Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

Hola amigos,
(Sorry Louise)
It's me again, with another ice-cream-related dessert. Honestly, I can make things besides ice cream.
(Aah, dilemma: does ice cream have a hyphen or not??)

Answer: apparently*, in 2007 dictionaries stopped hyphenating ice cream except when it acts as an adjective, e.g. ice-cream cone. And 'ice-cream-related' is a compound adjective so it should have one

* see previous article by me

I can't think of anything else interesting to say about lemon meringue ice cream, except that you need to like lemons to like it. Kind of obvious, I know, but I thought I'd put the warning out nonetheless.

Here is what you'll need to make some lemon meringue ice cream:

300ml double cream
1 lemon
1 jar lemon curd
50g meringues, broken into pieces
2 tbsp chopped lemon balm

I didn't realise you couldn't crop the photos

As you can see, I've managed to be slightly more precise on the quantities for this one, as I actually followed a recipe. But Louise will comment scathingly on my lack of serving portions and preperation time...

Talking of preperation time (readers of article sigh as they sense another diversion from the recipe) something that really annoys me about recipes is how they say that the recipe time is e.g. '30 minutes' BUT IT NEVER IS because they neglect to factor in the time taken to peel things (I mention that because it is something I am particularly bad at) etc. So you'll have a ten-minute recipe that lists as an ingredient 'peeled, chopped, parboiled potatoes' which in itself takes ages. OK, end of rant.

I brought that up because the recipe actually states 'zest and juice of one lemon', but I've decided to include it in the instructions. Admittedly, I am sort of guilty of the whole thing I've just described as some people may be incapable of chopping up lemon balm.

 Method:

1. Grate the zest from the lemon. Despair at how little you achieve for the amount of time and effort you put into it. (Skip this stage if you have a lemon zester or some skill in the area)

This took me about 10 minutes

2. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze

 

3. Line a 450g loaf tin with clingfilm (I had no idea what size this was - so I just chose one that looked about right) so that the clingfilm overlaps the sides

4. Whisk the cream until it leaves a trail. Again... I kind of guessed on this stage, as I didn't actually use a whisk and there wasn't really a trail)

5. Mix in the lemon juice, zest and half the jar of lemon curd then fold in the lemon balm and meringue. You may want to crush the meringues a bit more now if, like me, you think it's looking a bit lumpy
 

 

 6. Spoon into the loaf tin and freeze for at least six hours

 

Brief interruption: another thing I don't like about some recipes is how they put about 50 things in one stage, and then claim that it's a 'simple, three-step recipe'.

7. If ice cream has been freezing overnight +, then take it out 10-15 minutes before turning it over onto a plate, removing the clingfilm and cutting into slices. Personally, I think I'm going to just end up spooning it out

For the sauce:

3 passionfruits
The rest of the lemon curd

1. Mix the pulp and seeds of the passionfruits with the lemon curd. Soon over the ice cream and decorate with sprigs of lemon balm.

2. OR: fail to find any passionfruits in any nearby shops, buy some raspberries instead and heat in the microwave for around 1.5 minutes with some lemon juice, then mix in the lemon curd. Really nice combination that tastes a lot better than it looks in the photo

Hope you enjoy the ice cream!
(By the way, if any one was wondering what revision I was putting off this time... It was biology)

Alice