Ice Box Cake

A Personal Ice Box Cake

It just sounds old fashion, and it is.  This is my childhood summer dessert.  It reminds me of simple summers, crickets and locusts would be my soundtrack, and there is a breeze blowing off the Mississippi right through the enormous screened in porch where we lived from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  You might hear a train every few hours as the tracks were between us and the Mighty Miss, and if you were really lucky, you'd be home when the Delta Queen came by and her calliope organ would signal for you to get to high ground and see her coming past.  We had a balcony off my parents bedroom, and from there you could see her, plus the barges that came by all summer.  The Delta Queen was truly a glimpse of Mark Twain's river days, and I always thought it would be fun to the see the river from top to bottom.

I have blogged about ice box cake before, when I was hunting down Nabisco Famous Wafers and made this cake and some ice cream bon bons.  It was requested by my kids early this summer, and when I found a recipe for home made chocolate wafers in my email from King Arthur Flours, I knew I had to make it from scratch.  Wow.  Of course I used all Pernigotti Cocoa instead of black cocoa and Dutch process cocoa.  Also, why do we make round cookies?  We make our ice box cake in a 9X9, so I got smart and cut my cookies into squares!  And I had a few leftover cookies, so a week later I made a personal size Ice Box Cake for my sweetie.

Chocolate Wafers
(adapted from King Arthur's Flour)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 Pernigotti Cocoa

Cream butter and sugar.  Add salt, baking powder and espresso powder.  Mix well and add egg and vanilla.  Add flour and cocoa until all is incorporated.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill a few hours.

Why not squares?  Use every speck of dough!

Preheat oven to 350F.  Roll dough to 1/8" and cut out and reroll scraps. Use cocoa instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking.  Bake on Silpat lined sheets for about 8-10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking time.  Cool on racks and store airtight or frozen.

The cookies alone are delicious too!

Ice Box Cake

1 pint whipping cream
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
6-8 bananas, perfectly ripe, sliced thin
Chocolate wafer cookies

Everything ready to go for assembly.

Yes, it's a banana slicer and I use it ALL the time!

A layer of bananas...

Beat cream and powdered sugar to stiff peaks.  In a 9X9, spread a little whipped cream on the bottom and begin layering.  Cookies, bananas, whipped cream, however you like, and quantities you like.  We like to crush a few cookies on top of the last layer of whipped cream.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours to soften the wafers.

It doesn't cut perfectly, but it is delicious!

Nabisco Famous Wafers Part 2

Finally, I decided I needed a little something else to make from the wafers, a break from the Ice Box Cake from the previous post.

I found many crust recipes, ice cream sandwich recipes and other ice box cake variations. I decided to launch from a Martha recipe. I would love to make the coconut bonbons in her recipe, sort of a frozen Mounds bar, but my sweet hubby has an allergy (yes honey, we really believe you) to coconut. So I put on my culinary thinking cap and here are my bonbons!
The first are made with Hagen Daaz vanilla yogurt. I let it soften and stirred in some Peppermint Snow. This is a holiday product at Williams Sonoma. Yes, it is crushed candy canes, but they are not gooey in the Memphis humidity. I always buy a few jars when they go on post holiday clearance because I love cool peppermint in the summer! So I mix it in really well, and then take a scoop of my peppermint yogurt and put it on a famous chocolate wafer and freeze until firm. If your ice cream is really runny, freeze it so it scoops well.
I also made some with pistachio gelato. One of my all time favorites. After freezing the scoops on the wafers, melt some bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler and add about a Tablespoon of Crisco to get it super smooth and a little thinner. Put your scoops on a wire rack over some wax paper and ladle the chocolate over them to make a bon bon. I sprinkled a little extra pappermint crunch on the chocolate before it hardened and stuck a shelled pistachio on top of that scoop before the chocolate. Put them back in freezer and then enjoy. My family thinks I am the greatest!

Ice Box Cake

The hunt for Nabisco Famous Wafers. They may be famous, but they are darn hard to find. Thankfully my neighborhood Schnuck's had a card I could fill out with my grocery requests. All of my requests!
Card #1- Nabisco Famous Wafers
Card #2-Carnation Vanilla Malt Powder (for my hubby)
Card #3- Brick Cheese, it's a long story, but no, it isn't cheese sold the shape of a brick
Card #4-Heinz White Vinegar, seriously? Why can't I get this this in big jugs to make pickles?
Card #5- Flat Iron Steaks
Card #6-Seasoned Rice Vinegar
Happily I found everything I need now, except the dang Heinz White Vinegar, I guess I'll go elsewhere for that. Any pickle maker will tell you only Heinz will do!

Anyway, I got my hands on the wafers, and it appears other people are happy to have them as well. The Gourmet Sleuth says they have been made since 1924. I know we have been enjoying them since the 50's, although, ahem, I was NOT born yet, but I know my siblings were eating them!

The recipe on the back of the box is pretty basic, wafers, sweetened whipped cream, vanilla. You slather on the whipped cream and stack them and then chill for a few hours and the wafers soften. As a kid I remember seeing the picture on the box and wishing our Ice Box Cake looked like that. In a family of 7 however, quantity was important. My mom would layer the wafers and whipped cream in a 9x13 pan instead of a loaf pan. We didn't get the cool striped appearance because our wafers were horizontal. But our Ice Box Cake was the best because we added bananas. Yep, bananas. It just tastes like summer. Chocolate, whipped cream and bananas. Perfect for breakfast, snack, dessert. The wafers alone are delicious. A dark cocoa, not overly sweet, and a little toothsome quality. What is that? You get a small little bit, I originally thought it was graham, but upon closer inspection of the ingredients, I discovered there is coconut in them! Not a huge amount, you certainly cannot taste coconut, but you will detect the little flakes. It is part of the experience.

So the Petitti family ice box cake is essentially a layer of wafers on the bottom of a 9x13. Slather a layer of whipped cream. Slice banana over the whipped cream and repeat the layers. End with whipped cream on top and cover and chill. When you are ready to serve, crumble some cookie crumbs on top. Cut into squares and enjoy!
Since I don't have 7 people here, I decided to make our version of ice box in a loaf like the original because I really wanted those layers! It wasn't exactly the look I wanted. But it is rather like an abstract painting.