I’ve been experimenting with adding different flavours to our basic ice cream recipe. My current favourite is a very alcoholic rum and raisin, the perfect ice cream to share with neighbours because they can walk home. I’m not exaggerating, one batch I made had half a standard drink in every serve!
I bought some wonderful black rum at Chef’s Warehouse in Surry Hills – it’s 54% alcohol by volume, which I think makes it 110 proof. It worked very well with the Australian black raisins I found at the markets a few weeks ago.
Soak (marinate? macerate?) the raisins in the rum overnight (or longer) until they’re plump and swollen. I usually fill a small jar with raisins and rum and leave them on the shelf until I need them for a recipe. Or sometimes I just eat them neat – which is not a good idea too early in the day, as it impacts on my productivity.
Next, make some microwave custard. Allow this to cool in the fridge. Once cold, whisk in half a cup of cream (see vanilla ice cream recipe here), then add the raisins and their soaking liquid, and pour into the ice cream maker to freeze.
Scoop the softly set ice cream into plastic containers, label with an appropriate warning, then freeze until firm. Because of the alcohol, this mixture never freezes rock hard, making it just a little too easy to eat straight from the freezer!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 