This is an adaptation of a Food and Wine recipe that attracted me because I love the idea of cake and ice cream together. This "cake" came out more like crunchy cookies, which made it totally different than I expected but delightful. I'm planning on experimenting and adding different bits of cakes and cookies. Blackberries are in my top favorite berries in the summer 🙂I used my Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe instead of theirs, as I love, mine.
Combine the half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla beans, and extract in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until hot but not boiling, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Carefully remove vanilla beans and scrape the softened seeds from the pods back into the saucepan; discard pods. Place yolks in a bowl and whisking constantly, slowly pouri in 1 cup of the hot-milk mixture. Continue to whisk until smooth. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan, whisking constantly until well combined. Place saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (6 to 8 minutes); it should never boil. Stir in ½ teaspoon salt. Strain mixture into a shallow pan. Chill completely, then process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructionsto soft serve, about 20 minutes. Scrape into a clean shallow pan and let firm up.
Cake
Preheat oven to 325º. Line a small sheet pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or using your hands in a bowl, combine flour, sugar, butter, sprinkles, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Mix until butter in mostly incorporated and the batter looks like pea sized pebbles. Using your hands break up the batter into a gravel on the prepared sheet pan and bake until crumble is evenly crisp and light golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Let cool completely. Break up any large chunks so it is all uniform, pea sized gravel. Place sheet pan in freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Assembly
To assemble: You can layer cake, jam and ice cream in a container for use later or you can layer into your serving dish of choice. The goal is to get a perfect ratio of ice cream, cake crumbles and jam.
