White Chocolate Sweetheart Ice Cream with Bread and Butter Chocolate Sauce and Anchovy Donut Crunch

Tracy's recipe is submitted for the Chopped Challenge Round One Dessert Basket including the following items: 
Sweetheart Valentine Candies
Wickles or Bread & Butter Pickles
Anchovies
Donut

In the spirit of Food Network’s show Chopped, I participated in this crazy challenge.

I seriously wondered what I had signed up for. But, I buckled down and came up with this surprisingly tasty dessert! That said, if this were for the actual show, I would probably be eliminated because you cannot taste the pickles or the anchovies. That is good news, right? I will let you decide for yourself. If you leave out the anchovies and the pickle juice, no one will know, but if you leave them in, they won’t know either! Go ahead! Try it! I dare you!

White Chocolate Sweetheart Ice Cream with Bread and Butter Chocolate Sauce and Anchovy Donut Crunch 
By Tracy Hersh

For the Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
1 pint heavy cream
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 8-ounce bag of Brach’s Conversation hearts, ground to powder in a food processor
4 ounces of white chocolate, chopped

Heat the milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Do not boil. With a mixer, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale yellow. Pour the hot milk and cream slowly into the egg/sugar mixture while whisking to keep the eggs from cooking. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently until the custard thickens. Do not boil. When the custard coats the back of a spoon, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract, powdered candies and white chocolate. Stir until melted. Let the mixture cool. Pour the cooled mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

For the Sauce
Adapted from the Best Chocolate Sauce by David Lebovitz

¾ cup water
¼ cup bread and butter pickle juice (I used Vlasic Bread and Butter Chips.)
½ cup sugar
½ cup corn syrup
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped.

Bring the water, juice, corn syrup, sugar and cocoa powder to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted. Let cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

For the Crunch
2 ounce can of anchovies in oil
warm water
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 cup of chopped pecans
1 cup of chopped almonds
1 package Little Debbie Crunch Donuts, stale or toasted. You could use 2 regular-sized cake donuts.
½ cup honey
4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350.

Drain the anchovies, place them in warm water for 30 minutes to help remove some of the salt. Drain, pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

On a baking sheet, spread out the oats and wheat germ. Toast for 8-10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. 

In a bowl, combine the oats and wheat germ with the pecans and almonds. Crumble the stale donuts into the mixture.

Pulse the anchovies and honey in a food processor, until blended. Pour the butter and the honey-anchovies mixture over the granola and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

To assemble this creation, place scoops of ice cream in a dish, drizzle with the chocolate sauce and top with the crunch. You can also decorate it with a few conversation hearts.