What is it about cracking a chocolate shell that makes the mascarpone espresso ice cream taste so much better? # 431: Tiramisu Ice Cream Bombes

I saw someone call the time between Christmas and New Years “in-betwixmas” and it feels pun-ily accurate. Not sure what it is about this limbo time that makes it impossible to keep track of the days of the week. Maybe the fact that Christmas decorations are still up and there’s a certain reflective mood about the year ending? Either way, here we are halfway through it. This calls for ice cream!

Unrelated to these chocolate beauties: I made a big version of a these sticky toffee puddings for Christmas night and it was SO GOOD. The twist was that because it’s the kind of dessert that’s best warm out of the oven, I had to make it in someone else’s kitchen. *shudder* No matter how nice another kitchen is, it takes so much more effort to find everything. To be as prepared as possible, I did a mise en place the night before, put it all into little containers and made lists to make sure we didn’t forget any of the refrigerated stuff the next morning. So organized right? Of course I still managed to leave the main ingredient at home and only realized I was missing the beautifully pitted and chopped dates in Oakland when I went to start making the cake. By some magical stroke of luck, my dad had gotten a bag of deglet noor dates for Christmas and was happy to share 6oz to save the day!

I had a vision of making a bunch of tiny rosemary wreaths to put on everyone’s gifts this year, but they’re surprisingly hard to make. The rosemary stems don’t want to bend into pretty circles, they prefer oblong ovals and it seemed too much effort to convince them otherwise. I settled for making one and plopping it on the bombes as festive decor.

I can’t seem to stop saying ‘bombe’ in a British accent . . . Not sure why, considering it’s a French dessert! I’ll chalk it up to countless hours of watching Great British Bake Off.

First things first, lady fingers. Otherwise known as tiny sponge cakes masquerading as cookies.

Tiny toe alert! My helper is getting more grabby so baking takes twice as long now.

Plush.

Finally using the printed guides on my silpat!

Adding mascarpone to a classic no-churn ice cream. I’ll have some dairy with my dairy, thanks.

This stage of whipping cream should be dubbed the ‘fluffy wrinkles’ point.

Tell me why silicone molds make me feel like a professional baker. Why yes, I do know how to use this fancy and unnecessary tool!

Cookie dunk tank.

All ready for a freezer nap.

Voila! Popping things successfully out of a shaped mold is an instant serotonin boost.

Bring on the Magic Shell.

Lesson learned: pour it on in one go! It solidifies so quickly that if you try and take your time pouring it in sections, you end up with visible drips like the back left dome.

*happy squeal*

Happy munching!

Recipe inspired by: celia_peg on Instagram