When pink and green shoots appear in winter-weary gardens, we know spring has arrived. And so has our annual Rhubarb Exchange: neighbours drop off rhubarb from their gardens; we give them a pint of this pleasure once it’s churned. A delicious win-win.
Here, rhubarb roasted in honey and balsamic vinegar is added to the custard base. Beet juice pinks it up. For a sophisticated dessert, finish with extra rhubarb purée and mint leaves — and maybe a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (200 grams) chopped rhubarb, about 3 stalks
- 3 tablespoons (63 grams) pure local honey
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 cups (473 mL) heavy cream
- 1 cup (236 mL) whole milk
- balsamic-roasted rhubarb (above)
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 5 large egg yolks (90 grams)
- 1 tablespoon beet juice, for colour (optional) - see Pink It Up, bottom
- Fresh mint leaves, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Balsamic-roasted rhubarb
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scatter rhubarb over the baking sheet and then drizzle with honey and balsamic vinegar. Roast for 15 minutes, or until rhubarb is softened and browned. You can use the warm rhubarb in the ice cream base immediately.
If you’re preparing the rhubarb for later use, cool completely and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Makes about 6 tablespoons.
Roasted rhubarb ice cream
Prepare an ice bath.
In a medium-sized saucepan, combine cream, milk and roasted rhubarb. Blend with an immersion blender until very smooth. (Or you can blend ingredients in a regular blender, then transfer to a saucepan.) Add sugar and salt. Stir the mixture over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, or until steam begins to rise from the surface. Remove from heat.
While the dairy is warming, whisk the egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl. To temper the yolks, slowly pour 1 cup of the heated cream mixture into the yolks while whisking vigorously. Continue adding heated cream and whisking until about half of the hot cream has been added. Transfer the yolk mixture to the pan.
Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring continuously with a heatproof spatula until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula or a digital thermometer reads 180 F (about 5 to 6 minutes). Immediately remove from heat and strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the inner bowl of the prepared ice bath, pressing down on any rhubarb bits with a stiff rubber spatula to extract as much flavour as possible.
Add a few teaspoons of beet juice (if using) for a light pink hue. Cool the custard in the ice bath until room temperature, stirring occasionally. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Place storage container in the freezer to chill. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream-maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions until ice cream is thick and creamy and has increased in volume by about a third.
Garnish with mint (if using) and enjoy immediately, or freeze 2 hours in chilled storage container for a firmer scoop.
Excerpted from Great Scoops: Recipes from a Neighborhood Ice Cream Shop, by Marlene Haley and Amelia Ryan, with Anne Desbrisay. Photographs by Christian Lalonde. Excerpted with permission from Figure 1 Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Pink It Up
To punch up the pinkness of your ice cream, dye the base with beet juice.
Grate a large beet (wearing gloves if you don’t care for dyed hands) over a plate lined with a few sheets of paper towel.
Gather up the edges of the paper towel so the grated beets are enclosed.
Squeeze the beets directly over the strained ice cream base before chilling until you have your desired colour.
Beet juice is so vibrant that just a little juice goes a long way.
