Watermelon Dessert & Slushy Recipe

This time of year watermelon tastes so sweet and refreshing. During hot summer nights a bowl of watermelon chunks with a touch of Maine sea salt can make a mighty fine dinner! Here I'll share an tasty watermelon dessert and a slushy recipe. Both are pretty simple and easy to make and are a refreshing to enjoy on a hot summer night. We've just added eco-friendly clear drink cups with lids in 2 sizes to the shop and they worked great for the watermelon slushy. Our new mini cookie cutters came in handy for the watermelon dessert with a mascarpone lime whipped cream!

I wanted to think of a way to take the watermelon to the next level. I enjoy watermelon with whipped cream but the whipped cream will deflate if you are not eating it right away leaving you a delicious dessert but not such a pretty presentation if you are serving when you are entertaining. My thought was to do a kind of "no bake" cheesecake topping that has whipped cream in it to lighten it a little and I love lime with watermelon so I added some into the recipe it give it a pop of citrus. Using mascarpone or cream cheese as the base helps the mixture pipe better in a frosting bag and hold its shape giving you a pretty and elegant presentation. You can cut your watermelon into squares or if you have mini or small cookie cutters those work well and give you fun shapes to work with. If you are using cookie cutters be sure not to slice your watermelon too thick. You want the slices to be just a little thinner than how tall the cookie cutter is so you are able to cut through the slices easily.

MASCARPONE - LIME WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING

8 oz mascarpone cheese - at room temperature

8 oz heavy cream or whipping cream

the juice of 1 lime + the zest of the lime (zest the lime first before you juice it)

approximately 2-3 tablespoons (divided) of the sweetener of your choice - I used truvia but you could use agave nectar, honey or sugar. Adjust the amount of sweetener you use to your tastes

fresh mini for garnish

DIRECTIONS: Let the mascarpone cheese come to room temperature. Place in a large bowl and beat it on low-medium speed in a mixer or hand mixer. Add the lime juice, 1 tablespoon of the sweetener of choice and half of the zest of the lime. In a separate bowl whip up your heavy cream until you just get stiff peaks, do not over beat or you will turn it to butter. Add in 1 tablespoon of sweetener just at the end. Taste it to see if it is sweet enough and if not you can add in a little more. You don't want it too sweet since there is some sweetness to the mascarpone mixture that you will be folding the whipped cream into. Once the whipped cream is ready fold half of it into the cheese mixture being careful not to over mix and deflate the whipped cream. If the mixture seems thick add in the other half of the whipped cream. I added it in batches as the finished mixture needs to be thick enough to use in a frosting bag but not too loose or else it won't pipe right. This is not an exact recipe since you will have to play around with a couple of the elements to get it to your sweetness level and to be able to use in the frosting bag.

To pipe put a jumbo star tip in a frosting bag then fill the bag with the whipped cream mixture. Pipe a small amount on the top of your watermelon shapes. I sprinkled a little more of the lime zest on top and add a mint garnish.

WATERMELON TIP: after I cut out my watermelon shapes I placed them on a paper towel to soak up some of the water so they wouldn't make a puddle on the platter I was serving them on.

This whipped cream mixture would also be good on a cupcake or pound cake slices. If you do not like mascarpone cheese you can make it with cream cheese and it would be as equally delicious!

SERVING IDEA: to make the watermelon in the cup dessert shown in the first photo I saved all the small pieces of watermelon that were left over from when I cut out my watermelon shapes. Put the small watermelon pieces in a glass, piped some of the whipped cream mixture on top and added a watermelon heart and mint for garnish.

WATERMELON SLUSHY

watermelon

lime juice and/or lime seltzer

This slushy is best when the watermelon you are using has been chilled and is super easy to make! Cut up some watermelon into chunks. Place in a blender, food processor or magic bullet add in some fresh squeezed lime juice and blend up. It is that simple! Give it a taste and if you find it is not sweet enough you can add in a little sweetener of choice. I've found that the watermelons in the last couple weeks have been sweet enough on their own. If you want the mixture a little thinner you can add in some lime seltzer and that makes for a refreshing drink too! How much you make will depend on how many drinks you want and how much watermelon you have. Pour into a fun cup like our new eco-friendly clear drink cups and add some whipped cream if you'd like and enjoy!

To view some of our new clear drink cups click on the product names below to go to the listings.

small 9 oz eco-friendly clear cups with lids

tall 12 oz eco-friendly clear cups with lids

tall clear cups with lids & straws as seen in the photo below

We hope you try some of the summer watermelon recipes that we've been enjoying over the last couple of weeks!

~the girls