The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.
I was inspired to do both the Baked Alaska and the Ice Cream Petit Fours. I started out making the vanilla ice cream from the previous daring bakers challenge and I used that in two of my Baked Alaska's. I also made a coconut ice cream, which I used in the petit fours and in the other two Baked Alaska's.
When I was brainstorming flavor ideas I knew the browned butter pound cake would give the desserts a nuttiness, so I thought why not do a play on almond joys and coconut cream pie? I used a really simple cocount ice cream recipe from allrecipes.com and I followed the rest components step by step.
For my decoration I started out drizziling some white chocolate on a few and then I decided to go with some toasted coconut that I had left over from making the ice cream. The petit fours turned out to be pretty amazing. I loved the combination of the chocolate with the toasted coconut and browned butter cake, it was divine.
The coconut Baked Alaska's turned out just like I imagined they would, it was like eating a slice of coconut cream pie, which is my favorite. Every step of this months challenge were some really great experiences for me. I loved making the ice cream again, but venturing out a little with my flavors this time around. I'm also glad that I finally made some petit fours, which I've been dying to make for quite some time now.
I'm back in school now, so I'm not sure how much space or time I will have for the challenges, but I'm looking forward to the reveal of next month's challenge!
Coconut Ice Cream
allrecipes.com
1 cup milk
1 (140z) can cream of coconut
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut (optional)
Combine the milk and cream of coconut in the container of a food processor or blender, and mix thoroughly. Stir in cream and flaked coconut.
Pour into the container of an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.
*When making the recipe I first toasted the coconut before I put it in the food processor. It gives both a better flavor and texture than the raw coconut.
Anna
