Liquorice ice-cream with dark chocolate tuiles

Photographer: Adam
Serves 8

The final ‘black and white’ post and the Rugby World Cup is over! The All Blacks were triumphant (as if there was ever any doubt), New Zealand having played host to teams and tourists from 20 nations in stadiums around the country. I am a little sad the party is over, and thought a sweet treat would be a great way to round out the month. So, celebrate the All Blacks win and commiserate the end of the World Cup with this liquorice ice-cream, served up with dark chocolate tuiles for a little crunch.

The ice-cream recipe is one my mum makes – it is really simple as it doesn’t involve making a custard base or churning. Feeling lazy? You can cheat by buying 1L of vanilla ice-cream, softening it, mixing through the vanilla pod scrapings, ground anise, grated chocolate and liquorice, then returning to the freezer for at least two hours before serving.

INGREDIENTS

Liquorice ice-cream
6 eggs, separated
¾ c caster sugar
500ml cream
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
1 tsp ground anise
3 tbsp grated chocolate
300g natural liquorice, finely chopped

Dark chocolate tuiles
50g butter, softened
½ cup icing sugar
¼ cup flour
2 ½ tbsp Dutch cocoa
2 egg whites
Few drops black food colouring (optional)

METHOD

Liquorice ice-cream
1. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gradually add in half the sugar, beating well until sugar is completely dissolved.
2. In a separate bowl beat egg yolks with the remaining sugar until thick and pale. (You should be able to form a figure ‘8’ with the beaters in the mixture.)
3. In a third bowl beat the cream, vanilla pod scrapings and ground anise until thick.
4. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture, and then fold through cream, grated chocolate and liquorice pieces.
5. Pour the mixture into a shallow plastic container with a lid and freeze until set (around 3 hours).

Dark chocolate tuiles
Makes around 25
1. In a medium sized bowl cream the butter and sugar until very pale.
2. Gradually add in the egg whites, and then flour, cocoa and food colouring. Beat the mixture on a low setting until smooth. Refrigerate for half an hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C on Bake.
4. Line two baking trays with baking paper, and cut desired tuile shapes (roughly 4x12cm in size) from an ice-cream container lid or a sheet of acetate. Place template on baking tray and use a palette knife to smooth the mixture around 2-3mm thick over the template. Carefully remove the template and repeat until one baking tray is covered.
5. Bake for around 5 minutes, until the tuiles just begin to colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool on tray while you prepare the second tray. Continue with remaining mixture.
6. Once cool, store in an air-tight container for up to a week.

To serve
Place a generous scoop of ice-cream on each plate, and place a few shards of crushed tuile on the side.