Ice cream...sticky toffee pudding ice cream

I'm having a bit of a mad ice cream time at this moment in time - losing patience with the weather, I decided to declare summer as truly arriving in mid April, dig out my ice cream maker (attachment for the kitchen aid), that hubby had bought for a christmas present and set about making ice cream. So out came the sheet of paper and away went the inspiration...... until Mark my hubby once again made one of his culinary genious suggestions, sticky toffee pudding ice cream. You see he always does this Mark - when I was trying to come up with a fishcake recipe for eating with the enemy last year, effortlessly Mark came up with cod and brown shrimp - my addition was just to add samphire and lemon/garlic.

So Mark to the rescue. I'd recommend you try this recipe, it looks a bit long-winded, but lets look at the benefits, not only do you end up with ice cream but also a slab of sticky toffee pudding - how much motivation do you need!

Ok, so firstly its time to make the sticky toffee pudding. This recipe was given to me by Lou from Runshaw College, and its a mega recipe - best to make it a good 4 days in advance, as if you wrap the cake in tinfoil and put it in the fridge it gets stickier and stickier by the day...delicious.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

For the pudding

150g dates
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
25ml water
200g self raising flour
30g butter
3 eggs
100g sugar - golden caster sugar is nice, or try half golden and half demarera

Chop the dates into small pieces and place in a saucepan with the bicarb and water, bring to a simmer and leave to cool (the bicarb breaks down the dates, and the dates make the cake extra moist). Cream the butter and sugar and add the flour and eggs a little at a time - finally stir in the date mixture. This is not a cake mixture, but rather a batter, so it will be runny. Place into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180oc for approximately 40-50 minutes. Once baked and allowed to cool, resist the temptation to scoff, wrap in tinfoil and place in the fridge to become sticky.



Now for the ice cream.

300ml single cream
150ml milk
4 egg yolks
Vanilla pod (or 1tsp vanilla extract)
1 pot toffee flavoured yoghurt
Caster sugar to taste (approx 50g tbsp)
A good slab of sticky toffee pudding
Plus 50g caster sugar for caramel


Begin by heating the single cream and milk until it just reaches scalding point. In a bowl whisk the egg yolks and 50g sugar. Pour the warm milk/cream onto the egg/sugar whisking thoroughly. Transfer back into the saucepan and stir gently until the custard thickens. At this point either add your vanilla pod and seeds, or vanilla extract. Leave to cool. when cool, refrigerate for a good 5 hours.

When you are ready to churn your custard in an ice cream maker, stir in several large chunks of sticky toffee pudding - these will break down and look like a dodgy weatabix breakfast, but fear not. As the ice cream thickens, stir in a few more chunks of sticky toffee pudding cake, and allow to stay whole.

I found that it was nice to make a quick caramel and cool this, before stirring in the shards of sugar - if you freeze it immediately after the caramel is added, they tend not to melt. To make the caramel add approx 50g caster sugar to a dry frying pan and heat. As the sugar melt, rotate the pan (do not stir using a metal spoon) until the sugar turns into a light brown caramel. Pour onto a greaseproof sheet (very important) in a baking sheet and allow to set. Once set, bash into little caramel pieces and stir into the ice cream (or you can keep them in a plastic bag and sprinkle over the top of ice cream to serve).

If you want to add butterscotch sauce (and lets face it who doesn't?). Then you will need:-

250ml single cream
50g butter
50g dark brown sugar
(sorry, there's no low fat version)

Heat the sugar, cream and butter in a pan until it melts and the mixture turns into a light golden caramel sauce - allow to cool. Its nice if you add a tiny bit of rum to this recipe. You could pour this sauce warm overthe ice cream, or even stir a little bit into the ice cream mixture.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, then do not fear. Make the ice cream custard and allow to cool for a good 4-5 hours. Transfer into a plastic container and freeze for one hour - remove and stir well breaking up the ice crystals. Repeat this at least 4 times and you'll have lovely smooth ice cream.

Remember to remove from the freezer a good 10-20 mins before you need to eat it or you'll not only break your spoons you'll break your teeth.

See you

Cath