Plum, Orange and Bay Ice-Cream
If you have an ice-cream machine (my best ever purchase) you will find that you use it all the time as making ice-cream is the easiest pudding to pull together from scratch. I make this puree in the morning and then stir in the cream just before my guests arrive. I then pour it into the machine and let it churn as we are eating our main course – it will be beautifully soft and light when you come to it – all you need is a glug of reposado tequila poured over it for utter perfection.
Ingredients
500g plums
1 star anise
3 bay leaves
Juice and zest of an orange
175g caster sugar
350ml whipping or double cream
Recipe
Wash, halve and de-stone the plums.
Roughly chop the fruit and put in a small, non-reactive sauce pan with the star anise and bay leaves. Add the orange, sugar and a few tbsp water and simmer the plums for 10 minutes until soft. Allow to cool, then remove the anise and bay and whiz to a puree with a stick blender. Taste for sweetness. It should taste sweeter than you would like as much of the sweetness will disappear on mixing with the cream and then freezing. If it tastes just right at this stage it will taste tart once it is frozen. Now you may freeze the puree for a rainy day, spoon it onto yoghurt for breakfast or continue to making the ice-cream.
When you are ready to make the ice-cream stir the cream into the plum puree (I do not whip it as it will get moved as it freezes and I do not want the over-whip the cream). Pour into an ice-cream machine to churn or stir-freeze in a large Tupperware, beating/whisking the plum cream after one hour, three hours and five hours with a whisk attachment.
