Now that's my kind of Cherry Bombe!

Chocolate Cherry Bombe

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.  Well, the timing for this recipe challenge could not have been better.  Dad's birthday is in July and, as I mentioned in a previous post, my dad *loves* ice cream.  He loves ice cream the way some people love chocolate.  At any given time, there are probably 4 or 5 containers of ice cream in my parents' freezer, and let's just say they are never in danger of freezer burn.  I've been told that when hubby and I go to Rome, Mom and Dad can give me a map showing where the best gelato can be found.  Seriously, I'm talking ice cream-aholic.  The fact that this recipe did contain a small amount of actual cake was actually a strike against it, but I figured for some homemade ice cream, he'd likely look past that minor flaw.  

The birthday boy's shirt don't lie....

(One thing to note about this cake... this is not a "whip up a quick dessert an hour before company arrive" kind of dessert.  Each layer needs a couple of hours of chill time in the freezer, so it's best to start a day or two before you want to serve it)

Though we have had a solid 10 days of very wet weather here, the grocery stores are still filled with summer's haul of fresh stone fruits.  I picked up a huge bag of dark red cherries for one of the two ice creams called for in this recipe.  Ice cream #2 would be a nice creamy vanilla, because in my opinion, vanilla ice cream is often overlooked.  Years ago, Sis told me that vanilla couldn't be my favourite flavour of ice cream because it's the food equivalent of white in a colour palette - it's a non-flavour.  I disagree.  For me, vanilla ice cream (and I mean really *good* vanilla ice cream) is more like the little black dress in your dessert wardrobe.  Every girl should have a little black dress, and every kitchen should be stocked with a really good quality vanilla ice cream.  After all, when your sweet tooth starts screaming to be appeased, vanilla ice cream can provide the perfect backdrop for a dark rich chocolate ganache, a smooth fleur de sel caramel sauce, fresh fruit, or hubby's favourite: an ice cream float made with orange pop.  

The cherry ice cream layer turned out to be a real labour of love.  It took about 20 minutes just to pit the entire bag, before I quartered them and put them in a saucepan with a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt to bring out the juices and reduce them down to an intense syrup.  When the juices were just starting to boil,  I added a generous splash of Crème de Cassis (our liquor cabinet was all out of Kirsch), and cooked everything for another few minutes before straining out the fruit and pouring the liquid back into the pan for more reduction.  Today's food science tip; when you want to make a fruit-flavoured ice cream but you don't want to break a tooth on an icy chunk of fruit, cook the fruit with a bit of alcohol first - preferably something that compliments the flavour, or vodka.  Alcohol doesn't freeze, so you're essentially infusing the fruit with just enough anti-freeze to keep them a similar consistency as the ice cream itself.  A second food science tip regarding ice cream is that when things are extremely cold or frozen, our taste buds don't register flavour as strongly as when the same food is room-temperature.  So, when adding a flavour component to ice cream, it should be much stronger that you would make it for any other dessert.  Likewise with sweetness and flavours, which is why that last little bit of melted ice cream at the bottom of the bowl always tastes so much sweeter than the first spoonful did.  So, instead of adding just the straight cherry juice to my ice cream base, reducing the juices down until they are thick and syrupy, concentrates the flavour in them, which makes for a tastier ice cream in the end.  When it finally came time to churn everything in the ice cream maker, I added about 1/2 of the cherry reduction to the cream base and, as I transferred the entire batch to a freezer-proof bowl for the final chill, I wove a ribbon of the same syrup through the finished ice cream after the cherries were folded in.  The result was sheer perfection - probably my best batch of fruit ice cream ever (candied ginger holds the top spot for all-time favourite homemade ice cream).  The intense, distinct flavour of dark cherries was unmistakable and impossible to miss.  Now it was time to make the Swiss roll cake.

Cherries, chocolate, ice cream... what's not to like?

A Swiss roll typically uses a classic génoise cake as the sponge.  Perhaps without realizing it, we have all tasted génoise cake at some point in our lives, because it is highly adaptable and can be used in an endless variety of dishes.  However, the process for making a génoise is very unique.  For one thing, the batter contains no chemical leaveners.  That's right, no baking powder, no baking soda.  Instead, it uses a method similar to Swiss meringue, only génoise whips the entire egg into a foam, and cooks it gently over a double boiler to help stabilize the structure of the foam, before the dry ingredients and butter are added and the batter is baked.  The result is a very light, flexible cake that can be rolled up before it cools without breaking apart and crumbling.  Once cool you can gently unroll the cake, spread on a layer of filling, typically either a flavoured whipped cream or fruit preserves, then roll it all back up and serve.  Once the cake was filled with chantilly cream,  I let it firm up in the freezer for about 20 minutes to make for cleaner slices.  That gave me enough time to find the right bowl to use as a mold, and line it with plastic wrap.  I carefully cut the cake into 20 equal slices and arranged them snugly around the bottom and sides of the bowl.  I then scooped the cherry ice cream on top of the cake, and smoothed it out a bit, covered it with plastic wrap and put it back into the freezer for a couple of hours to firm up.

Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake - perfect for a summer birthday!

For the fudge sauce layer, I went simple.  I prefer a nice dark chocolate ganache to most chocolate or fudge sauce recipes that often call for corn syrup or other things that only make the sauce sweeter, taking away from the chocolate.  Ganache stays relatively soft once it's frozen, so it's a fine substitution.  Equal parts heavy cream and dark chocolate, heated up and stirred together... it takes less than 2 minutes to make and is *so* good when it's done.  To eliminate any chance of melting the ice cream layer by adding warm ganache, I left it on the counter overnight to cool to room temperature.  The next morning, I had a fully frozen ice cream mold and a scoop-able truffle layer, which I smoothed over and set back in the freezer while I made the final layer of ice cream.... Vanilla!

Both ice creams for this recipe were made Philadelphia style.  It's a lot faster to make than French style ice cream, because you don't have to cook and then cool the cream.  You can just mix everything together and churn it in your ice cream maker if you have one (If you don't happen to have an ice cream maker, Sunita has also posted a recipe for homemade ice cream that doesn't need any special equipment).  Milk, cream, sugar and a generous amount of vanilla were mixed together, churned and scooped on top of the chocolate layer.   A couple more hours in the freezer to firm up and the cake was finally done.

Dad loved his ice cream cake.  In fact, when Mom tried to send the left-overs home with me after dinner, I insisted it would keep in the freezer and he could enjoy a piece after dinner every night this week if he wanted.  When Mom asked Dad if he would be able to finish it, his reply was a simple "It's ice cream!"  Enough said....

So, if you have a couple of days to prepare in advance, and you want a nice summer treat to cool everyone down, this is a great dessert to make.  The sky's the limit when it comes to flavour combinations - if you can dream it, you can make it in this cake.  I'll definitely be making this dessert again and mixing up the flavours yet again.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Cherry Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake
serves 12-14

Chocolate Genoise Cake


60g (4 Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
107g (3/4 Cup) all-purpose flour
30g (1/4 Cup) cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 eggs, room temperature
201g (1 Cup) granulated sugar

5ml (1 tsp) vanilla

Preheat  oven to 350˚F and place rack in centre of oven.  Line a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Butter and flour any areas that may not be completely covered by the parchment.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, and salt and set aside.

In a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs and sugar.  Continue whisking gently until the mixture reaches 110˚F (check using an instant read thermometer).  Immediately pour the mixture into the bowl of a standing mixer, fitted with a whisk.  Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and whip until the egg mixture has more than doubled in volume.  When the whisk is lifted and held above the bowl, the mixture should fall in a thick ribbon that rests on top of the batter for several seconds.  Whisk in the vanilla.  Gently fold in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.  Gently fold in the melted butter.

Holding the bowl very close to the sheet pan, and being very careful not to deflate the batter, gently scrape the batter onto the prepared pan.  Carefully smooth the batter with a spatula.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch.  Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes.

On a flat, clean worksurface, smooth out a clean dishtowel which is larger than the sheet cake.  gently sprinkle cocoa powder onto the towel.  One the cake is just cool enough to handle, invert the cake onto the dusted towel.  Working quickly and using the towel, tightly roll the cake width-wise.  Set aside to cool completely.

Once the cake is fully cool, carefully unwrap the cake just before preparing the cream...

Vanilla Cream Filling
250ml (1 Cup) heavy cream
30g (2 Tbsp) granulated sugar
15ml (1 Tbsp) vanilla

In the bowl of a standing mixer, whip the cream to soft peaks.  Gradually whip in the sugar and vanilla, and continue until the cream holds still peaks.  Spread in an even layer over the top of the cake, leaving a 1/2 of clean border along the outer edge of the cake.

Slice the cake into approximately 20 equal slices, and line the mould tightly with the rolls.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer to set while you make the cherry ice cream.

Cherry Ice Cream
2 Cups fresh cherries, pitted and sliced into quarters.

100g (1/2 Cup) granulated sugar

1/2 stp salt

45ml Kirsch liqueur

500ml (2 Cups) heavy cream

Place the cherries, sugar and salt in a large saucepan.  Simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the juices have begun to reduce.  Strain the cherries over a bowl, reserving the juices.  Return the juices to the saucepan and stir in the Kirsch.  Continue to simmer for several minutes until the juices are thick and syrupy.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Once cool, combine 1/2 of the syrup with the heavy cream and churn in an ice cream maker, following manufacturer's directions.  Once the ice cream is churned, quickly fold in the cherries and finally, a ribbon of the syrup.  Immediately spread the ice cream into the cake-lined mould.  Cover and place in the freezer to set.

Chocolate Ganache
250ml (1 Cup) heavy bream
250g (1 Cup) dark chocolate, chopped
15ml (1 Tbsp) Kirch

Heat the cream over medium heat, but do not allow it to boil.  Place the chopped chocolate into a medium bowl.  Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate and whisk gently to combine.  Once the ganache comes together, gently stir in the Kirsch.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to cool for approximately 1 hour.

Once cooled, pour the ganache on top of the cherry ice cream, but do not spread it to the top of the mould.  Cover and return the cake to the freezer once more.

Vanilla Ice Cream
500ml (2 Cups) heavy cream
100g (1/2 Cup) granulated sugar

30ml (2 Tbsp) vanilla

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Churn the mixture in the ice cream maker according to directions.  Once fully churned, spread the ice cream over the ganache layer in the mould, and smooth the top.  Cover and return to the freezer and allow to chill completely, approximately 6-8 hours.

Shortly before you are ready to serve, remove the mould from the freezer and carefully run warm water over the outside of the mould to help release the dessert.  Gently invert onto a plate and keep in the freezer until everyone is ready for dessert.  To slice, use a very sharp knife, dipped into very hot water.

I've never thought of myself as "cheap" before

Not that kind of cheap!  I mean cheap as in thrifty, a penny-pincher (or as we say in Canada, one who can "squeeze a nickel 'till the beaver farts").  We're a classy bunch, aren't we? :-)

I've always been cursed with expensive taste, an appreciation for the finer things in life. That said, I was also raised by a veteran bargain hunter, a woman who can spot sale signs anywhere, even in a foreign country in a language she does not speak.  Sis, mom and I often e-mail, text or call one another to brag about our sale finding prowess; "Gorgeous dress, 100%silk, regular $185 on sale for $29 bucks!"  "Oh yeah?  Check out my shoes, Cole Haan's regular $280, I got them for $40."  We boast about bargains the way fishermen brag about their size of catch.  Sometimes though, it's a case of you get what you pay for, and price must be sacrificed for quality.  I choke at the thought of paying more than $50 for a pair of jeans, but I don't even flinch at the $200 price tag on a Kasumi knife.  Maybe it's more about what I'm paying for than how much. After all, I've been known to pay what some consider an obscene amount of money for sugar cubes.  In my defense, these were not just any ordinary sugar cubes - these were sugar works of art I discovered in Paris, the likes of which I had never seen.  Just take a look for yourself, then we'll see;

Oh no, these are not for coffee, silly!

These are saved for special occasions, to put on cakes and such.

So when I see that peaches, nectarines, apricots, cherries - all kinds of juicy, fresh orchard fruits, are finally and briefly in season, I gotta say, I wish they weren't quite so expensive.  But when something's only available for a few weeks each year, there are only two options: pay up or go without.  I was eyeing  Ranier cherries at the grocery store recently, the ones that are the exact colour of a tropical sunset.  My mouth watering just looking at them, but I just couldn't justify the $7 per 100g for them.  It would cost me a fortune just to make one pie!  Suddenly, at $2 per 100g, the dark red Bing cherries seem like a steal, as did the apricots.  I loaded up my shopping basket and headed to the checkout before I got buyer's remorse.

It occurred to me when I got home, that I have never had fresh apricots.  How weird is that?  I've had more than my fair share of dried apricots, but not fresh.  Maybe if I had grown up in the Okanagan region of BC, where all of these things are grown, things would be different.  Here in Alberta, our climate's better at producing berries, corn and beef than orchard fruits, kiwis or grapes.  Well, one of the best things about being a foodie is trying new things - letting your taste buds be adventurous and discovering new delights.

I decided that a simple tart would be the best way to showcase these delicate and fuzzy little guys.  I pressed some pâte brisée into a tart pan and slid it into the oven to bake up.  I sliced up the apricots, and threw them in a bowl.  I wanted to do something a little more inspiring that simply tossing them in sugar, when I spied the bottle of ginger syrup mom brought back from Hawaii.  That and a little bit of vanilla was all that was needed to make this tart something special.  And what better to serve it with than ice cream? 

For the past couple of weeks I'd been wanting to make some matcha green tea ice cream, and this seemed like the ideal opportunity. I didn't have time to run down to chinatown for some authentic matcha, but I remembered seeing it sold at the local juice bar.  I no sooner walked into the juice bar and I was walking out empty-handed, however, eyes wide at the $28 price tag on a small tin of tea.  Yikes!  Talk about sticker shock!  I've since learned that this is an average cost for this glorious green powder, especially since the world has learned of it's seemingly endless health benefits.  As luck would have it, I found an inexpensive cheat at the grocery store a few days later: a tetra pack of Tazo Green Tea Latte mix.  I love an ice cold green tea frappucino on a hot day, and the flavour would be perfect for ice cream.  This time I made a simple Philly-style ice cream, combining the sweet green tea mix with a little milk and some cream.  After churning in the ice cream maker, I folded in some sliced cherries and put it into the freezer.  A few hours later, dessert was served.

One thing completely took me by surprise, was discovering that I am not a fan of the smell of fresh baked apricots.  There's just something odd about the fragrance, or perhaps it's the mix of ginger, pastry and apricots... whatever it was, I found it a little confusing to be put off by the smell of such a delightful dessert.  Once the tart was fully cooled, I was able to enjoy it more, just not when it's fresh from the oven.  Weird.  Have you ever encountered something similar?  Or the opposite - do you find the scent of a certain food to be intoxicating, while the actual taste is less than delightful?  

If you want a simple summer dessert, bake up a few empty tart shells on a rainy day.  When inspiration strikes and fresh seasonal fruits beckon to you from the produce section, you can have an elegant and flavourful dessert on the table in about 20 minutes.  Of course, there are lots of other delectable fillings you can have in a tart, but that's another post entirely....

Until then, Happy Baking!

Oh, and as for recipes, this time there really aren't any.  Follow my recipe for Pâte Brisée, then add in some sliced fresh fruit, tossed with just enough flavourful syrup to make them glossy and about 1.2 tsp of vanilla and bake until the fruit is just starting to soften.  As for the ice cream, combine green tea latte mix with some milk and cream to taste and run it through the ice cream maker.  Add some sliced cherries and freeze.  This dessert was all about baking to taste...

Papa Screams for Ice Cream

I love to bring people joy with my food, it's one of my favourite things about cooking and baking.  This why I like bringing desserts when we get together with friends, or baking a cake for someone's birthday.  It's the reason I send treats to work with hubby, or take a pie over to a friends house "just because". While I don't necessarily need an occasion, Father's Day was as good an excuse as any, especially when Papa has a finely tuned sweet-tooth.

Two of Dad's favourite things are ice cream and everything caramel.  That meant deciding on what to make was pretty straightforward; Homemade Dulce de Leche Ice Cream.  For most people having cake and ice cream at a birthday, the ratio is about 2 cake to 1 ice cream.  For Dad it's more like 3 ice cream to 1 cake, and even then, he'll ask why you're being so stingy with the ice cream.  For his birthday one year, I even made him a home-made ice cream cake, something I imagine I'll do again soon, as his birthday is fast approaching.

Making ice cream from scratch is not all that difficult, but it is a lengthy process when you do it properly.  So be warned, when a sudden insatiable craving for ice cream hits, you'd better run to the store because this is not something that can just be whipped up in 20 minutes like a batch of cookies.  Nope - there's a lot of waiting and chilling time involved here.  Even more so because we're making French style ice cream.  Let me explain...

There are two basic types of ice cream (I'm not even going to get into gelatos, sorbets or semi-freddos today - that's another post entirely); Philadelphia style and French custard style ice cream.  Philadelphia ice cream is usually pretty simple and light, as it contains just cream, sugar and flavourings.  There's no cooking required in this kind of ice cream, but you're still going to have to wait for it to freeze up.  French custard style ice cream, on the other hand, needs to be cooked first. because it contains egg yolks, which give this kind of ice cream a rich taste and mouth feel, and it's also why some vanilla ice creams are a creamy yellow colour  instead of a pure, snowy white colour (that would be Philly style).  For French custard-style ice cream, you cook your custard first, then it needs time to cool down and chill in the fridge for a while.  Once it's chilled, then you can put it into your ice cream maker and let those wonderful ice crystals work their magic and incorporate air into the cream - which is what gives ice cream it's trademark texture.  When it comes out of the machine, it will be the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, so it still needs to be transferred into a container and put into the freezer for a few hours before it will become really firm.  I know - it sounds like an awful lot of work for something you can pick up at the corner store, but homemade ice cream tastes sooo much better, and you should be able to pronounce every ingredient it was made with.  Not the case with 90% of the stuff in the grocery store freezer.  Hopefully I haven't scared you out of trying this recipe, because it really is worth the effort, and more importantly, so is Dad.

To go from just regular, plain ol' vanilla ice cream (which I personally happen to love) to dulce de leche ice cream, all you need is a jar of dulce de leche.  OK, so it's not all that common for most people to keep a jar on hand, but in my fridge, there is almost always a jar of home-made caramel sauce on the shelf, right beside the jar of dark chocolate ganache (because home-made or not, all ice cream is better with a little bit of warmed sauce on top).  These days, you can also buy jars of dulce de leche at just about any grocery store, which comes in pretty handy for recipes like these ones.  To get a really caramelly ice cream, I took inspiration from David Lebovitz's recipe for Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream, and used dulce de leche in place of most of the sugar in the custard base.  Once that was done and the custard was cooked, chilled and finally had a run in the ice cream maker, all that was left do was to add a nice, thick swirl of pure dulce de leche through the finished product before it headed into it's rest in the freezer.  A few hours later, Dad was enjoying his Father's Day present and aside from several "mmmmmmm's", was not talking much.  It's a pretty good feeling to see someone who has done so much for you in your life, enjoying the little treat you made especially for them.  It's the least we can do for our dads, don't you think?

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream
Makes approximately 1 litre of ice cream

Ingredients:

370ml     whole milk     1 1/2 Cups

370ml     whipping or heavy cream     1/12 Cups

15ml     vanilla     1 Tbsp

3g     salt     1/2 tsp

250ml     dulce de leche     2 1/4 Cups

4 egg yolks

30 g     granulated sugar     2 Tbsp

Directions:
Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl about 2/3 full with ice and cold water; set aside.  Get a smaller bowl and place a fine sieve over it and set aside. This is what the finished custard will be poured into.
In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, cream, vanilla, salt & 150ml (1 1/4 cups) of the dulce de leche.  Place over medium-low heat and gently stir the mixture periodically to help the caramel fully melt.  Do not allow the mixture to boil - you want it to be just barely simmering at it's hottest.
In a separate bowl, placed on a damp towl or non-skid mat, add the 4 egg yolks and the sugar.  Whisk vigorously until the mixture is pale yellow.  Continue whisking (quickly but not as vigourously) and carefully pour the 1/3 of the hot cream in a slow and steady stream into the egg mixture - this is called "tempering" (The trick to avoiding scrambled eggs here is to to never stop whisking, and to not add the hot cream too quickly).  Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining cream and gently stir over medium-low heat until the custard just begins to thicken.  Again, you don't want the custard to boil, you only want it to thicken. 
Remove from heat and carefully pour the custard through the sieve and into the empty bowl. 
Immediately place the bowl into the ice bath, ensuring that no water gets into the custard. 
Cover the custard with plastic wrap and allow it to cool to room temperature before removing from the ice bath and placing in the fridge to chill for 2-4 hours until cold.
Follow the manufacturer's directions for churning the custard in the ice cream maker.  Once it has finished churning, the mixture should have more than doubled in volume and be soft-serve ice-cream consistency.  Working quickly, scrape the ice cream into a freezer-safe container.  Pour the remaining dulce de leche over the ice cream and swirl it throughout.  Transfer the ice cream to the freezer and allow to chill for several hours.  When the ice cream has fully frozen, all you need are spoons and a couple of bowls...

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there.  I hope you were able to enjoy your favourite treat to celebrate.

Happy Baking!