This roast plum ice cream recipe came about as a result of two variables. I had a box of the most delicious in-season plums from Terra Madre in Elgin and I wanted to make them into something. I also had a lot of cream left over from another recipe development project so it all just made sense.
Plums are only nice raw when they are at a certain peak of ripeness. When they are soft but not overly so, and deliciously sweet. Otherwise, they tend to be tart and need to be cooked with sugar to transform them.
The very best thing you can EVER make with a ripe plum is this famous purple plum torte. It is perfection and also happens to be one of the easiest cakes you can bake and something I will do at least once a year during the plum season.
Taking inspiration from the cinnamon and sugar there, I decided to roast my plums with brown sugar and cinnamon and add bay leaves. I did it the first time for the ice cream and then a second time for the shoot (later) so then turned that batch into jam. I’ve included a recipe below for my quick batch roast plum jam too.
I’m mad about plums so here are a few of my favourite recipes:
Easy plum tarte tatin
Easy roasted plum Eton mess with almonds
The best easy plum muffins
Easy plum and frangipane galette
How to make quick roast plum jam with a hint of bay, cinnamon, and orange liqueur:
Recipe:
- 800gms – 1kg plums
- 4 – 5 fresh bay leaves
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar (more or less)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp white sugar
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice (optional)
- 1 good glug of orange liqueur like Grand Marnier or Cointreau- about 40ml (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
To make the jam, follow the instructions above to roast the plums. You can go up to a kilogram of plums here.
Heat a very large and wide nonstick frying pan to high. Follow the instructions and video in this post for my 8-minute strawberry jam if necessary.
Add the plum sauce (it does not need to cool down after roasting it), the sugar, and lemon juice and cook over high heat stirring constantly. About 3 minutes in add the orange liqueur and vanilla extract and continue to let it rapidly bubble for a further 3 – 4 minutes. The jam will start thickening up and setting against the sides of the pan. take it off the heat and allow it to cool in the pan. It will thicken up further. If you are using a very wide pan and high heat you will make this jam in 6 minutes from start to finish.
Decant it into a sterilized jar and either seal it to properly preserve it or store it in the fridge for a few months.
A few of my other favourite jam recipes:
10-minute peach jam with muscadel
*Cooks notes – First, you roast the plums, allow them to cool then blend them in a food processor until quite smooth. Then you cool this until you are ready to make the ice cream. I did this the day before.
This recipe makes a rather large batch of ice cream because I added so much plum sauce to the mix, so depending on your ice cream maker size, you will probably need to divide it into 2 batches. You could also follow this method of making it without an ice cream machine. I used all cream instead of cream and milk to carry the volume of fruit and still keep it super creamy.
Recipe – makes just more than a litre
Roast plum ice cream with cinnamon & bay
Print Recipe
Ingredients
Roast plums (make in advance)
- 800 gms fresh ripe plums that are still firm – cut in half
- 4 – 5 fresh bay leaves
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar more or less
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Ice cream:
- 2 large free-range eggs
- ¾ cup of sugar
- 3 cups 750ml whipping cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the plum sauce:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the bay leaves in the bottom of a small baking tray and add ¼ cup of water. Position the plums fairly snugly in the tray, cut side facing up. You can leave the pips in at this stage as they are tricky to take out.
Sprinkle over the sugar and cinnamon and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Remove the pips from the fruit and the bay leaves and decant the fruit and juices from the tray into a food processor.
Pulse until it is fairly smooth. It's ok if there are a few chunky bits. Cool this for a few hours in the fridge or overnight.
To make the ice cream, beat the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer for about 3 – 4 minutes until they are pale and fluffy and the sugar has dissolved into the egg. Add the cream and mix on medium speed until it is at the soft peak stage. About 3 – 4 more minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and the plum sauce – reserving about ½ a cup for the end. You should have about 2 cups and a bit of sauce in total. If not, it doesn’t matter.
Mix briefly until the plum sauce is incorporated. Process this in batches in your ice cream machine until frozen.
If you are storing your ice cream in a metal container (advisable and a loaf tin works well here) pre-freeze this before. Decant your ice cream into the tin and drop some of the sauce over the surface.
If you are doing 2 batches, use half of the remaining sauce. Swirl this into the ice cream and then free the container immediately. Repeat with the remaining ice cream and churn etc.
You can put that on top of the first batch of ice cream and add the remaining sauce to swirl.
Freeze until firm and ready to eat.
Author: Sam Linsell
