Whisky, walnut & brown butter tart with atholl brose ice cream
This decadent dessert is rich with Scottish flavours, from whisky to heather honey
THE HIGHLANDS
Serves 10-12 Prep time 1 hr 15 mins Cooking time 50 mins, plus 24 hrs chilling and freezing You’ll need... 23cm x 4cm deep loose-bottomed flan tin
• 300g walnut halves
• 120g butter
• 150g golden syrup
• 100ml double cream
• 2 tbsp whisky
• 5 medium free-range egg yolks
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
• 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
For the pastry
• 175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50g icing sugar
• 90g chilled butter, cubed
• 1 medium free-range egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cold water
For the ice cream
• 150ml whisky
• 500ml double cream
• 100ml full cream milk
• 7 large free-range egg yolks
• 125g Scottish heather honey 1 Two or three days beforehand, start the ice cream. Pour 120ml of the whisky into a small non-stick pan, heat briefly, remove the pan from the heat, then carefully light with a kitchen match/taper (to burn off a little alcohol). Cover the pan with a lid after a few seconds to put out the flames. Add the cream and milk to the pan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and honey in a heatproof mixing bowl with an electric mixer until thick, pale and mousse-like.
2 Pour the hot milk and cream onto the yolks and stir, then return the mixture to the pan over a gentle heat. Cook, stirring all the time, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in the remaining whisky, then cool, cover and chill overnight.
3 The next day, churn the mixture in an ice cream maker. (Or pour into a freezerproof container, then cover and freeze until firm. Transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth, then return to the container and refreeze. Repeat the blending and freezing twice more, to break down the ice crystals.) Freeze for 24 hrs.
4 For the pastry, sift the flour, icing sugar and a pinch of salt into a food processor, add the chilled butter and whizz until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs (you could do this by hand, rubbing the butter into the flour with your fingers). Beat the egg yolk briefly with the water. Tip onto the flour mixture and pulse (or mix by hand with a spatula) for a few seconds until the mixture sticks together in lumps. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth. (If soft, wrap in clingfilm and pu
