This is a tried and true recipe. One I have been making for over 25 years. Boston Cream Pies are best made the day before or early in the day so that the cream filling has a chance to meld with the cake. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Boston Cream Pie ================ 1/3 Cup butter 1 Cup sugar 1 egg 1 1/2 Cup sifted all-purpose flour 2 1/2 teaspoous baking powder 1/4 Teaspoon salt 2/3 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla . Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffly. Add the egg and beat until creamy. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add alternately with the combined milk and vanilla. Turn the batter into a greased and floured 9-inch round layer cake pan. Bake in a 350° oven for about 30 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched in the center. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool completely; Place the cake on a serving plate and split horizontally into two layers with a serrated knife. Carefully remove the top layer. Fill with the chilled Cream Filling. Replace the top half and pour the warm Chocolate Icing over the top, spreading only to the edges. Chill. (When allowed to stand for several hours, the filling seeps into the cake, making the cake and filling seem almost as one.) Cream Filling 1/2 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 3 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon butter 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups milk Combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a saucepan. Gradually stir in the milk. Cook over low heat, stirring until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil, stirring for 1 minute. Beat the egg yolks slightly. Gradually stir in about half the thickened sauce. Return to the heat and cook. stirring 2 or 3 minutes longer to take away the flour taste. Remove from the heat and blend in the butter. Strain into a bowl. Cool for a few minutes, then blend in the vanilla. Cover and cool, then chill. Chocolate Icing 2 squares of chocolate 1 cup sifted icing sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoons hot water 1 teaspoon vanilla Melt the chocolate and butter the microwave on medium low power. Stir until smooth, and blend in the icing sugar and hot water. Stir until smooth and slightly thickened (do not beat). Stir in the vanilla. Use immediately. Here is a link that might be useful: Thibeault's Table The Recipe Collection

Magilla, I echo your concerns. I've been thinking about this since you posted and was waiting to see if someone had a better idea, because I don't make enough cheesecakes to know for sure. There are some recipes that call for cream. Perhaps you could use or adapt one of them? I'm thinking, however, that it might work better to swirl in the ganache, like a ribbon of sauce in fudge ripple ice cream, rather than mixing it it with the batter. Just don't stir too much! Or maybe do a layer a batter, a layer of ganache, toothpick drawn through to make marbling, then another couple of layers, for a total of 3-4 layers. Then there would be chocolate all through, but restrained. Perhaps the better thing to do would be to make a chocolate chip cheesecake, and use the ganache to top it?

I made the Dave Lebovitz chocolate ice cream last night. It was delicious!! Very rich. But very easy to make. Thanks for posting that Tracey! By the way I used TJ's pound plus dark chocolate in the recipe. Hard to measure exactly since they are not in one ounce squares. So since the recipe called for four ounces, and the bar is 17.6 ounces, I just used 1/4 of the bar. Yes, just a bit MORE than the four ounces called for but I prefer to err on the side of excess when it comes to chocolate. Yummy!!!

From time to time I've seen little specialty genuine Italian ice places open up but they usually don't stay in business long. The price is too high and too much competition from the cheapo soft serve and other places. Not enough Italian ice connoisseurs out there and not spread around the US. I'm sure there are some places but none near my radar screen. It's hard enough nowdays just to get a good hard ice cream cone or even some at the grocery. A couple of our famous and delicious local and regional dairies have shut down, long prior to the pandemic so the supply even at the grocery store is limited to a few brands and the same at every store. Back in the day a lot of small towns had local ice cream dairies, including mine, and then two ice cream shops that sold it in many confections. Those day long gone, sigh . . . My aunt met my uncle when he was on a road trip from a nearby college, at our local home town place, long lost to the mists of time. I used to ride my bike out to another regional dairy store and get a wonderful cone as a fun way to spend time and allowance during the summer. That too is gone . . . We do have a drive through Dairy Queen that does a brisk business . . .