Daring Bakers' Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake

Gosh, this month's challenge hosted by Sunita of Sunita's world seemed so simple but in fact there were many factors necessary to make this cold cake successful. For one, patience had to be in place, in regards to freeze, refreeze, freeze, and refreeze the whipping cream to turn it into Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream. And not to mention freezing the Hot Fudge Sauce that create the boundary between the two ice cream flavors.



Another important factor was the freezer. I happened to have a not-so-powerful one that even leaving the ice cream to freeze for 5 hours did not make the texture firm and hard. It was just in between soft and firm. The fact of setting it into the maximum coldness didn't seem to make any difference. Time was luxurious then, and I did not have it sufficiently.

So the overnight freezing only resulted in a presentable Swiss roll ice cream cake, good enough to take photograph, but still not hard enough - or that I am not convinced enough - to risk cutting through it in order to show the ice cream layers. So I guess I need more time to leave it int the freezer and show the internal layers in my upcoming post. So this is what I can show for now...



The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Satisfaction and Banana

A surprise came knocking this morning… I just won the DMBLGIT award for the month of February and I was so delighted. I have been waiting for snacksgiving’s announcement and finally it came through like a desirable red velvet cake topped with cheese cream frosting. And before I knew it, Fitri of Mommy Nisa congratulated me. Thanks, Fit!



It was in deed a pleasant feeling knowing that people agreed with my artistic judgement of choosing the right photo to send for the competition. I remember the first time I joined this contest, it took me days to pick the right picture to enter it since each participant was only allowed to send one entry from the previous month’s posting. As time went by and I learnt more about photography and saw more photos shot by professional bloggers (that’s you, by the way! :-)), this decision could be made quite fast.



And at the end of the day, the award is worth the effort - the long preparation of the cake, props, and hours of photo shoot. Sort of like a hard work pays off, plus an overwhelming satisfaction.

For this special occasion, I like to share this recipe that I adapted from Sweet Paul's Blueberry Ice Cream. Apparently the man has a very good taste of ice cream. This banana ice cream is creamy and luscious, and most importantly goes well with almost anything. Try and see whether you like it…

BANANA ICE CREAM
Adapted from Sweet Paul’s Blueberry Ice Cream.
Serves 6



Ingredients:
- Egg > 1
- Egg yolks > 3
- Granulated sugar > 150 grams
- Corn starch > 2 teaspoons
- Milk > 250 ml
- Whipping cream > 2 cups
- Ripe big bananas – mash moderately > 2
- Strawberry jam > optional
- Chocolate sauce > optional
- Extra banana for decoration - slice > as desired
- Chocolate curl > optional
- Roasted almond chunks > optional



Method:
- Combine egg, egg yolks, and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat at high speed until pale and light.
- Heat milk in a saucepan until boiled. Immediately pour hot milk into the egg mixture while beating at medium speed. Add corn starch and mix thoroughly.
- Set stove to low heat, place egg mixture back into saucepan and cook until the mixture starts to curdle and thicken. Immediately remove from fire.
- Leave to cool. Add mashed banana and refrigerate overnight.
- Spin the cold mixture in ice cream maker until thick. Refrigerate overnight.
- Fill a serving glass with one thick layer of strawberry jam, scoop in some ice cream.
- Add a layer of chocolate sauce and a small amount of ice cream. Decorate with some banana slices. Top with a big ball of ice cream, a chocolate curl and some almond chunks.

Red Rosy Memory

My family came to visit in 2004 and they all had a good time exploring Thailand for the very first time. A very good trip indeed and they kept great memories with them! When were asked about things that impressed them the most, undoubtedly they would mention food, fruits, and shopping. In this country they had seen many new fruits for the very first time - not only in terms of type, but also size, color, texture, and taste!

One particular fruit they loved the most was Thai red rose apple (Syzygium jambos). Shiny deep red, crisp texture, enormous size, and sweet juicy taste - a cross between apple and pear with a slightly bitter aftertaste. They can't seem to get their minds off of "choum phu", the name it was called in Thai. It still appears as one of the topics everytime we are caught in a conversation.

This same month 4 years ago my family had fell in love with red rose apple, and I like to bring back the memory by dedicating red rose apple sorbet to them! Everyone, do come back and take another trip! :-)

RED ROSE APPLE SORBET
Serves 6 persons

Ingredients:
- Red rose apples - puree > 500 grams
- Granulated sugar > 150 grams
- Water > 300 ml
- Egg white - whisk > 1

Method:
- Sieve rose apple puree to get fine juice. Refrigerate.
- Boil water and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves completely.
- Remove from heat and cool. Chill for an hour.
- Mix rose apple juice with syrup. Pour into ice cream maker and churn till thick.
- Add in egg white. Continue to churn until sorbet is firm enough to scoop.
- Serve or freeze.

Avocado Frenzy

Came back from my holiday trip in Jakarta and got 2 big avocados (Persea Americana) as souvenir from my sister's family. Don't really know what to do with them.... Avocados can not survive refrigeration and need to be left in room temperature. Obviously these 2 large fleshy pear-shaped berries are ripe. Time is running out, got to do something fast!

AVOCADO ICE CREAM WITH JACK FRUIT
Serves 5 persons

Ingredients:
- Avocado flesh > 250 grams
- Corn flour > 1 tablespoon
- Water > 2 tablespoons
- Coconut milk > 500 ml
- Granulated sugar > 100 grams
- Salt > 1/8 teaspoon
- Egg yolk > 1
- Green coloring > 2 drops
- Jack fruit - prepare when serve, cut into small chunks > 20 grams

Method:
- Mash avocado flesh with a fork until fine.
- Mix corn flour with water. Set aside.
- Cook coconut milk, sugar, and salt until boiled. Fold in corn mixture. Stir constantly till thick. Remove from fire.
- Whisk egg yolk in a bowl. Gradually add 50 ml of hot coconut mixture. Mix well.
- Pour batter back into the rest of hot coconut mixture. Keep stirring.
- Leave to cool.
- Combine coconut mixture, mashed avocado flesh, and 2 drops of green coloring in a blender. Blend for 5 minutes until very fine.
- Pour into ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes.
- Scoop into ice cream tub and freeze overnight.
- Sprinkle jack fruit chunks on top of ice cream before serving.

Avocado and Benefits
Source: asianonlinerecipes.com

Indigenuous to Central America, avocados grow widely in most tropical and subtropical countries. Also known as avocado pear or alligator pear, avocado contains more fat than any other fruits except the olive. Its fat is of the highest quality, wholly free from the unpleasant butyric acid with which many fats are contaminated. It contains a sufficient amount of vitamin A to maintain high resistance against bacterial infection, a quality possessed by few vegetable fats.

The protein of avocado is of the finest quality and is much superior to protein of bread and other cereal foods. Its composition is almost identical with that of milk. In fact, the pulp of the fruit is so free from fiber that it forms, with water, a fine emulsion which closely resembles milk in consistency and appearance. With the exception of an excess of fat and the lack of vitamin C, it may serve as a very satisfactory substitute for dairy milk.