I should be making Eggplant Parm right now......

Ok, I am going to squeeze this in. I have dispatched my husband and my two most demanding children off to the grocery store to go grab eggplant and MANY other items. Due to budget constrictions, I am banned from grocery stores...=) No really, I can go for small items but have restricted myself to only using cash as I find myself swipe, swipe, swiping away with abandon and trying to figure it out later. Obviously that doesn't work. But I digress.

Tonight's dinner was going to be Eggplant Parmesan with fresh baked Italian bread and salad. So far it has ended up not becoming much of anything and I asked my DH to pick up a loaf of bread....not as good as mine, but I was kidnapped voluntarily and went tag saling all afternoon with my naughty but wonderfully supportive friend. So, it will be a time crunch trying to get everything baked in time for dinner...Oh! Wait I am already late! Dinner should be on the table now!!!! Darn you tag sales all over town! I did score some cute curtains for my kitchen and laundry room, and some wonderful plastic plates that my children will STILL break. They are amazingly adept at destruction.

OK....Here is the reason for the post(if you have hung in that long)
I am now part of the DaringKitchen.com. It is a website that consists of many people online all baking the same recipe every month.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I decided to go with the pound cake Petit Fours. I used homemade vanilla with a layer of raspberry jam because I did not have access to my ice-cream maker as I was at the lake and without my supplies. So nothing came out right, but oh well. I have made ice cream perfectly plenty of times before so, no big deal. Loved the Pound cake although I would have preferred it unfrozen. So when I went to glaze the cakes with my White Chocolate Ganache my poor ice-cream just fell apart, even though I froze them overnight. It just was not stable enough....But they tasted good. So Pics and then recipe and Good night! Oh yeah! Eggplant Parmesan was great!

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Directions:

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

White Chocolate Ganache

12 Oz Bag of White chocolate Chips
3/4 Cup Heavy Cream
1 Tbl Corn Syrup

In Double Boiler Heat Cream and Corn syrup until simmer
Add in White Chocolate Chips and let them melt
Take Boiler off heat
Allow Ganache to cool and then dip cake in or pour glaze on.
(It Helps if the ganache is Thick but not too thick. Still pourable.