Brown Bread Ice-Cream

Hello August, the most summery of summer months: it’s great to see you! For me August is summer. Proper summer. It probably goes back to childhood. August was the school summer holidays in full-swing. It was the month for going on holiday. It was the month that the back door stayed open all day with those colourful plastic strip curtains hanging from it. It was the month of paddling pools in the garden. It was the month that pocket money was spent on ice-lollies and ice-creams rather than chocolate and sweets.

I still like to think that August is the green light month for ice-cream. It’s perfect on every level during those long scorching hot days. I’m not in anyway or form an ice-cream snob either. Give me a cheap ’99 from the ice-cream van or a posh Italian ice-cream with a fancy name and I’m as happy as a clam. I have been known to make it too, with varying levels of success. But the one I make every summer is this Brown Bread Ice-Cream. I am not sure where it originates from. It’s sounds rather old-fashioned and frugal with its unglamorous starring ingredient of brown bread, but don’t knock it.

The taste is something rather like caramel or fudge. It’s really tasty and it’s certainly worth whipping up a tub for the freezer as it is so effortless. A scoop in a cone for the kids or served as a pudding with some seasonal berries it’s utterly delicious. It’s also a great ice-cream recipe to start with if you’ve never made ice-cream before. You don’t need an ice-cream maker either, just an empty freezer container. Give it a go this summer and let me know what you think.

Brown Bread Ice-Cream

Serves 6.
85g/3oz brown breadcrumbs
85g/3oz soft dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, separated
Half a tablespoon of dark rum [optional]
300ml / Half a pint of double cream
85g/3oz sifted icing sugar

Mix the breadcrumbs with the brown sugar and pop under a moderate grill for 8 – 10 mins. You’ll need to keep a watchful eye on this and stir it frequently. You want the breadcrumbs and sugar to caramelise, not burn. Once cool break up with a fork.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Mix the egg yolks with rum, if using, and fold into the egg white mixture.

Whisk the cream and icing sugar together in another bowl until floppy. Then fold this into your egg mixture along with the breadcrumbs.

Pour into a shallow freezer container and freeze for 4 hrs. When ready to serve, allow it to soften slightly before scooping out.

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