Pink Ice Cream For A Royal Wedding

Tomorrow is the Royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. It will be a day of great celebration for London and the rest of the UK and I'm sure many others around the world will look in on the tv coverage of what will doubtless be a wonderful ceremony.

The world has had all too little of good news in recent weeks so it will be an opportunity for people to smile and enjoy the romance of the day.

I don't know what the 'royal chefs' have in mind for the wedding breakfast menu, but in case they're stuck for ideas, here's one .... PINK ICE CREAM.

Pink is generally associated with romance and I can't think of a more romantic idea than a prince falling in love and marrying the girl of his dreams! The recipe I have in mind is for rhubarb sorbet. With the first rhubarb of the season just flourishing, late April is the perfect time to make your own fresh, homemade rhubarb sorbet.

Here are a few of my previous ice cream blog posts relating to rhubarb and ice cream.

It's All Rhubarb!

As you know, I recently wrote about how the rhubarb season is now upon us. I love rhubarb - the sound of the word alone is wonderful!

I have made rhubarb crumble, rhubarb sorbet and now rhubarb and custard ice cream with the rhubarb growing in my garden. The trouble is it grows so fast I can't keep up with it and I've run out of space in the freezer! Never mind, I suppose you can have too much of a good thing ....

Here, however, I can share with you some of the photographs of my rhubarb and what I have made using it.

Photo 1

Freshly picked rhubarb photographed within seconds of being picked from my garden. I went on to use this in my rhubarb sorbet recipe.

Photo 2

Rhubarb crumble.

I served this with homemade custard.
A delicious hot dessert.

Photo 3

Rhubarb and custard ice cream.
My husband had a quizzical look on his face when I said I was going to make this but soon changed his expression when he tasted the end product.

He even asked for a second helping!

Rhubarb Ice Cream

This week saw the first flourish of rhubarb in our garden. Knowing it's at its best when young, thin and very pink, I uprooted a crop and decided to get 'stewing'.

Stewed rhubarb is delicious with custard or yoghurt but I fancied trying out a sorbet recipe. The result was a delicious and refreshing, pink ice cream. Here is a picture I took as I served it up for my husband (he likes kiwi fruit hence the presentation!). His vote? He loved it. Success!

If you fancy trying some go to my new rhubarb sorbet recipe page.

Rhubarb Popsicles - A Special Ice Cream Treat

As my regular readers will know, I enjoy growing my own fruit and am particularly proud of my annual crop of rhubarb. John, the owner of my local garden nursery, has even said it's the finest he's ever seen - and he's seen a lot of rhubarb over the years!

Rhubarb is one of those foods that people seem to love or hate, nothing in between. Personally I love it and the fact that it's actually good for you is a bonus. Rich in iron and high in fibre, rhubarb makes for a great dessert whether stewed or in pies and crumbles. Served hot with fresh vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or custard. Delicious!

But what about a cold rhubarb dessert? Well, there's rhubarb yogurt which is nice but what about even colder than that? Rhubarb and custard popsicles! Simple but unusual and on hot days this summer it could prove a real winner for the family.

All you need is your freezer, a set of popsicle molds, some popsicle sticks, about 1 1/2 lbs of fresh rhubarb chopped into small pieces (obviously stalks only!), 3-4 tablespoons of sugar (according to taste), 1/2 pint of heavy cream and 1lb of vanilla custard (ready made or homemade, cooled). Cook the rhubarb, water and sugar together in a pan for about 5 minutes then put to one side to cool thoroughly. After whipping the cream into peaks, stir the custard into it well. Take the popiscle molds and fill each one first with a spoonful of cooled, cooked rhubarb followed by a spoonful of cream/custard mix. Keep the process going until each mold is filled. Place the popsicle sticks into the mixture/molds and then put in your freezer for about 5 hours.

For those of you who thought rhubarb and custard was only a hot dish for a winter's evening, think again!