Monday, April 21, 2008

David Lebovitz's Prune & Armagnac Ice Cream



David Lebovitz, everybody's favourite ice-cream (and chocolate sauerkraut cake) guru wrote about humble prunes in Los Angeles Times last week (you can follow the link here). We like prunes in our house - juicy Californian prunes make an excellent nibble - and are somewhat amused by the fact that Californian Prune producers had to rebrand prunes as 'dried plums' few years ago. David's Prune and Armagnac Ice Cream sounded very appealing, so this was the first recipe we tried. I didn't use Armagnac cognac, but an acceptable local favourite, a 9-year old Georgian Gremi Brandy (that's Georgia in the Caucasus mountains, and not in the Southeastern US).

A very, very likeable ice cream. No custard to make, just soak the prunes in cognac/brandy, blitz with sour cream, milk and some sugar and churn. How easy is that??

We've been eating ours plain until now, but I can see that it'd be an excellent accompanion to an intensely dark chocolate cake - perhaps Tarte au Chocolat? In any case, it's not too sweet (I deducted a spoonful of sugar from the original recipe), and it tastes somehow more grown-up (not sure if it's the brandy or the prunes). A keeper, for sure.

(Ploomi-konjakijäätis)

Other prune aka dried plum recipes at Nami-nami:
Dried Plum and Curd Cheese Dessert
Braised Red Cabbage with Prunes
A Simple Prune Cake

Other ice cream and sorbet recipes at Nami-nami:
Nigella Lawson's No-Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream
Sea-Buckthorn Sorbet
Orange 'Fanta' Sorbet
Gooseberry Sorbet
Heston Blumenthal's Jersey milk ice cream
Hibiscus & Strawberry Sorbet
A Quartet of Frozen Desserts: Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream, Coconut Sorbet, Watermelon Sorbet, Vanilla Ice Cream

6 comments:

Jeanne said...

Mmmm, one of my favourite combinations! We visited friends in Gascony last November and had Agen prunes with our cheese after dinner, and then Armagnac - it was magical. This sounds like a fantastic ice cream (as if anything David devises could be anything but fantastic!). And I'm still in love with those glass bowls of yours...

jasmine said...

This looks delicious and sounds so easy to make. Time to break out the ice cream maker...

j

Antonio Tahhan said...

the flavor combination sounds fantastic!

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

I'm so going to be making this ice cream when summer comes around!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I may have to breakdown and get his book. This one sounds very good. Isn't that silly about the prune/plum!

ChichaJo said...

I am not going to even start on how much I need an ice cream maker...

Pille that looks and sounds amazing! I don't know why prunes get such a bad rep...I like them! I think they are much yummier than raisins even :)