Coffee ice-cream with Irish coffee sauce

Serves 8-10 For the coffee ice-cream, you will need:

• 4 egg yolks

• 100g sugar

• 150ml water

• 700ml cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3-4 tablespoons Camp coffee essence

For the Irish coffee sauce, you will need:

• 175g caster sugar

• 75ml water

• 225ml strong coffee, can be cold if leftover

• 2-3 tablespoons Irish whiskey (optional but very good!)

1 Put a tub with a lid or a bowl that will hold 1.5 litres of ice-cream into the freezer.

2 Put the egg yolks in a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, and whisk them until they are light and fluffy.

3 Put the sugar and the water in a saucepan on a low heat, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove the spoon, turn the heat up to high and do not stir again until the syrup reaches the thread stage, this is about 106°C-113°C/223°F-236°F on a sugar thermometer, but you don’t need to have a sugar thermometer. The mixture will look thick and syrupy and, when a metal spoon is dipped in, the last drops of the syrup will form thin threads.

4 Pour this boiling syrup in a steady stream on the whisked egg yolks, whisking all the time. I use a hand whisk for this stage — if you use the electric whisk when you’re adding in the syrup, it tends to splash around the sides of the bowl and the drips will harden.

5 Continue to whisk, using your electric whisk again, until the mixture fluffs up to a light mousse that will hold a figure of eight; this will take about 8-10 minutes.

6 Whip the cream in a separate bowl until it is almost stiff, but not quite. It should hold a soft peak. If it’s too stiff, the ice-cream will become grainy; if it’s too soft, the ice-cream will separate into two layers when it is frozen. Set aside.

7 Stir the vanilla extract and the Camp coffee essence into the egg-yolk mousse when it’s ready, then fold in the softly whipped cream. Pour the ice-cream into the chilled bowl, cover it and freeze it until it is frozen, which will take at least four hours, or overnight.

8 To make the Irish coffee sauce, put the caster sugar and the water in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves and the water comes to the boil. Remove the spoon, turn up the heat and boil the mixture rapidly, without stirring, for about 6-8 minutes until the syrup turns a rich golden caramel. Take the saucepan off the heat, add the coffee and put the saucepan back on the heat to dissolve the caramel, stirring, for a few minutes.

9 Remove the saucepan from the heat once more and add in the whiskey, if you are using it.

10 Scoop the ice-cream into a serving bowl and drizzle the Irish coffee sauce over the top.