In the spirit of Fathers’ Day being just round the corner, and in support of dude food, I decided to try Heston Blumenthal’s Bacon and Egg Ice Cream. This recipe is an absolute crackup – you should really watch the faces of people who first try this – and it’s so amazingly easy to carry out.
This smooth rich ice cream actually tastes intensely of bacon and egg, and the custard is actually more delicious than the ice cream. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
So let’s just get stuck into the recipe:
Heston’s Bacon and Egg Ice Cream:
500ml full cream milk
Good quality bacon
12 egg yolks
60g sugar
So first the bacon. Pop it under the grill till it’s all nice and golden and delicious – try not to eat it all! – and put it into a pot.
I gave it a quick chop, but you don’t really have to. Also, the amount of bacon used does affect how strong the bacon flavour is. I used about 2 rashers because I figured that it would be infusing overnight, so I could afford to use a little less.
Add your milk to your bacon, then bring to the boil
This just helps to get those flavours mingling. At this point, your milk will start to look a little pink. Then pour it all into a container and leave it in the fridge overnight.
Now you don’t want anyone to drink or throw away your funky concoction, so LABEL THE DANG THING!!
Bring your milk back up to the boil, then strain it. In a separate bowl, whisk together 12 egg yolks with 60g of sugar.
Why so many egg yolks? Well, while the custard would still work with less egg yolks, you want the eggy-ness to come across. It is a bacon and egg ice cream after all. So you achieve that by adding more egg yolks. And the whites don’t have to go to waste either! Simply give them a good whisk and use them to flavour some nuts!
Then stream your hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking, then return the mixture to a clean pan. Cook, cover low heat, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. For the nerdy cooks, you can take this custard to about 80C before it starts curdling. If you do intend to take it to 80C, then prepare a bowl set over another bowl with ice to stop the cooking process. Otherwise, take it to a little less and pour it into another bowl.
Then chill the whole mixture – this helps it freeze faster and prevents large ice crystals which can make your ice cream ‘crunchy’ – and then churn according to your ice cream manufacturer’s instructions.
The result?
A rich creamy ice cream that tastes of exactly what it’s meant to be – bacon and eggs. Personally, I thought the custard tasted wayyy more intense than the ice cream, so before you start dialling down on the flavour, try the finished product first.
To serve, Heston does this funky thing with using dry ice and a mixer, where the ice cream turns out look like scrambled eggs. You can totally do that too, but I’m short one mixer at the moment. I just topped my ice cream with toasted bread crumbs and some crispy bacon on the side.
Bet dad will get a kick out of this!
