Chocolate Raspberry and Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

I thought I would continue the ice cream theme from my previous post and talk about a couple of other flavours that I have been indulging in. The first is an old favourite that I make on the merest of excuses - lemon meringue ice cream. The second is chocolate raspberry, but more on that later.

I think I've mentioned here before my strange non-love of lemon meringue pie. I love all the individual components but put them all together and somehow I go all....meh. It's a totally different story with this ice cream version. I love the sharp cool tang of the lemon and the crunchy sweetness of the meringue.

The recipe is from Delia Smith - one of my absolute favourite English cookbook authors. In my view she is unsurpassed when it comes to puddings and desserts (see for exampe here).

Delia suggests using shop bought meringues (which are harder and therefore less likely to dissolve) and actually incorporating them into the ice cream. I prefer to make my own and serve them alongside. Delia also has an excellent recipe for meringues which I use. It all works beautifully because it allows you to use up egg whites left over from the ice cream.



I serve this in a number of ways depending on the occasion and my mood. Sometimes I just serve a scoop on top of a nest meringue like so.



On very informal occasions (like at a barbecue for example) I serve a scoop encrusted with meringue in a cone like so.



When I really want to go all out I make a lemon meringue ice cream eton mess. Basically, I fill a glass with spoonfuls of the lemon ice cream, broken meringue, whipped cream and strawberries. Like so. I swear this is so delicious it should almost be illegal.


I seem to recall mentioning somewhere above a chocolate raspberry ice cream. Well, this is also a seriously delicious treat. I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry. Somehow the sharpish tang of raspberry is the perfect offset to chocolate.

For this recipe I turned to Mr Ice Cream Reliable David Lebovitz and The Perfect Scoop. If I had one minor minor criticism it is that there was a slight gritty texture to this ice cream. I presume from using cocoa for the chocolate flavour. Most other chocolate ice creams I have tried have used melted chocolate. It's a very small thing because the flavour is just fantastic.

So there you have it. Two very different ice cream experiences. Both delicious and both lots of fun. That's what ice cream is all about - at least for me.


Chocolate-Raspberry Ice Cream
(adapted from The Perfect Scoop)

1 1/2 cup thick cream
5 tbspn dutch processed cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups raspberries

Whisk together the cream, cocoa and sugar. Heat until it come to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the raspberries. Leave to steep for about ten minutes and then puree. Strain to remove the raspberry seeds.

Chill the mixture thoroughly and then freeze in an ice cream maker.