Chocolate ale cake with salted caramel and muscovado ice cream

Serves 12 Desserts and puddings

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Method

To make the ice cream, pour the milk and cream into a saucepan, add the brown sugar, heat to dissolve and bring the mixture to the boil.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolk in a bowl. Pour onto the hot creamy milk, whisking as you do so. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over a low-medium heat, stirring constantly,until the custard reaches 82C (check the temperature with a cook's digital thermometer). Pass the cooked custard through fine muslin into a container, cover the surface closely with cling film to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool until needed.

Once cooled, stir in the glycerine. Pour the crème anglaise into a Pacojet beaker and freeze overnight. Before serving, churn the ice cream for 2 hours and place back in the freezer, ready to serve. Scatter the pecan nuts on a baking paper-lined tray and toast in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and fragrant. Allow to cool. Put the sugar and 30ml water into a heavy-based pan over a medium heat to melt the sugar and continue to heat until the sugar syrup just begins to colour. Add the toasted pecans and stir until the sugar crystallises and covers the nuts Tip the pecans onto a baking tray and set aside to cool.

To make the salted caramel, melt the sugar in a heavybased saucepan over a medium-low heat and cook to a light caramel, of 155C (check the temperature with a cook's digital thermometer). Immediately and carefully stir in 40ml water and the salt. Allow the salted caramel to cool, then pour into a squeezable plastic bottle ready for serving.

Next, make the chocolate ale sponge. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C F/Gas 6. Line a 33cm x 26cm deep baking tin with baking paper. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and set aside. In a small bowl, slowly mix the dark ale into the cocoa powder to form a paste.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the cocoa paste and flour mixture alternately, a little at a time.

Spread the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the sponge from the tin, place on a wire rack and allow to cool. Once cooled, cut the chocolate sponge into 2cm cubes and set aside.

To make the chocolate ale torte, in a large saucepan, bring the ale and Guinness to the boil and simmer to reduce to 200ml. Set aside to cool.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a bain-marie. Over a second bain-marie, whisk the egg yolk and sugar together until you have a pale, thick sabayon. In a large saucepan, gently warm 350ml of the cream with the liquid glucose and ale reduction, stirring to combine. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the melted chocolate.

Whip the remaining 325ml cream in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Carefully fold the sabayon into the chocolate and ale mixture, then fold in the whipped cream until smoothly combined.

Line a baking tray with an acetate sheet and place 12 metal 4cm square moulds on the tray. Flood the base of each mould with the torte mixture, then press in the iced ale cake. Fill with the torte mixture and level off with a palette knife. Chill to set for 6 hours. (You will have more torte mix than you need but you can freeze the rest for another occasion.)

To finish the cakes, turn the square cakes over, so the smoothedged base is now uppermost. Using an apple corer, cut a hole in the centre of each cake, down to the sponge layer (this will hold the salted caramel later). Chill for a further 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, retrieve the cakes and carefully warm the sides of the metal moulds using a cook’s blowtorch to release the cakes from them. Remove the moulds to leave perfectly square ale cakes. Place them in the freezer to fully firm up.

Mix the melted dark chocolate and cocoa butter together in abowl, then pour into a chocolate spray gun. Set up a chocolate spray box and lay the frozen cakes on a surface lined with cling film inside. Spray the cakes evenly all over, then carefully lift them, using a palette knife, onto a tray. Chill until needed.Bring the cakes back up to room temperature around an hour before serving.

To make the sablé paste, preheat the oven to 195C/ 175C F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with a silicone mat. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until pale. Add the salt, flour and ground almonds and mix to combine. Roll out the sablé paste on the silicone mat to a 1cm thickness and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, chop the sablé mixture into a fine crumb.

To make the sablé tuiles, melt the sugar in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat, then bring to the boil and continue to cook the sugar syrup until it forms a golden caramel. Add the chopped sablé paste and cook, stirring, for a minute. Pour the sablé caramel onto a silicone mat and leave to cool slightly. When it is cool enough, roll out to a thin sheet. While still warm, press a 4cm cutter into the sheet to make sablé discs. Leave until cooled and set, then lift the sablé tuiles off the mat.

To serve, place a dot of caramel in the centre of each plate and position a sablé disc on top (the caramel will stop the disc sliding around). Place the cake directly on to the disc and then fill the hole in the top with salted caramel. Top with a rocher of muscovado ice cream and finish with a frosted pecan.