Violet Ice Cream

If you want to try a different flavour this summer, look no further than violets! I have many fond memories of picking violets in the early spring in Hungary as a child, but sadly, they just don't grow in my neck of the woods, and any of those you see around England don't have anything close to the same smell or flavour. 
So instead, I used kind of a cheat ingredient, and just buy the violet syrup. I searched high and low for a good, authentic tasting syrup last year, going through several fails, like this one which purported to be "100% natural" yet tasted anything but, and also the one from Monin, which a friend very kindly got from France for me, but this also didn't taste quite right, and I could never get to the bottom of whether it was made using actual violets or not. So I was so happy when I found this violet syrup from Eat French Food, which I can't wax lyrical enough about! It's sweet, crisp and flavourful, and it really does taste like it's come from the meadows of the Alps. It definitely reminds me of the violets from my childhood. I know it seems pricey, but it really is as good as it sounds. And at 250 ml per bottle, this syrup would last you many, many batches of ice cream, macarons or buttercream! The syrup is a very light rose in colour, so I add purple food colouring to anything that I want to look like it's been made with violets.
I know many proper chefs would say that you can't beat a real vanilla pod for this kind of situation, but I have been massively impressed with this vanilla extract, which is very thick and contains plenty of seeds.

For my ice cream recipes, I base most of them on this recipe from BBC Good Food page, as usual. I love the Good Food web page, all the recipes I've tried have been tested well and have never failed me so far! It is way better to use an ice cream machine - they are not expensive nowadays, and save you a lot of bother! You can get perfect ice cream every time - my only problem with them is usually not finding enough space in the freezer for the cooling canister! 

Ingredients:

264ml carton double cream

300ml full fat milk

115g golden caster sugar

20 ml violet syrup

1 vanilla pod or two teaspoons of highest quality vanilla extract

3 large free-range egg yolks
purple food colouring

have lots of ice cubes at the ready

White chocolate curls or crystallised violet petals for decoration

Method:

1. Put the canister from the machine into the freezer a day before you want to make the ice cream. Next day, pour the cream, milk and violet syrup into a medium heavy-based pan, then tip in half 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.
2. Heat the cream and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils – you’ll see a few bubbles at the edge. Take off the heat, stir in the food colouring and set aside for 30 minutes so the vanilla and other flavours can infuse.
3. 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, is 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.
4. Add the food colouring (if using), and return the pan to a low heat and cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, for 8-10 minutes, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. The heat will help the food colouring dissolve, but watch that it doesn’t boil – as soon as you see any bubbles about to burst to the surface, it should be thick enough, so take the pan off the heat so the mixture doesn’t curdle.
5. Pour the custard into a bowl, or, what I recommend is to pour it into a measuring jug, (like I did below, when I made some green tea ice cream), because this will help pouring the custard into the ice cream machine later. Then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to speed up the cooling process. Then cover the top with clingfilm, touching to top of the custard, to stop a skin forming, then place the jug in the fridge for 3-4 hours, or overnight, so it gets really cold.
   
6. Get the ice cream machine running, scoop out the vanilla pod pieces, then slowly pour in the cold custard. 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, cover with cling film, then a lid, and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours. (It will keep in the freezer for 3 months but don’t take it out, then refreeze.) Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving. Alternatively, if you want to pipe a swirl like in the top photo, place in a pre-prepared piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle.
7. To make it by hand: in step 1, heat the milk, vanilla, and half the sugar without the cream (the custard will be slightly thicker). At the start of step 6, whip the cream so it’s light and floppy, not too stiff, and fold it into the cold custard. Freeze for 3-4 hours, stirring once an hour until almost frozen, then freeze as above.
8. Sprinkle with white chocolate curls or violet petals to decorate!

Hope you give this fantastic, yet underrated ice cream a try - it's truly delicious!
PS: If you are interested in giving the green tea ice cream a try, replace the violet syrup with 20 ml more double cream, and sift in 18 g high quality japanese matcha powder prior to heating in step one. No need to add any food colouring!

Eva