Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream Sundaes

This week Katrina of Baking and Boys chose Dorie's Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream. My first thought? Drooooool. My second thought? Damn ...

While I am a lot more relaxed with food this pregnancy the raw/undercooked egg thing still spooks me. So rather than make a batch of what I am sure is truly awesome ice cream that I won't eat, this time around I just made the ganache.

I turned a lovely, creamy vanilla ice cream into rocky road by adding chopped marshmallows, chocolate covered peanuts and a few jelly babies and topped it all off with lashings of gorgeous chocolate ganache.

The taste test ...

This was sweet, rich and very naughty! I'm sure it doesn't even come close to the deliciousness of the original recipe but we enjoyed it anyway.

Thanks to Katrina for a great pick! It is now top of my list for post-pregnancy baking. Incidentally I finally got around to ordering The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz so I predict a lot of ice cream this summer!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Gingered Carrot Cookies

After all the brownies and blondies we've had, finally a cookie for us redheads! Dorie says she created these cookies by accident but I say making carrot cake in cookie form is pure genius :)

While carrot cake can be a stodgy, oily disaster, these were fantastic! Plus they were a breeze to make and we had everything in the pantry already which I love. I used 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice) in addition to the ginger which gave them a lovely warmth and perfectly complemented the nuts and raisins.

I only made half a batch and got 16 decent sized cookies. I also whipped up a quick cream cheese icing for some while the rest of the batch ended up in the freezer.

The taste test ...

Umm, it's carrot cake in cookie form so of course they were tasty! They're not special occasion cookies but for everyday I would definitely make them again. That's really all you need to know.

Thanks to Natalia of gatti fili e farina for this week's pick! You can find the recipe on her blog.

Daring Bakers July - Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

It may be the middle of winter here but it's never too cold for ice cream!

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.-

This was a brilliant challenge. I've long been afraid of making a swiss roll after a disastrous experience years ago. Although when I think back I was probably about 12 and I'm almost certain I tried to roll up my cake while it was cold.

Anyway, this time around was a cinch! My cakes cooked in the time specified, they came out of the tin easily and they rolled up perfectly. I may have gone a little overboard on the sugar but this made for a gorgeous crackly texture once frozen.

The brief was to make 2 chocolate swiss roll cakes filled with vanilla cream, to line a bowl with the slices and fill the interior with ice cream. I was so glad we were having visitors to help us eat this otherwise it would be ice cream cake for months!

I used plain vanilla ice cream for the top and bottom layers and filled the middle with a caramel ice cream flavoured with fruit mince. This gave the bombe a Christmas in July sort of feel.

The taste test ...

Well it's cake, cream and 2 types of ice cream ... there's no way this can be bad! We loved it! It was also surprisingly easy for such an impressive looking dessert. Turn this baby out at the table and you are guaranteed some ooohs and aaahs!

Thanks for a wonderful challenge Sunita! You will find the recipe on her blog here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

This week's TWD recipe was Nicole of Cookies on Friday and she picked Dorie's Chewy, Chunky Blondies. I don't think I've ever made or eaten a blondie so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Turns out these are supposed to be like cookies but in bar form.

We can't get butterscotch chips here but to keep the caramelly theme going I used dark brown sugar and some chopped up Violet Crumbles (chocolate covered honeycomb pieces) as well as extra chopped dark chocolate and some walnuts.

I made a half batch in an 8 x 8 pan and baked for 35 minutes. At that point they were puffed and a deep golden brown but after a few minutes on the bench the middle fell completely. So my blondies were a little on the flat and greasy side. But the taste?

The taste test ...

AMAZING. Especially warm from the oven when they're gooey and melty and oh so delicious. You'll see in the photo above there are 2 pieces missing, well a few more went missing immediately after. I wish we had some left!

Thanks for an awesome pick Nicole! You can find the recipe on her blog Cookies on Friday under today's date.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days! What is the world coming to?? Continuing yesterday's theme of wheat and dairy free treats, I made these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies a while back. Oscar is now at the age where it's really difficult to eat in front of him ie. he throws a bit of a tantrum if he can't have a bite! So having something safe for him to eat as well makes life a little easier.

Rather than start from scratch I adapted the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe on Simply Recipes here. The changes I made were:

• swapped out the wheat flour for a 50:50 blend of white and wholemeal spelt flours along with a pinch of xanthum gum
• used a dairy free spread instead of butter
• left out the nuts
• cut back on the sugar (I used just 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup white and they were still really sweet)

The taste test ...

Chewy, spicy, sweet and completely addictive! I got 24 huge cookies and they make a pretty substantial snack. I froze most of the batch and they are delicious straight from the freezer. These are a definite winner and will be made again and again.