Chocolate Crackle And Caramel Ice-Cream Loaf

I tend to be lactose intolerant, so I don't eat a lot of dairy.  And some readers may remember my horror story of eating vanilla ice cream as a child, and vomiting into my favourite pair of boots!  Sorry, too graphic?! :-)  But I do occasionally indulge in some Italian gelato, or a really good supermarket ice cream.  

My shelves hold half a dozen of Belinda Jeffery's cookbooks, and this is an easy to make and delicious treat from Utterly Delicious Simple Food.  I added an embellishment, I must confess, by including the smashed-up honeycomb bars:-)  What's that old saying?  Nothing exceeds like excess ...

soooo delicious

Start this recipe in the morning, or even the day before eating it!


ingredients:

80g. butter

75g. dark chocolate

100g. rice bubbles/rice krispies

1 L (2 pints) of fabulous caramel or coffee ice cream

2 Crunchie or Violet Crumble bars (x 50g./1.7oz each) = 100g./3.5oz


Method:


Line a baking tray (Belinda says 34cm x 23cm x 2cm) with baking paper

Place the butter and chocolate (I used Lindt 70%) in a medium saucepan over a low heat, stirring now and then while it melts into a glossy puddle

Take the pan off the heat, and gently stir in the rice bubbles

Spoon the mixture onto the lined baking tray, and spread it out as evenly as you can - don't worry too much about this, as you will be breaking it up later anyway

Whack the tray in the freezer for a couple of hours

Lightly oil a loaf tin (mine is 23 x 13 x 6.5cm), and line it with cling-wrap or baking paper, and put it in the freezer to chill - make sure you leave a big overhang of paper or wrap so you can easily pull the loaf out of the tin later

Zap the chocolate bars in a small food processor, or chop finely

After the two hours is up, break up the chocolate crackle into pieces, and line the base of the loaf tin with a third of the pieces, like a pretty mosaic

Scoop out half the ice cream, and spread it evenly over the chocolate crackle with a palette knife or spatula

Back it goes into the freezer for ten minutes

Place another pretty mosaic layer of chocolate crackle on top (using a third of the pieces), and half the crushed chocolate bars

Spread the other half of the ice cream over, then the rest of the chocolate crackle (the last third) and the chocolate bar rubble

Cover the top with the overhang of cling wrap/paper, press down firmly and place in the freezer for eight hours or overnight

Two hours before eating this delectable dish, take out the loaf to soften for a few minutes; put a serving platter into the freezer to chill for a bit, then turn out the loaf onto the platter, making sure you have removed the overlap of clingfilm first 

Carefully peel away the remaining film/paper, and pop the whole thing back into the freezer for two hours

I sliced up the entire loaf before serving, so that the next time we ate it, I didn't have to worry about finding a large knife and impatiently waiting to hack it into slices

Store in a freezer-proof container for the couple of days it lasts in your house!


Notes:


Belinda suggests using unsalted butter, but I like a bit of salt in my sweets so I used salted

Use whatever ice cream flavour you fancy; I used Murray River salted caramel with hazelnuts

The ice cream I used was quite soft, but you may need to take the tub out of the freezer for ten minutes before making this

And try your fave chocolate bar; anything that goes well with caramel and chocolate

The loaf tin is 9 x 5 x 2.5 inches for you non-metric users; you'll have to work out the baking tray yourself :-)

melt the butter and dark chocolate till smooth  

loaf tin lined; chocolate crackle made

zap the honeycomb bars till you have a chunky rubble

layer the choc crackle on the base

smooth over the ice cream

second layer of chocolate crackle and ice cream

all wrapped up and ready for the freezer

ready to slice and eat after two hours

gimme gimme gimme ...

I gave a large slice of this to our ninety-year old neighbour, who said she loved it.  I was feeling a bit down this week due to an illness in the family, so I ended up eating rather a lot of this loaf.  It only lasted a few days in the freezer!

artwork © Sherry's Pickings