Fiona Poole Baklava Icecream, Bunco, and Bubbles!
This month was my turn to host Bunco. Bunco is a fun, easy, social dice game that gets a group of 12 of us together for a night of games, dessert, and bubbles.
As it has been sweltering hot here I decided to do an icecream for dessert this time. I recently purchased a fab book called iced: 180 very cool concoctions and have found a multitude of recipes to try. In the hawker stand section I came across a recipe for Baklava Icecream. It is a lovely icecream with flavours of citrus, honey and spice, filled with pistachios and walnuts and a filo pastry ‘rose’ to accompany it.
I also made a “Bunco” themed cake for after. It was chocolate mud and decorated with sugar bunco score cards and the infamous red fluffy dice received when you roll bunco.
I always look forward to Bunco night, an easy night in with fabulous girls and lots of giggles!
Baklava Icecream
170ml milk
435ml pouring cream
2 tablespoons honey
80g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 strips orange zest
4 egg yolks
40g pistachios, toasted and chopped
30g walnuts, toasted and chopped
Put the milk, cream, honey, sugar, cinnamon, and orange zest into a saucepan over medium heat.
Cook, stirring constantly until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is just about to boil.
Remove from heat.
Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl, whisk in 1/4 cup of milk mixture until smooth. Whisk in remainder and return to a clean saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat for 8-10mins until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.
Cool slightly and refrigerate until cold.
Remove orange zest.
Transfer to icecream machine and churn to manufacturers instructions. Add chopped nuts toward end of churning or alternatively mix in by hand after churning.
Pop in freezer until totally frozen.
Filo ‘rose’
6 sheets filo pastry
40g unsalted butter, melted
Brush a sheet of filo with melted butter, then scrunch into a rose shape.
Bake in oven for 10-12 mins at about 180C until golden, cool.
Serve icecream with filo rose, drizzled with a little extra honey and sprinkled with some nuts.
Fiona Poole 