Earl Grey Ice Cream Sandwiches

Think about your morning cup of tea with a piece of toast and marmalade. Now imagine it as ice cream. Or even better, as an ice cream sandwich.

This is the second recipe I developed with the wonderful products that was so kindly given to me by the Clemengold team and I just love these Earl Grey Ice Cream Sandwiches. The first recipe I made were the Sweet and Sour Tequila Ribs and I am really chuffed with the feedback I got about the recipe and the photographs. If I had to choose a favourite, then these sandwiches win. But then it is ice cream and ice cream always wins in my book. The creamy, sweet, tea infused ice cream combined with the citrus bitterness of the mandarin peel and crunch from the biscuit is exceptionally good.

One of the products in the bag delivered was a bottle of Clemengold Preserve – baby mandarins in a zesty syrup. I immediately started thinking about what I could do with them. It was while browsing flavour profiles, I read that Heston Blumenthal matched mandarin with bergamot. Bergamot is the key ingredient in Earl Grey tea and for some or other reason I immediately thought of ice cream sandwiches.

I used tennis biscuits as they are square and fitted easily into the baking pan I was using. Any biscuit will work but I don’t think they should be too thick. They add some much needed texture but you do not want too much biscuit in relation to the ice cream. If you don’t have a preserve like I used, a marmalade of your preference would work as well. But use a marmalade with lots of fruit chunks, the pieces of citrus adds the bursts of bitter flavour you want.

Earl Grey Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Ingredients

  

• 250 ml full cream milk
• 250 ml whipping crean
• 100 g sugar
• pinch of salt
• 5 earl grey tea bags
• 250 ml double cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 75 g mandarin preserve roughly chopped
• 24 biscuits 12 to fit in one layer in a baking tray

Instructions

 

• Mix the milk, whipping cream, sugar and salt and heat the mixture while stirring to just below boiling point. Remove from the heat and add the tea bags and let them steep in the mixture for 1 an hour.
• Remove the tea bags (give them a good squeeze into the milk)
• Add the double cream and whisk until combined. Return to the heat (do not let it boil)
• Beat the egg yolks and add 2 ladles of the hot cream while whisking.
• Return the egg mixture to the hot cream and mix well.
• Continue stirring over a medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon.
• Remove from the heat and let the mixture chill for at least 6 hours.
• Make the ice cream as per the manufacturer's instructions.
• When the ice cream has churned, add the chopped preserve and mix well. Place in the freezer for an hour to freeze.
• Line a baking pan with clingwrap (make sure it goes over the sides of the dish)
• Place 12 biscuits in the bottom of the dish, cover with the ice cream, and top with the remaining 12 biscuits.
• Return to the freezer and freeze for at least 4 hours until frozen solid.
• Remove from the pan by pulling the clingwrap. Slice into 12 and serve immediately.

These sandwiches will make an excellent dinner party dessert and my friend Conrad Louw, Cape Wine Master, gave us a suggestion or two after the recipe.

Wine suggestion by Conrad Louw , CWM:

There are several wine styles that will pair up with ice cream.  This particular ice cream with the unique taste of Earl Grey Tea and the delicious citrus taste of Clemengold makes it a great challenge.  Think of a medium cream sherry; Noble Late Harvest or a slightly sweet sparkling wine.  The choices are endless.  The wine farm Clos Malverne in Stellenbosch actually do wine and ice cream pairings from time to time.  Check them out. At the same time, try out a wooded Chardonnay, which will compliment both the creaminess and citrus.  But most importantly, try out this ice cream.