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How can I rev up a scoop of vanilla ice-cream?
Joe, Salford
Accessorising ice-cream is commonly most profitable when there’s a component of distinction, whether or not that’s a tart fruit puree (blackcurrant, say) for old-school ripple vibes, a handful of one thing crunchy (toasted sesame seeds, nuts, crumbled cookies) or a shattered magic chocolate shell (the place you combine equal components melted chocolate and coconut oil, pour it over your ice-cream, and watch it solidify). And, fortunately for you, Joe, that is very a lot vanilla-specific.
“Amongst only a few different contenders, my number-one dessert on this planet is vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce,” says Jacob Kenedy, chef-patron of Gelupo in Soho, London. “These two issues collectively are nirvana.” The chocolate sauce, nonetheless, should be made the best way his grandfather did: “Roughly half-and-half melted bitter chocolate and water, plus a tiny little bit of sugar”. It’s additionally important that the sauce is heat, not scorching, so the ice-cream solely “melts just a little”.
The thought of pouring different issues over ice-cream is price exploring too, he says, akin to with affogato (the Italian custom of tipping a double espresso over your vanilla). Or cracking open the drinks cabinet: “You’ll be able to pour brandy or whisky over it; amaro is scrumptious; or espresso and a spirit.” Puddles galore await.
“You may as well mix fat,” provides Kenedy, throwing whipped cream into the world – simply don’t get carried away: “Add one or two issues, no extra,” Kennedy warns. “Both chocolate sauce and whipped cream, fruit (raspberries, strawberries, peaches, baked pears) and chocolate sauce, or fruit and toasted nuts.”
Terri Mercieca, pastry chef and founding father of cult ice-cream sandwich and soft-serve purveyor Blissful Endings, typically feels fruity, too: “I’m an enormous fan of ardour fruit with vanilla ice-cream.” When on this mindset, she grabs a bowl, scoops in her vanilla, together with hazelnuts, chunks of caramel or good-quality chocolate, or freeze-dried fruits, and tops with ardour fruit. You can use mango as an alternative – or, Mercieca provides, “all the great fruit you get in summer time”. One such fruit is cherries, which Diana Henry, in Easy: easy meals, massive flavours, cooks in butter, sugar, lemon juice and grappa, earlier than serving heat with ice-cream. And there’s nothing, er, vanilla about that.
An emergency ice-cream sandwich repair can also be mere moments away: take your favorite tub of vanilla and stick it between your favorite cookies. Job achieved. To construct a greater one, although, Mercieca has some pointers: “Flip a biscuit the other way up, put a hoop cutter on prime and smoosh the ice-cream in there.” Take away the cutter, prime with one other biscuit, and eat immediately: “When you put it again within the freezer, the biscuits get too arduous – that’s why we use actually skinny ones”. You can, after all, make your personal biscuits, through which case chocolate chip or shortbread are the best way to go.
Ever the maverick, Mercieca has additionally been recognized to serve her scoop scattered with (potato) chipsticks (sure, you learn that proper). “Particularly should you get the flamboyant Portuguese ones,” she explains. “With caramel sauce… Successful.” And who’re we to disagree?
Anna Berrill
Do you’ve gotten a culinary dilemma? E mail feast@theguardian.com
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