Ice Cream Day

When I was at primary school, there used to be (and still is, for all I know) an ice cream van that parked outside the gates every day at hometime.

In order to maintain some control over our clamours for ice cream, my parents implemented Friday as Ice Cream Day.
Every Friday, come rain or shine, we would queue up at the van (or, when he wasn't there, I'm guessing in the winter, at the local Poundstretcher), happily deciding what delight we would opt for that week.
Then we'd all walk home, happily munching on oysters, bat and balls (I can't find any pictures of these, but it was basically a scoop of ice cream perched on the end of a carefully selected ice lolly) and, very occasionally, if my parents were feeling particularly permissive, screwballs (usually prohibited, due to the bubblegum hiding at the bottom).

I'm obviously older now, and arguably wiser, but the concept of Friday as ice cream day is pretty firmly embedded into my psyche - I feel very naughty (like I'm on holiday) if I have an ice cream on a non-Friday-day, and still slightly deprived if I don't get one at the end of the week (which is a sadly frequent occurrence nowadays). Some things just stay with you forever, I guess.

Anyway, to honour ice cream day and to join in with all the fun of Kavey's Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream, I made this - rhubarb crumble and custard ice cream.

Now, I know that LOTS of people have made similar ice creams, so this isn't very original, but I had rhubarb to use (and I love it) and husband is very keen on scrunchy bits in ice cream (we did a very successful cranachan ice cream for Burns Night), so, coupled with the custardy theme, it seemed like Fate.

First I roasted some lovely pink forced rhubarb (my friends and followers will know that I have eaten a LOT of this over the last month or so) in the oven with a sprinkling of demerara sugar.

Then I made some vanilla custard.

I (slowly) boiled 500ml milk (more Cravendale - getting there slowly) with 80g golden caster sugar and a split vanilla pod.

And whisked up 6 egg yolks with 45g caster sugar until it was properly fluffy.

I added the boiled milk to the fluffy eggs and whisked in until properly mixed, then stuck it back into the saucepan and heated it until nice and thick (without boiling).

I cooled the custard and rhubarb overnight in the fridge.

In order to get some scrunch, I made a kind of granola - I toasted oats in the oven with some honey, demerara sugar and a wee dribble of vegetable oil. Here it is in a tub, where it waited overnight for the other bits to chill.

The following day, having frozen the bowl of my Kenwood Chef ice cream making attachment for 48 hours or so, I chucked the custard in to churn for about 15 minutes.

When it was almost done, I added the chilled rhubarb (I kept it chunky - I like chunks) and churned again very briefly for a ripple effect.

I chucked a little bit of the granola in and mixed it up, and then spread the rest over the top and stuck it all back in the freezer for a bit to harden up.

Husband was a little bit wary - he thinks that he doesn't like rhubarb, but, in fact, he really loved the ice cream - it was nicely fruity and tart and the scrunchies stayed surprisingly crisp in the ice cream.
I also really quite like the fact that there's no cream in it (actually - it was even semi skimmed milk) - it makes for a less claggy custard and hence ice cream - not what you want always, but nice here.

A success, I think. Long live ice cream day and Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream... I promise to be more imaginative next time!