Girdlebuster Pie

The theme for this month's Forever Nigella challenge hosted by Arthi at Soul Curry is all about iced desserts. I just knew straight-away the dessert I wanted to make and eat: girdlebuster pie!! Basically, it's an ice-cream pie... how good does that sound already? Well, you wait and see...

The base is made by mixing crushed digestive biscuits, soft butter and dark chocolate. Nigella uses a mixture of dark and milk chocolates, but I'm more of a dark chocolate kind of guy... the darker, the bitter, the better.

The filling is coffee ice-cream... YUM! I use store-bought Colombian coffee ice-cream. But by all means, you can make your own, it's not difficult, just requires patience which I do not have. You'll see, I'm going to prove it.

The pie is then topped with luscious and smooth butterscotch sauce made with some of my favourite ingredients: golden syrup, light brown sugar, butter, bourbon and double cream... I even added extra bourbon, just because "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" and I know Nigella will approve.

Now, the pie should be completely frozen before slicing it. I put it in the freezer for 5 minutes, but knowing something so delicious is in there, I could not resist but to cut me a slice...

Now, if you'll excuse me...

Girdlebuster Pie
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Adapted by Me

For the base:
375 g digestive biscuits
75 g soft butter
100 g dark chocolate pieces (or good chocolate chips)

For the ice cream filling:
1 litre coffee ice cream

For the topping:
300 g golden syrup
100 g packed light muscovado sugar
75 g butter
1/4 teaspoon Maldon salt or pinch of table salt (optional)
4 x 15 ml tablespoons bourbon
125 ml double cream

Process the biscuits with the butter and chocolate pieces or chips until it forms a damp but still crumb-like clump. Press into a 23 cm pie plate of flan dish. Form a lip of biscuit a little higher that the plate or dish if you can. Freeze for about an hour or so until it gets really hard. In the meantime, let your ice cream soften, just enough to be scooped, in the fridge. Spread the ice cream into the hard-biscuit-lined dish to form a layer. Then cover with cling film and replace in the freezer.

Put the syrup, sugar and butter into a saucepan and let it melt over a low to medium heat, before turning it up to boiling for 5 minutes, the turn off the heat and add the bourbon, letting it hiss in the pan. Add the cream and stir to mix into a sauce, then leave to cool. Once the sauce is cool, but not set cold, pour it over the ice cream layer and then put it back in the freezer. Don't worry if the ice cream bubbles to the top. Once frozen, cover with cling film again.

When ready to serve, remove from freezer, take the whole pie out of its dish and cut into slices. Should you have any pie left over, slip it quickly back into the dish and return, covered with cling film, to the freezer.