Cop coffee ice-cream sandwich

A black coffee and a doughnut is a real classic in police circles but actually not that practical, as you could spill the hot coffee all over your lap during car chases. A better alternative is to make the whole thing into an ice-cream sandwich. Then you can enjoy your snack and keep one hand free for chasing bad guys.

Cop coffee ice-cream sandwich Credit: Roland Persson

• makes

  10-12

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 250 ml (9 fl oz/generous 1 cup) whole milk
• 3½ tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 155 g (2 oz) butter
• 2 eggs
• 540 g (1 lb 3 oz/4¾ cups) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• ½ tsp salt
• vegetable oil for deep-frying and greasing

Coffee ice-cream

• 2 eggs
• 200 g (7 oz/1 cup) granulated sugar
• 500 ml (17 fl oz/generous 2 cups) whipping or double cream
• 250 ml (9 fl oz/generous 1 cup) whole milk
• 2 tsp instant coffee

Coffee icing

• 6 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tsp instant coffee
• 2 tsp water

Rising time: 9½ hours, in two stages

Chilling time 1 hour

Freezing time 3-4 hours

Instructions

Start by making doughnuts. Warm the milk until tepid. Add the sugar and dried yeast. Melt the butter and leave to cool a little, add the eggs and whisk until combined. Stir in the yeast mixture, then flour and salt and let the dough mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes, double the time if you are using your hands. Shape into a ball on a lightly floured worktop, place in a greased tin, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

Now let’s do the ice cream, shall we? Whisk the eggs with an electric whisk until fluffy. Mix in the sugar, a little at a time. Pour in the cream, milk and instant coffee. Leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Follow the instructions for your ice-cream machine and churn the ice cream. When it has the consistency of soft scoop, place a piece of greaseproof paper in a tin and pour in the ice cream. Remember that the tin should be as large and deep enough to make the ice cream about 4 cm/1½ in thick because you will cut out ice-cream circles to put in your sandwich. Put in the freezer.

Once the dough has finished cold rising, roll it out on a floured worktop until about 2 cm/¾ in thick. Using a glass or a cutter, cut out doughnut-sized circles and then, with some little round thing, cut out the holes. These you can save and make into doughnut holes. They’re good. Leave your doughnuts to rise at room temperature for 1½ hours or until they look nice and fluffy. Heat the deep-frying oil to 180°C/350°F and deep-fry a couple of doughnuts at a time, frying until the bottom side has coloured beautifully, then flipping them over and frying the other side as well. Leave to drain on kitchen paper.

Make the coffee icing by stirring together the icing sugar, instant coffee and water into a shiny sauce. Dip the tip of your doughnut and leave to set for a minute. Cut your doughnuts in half. Turn the ice cream upside-down, remove the paper and cut out ice-cream circles using a glass or a cutter or something. The only important thing is to make them roughly the same size as your doughnuts. Sandwich the ice cream in between the doughnut halves and go downtown to solve some crimes.

Recipe and image from The Ultimate Sandwich by Jonas Cramby (Pavilion Books, $34.99, hbk).

View our Readable feasts review and more recipes from the book here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.