TWD - Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

 

I scream, you scream, we all scream - for chocolate-truffle-alternating-with-ice cream...

Amy of Food, Family, and Fun selected this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, what a fabulously simple-yet-elegant dessert it is!  The fun thing is, once you get the hang of it, you can create just about any kind of ice cream torte you can think up.  Right now I'm thinking of using an orange sherbet spiked with Grand Marnier for the ice cream layers - wouldn't that make a clever Halloween dessert?  And hey...my sister's birthday is on Halloween...and I'm the maker-of-the-cakes...hmmmmmmmmm.

Sorry - back to the here and now.

I didn't want to make the full-sized torte - we've just got too much sweet stuff in this house right now and it's just...well...it's going to waste.  Sure, it's ice cream, it can be frozen.  But if it's ice cream, and it's yummy, I'll eat it.  So better to go small and not have leftovers.  At least not too many.

So I used a 6" springform pan instead of the 8" or 8 ^1/2" one.

The chocolate truffle part was easy to put together.  I reduced the quantities to fit the smaller pan - I used 3/4 of the amounts called for in Dorie's recipe, and that worked just fine.

I melted my chocolate and butter, added my sugar,

and whisked in the eggs, one by one by one by one by one by one.

I poured a third of the mixture into the bottom of my springform and popped it in the freezer to set.

For the filling, I started out with simple ol' Edy's Raspberry Chip Royale.  I had picked that up as part of a buy one, get one free (my other flavor was Mint Chocolate Chip - my personal favorite, no matter who is manufacturing it) deal at the grocery store the other day and thought it would work perfectly. 

I mashed this around with a rubber spatula until it was relatively smooth but not melted...

and then I got out my springform.  I had left it in there for at least 30 minutes, but it still wasn't set.  Of course, I didn't actually CHECK that first - I just dumped the ice cream in and started to smear it out toward the edges of the pan with my sturdy spatula and noticed that the ice cream was actually sort of sinking into the chocolate rather than just spreading nicely across it. 

Ah well.  Who was going to notice?  No one, that's who.  It'll just be our little secret.

Dorie mentioned in the introduction to this recipe that "the active work time is minimal, but the waiting around time is considerable."  Yep.  'Struth.  Fortunately for me, I was also working on a batch of bread at the same time, so I'd pour some chocolate...knead some dough...smear some ice cream...form a round loaf.  Never a dull moment in my kitchen!

I let the torte set overnight.  Dorie recommends at least 6 hours - mine was in there closer to 18, I think. 

Here's how it looked today when I removed it from the freezer and started messing with it.

I can see a bunch of frozen solid air bubbles lurking below the surface, but otherwise it looks pretty okay.

Rather than run ALLLLLLL the way upstairs (a whopping 13 steps up the stairs) to get my rarely-used hair dryer, I went for option two - I soaked a dish towel in hot water and wrapped it around the sides of the pan.

Dorie recommended 10 minutes.  I'm too impatient for that - I went with five.  About.

And then - the unveiling.

Not perfect, but it certainly looks yummy, huh?

OH!  and what's with the two shades of ice cream, you ask?  Oh, that's right, I forgot to tell that part.  I didn't have enough of the Raspberry ice cream for a decent layer, and I didn't have enough Mint Chocolate Chip, either, and I wasn't about to mix them together and end up with some weird, grayish, fruity/minty layer, either.  So I mixed about half a cup of strawberry-blueberry freezer jam I'd made earlier this summer into the remaining Raspberry Chip ice cream - the jam stretched the ice cream just enough, and it was such a pretty color, too. 

Into the freezer it went, to firm the sides back up.

And then out again after dinner for a photo op and an introduction to my omnivorous children.

First - the thawing pictures.

 

And yeah, I took out the little macro lens attachment, too.  I can't help it.  I think icy stuff is beautiful.

  

(Psst - if you look up at the top right edge of the torte, you can see where I bumped it against the icemaker when I was sliding it onto the top shelf of my freezer.  Oops.)

I let the torte sit out while I did some dishes and made a quick and simple little sauce out of the rest of that freezer jam, mashed through a strainer.

I knew slicing the torte might be problematic, because frozen things thaw from the outside in, and I didn't want the sides to start melting by the time the middle was soft enough to cut through.  So I bullied my way through with a long, thin knife, hot water, patience (I know - yes, I'm a patient bully) and a little white and beige wash cloth that I used to hold the torte still while I nearly sliced my thumb off sawing through frozen sugar-based goodness. 

First, I made one slice from 12:00 to 6:00.

 

I repeated this careful slicing, rinsing the knife blade in hot water in between slices. 

Once I hit bottom, I slipped a larg offset spatula under one half and slid it off the parchment paper underneath.  I wrapped this half in plastic and put it back in the freezer.  Then I sliced the other half in two.

I wrapped one of THOSE halves in plastic and then cut the last quarter section into two small, tidy portions.

I plated the better-looking one and dotted the plate with some of that mashed/strained freezer jam.

And then it was on to the judging.

Here we have Judge Alex -

You can see he is evaluating the dish based on appearance, taste, and whether or not I gave him enough jammy sauce.

Then there's Judge Julia -

 

She will evaluate the dish based on pinkness, use of pink, and how much pink there is.

Actually, both kids REEEEALLY liked this one, although I have to tell you that Alex said his favorite part was the "fruit water" I'd dotted the plate with.  Ah well.  That didn't stop him from eating all the ice cream and chocolate on his plate.

Later on, Bill had his portion, and he said - more than once - that he liked it a lot. 

And as for me?  I knew I'd like it before I melted the chocolate and butter.  What's not to like?  Ice cream and chocolate truffle, layered together?  Yes, please!

Now, if you haven't already, go on and check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll to what everyone else in the group (the really, really BIG group) thought about this torte.  And then go get a copy of Dorie's book, Baking:  From My Home to Yours, and make your own!