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NIGELLA CHRISTMAS

NIGELLA CHRISTMAS

Christmas is a time for family and friends, for tradition… Read on

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GIRDLEBUSTER PIE

I confess: it was the title that lured me. Tell me you don’t feel the same. I came across this in a recipe by Elinor Klivans, whom I often turn to for chocolatey solace, in her The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook, which includes the wonderfulphrase “let the chocolate chips fall where they will”.Although her recipes always work to the letter, my recipe is not hers. I am inspired by the digestive and chocolate base and coffee ice cream filling (though if you’re feeding children, I’d suggest vanilla) but I like a butterscotchy topping, which sets the minute it hits the ice cream. Sometimes bits of ice cream bubble up to the surface, making the top gloriously Florentined.And the joy of the girdlebuster (as it is known for short at home) is that, should there be any left, you can put it back into its dish and just stash in the freezer again for midnight feasts. Admittedly, this is not huge, but a small slice is all that’s needed. Do not let it “ripen” out of the freezer before slicing because it all gets too sticky and drippy and messy.

Recipe posted by

Ingredients

  • Nigella Recipe
  • Vegetarian

FOR THE BASE:

  • 375g digestive biscuits
  • 75g soft butter
  • 50g dark chocolate pieces or chips
  • 50g milk chocolate pieces or chips

FOR THE ICE CREAM FILLING:

  • 1 litre coffee ice cream

FOR THE TOPPING:

  • 300g golden syrup
  • 100g packed light muscovado sugar
  • 75g butter
  • ¼ teaspoon Maldon salt or pinch of table salt (optional)
  • 2 x 15ml tablespoons bourbon
  • 125ml double cream

Method

Serves: 8-10

  1. Process the biscuits with the butter and chocolate pieces or chips until itforms a damp but still crumb-like clump.
  2. Press into a 23cm pie plate or flan dish. Form a lip of biscuit a little higherthan the plate or dish if you can. This process takes patience as you needideally to form a smooth even layer. Sorry.
  3. Freeze this biscuit-lined layer for about an hour so it gets really hard. In themeantime, let your ice cream soften, just enough to be scooped, in the fridge.
  4. Spread the ice cream into the hard-biscuit-lined dish to form a layer. Then cover in clingfilm and replace in the freezer.
  5. Put the syrup, sugar, salt (if using) and butter into a saucepan and let it meltover a low to medium heat, before turning it up and boiling for 5 minutes, thenturn off the heat and add the bourbon, letting it hiss in the pan.
  6. Add the cream and stir to mix into a sauce, then leave to cool. And once thesauce is cool, but not set cold, pour it over the pie to cover the ice cream layerand then put it back in the freezer. Once frozen, cover with clingfilm again.
  7. When ready to serve, remove from the freezer, take the whole pie out of itsdish and cut into slices. Should you have any pie left over, slip it quickly backinto the dish and return, covered with clingfilm, to the freezer.

FREEZE AHEAD TIP:

Make and freeze the pie in its dish, as directed, but cover with clingfilm and a double layer of foil. Freeze for up to 6 months.

Comments

  • I am going to make this recipe for Christmas this year! it sure looks yummy!

    Posted by Tonylunt on 11th Dec 2011 at 19.12

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