Tart London: how to make blood orange ice cream

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison make the most of blood orange season with this pink and perky ice cream
Lucy Carr-Ellison25 March 2017

Perhaps you wouldn’t normally make ice cream in March but there is a reason for this recipe: beautiful blood oranges are in season right now. Slightly smaller than your everyday orange, they get their name from their gorgeous pink-red flesh. The colour change is a result of the warm days followed by cold nights that occur near the Mediterranean at this time of year, which activates the antioxidant anthocyanin and releases a red pigment.

Blood oranges are deliciously sweet, with raspberryish notes, and when sliced with the skin and pith removed, they make a wonderful dessert on their own — just add a dollop of crème fraîche. They’re also delicious in savoury dishes. We recently served a simple salad of blood orange with fennel, rocket, hazelnut and mint, and a peppery olive oil, to an Italian client.

We decided to use this fruit to make an ice cream rather than a vividly hued sorbet, as we knew the blood orange would work well with the creaminess. The resulting pudding is beautiful: baby pink in colour with a hint of citrus to cut through the rich cream.

Homemade ice cream is much easier to make than you might think and is always an impressive way to finish a dinner party. Even better, you can make it in advance as it lasts for months in the freezer.

Serve on its own with just a few extra segments of blood orange and nuts to finish.

Ingredients - Serves 6-8

6 blood oranges, plus extra to finish

2 eggs

80g golden caster sugar

480ml double cream

240ml milk

Seeds of 2 vanilla pods (or 2 tsp very good vanilla extract)

Handful of chopped pistachios

Method

Zest the oranges, then squeeze and heat the juice in a pan on a medium heat until reduced by half. Set aside to cool. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Add the cream, milk, vanilla seeds or extract and the blood orange juice and whisk together until well mixed. Pour into an ice cream maker and follow instructions to freeze.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, put the mixture into a freezer-safe container and place in the freezer, giving it a good whisking every couple of hours until it sets.

To serve, scoop the finished ice cream into bowls and garnish with some extra blood orange segments and chopped pistachios.

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