Maca Ice-Cream & Cacao Crackle Sandwiches ~ Picture and Recipe by Chef Russell James

*For the ice-cream *

1 1/2c cashews
1/3c agave
1 vanilla pod insides scraped out
3c almond milk
3T maca root powder
2t lemon juice
Pinch salt

Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
Pour into an ice-cream maker. Alternatively you can pour into a container and place in the freezer to set hard. Once it’s frozen, cut into chunks and run through a juicer with the blank homogenising plate on. This gets rid of any ice crystals that may have formed.
When ice-cream is soft enough to work with shape it into a cylinder (a metal ring is great for this) and re-freeze.

*For the cacao crackles*

1/2c cacao butter
1/4c cacao powder
1/4c agave
3T cacao nibs

Blend all ingredients except the cacao nibs in a high-speed blender.
Use a spoon to drop small amounts of the mixture onto a non-stick surface, such as a Paraflexx sheet, to form circles only slightly bigger than the ice-cream cylinders.
Leave to set hard.

Assembly

Take the ice-cream cylinders from the freezer and let them soften slightly for a few minutes. That way the next stage will work better.
Sandwich each of the cylinders between 2 pieces of the cacao crackles. You may want to return them to the freezer at this point so the whole thing freezes together as one.