Blogging Backlog - Desserts

I know, for how infrequently I blog, one might assume I am not cooking or baking that often. Of course, I am, and I am even photographing much of it, I am just in a bad blogging phase. I blame my young children. We are all either having too much fun planting our spring garden, going to ballet, playing at the park, or we are all sick with some ridiculous preschool virus, which renders me a neglectful blogger.

The weather is warming, the plants sprouting, and (knock on wood) we are leaving a spell of winter illness behind us, so I am going to give my best effort to blog the foods and meals we are growing, baking, and eating much more regularly.

But until I get my blogging up to speed, I wanted to at least offer up a few Blogging Backlogs - desserts, some of which may now be out of season but are worth remembering and revisiting down the road.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Cake

I made this cake for R’s birthday this year. Although it was delicious and beautiful, it wasn’t ideal. Next time (at least when it’s a special cake for R) I’ll venture into the true Ice Cream CAKE, the kind with a nice thick layer of frozen cake and ice cream. This is more of a crumb crust similar to a cheesecake with a wonderful ganache on top. It was good, and if you use store bought ice cream, very easy and pretty quick, but I promise R, next time, the real deal.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Cake
Adapted from: Eggs on Sunday

Ingredients (crust and ganache ingredients listed for 10-inch pan)

For the cookie crust:
6 oz chocolate wafer cookies
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 quart Ice Cream (homemade or store bought) I used mint chocolate chip

For the chocolate ganache:
6 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate cut into pieces
6 oz heavy cream

Choice of garnish to match ice cream flavor (berries, cookies, crush candy or nuts, etc.) I used Andes mints.

Directions

Make the chocolate cookie crust:
Process the cookies in a food processor until they’re fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse it in until the cookie crumbs are moistened thoroughly. Pour the crumbs out into the bottom of your springform pan and firmly pat them down to make an even layer for the crust. Cover the crust with plastic wrap and place in the freezer to set, about 1 hour.

Make the ice cream layer — two ways:
If you’re using ice cream that’s already made (I used mint chocolate chip), you can just soften it a bit at room temperature and then beat it in an electric mixer until it’s more the consistency of soft serve. Spread it evenly over the cookie crust, gently pressing down with a spatula to fill in any holes. You want to use enough ice cream to come almost all the way to the top of the springform pan; leave about 1/2 inch room at the top (where the ganache will go. Place the plastic wrap back on over the ice cream layer, smoothing it down directly on the ice cream’s surface so there are no air bubbles. Freeze for at least 2 hours.

If you’re making the ice cream, choose your favorite recipe and have at it. Churn it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. When it’s finished churning, spread enough ice cream over the cookie crust in the springform pan so there’s about 1/2-inch of room at the top of the pan. Place plastic wrap over the ice cream, pressing it gently down all over the surface of the ice cream so there are no air bubbles. Freeze for at least 2 hours.

To make the chocolate ganache:
Place the chocolate and cream in a large heatproof bowl, and set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Take it off the water and cool at room temperature until it’s lukewarm.

Take the ice cream cake out of the freezer and remove the plastic wrap. Spread the chocolate ganache over the top, smoothing with a spatula. It should just about come to the top of the springform pan. If you’re using the mints or other garnish, place them around the edge of the cake top.

Replace the plastic wrap over the cake, and place it back in the freezer for another 2 hours.

To serve let it warm for a few minutes and then carefully cut with a clean, sharp knife. Clean the knife in between cuts to help minimize the weird looking smears I got on each slice.



Shaker Lemon Pie

During the winter when we had access to a ton of fresh, organic Meyer lemons, this was our go-to entertaining dessert. It’s good after a meal; it’s awesome at brunch. It is just plain good. You have to really like lemons and some tart bitterness that comes with that. Although Meyer lemons are quite sweet and there is no shortage of sugar in this recipe, it does use the whole lemon, pithy peel and all, so that adds to the bite. We really love that flavor and the toothsomeness (yes, that’s totally a word) that comes with it. Let the pie sit for at least a half hour to set up a bit – longer is fine too. At that point it will hold together enough to slice (it will still be a bit loose though, but who cares?) and still be warm. Serve with a lightly sweetened whipped cream or ice cream. It’s easy and delicious, one worth repeating for sure. There are still Meyer lemons to be had this season, so go for it.


Meyer Lemon Shaker Pie
From: The Kitchn

makes one 9" double crust pie

3-4 Meyer lemons
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Basic Pie Crust – I like using either Martha Stewart’s Pate Brisee (classic pie crust) or Pate Sucree (a little sweeter)

1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
Egg white for wash (optional)
Sugar for top

Thinly slice the lemons - as shaved thin as you can get them! Use a mandoline if you have one. Pick out any seeds. Toss with the sugar and salt and set aside.

Heat oven to 450°F. Grease a 9" pie dish or tart pan. Roll out half the dough into a circle, flat between two pieces of wax paper. Peel off the top layer of wax paper. Place your pie dish upside down on the pie dough round, and carefully flip the pan and dough over. Peel away the wax paper on that side and carefully press the dough into the pan. Using a knife or shears, trim away the extra dough so that there is a half inch of dough above the lip of the pan. Tuck under and roll this extra dough, and pinch tight to the side of the pan. Put in the freezer to chill.

Roll out the rest of dough between two pieces of wax paper and put in the freezer to chill.

Beat the eggs well and stir into the lemons with the vanilla. Remove the chilled pie crust from the freezer and pour in the lemons.

Place the other round on top and trim to fit. Pinch seal the edges and cut a few slits on the top to let out steam. Brush with egg white and sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top. Put back in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill.

Take out pie and bake on the lowest rack for 15 minutes at 450°F. Turn the heat down to 375°F and move to the center rack. Bake for another 30 minutes or until the crust is golden. If the crust edges begin browning too much cover with parchment.


Chocolate Guinness Cake

Again, St. Patrick's Day has passed already, but this was pretty good and certainly fun. I ended up serving it with David Lebovitz's Milk Chocolate Guinness Ice Cream. I found the cake recipe at The Kitchn, but it is originally adapted from Nigella Lawson. The idea with all of the cream cheese frosting on top is to make it look like a frothy pint of Guinness. I was very tempted to bake this in individual pint glasses, but I just don't think they would take the heat. It's almost worth baking the cake and spooning it into the glasses and then topping with the frosting. I think it would be a fun and festive way to serve your guests.


Chocolate Guinness Cake

From Feast by Nigella Lawson
Yield: One 9-inch cake (12 servings)

For the cake:

Butter for pan
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar (I have used regular granulated sugar with no ill effects)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For the topping:

1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream

For the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

For the topping: Using a food processor or by hand, mix confectioners' sugar to break up lumps. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable.

Remove cake from pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.

Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake and Earl Grey Ice Cream

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The Daring Bakers celebrate Valentine's Day. This was a great challenge for our household as we are tried and true flourless chocolate cake lovers - not to mention, homemade ice cream lovers as well. Plus, this type of cake is not too difficult, and as things have been fairly busy lately, it was nice to not be blown away by the challenge. That said (and assuming we either fix our broken oven, or get a new one) I am ready to tackle another DB doozy - bring it on.

I could eat chocolate cake all the time. Seriously. Daily. I really like cake. MMMmmmm cake!

This cake definitely sated my yearnings. It's rich, chocolaty, and wonderful. Be sure to use a good chocolate as this cake is really mostly just that. For the ice cream, I found a great recipe for Earl Grey ice cream that I thought would pair wonderfully with the intense chocolate. It worked out well and I will be making other tea infused ice creams in the future - maybe chai ice cream with a cinnamon bread pudding?

We made and served this cake for my mom's birthday. As a fellow chocolate lover she really enjoyed it too. It topped off a great meal of homemade rye bread, and fresh ricotta gnocchi with homemade ricotta - stay tuned, I'll be blogging that meal later in the week.


Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.


Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
from Mac & Cheese
makes about 1 quart

1 cup whole milk
2 cups half and half (can use heavy cream for a richer ice cream)
¾ cup sugar
5-6 Earl Grey tea bags
5 egg yolks

Warm the milk, half and half, and sugar in a saucepan.
Remove from heat, place tea bags in the pan, cover and steep at room temperature for an hour.
Remove tea bags.
Rewarm tea-infused milk.
Whisk egg yolks together in a separate bowl.
Slowly pour the milk mixture into the bowl with egg yolks, whisking constantly.
Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan constantly until the mixture thickens to a custard and coats the spatula.
Cool the mixture, and freeze in your ice cream maker.

3 Reasons Why I Should At Least Pretend to Diet

We usually break out the ice cream maker in the summer months, but the bug hit a bit late this year. I finally started making a few batches and once again I'm hooked on the ability to create all types of fun and new flavors of fatty frozen fabulousness. We are on our third flavor experiment so far and I already have lots of ideas and recipes waiting in the wings.

The first batch was a horchata ice cream that apparently was so good it did not last long enough to photograph. It actually was quite good. This was however the total cheater ice cream. I had, on a lark, purchased a horchata mix to easily make some of the yummy almond, cinnamon, rice milk drink for H's bday. I wanted to keep the horchata theme going since I had made horchata cupcakes with mini churros for her 1st birthday - including grinding rice, soaking overnight etc. Since we were having nearly 50 people over this year (yes, we broke down and got the giant inflatable cage, I mean bounce house, too) I wanted to streamline things, hence the mix. Of course, by the time things got rolling, I forgot to make horchata. So here we are with an empty fridge save for a half gallon of horchata concentrate and we want ice cream. The obvious solution was to mix the concentrate with some half and half (also left over from the party, because really, who was going to drink coffee when it was nearly 100 degrees outside?) some cinnamon, almond extract and some chopped mexican chocolate. Mix it up, chill it, throw it in the ice cream maker and boom, super-duper easy horchata ice cream that ended up quite the crowd pleaser.

After being such a cheat I decided I should redeem myself by making up my own recipe. Of course, this ended up not tasting as good, but it was healthy ice cream man, so you know, it had that going for it. I tried to keep it very easy so it would be replicable, which in turn had the effect of making it not taste good enough to want to replicate. That's not entirely true, it wasn't so bad that we didn't devour it in a day or two - in fact, R really liked it and would order it again. That's our test, we will often rate food we make by deciding if we were served this at a restaurant, a) would we go back to that restaurant? b) would you order the same dish? and c) would you recommend that dish (the highest compliment)?

Health Food Pina Colada Ice Cream
really, it's healthy, eat as much as you want, there's no cream

1 can coconut milk
1 can pineapple (I had a can of rings, so I used that, crushed would work, whatever)
1 individual size container of vanilla yogurt. (Plain would work, or I suppose even Pina Colada yogurt, but that's just getting silly)
approx. 1/4 C. honey
1/4 C. packed brown sugar
Zest from one lime
Juice from said lime


Chop the pineapple if you are using rings or chunks, mix it all together in a bowl and put it in the fridge to chill for a few hours, or overnight.


Put it in your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturers directions.

Wow, now that I write it out, this looks like cheater ice cream too, but at least it's my cheater ice cream.

Chocolate Gelato

Now this one is worth repeating. I found this recipe at a favorite food blog Cafe Fernando. It's a starch based (not custard) gelato/ice cream. Again, quite easy, but amazingly delicious. Very rich, great texture (H said it was "chewy"). We will certainly be making this one again. I've now got a couple of David Lebovitz's recipes I am itching to try. Who's up for some Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream? Man that sounds good. We'll let you know.