Super creamy homemade olive oil ice cream with a sophisticated flavor profile, this dessert is sure to impress your guests.
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For Christmas last year, my mom gave me the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I finally got around to trying it a couple of weeks ago and it didn’t disappoint me. I’ve made ice cream before, but only the no-churn variety. Those come out well, but I was ready to branch out. For my first go with the ice cream attachment, I got the idea that I wanted to make olive oil ice cream. I don’t know if it’s the half Italian in me, but I love olive oil based desserts. Secondly, I thought lemon would compliment an olive oil base well. I set out to research recipes and found one that looked promising from NYT Cooking and adapted it slightly by churning lemon curd through the ice cream rather than using lemon zest and juice for the flavor.
My first order of business in preparing to make this ice cream was to buy a good, fruity extra virgin olive oil, as recommended in the Times’ recipe. I went to Eataly, a huge Italian grocery store with two locations in Manhattan. With some help from the staff, I purchased a bottle from the brand Muraglia. This one was described as “Medium Fruity” with a delicate and well-balanced flavor. I also bought some flaky sea salt imported from Cyprus to top the ice cream – as recommended by my inspiration recipe.
I should note that this recipe does take some planning. If you’re using the KitchenAid attachment (I can’t speak for other models) you will need to freeze the bowl apparatus for 15 or more hours. Additionally, the base of this ice cream requires cooking and chilling. I did this the night before I wanted to churn it. One more thing to note, the recipe recommended using nonreactive bowls and cookware. An article from the blog, The Kitchn, gives a great run down on this, but essentially for reference nonreactive includes stainless steel, ceramic, glass, and metal cookware with enamel coating.
Don’t let all this scare you. Yes, this recipe did take some patience and forethought to make, but it wasn’t really that hard. Also, it’s insanely delicious. Extremely creamy with just the right amount of sweet – the delicate olive oil flavor goes perfectly with the lemon curd. Top with some flaky sea salt and an extra drizzle of the olive oil – you will not regret taking the time to make this! The weekend I made it, my parents happened to stop by my apartment and they were raving about it. My brother even said it tasted “professional” and he is not one to give an easy compliment.
Homemade olive oil ice cream churned with lemon curd. Adapted from NYT Cooking Lemon-Olive Oil Ice Cream recipe. Yields about 1 quart.
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup fruity olive oil, I used Frantoio Muraglia Medium Fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil which I got in Eataly in downtown Manhattan
- 1/4 cup lemon curd, I used one from Trader Joe's, Bonne Maman also makes one
- Flaky sea salt, for serving
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Whisk egg yolks in a nonreactive medium bowl.
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In a medium nonreactive saucepan, combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt.
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Cook the mixture on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and small bubbles begin to form around the edge of the mixture.
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Use about 1 cup of the cream mixture to temper the egg yolks. To temper the eggs, slowly ladle the hot cream mixture little by little while whisking the eggs continuously. If you just dump the hot mixture into the eggs, they will cook, which is not what you want. Tempering is merely combining two liquids of different temperatures. My mixture became a bit frothy.
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Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan and whisk to combine.
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Cook the mixture on medium-low heat by stirring constantly until it thickens enough so that it can coat the back of a spoon. This took about 10 minutes for me.
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Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and into a bowl. Slowly add the olive oil to the mixture while whisking constantly.
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Chill the mixture in the refrigerator until it is completely cool. I chilled mine overnight.
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You will need an ice cream maker for this part. I used the Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Attachment for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. Follow the directions for whichever machine you are using. These directions are based on the KitchenAid attachment.
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Put the mixer on stir speed (level 1) and slowly add in the ice cream base. Let churn for about 15 minutes.
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Then, add in the lemon curd and churn for another 10-15 minutes. You'll come away with a creamy ice cream with a soft consistency. Feel free to serve this way; however, I transferred my ice cream to a freezer safe container and put in my freezer so it could develop a firmer texture. Note, this ice cream will tend to be on the softer side regardless.
Note that the times listed above don't include chill times. I chilled the base of my ice cream overnight. The base took about 30 minutes to prepare and the total churning time on my machine took about 30 minutes. Additionally, given that Eataly is limited to NYC and LA, to find similar ingredients such as the olive oil and salt I used you can go to a similar high quality grocery store or even find items on Amazon.
What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Have you ever tried and olive oil based dessert?
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Looks heavenly. Want a taste
It was so good! Hope you try it one day!
Sounds amazing! But I actually don’t have a Kitchen Aid…I use a Sunbeam!
Thank you so much! I’m sure you could adapt the steps for a sunbeam 🙂
This sounds fantastic Jenna! Can’t wait to try it! If I had to pick just one ice cream favorite it would be vanilla.
Thank you so much. I like vanilla too – you can’t go wrong with a classic!
Looks heavenly and refreshing 😍.
Thank you so much, I hope you try it sometime 🙂