Put water onto boil for double boiler if using
Put milk and cream into a saucepan
Carefully split your vanilla bean if using, scrape the inside and add both scrapped seeds and rest of the bean to your milk and cream mix
Gently simmer on a very low heat for 15mins
Beat egg yokes and sugar together in a medium bowl until pale. Slowly add your milk and cream, mixing well between editions
Tip combined milk/cream/vanilla bean/egg/sugar mix into double boiler. Leave in whole vanilla bean for now. *you can use a regular saucepan but you need to watch in more closely to avoid overheating and scrambling the eggs.
Cook over a low heat, stiring frequently until mix thickens and coat the back of spoon or spatular
Take top of double boiler off and stand somewhere stable like a flat bottomed colander.
Allow to cool for five minutes, then transfer to covered container and refrigerate overnight
*make the honey caramel as you will need this before churning*
If using a self refrigerating ice cream churner turn on ten minutes before using, otherwise take your freezer bowl out of the freezer at the last min.
Stir ice cream base and remove vanilla bean. Pour into ice cream churner and churn until done, about 25mins.
To assemble, take chilled container and layer churned ice cream with a good drizzle of honey caramel in alternating layers. *You can add pieces of hokey pokey/honeycomb at this point, but the moisture in the ice cream will make it partially to fully dissolve.
Freeze overnight or until set.