Ice Cream Wednesday: Pear & Ginger Ice Cream

A few weeks back, three bloggers spent a happy evening with Gaggia learning about their coffee and ice cream machines. Following on from that, they loaned us an ice cream machine each. So, for a few weeks, I have a beautiful big Gaggia to play with, as does my chocolate blog friend, Dom.

Dom and I feel a keen duty to make as much ice cream as we possibly can so what better way than to hold an ice cream party?

And so #icecreamwednesday was born.

The advantage of ice cream makers with integral freezing units (rather than bowls or disks that you need to freeze 24-48 hours ahead) is that you can make ice cream after ice cream after ice cream, just giving the bowl a quick clean between each one.

On the night, 2 machines and 11 ice cream lovers gathered to make and eat as much ice cream as we could.

A couple of the recipes were planned in advance but most were made up on the spot, from a wide range of ingredients we randomly gathered and brought along.

Our full list for the night was impressive:

  • Chocolate and honey sorbet
  • Coffee, chocolate syrup, Kahlua and dark chocolate ice cream
  • Pear & Ginger ice cream
  • Chambord and fruits of the forest sorbet
  • Dried apricots with peach schnapps and Southern Comfort ice cream
  • Pistachio syrup, dark chocolate & salt ice cream
  • Candied bacon, toasted pecans, maple syrup, Southern Comfort and salt ice cream
  • Tarragon, lemon, lime and tequila ice cream
  • Cake and chocolate ice cream

Simon Kimber has kindly written up his recipe for the pear and ginger ice cream, below. Thanks, Simon, it was absolutely delicious!

I’ll be sharing more ice cream recipes over the coming weeks, including Chloe’s fantastic candied bacon one, above.

When the invitation to #icecreamwednesday arrived I immediately started thinking about what flavour to make and my mind went straight to pear and ginger. It’s a flavour combination I love and not one I’ve seen in ice cream form too often. Initially I planned on using only stem ginger and syrup, but when Kavey showed up with a jar of Chinese ginger and honey syrup used to make hot drinks, I couldn’t resist adding it and it worked perfectly. Don’t worry if you can’t buy it though, just use some of the syrup from your stem ginger, either way you’ll be fine.

Pear & Ginger Ice Cream

If you’re feeling a little adventurous this ice cream would go perfectly with a caramelised white chocolate sauce. Otherwise it would be great served with apple crumble or an apple pie.

Ingredients

  • ½ glass white wine (or 1 lemon, juiced)
  • 3 ripe pears , peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
  • 3 tsp finely chopped stem ginger
  • 2 tbsp ginger and honey syrup
  • 285 ml double cream
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 170 g caster sugar

Notes

If you don’t have ginger and honey syrup substitute syrup from the stem ginger jar.
You can substitute the cream, egg yolks and caster sugar for good quality, fresh, ready-made custard.

Instructions

  • Pour the wine (or lemon juice) into a small pan. For this recipe a sweet wine works really well, I used a Moscato from Barefoot wines. Then add the chopped pear, and the ginger syrup and mix together. 
  • Set the pan over a moderate heat and leave it to simmer (making sure to stir it occasionally) for 20 minutes or until the pear has really softened. Take off the heat and using a fork break up any remaining large chunks. Set aside to cool down. 
  • Next take your double cream, put in a (clean) pan and bring to the boil, before taking it off the heat. 
  • In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and creamy. Then slowly add the warm cream to the eggs and sugar. 
  • Put the cream, egg and sugar mix back into the pan over a low temperature and stir until it thickens into a custard (about 15-20 minutes). 
  • Strain the finished custard into the pan containing the pear and ginger syrup mixture, add in the chopped stem ginger and mix. Set aside and leave to cool down. 
  • Once cooled, pour into your cream machine and churn according to the instructions. For us, this took 30-40 minutes. 

Recipe adapted from Sybil Kapoor’s Pear Ice Cream.
Recipe and images by Simon Kimber.
Additional images by Kavey.

Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!
5 Comments to "Ice Cream Wednesday: Pear & Ginger Ice Cream"

  1. Louis

    Owning such a device is a danger to your health and that of everyone around you. The positive side is that you'll never be short of visitors.

    Pistachio!

    Reply
  2. Kavey

    Louis, yes it is, sooo tempting!
    Pistachio was amazing, and all down to the Monin pistachio syrup, such a wonderful thing. Chloe found it a couple of month back!

    Foodycat, I haven't got space either, so it's probably as well I don't get to keep it though I shall cry and cry when it's taken back!

    Dom, it totally was!

    Reply

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