Chefs' Recipes

Jacqui Challinor's olive-oil ice-cream sandwich with halva and pistachio

This signature dessert on Nomad's menu is a beautiful interplay of flavours and textures.

By Jacqui Challinor
  • 1 hr 30 mins preparation
  • 40 mins cooking (plus freezing, resting)
  • Serves 10
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"This is one of my most cherished recipes and a dish I'll never get sick of eating or seeing on my menu," says Jacqui Challinor, executive chef at Sydney's Nomad. "I love the mix of flavours and textures – the savoury note of the halva, the velvety olive-oil parfait and the crunch from the filo."

Ingredients

  • 75 gm fresh honeycomb
  • Honey, to serve
Parfait
  • 300 ml pouring cream
  • 1 egg
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 75 gm (⅓ cup) caster sugar
  • 200 ml extra-virgin olive oil
Shortbread
  • 100 gm chilled unsalted butter, chopped
  • 50 gm brown sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
  • 180 gm plain flour
  • 40 gm rice flour
  • 75 gm plain halva, crumbled
  • 40 gm pistachios, roasted, coarsely chopped
Filo wafers
  • 100 gm caster sugar
  • 60 gm white sesame seeds
  • 4 sheets filo pastry
  • 100 gm butter, melted

Method

  • 1
    Grease and line an 18cm square cake tin.
  • 2
    For parfait, whisk cream to firm peaks and refrigerate until required.
  • 3
    Combine egg, yolks and sugar in a large bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water) and stir continuously until sugar dissolves (2 minutes).
  • 4
    Transfer egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until light and fluffy (2½ minutes). Whisking continuously, gradually add oil in a thin, steady stream until emulsified. Fold in whisked cream in two batches. Pour mixture into prepared tin, then cover and freeze until firm (4 hours or overnight).
  • 5
    Meanwhile for shortbread, process butter and sugar in a food processor until creamy. Add vanilla seeds and plain and rice flours, then pulse until ingredients just start to come together. Transfer to a clean work surface, form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour to rest.
  • 6
    Preheat oven to 175°C. Break shortbread dough into chunks and press out onto a large baking tray. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove tray from oven and break up dough with a wooden spoon. Return to oven for another 15-20 minutes, breaking up dough every 5 minutes, until shortbread is golden brown. Set aside to cool.
  • 7
    Add halva and pistachios to shortbread crumbs and combine well. Store in an airtight container until required.
  • 8
    For filo wafers, process caster sugar and sesame seeds until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Lay a filo sheet on a piece of baking paper and brush generously with melted butter. Sprinkle over one-third of the sesame mixture. Repeat layering with remaining filo sheets, melted butter and sesame mixture, brushing final layer with butter only. Place another piece of baking paper on top, then a heavy oven tray to weight it down. Refrigerate until butter sets (30 minutes).
  • 9
    Reduce oven temperature to 165°C. Remove top tray and paper and cut filo stack into 20 rectangles 3.6cm x 9cm using a ruler (see note). Transfer to two large oven trays and bake wafers, rotating trays occasionally so pastry cooks evenly, until golden and crisp (15 minutes). Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
  • 10
    Remove parfait from tin and cut into 10 rectangles 3.6cm x 9cm. Sandwich each parfait slice between two filo wafers, then transfer to serving plates. Sprinkle generously with halva shortbread crumble, top with pieces of honeycomb and drizzle with honey to serve.

Notes

Note Place a sheet of baking paper under the ruler when cutting the filo stack to stop it sticking. Any pastry scraps can be cooked on a separate tray and stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.