Rhubarb Ripple Ice Cream - Rhubarb Trilogy 2011 - Part II

Encouraged by David Lebovitz and his The Perfect Scoop, I have been making ice cream recently. I don’t love ice cream but I do have an ice cream maker which caused no small amount of post purchase depression. Consequently, I have fits and spurts of determination to use said machine.

Turning the pages and looking at perfectly scooped bowls of creamy indulgence, some beautifully swirled with bright fruit purées, I got to thinking about how uncommercial rhubarb is. Why is there no rhubarb ice cream next to the Black Raspberry Cheesecake and the Rum Raisin? I would stand up for the humble rhubarb and create the next ice cream sensation, Rhubarb Ripple.  

Instead of using the same recipe I have used for years for vanilla ice cream, I thought, since I was already reading it, I would use one from The Perfect Scoop. I followed the ingredient list perfectly and then forgot or didn’t bother to read the recipe instructions and carried on my way, happily ignoring the published directions and making it the way I would have made it anyhow. Regardless, it is perfect and delicious and not crazy sweet and the perfect foil for the rhubarb compote I was going to swirl through.

I would recommend, if you are really caught up in appearances, or taking pictures of your work for your blog, that while you split your vanilla bean, you watch what you are doing. Don’t watch your toddler scaling the kitchen cupboards or you will wind up with something like this.

Or, better yet, put down your knife and rescue your toddler from her tenuous toe hold on the edge of the drawer. In hindsight, you and your kitchen units will be happy you did.

Rhubarb Ripple Ice Cream (with some help from David Lebovitz and The Perfect Scoop)

Vanilla Ice Cream Base

1 cup (250 mL) whole milk

2 cups (500 mL) whipping cream

3/4 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

6 large egg yolks

Pinch of salt

Rhubarb Ripple

4 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) lemon juice

Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean and add to a large saucepan with the milk, cream and sugar. Gently bring to a boil. Immediately remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks and pinch of salt in a bowl and slowly pour about a third of the hot cream mixture into the yolks, whisking all the time. 

Slowly pour the yolk mixture back into the pan with the remaining cream whisking all the time.

Return to the stove and over a low heat, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. You can test by running a finger through the mixture on the back of the spoon. It should hold the path left by your finger.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and chill.

Put the rhubarb, sugar and lemon juice in another medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick enough to hold a track in the bottom of the pan when you run a spoon through it. As the mixture thickens, you will need to stir it more frequently to prevent burning. It will be thick and syrupy and will measure just shy of 1 1/2 cups when it is properly cooked down.

Pour into a bowl and chill.

Freeze the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can try it the way I explained here.

Put a large metal mixing bowl in the freezer to chill while the ice cream is freezing.

When the ice cream is frozen, transfer it to chilled bowl and quickly fold/swirl/gently stir about 1 cup of the rhubarb mixture in. You don’t want to fully incorporate it it, you want to keep the rhubarb in swirl or ripples. You also want to do this as quickly as possible to prevent as much melting as you can.

Immediately transfer to the freezer to set up again.

Commercial, it may not be but delicious, there is no question.

Breaking my Rules

My nephew turns seven on Monday. His passions are origami and Star Wars. I wanted to make him a cake but I didn’t want to make this. I don’t have the skills, space, staff or patience to make this. And, although this is pretty sweet, I was sure it wasn’t going to pass the taste test.

So, I broke one of my, until this point, strictest rules. I put inedible things on and around the cake. 113 of them to be exact. Paper cranes. And, I am glad I did. This was definitely the most fun I have had making a cake. 

Disclaimer: Because I wasn’t planning on posting this, I just have to because I loved it so much, the following are guidelines only. I didn’t make any notes.

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream and Raspberry Jam

The cake is my Go-To cake. I made a triple recipe (you will either need a very large mixer and a very large mixing bowl or make two 1-1/2 batches) and wound up with a 10-inch, an 8-inch and a 6-inch cake, all about 3 inches high. The cooking time needs to be increased a lot for the 10 and the 8 and just a little for the 6. It took about 70 minutes for the larger two and about 40 for the smaller one.

The icing ratio is 1 cup unsalted butter to 3-1/2 cups icing sugar plus 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla bean) and 1 tablespoon milk. I used 4 cups of butter and 14 cups of icing sugar but I was making a pretty big cake. An 8-inch, two layer cake would probably be fine with a 1 or 2 cup batch.

I trimmed the top of the cakes to make sure they were flat and then I sliced each of them into three layers and spread a layer of good quality raspberry jam and buttercream between each. I then crumb-coated the cake. 

Crumb coating is covering the cake with a thin layer of icing to keep the crumbs from getting into the ‘good’ layer.

I left the cakes in the fridge overnight at this point and iced them in the morning before attaching the paper cranes with royal icing.

Don't tell my daughters, but sometimes good things happen when you break the rules. And, it's fun too.