Fried white chocolate and sesame ice cream

Day six of our ‘Seven Day Love Affair with Gelato’ recipe feature with Gelato Messina

brings a modern twist on an Asian favourite of fried ice cream. Gelato Messina’s white chocolate ice cream lends itself perfectly to the nutty rich sesame paste.

There are many conflicting stories regarding the origins of this dessert. Some claim that it was first served during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, where the ice cream sundae was also invented. Though at the same time a Philadelphia company was given the credit of creating the dessert. Similarly, in the 1960s it is claimed that Japanese restaurants started the tempura style batter.

What you’ll need:

Gelato Messina white chocolate gelato

For black sesame filling
¼ cup black sesame seeds
¼ cup caster sugar
50g dark chocolate, finely chopped
pinch ground ginger

For batter
dash of milk
1 egg
½ cup plain flour
1 cup panko crumbs

For syrup
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
125g caster sugar

vegetable oil, for frying

What to do:

For black sesame paste, in a fry pan, dry-roast sesame seeds until aromatic (1-2 minutes). Cool, pound in a mortar and pestle until finely ground. Bring sugar and 2 tbsp water to the simmer in a small saucepan, remove from heat, stir in black sesame seeds, chocolate, ginger and a pinch of salt, stir until chocolate has melted. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.

Spoon ice-cream into 6x6cm-diameter hemisphere moulds, then freeze until firm.

Scoop 1 tsp ice-cream from the middle of each hemisphere with a melon baller. Fill with 1 tsp black sesame paste, freeze until firm (3-4 hours). Unmould ice-cream and join hemispheres in pairs to make balls, rubbing to close gaps. Freeze until required.

Whisk milk and egg in a bowl to combine. Take one ice-cream ball at a time from the freezer, roll in flour, dip in eggwash, roll in crumbs, then return to freezer. Repeat until all ice-cream balls are coated, then repeat process so each ball has two layers of crumbs. Freeze overnight.

For ginger syrup, combine ingredients and 100ml water in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook until sugar dissolves. Cool slightly and set aside.

Heat oil in a deep saucepan or deep-fryer to 200C. Deep-fry 1 ball at a time (be careful as hot oil will spit), gently turning until golden. Remove from heat, drain on absorbent paper, serve immediately with ginger syrup.

Manon Dallee

Manon is a true food enthusiast who literally has never met an ingredient she didn’t like. Even thought her inability to take orders mixed with her stubborn nature made working as a pastry chef almost impossible, she has immense respect for the trade and still loves nothing more than to bake, in her own domain. Find out more about Manon here.

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