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

I’ve built two houses this month. The first one (shown above) is make of butter, sugar, and flour. The second one is made of clay, sand, straw, and water (cob). They’re both a bit rustic, but full of flavor and character. Each house was built using a series of layers that form a strong bond when tied together.

Mixing cob is a bit like mixing cake batter, except you use your feet instead of your hands. The final material is used to construct thick, strong walls with an incredible insulation factor and gorgeous flowing shapes.

This building adventure was a community effort. Most of us had never built anything with cob before, let alone a house! As we worked together to stomp on mud and smooth it into walls, the worksite echoed with conversation and laughter. Building with earth is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. The workshop has inspired me to continue my natural building education, and I hope to share more projects and insight with you soon! During the seven day workshop, we completed almost the entire first story of the house!

It goes to show that you don’t have to be a building expert to build your own house. But if you’re not ready to take on a cob house quite yet, you could always build a smaller scale replica with Petit Fours.

With any building project comes a set of challenges. My largest challenge in constructing the Petit Fours was due to the different temperature requirements of each layer. The ice cream layer in the middle needed to remain frozen, yet the poured buttercream coating wouldn’t pour unless it was warm. This resulted in some melty edges. I would recommend using a glaze that is pourable at room temperature to achieve a perfectly square finish.

If you’re not interested in a perfect shape, I’d like to say that the combination given in the recipe is amazing! The brown butter pound cake and vanilla bean ice cream are made to be sandwiched together. These Petit Fours tasted incredible, both glazed and unglazed.

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

I made this dessert over the course of three days:
Day 1 – Make ice cream
Day 2 – Make brown butter pound cake and assemble the layers
Day 3 – Slice into Petit Fours and decorate

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sucanat (Note: the sucanat makes the ice cream a tan color. If this bothers you, use white sugar)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, salt, and sugar until it steams. Use a paring knife to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and into the milk, adding the bean pod as well. Remove from heat, cover, and let infuse for one hour. If you are not using the vanilla bean, heat the milk, salt, and sugar until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.

Make an ice bath for the cream by placing a 2 quart bowl inside a larger bowl partially filled with cold water and ice. Your ice bath is even cooler (figuratively speaking) if you use Pi ice cubes!

Set a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the saucepan until warmed. Gradually pour 1/4 cup of warmed milk into the egg yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from cooking. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

Pour the custard through the strainer into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

Remove the vanilla pod and freeze in an ice cream maker.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sucanat, finely ground in a coffee grinder or food processor
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325° with the rack in the center position. Grease and flour a 9″x9″ pan.

Place the butter in a large light-colored skillet or pot over medium-low heat. Let the butter cook until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. The stages of browning butter are as follows:

First, the butter melts:

Then it foams:

Next, it gurgles and spits at you:

Finally, it browns:

It’s best not to walk away while the butter is browning. It goes from brown to burnt in no time flat!

Pour the browned butter into a shallow bowl and chill it in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

In an electric mixer, beat the brown butter and sucanat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Beat in the vanilla extract.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Pour the batter into the pan. Ensure that the top is as level as possible, and rap the pan on the counter. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the entire pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and invert the cake twice so that it cools right side up on a cooling rack.

To assemble the Ice Cream Petit Fours:

Line a 9″x9″ pan with plastic wrap, making sure to hang it over the edges for easier removal later. Spread about 2 cups of ice cream into the pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and freeze for a few hours (preferably on a level surface, if you can find one in your freezer).

When the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a serrated knife or cake leveler. Split the cake in half horizontally to make two thin layers (this is tricky!).

Place one layer of the cake onto a piece of plastic wrap larger than the cake by a few inches on all sides. Unwrap the frozen ice cream layer and invert it onto the cake. Peel the plastic wrap off the ice cream and place the second cake layer on top. Carefully lift the bottom layer of plastic wrap and lower the entire cake back into the pan. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

The next day, invert the cake onto a cutting board and remove the plastic wrap. Here’s where the original recipe tells me to cut of 3/4″ on each side and then divide the cake into 2.5″ squares. I realized that I had had some cake shrinkage and wouldn’t be able to duplicate those measurements.

So I suggest using your math skills to create Petit Fours sized ideally for your cake. Slice off the edges of the cake so that you’re starting with four (mostly) even sides. Slice into squares as evenly as possible.

Poured Buttercream
The original recipe suggested covering the Petit Fours with a chocolate glaze but I decided to attempt poured buttercream. This recipe would work well on a cake without ice cream in it! The buttercream must be warm to pour, so it tends to melt the ice cream around the edges. This resulted in Petit Fours that weren’t exactly square, but still delicious!

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream, plus extra for melting
3 cups powdered sugar

In an electric mixer, beat butter, vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup cream until smooth. Sift the powdered sugar and slowly add it to the creamed butter until the desired consistency is reached.

Reserve buttercream for piping decorations if desired.

Place buttercream in a microwave safe dish. Heat in 5-10 second increments, stirring in between heating. If it gets too thick, add some cream, a tablespoon at a time. The buttercream is the correct consistency for pouring when a spoon lifted from the bowl creates a ribbon of buttercream that disappears back into the rest.

Place one Petit Four on a fork over the bowl. Dip the bottom of the Petit Four into the buttercream. Use a large spoon to drizzle buttercream over the top and sides of the Petit Four. Place Petit Four onto a baking sheet lined with waxed paper and return to the freezer immediately.

As the buttercream cools it will become too solid to pour smoothly. Reheat in the microwave in 5-10 second intervals until it is pouring consistency.

Once the buttercream coating has cooled and hardened, decorate the Petit Fours as desired. Feel free to go vertical!