One of the idiosyncrasies of living in Nassau is that shipments of goods arrive on the island only periodically and are delivered to the shops at exactly the same time. Suddenly every store seems to have an unending source of 3-ply napkins, or Activia yoghurt, or dishwasher tablets. If you arrive just at the right moment, these gluts can lull you into a false sense of security, believing that your favourite brand of pasta will always be stocked and in plentiful supply. But unfortunately savvier Nassauvians than you know that one must pounce on this short-lived bounty, buy all one can and store it at home because there is no telling when or if it will show up again. So the glut disappears as fast as it magically appeared, and less clued-up shoppers (me) are left to wonder when the logistics gods will deign to supply Edy’s Vanilla Ice-cream again.
The ongoing uncertainty of ice-cream stocks led us to smuggle in an ice-cream maker in our suitcase on our last trip off-island, so at least we can make our own in extremis. (That was the theory – in practice there’s usually a tub of Edy’s as well as some of my own creation on the go at any one time.) We definitely prefer volume over density when it comes to ice-creams, trying to use less cream and egg than the normal “gourmet” recipes (so we can scarf larger bowlfuls of course). This meringue ice-cream has just a quarter cream to three-quarters milk but the extra meringue flavour imparts a lovely richness. It’s not quite the version from Turin that Mr. Reasonable remembers, but it certainly got an authentic Italian thumbs up.
A couple of tips: Start the night before if you’re making meringues from scratch. I use icing sugar for the ice-cream as it dissolves instantly – with caster sugar you may need to heat the milk and cream slightly, dissolve the sugar and then chill which adds a bit of extra work. And add the crumbled meringues just a few seconds before switching off the ice-cream machine otherwise they get too broken up to be noticeable.
This post is also being entered in Savor the Thyme, Scotty Snacks and Tangled Noodle‘s Ice Cream Social Challenge (as if I needed another excuse to experiment with ice-cream). You can see the rules of engagement here.
Meringue ice-cream
Smooth but light gelato with meringues
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 80g icing sugar
- 60g meringues, blizted to powder in a food processor, or in a freezer bag with a rolling pin, depending on one’s passive vs active agression levels (about 5 x 3inch round meringues, recipe below)
- 2 meringues in big chunks
Instructions
- Mix the cream, milk and icing sugar together until well amalgamated. (If you only have caster sugar, you may need to heat the mixture slightly to get it to dissolve, and then chill it.)
- Stir in the powdered meringues and pour sloppily into the ice-cream maker. It should be firm after 30 mins.
- Right at the end, drop in the chunked meringues and mix for just a few seconds, otherwise the bits will get too broken up to notice.
- Freeze for another couple of hours to firm everything up. Then scarf, potentially with fresh raspberries.
Preparation time: 40 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Meal type: dessert
Culinary tradition: Italian
Microformatting by hRecipe.
The recipe: Meringues
In brief: Classic meringues, the Delia way
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 220g caster sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150° C and prepare two baking trays lined with parchment or greaseproof.
- Beat the egg whites with an electric whisk (the alternative makes me feel faint just thinking about it) until, as Delia says, they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down.
- Keep whisking and slowly incorporate all the sugar a tablespoon at a time.
- Drop healthy heaped dessert-spoon size blobs on the trays about 3 inches apart – this amount of egg whites produced 21 meringues.
- Turn the oven down to 140 as they go in and bake for 1 hour, switching the trays’ positions (up/down, back/front) after 30 minutes.
- Turn the oven off and leave the meringues to dry until the oven is cold, around 4 hours or just overnight. Store in a dry, airtight plastic container.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 6
Meal type: dessert
Culinary tradition: French
Microformatting by hRecipe.
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