strawberry rhubarb crumble ice cream

While at a dinner, a guest recounted a story about hiking near old mine shafts–the houses of the workers were now long gone, but rhubarb patches remained, still growing from over a hundred years ago, a clear testament to rhubarb’s tenacity.

But even rhubarb struggled in the front yard of my childhood home–alongside an apple tree that never managed to actually produce apples and a lilac bush that flowered once every several years. The yard, a burial ground for my goldfish and the few birds we found at the claws of our neighbours’ standoffishly beautiful and violent cat, was made of hard, grey and crumbly brick-like soil. Our rhubarb plant was a success if the plant could give us a few good stalks. The stalks were a deep red from root to leaf and – at least as far as we recall – more delicious than any rhubarb we’ve grown since. When we did have rhubarb we would mix it with strawberries and make pies and crumbles, though admittedly, most of the rhubarb in the pies was usually sourced from a family friends abundant rhubarb patch.

Rhubarb is something I’ve had the luck to take for granted. It’s the flavour of my childhood summers, and even winters when pies were made from excess rhubarb sliced and piled in plastic bags for the freezer.

I remember pies more vaguely as they came to progressively be replaced by crumbles. And while I lament the loss of pies, it may just be out of duty as an adorer of pastry. I’m not sure how much I actually miss pies when the focus is on the fruit and quick ease of a crumble gets you there more expeditiously and hence more frequently and with more solid fruit per serving.

When I was younger I loved to mix the juices from the pies or crumbles with whipped cream and call it “ice cream” for some entirely unfathomable reason (more accurately one could describe it as a very soupy strawberry rhubarb fool). I suppose that’s why a strawberry rhubarb crumble ice cream has been on my mind.

This ice cream just has all the components of a crumble thrown in. I realize that it lacks the temperature contrast of warm crumble with heavy cream or ice cream on top. But then when you want something different: something cool and refreshing heady with vanilla, swirls of fruit, and oaty crumb for texture, make sense it does.

strawberry rhubarb crumble ice cream

Servings: about 2 cups ice cream base
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ice cream base

300g whole milk (about 1 1/4 cups)
5 egg yolks
40g (scant 1/4 cup) granulated sugar (in the batch you see pictured, I substituted about 20g worth of brown sugar for granulated)
1/4 tsp tsp kosher salt
1/2 a vanilla bean
180g whipping cream (about 3/4 cup)

strawberry rhubarb swirl

120g chopped strawberries
80g chopped rhubarb
50g granulated sugar
good pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice

oat crumb

28g (2 tbsp) butter
25g (2 tbsp) brown sugar
24g (3 tbsp) flour
1/8 tsp kosher salt
35g (3 tbsp) rolled oats

For the ice cream base, place the milk, egg yolks, sugar and salt into a heatproof glass bowl. Split the half vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add to the milk. Add the pod as well. Whisk to combine.

Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Scraping the bowl constantly with a rubber spatula, cook the custard until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (or reaches 160F). Remove the vanilla pod and strain if there are any lumps. Transfer to a container, cover, let cool, and then place in the fridge until completely chilled.

For the strawberry rhubarb swirl, place the fruit, sugar, salt and lemon juice together in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the juices begin to be released from the fruit. Simmer a few minutes to soften the rhubarb, then use a potato masher or end of a spatula to crush the fruit. Bring to a simmer again and cook, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes more until thickened with a jammy shine and the weight has been reduced to about 150g. Transfer to a container, let cool, then chill completely in the fridge.

For the crumble, cream together all the ingredients in a small bowl. Scatter the crumble over a parchment lined pan (a small pan will do) and bake in the 350F oven for around 12 minutes or until light browned. Let cool, chop into smaller chunks if needed, then transfer to a container and chill in the freezer.

To make the ice cream, place a loaf tin for storing the ice cream in into the freezer to chill. Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream machine. Once churned, add the most of the crumb (save a little bit to sprinkle on top of the ice cream) and churn a few more times to mix into the ice cream.

Working quickly so the ice cream doesn’t melt, spread half of the ice cream into the loaf tin and top with dollops of half of the strawberry rhubarb swirl. Top with the remaining half of the ice cream and strawberry rhubarb swirl. Use a knife to swirl the ice cream a just few times. Scatter with a little bit of the reserved crumb and place in the freezer for at least a couple hours to freeze completely.

Before serving, transfer the ice cream to the fridge for 30-45 minutes to soften (or 10-15 minutes on the counter).