One of the easiest yet most impressive desserts you can make is an ice cream pie.

In its quickest form, you buy a cookie crumb pie crust, a quart of ice cream, and a jar of dessert sauce. Press the softened ice cream into the crust, freeze, garnish, and serve.

Have a few extra minutes? Make your own cookie crumb crust and sauce, and create two different layers of ice cream, with a nifty filling in-between.

It’s a make-ahead dessert that you can keep in the freezer, waiting for an impromptu occasion.

(Truth to tell, that pie wouldn’t last a day in our freezer unless someone put a lock on the door. It’s iffy survival here for any ice cream, cake, or cookies.)

National Ice Cream Pie Day is August 18th. National Ice Cream Day is the third Sunday in July. National pie day is January 23rd.
 
> The history of ice cream.

> The history of pie.

> The recipe for Sweet & Salty Ice Cream Pie is below.
 
 
CREATE YOUR FANTASY ICE CREAM PIE RECIPE

What’s your fantasy ice cream pie? Use the following template to create your signature pie:

 
You can spend the summer working on recipes (one per weekend, perhaps?) and show off the “winners” over Labor Day Weekend.
 
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*Butterscotch and caramel are similar, with a key difference: Butterscotch is made with brown sugar, and caramel is made with white granulated sugar. To create a sauce, the sugar is melted over high heat and blended with butter and cream.

†You can add liqueur to the sauce; or if there’s no sauce, sprinkle it over the top of the pie. We add it to the softened ice cream as well.
 
 
RECIPE: SWEET & SALTY ICE CREAM PIE

This pie uses store-bought ice cream, but you make the crust and topping from scratch. Prep time is 20 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes.

Ingredients For 1 Pie

 
For The Caramel Sauce

 
Preparation

[1] Peanut butter ice cream on a brownie base. Here’s the recipe from Go Bold With Butter.

[2] Homemade blueberry ice cream pie. You can also blend puréed blueberries into store-bought vanilla ice cream (photo courtesy Elegant Affairs Caterers).

[3] Grasshopper pie: the mint ice cream tastes even better with a few tablespoons of creme de menthe liqueur. Here’s the recipe from Taste Of Home.

[4] Sweet and salty ice cream pie from Go Bold With Butter. The recipe is at left.

2. REMOVE the ice cream from the freezer and let it soften for 5 minutes. Place the ice cream in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until smooth. Add the crushed toffee bars and peanuts, mixing to combine.

3. POUR the mixture into the cooled crust. Cover and freeze until completely firm.

4. MAKE the caramel sauce: Combine the brown sugar, butter, heavy cream, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Let cool.

5. SERVE the pie with the caramel sauce. Garnish with extra toffee pieces and peanuts.
 
 

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[1] Warm, fragrant and ready to eat in less than 30 minutes, This recipe is from Girl Versus Dough. [2] Here’s the recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. [3] Turn your Greek salad into a sandwich (photo courtesy Girl Versus Dough).

Long before there were ovens, bread—the first was flatbread—was baked on flat stones in a fire. When the skillet finally evolved, in ancient Mesopotamia and Greece, people still cooked everything over a fire (here’s the history of the frying pan).

Flatbreads are the simplest breads, requiring no leavening—although in modern times, some are leavened to produce a lighter, airier, more easily chewed bread.

Flatbread can be extremely thin, like a tortilla, one millimeter or so in thickness, to a few centimeters thick, like focaccia.

Each region of the world developed a flatbread; for example:

 
Some other breads called flatbreads are not completely flat, but use yeast and are partially risen, such as Italy’s focaccia.
 
Here’s the history of bread and the different types of bread.
 
 
MAKE YOUR OWN FLATBREAD

Using five pantry staples, you can have fresh, hot bread on the table in less than 30 minutes with no need to turn on the oven. Instead, use a skillet or stove-top griddle.

The dough comes together very quickly, and you’ll have something special for breakfast, brunch or dinner.

RECIPE: SKILLET FLATBREAD

Consider this recipe from King Arthur Flour as your first foray into homemade flatbread. Here’s a step-by-step in photos.

Ingredients For 10 to 12 Flatbreads

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl; stir to combine. Add the oil and ice water and mix to make a soft, cohesive dough. Adjust with more flour or water as needed. The dough should be moist but not sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.

2. PREHEAT a heavy-bottomed skillet on the stove top. Add 1 tablespoon oil and heat until the oil starts to shimmer in the pan.

3. DIVIDE the dough into 10 to 12 equal pieces. Each piece should weigh about 1- 1/2 to 2 ounces, about the size of a large egg. Dredge each piece in flour, and roll to a rough circle or oval about 1/4″ thick. If you prefer, hand shape the pieces by flattening between your palms.

4. FRY the flatbreads in the hot oil in batches. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Flip and fry on the second side for another 2 minutes. Add more oil as needed for frying successive batches.

5. TRANSFER from the pan to a rack to cool slightly before serving.
 
  

What do you do to make a bottle of an already-popular Pinot Grigio leap on the shelf (figuratively speaking)?

You hire a top fashion designer to create an alluring, limited-edition bottle design.

One of our favorite designers, Christian Siriano, has created Ecco Domani’s third annual designer label for summer, inspired by the glamour of 1960s Palm Springs.

Covered in fanciful palm leaves in chartreuse and fuchsia, it’s a summer celebration in a bottle.

The Christian Siriano Ecco Domani bottle is now available nationwide, with a suggested retail price of $10.99.

When we went to the debut of the bottle design, we were treated to a wine cocktail—a winetail—so delicious that we had two!

We already had the cocktail ingredients at home; but don’t hesitate to buy the Cappelletti and orange bitters to make it.

We almost guarantee that you’ll race through the ingredients in short order. It’s our signature summer cocktail for sure—even though the signature is Ecco Domani.
 
 
RECIPE: ECCO DOMANI’S PALM SPRINGS SPRITZ

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE both wines and the bitters in a standard red wine glass; stir to combine.

2. TOP off with sparkling water. Garnish as desired and serve.

[2] Cappelletti Aperitivo, a noteworthy aperitif wine. Here’s the cocktail recipe for the Ginger Specialino from Nugget Markets.

It’s the name of a shape of pasta that resembles little sailor hats; but it’s also the name of an apéritif wine: Cappelletti Aperitivo Americano Rosso.

Produced in the Alto-Adige region of Italy by the fourth generation of the Cappelletti family, Aperitivo Cappelletti is a deep red apéritif wine.

It can be sipped on its own over ice, mixed with club soda for a spritzer, or mixed into cocktails. Use it for a less-sweet Negroni.

Made from mostly trebbiano grapes, the nose is round and very full, captivating with just a hint of bitterness and herbs. The texture on the palate is generous, providing a slight bitterness from notes of citrus peel.

It has a hint of bitterness (from citrus peel), gentle herbality and a slight sweetness—which is why we like it more than the better-known, sweeter Campari.

Unlike Campari, Cappelletti is a wine-based apéritif, instead of grain-based (distilled alcohol). This gives makes it more complex, with a richer, fuller flavor profile.

 
WHAT’S AN APÉRITIF WINE?

An apéritif is an alcoholic drink taken before a meal.

Long before the cocktail was invented (in the mid-19th century), people of means enjoyed an apéritif before dinner.

Spirits were not desired, because high alcohol dulls our taste buds. An apéritif wine, on the other hand, was designed to stimulate the appetite in anticipation of dinner.

An aperitif should be very dry (low in sugar), since sugar also dulls the appetite for the dinner to come.

Apéritif (French) or aperitivo (Italian) derives from the medieval Latin aperitivus, from the Latin verb aperire to open.
  

[1] Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies (photo © Bake Or Break via Go Bold With Butter).

[2] Brownies just might be our favorite finger food (photo by Katharine Pollack | © THE NIBBLE).

Sweet and salty treats and desserts have been a hot combination for a decade or so, beginning with salted chocolate and salted caramel. There’s science behind it:

Each taste bud contains 50 to 100 taste cells, which respond to a particular flavor: sweet, salty, sour, bitter or umami. The cells have a component called the SGLT1 receptor, which transports sugars into the cells when sodium is present.

This is proffered as an explanation to why sweetness is accentuated by salt: The receptors are activated when salt accompanies sugar.

While the receptor is a new finding, the result has been known for centuries. That’s why there’s a dash of salt (or more) in recipes for cakes, cookies, and pies.

The brownie recipe below was developed by Jennifer of Bake Or Break for Go Bold With Butter. It combines bittersweet chocolate and smooth peanut butter with salty, crunchy pretzels pretzels.

Not a peanut butter fan? Check out these Salted Caramel Pretzel Brownies.

> National Brownie Day is December 8th.

> National Peanut Butter Day is January 24th.
 
 
RECIPE: PEANUT BUTTER PRETZEL BROWNIES

Ingredients For 16 2-Inch Brownies

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Line with parchment paper (or foil), leaving a couple of inches of overhang on two sides to lift out the brownies. Grease the parchment.

2. PLACE the butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at half power in 30-second intervals until the butter is melted and the chocolate melts into it when stirred. Combine thoroughly and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. WHISK together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Set aside.

4. ADD the sugar to the butter/chocolate mixture and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

5. PLACE the peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 20-30 seconds, or until it can be easily stirred. Add to the chocolate mixture, and mix until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in about 3/4 cup of pretzels, adding any “crumbs” that splintered off during chopping.

6. TRANSFER the batter to the pan and spread evenly. Place the remaining pretzels over the top of the batter, and press them down gently into the batter.

7. BAKE for 40-45 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

8. LIFT the brownies from the pan onto a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut them into bars.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF BROWNIES

> > THE HISTORY OF PEANUT BUTTER

How old can you be and still enjoy Jell-O shots?

Erica of Erica’s Sweet Tooth adapted this recipe from Bakers Royale.

Point of accuracy: This recipe is made with plain gelatin, not flavored Jell-O, so it’s not really a Jell-O shot.

Another point: Everyone responds to the word “champagne,” but pricey champagne at $30 and up is not the best wine to use in recipes. Instead, use another sparkling wine for one-third of the price.

Don’t Like Champagne?

If the dad-of-honor prefers beer, substitute fruit beer in the recipe…or go bold with an IPA or stout. Guinness shots, anyone?
 
RECIPE: CHAMPAGNE JELL-O SHOTS

Ingredients For 15 Jello Shots

Champagne gelatin shots for any festive occasion (photo courtesy Erica’s Sweet Tooth).

1. COMBINE 10 ounces of the champagne with the sugar in a saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin on top and let it soften for 2 minutes.

2. PLACE the saucepan over low heat and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and add the remaining 5 ounces of champagne; stir to combine.

3. POUR the mixture into a brownie pan or other square/rectangular container, and chill for at least an hour until firm.

4. CUT: First dip the pan into warm water and use a knife along the sides to gently release the gelatin. Use a sharp knife to cut squares. Before serving, dip the tops in the sparkling sugar and serve with a festive toothpick.

(Or, for the tongue-in-cheek approach described below, serve a square or two in champagne coupes, with an optional strawberry or raspberry.)

Champagne cupcakes—to serve with the shots? (Photo courtesy Cook Craft Love.)

Another celebratory treat: champagne cupcakes. Why are they shown in champagne coupes (photo at left)?

Decades ago, it was established that the champagne coupe—also called sherbet champagne glasses because they were popularly used to serve scoops of sherbet—were not ideal for sparkling wine.

The wide surface area of the bowl—allegedly modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breasts—enables the bubbles to dissipate more quickly than they do in a flute or tulip glass.

While the photo shows them tongue-in-cheek, serving champagne cupcakes instead of champagne, you can serve equally tongue-in-cheek champagne shots in them.

If you want to bake the raspberry champagne cupcakes in the photo, here’s the recipe from Meaghan of CookCraftLove.com.

You don’t have to open a new bottle: You can make this recipe with leftover champagne. It doesn’t matter if it’s flat: It will become flat quickly enough when mixed into the batter.

If you’re planning to buy champagne, check out our champagne buying tips.