Strawberry Stracciatella Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 pound strawberries
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kirsch or vodka (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
5 ounces chocolate, melted

Directions
Wash and slice the strawberries. Place them in a large bowl with the sugar and kirsch or vodka (if using.) Give them a stir until the sugar begins to dissolve, then let them sit at room temperature for 1 hour, giving them an occasional gentle stir.
After they’ve macerated for 1 hour, place them in the bowl of a food processor or blender with the accumulated juices. Add the heavy cream, yogurt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Chill this mixture in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. When the ice cream is getting close to being done, melt the chocolate either via double boiler method or in the microwave (I used the microwave, melting the chocolate in a Pyrex liquid measuring cup in 30 second intervals on 50% power, stirring after each time.) When the ice cream is just about finished churning, while the motor is still running, slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into the ice cream in a thin stream. Try not to hit the machine’s paddle. I found it easiest to drizzle a little chocolate in, then use a spoon to swirl it around while it’s churning. If you find the chocolate begins to clump up, you can drizzle it in layers when you pack the ice cream into its storage container, swirling it with a spoon as you go.
Transfer the churned ice cream to a storage container, and freeze.

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 heaping TBSP cocoa powder
2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease cupcake pans and set aside.
Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often , until well blended, about 3 minutes. Add the cocoa powder. Mix until combined. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, on at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well after each addition. Continue to beat for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer, add the melted chocolate, and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add about ½ the ingredients followed by about ½ of the sour cream and beat well. Add the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining sour cream, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Add the boiling water and beat until smooth.
Scoop(ice cream scoop works best) batter into prepared pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center. Let cool for about 10 minutes and remove from pan. Let cupcakes cool completely.
Peanut Butter Filling
4 ounces or 1/2 package of Philly cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
milk to thin out filling
Beat cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the milk and beat until combined. Add milk until your reach desired consistency.

Chocolate Ganache
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
5 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar
Chop chocolates and transfer into a heat proof bowl.
Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream over the chocolate.
Let sit for 1 minute then stir until combined.
Add butter and vanilla and stir until combined.
Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixture and let cool for 10 minutes.
Sift powdered sugar into the mixture and beat until combined. Add more sugar if needed.
Continue to beat with an electric mixer until lighter in color and creamy.
Assemble
Using a small pairing knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the cone.
Fill the cavity with a teaspoon or so of peanut butter filling. I used a piping bag, this makes it much easier.Replace top.Frost with ganache.

Fanny’s Fave Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie with Hot Fudge Sauce

Crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
2 TBSP sugar
2/3 cup(11 TBSP) chilled unsalted butter
4 to 5 TBSP ice water

Filling:
¼ cup banana liqueur
1 envelope plus 1.2 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 vanilla bean
2 ¾ cups milk
4 large egg yolks
¾ cups sugar
3 TBSP cornstarch
3 to 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 ripe bananas
lemon-lime soda
¼ cup creamy peanut butter, at room temperature

Hot Fudge Sauce:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
½ cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
¼ cup butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
¼ tsp salt
3 to 4 TBSP Jack Daniel’s Whiskey(I left out because I didn’t have it)

To make the crust:
Using a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the flour, salt, and sugar on low speed for about 30 seconds. Cut the chilled butter into ½-inch cubes. Add the butter to the flour mixture and combine on slow speed for 1 to 1 ½ minutes, until the mixture looks crumbly. Add 4 TBSP ice water, 1 TBSP at a time, mixing on low speed for 10 seconds after each addition. After the last addition, the dough should begin to clump together in a ball. If not, continue mixing about 10 more seconds. If it looks too try add another TBSP of ice water. Gently mold the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 425F. Unwrap the dough and transfer to a lightly flour flat surface. Roll it into a 1/8-inch thick circle large enough to over the bottom and sides of a 9-inch deep dish pie. Wrap the dough lightly over the rolling pin and st it in the ungreased pie pan. Press it into place. Use a fork to prick the bottom of the unbaked crust. Cover the bottom and sides of the crust with a sheet of parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and weights. If the crust is not golden brown, return to the oven for 1-3 minutes. Cool on a rack until the custard filling is ready.
To make the filling:
Pour the banana liqueur into a small metal bowl, sprinkle the gelatin on top, and let it soften for 5 minutes. Set the bowl over a small saucepan with 2 inches of simmering water and warm the gelatin until it has completely dissolved and looks clear. Cut the vanilla bean pod in half lengthwise. Combine the milk and vanilla bean pod in a medium saucepan and brig to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover the saucepan, and let the vanilla steep in the mile while preparing the yolk mixture.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Add the sugar gradually, whisking constantly until the mixture lightens in color to a lemony hue, about 15 minutes total. Whisk in the cornstarch. Pour the milk through a strainer into a glass measuring cup or pitcher with a spout. Gradually pour the milk into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan set over medium heat ans whisk constantly until it begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Reduce the heat and whisk for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the gelatin mixture, being sure to incorporate it throughly. Let the filling cool completely, about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, melt the chocolate in a small bowl in a microwave on medium high. Check every 30 seconds to ensure the chocolate does not burn. Using a pastry brush, evenly coat the bottom and sides of the crust with bittersweet chocolate. Refrigerate the pie crust while the chocolate hardens and sets, 10-15 minutes.
Slice the bananas diagonally and brush them with lemon lime soda(helps prevent browning). Spread peanut butter evenly over the bottom of the baked crust. Layer on half of the banana slices, add all of the filling, and then the remaining bananas.
Cover the pie with plastic wrap. Make sure that the plastic comes in direct contact with any custard not covered by bananas to totally seal it and prevent a skin from developing on the surface. Refrigerate the pie overnight before serving.

To make the fudge sauce:
Heat the cream and brown sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. When the sugar is dissolved, add the butter, chocolate chips, and bittersweet chocolate and stir over medium low heat until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the salt. Remove the fudge from the heat and stir in the Jack Daniel’s. Keep warm until ready to slice and serve the pie, or cover and store in fridge for up to 1 month. The sauce can be reheated in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove top over low heat.
To serve the pie, cut it in wedges, add a dollop of whipped cream and top with a generous pour of hot fudge sauce

Kahlua Chocolate Mousse

6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, or a mixture, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon warm water
2 TBSP Kahlua
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
Pinch fine salt
1/3 cup sugar

Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. (Alternatively, put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue heat until completely melted, about 1 to 2 minutes more.)
Whip the cream in a medium bowl until it holds soft peaks. Take care not to over whip the cream or the mousse will be dense. Cover and refrigerate while you cook the eggs.
Put the eggs in another bowl that also sets over the water in the saucepan. Beat the egg yolks, pinch of salt, and sugar until foamy and light, about 30 seconds. Set the bowl over the water and whip with an electric mixer or whisk, moving in a circular motion around the bowl, until the eggs get very fluffy and hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue beating on high speed until the thick ribbons fall from the beater when lifted out of the bowl, about 5 minutes more. Fold in the Kahlua.
Fold about a quarter of the eggs into the chocolate to lighten it, then fold in the rest of the egg. Finally fold the whipped cream into the chocolate base to make a smooth light mousse. Pour the mousse into 4 serving dishes or wine glasses. Cover and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Serve.
For a dark, double-rich mousse, use all bittersweet chocolate instead of the semisweet, and decrease the cream to 3/4 cup.

Chocolate Walnut-Caramel Cake

1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup whipped cream
2 ½ cups walnut half’s
7 TBSP unsalted butter. softened
1 egg white, lightly beaten
½ cup apricot preserves
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
4 TBSP unsalted butter

Sweet Tart Pastry
10 TBSP cold butter
4 egg yolks
¼ tsp salt
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract 1 ¾ cups flour

Sweet Tart Pastry:
Place egg yolks, salt, sugar, vanilla and butter in a bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade; process using 4 one-second pulses until partially mixed. Add flour all at once and process with 6 to 8 one- second pulses until dough begins to clump(but does not form a ball). Gather dough into a rough mound on work surface. Work small portions of the dough against the work surface with the heel of your hand(pushing the dough away from you). Press pieces of dough into a ball. Divided ball into two pieces: one piece that is less than two thirds of the dough for the bottom crust, and one piece that is just over one third of the dough for the top. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

To make the cake:

1.Prepare Sweet Tart Pastry: Line bottom of an 8-inch diameter, 1 ½ inch deep, round cake pan(I used a spring form) with a circle of parchment paper. Brush sides of pan with melted butter. Roll out the larger piece of dough into a circle 1/8 inch thick and 10 inches in diameter. Mold the dough to bottom and sides of pan with gentle finger pressure. If the dough breaks as you are trying to fit it into the pan, just press into into the pan all around in and even layer. Patch holes with small pieces of dough. The bottom and sides of the pan must be covered with an even layer of pastry; none of the pan should show through. Wrap pastry shell and refrigerate while you make filling. Roll out the small piece of dough into a circle 1/8 inch thick and 8 inches in diameter. Prick all over with a fork. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheet, cover and refrigerate.
2. Place sugar and water in a 2 ½ quart saucepan, stir until sugar dissolves and syrup comes to a boil. Boil, without stirring, until sugar is a light caramel color.(320F on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat.
3.Add cream and stir to blend. Then stir in the walnuts and the 7 TBSP soft butter. Return to heat, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil gently until the syrup reaches 225F on candy thermometer. Remove from heat. Cool for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Preheat oven to 375F.
4.Brush inside of pastry-lined cake pan with a thin layer of egg white to moisture proof shell. Spread cooled caramel filling in bottom of shell. Trim the sides of pastry shell to 1/8 inch above filling. Place pastry lid on top; press to seal at edges.
5.Bake until pastry is golden brown(40-50 minutes). Remove from oven; cool in pan 30 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cool completely before covering with chocolate glaze.
6.Heat apricot preserves until melted and bubbly. Strain to remove piece of fruit. Brush entire surface of cooled pastry with warm preserves.
7.To make chocolate glaze: Break chocolate into small pieces and place in a small stainless steel bowl over a pot of hot(not boiling)water. Melt the 4 TBSP butter in a small saucepan, and skim off the white foam that rises to the top. When chocolate is just melted, stir in the clarified butter(discard the white solids left behind). Set aside until chocolate is 86F.
8.Slide cake onto a cardboard cake circle(covered with foil) that is slightly small in diameter that the cake. Place cake on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Pour chocolate glaze over cake and using a narrow metal spatula, quickly pared it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Allow chocolate to set to firm consistency before serving.
9.Store cake at cool room temperature. If refrigerated, allow to warm to room temperature before serving. Serve in 1-inch wedges. Cake is very rich.