Rosie's Baklava Ice Cream Cake

Mr. G and I went to San Francisco last month and while there we went to this restaurant called Maykadeh Persian Cuisine with our friend (It was soo good!!!). I love Persian food and we just can't get it in Hawaii, so I try to get my fill in whenever I travel to the mainland. As we were looking at the dessert menu, Mr. G mentioned that it would be nice to have some baklava ice cream. Sadly, they didn't have such a thing.

When I came home, I did a search for Baklava ice cream and came up with some recipes from Desert Candy and Quinn's perfect scoop. Although both recipes look amazing, they just weren't jumping out at me. Finally, I found this recipe from Epicurious called Rosie's Baklava Ice Cream cake. Ding ding ding!! This was it...I decided to make it for a little get together we had this past weekend. It was a big hit with everyone and I have to say this was one of my best desserts!!

It's basically vanilla ice cream sandwiched between layers of yummy baklava!! What more could you want from a dessert. I was concerned the baklava would lose it's flaky crispiness in the freezer, but it was still crispy and oh sooo delicious!! You really need to make this!! I am so excited to share this with you, I can hardly contain myself. Here's the recipe.

Rosie's Baklava Ice cream Cake
from Epicurious

1 cup slivered almonds (about 4 ounces)
1 cup walnuts (about 4 ounces)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
sixteen 17- x 12-inch phyllo sheets (#4 size)
1/2 cup unsalted butter

For syrup
1/2 lemon
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey

1/2 gallon superpremium vanilla ice cream

1. With a sharp knife finely chop almonds and walnuts separately. (Resist the temptation to use a food processor; chopping by hand is the key to the texture of baklava.) In a bowl stir together nuts, sugar, and spices. Put stack of phyllo sheets on a work surface and cover with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap and then a damp kitchen towel. Melt butter and keep warm. (If butter cools, it will be too thick to brush.)

2. Preheat oven to 350°F.

3. With a pastry brush brush a 17 1/2- x 12 1/2- x 1-inch baking pan with some butter. Cover bottom of pan with a phyllo sheet, keeping remaining sheets covered with plastic wrap and towel, and lightly brush with butter. Layer 7 more phyllo sheets, brushing each sheet with butter, in same manner. Sprinkle nut mixture over buttered phyllo and with your fingers gently spread evenly.

4. On a work surface (not on top of nut layer) lightly butter and stack remaining 8 phyllo sheets, making sure top sheet is well-buttered. Transfer phyllo stack to baking pan, putting it on nut layer and pressing to help it adhere to nuts. With a fork prick top phyllo stack all over at 1/4-inch intervals going through to nut layer, to keep it from puffing unevenly. With sharp knife halve baklava crosswise and bake in middle of oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

5. Make syrup while baklava is baking: Halve lemon half. In a 1 1/2-quart saucepan boil water, sugar, and lemon over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved and liquid is reduced to about 1 1/3 cups, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in honey. Discard lemon and cool syrup to warm.

6. Pour warm syrup over hot baklava and cool in pan on a rack 15 to 30 minutes. (Baklava will absorb syrup.) Do not let baklava cool more than 30 minutes before assembling cake or phyllo layers will become too soft to transfer.

7. While baklava is cooling, soften ice cream. (We softened ours in a microwave set on defrost, 30% power, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Alternatively, you can leave it in the refrigerator — not on the counter —30 minutes).

8. Assemble cake: Using two 30-inch-long sheets of foil, line a 13- x 9- x 2-inch baking pan, arranging 1 sheet lengthwise and 1 sheet crosswise. With a large metal spatula carefully slide 1 baklava half into pan and top with ice cream, spreading evenly. Slide remaining baklava half over ice cream and wrap cake snugly in foil. Freeze cake at least 6 hours and up to 1 week.

9. Just before serving, cut cake into pieces.

Passion fruit (lilikoi) ice cream

As you probably can see from previous posts, I'm a huge fan of Passion fruit (Lilikoi for the Kamaainas). I love when it's passion fruit season. I tried to get a lot and just freeze the pulp so I can have it year round. I love the tartness of passion fruits and they're great for a light dessert without having always to resort to citruses. I've made this passion fruit ice cream a few times and I absolutely love it!!

This recipe comes from the great ice cream maker, David Lebovitz. Since I purchased his book, the Perfect Scoop, I have been wanting to make every recipe in the book. Some of the recipes makes me weary (i.e. Black pepper ice cream?!) , but one day I'll be daring enough to try them all. If you love ice cream, you really NEED this book! =)

I am submitting this recipe for Aspiring Bakers #4. The theme for this month is "Love" and our goodies have to be in a heart shaped. Hope you can still tell the ice cream is heart shaped....it's a hot day in Hawaii and the ice cream was melting very quickly!

Passion Fruit Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop

1/2 cup fresh or frozen passion fruit pulp (from 6 to 8 fresh passion fruits)
1 cup heavy cream
6 tbsp whole milk
7 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
3 large egg yolks
a few drops of pure orange oil, or grated zest of 1 small orange (optional)
spoonful of passion fruit seeds (optional)

1. To extract the pulp from the passion fruit, cut each passion fruit in half at the equator and scoop the pulp and seeds into a nonreactive strainer set over a bowl. Use a flexible rubber spatula to press and extract as much of the precious pulp as possible, until the seeds look rather dry.

2. Mix together the passion fruit pulp and 1/2 cup of the cream in a large bowl. Set a mesh strainer over the bowl.

3. Warm the milk, sugar, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup cream in a medium saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the passion fruit and cream mixture. Mix a few drops of orange oil, if using, then stir until cook over an ice bath.

5. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add a spoonful of passion fruit seeds to the custard during th least few minutes of churning, if you wish.

Miss Baked Alaska-Daring Bakers

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I am so late...again!! I was really excited to make August's daring baker challenge, I love browned butter and I want to use it all the time!! I decided to make the baked alaska for my friend for her birthday. She absolutely loves ice cream, and what's a better birthday cake for her than a Baked Alaska. But August was so crazy...I felt like I didn't have time to breath. Since I had a long weekend, I decided I better make this now!

To make it extra special, I decided to make a barbie cake!! I don't know what possessed me to do this..but I thought it would be fun. I bought a Disney High School Musical doll named Gabriella. I don't even know what High School Musical is. (Am I getting old?)

Anyway...I used the browned butter cake as the base, and put chocolate ice cream on top. I used a Chocolate ice cream recipe from David Leibovitz via Amanda's cooking. This chocolate ice cream is sooo good!!! The browned butter cake is even better!! I will be making both of these again and again. The cake came to getting pretty quickly after all the components were made. The hardest part was keeping the contents of my freezer away from Miss Alaska. =) Here are the recipes.

Baked Alaska

Brown Butter Pound Cake
adapted from Gourmet October 2009

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

4. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate ice cream
from David Leibovitz's Perfect Scoop via Amanda's cooking

2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Warm 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth. Then stir in the remaining 1 cup cream. Pour the mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible, and set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

2. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

3. Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (170°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)

Meringue

4 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar

1. Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Miss Baked Alaska assembly

1. Spread ice cream in a shallow baking pan and freeze.

2. Cut out one 5” diameter circle from the cake. Cut a small circle in the middle for the doll to stand in. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.

3. Make the meringue (see above.)

4. Cut out a few 5" ice cream circles with a small circle in the middle and place them on top of the cake. Smooth out the body to create the skirt for the princess.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.

6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

Swiss swirl ice cream cake-Daring Baker

I have been a horrible daring baker. I missed the last two daring baker challenges and I'm really late on July's challenge. Better late than never right?!

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I made this swiss swirl ice cream cake using a vanilla swiss roll and a lime sorbet. This cake was the dessert for my friend's baby shower and it was a hit! Yipee!! I personally had a problem with it. My problem was the texture of the cake didn't quite match the texture of the sorbet. I think a regular ice cream might have been better. By the time the cake got to a softer consistency, the sorbet was already melted.

I ended up eating the sorbet part on its own, then waited for the cake to thaw a bit and finished it off then. I have to say I love the sorbet!!! I will definitely make other sorbets using this recipe. I'm thinking of lychee sorbet with a bit of mint?! Here are the recipes.

Swiss roll ice cream cake
inspired by Taste of Home

For the cake:
6 medium sized eggs
1 cup of caster sugar + extra for rolling
10 tbsp of all purpose flour, sifted (see note)
2 tbsp of boiling water
a little oil for brushing the pans

1. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.

3. Add the flour, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.

4. Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.

5. Place the pans in the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the center is springy to the touch.

6. Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.

7. Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.

For the filling:
2 cup of whipping cream
1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
5 tbsp of caster sugar

1. In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.

2. Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.

3. Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of 1/2 an inch should be fine).

4. Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Lime Sorbet
From Cook's Illustrated, Entertaining Spring 2009

2 tsp zest from three or four limes
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 1/2 cup cold water
1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar (see note)

1. Combine zest, lime juice, water, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir on and off for several minutes until sugar is dissolved. (Rub finger along bottom of bowl to see if sugar has dissolved.)

2. Pour mixture into airtight container. Refrigerate until mixture is no more than 40 degrees. (if mixture has been stirred over bowl of ice water, it may already be cold enough, and this step may be omitted.)

3. Pour chilled mixture into container of ice cream machine and churn until frozen. Freeze.

Assembly

1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices (approximately 2 cms each ).

2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

4. Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm (at least 1 hour).

5. Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

6. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

Note:

• *The original recipe uses 1 tbsp of vodka, but since I was making this for my pregnant friend, I omitted it. Cooks illustrated states that the alcohol improves the texture of the sorbet.
  

Turtle Ice cream Sandwiches

I made these for my friend for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. She absolutely loves ice cream, and that's an understatement! I knew I wanted to make some sort of ice cream related dessert for her birthday, but I wasn't sure what to make. I found a recipe for a Turtle Ice cream pie from Bon Appetite. It got really good reviews, but I thought pies weren't very special for a birthday. So I decided to combine this recipe for brownie ice cream sandwiches with the filling from the turtle ice cream pie, and voila...turtle ice cream sandwiches.

The results...I love the sauce!!! I think I was a little stingy with the sauce. I was afraid it would be too sweet, but next time I will add more sauce between the ice cream layers. The brownies held up pretty well after freezing, and they even did well with cutting! Here are the recipes.

Turtle Ice cream Sandwiches
adapted from Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart

Sauce
3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons dark corn syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Bring first 3 ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking until sugar dissolves. Boil caramel for 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Turn off heat; whisk in butter, vanilla, and salt. Cool completely.

Brownie
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
5.5 ounces (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
3.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat one 13- by-18-inch rimmed baking sheets with cooking spray, line with parchment, and spray parchment.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Melt butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat, add sugar, and stir until dissolved. Stir in eggs, one at a time, and then stir in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. (Do not overmix.)

3. Use an offset spatula to spread batter into thin, even layers. Bake, rotating pans once, until batter just begins to set, 8 to 10 minutes. (The surfaces will look dry, and testers inserted in the centers will come out wet.) Let cool completely in pans on wire racks.

Assembly
2 pints of vanilla ice cream, softened
one recipe of brownie
one recipe of turtle sauce

1. Line an 8x8 square pan with parchment or foil, allow foil or parchment to hang over the edge of the pan.

2. Cut two 8"x8" pieces of brownie. Place one piece of brownie in the pan. Spread one cup of softened ice cream on top of the brownie. Spread 1/3 of the caramel sauce over the ice cream. Put the ice cream back in the freezer for one hour. Repeat with the other 3 cups of ice cream.

3. Cover with the other piece of brownie. Allow to freeze overnight before cutting.

Chocolate Valentino

I'm sorry I'm late!! I didn't have time to make this cake until last night..and didn't have time to post until now. Better late than never! For this month's Daring Baker's challenge, we were tasked to make a Chocolate Flourless cake and a ice cream of our choice.

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.

A tip from our hosts is to use a chocolate that you love, because the cake would taste exactly like the chocolate. I decided to splurge and use some bittersweet chocolate I bought when I was in Paris. The recipe calls for 16oz of chocolate..and I didn't have the heart to use all my chocolate in one go, so I halved the recipe.

The result is the most decadent chocolate cake I've ever tasted. It was more like a truffle than a cake. You really only need a very small slice to satisfy your chocolate craving..it's really that potent! As an accompaniment, I made a green tea white chocolate ice cream that I found from Tartelette. This is my first time making ice cream, and I was surprised how good it was!! It's not quite as good as Bubbies' green tea ice cream...but, I will keep trying! =P Here are the recipes.

Chocolate Valentino-half portion
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

8 ounces of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 stick plus 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
3 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.

Matcha White Chocolate Ice cream
adapted from Tartelette

Makes a little over a quart

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
4 large egg yolks
6 oz white chocolate, finely chopped (see note)
2 1/2 tablespoons matcha powder, sifted (see note)

1. In a medium heavy saucepan, bring the cream, milk, and salt to low boil, stirring constantly.

2. Whisk the eggs until pale yellow eggs, pour the hot cream mixture in a thin, steady stream in the bowl of eggs. Now pour mixture back in the saucepan.

3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, just until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of it, about 5 minutes. Looks like your making custard sauce or creme anglaise at this point. Do not let it boil. Remove from the heat and pass it through a strainer, add the matcha powder and stir well with a whisk.

4. Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Add the chocolate to the matcha cream and whisk it in well. Cool the cream to room temperature, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cold.

5. Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions of your ice cream machine.

Note:

• The original recipe uses 8 oz of white chocolate. I didn't want the taste of the chocolate to overpower the green tea, so I decreased it to 6 oz. I thought it was sweet enough with 6 oz.
  
• The original recipe uses 2 tbsp of matcha powder. I used 2 1/2 tbsp to increase the green tea potency. I had a hard time dissolving the powder into the cream mixture. Next time, I will pour a small amount of the cream mixture into the tea powder to form a paste before I mix it into the cream.