DARING BAKERS AUGUST, 2010 CHALLENGE: ICE CREAM PETIT FOURS

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 Alasa or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.  Lees verder..



Another great challenge for this month's Daring Bakers assignment. I chose to made the Ice cream petit fours. The petit fours are made of brown butter pound cake which is filled with home made ice cream an glazed with chocolate, lovely! I have never made a brown butter pound cake before. I felt a bit strange when browning the butter, wouldn't it taste like burned/black butter in the cake ? No it didn't ! It gave the pound cake a delicious taste, i like it! The chocolate glazing was also amazing, i never made a glazing before that was totally 'hard' after one our of freezing, great recipe :) I made the petit fours a little bit bigger, more like a cupcake size and I decorated the ice cream petit fours with some blackberry's and confectioners sugar. Great recipe and great challenge ! Thanks Elissa :)


Different components for the Iee Cream Petit Fours:
- Brown butter pound cake
- Vanilla ice cream
- Chocolate glaze




Ingredients > Brown Butter Pound Cake:
- 275g unsalted butter
- 200g sifted cake flour
- 5g baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 110g packed light brown sugar
- 75g cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract










Directions > Brown Butter Pound Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 23cm x 23cm square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 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.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. 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.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 23cm x 23cm 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.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Vanilla ice cream > Ingredients:
- 300ml whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 60 gram granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla –sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.
2. Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.










Ingredients > Chocolate Glaze:
- 250g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 250 ml heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions > Chocolate Glaze:
1. Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate.
3. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.










Assembly Instructions > Ice Cream Petit Fours:
1. Line a 23cm x 23cm pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.
2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.
3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.
4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)
5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).
6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.
7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.