Hot cross bun ice cream sundae with marmalade ice cream and roast pears

To celebrate Easter, we designed a very special hot cross bun ice cream sundae with marmalade ice cream, roast pears and a delicious verjuice caramel drizzled on top.

Hot cross bun ice cream sundae

Custard base
750ml milk of your choice
250g honey
5 medium egg yolks
large pinch of salt
460ml double cream

Method

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until frothy around the edges and starting to steam. 
2. While the milk is heating up, whisk together the honey, egg yolks and salt in a separate bowl.
3. Slowly pour the hot milk onto the egg yolks, constantly whisking.
4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat very slowly, while whisking, until it slightly thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Immediately pour into a cold bowl and set over an ice bath, if possible. Stir to cool down faster. If your custard does curdle, pulse it with a handheld blender in five-second intervals until it is nearly smooth. This can take up to 45 seconds,
5. Once the custard has cooled, whisk the cream into the softest of peaks (be careful not to take it too far!) and fold into the custard.

Marmalade ice cream
30ml Cointreau (or other orange flavoured liqueur)
200g good quality orange marmalade
juice and zest from 1 orange
600ml custard base

Method

1. Whisk the Cointreau, marmalade and orange zest together in a small saucepan. Very gently heat over low temperature until the marmalade has liquified.
2. Stir the marmalade mixture and orange juice into the custard base and freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have a machine, you can follow the steps for hand churned ice cream described in my Fruits of the Forest ice cream recipe.

Hot cross bun ice cream
40g melted butter
40g moist brown sugar
175g chopped up hot cross buns (small chunks or large crumbs)
100g soured cream or creme fraiche
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
600ml custard base
35g raisins
35g chopped candied lemon peel

Method

1. Stir together the melted butter and sugar to dissolve, then pour over hot cross bun pieces, toss to coat and spread out on baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 180˚C or until crunchy.
2. While the crumbs are toasting, whisk together the soured cream and cinnamon. Fold into the custard base and mix in the dried fruit. 
3. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have a machine, you can follow the steps for hand churned ice cream described in my Fruits of the Forest ice cream recipe. Just before the ice cream is done, add in most of the cooled hot cross bun crumbs and allow to be mixed in by the machine.

Roasted pears with verjuice
8 pears
40ml melted butter
100ml verjuice

Method

1. Halve and core the pears with a mellon baller, then lay them cut sides up in a baking dish that fits them snugly.
2. Drizzle over the melted butter and verjuice and bake for 45 minutes at 180˚C. Baste once or twice during this time.