Ingredients
284ml carton double cream
300ml full fat milk
115g golden caster sugar
1 vanilla pod or good quality vanilla extract
3 large free-range egg yolks
Jar of Lemon Curd
Method
- Pour the cream and milk into a medium heavy-based pan, and add half of the sugar. Slit the vanilla pod down its length with a small sharp knife and scoop out as many of the tiny black seeds as you can into the cream mixture. Cut the pod into three and drop it into the pan. Alternatively, add 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or a cap of vanilla extract.
- Heat the cream and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils. It’s ready when you can see a few bubbles at the edge. Take off the heat and set aside for 30 minutes so the vanilla can infuse. Just let it cool a bit if you’re using vanilla bean paste.
- Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened. It should be paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about 125ml/4fl oz of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Reheat the cream until it just comes to the boil, take off the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture.
- Return the pan to a low heat and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. The custard needs to be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Watch that it doesn’t boil – it should be ready as soon as you see any bubbles about to burst to the surface. At this point, take the pan off the heat so the mixture doesn’t curdle.
- Pour the custard into a heatproof bowl, then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. Put the bowl of custard in the fridge for 3-4 hours, preferably overnight, so it gets really cold.
- Get the ice cream machine running (scooping out the vanilla pod pieces if you used pods), then stir in a tablespoon of lemon curd. Slowly pour in the cold custard into the machine. Leave it to churn for 10-30 minutes (depending on your machine). When it stops, it is probably too soft to eat, so spoon into a plastic container and stir in a few tablespoons of lemon curd. Mix it around, but leave some of it unmixed so that you can see it in the churned ice cream.
- Cover with cling film and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours.