Pretzel brittle with ice-cream

Shards of crunchy, salty-sweet brittle meet smooth scoops of ice-cream for a decadent dessert.

SERVES 6 This brittle has an addictive salty-sweet crunch from the pretzels, but try using nuts with a touch of salt, too. Smash it into pieces and serve it over ice-cream – it’s a tough dessert to beat.

Vegetable oil, for brushing 140 gm salted pretzels 330 gm (11⁄2 cups) caster sugar 85 gm butter, chopped 60 gm rice malt syrup Vanilla-bean or chocolate ice-cream, to serve 1 Brush an oven tray with oil and scatter with pretzels (they can overlap a little).

2 Combine sugar, butter, rice malt syrup and 140ml water in a saucepan over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until golden and caramelised (10-12 minutes; be careful, hot caramel will spit). Add ½ tsp salt flakes, or to taste, then pour onto prepared tray, covering as many pretzels as possible. Cool for 15 minutes until set. When cool, break into shards and serve with ice-cream. Brittle will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

Pretzel brittle Ice-cream scoop from The Bay Tree. Pasta White bowl from The Bay Tree. Tile (used throughout) from Teranova Tiles. Small plates and amber glass from Jardan. All other props stylist’s own. Stockists p168. Chicken All props stylist’s own.