This is vanilla ice cream, dappled with little golden, sweet, nutty-tasting, chewy treats, so it tastes that much better. Ideally you would make this in an ice-cream maker, but if you don’t own one, there is another way.
Ingredients
- 100 g fresh or one- or two-day-old wholemeal bread
- 100 g soft light brown sugar, or demerara
- 250 ml whole milk
- 1 vanilla pod
- 6 medium free-range egg yolks
- 125 g caster sugar
- 250 ml double cream
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Tear the bread into smallish pieces, toss with the brown sugar and scatter on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so, until quite dark and caramelised. Leave to cool on the tray.
- Meanwhile, pour the milk into a heavy-based pan. Split the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon and add them to the milk together with the empty pod. Slowly bring just to the boil.
- Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, briefly whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar, then slowly pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Tip in the vanilla pod too. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and set over a low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula for about 5 minutes until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon; do not let it overheat or it may curdle.
- As soon as it is ready, pour the custard into a cold bowl, cover with cling film to prevent a skin forming, and leave to infuse for at least 10 minutes.
- Remove the vanilla pod, stir in the double cream and churn the mixture in an ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice cream is thickened and almost ready but still a little soft, crumble in the toasted bread and churn until frozen.
