We travel through orange country a couple of times a week. Porterville, Terra Bella, and Lindsay produce a whole lot of oranges. Lindsay is the location of a pesticide drift study released last week. Before giving up conventional oranges in light of the apparent pesticide drift, Frederick and I made some orange ice cream.
We were inspired by a small shop on Highway 65 that sells many things oranges, including orange ice cream. I have passed the shop for years but decided that orange ice cream was one of those pleasures I best not experience, especially given the convenient location of this little shop.
One evening after preschool, I decided it was time to indulge. We drove by to discover that its hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"Oh no, Frederick, we will never eat orange ice cream. We usually drive through Porterville either before 11 a.m. or after 4 p.m. That's too bad."
"Mama, we can make our own ice cream."
Frederick is a problem solver when he's ice cream motivated.
Last week I promised him that we would make some at home. In a rush I picked up some orange juice concentrate, but real orange juice from tree ripened fruit would be so tasty.
It is very difficult to mess up homemade ice cream. Milk, cream, and sugar taste pretty darned good in any combination. Typically, recipes call for much more cream than milk and a big pile of sugar. I didn't have much cream, so I punted on that and I cut the sugar to about 1/3 of typical recipes.
(We have an electric ice cream maker from Rival that makes ¾ of a gallon and requires the ice and rock salt.)
1 pint cream
6 cups milk
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 can orange concentrate
2 tbs vanilla
A dash of salt
4 egg yolks
I warmed a cup of milk and the sugar on the stove to dissolve the sugar. If you want to cook your egg yolks, you can add them at this stage too. Stir constantly until all is dissolved (or cooked if that's your aim). If you want to keep the yolks raw, scramble them up and slowly add the warmed milk mixture to them. Add all other ingredients. Stir well. Cool in the refrigerator or freezer for about 30 minutes. (You want it cool enough that it doesn't melt all your ice quickly.) Let your ice cream maker do its thing.
Make sure you eat dinner in advance so that you don't eat the entire container of ice cream.
