Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream Tart Sandwiches

This week's assignment for Tuesdays with Dorie was a Chocolate Cream Tart in a chocolate tart shell. Sounded very good, and in fact a version of this once caused Mandy Patinkin to possibly break Pesach, but it was getting warm, pie is hard to keep in the refrigerator, and I wanted something a little different. So I kept the components and did a little inversion. I made the custard, a fairly standard chocolate pastry cream/pudding, with cornstarch, and chilled it. Then I made the tart dough but instead of filling a tart shell with it, I cut it into little cookies. It was very easy to work with.The 'cookies' were good, slightly more crumbly than your average (unsurprising, in that they were really a tart crust). I then froze the chocolate pudding in the ice cream maker.
The result was impressive, rich and perfect textured--the cornstarch in the pudding, which is also a component in classic gelato, helped it keep a smooth texture in the freezer, unlike a lot of my other ice cream, which freezes pretty hard. (A side note: I no longer use corn starch, I tend to use tapioca starch. Probably just as processed, but at least a variety in the crop). I scooped the pudding ice cream into a tray, and when it had hardened up a bit, cut out little circles of it with my biscuit cutter, and made sandwiches.
And people have been begging for them ever since. I did leave out the whipped cream, but I wouldn't doubt that these would be, well, enhanced, by a bit. If I'd been really clever, I would have slipped some in just before I stopped churning and gotten a swirl. But the texture was so good, I don't know that I would have liked to risk it.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

this looks like possibly the best thing ever, in any category

Nichicakes said...

wow great switch up to the recipe. those look yummy!

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I am trying this FOR SURE. It's getting warm in my part of the country, too, and that pudding will surely make a fabulous ice cream. So cute to make little sandwiches, too. Great job!

Catherine said...

GORGEOUS.

Amanda said...

Wow you took playing around to a whole new level!

Unknown said...

You are my dessert hero. Please invite me over to eat on of these. Please. Please please please please please.

Leslie said...

I'm in awe of your creativity! These look delicious and so fun!

Unknown said...

What a seriously great idea!! Those look so cute!

Kayte said...

You are amazing to come up with this...such clever things coming out of your kitchen! Gorgeous.
Kayte
www.grandmaskitchentable.typepad.com

TeaLady said...

And it has all the components that are important. Very creative.

Liana said...

I NEED THOSE oh man i'm torturing myself with this blog!