Frozen Yogurt Layered Cake

Having just returned from three weeks in England and France and heading off to New Orleans tomorrow for a few days, I am a bit behind in my blog. As such, I have asked my wife, Leslie, to step in for me to share with you her simple-to-assemble ice cream cake. Here’s Leslie…

For several years, a group of our friends have been gathering once a month to share a potluck dinner, rotating among our various homes. Each host gets to pick the theme of the dinner and make various assignments—appetizers, salad, side dish and dessert. The host always prepares the main dish. We’ve exhausted many cuisines—Italian, French, Indian—seasonal such as Spring, Harvest, etc.—and single ingredients such as maple syrup. Last night our host chose yogurt. I was assigned dessert, always my favorite.

So I started thinking about and researching frozen yogurt cake, similar to ice cream cakes. Most of the recipe I developed is culled from reading various approaches to ice cream cake assemblages.

I decided to use a chocolate wafer bottom crust, followed by chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt, over laid with a thin layer of cooled melted bittersweet chocolate, followed by a layer of vanilla bean frozen yogurt and finished off with my own chocolate chip cookies, which I put through a blender.

I used an eight-inch spring form cake pan, which yielded enough to feed 10 of us with two portions left over. You can use any flavor ice cream or frozen yogurt, whatever appeals to you. While I used a thin layer of melted chocolate, you could also use a layer of chopped nut, dried fruit or mini marshmallows. You are only limited by your imagination.

Ingredients:

20-24 chocolate wafers, pulverized

5 tbsp. melted butter, divided

1 or 2 tbsp. granulated sugar

6 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet or a combination of both, melted

24 oz. or ¾ qt chocolate chip cookie dough frozen yogurt

24 oz. or ¾ qt vanilla bean frozen yogurt

6 chocolate chip cookies pulverized

Directions:

1.     Butter bottom and sides of 8-inch spring form (releasable bottom) cake pan.

2.     Pulverize 20-24 chocolate wafers in blender or place them in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to make fine crumbs. Add 2 tbsp. granulated sugar and mix well. Remove to small bowl.

3.     Melt 2 tbsp. butter. Pour butter into chocolate wafers and mix well until all of the crumbs have been wetted.

4.     Pour crumb mixture into bottom of spring form. With the bottom of a glass or using your hands, pat the crumb mixture into place—flat and even. Place the spring form in the freezer for 15 minutes.

5.     Remove the first container of frozen yogurt and let it start to soften. In the meantime, in a double boiler, melt 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate and 3 tbsp. butter, mixing until incorporated. Remove top sauce pan from boiling water and set aside to cool. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop out 24 oz. of the first container of frozen yogurt, in this case, chocolate chip cookie dough into a medium size bowl. The frozen yogurt should still be somewhat stiff. Use a large spoon to push all of the scoops together.

6.     Remove the spring form pan from the freezer. Spoon the frozen yogurt over the cookie wafer layer. Be sure to smooth this layer. Return to the freezer for 15 minutes.

7.     Take the spring form from the freezer and spoon the cooled chocolate mixture over the frozen yogurt. Return the spring form to the freezer for 15 minutes. Remove the second yogurt from the freezer and let it begin to soften. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, scoop out 24 oz. of the second container of frozen yogurt, in this case, vanilla bean into a medium size bowl.

8.     Take 6 chocolate chip cookies and pulverize them in an electric blender or place them in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Spread this mixture over the second layer of frozen yogurt. Press the crumbs in with the bottom of a glass or use the back of your fingers.

9.     Cover with plastic wrap and return spring form to the freezer. Keep frozen until ready to serve.

10.  Serving suggestions: remove spring form from freezer. Take a sharp knife, dip it into a glass of hot water and wipe the blade with a towel. Run the knife around the perimeter of the spring form between the metal and the frozen yogurt. This step will make it easier to release the cake from the pan. Release the form and voila! You will have an impressive multi-layered frozen yogurt cake. To serve, continue to dip the knife into a glass of hot water and wipe the blade before cutting each slice. I put a chocolate chip cookie on each plate along with the frozen yogurt slice. You can also garnish with chocolate sauce or whipped cream or chocolate shavings.

11. You can adjust this recipe to assemble the cake into a loaf pan. In this case, you will need to line the pan with either tin foil or plastic wrap.

12. Enjoy! You’ll receive accolades.