Monday, January 16, 2017

Lemon Ice Cream

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), it is our Monthly Featured Dish/Ingredient Challenge, and for this month it is Lemons! or any citrus. We may select any recipe that uses lemon or citrus from any of our past or present featured chefs. I've made Tessa Kiros's, Lemon Ice Cream, from her beautiful book "Falling Cloudberries". There are fifteen featured chefs at IHCC, and Tessa Kiros is easily in the top three of my favourite chefs. 

Tessa Kiros's Lemon Ice Cream recipe uses fresh sage leaves. I, however, have forgotten to buy sage leaves and I'm not about to make a trip to the supermarket again as it was already late in the evening. So I use fresh pandanus (screwpine) leaves, which I have a healthy bush growing at my backyard. Pandanus leaves are extremely fragrant and we use it a lot in sweet desserts and savoury dishes. 



I snipped the pandanus leaves to small pieces and boil together with the whipping cream, lemon zest and sugar. Once the mixture comes to a boil, and the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from heat, and leave to cool. The pandan leaves would fill your kitchen with it's wonderful fragrance. Once cooled, I remove the pandanus leaves with a pair of chopsticks which is rather easy and quick. I did not strain the mixture over a sieve as I want the lemon zest in the ice cream. Whisk in the lemon juice, the mixture will curdle and thicken a little, but keep whisking and it will come together, chill in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, I churn the mixture in the ice cream machine.

I did change a little of the steps in the recipe, making it a little easier and simpler for me. Refer to the recipe instructions (below) for the changes I've made (as above). Sugar is reduced to half and the sweetness was just right for us.



This creamy Lemon Ice Cream is so yummy! The fragrance of the pandan and the lemony taste of the lemon zest and juice, blends perfectly together. If you have not tried using pandanus leaves in your dessert making, I urge you to try and get some, you will love it's heady fragrance aroma.


Lemon Ice Cream
(Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros)
serves 4
500ml (2 cups) pouring (single) cream (whipping cream)
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon finely chopped sage leaves **
160gm (2/3) cup caster (superfine) sugar (1/3 cup)

** I replaced the sage leaves with pandanus leaves (screwpine leaves). I used 2 long leaves, snipped to small pieces.

Put the cream, lemon rind and sage (pandanus leaves snipped to small pieces) in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. Set aside to cool and infuse the lemon and sage (pandanus) flavours into the cream.
Meanwhile, whisk the sugar with the lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the cream mixture until the sugar dissolves. (I added the sugar to the cream, in the first step, allowing it to boil together). Add the remaining cream mixture and whisk well for a couple of minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover and put in the freezer. (Remove the pandanus leaves, whisk in the lemon juice and chill the mixture overnight, covered, in the refrigerator).
After an hour, remove the bowl from the freezer, give an energetic whisk with a hand whisk or electric mixer and return the bowl to the freeser. Whisk again after another couple of hours. When it is nearly firm, give one last whisk, transfer to a suitable freezing container with a lid and let it set in the freezer until it is firm. (I skipped these steps, and use the ice cream machine to churn the mixture the next morning).
Alternatively, pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze, following the manufacturer's instructions.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week
January Monthly Featured Dish/Ingredients Challenge : Lemons!



and

I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown #13 hosted by 




10 comments:

  1. This sounds delicious, but today I'd like to drink hot lemon, I'll save this for summer

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  2. Lovely. You made the ice cream version of posset, which I made. I'd look out for pandanus leaves that you speak so highly about.

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  3. What a beautiful bowl of ice cream! I love Tessa's recipes and books as well, in fact one of the reasons I wanted to come back to the IHCC group was so that I could use my Tessa books on Potluck week as I feel they have been underused lately! I love it when you experiment with the sugar content on things and report your findings for us as I am always trying to cut back on sugar in things. Thank you!

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  4. WOW!!! I need to try and make this with my kiddos for school! Thanks for sharing! <3 - http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com

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  5. Joyce, this ice cream must be wonderful!

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  6. This must be so refreshing! Hope it's not too late to wish u Happy New Year too ;)

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  7. Your ice cream looks amazing. Swapping out the sage leaves for the pandanus leaves was such a smart choice! ;-)

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  8. Nice substitute for sage with pandan!

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  9. This sounds so refreshing. I am looking forward to making this one.

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  10. I had to giggle when you said you were not about to run to the supermarket again:) I am the same way!

    I would love to smell the fragrance of the pandanus. I've never seen it before, or heard of it. The good news is that lemon, and all citrus, seem to go well with just about anything so it sounds like a wonderful combination! The ice cream looks very creamy:)

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