the ice cream and brioche bonus.

if you were to buy an ice cream sandwich from one of the many street vendors selling ice cream from pushcarts in the philippines, you would not get what most people would expect, ice cream in between two cookies. rather, you would literally get a scoop of ice cream in a bread bun, sometimes the ubiquitous pandesal, but more often the sweeter, milkier monay (moh-nigh); after all, it is a sandwich--why shouldn't it be on bread? i have always preferred this type of ice cream sandwich over the cookie variety; cookies can be too sweet, and most importantly, with our tropical weather, the fast-melting ice cream is soaked up easily by the bread, with a minimum of fuss or mess.

of course, the dirty ice cream variety is a cheap and cheerful street food that is mostly enjoyed by children, but it can easily be elevated into something more elegant with the choice of bread and quality of ice cream. oh, you know it's coming--yes, yes, i had some leftover brioche from my recent foray into brioche making, so you know i had to try it.

if the brioche is fresh, there really isn't any need to do anything but split it in half and scoop up your favourite ice cream for the filling. currently my favourite is häagen-dazs' summer berries and cream flavour, which is beyond smooth--like slipping between cool silk sheets, i tell you--and has a lovely balanced berry flavour, with a ribbon of tart raspberry sauce throughout. it is mercifully not too sweet (okay, it's a little sweet, but it's not cloying at all). this, combined with the rich brioche is like a decadent cream tea treat reinvented for the summer heat. lovely.

one of the great things about an ice cream sandwich is the portability factor--convenient to store, convenient to eat. a little toasting of some brioche rounds lightly buttered and lightly sprinkled with sugar created the perfect base for some vanilla bean gelato (also store bought), and a sprinkling of semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips. the brioche toasts were crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and the intermittent nuggets of dark, rich chocolate were a wonderful foil for the heavily perfumed sweetness of the chilly vanilla cream. elegant in some ways, but still delightful for children of any age.