Toasted Sourdough Ice Cream

You are going to want to make a triple batch of the caramelised sourdough crumbs just for snacking!

If you love the sweet, salty, addictive crunch of kettle corn, you will fall in love with these caramelized sourdough crumbs.

If I were to sum up the philosophy behind my Substack I would say it is all about showing you how to make the most of our modern pantries - no more single purpose ingredients, no more jars of barely used condiments at the back of the fridge or half-empty jars of different spices gathering dust on their shelves!

And that might be through introducing you to some new flavour combinations or forgotten or new-to-you recipes as well my Ingredient Spotlight posts. Most of the time, the ingredients I feature are probably something we can blame Ottolenghi for introducing us to - think preserved lemons, miso, tamarind paste etc. But I am equally passionate about finding new ways to use humble pantry staples too, be it chamomile tea (see these Financiers), breadcrumbs (see these Toast Cookies) or even stale bread.

Because I hate food waste with a passion. I used to volunteer for a Food Waste charity in the UK and I’m still horrified by just how much food we throw away. And what is one of the most wasted food items? Stale bread. (And yes, one of the last things I did before we left on our latest trip was slicing some stale baguette and putting it in the freezer)

When we think of repurposing stale bread we often think of French toast / pain perdu / torrijas or maybe bread pudding (or its savoury equivalent strata). But what if I told you that with a little bit of sugar, butter and salt you can turn the rest of your sourdough loaf into sweet and crunchy little nuggets to rival the best kettle corn? And that if you fold those nuggets into a creme fraiche custard and churn in your ice cream maker you end up with one of the best homemade ice cream flavours?

When I first shared a few snaps of this Toasted Sourdough Ice Cream in a Note last November, it brought me tens of new subscribers. And I knew I had to share the recipe in my newsletter. I just figured I would wait until the summer months to share it! So here we are.

What makes this Toasted Sourdough Ice Cream so addictive?

• The toasted sourdough crumbs: you slice or tear stale sourdough bread into small chunks, coat them in butter, sugar and salt and bake them in a hot oven until evenly browned and crunchy. The end result tastes like toasted sourdough bread and kettle corn had a baby. In short sweet, crunchy and extremely addictive. And I would not hold anything against you if you took a bag of this with you on your next cinema trip.

• The creme fraiche custard based ice cream: I went through many iterations to get the ice cream component just right. I tried infusing milk and cream with toasted sourdough (too much hassle and not a strong enough flavour to make it worth it), a cream cheese based recipe (the texture was all off), a mascarpone based recipe (funny mouthfeel) but in the end settled on a classic vanilla-flavoured custard. The one change I made was to lighten the custard with creme fraiche – this adds a nice little tang which mimics the slight acidity of the sourdough bread.

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And can you believe that this already marks Newsletter No. 124?!

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From the Archives

This time last year: Flavour-maxing: the latest party trick or an old hat?

This time two years ago: Fig Leaf Frangipane Bostock

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Toasted Sourdough Ice Cream

Note: I am just going to say it: you should make a double, scrap that, a triple batch of the caramelised sourdough crumbs. They are as addictive as kettle corn (if not more so) and you will find yourself grabbing a handful every time you step into the kitchen. So do yourself a flavour and make plenty – set aside 2-3 generous handfuls to stir into the ice cream once it is almost done churning and keep the rest for snacking.

Ingredients

For the caramelised sourdough crumbs

200g stale sourdough bread, torn into small pieces (you are looking for pieces no bigger than a corn kernel – leave the crusts on as that is where a lot of the flavour is)
100g sugar
50g butter, melted
Generous pinch of sea salt

For the ice cream

500ml full fat milk
1 used vanilla bean (I keep used vanilla beans to make vanilla sugar – we are not after a full on vanilla flavour here so just use a used one that has been split open, it will still have enough flavour to give the custard a lovely hint of vanilla)
5 egg yolks
100g sugar
250ml creme fraiche
1 batch of caramelised sourdough crumbs (see recipe above)

Directions

Start by preparing the caramelised sourdough crumbs. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. In a bowl mix together the sourdough crumbs with the melted butter, sugar and salt. Spread on the sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes until the bread is nicely coloured and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

To make the ice cream, heat the milk together with the vanilla bean until steaming point in a large saucepan. While the milk is heating up, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a separate bowl. Slowly pour about a third of the steaming milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. This will temper the egg yolks and stop them from curdling.

Turn the heat down to low-medium and pour the egg yolk milk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Discard the vanilla bean. Stirring constantly, cook the custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard into a bowl and set aside to cool. Stir in the creme fraiche and churn according to the instructions of your ice cream maker. Alternatively, pour into a container with a lid and place in the freezer for 6 hours, whisking thoroughly every 30 minutes to 1 hour to prevent large ice crystals from forming. Once the ice cream is nearly done (it should be very thick but you should still be able to stir it), fold in the toasted sourdough crumbs.