Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

This is sharp, very lemony and most refreshing, truly an ice cream for summer.

We have found that the shop-bought meringues actually work better than home-made ones for this as they retain their crunchiness – which does make the whole thing easier to make! Please note: the quantity of this ice cream is too much for a standard ice cream maker.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Watch how to easily zest and juice citrus fruits in our video. Just click here to play .

This recipe is from Delia's Summer Collection. Serves 8-10 – makes 2½ pints (1.5 litres)

Method

First of all make the lemon syrup: in a bowl mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice.

Then in a small saucepan dissolve the sugar with the remaining lemon juice over a low heat (5-6 minutes), add the zest, bring up to simmering point and cook for 5 minutes. Pour this over the cornflour mixture, return it all to the pan and, still keeping the heat low, cook for 2 more minutes, stirring, until thickened. Then cool and leave on one side till required.

Now make the custard base for the ice cream. Place the cream in a saucepan and heat gently. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar together, then, when the cream reaches simmering point, pour it over the other ingredients, still whisking, and return the whole lot to the saucepan and bring back to a bare simmer, continuing to whisk. Pour the thickened custard into a bowl, cover with clingfilm placed directly on the surface of the custard and leave on one side until cold.

When the mixture is cold, combine it with the yoghurt, then pour this into the freezer box, cover and freeze for 2 hours or until the mixture is starting to freeze. After that use an electric hand whisk to whisk again, while it is still in the box. Re-freeze, then after a couple of hours repeat the whisking, this time adding the lemon syrup. Finally, lightly and evenly, fold in the meringue pieces, put the lid back on and freeze till needed. It will take a further 6-8 hours to freeze completely.

Ingredients

For the ice cream:
1 rounded teaspoon cornflour
4 meringue nests, broken into coarse chunks

Equipment

You will also need a 3½ pint (2 litre) polythene freezer box, 8 x 8 inches x 2½ inches deep (20 x 20 cm x 6 cm deep).