Thank you Dorie (@DorieGreenspan) for mentioning my variation on your cake as one of your favorites to the people at O (Oprah!) magazine. What an honor. Dorie is an inspiration who takes the time to respond and encourage people to follow their passion. I have several of Dorie's cookbooks, and 

Top 15 Treats from Tuesdays with Dorie

Here are my top 15 favorite recipes from the Tuesdays with Dorie treats I made:


French Yogurt Cake


Lemon Cup Custard


Chocolate Armagnac Cake


Floating Islands


World Peace Cookies


Arborio Rice Pudding


Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes


Lenox Almond Biscotti


Dimply Plum Cake


Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie


Peppermint Cream Puff Ring


French Chocolate Brownies


The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart


Gooey Chocolate Cake


Caramel-Topped Flan

To see all the treats I baked for Tuesdays with Dorie, click here.

You should really buy Dorie’s cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link). There are so many wonderful recipes between its covers.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it's easy. First you have to melt the sugar in the water and vanilla over medium heat. Purée the strawberries in a food processor along with the lemon juice. Cool the sugar syrup mixture before adding the puréed strawberries. Then, just process in your ice cream maker. Simple.

Recipe: Strawberry Sorbet

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

A profiterole (pronounced pruh-FIHT-uh-rohl, but I like to say "olé" at the end for flair) has its own fairly strict definition that's not to be confused with cream puffs. You must scoop vanilla ice cream (not whipped or pastry cream) inside a delicate puff of choux pastry (pâte à choux to be French about it) and drizzle the concoction with chocolate sauce (not sprinkle it with icing sugar as I did because it looks so pretty!). And don't try to call a savory choux pastry a profiterole!

Profiteroles are quite simple to make, if you know how to make choux pastry! Getting the consistency of the choux pastry just right is tricky.

Choux be do be do
Choux pastry is cooked twice, once on the stove and once in the oven. First, you cook the water, butter, sugar and salt on the stove until it comes to a boil. Then, add the flour all at once and cook over low heat until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the pan. This is the tricky part. How long do you cook this mixture? How "dry" do you let the dough get?

Then, if you've figured that out, you whisk in the eggs off the heat, one at a time, until the mixture is light and airy, not runny, and the dough is "just right"! Here is where practice, practice, practice comes in. The size of your eggs, the type of flour used and how dry the dough is make a difference. Too many eggs, and your puffs will be flat. Not enough eggs, and your puffs will be tough. The dough should be glossy and stiff enough to pipe. Got that?

Pipe the dough into rounds and brush with egg glaze before baking at 425°F for 15 minutes and then at 350°F until they're browned, about 10 minutes.

Once you've mastered choux pastry, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce are easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Recipe: Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

It begins with a cow. And then a chicken. Followed by some fruit, bees and sugar cane. Whoever thought to put all these ingredients together and freeze them was brilliant.

We've been making lots of {smartie and kit kat} ice cream since buying a deluxe model ice cream maker, the Cuisinart Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker - ICE-50BC, earlier this year and haven't purchased a tub from the grocery store since.

According to MakeIceCream.com, vanilla is the most popular flavor of ice cream at 29% followed by chocolate at 8.9%. Honey-peach wasn't in the top 15, but it was tasty.

Recipe: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

Makes: about 1 quart (4 cups)

Ingredients:

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Fortune cookies have been on my mind this week. Since I've never made homemade fortune cookies, I thought this tuile recipe would be perfect, and it was. I used Le Cordon Bleu brown cane sugar with vanilla instead of the vanilla sugar called for in the recipe. This sugar contains crushed vanilla beans which show as black flecks in the cookie.

To form fortune cookies, place the paper fortune on top of cookie, fold the hot cookie in half, forming a semi-circle, and press the edges together gently. Then quickly fold the semi-circle over the edge of a small bowl to create the fortune cookie shape.

As well, the Daring Baker hosts asked us to make something "light" to go with our tuiles. I couldn't resist serving mine with my favorite flavor of ice cream: coffee. Not very light, I know, but delicious. For Christmas, I received a "Supreme Ice Cream Maker" that I think my kids have enjoyed more than me since we've made Smartie, Kit Kat, and Rolo ice cream several times. But I have squeezed in time to make Bailey's, vanilla, and this coffee ice cream since it's so easy to use (just a bit on the noisy side).

To see the different versions of tuiles cropping up all over the foodblogosphere, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll. Thanks to Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte (aka Kochtopf) who hosted this month.

Recipe: Tuile Fortune Cookies and Coffee Ice Cream

Yields:: 20 small tuiles or 6 large

Preparation time: batter 10 minutes
Waiting time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch
Oven: 180˚C or 350˚F

With Christmas and the flu hitting our house, I wasn't able to make the Tuesdays with Dorie Tall and Creamy Cheesecake on pages 235-237 chosen by Anne of AnneStrawberry. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

As if Christmas isn't busy enough as it is, we have a Daring Baker challenge to deeply challenge all of us. 6 layers. Molds. Different timings for each element. Assembly instructions for making the log upside down, right side up, or with two pieces of Dacquoise. 20 pages of instructions. It makes putting together the kids' Barbie Diamond Castle Dream House a piece of cake!

To see the different versions of Yule Logs or Bûche de Noël cropping up all over the food blogosphere, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll. Thanks to Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux who hosted this month. Also thanks to Flore from Florilège Gourmand.

History
Bûche de Noël means "Christmas log" and is meant to resemble a log for the fire. A popular story about the Yule Log is that Napoleon ordered everyone not to stop using their chimneys for fear that the draft was causing too many people to be sick. So instead of burning a real log in the hearth, a cake was born to draw families together. Traditionally, the cake is a moist, sponge cake that is rolled with pastry cream or buttercream. Usually, one end of the rolled cake is cut off and placed on top resembling a branch. However, this Daring Baker challenge had us make a more contemporary layered version that's molded and stored in the freezer.

Layers of Flavor
If I've learned anything this past year about French cuisine, it's layering. The layering is so important to draw out all the flavors you can in a dish. And it's so true in this dessert. My Bûche de Noël contains the following layers:

1) Almond Dacquoise
2) Dark Chocolate Mousse
3) Vanilla Cinnamon Crème Brûlée
4) Praline Feuillete Crisp
5) Dark Chocolate Ganache
6) Milk Chocolate Mousse
7) Almond Dacquoise
8) Dark Chocolate Icing

The foundation of the log is the Dacquoise, which is a dainty cake layer that's basically a meringue with nuts. On top of the Dacquoise is a delicate mousse followed by a decadent crème brûlée. To add some crunch, a crisp praline layer is next followed by ganache, another layer of mousse, and finally another layer of Dacquoise. A chocolate icing wraps this whole package up. I used a ring mold (an empty can of corn) to stack my layers instead of using a mold.

Recipe: French Yule Log

You probably will want to make the elements in this order because of what you can get done while some elements are baking and given some of the prep times. This is the order I made mine in:

a) Mousse
b) Creme brûlée
c) Praline and Praline Feuillete (Crisp)
d) Dacquoise
e) Ganache
f) Icing

Dark Chocolate Mousse & Vanilla Cinnamon Crème Brûlée
Praline Paste & Praline Feuillete Crisp
Almond Dacquoise & Dark Chocolate Ganache
Dark Chocolate Icing

Element #1 Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake)

Preparation time: 10 mn + 15 mn for baking
Equipment: 2 mixing bowls, hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment, spatula, baking pan such as a 10”x15” jelly-roll pan, parchment paper
Note: You can use the Dacquoise for the bottom of your Yule Log only, or as bottom and top layers, or if using a Yule log mold (half-pipe) to line your entire mold with the biscuit. Take care to spread the Dacquoise accordingly. Try to bake the Dacquoise the same day you assemble the log to keep it as moist as possible.

Ingredients:
2.8 oz (3/4cup + 1Tbsp / 80g) almond meal
1.75 oz (1/2 cup / 50g) confectioner’s sugar
2Tbsp (15g) all-purpose flour
3.5oz (100g / ~100ml) about 3 medium egg whites
1.75 oz (4 Tbsp / 50g) granulated sugar

1. Finely mix the almond meal and the caster sugar. (If you have a mixer, you can use it by pulsing the ingredients together for no longer than 30 seconds).
2. Sift the flour into the mix.
3. Beat the egg whites, gradually adding the granulated sugar until stiff.
4. Pour the almond meal mixture into the egg whites and blend delicately with a spatula.
5. Grease a piece of parchment paper and line your baking pan with it.
6. Spread the batter on a piece of parchment paper to an area slightly larger than your desired shape (circle, long strip, etc...) and to a height of 1/3 inch (8mm).
7. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for approximately 15 minutes (depending on your oven), until golden.
8. Let cool and cut to the desired shape.

Element #2 Dark Chocolate Mousse

Preparation time: 20mn
Equipment: stand or hand mixer with whisk attachment, thermometer, double boiler or equivalent, spatula
Note: You will see that a Pate a Bombe is mentioned in this recipe. A Pate a Bombe is a term used for egg yolks beaten with a sugar syrup and then aerated. It is the base used for many mousse and buttercream recipes. It makes mousses and buttercreams more stable, particularly if they are to be frozen so that they do not melt as quickly or collapse under the weight of heavier items such as the crème brulee insert.

Ingredients:
2.5 sheets gelatin or 5g / 1+1/4 tsp powdered gelatin
1.5 oz (3 Tbsp / 40g) granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp (10g) glucose or thick corn syrup
0.5 oz (15g) water
50g egg yolks (about 3 medium)
6.2 oz (175g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1.5 cups (350g) heavy cream (35% fat content)

1. Soften the gelatin in cold water. (If using powdered gelatin, follow the directions on the package.)
2. Make a Pate a Bombe: Beat the egg yolks until very light in colour (approximately 5 minutes until almost white).
2a. Cook the sugar, glucose syrup, and water on medium heat for approximately 3 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, the mixture should reach 244°F (118°C). If you do not have a candy thermometer, test the sugar temperature by dipping the tip of a knife into the syrup and then into a bowl of ice water, if it forms a soft ball in the water then you have reached the correct temperature.
2b. Add the sugar syrup to the beaten yolks carefully by pouring it into the mixture in a thin stream while continuing to beat the yolks. You can do this by hand but it’s easier to do this with an electric mixer.
2c. Continue beating until cool (approximately 5 minutes). The batter should become thick and foamy.
3. In a double boiler (or one small saucepan in a larger one), heat 2 tablespoons (30g) of cream to boiling. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.
4. Whip the rest of the cream until stiff.
5. Pour the melted chocolate over the softened gelatin, mixing well. Let the gelatin and chocolate cool slightly and then stir in ½ cup (100g) of WHIPPED cream to temper. Add the Pate a Bombe.
6. Add in the rest of the whipped cream (220g) mixing gently with a spatula.

Element #3 Dark Chocolate Ganache Insert

Preparation time: 10mn
Equipment: pan, whisk. If you have a plunging mixer it comes in handy.
Note: Because the ganache hardens as it cools, you should make it right before you intend to use it to facilitate piping it onto the log during assembly. Please be careful when caramelizing the sugar and then adding the cream. It may splatter and boil.

Ingredients:
1.75 oz (4 Tbsp / 50g) granulated sugar
4.5oz (2/3 cup – 1 Tbsp/ 135g) heavy cream (35% fat content)
5 oz (135g) dark chocolate, finely chopped
3Tbsp + 1/2tsp (45g) unsalted butter softened

1. Make a caramel: Using the dry method, melt the sugar by spreading it in an even layer in a small saucepan with high sides. Heat over medium-high heat, watching it carefully as the sugar begins to melt. Never stir the mixture. As the sugar starts to melt, swirl the pan occasionally to allow the sugar to melt evenly. Cook to a dark amber color (for most of you that means darker than last month’s challenge).
2. While the sugar is melting, heat the cream until boiling. Pour cream into the caramel and stir thoroughly. Be very careful as it may splatter and boil.
3. Pour the hot caramel-milk mixture over the dark chocolate. Wait 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
4. Add the softened butter and whip hard and fast (if you have a plunging mixer use it). The chocolate should be smooth and shiny.

Element #4 Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert

Preparation time: 10 mn (+ optional 15mn if you make lace crepes)
Equipment: Small saucepan, baking sheet (if you make lace crepes).
Double boiler (or one small saucepan in another), wax paper, rolling pin (or use an empty bottle of olive oil).
Note: Feuillete means layered (as in with leaves) so a Praline Feuillete is a Praline version of a delicate crisp. There are non-praline variations below. The crunch in this crisp comes from an ingredient which is called gavottes in French. Gavottes are lace-thin crepes. To our knowledge they are not available outside of France, so you have the option of making your own using the recipe below or you can simply substitute rice krispies or corn flakes or Special K for them. If you do substitute cereal you should use half of the stated quantity, so 1 oz of cereal.
If you want to make your own praline, please refer back to the Daring Baker Challenge Recipe from July 2008 over at Mele Cotte.

To make 2.1oz / 60g of gavottes (lace crepes - recipe by Ferich Mounia):
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk
2/3 Tbsp (8g) unsalted butter
1/3 cup – 2tsp (35g) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp / 0.5 oz (15g) beaten egg
1 tsp (3.5g) granulated sugar
½ tsp vegetable oil
1. Heat the milk and butter together until the butter is completely melted. Remove from the heat.
2. Sift flour into milk-butter mixture while beating, add egg and granulated sugar. Make sure there are no lumps.
3. Grease a baking sheet and spread the batter thinly over it.
4. Bake at 430°F (220°C) for a few minutes until the crepe is golden and crispy. Let cool.

Ingredients for the Praline Feuillete:
3.5 oz (100g) milk chocolate
1 2/3 Tbsp (25g) butter
2 Tbsp (1 oz / 30g) praline
2.1oz (60g) lace crepes(gavottes) or rice krispies or corn flakes or Special K

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
2. Add the praline and the coarsely crushed lace crepes. Mix quickly to thoroughly coat with the chocolate.
3. Spread between two sheets of wax paper to a size slightly larger than your desired shape. Refrigerate until hard.

Element #5 Vanilla Crème Brulée Insert

Preparation time: 15mn + 1h infusing + 1h baking
Equipment: Small saucepan, mixing bowl, baking mold, wax paper
Note: The vanilla crème brulée can be flavored differently by simply replacing the vanilla with something else e.g. cardamom, lavender, etc...

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (115g) heavy cream (35% fat content)
½ cup (115g) whole milk
4 medium-sized (72g) egg yolks
0.75 oz (2 Tbsp / 25g) granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean

1. Heat the milk, cream, and scraped vanilla bean to just boiling. Remove from the stove and let the vanilla infuse for about 1 hour.
2. Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks (but do not beat until white).
3. Pour the vanilla-infused milk over the sugar/yolk mixture. Mix well.
4. Wipe with a very wet cloth and then cover your baking mold (whatever shape is going to fit on the inside of your Yule log/cake) with parchment paper. Pour the cream into the mold and bake at 210°F (100°C) for about 1 hour or until firm on the edges and slightly wobbly in the center.
Tartelette says: You can bake it without a water bath since it is going to go inside the log (the aesthetics of it won't matter as much since it will be covered with other things)....But I would recommend a water bath for the following reasons:
- you will get a much nicer mouth feel when it is done
- you will be able to control its baking point and desired consistency much better
- it bakes for such a long time that I fear it will get overdone without a water bath
Now...since it is baked in a pan and it is sometimes difficult to find another large pan to set it in for a water bath, even a small amount of water in your water bath will help the heat be distributed evenly in the baking process. Even as little as 1 inch will help.
5. Let cool and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour to firm up and facilitate the final assembly.

Element #6 Dark Chocolate Icing

Preparation time: 25 minutes (10mn if you don’t count softening the gelatin)
Equipment: Small bowl, small saucepan
Note: Because the icing gels quickly, you should make it at the last minute.

Ingredients:
4g / ½ Tbsp powdered gelatin or 2 sheets of gelatin
¼ cup (60g) heavy cream (35 % fat content)
2.1 oz (5 Tbsp / 60g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (50g) water
1/3 cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Soften the gelatin in cold water for 15 minutes.
2. Boil the rest of the ingredients and cook an additional 3 minutes after boiling.
3. Add gelatin to the chocolate mixture. Mix well.
4. Let cool while checking the texture regularly. As soon as the mixture is smooth and coats a spoon well (it is starting to gelify), use immediately.

How To Assemble Your French Yule Log

THIS IS FOR UNMOLDING FROM UPSIDE DOWN TO RIGHT SIDE UP.
You will want to tap your mold gently on the countertop each time you pipe mousse in to get rid of any air bubbles.

1) Line your mold or pan, whatever its shape, with rhodoid (clear hard plastic, I usually use transparencies cut to the desired shape, it’s easier to find than cellulose acetate which is what rhodoid translates to in English) OR saran wrap or cling film. Rhodoid will give you a smoother shape but you may have a hard time using it depending on the kind of mold you’re using.

You have two choices for Step 2, you can either have Dacquoise on the top and bottom of your log as in version A or you can have Dacquoise simply on the bottom of your log as in version B:

2A) Cut the Dacquoise into a shape fitting your mold and set it in there. If you are using an actual Yule mold which is in the shape of a half-pipe, you want the Dacquoise to cover the entire half-pipe portion of the mold.
3A) Pipe one-third of the Mousse component on the Dacquoise.
4A) Take the Creme Brulee Insert out of the freezer at the last minute and set it on top of the mousse. Press down gently to slightly ensconce it in the mousse.
5A) Pipe the second third of the Mousse component around and on top of the Creme Brulee Insert.
6A) Cut the Praline/Crisp Insert to a size slightly smaller than your mold so that it can be surrounded by mousse. Lay it on top of the mousse you just piped into the mold.
7A) Pipe the last third of the Mousse component on top of the Praline Insert.
8A) Freeze for a few hours to set. Take it out of the freezer.
9A) Pipe the Ganache Insert onto the frozen mousse leaving a slight edge so that the ganache doesn’t seep out when you set the Dacquoise on top.
10A) Close with the last strip of Dacquoise.
Freeze until the next day.

OR

2B) Pipe one-third of the Mousse component into the mold.
3B) Take the Creme Brulee Insert out of the freezer at the last minute and set on top of the mousse. Press down gently to slightly ensconce it in the mousse.
4B) Pipe the second third of the Mousse component around and on top of the Creme Brulee Insert.
5B) Cut the Praline/Crisp Insert to a size slightly smaller than your mold so that it can be surrounded by mousse. Lay it on top of the mousse you just piped into the mold.
6B) Pipe the last third of the Mousse component on top of the Praline Insert.
7B) Freeze for a few hours to set. Take it out of the freezer.
8B) Pipe the Ganache Insert onto the frozen mousse leaving a slight edge so that the ganache doesn’t seep out when you set the Dacquoise on top.
9B) Close with the Dacquoise.
Freeze until the next day.

If you are doing the assembly UPSIDE DOWN with TWO pieces of Dacquoise the order is:
1) Dacquoise
2) Mousse
3) Creme Brulee Insert
4) Mousse
5) Praline/Crisp Insert
6) Mousse
7) Ganache Insert
8) Dacquoise

If you are doing the assembly UPSIDE DOWN with ONE piece of Dacquoise on the BOTTOM ONLY the order is:
1) Mousse
2) Creme Brulee Insert
3) Mousse
4) Praline/Crisp Insert
5) Mousse
6) Ganache Insert
7) Dacquoise

THE NEXT DAY...
Unmold the log and set it on a wire rack over a shallow pan.
Cover the log with the icing.
Let set. Return to the freezer.
You may decorate your cake however you wish. The decorations can be set in the icing after it sets but before you return the cake to the freezer or you may attach them on top using extra ganache or leftover mousse, etc...
Transfer to the refrigerator no longer than ½ hour before serving as it may start to melt quickly depending on the elements you choose.

Tasting Notes
I actually haven't had a chance to taste this yet, but we're planning to eat it for dessert at New Year's. I will keep you posted!

"It's not something that I sell. It’s a pain for me to make. It’s something special.
I go out of my way to make that." — Jacques Torres

He's right about that — it's definitely a pain to make. But it should be worth it! Happy New Year everyone!

Links
• Article from Serious Eats about Jacques Torres Bûche de Noël
• Article about Yule Logs in Paris

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

Chocolate and raspberries are a classic, indulgent and tasty combination. In this recipe, Dorie freezes them together in a delicious ice cream cake that appeals to the over 10 set!

Chocolate “Ganache”
The chocolate part of the dessert is basically an unbaked flourless chocolate cake: chocolate, butter, sugar, and eggs. Although it’s called a ganache in the cookbook, technically a ganache is just cream and chocolate (no eggs or butter).

{Warning: This dessert contains raw eggs, so you should be careful since there’s a chance the egg may be contaminated with Salmonella, a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Use only properly refrigerated, clean, sound-shelled, fresh, grade AA or A eggs.}

As for the chocolate, I used Bernard Callebaut, who is internationally recognized for producing the best chocolate in Canada and throughout the world. When I was in Saskatchewan, I was able to pick up some Callebaut chocolate at one of his locations. After returning to Ottawa, I found out that my favorite local chocolatier, Truffle Treasures, uses Callebaut chocolate in her truffles, and I can buy Callebaut at her store too.

To make the chocolate ganache, first I melted the chocolate and butter and then added the sugar. After this mixture had cooled a bit, I added the eggs one at a time. {You don’t want the mixture to be too hot when you add the eggs or it will coagulate and you’ll have bits of scrambled eggs in the chocolate.}

Ice Cream
The ice cream step is easy. Using my food processor, I puréed raspberries and added my favorite vanilla ice cream. Then, I threw in a splash of framboise.

Playing Around
I tried freezing this dessert in popsicle molds, but I think it would be better to dip them in the chocolate after freezing the ice cream in the molds so that you have a bite of chocolate with each bite of raspberry ice cream.

Recipe: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

You can find the recipe for Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! 

Yield: This recipe made 10 popsicles and one 7-inch springform pan.


Tasting Notes
The reviews on this one were mixed from the under 10 set: one daughter liked the chocolate but not the raspberry ice cream, another liked the raspberry ice cream but not the chocolate, and the third liked both together. The adult set thought it was delicious!

Recipe for Next Week (September 2)
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters on page 73 chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution.

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• Index of Recipes
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In my polls, I've determined that most of you prefer ice cream over whipped cream on pie and cake. And this week, we're making a sour cream ice cream flavored with fruit for Tuesdays with Dorie. Unlike the ice creams I made earlier this year, this ice cream is dead easy to make since it doesn't require cooking a custard first.

To begin, you essentially make a jam. Purée it a little and then finish by gradually adding heavy cream and sour cream. {I'm going to have to try turning some of the jars of jam in my pantry into ice cream soon!} Pop it into your ice cream maker, and you're done.

Homemade ice cream gets harder than commercial ice cream in the freezer. David Lebovitz has some great tips about making homemade ice cream softer. As well, fellow TWD-er, Steph from a whisk and a spoon, has a great tip this week as well. {Ice cream is difficult to photograph so I was glad it didn't melt too fast!}

Fruity Options

I tried making this ice cream with saskatoons, since they have such a distinctive taste, and are currently at the local farmers' markets in Saskatchewan. Someone asked me what they taste like, but after asking several people, no one has a great way of describing them. "Sweet-tart” someone said. Another said "almondy”.
A Neapolitan Twist
To compare, I made this ice cream with blueberries (as called for in the recipe), saskatoons, and raspberries. Then, I gave it a "Neapolitan” twist by freezing all three kinds in half a watermelon.

Neapolitan ice cream, which dates back to the 19th century, typically refers to a block of ice cream that contains three different flavors, usually chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. It's named after the ice cream makers of Naples, Italy who were famous for creating layered ice cream cakes.

I don't think Homer from The Simpsons would like my fruity twist on Neapolitan ice cream…

Scene from The Simpsons
[Homer grabs a box of Neapolitan ice cream] Mmmm, chocolate... [opens box to reveal that the chocolate section is empty and all the others untouched] D'oh! [throws the box away and grabs another] Mmmm, chocolate... [same result] D'OH! Marge, we need some more chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream!

A grown-up ice cream float

I was inspired by Zoë from Zoë Bakes to try this ice cream with champagne and turn it into a grown-up ice cream float. Just add a scoop to your favorite champagne, and you have a wonderful way to end a dinner party (or start one!).

Recipe: Blueberry {Saskatoon/Raspberry} Sour Cream Ice Cream

You can find the recipe for Blueberry {Saskatoon/Raspberry} Sour Cream Ice Cream in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours (affiliate link) by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity who chose the recipe for this week.

Tasting Notes
All three ice creams were delicious, but everyone's favorite was the raspberry version. The blueberry came in second, and third was the saskatoon one. It was more tangy than the other two. If you like frozen yogurt, you'll love this ice cream because the tanginess of the sour cream is similar to frozen yogurt. Not too sweet, yummy, fruity, tangy, smooth, delicious. And easy!

Recipe for Next Week (August 19)
Granola Grabbers on page 82.

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