Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Sandwich

For the Ice Cream

• Get a tray ready that’s about 24cm by / 18cm. A little bigger or smaller will be fine. Line with parchment paper and have it ready to pour into in a little while.

• Pop a saucepan on the stove with a couple of inches of water in it.
• Then pop all the eggs, vanilla bean and rice syrup together in a big bowl, and place that big bowl on top of the simmering water.
• Start beating with electric beaters. Once it’s frothy (about 4-5 minutes) take it off the pan. Set aside.
• In a separate deep bowl, whip your cream until stiff. Then fold cream into the egg / syrup mixture and pour the whole thing, once combined, into the lined tray and into the freezer. Try for a level surface, or you’ll end up with leaning sandwiches like mine – I like to think of them as accidentally artistic! This will need a minimum of 2/5 – 3 hours to set in the freezer.
• That’s the ice cream part done. If you’re a non dairy person, sub this ice cream part and grab your favourite coconut based ice cream to pop into the sandwich.

For the Salted Caramel Sandwich

• Pop the butter into a little pan to melt. Add your rice syrup into the bubbling butter. Add the pinch of salt. Bubble for 6-7 minutes on medium heat and pour onto parchment paper. If the caramel bubbles and changes to a dark amber colour suddenly before 6-7 minutes, take it off immediately and pour out. Leave to cool and harden in the fridge. After an hour, take out and blitz. I use our mini food processor but if you have a thermomix, it shall probably do a beautiful job too. Blitz until a rough sand texture, which should take about 6-8 seconds. Delicious. That’s done. Set aside.

For the Buckwheat ‘Bread’

• Pop all the ingredients into a bowl
• Whisk it all up and spread out on a greased parchment sheet on a large oven tray, until the mixture is about 7mm thick. Bake on a 200 celcius oven, non fan forced setting, for 13-15 minutes or until springy to the touch, like a sponge. So easy, right?
  
• Pull out of the oven and cool completely before using. Once cool, use a tartare cutter that’s a circular shape and cut out your sandwich circles. They’re much taller than cookie cutters, to cut the thick disc properly. They’re hollow both ends, to make pushing the disc out nice and easy. You’ll have enough to make 7-8 sandwiches with this mix and an 8cm diameter cutter.
  

For the Faux “instant” Chocolate Ganache

• Mix it all up in a little bowl. Take your buckwheat rounds and coat the top of half of them with the chocolatey liquid and pop into the freezer. They can stay there until you need them later or stay as little as 5 minutes to solidify. If it’s a hot summer where you are though, make sure you only take them out when you’re ready to serve, before they melt. If you can’t do chocolate this bitter and ‘cacaoey’, then simply add a little half teaspoon of rice / coconut / maple syrup to this mix.

The Grand Assembly

• Lay out the base of the sandwiches onto plates.
• Get out your ice cream tray and remove the top parchment if you used any, and lift out the ice cream and place on a chopping board.
• Get your cutter and push down into the ice cream to create your circle.
• Place ice cream disc onto bottom sandwich
• Place top ganache covered disc on top
• Pop a couple of pinches of salted caramel sand on top to finish.
  
• Step back and say ‘I did it’ before frantically moving onto the others, before the ice cream starts melting.
• Note: You should get a second pair of hands if you’re making all 7-8 at once. This way you can work faster and ensure you get it done and presented before melting.