Orange Ice Cream with a hint of Cardamom

Summer is on it's way already and the predictions are that it will be yet another dry hot summer. Beach, swimming, eating on the terrace and a variety of scrumptious ice cream.

We are well into a very nice spring. A little rain and a lot of sun. The vegetable garden is planted, there's blossom on every tree and the world is beginning to look a whole lot rosier.

The bees have moved into the garden to gather pollen from this lovely Crab Apple

I was having a chat to a neighbour last week and they offered me some Tangelos from their very full tree. Tangelos are not my favourite citrus but I knew my husband would love these to make marmalade. I decided to take a little fruit and try making some Tangelo Sorbet. While the quantity was small, the taste gave a pretty good hit. Spurred on, i  found many other citrus sorbets. In fact I was surprised to find so many different recipes in my books.

I have never made citrus ice cream before, so after talking with some friends and researching ideas, I came up with a lovely orange ice cream. I was due to photograph oranges for another project this week and it made sense to use the fruit up while it was still fresh.

The difference in the recipes I consulted called for orange juice or orange zest, orange peel or making an orange syrup. I chose a mixture of juice and zest and included some lemon zest and juice too.

A found a Belinda Jeffrey recipe that contained Cardamom, so I combined this with another recipe that I had pulled out of a magazine 15 years ago and never used. There's a first time for everything. I also investigated recipes from a lovely book I have had for a long time, Ices, the Definitive Guide. This book is a collection of over 200 ices; from Gin and Tonic Sorbet to Stilton Cheese Ice Cream. Not sure the latter would suit my palette.

This recipe does contain cream, not the perfect healthy recipe. But if you only have a little ice cream occasionally, teamed with a normal healthy diet, it wont do you any harm. Besides orange juice contains, vitamin B6, Vitamin C,  folate and Potassium - so this is my justification!

ORANGE ICE CREAM WITH CARDAMOM SEEDS

Ingredients

500 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

125 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

250g caster sugar

2 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

grated zest of 2 oranges

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon orange blossom water (available from health food shops)

600ml of whipping cream

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• Combine the eggs, egg yolks, sugar in a bowl and whisk together until they are light and fluffy. 
• Take the freshly squeezed juices and put them through a sieve to get rid of any pulp and then add them to the egg mixture. Place this into a medium saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly. Do not allow it to boil. Use a sugar thermometer to check that it does not go above 90 degrees. The mixture will thicken slightly until you have the consistency of runny custard.
• Remove from the heat, strain and cool slightly. Add the grated lemon and orange zest, cover and place in the fridge until completely cold.
• Stir in the orange blossom water.
• Lightly whip cream.
• Once the mixture has cooled , add the cream and mix thoroughly. Turn this all into your ice cream maker and churn according to manufactures recommendations. Store in the freezer in an airtight container.
• Leave overnight before serving allowing the ice cream to harden off and for the flavour to develop. 
•  If you do not have an ice cream maker, then you can use your freezer. When you add the cream, freezer until semi frozen, take out and whip up again and re freeze. This should work just as well.

This is one of the nicest ice creams I have made for a long time! I am now investigating Lemon Sorbet and Chocolate Gelati!

Here's my taste tester Katie! She seems to be really enjoying the ice cream.