Almond and lemon ripple ice cream

Recipe Daniela Bowker and Catherine Currie
Photography Libby Bulloff Model Qais Fulton Hair and make up Lindsey Watkins

Ingredients

Lemon curd

4 lemons, rind and juice
4 eggs
110g/4oz butter
450g/1lb sugar

Ice cream

500 ml (17 US fluid oz, 18 UK fluid oz) milk
500 ml (17 US fluid oz, 18 UK fluid oz) whipping cream
200 g or 7oz blanched almonds
8 egg yolks
250 g or 8 1/2 oz caster sugar

Method

Lemon curd

Zest and juice the lemons. Place zest, juice, butter and beaten eggs into a basin on top of a saucepan of simmering water. Stir continually with a wooden spoon until thick. The curd should coat the back of the spoon.

Decant into warm sterile jars; allow to cool before sealing and refrigerating. Lemon curd can be made well before the ice cream; it will keep for months in the refrigerator.

Ice cream

Put 150g (5oz) of almonds with the milk in a blender and blend until the almonds are very fine. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a low heat.

Place all the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until pale yellow and frothy. Once the milk mixture has reached a simmer, strain it through muslin or a fine sieve, pressing out all the liquid into the bowl with yolk mixture and whisk thoroughly.

Pour into a clean saucepan and place it over a low heat, stirring constantly until it has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Keep stirring so it doesn’t split or go lumpy. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in a clean cool bowl.

Once cool, stir in the cream and pour into a large and shallow freezer-proof container. Add the rest of the almonds, coarsely chopped. Freeze for an hour.

Remove from the freezer and stir with a fork to break up any ice crystals. Then return to the freezer and repeat an hour later. By this time, the ice cream should be semi-set.

Dollop the lemon curd on top of the half-set ice cream, and swirl into a marble pattern using a skewer. Add as much lemon curd as you want — more curd means a more lemony taste.

Return to freezer to set for at least four hours. Remove and allow to soften before serving.