Fennel Ice Cream, Sugared Puff Pastry & Caramel

I want to end Volume I of the ‘Dinner Party Chronicles’ with everyone’s favorite. So, Chapter III is all about dessert!

First, let me just say upfront, the dessert almost didn’t happen. Up until the morning of the dinner party, I still had no idea what I was going to serve for dessert. I wasn’t inspired. It was 3pm, I had already done my grocery shopping for the day (actually, I had gone twice) and I was not about to go back.

To say I was a tad frustrated would not be too far off the mark. I was halfway thinking of serving cookies and milk in an old fashion jug and proclaim it to be a ‘retro’ dessert. People were arriving soon, there was no dessert, the other dishes weren’t done and the house was a mess.

Honestly, this chaos is not all that unusual….No matter how much time I give myself, there is always disorder before dinner parties. The kitchen is always a disaster zone and for the life of me, I don’t see how it’s all going to come together in the end. But somehow, two minutes before the first guest rings the door bell, it just does.

Back to dessert. I had ruled out the cookies and milk thing…I’ll save that for another desperate time.

I decided to make ice cream. An amazing fennel ice cream that was published in Gourmet magazine (I found it at Smitten Kitchen) immediately came to mind. I had made it before and loved it – sinfully delicious and thanks to the high fat content, an even more sinful and creamy texture.

Now, I wanted to add another element to complete plate. I remembered that I had store-bought puff pastry in the freezer and caramel that I had made for some recently baked pecan sandies.

With that decided, it was time to start cooking.

If you missed the first two chapters on this dinner party series, here’s a recap of the menu:

THE MENU

Pre-Dinner Cocktails: Lemongrass Caipirinhas

Appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli & Seared Loin) with Garden Scapes

Soup: Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup with Lardons

Main Coarse: Port/Orange Sauce Braised Duck Breast & Asparagus Salad

Dessert: Fennel Ice Cream on Sugared Puff Pastry with Caramel Sauce

And if you are not familiar with the ‘Dinner Party Chronicles’ here’s a rundown: The ‘Chronicles’ is a feature of the Ceramic Canvas that recaps the successes AND failures of dinner party menus and recipes hosted in our home. It is divided into volumes and chapters. Volume refers to the actual date of the dinner party. And each chapter (i.e. posting) will focus one specific dish of that night’s meal.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…dessert.

Before guests arrived I cut out the puff pastry, sugared them, put them on a baking sheet and stored them in the fridge. At that point, all I had to do was pop them in the oven in the middle of the entrée course and they were ready to come out just in time for dessert. They were still warm and flakey when dessert was served – which was ideal because you have the nice ice cold ice cream laying on top of a warm piece of buttery, sweet puff pastry pillow. As you dove your spoon down through the ice cream you could here a audible cracking as the fork broke through the flakey puff pastry. Top that off with homemade caramel. Nice!

It was a nice sweet cap to a fun meal. Our guests had no idea that they were that close to having Keebler cookies and milk.

NOTES: There is no recipe for the puff pastry – it’s store bought. Just thaw it out and cut with a cookie/ravioli cutter. You can make your own but they now have pretty decent pre-made puff pastry dough. Look in your grocer’s freezer section.

The caramel recipe and photographic step-by-step can be found in the recent pecan sandies recipe posting.

FENNEL ICE CREAM (Originally published in Gourmet Magazine; Oct 2007)

1 2/3 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar, divided

4 large egg yolks

Bring cream and fennel seeds just to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then cover and let steep about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring.

Whisk together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl, then add milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Return mixture to medium saucepan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil). Immediately strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, then quick-chill by setting bowl in an ice bath and stirring occasionally until cool, about 15 minutes.

Strain fennel cream through fine-mesh sieve into custard, pressing on solids. Continue to chill in ice bath until custard is very cold, then freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, about 1 hour.

Makes about one quart

Tagged as: Caramel, Fennel, Puff Pastry