si lamaie pt. "sandwichuri" cu inghetata

200 g malai
100 g faina, plus cateva linguri de presarat pe masa cand se intinde aluatul
2/3 cup zahar pudra
1/8 lingurita praf de copt
un varf de sare
5 linguri unt nesarat la temp. camerei
3 linguri margarina de prajituri la temp. camerei
coaja de la o lamaie
un ou la temp. camerei
o lingura seminte de mac

Se amesteca intr-un robotel malaiul, faina, zaharul pudra, praful de copt si sarea si se pulseaza de cateva ori cat sa se amestece. Se adauga untul, margarina si coaja de lamaie si se pulseaza pana amestecul seamana cu niste firimituri, sau nisip grunjos. Se adauga oul si semintele de mac si se pulseaza numai cat sa formeze alutul o minge. Aluatul se inveleste in folie de plastic si se tine la frigider cel putin o ora, sau pana este tare. (Se poate foarte bine face aluatul si fara robot, amestecandu-se ingredientele cu mana sau cu furculita intr-un castron.)
Se incalzeste cuptorul la 350F (170 C). Se presara faina pe suprfata de intins si pe sucitor si se intinde o foaie de cca 3mm grosime. Se taie aluatul cu o forma de biscuiti rotunda cu diametrul de 5-6 cm. Se aduna resturile de aluat si se intinde din nou o foaie pana se foloseste tot. Daca aluatul devine prea moale pentru a fi intins, puneti-l din nou la frigider acoperit cu folie de plastic.
Se pun biscuitii la copt pe tavi neunse si se coc pana devin aurii. Reteta originala recomanda18 minute, ale mele au fost gata in 8-10 minute, si am aflat asta numai dupa ce aproape am ars prima tura. Daca nu as fi fost curioasa rau sa vad cum arata dupa 12 minute, le carbonizam de tot. Se lasa biscuitii sa se raceasca pe tava.
Pentru a se forma sandwichurile, se pun cca 2 linguri de inghetata/serbet (lasat afara putin sa se moaie, dar numai cateva minute) pe jumatate din biscuiti si se acopera cu cealalta jumatate de biscuiti, apasand usor incat sa intinda inghetata uniform. Se pun sandwichurile pe o tava la congelator pana serbetul a inghetat din nou.
Biscuitii pot fi facuti cu 3 zile inainte si pastrati intr-un container inchis ermetic dupa ce s-au racit complet.