Pistachio Ice Cream

This recipe is from Delia's Complete How to Cook.

This is so many people's favourite ice cream – pale green and fragrant, with lovely bits of frozen pistachio to bite into.

Lovely on its own or served with Pistachio Wafers (see below), the ice cream is also delicious with Greek Orange and Honey Syrup Cake (see below). If you make a smaller quantity, not for a party, remember to remove the ice cream from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

The Delia Onilne Cookery School: Although this recipe uses custard powder, if you'd like to see how easy it is to make yourself, take a look at our video on this page showing how to make homemade custard.

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Method

First of all, whip the double cream until it reaches the 'floppy' stage but isn't too thick, then pop it into the fridge to chill.

Then take 4 oz (110 g) of the pistachio nuts, place them in a food processor with the sugar and process until very fine. After that, roughly chop the remaining nuts. Next, pour the single cream into a medium-sized saucepan, along with the finely ground pistachios, and gently heat to just below boiling point.

While that is happening, in a large bowl beat together the egg yolks and custard powder until smooth. Now pour the hot cream on to this mixture, whisking as you go. After that, return the pistachio custard to the pan and continue to whisk it over a medium heat until it has thickened and just come up to boiling point again. (Ignore any curdled appearance, which may come about if you don't keep whisking and have the heat too high; the custard powder will stabilise it, provided you beat it off the heat, and poured into a bowl, it will become quite smooth again.) You can also watch how to make custard in our Cookery School Video, just click the image to play.

Now pour the custard into a bowl and place it in a larger bowl of chilled water, stirring it now and then until cold. Meanwhile, fold the double cream into the ice cream mixture. Now place half the mixture into the ice-cream maker, add half the remaining nuts and freeze-churn for about 30 minutes, until it has the consistency of soft-scoop ice cream. Then transfer it to one of the plastic boxes and place in the freezer. Repeat with the other half of the mixture.

Ingredients

8 oz (225 g) unsalted, shelled pistachio nuts

1 pint (570 ml ) double cream

1 pint (570 ml) single cream

4 oz (110 g) golden caster sugar

8 large egg yolks

1½ tablespoons custard powder

Equipment

You will also need an ice-cream maker (pre-frozen according to the manufacturer's instructions); and two lidded plastic boxes measuring 6 x 8 x 3 inches (15 x 20 x 7.5 cm).