Simon Rogan: Quince tart with gingerbread ice cream

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 195°C. Grease a 900g loaf tin and line it with baking parchment.
• For the gingerbread, melt the butter and the molasses in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, remove from the heat. Mix the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, salt and zest together in a bowl. Blitz the milk, stem ginger, cinnamon, ground ginger and fresh ginger in a food processor until smooth, then pass through a sieve. Add the beaten eggs to the ginger milk, then add the molasses mix.
• Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients little by little, until fully incorporated. Transfer to the tin and bake for 50 min. Once cooked, let cool then cut into 125g portions. Keep one portion aside, clingfilm the rest and freeze.
• For the ice cream, bring the milk to the boil in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Combine the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl.
• Gradually pour the hot milk into the yolk and sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Return to the pan and cook over a low heat until the temperature reaches 80°C, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the 125g of gingerbread, then cool. Blitz in a blender until smooth then churn in an ice-cream maker until frozen. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and keep in the freezer.
• For the pastry, mix the flour and the butter together by hand until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add the sugar, salt and egg and keep mixing until you have a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Once rested, dust a work surface with flour, unwrap the dough and roll to a thickness of 3mm.
• Cut to size with a cutter to fit eight 4cm tart tins. Line the tins with the pastry, pushing it all the way down the sides, lightly prick the base of the tartlets and line them with greaseproof paper and a few baking beans. Bake blind for 8 min. Remove from the oven and cool in the tins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
• For the quince, bring the wine and 200g of the sugar to the boil in a saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, add the quince and simmer for 18–20 min, or until just tender. Remove from the heat and cool.
• Dice the cooled quince. Make a caramel with the remaining sugar: heat the sugar in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat, without stirring, until it begins to melt, then start to stir and keep stirring until all the sugar crystals have dissolved. Cook for about 10 min until it is a dark honey colour.
• Remove from the heat and add the butter, whisking constantly. Add the diced quince to the pan and cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove the caramelised quince from the pan and allow to cool.
• Place a small amount of the quince in each tart case then pipe a rosette of ice cream on top to cover and serve immediately.