Blood Orange Icecream

My first experience of blood orange ice cream came from a cafe at the end of a weather-beaten pier in the UK. It was February, so as you can imagine, not exactly ice cream weather. However, the strangeness of the orange icecream lured me inside. Cream and citrus go together in other recipes. Think of a lemon posset, a glossy tart, or a set cheesecake- so why does orange and cream seem so weird? You don’t often see orange flavoured anything aside from commercial fizzy drinks and sweets. Yet, to my surprise, orange icecream works! It was intense with orange flavour; fresh, a little sharp, but softened by dairy. I returned multiple times over the following weeks until one day; the blood orange season was over. Since then, I’ve thought about it a lot and finally decided to have a go at recreating the recipe. 

This blood orange icecream sits somewhere on the cusp between sorbet and ice cream. It is bright in flavour, enough to make you sit up and pay attention. I’ve not used egg yolks in the recipe to prevent any dulling of taste. Both orange zest and juice are less dominant than lemon, quickly becoming masked by other flavours. Due to less fat in the recipe, it is closer to gelato than ice cream, allowing the orange to shine through. 

If you’re a fan of chocolate and orange (I am), then a scoop of this gently melting alongside an intense chocolate tort or brownie would be perfect. Otherwise, enjoy it alone, sprinkled with pistachios for texture and colour.

Equipment

Microplane grater: Get a Microplane zester! They make zesting citrus fruits so easy. They also make the zest very fine- as the recipe calls for leaving the zest in, it will make a difference not having chunky pieces in the icecream.

Ice-cream churner: You’ll need an icecream churner for this recipe, and you should churn the ice cream according to your machine’s instructions.

 Alternatively, you could make the base, freeze it in a shallow tray and blend the frozen pieces in a high powered blender when you’re ready to serve it. 

Print Recipe

Blood Orange Ice Cream

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This blood orange icecream sits somewhere on the cusp between sorbet and ice cream. It is bright in flavour, enough to make you sit up and pay attention.

Ingredients

• 4 Blood Oranges - Zest
• 300g Blood Orange juice (around 4 oranges)
• A few drops of lemon juice to taste (Optional)
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 70g Whipping Cream
• 200g Full Fat Greek Yoghurt

Instructions

1

Zest and juice the oranges into a bowl.

2

Add the sugar, cream, yoghurt, orange zest and juice to a blender.

3

Blend for around 30 seconds until thoroughly mixed and the sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a jug.

4

Taste the ice cream mix- if it needs to be more tart, add a few drops of lemon and stir.

5

Pre-freeze your icecream churner for 20 minutes. Chill the ice cream mix in the fridge while you wait for the machine to pre-freeze.

6

When the bowl of the churner is icy add the ice cream mix and set it to churn for 20-30 minutes (depending on the power of your machine.)

7

Remove the ice cream when it is solid and transfer it immediately to the freezer. Allow it to harden for a few hours or overnight in the freezer.

Notes

If you don't have a citrus juicer squeeze the oranges over a sieve to catch the seeds.