STRACCIATELLA CAKE

Add a finishing touch to your meals with this frozen cake

Although ice creams arrive at our tables during the summer when temperatures change, they are also the whim of winter.

From the most popular and most demanded, such as vanilla ice cream, to chocolate and nougat, to strawberry and dulce de leche, which occupy the top positions of the most ice cream makers.

You can find them in the classic terrine, in the traditional cone, bathed in hot chocolate, in the form of a roll or made at the moment in cold plates, so popular in the streets of Bangkok, among many other proposals. Today we show you another version: stracciatella ice cream in cake version.

This smooth ice cream, created in 1961 at Ristorante La Marianna di Bergamo, in northern Italy, is made with cream and crunchy dark chocolate chips. Now it is one of the best worldwide Italian ice creams

Add the finishing touch to your meals with this iced pie with meringue base and fresh red fruits.

Ingredients for 12 portions

For the meringue

• 2 egg whites, at room temperature
• 140 g of sugar
• 5 g cornstarch

For the chocolate sauce

• 100 g dark chocolate
• 200 ml of liquid cream to assemble, at room temperature

For ice cream

• 150 g dark chocolate for desserts
• 800 ml of cream, very cold to make a whipped cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 65 g of sugar
• 20 ml espresso coffee

To decorate

• Meringues
• Whipped cream
• Raspberries
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cocoa powder

Step by step elaboration

For the meringues

1. Preheat the oven to 150º C, with heat up and down (without air) and cover a baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Beat the egg whites and, when they begin to foam, add the sugar mixed with the corn starch, little by little without stopping .Continue beating for 10 minutes to beat egg whites until they are stiff.
3. Fill a pastry bag with a round and smooth nozzle. Draw two 16 cm discs on the baking sheet and, with the rest of the meringue, make small mounds.
4. Insert the baking pan with the meringues in the oven, in an average height, and cook them at 150º C for 5 minutes. After this time, lower the temperature to 100º C and cook 1.5 hours more.
5. After cooking time, open the oven door a little and let the meringues cool inside. Remove only when they are completely cold and dry.

For the chocolate sauce

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a deep bowl.
2. Heat the cream until it reaches the boil, pour it over the chopped chocolate and mix it until you get a homogeneous sauce.
3. Let the sauce cool and set aside for serving time.

Assembly and finish

1. Cover the walls of a removable base mold with parchment paper and insert one of the meringue discs inside.
2. Chop the chocolate for the ice cream. Reserve a small amount and melt the rest. Temper it.
3. Beat the cream until make a whipped cream. Separate into two containers, one with 2/3 and one with 1/3, and reserve in the fridge.
4. Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar. When the mixture becomes creamy and begins to bleach, add the coffee and 2/3 of the whipped cream.
5. Add a little bit of the ice cream to the tempered melted chocolate and then, while stirring, add the result in the bowl with the rest of the ice cream together and with the chopped chocolate.
6. Pour into the mold, on the meringue base, and add the remaining 1/3 of the whipped cream, mixing with a silicone spatula to mix several layers gently.
7. Place the other meringue disc on the surface, pressing very carefully to avoid breaking it.
8. Insert the mold into the freezer for a minimum of 6 hours, is better to leave it the entire night.
9. When the time comes for consumption, remove the cake from the freezer and unmold. Transfer a presentation plate and decorate with fruits, meringues, whipped cream, cocoa powder, etc.
10. Pour the chocolate sauce and serve immediately.

Tips

• So let the meringues mount well, they should be at room temperature. You can also add a pinch of salt or 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice before you start whipping.
• Prepare all the elements of the decoration before removing the cake from the freezer to be able to do it quickly and so that it does not melt in the process.
• Chocolate sauce can be served hot or cold. It’s up to your taste.
• Meringue discs are very fragile. Nothing happens if they break when assembling the cake because they are covered in ice cream and toppings, but you have to be careful with them.
• The decoration can be adapted to everyone’s taste and use other fruits, chocolate chips, clouds, pearl sugar, etc.