TWD: Burnt sugar ice cream (sandwiches)

I usually only eat ice cream a couple of times a year, when I'm visiting Toronto. That's the home of Greg's, where you can find fabulous flavours such as cardamom, roasted marshmallow, and sweet cream. Sweet cream is my favourite: it's so fresh-tasting, and is like vanilla without the vanilla. Anyway, even though I'm not a big ice cream fan, I was excited about this recipe. I have an ice cream maker I bought when I was a teenager (I was weird like that), and I haven't used it since I moved away from Toronto in 2006. In fact, I've probably only used it a dozen times in all the years I've had it. The last ice cream I made was corn, with the freshest corn from my aunt and uncle's farm. And, yes, it was delicious.

This ice cream was simple in flavour, with no Dorie mix-ins, which I really liked. It was just sugar, caramelized, eggs yolks, milk, cream and vanilla. The custard tasted fantastic, with a slightly bitter undertone from the burnt sugar, so I knew the ice cream would be good. I decided to sandwich it in between some graham crackers, mostly because I loved the graham crackers I made in January, and was looking for a reason to make them again. They have a slight burnt sugar taste of their own, from all the honey and brown sugar, so I thought they'd go nicely together. Oh, and while I may never go for a bowl of ice cream at home, I can't resist those cheap ice cream sandwiches. There's always a box in the freezer at my brother's, at least when I get there, if not when I leave.

This week's pick was chosen by Becky of Project Domestication, so she'll have the recipe for the ice cream posted. You can find the graham cracker recipe here. I wouldn't advise using the pastry flour, as the dough is soft and sticky with all-purpose. Oh, and they certainly don't take 25 minutes to bake in my oven. 10-15 is more like it, especially as I didn't want them too crisp.

UPDATE: The graham crackers got a bit soft and cakey after being in the freezer overnight--perfect! Oh, and how did I make them? After churning the ice cream, I froze some of it in a shallow pan lined with plastic wrap. I used the same cutters to cut the ice cream, then I just sandwiched it between 2 frozen graham crackers and wrapped them with some waxed paper and origami paper. I froze them between each step, but this ice cream melts really quickly, and it was a warm day. They were at their best after at least 24 hours in the freezer, as they were impossible to eat before the crackers softened a bit. Once they did, though, they were perfect--very caramelly!

Daring Bakers' January Challenge--The world comes to Canada

Graham Crackers and Nanaimo Bars!

I'd never made graham crackers or Nanaimo bars before this 2-part challenge, so I was excited, more so by the graham crackers than the bars. Nanaimo bars are really sweet. It was an option to make the graham wafers gluten-free, but I used wheat flour to make my wafers, as I seemed that I had nothing in the house to make these, and buying three more flours was not practical for me with all the other ingredients I needed. 

The graham wafers were really easy to put together and the dough was not as sticky as the gluten-free version. After rolling out, I used my new cookie cutters. Turns out that even graham wafers with slightly rude messages are cute! No photos, and I have already eaten the evidence. This was the tastiest dough I have made in a long time, and it was hard to stop snacking on it.

They baked much more quickly than the recipe specified, and if I had paid more attention to the other Daring Bakers' comments, I would have kept an eye on them. As it was, I was also distracted by Australian Open tennis on TV, so I ended up with many dark graham wafers. Those are the ones I used for the base of the Nanaimo Bars. 

The recipe made a lot of graham wafers, so there were lots left over, and they made a great snack with a cup of tea.

The next step was making the base. I toasted some almonds and unsweetened coconut and combined them with the graham wafer crumbs.

To this I added a mixture of butter, sugar, cocoa and an egg that had been cooked in a double boiler.

I spread this in the pan and refrigerated it while I thought about the filling. The original recipe calls for butter, icing sugar, cream, vanilla and custard powder. Custard powder! Ick. I looked at it and vanilla pudding in the grocery store a number of times. I even found an organic version at my local health food store. However, they are basically cornstarch and artificial flavourings and I couldn't bring myself to buy them. I have always found Nanaimo bars too sweet, so I decided to change the filling a little bit. I made a thick pastry cream with some milk, cornstarch and an egg yolk. I beat together some butter and icing sugar and then added the cooled pastry cream gradually. I also added some vanilla bean paste. What I ended up with was a paler, less sweet version of the custard-flavoured buttercream centre. It was really light and fluffy instead of dense and gritty, so I was very happy with it. Unfortunately I have no photos, as this was a late-night affair, and I had no good light. However, you can see it in the finished Nanaimo bars. 

You can also see that there is not a lot of chocolate on top, as, once again, I didn't pay attention to what my fellow Daring Bakers were saying in the forums. Most people found that the 4 ounces of chocolate and a bit of butter melted together was insufficient to coat the top. So, I tried it with 2 ounces of chocolate, and, big surprise, it wasn't enough. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate that hasn't been made into a cake anyway, so I just drizzled on the chocolate and found that there was enough for me. 

These are the 3 pieces I saved for myself, as I gave the rest away. This blogging business is hard work, so maybe I'll go and have one now. Be sure to check here to see the beautiful and creative Nanaimo bars the rest of the Daring Bakers have come up with. 

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca. Lauren's notes and gluten-free recipe are after the jump.