Raspberry Brownie Anglaise

This post was supposed to be about the precious, brilliantly executed ice cream sandwiches I made as a last minute Valentine’s Day dessert. The pictures should be showcasing thick wedges of vanilla ice cream packed with fresh raspberries, sandwiched by two slices of chewy, chocolatey homemade brownies.

The pictures were going to beguile you, ask you to quick hurry up! Just take a bite and put it back the other way around so no one will notice! The ice cream would begin to melt, sending luscious rivulets of creamy vanilla down the sides, puddling sensuously on the plate beneath the sandwich to mingle with the juices of a few strategically placed berries.

In reality, the pictures were for crap. The ice cream straight-up melted and turned the gooey brownies into a sludge that DOESN’T look like it belongs on a plate, let alone the kitchen.

The sandwiches were for crap. The raspberries froze to the point of being crunchy and the flavors never melded together. It was brownie, ice cream, and berries but none of them playing together. Boring.

And the special ice cream sandwich mold I had from Williams Sonoma, as I am sure you have gathered by now, was for CAAAHRAP. Instead of popping out sharp, clean, perfectly shaped sandwiches that would make Martha Stewart plot my dramatic demise, that piece of CAAAHRAP made one smeary, mushy mess.

Crap.

So, I made lemonade out of my lemons.

Or rather, a fancy-looking dessert out of the leftover scraps of my epic fail.

And the bonus is that you, yes YOU, can look like a superstar. A fancy one with a Chanel bag and expensive perfume.

So, here’s the deal. Take your berries, take some brownie crumbles and arrange both in a pretty little glass Got it? Okay, put it to the side because the next step may just blow your mind and change your life and make you want to kiss me or hug me or at the very least pinch my bum.

Take some vanilla ice cream. Any kind that makes your skirt fly up. Homemade or from the grocery store. Yada yada.

Take that vanilla ice cream. Get it out from underneath of your skirt, for God’s sake. This is a family show. Spoon that ice cream up in a dish and then just leave it alone. Let it melt. No, don’t freak out. You’ve now got yourself a creme anglaise.

No shit. Now put it all over the berries and brownies. You’re fancy and you never knew it.

Raspberry Brownie Anglaise

1 pint raspberries, rinsed and dried
2-3 brownies, crumbled
1 cup vanilla ice cream, melted

Dividing the raspberries amongst two dishes, arrange the raspberries with the brownie crumbles sprinkled over the top. Spoon the melted ice cream over the top of the berries, allowing the melted ice cream to drift to the bottom. Serve.