Tarta De Helado

     One of my favorite desserts - and I sampled many - along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela  was an ethereal confection called tarta de helado - ice cream cake,

...which wasn't a cake exactly as we think of it, but consisted rather of artfully stacked layers of vanilla ice cream and chocolate shell.  Kind of like a reverse ice cream bar that you eat with a spoon.
     I ate manys the slice of tarta de helado along the Camino trail, and each time I did I thought, I could make this!  I could make an even better version!  There'd be nothing to it!
     Last week  on my first attempt at making tarta de helado I discovered one could in fact make a better tarta de helado and that there really was nothing to it.
     Or at least not a whole lot.
     So anyway, with the holidays upon us, here's the recipe for an Americanized version of a yummy Spanish dessert that would be a quick, easy fix for a crowd.

Tarta de Helado
 Ingredients:

1.  About 1 1/2 (or so)  1.5 liter boxes of vanilla ice cream.  I used Turkey Hill vanilla bean.

2.  About a little more than one  bottle of chocolate shell.  (So buy two bottles). 
N.B.: Before you use the chocolate shell be sure to let the bottle sit in a bowl of sink-hot water for about five minute then shake it very well!

Method
1.  Take a 9" x 9" ( or bigger or smaller as desired) square dish,

...and cover the bottom  with a layer of ice cream.

2.  Cover the ice cream with shell, which will freeze pretty quickly.

3.  Add another layer of ice cream on top of the shell.

4. Add one more layer each of shell and ice cream.

5. Decorate the top ice cream layer with more chocolate shell.  Freeze for a little while.  Maybe 20 minutes or so.

6.  Cut into slices.  If your slices, like mine, end up being not quite as attractive as the restaurant version pictured above,  not to fear;

....your audience will give rave reviews anyway!

     Though for myself, being a purist, I'd stick to vanilla ice cream, I expect tarta de helado would also be good made with different flavors of ice cream such as mint chocolate chip, peppermint chip, cherry vanilla or, for die-hard chocoholics, chocolate ice cream.
     Whatever flavor ice cream you use, you probably can't go wrong, right?