Rum and Raisin Ice Cream
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 2 nights soaking
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Makes 1 litre of ice cream
This recipe is best started 2 days before
- 1.5 cups/250g/8.8ozs large green or golden raisins
- 150ml/5flozs rum or Pedro Ximenez
- 500g/17.6 flozs thickened or pure cream, chilled
- 400g/14ozs sweetened condensed milk, chilled
- Pinch salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- Pedro Ximenez to serve
Step 1 - Pry apart the raisins and place them in a bowl. Pour over 2 cups of water from a just boiled kettle, cover with a plate and soak for 15 minutes. Drain the water and then soak them in rum or Pedro Ximenez for 2 nights in a shallow, covered bowl. Stir the raisins once or twice so that they all absorb the liquid. By then they should be very plump and soft - they should not be hard at all. You should only have less than 1 tablespoon of liquid left. Cool completely.
Step 2 - Whisk the cream on medium high speed until you get soft peaks. Then drizzle in the condensed milk and add the salt and vanilla and whisk until smooth and homogenous. There should be no condensed milk pooled at the bottom of the mixer bowl. Fold in the soaked raisins and up to 2 tablespoons of the liquid (supplement with more rum or Pedro Ximinez). Place in a 1 litre/2pint loaf tin and smooth over the top. Cover and freeze until set.
Step 3 - 10 minutes before you want to serve it , take the ice cream out of the freezer to let it ripen and come to temperature on the benchtop (unless it is very hot where you are, in which case ripen it for 20 minutes in the fridge). Scoop the ice cream into bowls or cups and drizzle some Pedro Ximenez (or rum) over the ice cream and serve.
Adding the PX really adds a wonderful depth of flavour to your rum and raisin ice cream. As I mentioned I bought an inexpensive one just for cooking but we also tried it with an expensive bottle of PX.
Recently Mr NQN has gotten to know my friend Carla's boyfriend Jay who also works in technology. When we get together it's always two guys talking tech while Carla and I talk food (she has a Meyer lemon paste business called If and When). Carla is from New York but has her lemon business in California and Jay is from Texas but Sydney is their base although they fly back back and forth between the US and Australia.
Jay is at university here doing a post grad degree and Mr NQN spent some time helping him with an assignment. Afterwards, Carla thoughtfully suggested that Jay buy Mr NQN a present so she asked me what he likes. Apart from wingfoiling purchases and random tech things I racked my brain to think of something that he would want. And then I remembered Mr NQN has a little collection of PX.
A few weeks later Jay sent a beautiful bottle of 2002 Toro Albala Don PX with a note that he received a very high score for his assignment and it was used as an example and shown to the class! We tried some of this Pedro Ximenez drizzled over the ice cream and it was absolutely divine and toasted to Jay!
So tell me Dear Reader, if someone had to buy you a gift, what would it be? Hvae you ever tried rum and raisin ice cream with Pedro Ximinez?