Rose Ice Cream

Exploring the delicate taste of rosewater, I've been trying it in ice cream.   It seems to go best with little pieces of rose Turkish delight, and, if you do a cooked custard, instead of my quicker method of simply freezing the mix uncooked, it turns into the most unctuous, perfumed.... oh, I've run out of superlatives!   Suffice to say, it has not only passed the husband test, he likes it so much he's now jealously guarding the remaining scrapings from all comers!

I appreciate it is not usually possible to buy just Rose Turkish delight, so I might have to find a way to use up the lemon variety (unless you can eat it without it being in a pudding, of course).

Rose Ice Cream

Rose Ice Cream  

3 egg yolks

1 pint/600ml double or single cream and milk mixed (more cream = richer ice cream)

4oz/120g caster sugar

1tsp good rose essence

½ tube of pink food colouring (Dr Oetker's hot pink!)

4-6 pieces of rose Turkish delight, quartered

Warm the milk/cream in a pan until blood temperature.  Beat the eggs, sugar and rose essence together in a bowl, add the milk and cream and then pour it all back into the pan.  Stir it gently until it thickens slightly, then allow it to cool.  Pour into an ice cream maker and churn until thick.  Add the colouring slowly so you get what you want – not too Barbie, preferably….

Just before the end, add most of the Turkish delight, so that it gets mixed in, but doesn’t either disintegrate or stick to the paddles.   Serve with extra Turkish delight on the top.   This makes approx. 1.5litres, and should be served with delicate little biscuits.  You could scatter it with rose petals, for added beauty, but they don’t honestly taste that great!