Ok so here we go! In the second MVK tries Barry is taking on the legendary Heston Blumenthal egg bacon ice cream recipe, oh dear me this was an insanely epic one to try out! It should have taken just over a day including an overnight chill, but due to weather and dry ice delivery issues, it all gets a little complex! This recipe involves caramelised brioche soldiers, with eggs filled with a scrambled egg ice cream that you crack into a pan and turn into ice cream with dry ice! It was SO much fun to do though, I loved challenging myself to it!
I don’t really want to go into the ins and outs of it but I can tell you straight away that you can save yourself some time by making your own homemade dry ice (which I nearly did during this video!)… other than that you’ll need skill, patience and the ability to appreciate that this is not just any old ice cream, it’s truly worth the effort!
First up we infuse the bacon flavour into the milk, so cook your bacon to your liking and place on kitchen towel to absorb any fat. Then chop up roughly, push into a mixing bowl and add the milk, stir, cover in clingfilm then stick in the fridge overnight. I was sceptical about this, I think a few hours would do it, but do it, it’s what Heston would want!
Next day pour the milky bacon mixture into a saucepan and add the milk powder into it, stir and heat over a medium flame, bringing to a simmer, then take off the heat.
In the meantime, blitz the egg yolks and sugar together using a hand blender. Combine the egg mixture with the warm milk and bacon and return the pan to the heat. Warm the liquid until it reaches 85ºC. Stir during this step to ensure the temperature in the pan is consistent. Once the temperature is reached, remove the pan from the heat and pass the ice-cream base through a fine sieve into a clean container over iced water, pushing the custard through with the back of a ladle.
Now we need to make the moulds to hold the ice cream base (which is now made by the way, have a cheeky taste)… using a small skewer pierce holes at either end of the eggs and open one hole larger with a bamboo skewer or alternative. Now blow out the insides of the egg (sounds weird, check the video!) into a bowl to empty it, repeat with 5 more eggs. Make an omelette or something nice with the leftover eggs.
Wash the eggs out, then place in a pan of simmering water for 45 minutes… I put a lid on my pan to help steam the eggs through a bit as they floated in the water. Remove and allow to cool. Then once ready inject the ice cream mixture into the eggs, plugging the holes with some of the pastry (I also used tin foil!)…. fill the eggs as best you can, then once all done place in the fridge for the moment.
To cook the crispy soldiers, melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat until gentle bubbles form, then turn the heat down for better control. Add some of the soldiers and fry on all sides, remove and place on kitchen towel to absorb excess fat.
Clean the pan completely then place it over a medium-high heat. Add enough sugar to cover the bottom of the pan and allow to melt, be careful this is dangerous. Once melted lift the soldiers into the warmed sugar for a few seconds either side, then rotate them to fully coat in the sugar. Transfer to a silicone mat or baking parchment whilst they cool!
To serve, make the ice-cream by cracking an egg filled with ice-cream base into a saucepan and adding some of the dry ice while mixing continuously until the ice-cream is formed. In the video I used dry ice pellets, try to crush them a bit or use the powder from the homemade version as it comes out, keep stirring until ice cream texture is achieved and you can no longer see traces of the dry ice, it will look like scrambled eggs. Place in a bowl, serve with the soldiers and a blob of orange marmalade on top!
The recipe was inspired by here www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/heston-blumenthals-bacon-and-egg-ice-cream as I could not find a link to a recipe from Heston’s actual website.
I absolutely loved taking this on, I hope you do too! Oh and I recently tried Gordon Ramsay’s beef wellington, give that a try too for a savoury option!
Oh and if you want to try making dry ice yourself? I did it straight after this video – Homemade dry ice