| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 19 hr 30 min |
| Prep: | 20 min |
| Inactive: | 19 hr |
| Cook: | 10 min |
| Yield: | 1 (9-inch) ice cream cake |
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 2/3 cups semisweet chocolate
- 2 (9-ounce) packages chocolate wafer cookies (about 80 cookies)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate
- 8 cups vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
- 1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed red and white striped hard peppermint candies (about 10 ounces)
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- Candy Brittle, recipe follows
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 2 cups assorted candies (hot cinnamon candies, after dinner mints, candy cane pieces, sliced spice drops)
Instructions
- For the crust: In a small heavy bottom saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate. Remove from the heat. Finely crush the chocolate wafers in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, or use a food processor. In a large bowl, combine the wafer crumbs with the melted chocolate and blend until the crumbs are moistened. Reserve 1 1/4 cups crumb mixture in a small bowl. Press the remaining crumb mixture onto the sides and bottom of a 9-inch diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch high sides. Freeze for 1 hour. For the glaze: In a large heavy bottom saucepan, bring the cream and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat, add the chocolate, and whisk until it is melted and smooth. Let stand until cool but still pourable, about 1 hour. For the filling: In a large bowl, working quickly, mix the ice cream, crushed candies, and extract until blended. Spoon half of the ice cream into the crust, spreading it evenly. Put the remaining ice cream mixture in the bowl in the freezer. Sprinkle the reserved 1 1/4 cup cookie crumb mixture over the ice cream in the springform pan, press the crumbs down gently. Pour 1 1/4 cup of the chocolate glaze over the ice cream in the springform pan. Freeze for 1 hour. Top with the remaining ice cream, and spread evenly. Freeze until firm, about 4 hours. Stir the remaining glaze over low heat, just enough so that it is pourable but not warm. Pour the glaze over the ice cream, and spread evenly. Freeze overnight. Run a sharp warm knife between the pan sides and the crust to loosen the cake. Release the pan sides and transfer the cake to a platter. Garnish the cake with Candy Brittle.;
- In a heavy bottom small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar, water, and corn syrup until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and boil, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 300 degrees F, about 15 minutes. Place a 24-inch long sheet of foil on your work surface. Be extremely careful, the syrup is extremely hot. Pour the boiling syrup in wide zigzag lines across the foil. Working quickly and using an oiled offset metal spatula, spread the syrup evenly onto the foil, leaving a 1-inch border. Immediately sprinkle with all the candies, pressing the larger pieces into the syrup to make sure they stick. Be careful not to touch the syrup. Cool completely. Break off irregular pieces of the brittle and peel off the foil as you go. Press the brittle upright, candy side out, onto the top and sides of cake and freeze.;
Reviews
I made this cake twice!! It came out beautiful!! What an impressive presentation. The cake was hard to cut, I let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, it really helped.
The icecream cake was rich and delicious! My husband said it was better than the icecream cake we bought at Cold Stone (and that was pretty tasty. Since my husband and I LOVE coffee, I used homemade coffee icecream from a local chocolate/icecream parlor for the vanilla/peppermint part. I did not have a problem cutting the cake as others mentioned. I crushed the cookies in a food processor making sure all the cookies were a fine crumb…. Insuring that all the cookie crumbs are fine will prevent problems with cutting. Much harder to cut through a larger frozen cookie crumb/piece than a small/fine crumb :-
My friends could not believe I made this beautiful and delicious cake! The candy brittle is gorgeous-one tip that worked for me is to arrange all the candy (except the chocolate on the tin foil, (which I placed on a sheet pan so that I could move it easily before you pour on the hot mixture. That way, I could add the chocolate pieces and a few more candy canes without it hardening before I got them arranged the way I wanted. Thanks Anne, and please keep recipes like this coming!
I am so glad that the food network finally really recognized desserts by adding this show! I love this show and hopefully, they can add some more episodes because 7 is NOT enough! I made this dessert with vanilla ice cream and oreos (cause I don’t care for mint!) for Christmas and it was a HUGE success. Everybody raved and it was so easy! Thank you Anne.
What a great recipe! I made it over the holidays and everyone was impressed. The candy brittle was well worth the trouble. I can’t wait to mix it up and try different crumb and ice cream flavors. Be sure to really push the crumb crust down into the pan and get it as flat as possible, otherwise it will be hard to cut through.
I made this recipe (without the candy topping) for Christmas. The ice cream cake was delicious! I will definitely make it again. I agree with Casey…the bottom crust was extremely difficult to hack through, even with a large butcher knife. I think the addition of the melted chocolate created a more solid crust. Next time I might omit the chocolate and just make the standard chocolate crumb & butter crust. Or, for easier serving, I might make it in individual ramekins.
I made this recipe for Christmas dessert. It was great however I do have a question…I had a very difficult time cutting thru the bottom crust. The chocolate and wafer crust was so frozen that I could barely get the knife thru it. I had to work at it for a while just to cut it and by the time I was done with the first slice, the ice cream was starting to melt all over. The cake tasted awesome, but is there a trick to cutting thru the crust? If anyone has any thoughts, please post as I would like to make this again, but am hesitant with the issues I had…and the resulting mess from melted ice cream.
Very yummy and easy. The decorative candy bark is a little more difficult to make but worth it for the impact. Be sure and pour out on TIN FOIL as the recipe calls for, don’t use a pan and have all your candies prepped and ready to go as it sets really fast.
Sherryrn: They are called Famous Chocolate Wafers. Basically they are large chocolate cookies- they taste a bit like oreos but there is no cream inside. Here on Long Island we can find them easily. Check your supermarket- they may have them but they are probably hidden way up high on the top shelf!
I want to make this recipe it looks delicious, can anyone tell me what chocolate wafer cookies are? are they the same as sandwich cookies like oreos?