egg and bacon ice cream
Heston Blumenthal's ice cream inspired dessert is french toast with a twist of sweet / savoury ice cream.
Equipment
- Ice cream machine
Ingredients
For the ice cream base:
- 66 g sweet-cured smoked back bacon
- 166 g full-cream milk
- 5 g semi-skimmed milk powder
- 4 large egg yolks
- 20 g caster sugar
For the pain perdu:
- clarified butter
- 2 slices brioche stale (refrigerate overnight in a container to speed this up)
- 100 g milk
- 1 egg
- 10 g golden caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
For the caramelised bacon:
- 2 slices smoked bacon
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
For the ice cream base and caramelised bacon:
- To start the ice-cream base, preheat the grill to high. Lay the bacon slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper and place under the grill for 5-7 minutes or until crisp.
- At the same time mix the syrup, salt and sugar together and then brush on two more bacon slices and grill with the other bacon. When this is cooked refrigerate until needed.
- When the initial bacon is cooked, drain on kitchen paper and cut it into strips. Place in a bowl, pour over the milk then refrigerate to infuse overnight.
- The next day, put the milk and bacon into a saucepan and add the milk powder. Place over a medium-low heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Remove from the heat and strain off the bacon.
- In the meantime, blitz the egg yolks and sugar together using a hand blender. Combine the egg mixture with the warm milk and return the pan to the heat. Warm the liquid until it just reaches 90ºC.
- Once this temperature has been reached, remove the pan from the heat and pass the ice-cream base through a fine sieve into a clean container over iced water, pushing the custard through with the back of a spoon. Transfer to an ice cream machine and churn until done. Freeze until needed.
For the pain perdu:
- Mix the egg, milk, vanilla and sugar together. Dunk the bread in to soak for 20 minutes. After this time remove the bread to a rack to drain for a couple of minutes.
- Melt a tablespoon of clarified butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bread and fry on all sides, remove and place on paper towel to absorb any excess fat.
- Wipe the pan out then place it over a medium-high heat. Add enough sugar to cover the bottom of the pan and allow to melt.
- Once the sugar has completely melted and caramelised, add the bread and cover every side. Once coated on all sides, remove the bread from the pan, place on a silicone mat and allow to cool.
- To serve, scoop the ice cream into a serving bowl (I used an egg cup). Place a slice of crystallised bacon on top and serve with pain perdu on the side.
Video
Notes
If you don't have an ice cream machine, you probably don't have dry ice either. This can be also made by placing into a freezer, and breaking up every 30 minutes but the results won't be a smooth.