Frozen Lemon Cream Cakes With Toasted Mernigue & Caramel Sauce!

I’m sorry I’ve been missing in action lately!  Just busy with life.  I’ve also been working on doing sugar cookies.  Not my strong suit, but I’m trying to get better at it.  I just recently did some Easter cookies, and I’ll be posting the pictures soon. They didn’t turn out that bad, and they were a lot of fun to do.  In the meantime, I have an absolutely delicious dessert worth sharing!

These pictures do not give this dessert justice! (Sorry, they were cell phone pictures and didn’t turn out that great.) These are delicious!  Great for a dinner party, or a refreshing after dinner dessert. You can’t go wrong.  I found these at Fine Cooking and are worth every calorie!

Frozen Lemon Cream Cakes with Toasted Meringue and Caramel Sauce

From: Fine Cooking

Denver pastry chef Yasmin Lozada-Hissom turns the classic lemon icebox cake into an impressive individual frozen dessert boasting a graham cracker crust, layers of lemon curd, lemon cream, and toasted meringue, with a rich caramel sauce and fresh berries. Serves eight.

Frozen Lemon Cream Cakes with Toasted Meringue and Caramel Sauce
For the crust
5 oz (1 cup plus 2 Tbsp.) graham cracker crumbs (from 12 to 13 homemade graham crackers or 9 whole store bought crackers)
1-1/2 oz.  (3 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp.  granulated sugar
For the lemon layer
2 cups granulated sugar
3 to 4 medium lemons, zest finely grated to yield 1/4 cup, then juiced to yield 1 cup
2 large eggs
8 large egg yolks
8 oz.  (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
1-1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
For the caramel sauce
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 tsp.  table salt
1-1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
For the meringue
1 cup superfine sugar
5 large egg whites, at room temperature (about 3/4 cup)
1/8 tsp.  table salt
1/8 tsp.  cream of tartar
Fresh blueberries, for garnish

Make the crust:

Arrange eight 3-inch-diameter, 2-inch-deep round metal ring molds on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment.

In a large bowl, mix the cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar until the crumbs are evenly moist and slightly clump together. Divide the graham cracker mixture among the molds and pack,  pressing to compact. Refrigerate.

Make the lemon layer:

Fill a large bowl about a third full with ice cubes plus a cup or so of water. Set a second bowl (one that holds at least 2 quarts) in the ice bath and put a medium-mesh strainer in the bowl.

Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a medium bowl and rub it between your fingers to release the lemon oil into the sugar.

In a large heatproof bowl, whisk the lemon juice, eggs, egg yolks, and the sugar mixture. Whisk in the butter pieces. In a 4-quart saucepan, bring 2 inches of water to a bare simmer. Set the bowl over the pot (the water shouldn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches a temperature of 170°F, 5 to 10 minutes. Immediately strain into the bowl in the ice bath. Gently stir every so often until completely cool.

Spoon a 1/2 cup of the lemon curd evenly among the 8 ring molds and spread it with the back of a spoon to cover the crust. Put the baking sheet in the freezer.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream just until soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. With a spatula, gently fold the remaining lemon curd into the whipped cream until well combined. Spoon about 1/2 cup of lemon cream into each mold (you may not use all of the cream). Cover loosely with plastic and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Make the caramel sauce:

In a 4-quart heavy-duty saucepan, mix the sugar, salt, and 1/2 cup water with a wooden spoon. Cook over medium-low heat until the sugar turns golden-amber, about 15 minutes. As the sugar cooks, occasionally rinse down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the cream—it may splatter a bit. Stir in the vanilla. If the sugar hardened when adding the cream, stir until it’s completely dissolved. Let cool to room temperature, about 4 hours.

Make the meringue

Shortly before serving, boil the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a heavy-duty 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage (235°F to 240°F on a candy thermometer), 3 to 5 minutes. As the sugar boils, occasionally wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

Meanwhile, whip the egg whites and salt in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on low speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium, add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, pour the hot sugar syrup in a very thin stream down the side of the bowl. Continue beating on medium-high speed until the egg whites are firm and glossy and the bowl is cool to the touch, 6 to 8 minutes.

Assemble the cakes

Put the cakes on individual serving plates. To unmold, quickly pass the flame of a small kitchen torch around the sides of the rings to loosen them, and then use tongs to slide the rings off. Dollop spoonfuls of meringue over the lemon cream. Using the kitchen torch, lightly brown the meringue. Pool about 2 Tbs. of the caramel sauce next to each cake and garnish with blueberries. Serve immediately.

Make Ahead Tips:

The sauce may be made several days ahead. Refrigerate and gently reheat just long enough to take off the chill before serving. Leftovers will keep, refrigerated, for about 2 weeks.

Baked Alaska for my Birthday!

Thankfully, my birthday only comes once a year! Even then, it seems a little much! Isn’t it funny how we start out wishing and even adding time to our birthday? (She’s 15 months old, he’s 2 1/2, or the little girl who’s wanting to be older, I’m almost 9!) Gone are those days for me!  However, the tradition of getting to pick what you want for your birthday, and even looking forward to it, NEVER seems to go away! (Thank Goodness!!) And, if you can’t make up your mind what you want for your birthday, just make both! Your family will love you for it!!

(Luscious NY Style Cheesecake with a Delicious Strawberry Sauce, Recipe coming soon! I couldn’t make up my mind which I wanted. So I made Both!!)

I made my baked Alaska in my 13 inch Pain de Mie Pullman Bread pan. (By the way, I love this website, take a look around!)  Here’s how I made my Baked Alaska.  Bake your favorite cake in a (1/2 sheet pan) Cookie sheet. ( Bake until cake springs back when lightly touched, approximately, 15-20 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto a clean kitchen towel to cool completely.  Spray the inside of the pan you’re gonna use to make your baked Alaska, and put plastic wrap inside your pan, allowing extra to hang over on the sides. (This will aid in removing the baked Alaska from the pan.)  Measure your pullman bread pan. Mine on the inside was 4 inches, so I cut my cake at 3 3/4 inches,  cutting a total of 4 cake layers.  Lay a strip of cake in the bottom of your pan, and then a layer of slightly softened ice cream over the cake layer. Freeze for an hour.  Lay another strip of cake and slightly softened ice cream over the first layers. Freeze for about an hour.  Lay a strip of cake and your final slightly softened ice cream over the previous layers, and stack the final strip of cake over the ice cream.  Fold the plastic wrap over the cake and ice cream layers (Your pan should be full now) and freeze for several hours or overnight.  To release your cake and ice cream from the pan, use a blow torch and heat the outside of the pan, until it slips out, or dip in hot water until the cake is loosened from the pan. Release the cake unto a covered board, and place back in the freezer for approximately 1 hour.  Make your meringue. (Remove plastic wrap).  Frost the cake with the meringue, spreading the meringue all the way to the bottom of the sides of the cake, and lightly toast your meringue with a mini chef’s blow torch, or bake briefly in a very hot oven, till lightly toasted.  Freeze cake until ready to serve.

Sadly, my blow torch was out of fuel and we just ate it the way it was, without toasting it. It still taste good just the way it was.

 

Snicker’s Cookies

These cookies were a long time in the making.  Every time I would buy the Snicker’s for this recipe, my husband (Mark) would eat them. (Not that I blame him mind you.) Finally!, I was able to put some aside, long enough to get them made. In my humble opinion, these are great, and if you can keep the Snicker’s in your house long enough to make them, I highly recommend them! I do NOT recall where I got this recipe, but there is a million different versions to choose from. Following is the recipe I used.

Snicker’s Cookies

1/2 Cup Butter, Softened

1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 King size Snickers Bars

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper (you’ll want to do this, as the caramel from the candy bars, gets on the bottom of the cookie sheet and is sticky. This was the only downside to the recipe, as the caramel would stick to my spatula when removing the cookies from the tray, BUT it was worth it!!)

Combine the Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside. Combine Butter, Peanut butter and the sugars in a large bowl, and beat until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla beating until well mixed. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Stir in the Snicker bars. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Let set for about 5 minutes, and than remove cookies to a cooling rack.