Blood Orange Ice Cream with Raspberries

A velvety creamy blood orange ice cream studded with raspberries. This is the perfect winter treat to celebrate blood orange season! 

I love blood oranges. I can never buy blood oranges without feeling like I need to do something with them to celebrate my love for their ruby red deliciousness. Then it hit me: blood orange ice cream. Sure, it is the dead of winter and I am buried in two feet of snow, but blood oranges are a winter fruit and ice cream if a year-round treat. At least it is to me.

I think you will really enjoy this blood orange  ice cream because it has the smooth creaminess of the orange creamsicles from our youth with a tangy finish that you can only get from fresh ingredients.

During my experiment creating this blood orange ice cream, I realized that you can get the best color and flavor from the blood oranges with a lot of crimson on the outer. You get the best juice from citrus that is room temperature, but the rind releases the most flavorful oils with the citrus is cold, so I recommend refrigerating the oranges, zesting them then letting them sit out on the counter for about an hour. You can leave the zest in the refrigerator while you are waiting.

As for the raspberries, they aren’t in season. But you can buy then frozen and they are just as good as a ripe, in season berry because they are picked at the peak of their season when they are most ripe, then flash frozen so they stay in that delicious state until you are ready to use them.

To tell you the truth, I never made ice cream before this. I always thought you needed an ice cream maker I make ice cream. That is until I found this article from David Lebovitz. As soon as I found out that I did not need any such fancy technology, I was on a mission and have made about 5 different ice cream recipes thus far. If you are fortunate enough to have an ice cream maker, do you think the investment is worth it? If so, which models do you recommend?

Blood Orange Raspberry Ice Cream

 

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Ingredients

• 5 egg yolks
• 1½ cup sugar, divided
• pinch of salt
• 1½ cup milk
• 1½ cup heavy cream
• 6 blood oranges, zested and juiced
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup raspberries, lightly mashed

Instructions

1. Put eggs and ½ cup sugar in a small bowl and whisk until light in color.
2. In a medium pot, mix the milk, cream, ½ cup sugar and salt together and heat to a low rumble. Do not allow it to boil.
3. Slowly add ⅓ of the cream mixture to the egg yolks to increase the temperature of the eggs then add the eggs into the pot.
4. Lower the heat and cook the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to create a custard. Once the custard coats the back of the spoon, take off the heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer. Add the vanilla. Cool the custard in an ice bath or refrigerator.
5. While the custard is cooking, create your blood orange syrup by mixing the zest, blood orange juice and sugar in a small pot. Allow it so boil, stirring occasionally for about 5 - 7 minutes. Cool the syrup in the refrigerator with the custard.
6. Once both the syrup and custard are cool, mix together and add in the mashed raspberries. Stir to combine.
7. Freeze the ice cream in your ice cream maker as per the manufacturer instructions.
8. *If you do not have an ice cream maker, place the ice cream in a container and place in the freezer. Every 30 minutes for about 3 - 4 hours, mix the ice cream. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottoms to break up the ice crystals. Use am immersion blender if you have one available.

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