Red Currant Ice Cream

You would be correct in thinking that “making red currant ice cream” has not been atop my to-do list for an extended period of time. In fact, I am not exaggerating when I say that it had never even crossed my mind to make currant ice cream. However, the currant bushes in my garden were literally drooping under the weight of the berries and I think it is safe to say that I probably harvested (and froze) several pounds. And, big surprise, all that harvesting and freezing got me thinking about just how those currants might make their way into some sweet treats.
So, as I stood in my kitchen, de-stemming and freezing the fruits of my (okay, my husband’s) labor, I started making a mental list of all of the baked goods I could make with my currant bounty: currant galette, currant muffins, currant shortbread bars (recipe coming soon, FYI), and currant buckle, among others. Ice cream didn’t even make the cut. And it wasn’t until I shared my list with the guy who grew the currants, and he started waxing poetic about some currant ice cream that he’d once had, that it occurred to me that ice cream might be just the thing to make with the copious amount of frozen berries I’d just de-stemmed.
Now, the custard base of my currant ice cream proved to be a no-brainer: I just used the one from my strawberry ice cream. but research was necessary in order to determine how best to incorporate the currants in said custard. I looked to the Jewels of NY first, but the currants were folded into the ice cream whole, and I worried that they’d get icy. Then I looked at this raspberry palmiers, red currant and raspberry ice cream sandwich recipe, but the currants were combined with raspberries (and now that I was on board with making currant ice cream, I was feeling like a purist about the whole thing) and the currant/raspberry mixture was swirled through the ice cream in ribbons — I just wasn’t feeling ribbons. And then, right then and there, my currant ice cream search kind of stalled out. I think it is safe to say that the internet is not teeming with currant ice cream recipes
However, in a stroke of genius, I thought of cranberry ice cream, and although a cranberry is very different from a currant, they both share an extremely tart profile. My search changed directions and as I looked at cranberry ice cream recipes, like this New York Times recipe and one from Serious Eats, I realized that the ticket to my ice cream was going to be cooking down currants and sugar, pureeing said sugar-y currants in a blender, passing the puree through a sieve, and then adding ALL of the puree to the custard. And the results? Just about the creamiest, dreamiest, pretty-in-pink, slightly tart, yet slightly sweet concoction around. A perfect addition to a slice of currant buckle or galette, and the perfect vehicle for much of, but not all of, my currant booty (ie: more red currant recipes coming soon).
[yumprint-recipe id=’58’]