Friday, June 05, 2009

Home-Made Rhubarb Ice Cream Recipe

Home-made rhubarb ice cream / Kodune rabarbrijäätis

It's been raining non-stop for the last two days (or is it three now?), and the temperatures have dropped below 10 Celsius. That's quite sad, as the kids have all began their summer vacations and just last weekend the weather was hot, sunny and truly summery. Full of promise. That's when I made this rhubarb ice cream, to keep us cool in the heat. I really loved the creaminess that wasn't cloying, as the acidity of the rhubarb came through. Plus it had a rather nice colour, don't you think?

It's very easy to make, as you only need to whisk the egg yolks, and not turn them into a custard base. You don't even need an ice cream machine to make it, even though it's a lot easier if you have got one. (If you haven't got one, then read the instructions further down on how to make the no-churn version of this.)

Home-Made Rhubarb Ice Cream
(Rabarbrijäätis)
Serves six to eight

Rhubarb ice cream / Rabarbrijäätis

300 g young rosy-pink rhubarb stalks
4 Tbsp water
85 g sugar
200 ml whipping cream (35%)
200 ml single/pouring cream (10%)
3 egg yolks
2 tsp icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cut the rhubarb into thin slices. Place in a small saucepan with water and sugar, bring into a boil and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the rhubarb has softened. Cool and blend into a purée. (Look at the pretty colour of the purée below!)
Whisk egg yolks with icing sugar until pale and frothy. Fold in the creams and cooled rhubarb purée.
Place into the fridge for 1-2 hours, to cool the mixture thoroughly.
Then churn in your ice cream machine according to the instructions. If necessary, place in a bowl with a lid into the freezer to harden.

Poached rhubarb - what a colour!!! / Keedetud rabarber

PS! If you haven't got an ice cream machine, then you can still make this ice cream. Use 300-400 ml of whipping cream instead of 200 ml of single and 200 ml of double cream. Whisk until soft peaks form, then fold into the whisked egg yolks together with the rhubarb purée. Place in a container, cover and freeze. (You may stir it couple of times during the next few hours, but it's not necessarily necessary). Take out of the freezer to soften about 20 minutes before serving.

9 comments:

Justin said...

for some reason i've never bought rhubarb before -- it makes me nervous. but these sounds really good.

rachel said...

This looks so yummy. I'm hoping for more warm, dry days, and hopefully rhubarb will still be in season! But why does my rhubarb always look pale green and never that lovely red?

Pille said...

Justin - hope you'll overcome your rhubarbphobia- it's a lovely fruit/veg :)

Rachel - next week, they say. And it's actually beautifully sunny outside this morning, so who knows. Rhubarb should be fine until St John's Day. And re: pale and green? Do you peel your rhubarb stalks? I never do :) Half of the colour is in the peel, so by peeling you'll end up with pale and green rhubarb stalks.. (Of course, the type of rhubarb counts as well - there are slender dark red varieties and large green varieties and all the inbetween ones)..

Andrew said...

not seen any rhubarb around these 'ere parts yet (Also waiting for gooseberries) but am tempted by several of your rhubarb recipes - more please!

Trig said...

Looks great. I'm responsible for making ice cream for the restaurant these days, but rhubarb grows much better at your lattitude (and where my dad lives in Yorkshire) than it does here in southern Spain.

Anonymous said...

Glad you included the tip for those of us who don't have an ice cream machine. Moi! Your ice cream looks so delicious. I hope it's stopped raining now.

Paz

Pille said...

Andrew - I'm sure you've missed the season already - the rhubarb was in stores way earlier in England and Scotland than it ever was in Estonia (and our season ends in a fortnight or so).

Trig - I can imagine! One of my PhD supervisors lived in Barcelona most of the time and whenever he was visiting Scotland, he was looking for rhubarb to take back to Barcelona :D

Paz - well, the weather could be much better these days. But hopefully it'll turn to the better..

Anonymous said...

Well our garden this year is swamped with rhubarb so Im going to try this recipe with my birthday pressy - ice cream maker!!!!!!! WATCH THIS SPACE XXX

ptasia said...

There's something about the colour of rhubarb that just makes my mouth water!
Round here it's more or less finished... But I've planted some plants in my summer house garden!