Daring Bakers in February - Chocolate Valentino and Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.


February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan and can be found on Dharm's or Wendy's blog, listed above.

For my ice cream recipe I chose to make a Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's fantastic book, The Perfect Scoop (which I am sure will be being used a lot today around blogs!). It is the same ice cream I used the other day with my TWD Caramel Crunch Bars.

I really liked the flavor of this cake - but if you like chocolate, why wouldn't you since it is a full pound of melted chocolate, somehow held together with just eggs and butter. It was a lot of fun to make, but even though I used an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of my cake for doneness, it still seemed a bit undercooked.

The ice cream was super easy to make and is absolutely refreshing and delightful. I will definitely be making this ice cream all summer long. I made a small change to the recipe and mascerated the strawberries with some really good pure vanilla (bourbon) extract instead of vodka (since I don't have any). It seemed to have worked just fine and there was a nice lovely little hint of vanilla to the ice cream as well.

Be sure to head over to the Daring Bakers blogroll to see all the chocolatey goodness. I would like to say a thank you to everyone who comes here and reads this blog, even when things have been a bit slow this past month. Today's Daring Baker's post marks the 200th post on PheMOMenon as well as my one year anniversary of joining the Daring Bakers. It has been a great year and this community continues to not only amaze me, but really, to often restore my faith in the goodness of the majority of people around the world. So, again, thanks for being here! I really do love you guys!

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Source: The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 1/4 Quarts

1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vodka or kirsch (I used Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla)

1 cup sour cream
1 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Slice the strawberries and toss them in a bowl with the sugar and alcohol, then stir until the sugar starts to dissolve. Cover the bowl and let it stand at room temperature for one hour, stirring every so often.

Pulse the strawberries and their liquid in a food processor along with the remaining ingredients until almost smooht but still slightly chunky (not fully pureed). Refrigerate the mixture for one hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.