Hot & Cold Cross Buns

I created these spiced orange ice cream sandwiches a few years ago for Good Friday, using a cross template cut from cardboard to decorate the top. They’re great anytime though – decorated with other shapes, such as a heart for Valentine’s Day, or left plain. The flavouring for the ice cream is inspired by Janni Kyritsis’ Spiced Orange Salad (you can find that recipe in our cookbook Wild Weed Pie). Buy the best quality ice cream you can, or make your own and incorporate the orange zest and juice into the custard. You may need to order the brioche in advance from your baker or patisserie. I love the vivid green pistachios from Saffron & More and aromatic ras el hanout from Harkola. If you can’t find cedro or candied clementine, use candied oranges or any other candied fruit you like. As for a matched drink – I like a little Cointreau, on ice or straight up. This recipe makes enough ice cream for 10 sandwiches, eat any leftover within a week or so, as the texture’s best when it’s fresh.

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 oranges
1 litre vanilla ice cream
2 candied clementines, finely chopped
¼ cup (60g) finely chopped cedro
4 pitted dates, finely chopped
20 pistachios, skinned and finely chopped
1 x 18cm x 10cm brioche loaf
50g salted butter, melted
2 teaspoons icing sugar, sifted,
plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons ras el hanout, sifted
12 mint leaves

Method

Clean oranges with a plastic scourer to remove any wax or chemicals.
Finely grate the zest from the oranges, then juice them.
Strain orange juice into a saucepan and boil until reduced by about two-thirds (about 80ml). Set aside to cool.
Place ice cream in a large bowl. Add cooled orange juice, zest, clementine, cedro, date and pistachio and use a spatula to fold it through until everything is well distributed.
Transfer to a shallow tray, press baking paper onto the surface and freeze until firm, ideally for at least a few hours.
Use a 7cm ring mould or cookie cutter to shape 6 x 3cm-thick discs of ice cream. Place on a baking paper-lined tray and return to the freezer until very firm.
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Cut 12 x 1cm-thick slices of brioche and use a sharp 7cm cookie cutter to cut discs from each slice.
Place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and brush the tops liberally with butter.
Combine icing sugar and ras el hanout and sift liberally over 6 of the discs.
Bake brioche for 5-10 minutes, until plain discs are golden and the icing sugar mixture on the others is bubbling but not burnt.
Place 1 plain disc, toasted side down, on each serving plate.
Top each with a mint leaf, then an ice cream disc, another mint leaf and the icing sugar-topped brioche disc, toasted side up.
Place a cross template on top of 1 ice cream sandwich, dust with extra icing sugar, carefully remove template and repeat with remaining sandwiches.
Serve immediately.