TWD: His & Hers Ice Cream Tarts

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought: coffee ice cream tart.  Though I don’t drink coffee, coffee ice cream is one of my favorites (right behind mint chocolate chip) so I was completely on board for this pick.  Shane is not a fan of coffee ice cream so originally I thought I’d just make one mini for myself and call it a day.  When I told Shane about the ice cream tart, however, he was so excited about the prospect he offered a few suggestions for variations.  I was happy to make an alternate flavor combination for him, but I didn’t want to give up my coffee ice cream, so that’s when the idea for his and her mini tarts was born 🙂

I mostly stuck to Dorie’s recipe for the filling on my tart – it consisted of ground almonds, almond extract and coffee ice cream.  For Shane’s tart, I went with one of his ideas and used chocolate ice cream with mini M&M’s mixed in.  Both minis were made in 4.5-inch tart pans and I used about 2/3 cup of ice cream in each.  Dorie’s recipe calls for an almond crust and a lot of the TWD bakers (who didn’t wait until the last minute to make their tarts) reported that the crust became rock hard in the freezer and was nearly impossible to cut.  I’d had that issue with a prior recipe and it was a bit of a pain so I changed up the crust as well, using this recipe from Bon Appetit (minus the cinnamon and halved for my 2 minis).

Since I made these so late, Shane didn’t get to try his yet, but I dug into mine and it was delicious!  I loved the coffee-almond flavor combination.  The Oreo crust worked perfectly too – it was firm, but easy to cut and eat.  The tarts really weren’t much work to put together and I love the way they use just a few ingredients and combine them in a way that seems more special.  Definitely a repeat here!

Many thanks to Jessica for hosting this week!  Random fun fact – Jessica and I worked at the same law firm for a short period of time, though we were in different cities so unfortunately never met.  You can find Dorie’s recipe for the coffee ice cream tart on Jessica’s blog or on pages 358-359 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.