Arnold Palmers

Sweet tea + Lemonade is a classic southern mocktail known as the "Arnold Palmer." Delicious, light, and refreshing, this is a great drink to enjoy sitting on the porch in the summer. Imagine my excitement when I saw this as a dessert when Joey and I were out to dinner one night. This playful dessert was a lemon tart topped with Firefly ice cream. What's Firefly, you ask? It is sweet tea flavored vodka - genius! My favorite way to enjoy it is to mix it with raspberry lemonade over ice. Some friends of mine call firefly with lemonade the John Daly Special, but my best friend calls the raspberry lemonade version a "Southern Belle." And that's much cuter and sweeter, don't you think?

Anyway, on to the dessert. I used Dorie's Most Extraordinary Lemon Tart for the tart. The ice cream was kind of an experiment, but I think it turned out well. I also whipped up a raspberry coulis to serve alongside. This is such a fun dessert, and would be well received at a party.

Bridget has a great write-up on the tart, so I'm just going to link over to her - plus she takes the best pictures!

Firefly Ice Cream

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 iced tea tea bag
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup sweet tea flavored vodka (Firefly)
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Combine the milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 cup of cream in a medium saucepan. Heat to dissolve sugar, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and add tea bag to milk mixture. Cover and allow to steep for 1 hour, stirring occasionaly, and pressing down on bag to extract as much tea as possible.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Return cream mixture to stove and mix in remaining cup of heavy cream. Heat until lightly simmering, then pour into egg mixture. Stir to combine, and return to heat. Cook over medium-low heat until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly, about 7-12 minutes.

Pour through a fine-mesh seive into a medium bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, pressing down onto the surface of the custard. Mix in vodka, vanilla, and lemon juice. Allow to chill completely.

Follow ice cream maker's instructions to churn ice cream. Freeze overnight for best results. The ice cream will never be completely frozen due to the high volume of alcohol, but mine got to be somewhere between soft serve and traditional ice cream.

Arnold Palmer

To serve, slice tart into wedges, and top with ice cream. Serve with raspberry sauce on the side and fresh berries.