Rum Raisin Ice Cream

I have not bought ice cream since November 2011. True statement.  I got an ice cream maker and have not looked back.

As if by magic, when I got my ice cream maker blogger Kavey started her “Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream” challenge series.  I have participated on most months, not always getting my posts up in time, but always looking at the monthly challenge as a source of inspiration.  I’ve made apple pie ice cream, chocolate coffee sorbet, salted caramel, traditional vanilla, strawberry lemon long pepper sorbet… The list goes on.

This month Kavey’s challenge was to incorporate some form of alcohol in the ice cream.  As soon as I read that I knew I had to make my mother’s favourite ice cream – rum raisin.

I looked online for inspiration and found some in the form of various adaptations of a David Lebovitz recipe.  Your really can’t go wrong with his ideas (and by the way I *love* his blog).  I took the ideas and decided to incorporate the use of orange zest as a flavouring for the vanilla base as well as the rum-macerated raisins.  I think next time I would go another step further and actually add orange juice to the vanilla base, for further orange notes (and this is what I have done in the recipe below – reduce the milk by the amount of juice you get from the orange to keep the liquid content consistent).

And finally, the clincher has got to be the type of rum that you use.  I chose Elements 8 Spiced Rum.  I love this stuff.  I was first introduced to it by Shaky Pete at the Hawksmoor Bar. This is the rum they used in their pina colada when they first launched that drink. It is soooooo good.  I have used it to do spiced rum apple cider at home when I’ve had spare apples to use up.  I have had it neat.  It high a very citrusy note to it, and worked really well with the orange zest.

This image and a great review of Elements 8 can be found on thefloatingrumshack.com

This ice cream was so good. So more-ish.  I can’t wait to make it again.

Ingredients

 

Vanilla Base

1 and 1/2 cups (about 350ml) whole milk
1 and 1/2 cups (~350ml) single cream
3/4 cup caster sugar
4 egg yolks
vanilla bean
zest of one orange (or the peels using a vegetable peeler, mindful not to get too much white) plus its juice (if juice is 1/2 cup, then reduce the milk by 1/2 cup, if a quarter, reduce the milk by 1/4)

 

For the mascerated rum raisins

1/2 cup (~125ml) rum
1 cup raisins (~100g)
orange zest (one peel using a vegetable peeler, or about 1 teaspoon zest)

Instructions

1. Make the raisins ahead of time. They can be made overnight if you wish. Bring raisins, rum and orange zest to simmer in small pot, then remove from heat and let soak.
2. Separate the white and egg yolks.  Egg whites can be frozen for future use.
3. Heat milk, cream, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla pod (halved and seeds scraped into milk), orange zest and juice of one orange for about 5 minutes. Then remove vanilla bean (and orange peels if using that, if zest leave in).
4. Beat 4 egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl until light in colour.  Add some of the warmed milk to the mix, beat until liquidy.
5. Add eggy mix to the warm milk. Put onto heat and stir regularly making a custard. Be careful not to overheat or you will get scrambled eggs in milk, not custard! Just take your time, stir regularly, it will thicken.
6. Remove from heat.
7. Stir through 1/4 cup of rum (use the rum from the raisins that have been soaking – if not enough, top up with some extra rum).
8. Cool in refrigerator and once cool add to your machine (or if you are me and hasty just add to your machine).
9. Once in machine, add raisins. Churn away.

Enjoy!


This post is a part of the Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge hosted by Kavey – check out all the entries over on her blog!

3 responses to “Rum Raisin Ice Cream”

  1. Really happy to be able to provide inspiration for your ice cream experimentation… so much more fun creating your own and with no preservatives and just the right balance of ingredients to suit your own tastes! Love rum raisin!

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