No, this is not what they're supposed to look like...
It seemed so simple and had so much promise.. all the ingredients alone were perfect... together they were going to be delicious. I couldn't even wait till I was done leveling the cake before eating the scraps of the Brown Butter Pound Cake. And Amaretto Ice Cream? Yes please.
But sandwiched together? Fail.
In petit four form? Epic fail.
Maybe they knew how good they were alone and just didn't want to come together with the Chocolate Glaze to top it all off? Whatever the case may be, all I know is is that I ended up with a huge chocolate-y, melted ice cream mess in my tiny galley kitchen. The one thing that does makes me feel better is knowing some other people had the same problem..I really need to stop waiting till the last minute to complete the challenges, but sometimes the month just slips away from me!
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 Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa's challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop."
Brown Butter Pound Cake
Oven: 325 Bake time: 25 minutes
Yields 9x9 square pan or 9inch round cake
19 TBS butter
2 cups sifted cake flour (if you don't have this you can make your own by placing 2 TBS of cornstarch into a measuring cup and filling the rest of AP flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour pan.
Place butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown butter until color changes to dark brown and butter starts to smell nutty (constantly mix!) Pour into shallow bowl and place in freezer for about 15-20 minutes or until slightly congealed.
In a small bowl whisk cake flour, baking powder and salt.
Beat chilled brown butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then add vanilla extract.
Stir in flour at low speed until just combined.
Scrape into prepared pan and bake until golden brown on top and toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely.
Amaretto Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
about a shot or two of Amaretto (or more if you want really boozy ice cream)
In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to combine milk and sugar until dissolved.
Stir in vanilla and Amaretto to taste.
Pour mixture into chilled freezer bowl in ice cream machine.
Let mixture churn and thicken for about 25-30 minutes.
Transfer ice cream to freezer safe bowl and place in freezer over night.
Chocolate Glaze
9 oz semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 TBS light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
Stir heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small sauce pan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Let sit for about 30 seconds before whisking until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in vanilla and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Assembly
1. Line same size pan that you baked your cake in, with plastic wrap so no sides are exposed. Spread about 1 3/4-2 cups of ice cream into pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze for several hours.
We're still looking good.
2. Once pound cake has cooled completely, level the top and then split the cake in half horizontally to form 2 thin layers.
Yup, perfect cake...a little leveling
3. Unwrap frozen ice cream and flip onto one of the layers of cake and top with second layer. Re-wrap and return to freezer over night.
I should have known this was going too well.
4. Make chocolate glaze5. While glaze cool, cut cake into little squares
We're still doing ok, until they sit for a few...
And this is where the failing begins.
Noooo...they're meellltinggg.
7. Place petit fours onto parchment paper lined baking sheet and return to freezer for at least an hour
Ugh.
Mess.
The assembly may not have been perfect, but at least the final product still tasted good!
Until next time Daring Bakers...please no more ice cream!!
After this slight catastrophe I ask you out there in the blog world..
1. Does anyone know how to make homemade ice cream harder?
2. Does anyone have any good tips for covering petit fours with a glaze?
3. For those of you who made these and won, HOW DID YOU DO IT!?
4. Would anyone still eat these? haha