More Cheese More Chocolate

I am a huge proponent of dessert after every meal.  I love love love salty and savory food, but no meal really feels complete unless it’s followed by a bite of something sweet.  I will jump at any chance to go out for ice cream, but a spoonful of mint chip from my freezer will get the job done, too.  I always have at least one variety of cookies in my freezer (currently cranberry chocolate chip ones that my mom sent for Valentine’s Day) for emergencies, and if I’m really desperate, I’ll eat a fun size box of Milk Duds that have been in a cabinet in Matt’s kitchen since Halloween.  They take a little work to eat, but I figure all of that chewing burns off at least some of the calories that I’m consuming, so it’s not all bad.

When I made a fried chicken dinner for my mom and boyfriend this weekend I knew that, assuming all went well, we’d be stuffed to the gills when we finished.  I also knew that, barring extraordinary fullness, I’d want a bite of something sweet after dinner, and it’s always nice to serve your guests dessert.  I hemmed and hawed about what to make, and I decided that it should be something that I could make ahead of time and something with a small serving size.  I found a recipe for Ice Cream Bonbons in Food & Wine, and they looked delicious, could be prepared in advance, were bite-sized, and, best of all, could be frozen indefinitely in case nobody was up for dessert.  As it turned out, we were all stuffed but had just enough room to accommodate a single bonbon.

Ice Cream Bonbons

From Food & Wine, June 2011

• 10 oz extra-dark chocolate, finely chopped*
• 2 oz good quality white chocolate from a bar, chopped*
• 1 pint coffee ice cream (or caramel or vanilla or whatever else you’re into)
• 1 cup finely crushed chocolate wafers**
• Flaky sea salt for sprinkling

1. In a double boiler or in the microwave, melt the chocolate(s) until smooth.  Transfer to a small bowl and let cool slightly.
2. Put the crushed cookies on a small plate or in a small bowl.  Line two baking sheets with wax paper, and put one in the freezer.  Fill a cup with ice water.
3. Using an ice cream or cookie scoop (or even just a tablespoon), scoop some ice cream, pack it tightly in (not really possible if you’re using soft ice cream), and transfer it to the melted chocolate.  Use a skewer (I used a cake tester) to poke the rounded top of the ice cream and cover it with chocolate.  Lift it and let some of the chocolate drip off (but do so quickly), dip it in the crushed cookies, transfer to the baking sheet, and sprinkle with salt.  After about 10 seconds the chocolate shell should harden slightly, and then you can transfer the bonbon to the baking sheet in the freezer.  Repeat with remaining ice cream, and rinse the cookie scoop in ice water as needed.  Freeze the bonbons for at least 30 minutes before serving or transferring to a storage container.

I was a little worried that the whole ice cream/warm chocolate combination would be a huge, messy disaster, but it really wasn’t that bad.  The ice cream that I used was a bit on the soft side, which didn’t really help.  I would recommend buying the hardest ice cream you can find – the stuff that you have to let sit on the counter for a few minutes before you can even get a spoon into it.  Even with soft ice cream and a few holes in the chocolate coating, these were delicious.  And, with only three bonbons consumed after the fried chicken, I have dessert in the freezer for at least the next couple of weeks.  Bon bon indeed!