Foodiefights Battle: Rye and Cherries

When I saw that rye and cherries were the two ingredients chosen for this weeks FoodieFights battle, I threw my hat in the ring immediately. I could live on rye bread, and have perfected my own Jewish Rye recipe. And cherries... oh, my! Cherry has long been my absolute favorite flavor for almost anything: pie, cake, ice cream, Icees, you name it, I want it CHERRY-flavored!

I actually made a loaf of rye bread and built a sandwich that sounded absolutely heavenly in my head (a grilled sandwich with cracked pepper roast beef, lemongrass and basil mayo, grilled radicchio, goat cheese and a cherry relish with fennel, celery, lots of fresh black pepper and mexican oregano), but was surprisingly bland when it was all said and done. Luckily I had already made a success of a dessert and that is what I'm here to share...

Rye 'n Spice Cake with White Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream and Chocolate-Covered Drunken Cherry Sauce

Rye 'n Spice Cake

This is a really tasty spice cake, and it's perfect for serving under ice cream because the rye gives it much more body than a plain flour cake so that it doesn't turn to soggy mush.

Ingredients:

1 cup rye flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking soda

zest of one orange

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp ground fennel seed

2/3 cup honey

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup water

Directions:

Sift dry ingredients together. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased 8" cake pan and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

White Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream

I'm very new to ice-cream making, having just received the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid this past Christmas. With more experience, I would have known better than to add the white chocolate chips (which were a last minute idea), or at least that they should have been chopped up rather than added whole. As is, they're just big old frozen turds in an otherwise delicious ice cream.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup demerara sugar

2 egg yolks

1 TB vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and quartered

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine cream, milk, sugar and egg yolks in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Heat gently until mixture begins to thicken slightly. Remove from heat, stir in extracts and refrigerate for one hour.

Add one cup of cherries to the custard and pour into ice cream maker. Add remaining cherries and chocolate chips during last few minutes of churning.

Chocolate-Covered Drunken Cherry Sauce

Oh, yum! I could have eaten this all by itself - it tasted like Christmas.

Ingredients

1/2 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice (1 orange)

1/2 cup spiced rum

1/4 cup demerara sugar

1 heaping cup fresh cherries, pitted and quartered

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat orange juice, rum and sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add cherries and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Add chocolate and stir till melted in. Transfer to a blender and puree till smooth. Spoon over ice cream while still warm.

There you have it! Now, hustle on over to FoodieFights and VOTE! Well - not this minute though. I don't think voting opens until tomorrow. I know I don't have a prayer of winning - having looked over several previous battles, I'm up against some truly creative minds - but I hate to go down with NO votes. ;)