Rhubarb, who would have thought that this would make such tasty ice cream!
I don't know about you but my experience of Rhubarb growing up is probably typical of most. After having discussion with Fran (Mrs Ginge) this morning on a cold autumn Sunday morning, we came to the conclusion that as youngsters we found it very tart, a weird texture and I remember it having this weird metallic taste.
At school, well what can i say is it was definitely not the most popular pudding, stewed rhubarb and custard...... It was nearly as popular as Brussel Sprouts.
We are not sure why we decided that rhubarb ice cream was going to be on our menu, it must have come from us being gifted some rhubarb from Fran's mum.
Hazel & Anthony own a farm in Shropshire, where they have a very fruitful rhubarb plant. Hazel is very generous and we often come back with some tasty goods.
Making the rhubarb ice cream has re introduced us to this fruit and the possibilities of its flavour, we think we have made an ice cream that will tickle your tastebuds. To counteract the tartness of the rhubarb we do add quite a bit of sugar so this is definitely not a 'diet' ice cream.
Since introducing this ice cream we are often gifted rhubarb from my dad Colin, who grows it on is allotment and from some of our lovely customers, we even had a large amount gifted from a family friend in Abersoch. The different locations, soil types etc produce a slightly different taste to the rhubarb so they're maybe a slight difference in taste. We found that the lighter rhubarb is sweeter in flavour than the deeper red rhubarb.
The rhubarb is gently washed and chopped into small pieces and frozen, we have found that it cooks better from frozen and doesn’t breakdown as quickly when cooking so that the sugars (natural and added) can work their magic. This is then added to our ice cream made from fresh milk & Cream and potted into our tubs with a sprinkle of the rhubarb mixture to add that special pop of taste.
As we add no additives or colourings to our ice cream the final colour can also vary slightly.
We are hoping to head to Wakefield (Yorkshire) at some point in the future to visit the Rhubarb Festival. You never know we may add other flavours to our ever growing Ice Cream list….
Making The Most Of Milk
Ginge x