TWD: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

For your consideration: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 288-289, featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorrie. This fabulous dessert was absolutely yummy and actually quite easy to make. Presentation wise, it’s a knock-out. It did take some time to chill between layers, but while waiting, I tried to summit Mt. Washmore and knock out a few loads.

I used an 8” springform pan and once I was done, the fillings went all the way up to the top – not too much wiggle room. For the chocolate, definitely use the double-boiler method for melting. For less important recipes, I nuke it because it will actually be cooked into something, but for this where it’s the main attraction, take the time and do it right. I totally worked out my whisking muscles beating the eggs into the chocolate. Ow. Next time I would let the ganache cool for a little longer than 5 minutes, maybe 8 or 10. I was worried that the eggs might be curdling, but I kept whisking away (and whisking and whisking) and it smoothed out. The ice cream was a breeze to make, although I totally blanked out when faced with a half gallon of French Vanilla ice cream. Yikes! How many quarts in a half gallon?? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? (Yes, it’s two, so half of the container.) Again, OCD me needs to be exact so I cut it in half with a knife. (Um, Mommy, I’ve never seen anyone cut ice cream before with a knife. Yes dear, I’m just special that way. Run along now and play.)

Since I am a geek, I used a measuring cup to hold the chocolate so I could try and measure out an even 1/3 of the ganache for each of the layers. I was moderately successful. I waited 30 minutes between chillings so that it was fairly fool-proof and I didn’t have to worry about smearing. For the unmolding, when she says 10 seconds on the hot towel to release the pan, it’s 10 seconds. 20 will make it a little runny. If this happens, smooth out any drippy areas on the outside of the cake with the warm towel to create nice clean strata. Use a hot knife to cleanly cut the slices.

Finally! It was done, frozen and beautiful, but it looked a little naked and needed some zoom zoom. With a vegetable peeler, I shaved some of the dark chocolate off the remainder of the block I had used for the recipe. Using the suggested hairdryer trick, I slightly melted the top, shook on the shavings and voila! She is beautiful and tastes like a dream. I think that next time I'll try this with orange instead of raspberry. Vanilla ice cream blended with frozen manderins, a splash of OJ and a little Grand Marnier? Orange sherbet? What do you think?

Thanks to Amy of Food, Family and Fun for choosing this recipe! To see what all the other TWDers did with this torte, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making the Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte for yourself, you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.