imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - playa's sundae

As some of you might remember about a month ago I blogged about my dining experience at Playa (here).  Being a huge ice cream fan - one of the best things I had during my dining experience was Playa's sundae.  This is a dessert built on texture: it has a grit, pop, and a crunch that makes eating it so much fun for your mouth!  This dessert also uses bitter and sweet really well.

I loved the sundae so much I drug M along with me to get my second one about a week later.  We sat up at the bar had a few drinks - he ordered a couple small plates, but I started with the sundae which garnered a few inquisitive glances from the waiting staff... but, in my defense, I wanted to make sure that I had enough room for it.

Now as much as I may like to visit Playa every week ... that is just not an option.  So I have been working on a replicate of this wonderful delicacy.  And I think I have successfully done it.  What can I say where there is a will, there is a way!

Grit:

The hardest part of this dessert was finding the recipe for the gritty chocolate cookies that you crumble over the sundae.  I remembered the menu said the cookie was some sort of blue corn cookie.  Blue corn??  Never heard of that ... but a few clicks of the keyboard I had a recipe for chocolate chip blue corn cookies.  But the recipe wasn't quite right, I didn't remember there ever being walnuts in the cookies so I got rid of the walnuts, and the actual batter I remembered was chocolate so I added a 1/4 cup cocoa. I also baked these puppies for about 12 minutes because I wanted them to be crispy for ultimate grittiness.

So you might be asking what is blue corn?  It is blue cornmeal. 

I found my blue cornmeal at Wholefoods, it wasn't at my regular grocery store.  You can also order it online if there isn't a grocery store near you that carries it. Note - these cookies really aren't that good unless they are on the sundae.

Pop:

No doubt the pop, is the roasted whole hazelnuts.  Its important that the hazelnuts are roasted thoroughly, and that there is none of that brown skin left on the hazelnut.  Roast the hazelnuts with the skin on at 300 degrees for about 10 mins, and then the skin will loosen and peel off with only a little effort.

Crunch:

It was the roasted cocoa nibs that gave the sundae the crunch (100% cacao).  (The sound they make when you sink your teeth in reminds me of the sound of really crunchy snow when you step on it).   I also got these babies at wholefoods.

Sauce:

When I had this dessert the first time I didn't notice that the sauce was very bitter.  But when I had it the second time I made a point of tasting the chocolate sauce separately - it was creamy, but bitter.  I did some playing around and a fourth cup of either cream or evaporated milk and at least 1 tablespoon of cocoa does the trick. Whisk the chocolate in with the dairy, and then heat in the microwave until warm.

Ice Cream:

I chose a vanilla bean flavor - Playa's was homemade. 

Serve in a mason jar...

On their own the ingredients for this recipe are less than ordinary, but combined they makes a dessert that is really special and unexpected.

Bon Appetit!

~A