Red Currant and Elderflower Ice Cream
Summer has certainly hit us this month and who can complain? With the lovely heat everything has come into full force, flowers blooming left, right and centre and not to mention the summer fruits. We have been up to our ears with red currants this year and have been investigating what to do with them. We’ve found a lot of recipes that call for red currant jelly, but not as many calling for fresh red currants.
With a desire to make something other than red currant jelly we decided to try something a little bit different and definitely weather appropriate, red currant and elderflower ice cream. The tartness of fresh redcurrants is really nice alongside this rich ice cream so make sure you reserve some to garnish when serving. We picked a full punnet and stewed them with 50g of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water per 450g of fruit.
Any remaining stewed fruit is wonderful used as a topping for yoghurt, or added to dressings for salads, marinades for meat or even as a fruit syrup for a cocktail (see below for a below recipe for Red Currant Cosmo).
If you’re looking for a few more recipes using fresh red currants we recommend checking these ones out:
Written by Corin
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Cooling/Freezing Time: 24 hours or until suitable frozen
Ingredients
- 450g fresh red currants
- 50g sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2-3 tablespoons elderflower cordial
- 500ml of double cream
- 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
- 4 egg yolks
- 60g sugar
- 100ml water
Equipment
Cooking Method
For the red currants
- Thoroughly wash the red currants and remove their stems before placing in a small saucepan with the 50g of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.
- Bring to a gentle simmer over a low to medium heat stirring often taking care the fruit does not burn. Once the currants are softened use the spoon to break them down further against the sides of the saucepan.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour the fruit into a metal or nylon sieve which is placed over a bowl just a little bit larger than the sieve. Use a spoon to push the fruit around in the sieve to help get all the liquid through until what remains in the sieve is fairly dry. Discard the pulp and seeds.
- Mix in 2-3 tablespoons of the elderflower cordial into the juice from the currants and set to one side.
For the ice cream
- In the smaller saucepan combine the egg yolks, 60g sugar and 100ml water. Over a low heat cook gently, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pour the double cream into a large bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks, add the vanilla extract and whisk it in gently.
- Fold the cooled egg mixture into the double cream. Add around 230-250ml (1 cup) of the red currant and elderflower juice and mix thoroughly. Keep any left over juice in a small container in the fridge to drizzle over top the ice cream when serving.
- Place the mixture in a Tupperware container or loaf tin and put in the freezer.
- Every half hour, for the first few hours remove the ice cream from the freezer and gently stir to avoid ice crystals forming in the freezing process. Make sure to scrape the sides to loosen the more frozen parts.
- Leave the ice cream in the freezer until suitably frozen.
- Serve with garnishing of fresh red currants and red currant and elderflower juice.
