Mark Hix recipe: Plum coupe with gingernut biscuits

Serves 4-6

Plum coupe with gingernut biscuits (Jason Lowe)

Coupes have fallen out of favour these days, but this one, combining rippled ice-cream with plum compote, clotted cream and ginger nuts, makes a great dinner-party dessert. You can use one variety of plums for the whole thing, or make two batches of compote with different varieties, perhaps Victoria for rippling through the ice-cream and greengages for the sauce. Just halve the compote quantities accordingly.

For the plum compote

1kg plums, halved and stoned
150g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour

For the ice-cream

400ml full-fat milk
1½ vanilla pods
½tsp Bourbon vanilla essence
400ml Jersey or clotted cream, or a mixture of the two
6 egg yolks
150g caster sugar

To serve

120-140g clotted cream
4-6 gingernut biscuits, broken into small pieces

First make the compote. Place the plums and sugar in an ovenproof dish. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 30 minutes, giving the occasional stir. Remove a couple of tablespoons of the liquid, mix with the cornflour and stir back into the plums. Blend half of the plum mixture in a liquidiser until smooth.

To make the ice-cream, pour the milk into a saucepan, split the vanilla pods lengthways with a sharp knife and scrape the seeds into the milk with the point of the knife, then add the pods as well. Bring the milk to the boil and remove from the heat. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together, then pour the milk into the pan and whisk well.

Return the pan to a low heat and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk, but don't let it boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream. Leave to cool, remove the vanilla pods, then churn in an ice-cream-maker. When the ice-cream is ready, transfer to a plastic container and gently stir in enough of the plum compote to form a rippled effect. Cover and place in the freezer for a few hours.

To serve, place a spoonful of the compote in each glass. Top with a couple of scoops of ice-cream and more compote, then add a spoonful of the clotted cream and scatter the biscuits on top.