Snickerdoodles & Ice Cream Sandwiches

A good friend of ours left for Afghanistan a few months ago.

Before he left I promised I would send him a care package a few weeks into his deployment with the essentials: VIA Starbucks coffee, nutella, trail mix, Easter candy, silly toys and homemade cookies.

What more could a boy want while fighting our nation's war in the desert? I can't think of much.

As I was getting the package put together, Dan requested his favorite cookies- snickerdoodles.  I have to be honest, I kind of got excited... mostly because they are one of my favorite cookies too and not only was I looking forward to sending him a little bit of home, but I was also looking forward to eating all the extra that wouldn't necessarily fit :)

Shortly after the package was received, I was happily informed that the cookies were gone in a matter of minutes.. I think the word "A-mazing" was used.

I did a little something extra with our share of cookies, so you'll have to read the whole post to make sure you see it!

Snickerdoodles
Recipe from Pilsbury Kitchen's Cookbook
Oven: 400 Bake time: 8-10 minutes

1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup AP flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small shallow bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs.
Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt- blend well.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls (about a TBS of dough).
Roll balls in cinnamon and sugar mixture, placing on baking sheet when covered.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until cookies slightly crack.

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream Sandwiches:
Use your favorite vanilla ice cream and allow to soften.
Line cookies, in sets of two, flat side up.

 Place one scoop of ice cream on the flat side of a cookie... 

and press second cookie (flat side down) on top

There's no better way to eat a snickerdoodle!

Happy Baking!

Ice Cream Petit Fours- August DB Challenge

No, this is not what they're supposed to look like...

I don't even know where to begin with this challenge.

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 glaze
5. 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.

6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time by spooning glaze over cakes  (I placed them on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath to catch the falling chocolate)

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 

Cantaloupe Sorbet

We're going to start this post with joke for all you gardeners (mom this is for you!) and fruit lovers out there.. 

Why do melons have fancy weddings?.....  Because they cantaloupe! 

Wheew.. I don't know why I spend so much time baking when I should obviously be a comedian! ;)

But on a more serious note.. this Cantaloupe Sorbet is the real deal. 

When we were kids back to school time meant the end of summer- the end of fun in the sun. When you're in the real world however, there is no summer.. no days off to spend lounging at the pool, no long vacations, and there is certainly no break in responsibilities... No siree... when we find ourselves in the working world summer time just means hot weather and crowds and back to school time means great sales at the mall and tax-free time in Texas.

But one thing about the summer that never changes no matter how old you are? The abundance of ice cream, sorbets and sherbets. Mountain Man loves him some of these chilled desserts and although we don't use it as often as we should, the ice cream maker has definitely come in handy a time or to this past summer.

The other day we realized the cantaloupe we had just recently purchased was way past its prime. A little too smooshy (that's scientific term) for my liking, I suggested MM give it a go in the ice cream maker- sorbet style. What resulted was a fabulously refreshing dessert.. perfect for the remaining warm summer nights...and in Texas summer doesn't end until about October, so we're still good.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

1 cantaloupe, skin removed and cut into chunks
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
6 TBS fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

Add all ingredients to a food processor and puree.
Place pureed fruit in fridge over night.
Pour into ice cream maker and get that bowl spinning!

I'll leave you with just one more...

Cantaloupe? Then cohabitate :) 

Thank you, thank you.. I'll be here all week!