Ingredients
Serves 6⅓ cup medium-grain rice, well rinsed
⅓ cup raisins
2 cups milk
300ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split
⅓ cup caster sugar
4 free range organic eggs
Pinch of ground cinnamon
½ cup regular white sugar
Roasted Strawberries
500g strawberries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Cookie Dough Ice-Cream Loaf
Serves 8
2 litres vanilla ice-cream
Cookie dough:
375g jar crunchy peanut butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup choc bits (dark, milk or white)
Chocolate coated wafer:
200g good quality dark or milk chocolate, chopped
16 ice-cream wafers
Method
Preheat oven to 170°C fan forced. Cook the rice in a saucepan of boiling water following packet directions or until tender, alternately microwave for 4 minutes on High/100% followed by 6 minutes on Medium/50%. Refresh in cold water to prevent rice over cooking. Drain well then transfer to the base of a lightly greased 1.5 litre (6 cup capacity) baking dish. Scatter over the raisins.
Combine milk, cream, vanilla seeds and pods in saucepan over medium heat for 10 minutes. Strain, reserving pods (see tip below).
Whisk sugar, eggs, and cinnamon in a bowl. Pour in the lukewarm milk mixture. Strain the egg mixture through a fine sieve over the rice and sultanas and stir gently to combine.
Line the base of a roasting pan with a tea towel, folded to fit, and place custard in the pan. Pour enough boiling water into the pan to reach halfway up the side of the dish. Bake, uncovered for 40-45 minutes or until the tip of a small knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the dish from the roasting pan and set aside for 1 hour to cool slightly.
Sprinkle top of the rice custard with sugar then use a kitchen blow torch to brulee the top. Serve as is or with roasted strawberries (recipe below).
Janelle’s tips:
1. Rinsing excess starch off the rice is key to a beautiful textured, non-gluggy dish.
2. Never add salt to the water as this prevents the absorption of the custard; rice ends up like hard little pellets.
3. Splitting the bean crossways you get better result. Don’t waste the pods after boiled them; rinse them in cold water then place onto a wire rack to dry then pop into a jar of caster sugar. Secure lid and leave for 1 month and you have own vanilla sugar- far better and cheaper than anything you will buy- can just keep adding beans and sugar to top up.
4. Don’t over whisk the eggs. If you get too much air, the custard turns out like soufflé, rises, drops then forms a very thick crust.
5. Placing a tea towel in the base of the pan neutralises the heat from the base of pan; stops it over cooking.
Roasted strawberries
Cut 500g strawberries in half, remove green tops. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Place into a baking dish and roast at 240°C for 5 minutes. Turn oven off, leave strawberries in oven 5 minutes then remove and set aside 10 minutes.
Cookie Dough Ice-Cream Loaf
Line base and side of 8cmx26cm (8-cup capacity) loaf pan with baking paper. Remove the ice-cream from the freezer and spoon into a large bowl, set aside to soften (not melt completely).
Combine all the cookie dough ingredients together in a bowl and mix really well until it all comes together. Drop chunks of the dough over the ice-cream and stir gently to combine- you may not need all the dough - I generally use half then bake other half into biscuits).
Spoon into the loaf tin. Place a sheet baking paper right onto the surface (this prevents ice crystals forming), cover and freeze overnight.
Place the chocolate on a shallow, heatproof microwave-safe plate.
For the chocolate coated wafers, microwave chocolate, uncovered in 1 minute bursts on Medium/50%, stirring every minute with a metal spoon until melted and smooth. Line a large flat tray with baking paper. One wafer at a time, coat one side of each wafer in the chocolate. Place onto the tray, chocolate side up. Refrigerate until set. Repeat, coating the other side of each wafer in chocolate.
Loosen the ice-cream from the sides and use the paper to lift the ice-cream out of the loaf pan. Scoop and serve in cones or slice into pieces and sandwich between chocolate coated waters.
Tips
1. I prefer Blue Ribbon ice-cream as it doesn’t form crystals once its been softened then re-frozen.
2. This is the best cookie dough raw or baked you will ever eat - doesn’t freeze that well but will keep unbaked in fridge.
3. Don’t over-stir ice-cream. Try and be as gentle as possible so as not to break down its structure too much.
4. Placing paper right onto surface prevents big blocks of ice forming – a good tip for tubs of ice cream too.
5. Stir chocolate with metal spoon to prevent moisture getting into it - wooden spoons after they have been washed contain moisture that can cause chocolate to seize into hard lumps.