Mini Grasshopper Parfaits + Epica Cocktail Muddler Review

Disclosure: I received this product as part of an advertorial.

I thought about calling these mini grasshopper fools, but that sounded like a bit much.  

Have you ever tried a fool?  It's an old-fashioned dessert consisting of pureed or mashed fruit, usually berries, folded into sweetened whipped cream.  I made a strawberry moscato fool last spring, and it was delicious. These parfaits are similar to fools, but with mint instead of fruit.  They're the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (or any day).

(In case I lost you at "grasshopper", I use the term to describe minty desserts, usually also involving chocolate. The name was first used for a green cocktail made with creme de menthe.)

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with Homemade Magic Shell

Several weeks ago, I made mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It's Ben's favorite flavor, and I really like it, too.  It was late at night when it was ready to eat, so we had some, and the next day I asked Ben not to finish it while I was at work so I could get some pictures later.

Well, guess who conveniently forgot about what I said?  It's all worked out pretty well for him, though, because I just had to go ahead and make more mint chocolate chip ice cream.

It's also working out pretty well for me, because I just got my hands on a copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home.  It's my kind of book!  It has so many delicious and creative ice cream recipes, organized by season.  And, it has lots of recipes for sauces, mix-ins, and sundaes.  It even has a recipe for macaron ice creams sandwiches.  I love it!

Jeni's ice cream base has a few interesting ingredients (cream cheese and cornstarch, for example), but they result in an ice cream that stays creamy and scoopable day after day.  You have to try this!

Ingredients (makes one quart; adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home):

For the ice cream:

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1/ 4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Handful of fresh mint leaves, torn into pieces
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons green creme de menthe (optional)

For the chocolate chips and magic shell:

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and two tablespoons of the milk to form a smooth paste.

In a medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese and salt until smooth.

Heat the cream, remaining milk, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring it to a boil, and boil for four minutes.  Remove from the heat, and gradually mix in the cornstarch paste.  Return the mixture to a boil and cook for about a minute, stirring, until somewhat thickened.

Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese, whisking until smooth.  Stir in the vanilla, creme de menthe if using, and mint leaves. (If you decide not to use the creme de menthe, your ice cream won't be green.  You can always add food coloring if you want.)

Refrigerate the mixture for at least four hours to chill and infuse the milk with minty flavor.  When ready to freeze the ice cream, strain out the mint and freeze in your ice cream maker.

To make the chocolate chips and magic shell, heat the coconut oil and chocolate in a double boiler, stirring until melted and smooth.  Stir in the vanilla.  Cool to room temperature before layering with the ice cream.

When the ice cream is done, put a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of an airtight container.  Add a layer of ice cream, then drizzle on some chocolate.  Keep layering until the ice cream is all packed up, using just about 2/3 of the chocolate.

Freeze the ice cream for at least four hours before serving.

Magic shell should be liquid at room temperature, but can be microwaved if necessary.  To serve, spoon a little chocolate on top of your ice cream and watch the magic.

Magic shell will keep in the refrigerator for three weeks.

Mint Mocha Ice Cream Cake

Okay guys, this is it.  If you are looking for a birthday treat that will be good but nothing over-the-top, DON'T pick this.  This is actually a seven-layer ice cream cake.  If you like seven-layer dip, you need to know this cake is nothing like it.  This cake is so much better, it's almost wrong to mention seven-layer dip in the same sentence.

Have you made slutty brownies yet?  They have a brownie layer, an Oreo layer, and a chocolate chip cookie layer.  For this cake, those extravagant bars are baked in a round springform pan.  Two kinds of ice cream are smoothed on top, then the whole thing is coated with vanilla bean whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate ganache.  BOOM.

This cake is adapted from the Slutty Brownie Ice Cream Cake on What's Gaby Cooking, one of my favorite food blogs ever.  Since the cake was for my boyfriend's birthday, I had to let him pick the ice cream flavors.  When he chose mint chocolate chip and coffee oreo, I was a little bit skeptical.  I love both those flavors independently, but together?  I wasn't so sure.

Well, I have to give credit to the birthday boy--it was fabulous!  A mint mocha in ice cream cake form.  There are lots of other flavor combinations that would be amazing, though!  I hope you try your own version of this for your next over-the-top occasion.

Note:  Like many ice cream cakes, this is a little bit of a plan-ahead project.  I baked the slutty brownies on Tuesday, layered on the ice creams and froze everything yesterday, and added the whipped cream and ganache today.  

Ingredients:

1 recipe slutty brownies, baked in a 9-inch springform pan (underbake them a little--brownie layer should be a little jiggly--so they won't be too hard once they're frozen)

1 pint coffee oreo ice cream, softened

1 pint mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened

1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean, divided

Pinch of salt

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 tablespoons brewed coffee

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons powdered sugar, sifted

When the slutty brownies are completely cool, top with one of the pints of ice cream and smooth with a spatula.  Freeze for 2 hours or more, then repeat with the other ice cream flavor.  Freeze for at least two hours again.

To make the chocolate ganache, roughly chop the chocolate and set aside in a medium bowl.  Place 1/2 cup heavy cream and the coffee, granulated sugar and salt in a small saucepan.  Scrape in the seeds of half a vanilla bean (save the other half for the whipped cream).  Heat the cream mixture until scalded (about to boil), then pour it over the chocolate.  Cover and let sit for 5 minutes, then stir until smooth.  Set aside to cool before using.

To make the whipped cream, combine the remaining cup of heavy cream and the seeds from the other half of the vanilla bean in a large bowl.  Beat on high using an electric mixer until medium peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat again to combine or until stiff peaks form.

To serve, remove the ice cream cake from the springform pan.  Spread the whipped cream on top, then drizzle on the chocolate ganache.  Slice and go crazy!