Rhubarb crumble ice cream

Rhubarb crumble ice cream is an inspired idea – tart rhubarb, silky sweet cream, nuggets of cakey crumble. It’s not the most visually seductive of ice creams, at least when made with the chunky green stalks of rhubarb from my garden patch. None of that delicate pink forced rhubarb for us.

Which just ups the wow factor when you take that first bite. I wish I could take the credit, but the recipe is  from Delia’s Summer Collection. I’m definitely plan to play around with an apple crumble version soon – cinnamon-flavoured cream and maybe a little splash of Calvados…?

Rhubarb crumble ice cream
(makes 2 pints)

• 450g rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 Tb lemon juice
• 75g plain flour
• 50g butter
• 50g brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 450ml double cream

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Toss the rhubarb pieces with the caster sugar and lemon juice.
3. Spread in a large, shallow baking dish, and bake for thirty minutes, or until completely tender. Cool, purée and leave in the fridge to chill.
4. While the rhubarb is cooking, make the crumble. In a mixing bowl, work the plain flour, butter, brown sugar and ginger into a dough using your hands.
5. Scatter pea-sized lumps of dough onto a baking sheet and bake for ten minutes. Allow to cool, then break into pea-sized lumps again if the crumble has stuck together.
6. Stir the cream into the chilled rhubarb purée. Churn in an ice cream maker until almost firm.
7. Spoon the ice cream into a tupperware container and stir through the crumble pieces. Freeze for another couple of hours, or until firm enough to serve.

Tags: Delia Smith, ice cream, rhubarb, vegetarian