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Americas Test Kitchen - Season 26 - Episode 06: Ice Cream Cake
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00:26To be continued...
00:36Today on America's Test Kitchen,
00:39Lon makes Julia a show-stopping ice cream cake.
00:44And Dan reveals the unexpected cooling powers of melting ice.
00:48It's all coming up right here on America's Test Kitchen.
01:00I've eaten ice cream cake my entire life because it's my signature birthday cake.
01:05And it's always been roughly the same, with a layer or two of ice cream separated with chocolate cookie crumbles.
01:11But today, Lon's going to show me a new kind of ice cream cake that actually includes a layer of
01:16actual cake.
01:17Cake and ice cream cake. It's shocking.
01:20Mind blown.
01:21I worked at a restaurant where whenever it was someone's birthday, front of the house, back of the house, didn't
01:26matter,
01:26my job was to run to the ice cream shop next door to pick up an ice cream cake for
01:31staff meal.
01:31And that was where I got to try this when I was assigned this recipe.
01:35I went straight to the ice cream shop to talk to Gus and Mimi Rancatori, who run Toscaninis,
01:41to learn how they make their ice cream cake.
01:42So that's what I'm going to show you.
01:44Okay.
01:44So I know we've talked about cake and ice cream.
01:46We're starting with fudge sauce.
01:49It's going to be the thing that brings those two layers together.
01:51And it's really easy.
01:52So we're going to start with seven tablespoons of unsalted butter.
01:56I've got it in a small pot here, and it's cut up in a little chunk so it melts faster.
02:00To that, I'm adding a third of a cup of milk.
02:04So I've got a cup of sugar here.
02:06It's going to go right in.
02:09And we're going to heat this gently over medium-low heat.
02:12And all I'm looking for here is the butter to melt and that sugar to start dissolving.
02:16It's going to take maybe three minutes.
02:18Okay.
02:18So while you keep an eye on that, I'm going to get to the chocolatey bits.
02:22So this is a half a cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened, because we want to control the sugar.
02:27Next up is some heavy cream.
02:29This is a third of a cup.
02:31Finally, a little bit more sugar.
02:33I think it's really important to withhold some of the sugar from the pot.
02:36You're going to see why in a minute.
02:37This is a quarter cup.
02:39Last up, this is a quarter teaspoon of table salt.
02:42So the reason I'm withholding some of the sugar is I'm going to use it to break up those clumps
02:47of cocoa powder instead of sifting,
02:49which I find annoying and just gets everywhere.
02:52And we're just looking to make a nice, thick paste.
02:57Okay.
02:57So everything's well combined.
02:59And now that our butter's melted and it's already looking like some of that sugar's dissolved,
03:03you can see there's some translucency here.
03:05All of this goes right in.
03:07We're going to give this a whisk and this is going to cook.
03:10And it's already taking on that sheen that you want.
03:14So I want to turn the heat down to low while I do this.
03:17And the reason for that is I don't want to evaporate too much water.
03:21If we lose too much water, it's going to be too hard.
03:24Makes sense.
03:25So this is just going to cook for about five minutes.
03:28And what you'll see if you're really paying attention is it'll thicken up slightly.
03:31The starch is in that cocoa powder.
03:33They're going to cook and hydrate and absorb some of the water and it'll thicken the sauce.
03:40Okay, Julia, it's been about five minutes.
03:42We're still at a gentle simmer and it's time to get the rest of the ingredients.
03:46Bring me a straw.
03:47It looks delicious.
03:49So next up, I've got two and a half ounces of finely chopped unsweetened chocolate.
03:54And again, we're trying to control the amount of sugar that's going in here.
03:57So that's why unsweetened.
03:59And then finally, a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
04:04So I want to shut off the heat.
04:06This last step, we're just whisking to make sure all of that chocolate is melted and evenly distributed.
04:13Looks great.
04:14Looks perfect.
04:15Get it into a bowl and let it cool.
04:16Oh, look at that.
04:19So this needs to cool fully before we can use it.
04:22That takes about an hour and a quarter.
04:23But you could obviously make this in advance if you were planning to make this for someone's birthday.
04:27That's absolutely right.
04:29This will keep in the fridge for about a week and you just need to let it come back to
04:33room temperature before you can use it.
04:35All right, Julia, it's time to make this cake I've been talking about.
04:38I've got a nine inch springform pan here and we're going to use this for both baking the cake and
04:42assembling and stacking that ice cream cake.
04:44Very clever.
04:45Step one, I've got a little baking spray and I'm just going to spray the bottom.
04:50I'm not going to put it together first.
04:52And this is just going to provide a little bit of glue to help our parchment stay in place.
04:59And that'll make unmolding this cake a little bit easier.
05:02Pop the collar on.
05:05All right, Julia, time for the cake.
05:06I've got two thirds of a cup of cake flour here and to that I'm adding six tablespoons of sugar.
05:13Now, this is a tiny bit more sugar than you would normally see in a cake.
05:18But because it's frozen, you're not going to taste that sweetness.
05:21The sugar will keep the cake from being too firm, even though it's cold.
05:26OK.
05:27The other ingredients are a half a teaspoon of baking powder and an eighth of a teaspoon of table salt.
05:33In the end, it's about getting enough sugar in there to prevent the water in the cake from turning into
05:40ice.
05:40It depresses the freezing point just enough.
05:43OK.
05:43So we whisk our dry ingredients together, no more lumps, and then we can add most of our wet ingredients.
05:48I've got one large egg, two large egg yolks, and we've saved those whites.
05:56Don't worry, I'm not wasting anything.
05:58This is three tablespoons of vegetable oil.
06:01This is going to help tenderize the cake.
06:04Two tablespoons of water.
06:06Oh, interesting.
06:07Yeah.
06:08There's definitely more water in here than you would normally see.
06:11And then last up, a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
06:14And we'll just whisk this together until it forms a nice, smooth batter.
06:19OK.
06:19That's it.
06:21Making ice cream cake is a project, so I wanted to keep all the steps as simple as possible.
06:26All right, next up, those egg whites I was talking about, now we're going to use them.
06:30They're not only full of water, they're full of protein, and protein will provide the structure for this cake.
06:35And then just a pinch of cream of tartar, just throw that right in, and broke out the hand mixer
06:42for you.
06:42Old school.
06:43Yeah, I haven't used one of these for so long, but there's so little stuff in here, you can't really
06:47use a stand mixer.
06:48So I'm going to beat this at medium-low speed until it's nice and foamy.
06:52It's going to take about 30, 60 seconds.
07:00That's looking pretty good to me.
07:01Nice and broken up.
07:03There's no stringy bits.
07:04So next, I'm going to sprinkle in two tablespoons of sugar.
07:08And this sugar is just going to help these egg whites beat up to stiff peaks and hold those peaks.
07:13So I'm going to beat this until those stiff peaks form.
07:17That'll take one to two minutes, and we can crank it up this time.
07:25All right, what do you think?
07:27I think you're good.
07:28Let's see.
07:30Look at that.
07:31Yeah.
07:32Perfect.
07:32So I'm going to scrape about a third of this into that batter, and we're just going to whisk it.
07:39We're not trying to preserve the bubbles.
07:41What we do want to do is lighten this and make that less thick and viscous so that when we
07:47fold this in, those bubbles stick around.
07:49You're tempering it.
07:50Yeah, exactly.
07:51You just want them to have a similar consistency before you start folding.
07:56And it's totally okay that it's a little streaky.
07:58So the rest of these egg whites can go right in, and then we're just going to fold.
08:07We're almost there.
08:09I can still see a couple streaks of white.
08:12All right, let's get this in that pan.
08:15We're going to bake this in a 300-degree oven on the middle rack.
08:20It's going to take 20 to 25 minutes.
08:22It's not going to pick up much color.
08:24It won't look like the most beautiful cake.
08:26Then we're going to top it with fudge and ice cream.
08:32I can smell it.
08:33Yeah, it's just kind of a light vanilla cake.
08:36Really simple, really elegant.
08:39And you're right, that doesn't look like much.
08:41It doesn't.
08:42That's okay, though.
08:43It's structural.
08:45You can see there's a tiny bit of browning around the edges.
08:47The top is a little bubbly.
08:49Sometimes it comes up a little more bubbly and, like, totally fine.
08:53Don't stress it.
08:54You can see it's slightly domed.
08:56Now, normally, we would let this cool slightly, run a knife around it, and get it out of the pan
09:01so it could cool fully.
09:02We're not going to do that this time.
09:03What are we going to do?
09:04We're going to let it cool in the pan.
09:06And the reason for that is I want this cake to stay stuck to the pan through the entire cooling
09:11process.
09:12Those egg white proteins that are forming the structure for this cake, they're going to contract and shrink as the
09:19cake cools.
09:20And if you unmold that cake, those sides go from something like this to that.
09:25So the solution is really simple.
09:27We're going to let this hang out for about 45 minutes until it's fully cooled before we can take it
09:32out.
09:32Julia, it's been 45 minutes.
09:34You can see the cake has collapsed slightly.
09:36Yeah.
09:36Yeah.
09:37So I'm just going to run a knife around the perimeter to release it.
09:41Looks loose.
09:42Moment of truth.
09:44Ta-da!
09:46I felt like it needed a presentation moment.
09:49So what we want to do is get it off this pan and get that parchment off of there.
09:53I'm just going to invert it.
10:00Lift off our parchment because no one wants a bite of that.
10:04And then I'll re-invert just because the amount of sugar we have in this cake can grab water as
10:10it cools.
10:10And that surface gets super sticky.
10:13This will make getting the cake off of the rack a lot easier.
10:17Julia, it's time to stack that cake.
10:18We're going to use the same nine-inch springform we used to bake because it's the right size.
10:23And there's just a little bit of prep you've got to do.
10:26A lot of recipes will have you unmold the cake by warming it.
10:29But that melts the ice cream.
10:31Not ideal.
10:32I think it's a lot easier to line the pan with parchment.
10:34But if you just put parchment in there, it's kind of all over the place.
10:39It makes assembly tough.
10:41So what I do is I take all that parchment out, give it a quick spray, and then line the
10:48pan.
10:48It goes in the freezer just to chill so that our cold ice cream isn't hitting a warm pan.
10:53And at the same time, the ice cream in the freezer goes to the fridge to temper.
10:58It's going to take about 20 minutes to warm up to a workable consistency.
11:02Okay.
11:03I've got a prepared pan and tempered ice cream ready to go.
11:06I'm just going to go get it.
11:07Okay.
11:08So here's our nice and chilled pan.
11:11I've got three quarts of ice cream here.
11:13I hope you like pistachio.
11:14I love pistachio.
11:15Oh, good.
11:16Oh, good.
11:16Because that's what I'm baking.
11:19This is nice and tempered.
11:20It should be soft.
11:23Nice and soft to the touch.
11:24Very scoopable.
11:25So now that the ice cream is out, we're kind of on a little bit of a timeline.
11:31I don't want this to melt.
11:33And so I'm going to work fairly quickly.
11:34I want to scoop about a quarter of this into the pan.
11:39And then just for fun, I thought it would be nice to add a ripple.
11:43And I'm going with apricot.
11:45It'll add a nice brightness and acidity.
11:47You can use up to a cup of any inclusion.
11:51It can be preserves.
11:52You could buy some lemon curd.
11:54You could chop up brownies or cookies or cake, candy.
11:59It's really, it's kind of up to you what you want to do.
12:01Do you want to get more of that?
12:03Oh, you bet.
12:04I'm not really worried about getting things in evenly.
12:07It's actually kind of nice to have it be a little bit haphazard.
12:10Oh, okay.
12:11The slice, the cross-section is just beautiful.
12:13So ice cream's in.
12:15Now we need to make it into an even layer.
12:18And the way to do that without melting things with our hot little hands is this little setup I have.
12:23First, I want some plastic wrap down so that I'm not mushing directly onto ice cream.
12:30Gluing the parchment strips to the pan is really helpful.
12:34It's not moving around.
12:35And then I want to use a kitchen towel just because it'll insulate the ice cream from my hands and
12:41prevent things from melting.
12:42And there's really no right way to do this.
12:45All I'm trying to do is flatten this into a mostly even layer.
12:51So mostly flat.
12:53Parchment is still in place.
12:55We'll peel off this plastic wrap.
12:59And here's where our chocolate sauce is critical.
13:02Oh, yes.
13:03Because that layer isn't perfectly smooth, if I were to pop the cake on right now, there'd be kind of
13:10gaps, right?
13:11This fudge sauce is going to even everything out.
13:15So that is three quarters of a cup of that fudge sauce.
13:18I've just warmed it slightly so it's spreadable.
13:20So last up is our cake layer.
13:23It's really nice to build this thing upside down.
13:26You just kind of slip it in.
13:27Oh, look at that.
13:28It's a flat top.
13:29It is.
13:30It's like you did a perfect job baking it.
13:34And then we're just going to give this a nice little press just to flatten it out.
13:39Make sure there's no air in there.
13:42And then if you could hand me a piece of plastic wrap, we'll just wrap this up and pop it
13:46in the freezer to set.
13:48I like to do this just to keep the cake from absorbing weird smells in the freezer.
13:58I've got a math problem for you.
14:00I have two ounces of whiskey at 70 degrees.
14:03And I have a cup of ice, which is at 32 degrees.
14:06What temperature will they be after 30 seconds of shaking?
14:10You might guess 40 degrees, maybe even 32.
14:12Well, let's find out.
14:30Okay, we're at 40 degrees.
14:32Actually, under.
14:3334 degrees.
14:3432 degrees.
14:35But it keeps going.
14:38And stop.
14:4420 degrees.
14:45That's 12 degrees colder than the ice we started with.
14:49How is that possible?
14:50Well, ice cools in two ways.
14:52The first is pretty obvious.
14:53It is colder than the whiskey, so it removes heat and the temperature drops.
14:57But ice is much more powerful at cooling because it melts.
15:01Melting is a phase change.
15:03And it takes a ton of energy for water to change from one phase to another.
15:07In our drink, that additional energy is pulled out of the liquor in the form of heat, chilling well below
15:12the initial temperature of the ice.
15:14So, the next time you make a drink, and you take that first super cold sip, may I suggest that
15:21you make a toast to phase changes?
15:23Your friends won't like it, but I will.
15:31Julia, I've got a nice and chilled bowl and chilled beaters, and what we're going to make is a whipped
15:36cream frosting.
15:37Great.
15:38So, this is one and a half cups of heavy cream.
15:42And again, nice chilled bowl to make whipping easier.
15:46I'm going to sweeten it lightly with two tablespoons of sugar, and then last up, just for an extra bit
15:52of flavor, vanilla.
15:54One teaspoon.
15:56I want to start slowly so that I'm not splashing you with heavy cream.
16:03This is looking nice and thickened.
16:05I'm going to go up a little bit faster.
16:09The reason I don't want to go with medium peaks here is I want as much air in there as
16:14possible.
16:14This cream is going to be the insulator, and it's going to keep our ice cream cake from melting.
16:19And so, the more air there is in there, the better it'll be for that job.
16:26That's looking pretty good.
16:27It looks good.
16:28All right.
16:29So, I'm going to need about two-thirds of this to mask that cake, to coat it fully.
16:34The rest is going to be for decorating.
16:37In order to mask this cake quickly, we're actually going to use a piping bag.
16:40I fitted it with a half-inch petal tip.
16:43You can see how it's flat, and that's going to help us apply that whipped cream quickly and evenly.
16:48So, two-thirds of this is going to go in the bag.
16:54Okay.
16:59This will hang out here.
17:01This, I'm going to pop in the fridge so that it holds its shape while we're working on the cake.
17:07Julia, here's our cake.
17:09Now, I chilled this for four hours to ensure that the ice cream has fully set, but, of course, you
17:13could do this a couple days in advance if you wanted to.
17:16So, we're just going to remove this color.
17:21And then, look at how easy this is.
17:24You just peel the paper away.
17:27There's no fussing with trying to, like, warm the sides to get it out of a pan.
17:31Now, you can build this on a platter or a cake stand.
17:36I like to make sure I have something really flat.
17:38So, the other thing I did was I chilled this cake stand.
17:41It's just going to buy us a little bit more time for decorating.
17:44Very smart.
17:46I want to get this off.
17:47I usually just spin it gently and ease the sides of the pan from the cake.
17:54And you can see it's starting to lift slightly.
17:58And once it does, I use an offset to kind of...
18:02Oh, this one's coming off beautifully.
18:05Ta-da!
18:06Right?
18:06Doesn't this look fun already?
18:08Yes.
18:08It's only going to get better from here.
18:11Okay, so, this is great, but it's going to melt if we don't cover it with some insulation,
18:17which is what the whipped cream frosting is.
18:19Gotcha.
18:19I'm going to set it on a turntable because that'll make applying the frosting a lot easier.
18:25Do not stress doing it neatly.
18:28Okay.
18:28You just want to get it on there.
18:30So, you can see, you just kind of squeeze gently and rotate the pan.
18:36And as you work your way up, if there are gaps, that's actually kind of good.
18:41Those gaps in between, it's going to keep the whipped cream from freezing solid immediately.
18:46That'll mean that there's time for us to even it out.
18:50We're just going to smooth everything into place.
18:55That's looking pretty good, right?
18:56That's looking great.
18:57I don't really stress it if it doesn't look perfect because it's a really thin layer of frosting.
19:04And we're going to actually add some decor that will kind of hide any imperfections.
19:10So, now that the frosting is on, we're going to pop this back in the freezer and let it set.
19:15It's going to take about 20 minutes to set up.
19:18And the way to check for that is you kind of feel the whipped cream at the very bottom where
19:22the cake meets the plate is the last to solidify.
19:25Okay.
19:26So, this cake is now fully set.
19:29And what's really nice about it, it's firm, right?
19:32Very firm.
19:33What's really nice is at this point, you don't have to rush.
19:36If you want to do some fancy decorating, you can absolutely go too.
19:39How long can this hang out while you decorate it?
19:42I've had it out for about, I'd call it half an hour.
19:44Wow.
19:45And not had trouble with the ice cream melting or it losing its shape or anything.
19:50Interesting.
19:50There's so much mass in there that's really cold that it just gives you more freedom to take your time,
19:57which is, you know, the decorating part.
19:58This is the fun part.
19:59Yeah, it's great.
20:00So, I'm going to keep this pretty simple.
20:02I'm just going to pipe a ring of dots around the top.
20:07Aww.
20:08Now, I promised you that not doing a perfect job on the sides wouldn't matter.
20:13Here's why.
20:14You can actually press candies, cookies, crumbs, whatever you have that you feel like using.
20:21I'm going to use sprinkles.
20:22Oh.
20:23Depending on the size and shape of the pieces, you're going to need anywhere between two-thirds to one cup
20:29of decor.
20:31And I like to pop it in a big pan that'll catch any of the bits that kind of come
20:36bouncing off.
20:37Mm-hmm.
20:38And this is going to feel a little dangerous, but it's pretty easy.
20:42I just want to pick up a handful in my hands, and I'm just going to press them onto the
20:48sides of the cake.
20:49And I'm not going to stress making sure that it's perfectly uniform.
20:53I'm going to just kind of rotate and press.
20:57It really does hide any flaws, and it adds a nice bit of texture on top.
21:04I'm just going to take a second to clean up this plate, but before I do, top's looking a little
21:10plain, right?
21:11Aww.
21:11That looks so sweet.
21:13Now, I know it looks like it's ready to go.
21:16It does.
21:17Almost.
21:18I'm going to pop this in the freezer to make sure that everything is fully set, and it can hang
21:22in the freezer for one hour to 24 hours.
21:24Okay.
21:25Julia, half an hour ago, I moved this cake from the freezer to the fridge, and there it came up
21:31slowly so that we have a better texture for serving and slicing.
21:35That makes sense.
21:36Not a hard freeze any longer.
21:37Correct.
21:38You ready for this reveal?
21:40Yes.
21:40Okay.
21:42Who goes small with ice cream cake?
21:44I'm not judging.
21:45I am judging.
21:48Go big or go back and get seconds.
21:53Yeah, yeah.
21:54That's exactly it.
21:56Ooh.
21:57What do I think?
21:58Oh, not bad, right?
21:59That is gorgeous looking.
22:01The whipped cream on top almost has a little shimmer sprinkle to it.
22:05It almost looks like frosted or snow, you know?
22:08Yeah, yeah.
22:08And that's the neat thing that happens when whipped cream freezes.
22:12It's got a natural glisten.
22:13Yes.
22:14It's just extra festive.
22:16Yeah.
22:16I know what that is.
22:17That's the extra chocolate sauce you made.
22:19It is.
22:19I just warmed it gently in the microwave, 50% power, just until it was nice and saucy.
22:24I'm going to make sure to get it on the side of the cake so that it doesn't melt everything.
22:33Mmm.
22:37That's delicious.
22:40The cake has the perfect texture.
22:42It's almost like the middle of a macaron, just a little chewy.
22:47Your teeth go right through.
22:48It's satisfying.
22:49Oh, and that fudge.
22:50It's so satisfying.
22:51And the really awesome thing is, even though I've cut into it, this cake, I've had it out
22:57cut for about half an hour, and it barely melts.
23:01Really?
23:02Yeah.
23:02It's just so easy to serve.
23:04I really appreciate that cake on the bottom.
23:07It gives a texture you don't usually get.
23:10It gives you that chewy texture that you've always kind of wanted in ice cream cake, and
23:14it's not just melting.
23:16Lon, this is spectacular.
23:18This is the best ice cream cake I've ever had.
23:21Hands down.
23:22And I've eaten 50 years of ice cream cake, so I know what I'm talking about.
23:27If you want to make this incredible ice cream cake, don't grease the sides of the pan when
23:33making the chiffon cake layer.
23:35Assemble the layers of ice cream, fudge, and cake into the springform pan upside down, and
23:40cover the cake with a base layer of whipped cream, and chill it well before decorating.
23:44From America's Test Kitchen, hands down the best ice cream cake.
23:50This is incredible.
23:52I'm surprised testing went on so long.
23:55Are you really now?
23:57No.
23:57I'm not alone.
23:57No.
23:57No.
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