Triple Chocolate & Pistachio Ice-Cream Sandwiches…
Triple Chocolate & Pistachio Ice-Cream Sandwiches…
served up 3 ways are the ONLY way I can get through a British summer. Plus we’ve got a crowd-pleasing slice of nice with a Swedish Midsummer Strawberry Cake.
Hey friends!
I hope you are well? I am SO SORRY for missing the newsy last week – my brain has been everywhere of recent late and the admin stockpiling in my inbox is lurking at the back like misery fuelled quicksand so I am doing the most typical Rubes thing by living in denial. Do I have a tonne of people I need to get back to? Absolutely, but first I must make some ice cream cookie sandwiches. Do I need to be writing a newsletter to send out to everyone that should have been done two days back? Of course but right now, I really gotta hoover and mop. Are my accoutants pestering me for info? I mean, aren’t they always? But the stain on the hob that has been there for a few days (possibly weeks??) is in need of urgent attention and really can’t wait.
I don’t know why I go into flight mode the minute I get overwhelmed with life and truly wish I was a fighter because I know the minute I go back on that email that has been sat awaiting my attention for weeks and just say no, I’ll feel so much better. Is it that innate need to people please? Is it the desperate want to not disappoint? Or is it just because mentally and physically, I am so very tired. Truly, I think it may be a culmination of the three but let me tell you what did make me feel fan-bloody-tastic today – demolishing 2 freshly made triple chocolate ice cream cookies. Oooooweeeee! Okay more on that later.
Whinge aside (soz, I really don’t identify with being a Debbie downer but I think this week may have pushed me a little far), I am thrilled to say One Bake came out in the UK last Thursday. A lovely few days followed where I was inundated with pictures and messages of those who bought the book and then baked from the book (mindblown – like I know people had bought it…but then IMMEDIATELY BAKE FROM IT?? A real heartwarming moment) and now we swiftly move onto publication day over in America & Canada.
I am SO excited for my US/CA friends to finally get their mitts on the book and even more so buzzing to have seen that it was given a starred review from Publishers Weekly. I will be honest and say I don’t know what this means but they did give One Bake a lovely write up which has made my day.
On top of that, I will be doing some fun events over on the East Coast so would love to see some of you there. For now, I’ll be over in Boston and New York so if you are around, please do come so I can stuff your faces with baked goods!
UK friends, Amazon is still offering 16% off.
America Amazon still has the book at 10% off.
Canada friends I TOLD YOU THEY WILL EVENTUALLY SEE THEY MADE A MISTAKE WITH THE DISCOUNT! Unfortunately they cottoned on and your discount on Amazon is no longer available. Sad times.
However South African friends, they are offering 32% OFF!!! DO NOT make the mistake and wait cause who knows when they, too, realise there has been a potential error made.
If I find any more discounts, I will let you know but for now, I am so behind schedule, I am going to shut up so we can get to the good stuff.
For everyone this week, we have the latest ‘Around the World’ which sees us heading over to Sweden for another fruit laden treat with their Midsommartarta, aka a Midsummer Strawberry Cake. This is super similar to the Eton Mess Cake I shared with you all not long ago…and if I am being brutally honest, the EMC is definitely the far superior option out of the two if you are looking for a strawb heavy number to whip up this Summer.
The main bake of the day is a recipe of two halves smushed together to make one great thing. There are 2 things I love very, very, verrrrry dearly in this life and that is a) sandwiches and b) ice cream and c) cookies. I know I said 2 things but actually turns out I love a lot of things but SANDWICHES of any kind will always reign supreme. So, we have my Triple Choccy & Pistachio Ice-Cream Sandwiches finishing up the goodies this week. A low maintenance, high rewards sorta bake as I show you 3 different ways you can serve them up.
We are going to dive right into it this week as wowweeee wow we are late on schedule thanks to a network error deleting my entire drafted post (love that bit of spicy action late on a friday)…but then some may say right on time as both these bakes are perfect for this weekend. Whether you’re after something a little more time consuming and intensive (mildly dramatic, it is still easy to do but 5 outta 10 on the complexity scale because of the number of components) or want something easy breezy that requires very little skill but still is utterly delicious, then I HAVE GOT YOU.
First, let’s get stuck back into my cake series. I took a few weeks off cause I had to promote my book I spent TWO YEARS WRITING and can I tell you something. I have never been messaged or pestered over something my entire life. Whenever I would post, there was no ‘yay for your book’, no ‘wow this looks great’ or ‘well done rubes’. No, no, no. It was all ‘when’s the next cake’ or ‘have you given up on the cake series’ and even ‘we have been waiting 3 weeks rubes, come on’. THE AUDACITY, am I right??? It seems like I have created a new level of carb craving fiends and I am HERE FOR IT. I love that I have managed to create and come up with something that a few of you enjoy but it seems to have come at the detriment of my first literary baby. Sad but not so sad times.
That aside (I know I said I was keeping it short lols), the next cake we have on the magic list is a Swedish Midsommartarta, which is also known as a Midsummer Strawberry Cake. This cake can often be found on tables during Midsummer celebrations, where Swedes celebrate the longest day of the year, also known as the summer solstice and come together over food to celebrate life and love.
Which actually is very sweet in comparison to the contents of the video I made for it. It's safe to say that it was nothing short of sugar fuelled chaos and I apologise for how verbal vomitty it was but I can honestly say that I think I experienced a mad sugar high WHILST recording because it had been a few days since I had eaten sugar like that. And I know you are probs thinking…it’s just a few days but let me tell you friend, in my world, where I am surrounded by sugar at every single moment (right now I have 18 freshly baked cookies staring at me), not eating refined sugar for a few days is a MAJOR WIN. I was half expecting to wake up one morning with a freshly baked set of abs but alas, they are still MIA.
I also blame the mild hysteria from baking in what was essentially a sauna. The past week has proven yet again, that I am indeed not a Summer (in the uk) girly. My ideal summer temp is about 21°C/70°C with a cool breeze and cocktail in hand but this week, I was in the kitchen where the temperature hit 32°C/90°F, with not a single tree leaf, petal or bit of tumbleweed blowing in the wind, served up with an almighty cocktail of severe moustache, forehead and under eyeball (????) sweat. A real sexy look in case anyone is wondering.
Once again I have digressed, despite the fact this newsletter is now being written a whole day and a bit late. Sorry about that, I’ll stop the futile yapping.
This cake is made up of 3 layers of soft, sumptuous, moist sponge, topped with fresh whipped cream, strawberries and occasionally layers of pastry cream - which obv, I went for, cause if we are doing cake, we are going to do it right. I went off a few highly rated recipes online, ensuring I went for the more legit sources written by an actual Swede (as opposed to someone like me) so please note that the below is most definitely MY version.
For next time, I would highly recommend adding a layer of whipped cream between each sponge instead of just piping around the edge AND I would also definitely go for meringue either on the top or as layers in the middle. Do check out my Eton Mess Cake because that was quite honestly ridiculous.
Recipe Makes: 3 x 18 cm / 7 inch sponges
Recipe Serves: 12
Y O U – W I L L – N E E D -
Roasted Strawberry Filling
650 g Strawberries, fresh or frozen
65 g Caster Sugar
Pinch of Salt
Sponges
275 g Baking Margarine/Unsalted Butter, room temp
330 g Caster Sugar
5 Large Eggs
300 g ‘00’/Plain/AP Flour, sifted
70 g Potato Starch, sifted
15 g / 3.5 tsp Baking Powder, sifted
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
2 tsp Almond Extract
125 ml Buttermilk, room temp
Soaking Syrup, optional
100 ml Water
1 tsp Almond Extract
80 g Caster Sugar
Pastry Cream Filling
250 ml Whole Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
3 Egg Yolks
50 g Caster Sugar
10 g Cornflour, sifted
10 g Plain Flour, sifted
Whipped Cream
450 ml Double/Whipping Cream
40 g Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
To Finish
Fresh Strawberries
M E T H O D -
For the roasted strawberries, preheat the oven to 160°C Fan/180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 6.
Rinse your strawberries (whether you are using frozen or fresh), before placing onto a baking tray. Sprinkle over the caster sugar, give it a little mixy mix and pop into the oven for 20 minutes. NOTE: if you are using fresh, minus 5 minutes off each time.
Remove the dish from the oven, give the strawberries a little jiggle and pop back into the oven for 20 mins before removing.
Use the back of a fork to gently smush, breaking down till it resembles more of a compote. Leave to one side to completely cool.
For the sponge, preheat the oven to 150°C Fan/170°C/340°F/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line 3 x 18 cm/7 inch sponge tins and leave to one side.
Place the baking margarine/unsalted butter into a stand mixer bowl, along with the sugar and use the paddle attachment to cream together for 5 minutes until aerated and light in colour.
Add the eggs to the bowl one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
Once the eggs have emulsified, grab another bowl and add the flour, potato starch, baking powder and salt. Use a balloon whisk to mix until combined before adding to the mixer bowl in stages.
Mix briefly between each flour addition, until there are little to no flour streaks remaining.
Add the vanilla bean paste, almond extract and buttermilk. Mix on a low speed for a few rotations until everything has dispersed and mixed evenly.
Divide the batter between the 3 tins evenly to ensure an even bake and place in the oven to bake for 28 to 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven once baked and leave to sit in the tins for 10 mins.
Turn out each sponge onto clingfilm before wrapping and leaving to completely cool.
Whilst we are waiting for our sponges to cool, let’s make the custard filling.
Use a balloon whisk to mix the egg yolks in a bowl, along with the sugar, cornflour and flour until pale in colour. Work through the gritty stage until the mix becomes fluid and smooth.
Pour the milk into a saucepan along with the vanilla and bring to near boil. When near boiling, pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk immediately until smooth.
Pour the egg yolk milk back into saucepan and mix. Reduce the heat and continue to stir the custard. Keep stirring until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from the heat and transfer the custard to a large shallow tray to cool. Cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming and leave to completely cool.
Next, let’s make the soaking syrup by pouring the water into a saucepan and adding the caster sugar and almond extract. Add a few spoons of the strawberry syrup from your roasted strawberry tin. Give it a little mix before placing over a medium heat and bringing to the boil.
Reduce to a simmer until the liquid has thickened and turned syrupy. Let this cool down before using.
Once everything has cooled, make the whipped cream. Add the double/whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla to a bowl and whisk until you just reach medium peak. You want this to be lightly holding a peak – do not overmix otherwise your cream will go super stiff and risk curdling.
Transfer the cream to a piping bag and let’s construct the cake. Start by levelling out any domed/uneven sponge tops using a serrated knife.
Use a pastry brush to liberally brush the cooled sugar syrup across the tops of the sponges.
Place one sponge onto your serving plate. Create a border around the outer edge of the sponge, alternating between halved fresh strawberries (placed flat side down) and whipped cream.
Into the middle, pipe or spoon the cooled custard not the middle, before topping with the roasted strawberries. NOTE: use a slotted spoon to help drain excess strawberry syrup, reserving the juice to pour over slices at serving.
Place the second sponge on top and repeat.
Place the final sponge on top, base side up and use the remaining whipped cream to decorate. Top with any remaining pastry cream and layer on top fresh strawberries and a little drizzle of the strawberry syrup to finish.
Pop into the fridge for at least 30 mins to set before slicing. Drizzle over the strawberry syrup over each slice and enjoy.
And finally folks, we hit the main bake of the day, my Triple Choccy & Pistachio Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches. Or TCPICCS for short. Honestly, what a revelation. I know ice cream cookie sandwiches are good. I know they are fun. I know they are a great option for when it starts getting sunnier but THIS GOOD???? People. THIS DAMN GOOD? Individually, both the cookie and the no churn ice cream are fantastic. They can happily exist solo in this life and have a good time by why have a good time when you can have a gooder time, ya know?? I know that isn’t technically a word but I make the rules around here, okay!
Both elements can be made in advance and if you are reaaaally in a push, they can both also be made on the same day but PLEASE give both of them about 8 hours notice before you want them to come together and sandwich. You can take the base recipe from both parts and mix up according to your flavour preferences – a raspberry ripple ice cream would work deliciously well with the choccy cookie, as would a passionfruit or coconut no churn.
Likewise with the cookie, you have a solid base here to go wild. If you don’t want a chocolate-based cookie, swap out the cocoa flour for equal weights plain flour so you are left with a more versatile base (or just a double choccy cookie instead). The key here is to really have your cookies baked JUST till they are holding shape and to barely work your cookie mix at the start. The more you work and aerate, the fluffier and crumbier the end result will be. Think more cake-ie than cookie.
There are 3 different ways in which this can be served up (there is a fourth where you Baked Alaska it but I didn’t need any additional heat in my kitchen this week). Just a few ideas in which you can serve up ice cream cookies at any event - taking them from a BBQ/Cookout essential to a dinner party dessert.
1st is the traditional sandwiched way. 2nd is the ice cream with cookie crumbled on top and additional frozen raspberries added. 3rd is with the ice cream sat on top of a cookie, with some chopped pistachio scattered on top.
I scooped up any leftover ice cream and popped it into Tupperware to re-freeze because that stuff is FAR too good to waste. I totally get that pistachio paste can be quite a spenny product to buy but also is one that will blow your mind the minute you taste it. It is like pistachio but pistachio on crack IN THE BEST WAY and can be used in a multitude of ways – cheesecakes, creams, buttercreams, biscuits, cookies, drizzled over ice cream, fruit dunked into it and eaten straight off the spoon.
I am being told that I am hitting the email limit length so let’s dive into it.
Recipe Makes: 16 to 18 cookies
Recipe Serves: 8 (if you are sandwiching)
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