18^th century

Brown Bread Ice Cream

The first time I heard about brown bread ice cream was when I read Jane Grigson’s English Food (1974) years ago. In the introduction to her recipe she tells the story of a conversation she had with a hotelkeeper in a small village in France who was telling her: ‘your ices are so wonderful. We have nothing like them here. I remember at Gunter’s …’ Sadly the quote in her book ends there, but we know of which Gunter she speaks: James Gunter of the Gunter family took over the famous Domenico Negri’s confectioner’s shop in London.

The recipe for Brown Bread Ice in Gunter’s Modern Confectioner (by his apprentice William Jeanes, 1861) is very different to an earlier recipe by Frederick Nutt in The Complete Confectioner (1789). Nutt, like Gunter, had been an apprentice of Negri.

Brown Bread Ice Cream.

Do the same with a pint of cream as in the plain ice cream, only when you have frozen it, rasp two handfuls of brown bread and put it in before you put it into your moulds.

Frederick Nutt, The Complete Confectioner, 1789

Agnes Marshall in The Book of Ices (1888) instructs to soak the breadcrumbs, while Nutt adds them without soaking. You get two different ice creams when you follow these recipes, although I must say I prefer the version when the bread hasn’t been soaked; that way you have little bits of crunch in your ice cream, which is very nice to eat.

I prefer larger and more rustic breadcrumbs than those Nutt would have used in his ice cream. To get the effect of his ice cream, just use a finer breadcrumb. I also like to use brown sugar in this ice cream.

Serves 4–6

600 ml (21 fl oz) thick (double) cream

1 cinnamon stick

50 g (1¾ oz) brown sugar

butter, to fry the bread chunks

80 g (2¾ oz) wholemeal, rye or spelt bread, torn into chunks no larger than a pea

40 g (1½ oz) raw sugar

In a medium saucepan over low heat, bring the cream, cinnamon and brown sugar to a simmer. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool in the saucepan, then remove the cinnamon and freeze according to the instructions here.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan, toss in the bread and sugar, then fry until the bread chunks are crisp.

When the ice cream is ready for the final freezing, fold in the fried bread chunks just before putting it into the mould. You could also fold them through just before serving. If you wish, keep some of the fried breadcrumbs aside to use as decoration.