The bowl is made of a chocolate cookie which is brushed with melted chocolate on the inside for sturdiness as well as flavor. On the edge is sweetened whipped cream edges made to look like snow rather than a shapely piped design. Then it is filled with strawberry vanilla ice cream. I added a little touch by pouring some Godiva chocolate liqueur over the ice cream.
In researching ice creams, I have found that the standard homemade is best served after 30 minutes of freezing right after you are done making in your ice cream machine. The longer it is stored in the fridge the harder and icier it gets, including the fruit. If you do store this, it is best to let get soft before serving. Also, the smaller you chop your strawberries the less like you are to notice the iciness. The sugar does ward off some of the freeze, but it will not help if you store for hours in the fridge. The other option is to puree the fruit.
The bowls do require a mold, which was actually the bottom side of a mini ball cake pan. If you do not have a mold, you can cut squares and rectangles to make a box (kind of like gingerbread houses) and seal with chocolate to make the container. Or you can just make the cookies and decoratively stick them into the ice cream prior to serving.
Now before I get to the recipe, I wanted to give a shout out of thanks to Stephanie over at Cooking Cowgirl. Recently she did her first give away and I won some goodies. It was a hectic week so it did take me awhile to respond but she was very sweet and patient about it. Stephanie has been blogging for a little over a year now, but there is a lot of tasty variety on her site. She even has a tab for food gifting ideas. I have latched on to her special recipe for some very flavorful blondies-black walnut, dark chocolate and toffee-yum! So if you do not know her yet, pop on over there and introduce yourself!
Now on to the recipe, this makes 12 chocolate bowls and 1 quart of ice cream.
Sweetheart Snow Bowls
by flourtrader
Ingredients/ Chocolate Bowls
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks of butter
2 squares of unsweetened chocolate
12 oz (or more) semi sweet chocolate chips
Prepare pan by greasing domes including around the bottom edge. In a double boiler, melt unsweetened chocolate. Remove pan and let cool.
Sift together salt, baking powder and flour. Set aside. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Then beat in vanilla and egg. Pour in the cooled chocolate and beat again, making sure that all is well blended.
Fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate batter until no more dry streaks remain. Cover dough and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place two sheets of wax paper on the counter. Remove dough from the fridge and put in between wax paper and roll to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 4 3/4 or 5 inch circles. Remove each piece and shape over the molds, smoothing and making sure there is a 3/4 inch gap between the mound and the flat part of the pan. This isn't a perfect process, so you will have to work with the dough a bit. Bake in oven 8-12 minutes or until done. My baking time was 10 minutes.
Remove pan and quickly cut off any cookie parts that baked onto the flat of the pan, so all you have is a bowl shape which will be the top edge. Let cookies cool about 3 minutes and carefully remove from mold. If you wait too long, the cookies will stick and crack when you try to remove them. Place on bowls cookie sheet, with the side you are going to fill face up, and put in freezer.
After all the cookies are baked and in the freezer, place chocolate chips in a double boiler over medium high heat. Let the chocolate melt, stirring occasionally. Once melted, remove from heat. Take the cookie cups from the freezer and brush the inside with the melted chocolate. Place back in freezer until you are ready to fill.
Ingredients/Ice Cream
2 cups finely chopped and hulled strawberries
1 tsp ground vanilla beans
2 eggs
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
Mix together strawberries, 1/2 cup of sugar and lemon juice. Cover and place in fridge for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. After an hour rolls by, mix ground vanilla beans with whipping cream. Cover bowl and place in fridge for 1 hour. Once the strawberries are completely chilled, strain out juice and put strawberries and juice in separate bowls. Cover and put strawberries back in fridge.
Beat eggs in a small bowl until they have a light froth, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining sugar in 3 increments of 1/4 cup, whisking after each addition. Then whisk in vanilla/heavy cream mixture and milk. Pour in the strawberry juice and mix to blend.
Pour ice cream batter into your ice cream machine and follow manufacturer's instruction. On the last few minutes of the process, add in the strawberries. Once finished, empty ice cream into a large bowl and freeze for 30 minutes.
Ingredients/Whipped Cream Border
1 cup whipping cream
3 tbs sugar
Place cream and sugar in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Your cream is now ready to be used.
Assembly Instructions:
Take whipped cream and place in a piping bag with a large tip. Remove cookie bowls from freezer and pipe cream around the top edge. You can either make a pretty piping or be reckless and make it look more like a snow border. Fill with scoops of ice cream. Drizzle with your favorite topping, I poured some chocolate liqueur over mine.
LAST YEAR: Asian Braised Short Ribs**
