Salted egg yolk and pineapple may not be the most conventional flavour pairing, but it’s truly one of my favourites. Every year for Mid-Autumn Festival, I make salted egg yolk pineapple cakes with my mooncake presses, and for Lunar New Year, they get shaped into little gold bars to represent prosperity and abundance. For me, this combination of flavours is a signifier of a holiday season and brings me so much joy when I get to incorporate it into baking and other sweet treats. These ice cream sandwiches are perfect for the end of summer when it’s still ice cream season, but you want to capture the transitional fall flavours of Mid-Autumn. It’s also a great way to use up any salted egg yolks you have leftover from mooncake making.
For these ice cream sandwiches, we start with a salted egg yolk ice cream base. We use a slightly alarming amount of egg yolks (six egg yolks for the ice cream base and then a couple more salted egg yolks for flavour) but the ice cream doesn’t end up being too eggy or dense. Instead, it’s a perfectly rich and creamy ice cream with the perfect salted egg yolk flavour. The first batch of salted egg yolks get churned with the ice cream base and a few more are roughly chopped and added as an ice cream mix in. Salted egg yolk appears again in the no-bake shortbread crust.
*A little note about salted egg yolks:
I like using two types of salted egg yolk for this recipe: yolks from whole salted eggs and frozen salted egg yolks. The yolks from whole salted eggs (where you have to remove the shell yourself) tend to be creamier and much saltier. They have the flavour that is often associated with ‘salted egg yolk.’ Because these yolks are much creamier and softer, they are great to incorporate into an ice cream base to flavour the entire base. Make sure to get cooked salted eggs for this recipe because we aren’t cooking the salted egg component, but simply adding it to our already cooked ice cream base.
Salted eggs yolks (sold just as yolks) are much firmer. These brightly-coloured orange yolks and significantly less salty than the yolks from a whole salted egg. I like to use these yolks as an ice cream mix-in because they retain their shape and colour despite being mixed into an ice cream.
If you can only find whole salted eggs (not individual yolks), I would stick to 6 salted egg yolks from the whole eggs in the ice cream base, and omit the 3 yolks used as mix-in. Adding an additional 3 yolks from whole eggs will make the ice cream too salty. The shortbread crust can remain as a plain shortbread crust as well. It will be just as tasty!
After the salted egg yolk ice cream has been churned, it get’s swirled with a pineapple jam. The pineapple jam doesn’t get icy when it freezes (!!) and stays at a jammy consistency with every bite. The pineapple jam brightens up the ice cream and adds additional sweetness to the otherwise savoury leaning sweet-and-salty ice cream. When the ice cream sandwiches are ready, cut into bars and marvel at the beautiful layers of salted egg yolk ice cream and pineapple jam, as well as the bright pops of salted egg yolks that look like gems.
Salted Egg Yolk and Pineapple Ice Cream Sandwich
Ingredients
Pineapple Jam
- 2 cans (2x 398ml) crushed pineapple, drained
- 134 g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Salted Egg Yolk Ice Cream
- 5 large egg yolks
- 480 ml (2 cups) heavy cream
- 240 ml (1 cup) whole milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 6 salted egg yolks, removed from whole salted eggs (*see note)
- 3 salted egg yolks, coarsely chopped (*see note)
Salted Egg Yolk Shortbread Crust
- 300 g shortbread cookies, (I used two packs of Walker's Shortbread)
- 100 (1/3 cup and 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 3 salted egg yolks, coarsely chopped (*see note)
Instructions
Pineapple Jam
- In a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple, granulated sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick and caramelized, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer the filling to a heat-proof container or small sheet pan and allow to cool completely before using.
Salted Egg Yolk Ice Cream
- In a medium pot, combine heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Bring mixture to a light simmer.
- Gradually pour the mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the pot.
- Cook over low heat, whisking constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Refrigerate the ice cream base to chill thoroughly, at least four hours, preferably overnight.
- Once thoroughly chilled, churn ice cream based on ice cream maker's instructions. While churning, add the first six salted egg yolks (from the whole salted eggs) so that it gets evenly distributed in the base. Once the ice cream is finish churning, add the remaining three chopped salted egg yolks and give the ice cream one more churn to mix in the egg yolks.
Salted Egg Yolk Shortbread Crust
- Line a square baking pan (both 8×8 and 9×9 are okay) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Blitz cookies in a blender or food processor until it becomes a fine crumb. Transfer crumbs to a medium bowl.
- Add melted butter, sugar, chopped salted egg yolk, and salt to the biscuit crumbs and mix until mixture resembles wet sand.
- Transfer half of the biscuit mixture to the lined pan. Using your hands or the back of spoon, press down the mixture until it forms a flat layer.
- Place the pan in the freezer to firm up. Keep the bowl with the remaining crumb mixture at room temperature for later.
- Once the biscuit layer has firmed up (about 20 minutes in the freezer), carefully remove the crust and transfer to a baking sheet and return the crust to the freezer. With the remaining crumb mixture, repeat the steps above. This second layer will be our 'bottom crust.'
Assembly
- Once the ice cream has been churned, remove the pan with cookie crust layer from the freezer.
- Transfer the ice cream onto the cookie base using a large spoon or ice cream scoop. Using the same large spoon, press down the scoops of ice cream to make sure there are no gaps in the ice cream layers.
- Add dollops of the cooled pineapple jam to the ice cream and lightly press down.
- Remove the first biscuit layer from the freezer and place on top of ice cream. Gently press down to make sure there are no gaps between ice cream and jam layer and crust.
- Transfer to freezer to freeze overnight.
- Gently run a knife around the edges of the pan. Lift the ice cream sandwich block out of the pan by lifting it up with the parchment paper overhang. Cut into desired sizes.
![day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨
the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)
vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry dough
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar
for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls
place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough
remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min
[recipe cont’d in comments]
#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating](https://constellationinspiration.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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