Pink Grapefruit and Basil Ice Cream with Citrus Twists

I can’t believe how quickly June is flying by!  We’ve finally gotten honest to goodness summer weather, so we are revelling in the season.

Long flowy and flowery dresses, patios filled with all the pretty people, and the traffic! Yes.  Toronto in the summertime means even MORE traffic on our already congested streets.  With all the festivals, sports events, street fairs, marathons and bike races, and extra tourists, us locals actually kind of dread going into the downtown core.  It takes twice as long to get anywhere, and forget finding a decent parking spot.  But I guess I just described NYC at any moment in time, so I’ll shut my mouth now!

Cooking takes on a totally different feel as well.  On the really hot days, I really lose all ambition.  Then it’s just some form of grilled meat and a salad.  Of course, the produce right now is amazing!  Just the other day I came home from the farmers market with fresh peas, breakfast radishes, string beans, mizuna, mustard greens, scapes and asparagus.  So for the most part, I find Jim with his head in the fridge, just snacking on all the fresh veg!

It’s the perfect time for ice cream.  And I love it when I can find a fresh take on a recipe.  This one is just that.  Not only is it a fresh flavour combo, but even the method has a slight twist to it.  At least for me.  I was so happy to find this recipe in ‘How to Eat a Peach’ by Diana Henry.  Pink Grapefruit and Basil.  What a totally fresh and summery flavour!  And with all the basil at the markets (and in our gardens) right now, it just seemed like the perfect time to make it.

I love how Diana has us take the grapefruit zest and pound it with sugar in a mortar and pestle.   This gets added to warmed milk, along with shredded basil leaves.  It infuses for a few hours.  She then has us strain the milk and add it to beaten egg yolks.  I won’t lie, I did remove the leaves, but after I had strained the milk, I added a bit of the strained zest back in.  I just love the extra texture and grapefruit oomph it would give.

Once everything is heated again and turned into a custard, it gets cooled down.  While it is cooling, whip up cream to soft peaks.  This gets folded into the cooled custard.  At this point fresh grapefruit juice also gets added in.  Since I had squeezed the grapefruit on just a table top glass juicer (you know the old fashioned, traditional kind) there were bits of pulp trapped in the ‘teeth’ of the juicer.  So naturally I added all the bits of pulp I could to the juice, instead of straining it out.  I wanted it for flecks of colour, and texture.  This gets added to the custard mixture as well.  At this point I put everything in the fridge to cool completely.  And then it all went into the machine to do its work.

Diana suggests serving this ice cream with simple, plain cookies.  Well, I never have these kinds of cookies in the house!  Of course, a simple shortbread or sugar cookie would fit the bill.  But we really don’t eat cookies like that.  So what could I serve with this ice cream?  I decided to let the ice cream inspire me.  I would create a cookie just for this occasion.  I liked the idea of basil in the cookie.  Of course I could do a basil infused shortbread.  But I just didn’t want to go there.  Was there an easier way?  I let my mind wander down all sorts of weird boulevards and lanes, and then it hit me.  Puff Pastry.  Good ole store bought puff pastry.  There is always some in the freezer.  I could create a twist of some sort.  A sweet take on a cheese straw.

So I decided that instead of coating the pastry in cheese and herbs, I would use sugar, lemon and lime zest, and basil.  I started by covering the counter in a layer of sugar.  I laid out the sheet of puff pastry over it, and gently rolled over it, to push the sugar into the pastry.  Then I sprinkled some more sugar as well as some of the zest and chopped basil on top of the pastry.  A quick roll to push it into the pastry, and then I folded it in half. I covered the new top in a final layer of sugar, zest and basil and rolled it into a rough 8 x 10″ sheet.  This I then cut into 10 strips, so that the 8″ made the length of the twists.  These got twisted and placed on a parchment line baking sheet.  Into the oven for 15-20 minutes till golden.   When cooled enough, they got transferred to a cooling rack.

Being puff pastry, they are already tempting!  Crunchy, puffy, golden.  Then citrus zest and sugar gave them a lovely crisp coating.  These cookies are perfect with the ice cream.  The crunch and brightness of the cookie doesn’t compete at all with the ice cream.  Rather, it compliments it perfectly.  I hope Diana would approve of the cookie that her ice cream inspired!

These cookies whip up so easily. Why not make a batch, switching up the flavours?  Try orange and cinnamon instead of the basil and lime.  Or how about some cardamom and finely ground pistachios?  These would be great with tea or coffee!

For another awesome citrus based ice cream, you’ll just have to check out my Lemon Curd Poppyseed Ice Cream!

Love Jen

5 from 2 votes

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Pink Grapefruit and Basil Ice Cream with Citrus Twists

A fresh summery ice cream that marries bright pink grapefruit with the faint sweetness of basil is already a joy to make up.  Add a lemon lime and basil puff pastry twist, and you have the perfect crunch and contrast to accompany this dreamy summer dessert!

Course Dessert

Prep Time 3 hours

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 25 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

Ice Cream

• finely grated zest and juice from one large pink grapefruit
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 35 basil leaves
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 superfine sugar
• 2/3 cup whipping cream
• 1 to 2 tbsp lemon juice

Citrus Twists

• 1 sheet of puff pastry thawed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• zest from 1 lemon and 2 limes
• 2 tsp finely chopped basil leaves

Instructions

Ice Cream

1. Put the grapefruit zest and granulated sugar into a mortar and pound with the pestle.
2. Heat the milk with the pounded zest mixture until it reaches boiling point. Remove from the heat and coarsely tear the and add the basil leaves. Cover and set aside to infuse for a couple of hours.
3. Using a hand held electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the superfine sugar until pale and thick.
4. Strain the flavoured milk into a glass measuring cup, using the back of the spoon to press out all the flavour from the basil leaves and the grapefruit zest. (I did add some of this pressed zest into the strained mixture)
5. Stir this into the beaten egg mixture and put it into a clean heavy bottom pot.
6. Over low heat, stirring all the time, heat the custard until it thickens slightly. It needs to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, so that you can run a finger across it and it leaves a channel that doesn't come back together. Be really careful, as the eggs will scramble if it gets too hot.
7. Immediately pour this into a cool bowl (set the bowl into a larger bowl filled with cold water and ice cubes) Let the custard stand in this till it reaches room temperature, stirring occasionally as it cools.
8. While this is cooling, whip the cream into soft peaks, being careful not to overbeat it. Fold in the completely cooled custard, and then stir in the grapefruit juice that you had strained at the beginning (I use some of the grapefruit pulp in it as well, for texture and colour flecks)
9. Add 1 tbsp of the lemon juice. Taste, it should enhance the grapefruit flavour, not overwhelm it. Add another if necessary. This will depend on the grapefruit you are using. Some are more delicate that others. Depending on the grapefruit, the colour may also be affected, some grapefruits are much more coral, while others are a truly pale pink.
10. Here's a trick: if you find that your custard is too pale and you really want it to look more pink, why not take a one or two teaspoons of pomegranate molasses and mix it thoroughly with the lemon juice before adding the lemon to the mixture! It is tart, and that little bit won't really alter the flavour. But the pink will definitely be enhanced!
11. At this point I chilled the entire mixture in a bowl covered with cling film in the fridge for a couple of hours. Diana says it can go directly into the machine. I like it to be really cold before it hits the cold bowl of my machine. See Notes below for alternative method for churning.
12. Follow your machine's directions (mine took about 20 minutes to churn up) Transfer to a prepared container and put into the freezer to set completely.
13. When ready to serve, remove from the freezer about 10 minutes early to soften it for easy serving.

Citrus Twists

1. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Spread out 1/4 of the sugar over your counter roughly the same size as the thawed puff pastry sheet.

3. Lay the sheet over the sugar. 

4. On top, sprinkle about 2 tbsp of sugar, along with half of the lemon and lime zest, and half of the chopped basil, spreading it out evenly over everything.

5. Roll this out gently, just to push the sugar and citrus zest into the dough. This will keep if from falling off when baking.

6. Fold in half. You want to be able to roll this final folded sheet into an 8 x 10" sheet, so fold accordingly.

7. Sprinkle the new top with a bit more sugar (I just used all the bits of sugar that were scatter on the counter around the pastry (it should make up about another tbsp or two) Sprinkle the final zest and basil over everything as well.

8. One final roll to get it to the correct dimensions. So now you have a sheet about 8" high, by 10" wide. Cut this sheet into 10 1inch strips.

9. Picking up one strip at a time, transfer it to the sheet, twisting it several time before laying it down on the parchment. If the strips want to open up, just push the ends down lightly.
10. Place the twists about 1inch apart, or as wide apart as possible for your baking sheet.

11. Bake on the middle rack until golden brown, the sugar starting to caramelize in spots.  This should take anywhere from 20 minutes or so.  Just watch- they should have puffed and firmed up, become crisp and just golden.  They will still be soft when ready to come out, but they will continue to firm up.  Start checking at the 15 minute mark.

12. Take the baking sheet out and let the twists rest till cooled down enough to touch. Transfer to a cooling rack where they will continue to firm up a bit.
13. Best eaten the day they are made, but these can be reheated in a toaster oven for a few minutes at 300F.