Deep-fried ice cream with rum and raisin sauce

A coating of crushed ginger biscuits and coconut makes the ice-cream balls a great match with the sticky rum and raisin sauce in this recipe from the Hairy Bikers.

Deep-Fried ice cream with rum and raisin sauce. Credit: Hairy Bikers Comfort Food

• serves

  6

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1 tub vanilla ice-cream (about 750 ml)
• 150 g gingernut biscuits
• 75 g desiccated coconut
• 2 eggs
• 1½ tbsp coconut cream

Rum and raisin sauce

• 150 g raisins
• 150 ml dark rum
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Zest of 1 lime
• 200 g granulated sugar
• 100 ml double or whipping cream
• Pinch of salt

Freezing time: about four hours minimum, or overnight.

Instructions

1. For the ice-cream: Chill a small baking tray in the freezer until very cold – at least 20 minutes. Remove from the freezer. Working very fast, make balls of ice cream with an ice cream scoop, rolling them over several times in the scoop to make them good and tight – they should be a similar size to a golf ball. Place on the baking tray and freeze, for at least an hour, preferably longer.
2. Blitz the biscuits until the texture of fine breadcrumbs then mix with the coconut. Beat the eggs until smooth and mix with the coconut cream.
3. Remove the ice cream from the freezer. Dip each ball in the biscuit and coconut mixture – you will need to pat the mixture onto the ice cream as the ice cream will be hard and won’t give too much purchase initially. Dip in the egg and coconut cream mixture, then finally, coat in the biscuit and coconut mixture again. Repeat this step again, to make sure you get a thick crust with no risk of leakages. Return to the freezer again, this time preferably for several hours or overnight.
4. For the rum and raisin sauce: Put the raisins and rum in a saucepan with the cinnamon. Bring to the boil, then immediately remove from the heat and add the lime zest. Leave to infuse whilst you make the caramel.
5. Put the sugar in an even layer on the base of a medium saucepan. Add 100 ml water and stir until the sugar looks like very wet sand. Set over a medium heat and leave until the sugar starts to dissolve and turn an amber colour. Do not stir, but swirl every so often if it looks as though it is cooking unevenly. Remove from the heat and pour in the cream – it will splutter and bubble up, so be careful. If the caramel seizes up – some of it might immediately turn to toffee – set over a low heat and stir until it has all dissolved back into a sauce. Add the infused rum and raisins. Taste and add a little more rum if you like.
6. When you are ready to fry the ice cream, heat oil in a fryer, wok or saucepan until it reaches 190°C. Remove the ice cream balls from the freezer right at the last minute, and drop the balls into the oil, a few at a time – they will quickly take on colour and crisp up – in around 15 seconds – any longer and the ice cream will start melting and is in danger of bursting out.
7. Drain onto kitchen towel and serve immediately with the rum and raisin sauce.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.