32 Flavor Challenge - Flavor #2 “Sara's Childhood” with Apricots and Cinnamon

First off, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!  I certainly wouldn't have been able to concoct this flavor, inspired by my childhood, without having been birthed....so shout out to my mom, Estrella! I hope she never finds this blog.....

I'm totally the butterfly in the middle. 

So let's get right out into this thing. Maybe you're thinking “whoa, what is up with this flavor name?” Well let me tell you, when I was growing up in California (Concord, CA!) we lived in this little house, the nuclear fam and my paternal grandparents. It was a neat house, we had tons of rose bushes growing along our fence, gardenias and other pink flowers, and best of all an apricot tree. I totally forgot about this tree, until I was shopping the other day at M&M farms, this run of the mill produce market that has a rotating selection of Chilean grown fruits and veggies. 

Not my tree, but a similar one. 

Proust may have had his madeleines, but I had my apricots;tiny, sweet little fruity jewels. I squeezed the apricots available for purchase, making sure to select only the softies, the softer the sweeter is my rule for apricots. Oooh these babies were sweet alright, I bit into them and memories from my childhood came flooding back. Like that that time I pretended to run away by climbing up our apricot tree and just chillin' till someone noticed I was gone. Or eating playdoh in the backyard mmmmm yeah playdoh ice cream. 

Anyways, yeah. Thats what's up with this flavor du jour. Let's get on to the creating.....

Flavor #2 “Sara's Childhood” with Apricots and Cinnamon

Ingredients:

2 T. arrowroot

3 ½ C. soy milk

½ C. pureed apricots (use fresh ones!)

½ C. sugar or other natural sweetener

1 t. pure vanilla extract

3 T. cinnamon

1. In a small bowl, combine ¼ C. of soymilk and arrowroot, blend and set aside.

2. Cut up apricots and puree them in a blender. I used our trust Magic Bullet.

3. In a medium size sauce pan, heat the rest of the soy milk and the pureed apricots to a simmer. Keep stirring, don't let it boil! It's really important to sit a lot, the puree will eventually combine with the milk, so don't be discouraged! 

4. Then add the arrowroot mixture and stir until it thickens. You should be able to feel it thicken. Don't let it boil! Keep the heat nice and low.

5. Once it has thickened, remove the pan from heat, add the sugar and stir till it dissolves. Go ahead and add the vanilla extract and cinnamon. You may want to add more or less cinnamon, depending on how spicy you like your ice cream. I probably used way more than 3 tablespoons to be honest.

6. Let the mixture cool, then refrigerate it till it's nice and cold. The colder the better. Then freeze in ice cream maker.

7. Garnish with fresh apricots if you have any left. Mmmmmm yeah.

"Refreshing" - A. Martin

"Hit's all five flavor stations on my tongue" - A. Fitzgerald