Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

I first ate pistachio ice cream on the island of Capri, overlooking the Bay of Naples in Italy. It was absolutely delicious, and has been my favourite flavour of ice cream ever since.

Pistachio ice cream is quite difficult to get hold of in the UK. Magnum brought out a limited edition pistachio version a few years ago that was great. I bought 2 or 3 boxes of them every time I went to the supermarket, much to my husband’s amusement. But since that line ended, I’ve not seen pistachio ice cream in any of my local supermarkets. So every time we go aboard on holiday, we are on the lookout for it. Most ice cream parlours sell pistachio ice cream on the continent, but sometimes it’s bright, luminous green. This, in my experience, means that they’ve used artificial colours and flavours, which isn’t as nice. If you see pistachio ice cream that is a dull brown/green colour, that’s the one to go for! That’ll, more than likely, be freshly made from real pistachio paste and will taste divine. I usually get 2 scoops – one of pistachio, one of chocolate, as the combination of the 2 is a match made in heaven.

Last year my husband bought me an ice cream maker for Christmas, and I’m sure you can guess which was one of the first recipes I tried! It took me a couple of attempts to get a good flavour, combining different recipes I found on the internet, and using pistachio kernels, rather than forking out on pastes. This is the recipe I settled on, and I’m really proud of it. It’ll never be quite as good as that first ever taste in the Italian sunshine, but it’s good enough for a back garden in Britain!

Ready in 3hrs (10mins prep, 10mins cook, 2 hrs chill, 40mins in ice cream machine)

Ingredients:

• 75g of granulated sugar
• 110mls of milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
• 225mls of double cream
• Half a teaspoon of almond extract
• 100g of pistachios, shelled and blitzed up in a food processor
• 50g of good quality dark chocolate

Method:

• Put an empty jug in the freezer to cool.
• Put the sugar, milk, double cream and almond extract into a pan, on the hob over a medium heat.
• As the pan is heating up, whisk the mixture until all the sugar is dissolved, then add the pistachios.

• Whisk every so often until the mixture starts to boil (bubbles will form around the edge of the pan) then take it off the heat.
• Take your cold jug out of the freezer, and pour the ice cream mixture into it.
• Cover and cool in the fridge for 2hrs. Put the bucket from your ice cream machine in the fridge also.

• Once the mixture has cooled, take it out of the fridge and fix your now cold ice cream bucket into the machine, attach the paddle and pour the mixture in.

• Set the machine off for 30mins.
• Chop up the dark chocolate, making it as chunky or fine as you like.

• Add the chocolate to the ice cream, give it a rough mix, and set the machine off for another 10mins. (Every machine is different, keep an eye on it, and alter the timings accordingly.)

• Pour the mixture into an airtight container and store in the freezer (obviously). Then scoop and enjoy.

If you liked this recipe, you may also like:

Rhubarb and Orange Crumble with a Pistachio Crumb

Flourless Almond Biscuits

Choconut Treats