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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Chocolate Citrus Freeze

I thought this would be a good one for the last post in August. A bit of a farewell to summer. It's been crazy hectic and humidly hot but packed full of field trips, unpacking boxes, and what feels like a zillion recipes (some of them were even good!)

We had the Sister Missionaries over for lunch last week and served this for dessert - I thought it would be cool and refreshing before they headed back out for a hot afternoon on the beat. They mildly complained that it's things like this that have made them gain so much weight on their missions. They also finished every last lick, as did I. I apologize to no one for making delicious treats.
So as you can see, what we've got here is a cookie crumb crust (I couldn't find chocolate wafer cookies so I used chocolate graham crackers), a chocolate mousse layer, orange sherbet, more chocolate mousse, and a layer of fudgy ganache with a few more chocolate graham crumbs.

The only hard parts are lining the darn loaf pan with plastic wrap, which in those kinds of close quarters acts more like double-sided sticky tape, and waiting between each layer for it to freeze. Pretty much you have to start the morning before you will serve it, add and freeze the layers all day, freeze overnight, then have it the next day so it's nice and firm. Other than that, it's super easy...and soooo good!

1 3/4 cups milk chocolate chips, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely crushed chocolate wafer cookies (or chocolate graham crackers)
2 T butter, melted
1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
4 T powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups lowfat orange sherbet, slightly softened (can also use other flavors, like raspberry)

1. Microwave 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips and 3/4 cup cream in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) for 1 minute; stir well until smooth. If necessary, microwave at additional 10 to 15 second intervals, stirring just until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Cool to room temperature.

2. Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap, allowing 4-inch overhang on all sides. GOOD LUCK with this step!

3. Combine crushed cookies and butter in medium bowl. Press onto bottom of prepared loaf pan. Save a few crumbs to sprinkle on top at the end, optional.

4. Beat 3/4 cup cream and powdered sugar in small chilled mixer bowl until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture until blended. Spoon half of chocolate mousse (about 1 1/2 cups) over cookie layer; smooth top. Freeze for 2 hours or until very firm. Cover and refrigerate remaining chocolate mousse.

5. Spoon slightly soft sherbet over frozen chocolate layer; smooth top. Freeze for 2 hours or until very firm. (*I put sherbet and second layer of mousse - step 6 - on at the same time, without freezing sherbet layer for 2 hours. The non-frozen mousse was softer than the sherbet so there wasn't danger of them mixing, and it worked out fine.)

6. Spoon remaining chocolate mousse over sherbet layer; smooth top. Freeze for 2 hours or until very firm.

7. Microwave remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips and remaining 1/4 cup cream in small uncovered microwave-safe bowl on medium-high (70%) for 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool for 10 minutes. Spread evenly over mousse layer. Sprinkle with extra crumbs if desired. Freeze for up to 4 hours or overnight.

*For gluten-free option, use gluten-free cookies for crust or omit crust altogether.




Recipe from VeryBestBaking.com

Photos taken by Maren Mecham with my camera

5 comments:

Shells said...

That looks like my type of dessert....yummy.

Maren said...

It was delicious. What, no photo credit? I liked the idea of using raspberry sherbet also. Could you also use unusual sorbet flavors or would it be too soft?

Disco Mom said...

Photo credit, check. I think you can use anything that will freeze pretty hard. Hmm, coconut sorbet anyone?

Maren said...

:) I keep dreaming of that ganache topping. Mmmm.

Kelsey Carreon said...

you are the only person who has ever made chocolate and orange look like something I would want to eat!

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