Italian Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I can hear the wheels turning in your head as to what to make for this special day so that your loved one will be blown away. I too had the same apprehension and I finally took a plunge in to a relatively unknown territory, Ice-cream cake. Yes, I finally made an ice-cream cake for my HB! It is the Mocha Ice-cream cake, entirely homemade 🙂 To be honest, I had had ice-cream cake only once before today, that too in my childhood. In fact I did not even know that it was an ice-cream cake then.

The Mocha Ice-cream cake is a pretty simple cake but extremely delicious and will particularly be enjoyed by coffee lovers, I believe, because my HB is one. The main thing to note while making the cake is the consistency of the mocha whipped cream. It should be beaten until you get a stiff peak. I have used homemade chocolate chunk cookies (for which I will post the recipe soon) as the base but you can also use store bought cookies. But make sure that you get good quality ones. Also, I personally prefer dark chocolate chunk cookies instead of the regular ones because they enhance the mocha flavor and the latter will make the cake too sweet. And I used a springform pan to shape the cake but you can also use a dessert bowl or any other small bowl to hold the ice-cream cake.

The Mocha Ice-cream Cake is pretty light and is not too sweet (because of the dark chocolate and brown sugar) and can be had for dessert or simply as is. My HB thoroughly enjoyed it 🙂 and hope your loved ones will too once you make this extremely delicious cake. So do try it out and let me know your experience 🙂

Mocha Ice-Cream Cake

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

½ cup cold heavy cream
3 oz of Italian mascarpone cheese
1 ¼ tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tbsp filter coffee decoction
½ tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed)
¼ tsp instant espresso
¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
5 Good quality thin crust chocolate chip cookies

for decorating:

10 Lindt toffee bites (optional)
1 Godiva dark chocolate truffle

Instructions

I made homemade thin crust brown butter dark chocolate chunk cookies for this recipe. You could use any good quality thin crust chocolate chip cookies for this recipe.
First add all the above given ingredients except cookies in a medium mixing bowl.
Mix them in very low speed until combined.
Then move to medium speed until stiff peak forms. It takes around couple of minutes.
Then in a 4” spring form pan, line the cookies on the bottom.
Layer the cookies with mocha whipped cream on top.
And repeat by layering another cookie and mocha whipped cream layers.
Repeat and finish it off with mocha whipped cream layer. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Carefully scrape the sides using plastic knife before removing from the pan. Drizzle a tsp of cocoa powder on top using strainer and decorate with lindt toffee bites or anything of your choice. Enjoy! 

Cauliflower Crust Bread, interestingly, this dish is not a bread as the name implies. It is more of a pizza like variety and it tastes yummy! This is one of those dishes that I came across in my eternal search for different dinner recipes.
Caulifower Crust Bread is an easy to make dish and is comparatively healthier than Pizza. It is a very mild dish and hence kids friendly. The first time I made Cauliflower Crust Bread, the quantity was very less since I had used just a quarter of the cauliflower (I am bit cautious when trying out new dishes ;)) and I realy felt sorry for not making enough. It is that good.
And here is the recipe for Cauliflower Crust Bread. It goes well with marinara sauce (home made or store bought, doesn’t matter). Do try this one in your home and let me know how it tastes 🙂

CAULIFLOWER CRUST BREAD

Recipe type: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 50 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 6

Caulifower Crust Bread, interestingly, this dish is not a bread as the name implies. It is more of a pizza like variety and it tastes yummy!

Ingredients

Cauliflower (medium) -1
Cooking oil / olive oil - 2 tsp
Garlic cloves ( grated or minced) - 6
Eggs – 2 (lightly beaten)
Mozzarella cheese (low-fat cheese is fine) - 16 oz
Dried Italian herb seasoning - 1 tsp (freshly grated and divided)
salt and pepper - 3 pinch each
Cooking spray
Marinara sauce, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two 8" x 8" square cake pan with parchment paper so that the excess paper hangs over the sides; lightly spray the parchment paper with cooking spray (I used one 8" x 8" square cake pan and 9” x 9” loaf pan , cake pan crust was thin, whereas loaf pan’s crust was little thick).
Grate the cauliflower (you should have about ½ a bowl of riced cauliflower) and microwave (uncovered) until softened, about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally (don’t add water); cool slightly.
While the cauliflower cooks, cook garlic in a small skillet (stir constantly) with little oil on a low flame until fragrant (about 30 seconds to 1 minute).cool slightly.
To the bowl with the softened cauliflower, add the garlic, egg, ¾ of the cheese (reserving ¼ for topping later), ¼ teaspoon of the dried Italian herb seasoning (reserving ¼ teaspoon for topping later), and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir to combine and then spread in the prepared pans.
Bake until the loaf sides turn golden brown (for about 30 minutes). Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper; use the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the loaf pan and carefully flip it over onto the lined baking sheet (so the bottom is on top). Bake for another 10 minutes.
Preheat the broiler. Cut the loaf cross-wise into pieces. Slightly separate the pieces and sprinkle the cheese on top along with the remaining ¼ teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning. Broil a couple minutes until the cheese is melted and golden in spots. Take out of the oven. Let it cool for 10 minutes (so that the crust will harden a bit and makes it easier to hold like a thin-crust pizza) and enjoy!

Notes

You could also use this cauliflower crust recipe for making pizza base instead of all-purpose flour.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 2 pieces