Honeycrunch Ice-Cream with Toasted Gingerbread, Cinnamon Oil and Sugar Swirls

I had this dessert the first time I went to Ezard's a couple of years ago, so I was looking forward to giving it a go myself, especially since I get to play with caramelized sugar, which is always fun!
There's a few steps to making this dessert and it takes a while, so you've got to be dedicated to it for a couple of hours.
First up is making your honeycomb. This is pretty simple, just caramelize some sugar, water and liquid glucose. Once it starts to colour whisk in some baking soda and you'll see the mixture start to fizz. Tip the mixture into a tray lined with baking paper and allow to set hard.

You'll need to also make some Cinnamon infused oil. Bake some Cinnamon quills in a oven until fragrant and then bash them up in a mortar and pestle. Place the crushed quills into some olive oil and bring to a simmer and then let cool. Leave to infuse overnight.

Now, you all need to make Ice-Cream, don't you? That's good, because that means I don't have to explain it here. You just need to make your normal Anglaise, this one is very rich with 12 egg yolks! Once it's almost frozen in your ice cream machine, crush up your honeycomb and add to the mix, then freeze until needed.

Now unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of this, but you'll need to make your Gingerbread Circles. This was the harder part. I made the Gingerbread in a standard loaf tin as suggested, but Ezard suggested that once cooked, you could slice it into 18 x 2mm slices. There was no way I could do that with mine, I managed to get about 5 slices and that was using my V-Slicer to cut it. A bit awkward, but it did the job. You then need to cut out rounds and toast them. You have to be careful as well with this, because the rounds are so dark brown, it's hard to tell if you're burning them. When they cool, they crisp up like little biscuits.

Make your sugar swirls by caramelizing equal amounts of sugar and water until it's a medium brown colour, then leave to cool for 5 mins. The syrup will be thick now and you can pour it onto a pastry mat or baking paper, lots of fun.

One trick I suggest with this recipe is to take your scoops of ice cream and freeze them solid separately as this makes it much easier to stack them up when presenting them, as they wont melt so quickly. You might also want to freeze/chill your plates to help keep it all cool.
Drizzle some Cinnamon Oil around your plate and place 3 pieces of honeycomb around the outside. Place a gingerbread circle on the plate and top with a ball of ice-cream and then repeat. Place a sugar swirl on top and you have yourself a masterpiece!