Old-Fashioned Blood Orange Ice Cream

Late last week I saw that a shipment of blood oranges had come into the supermarket, I'd only had them once before and loved their flavor, so I decided to try and make something with them. Oranges in a pastry or dough just seemed a bit strange to me, oranges in ice cream, however, seemed like a fantastic idea. I don't have an ice cream maker, so I made this the old fashioned way in a plastic bag with epsom salt and ice. It came out amazingly well, the orange flavor goes so well with cream and the colors in the ice cream were just beautiful.

Ingredients:

Juice from 2 Blood Oranges with Pulp, about 2/3 Cup

2 Tablespoons Grated Blood Orange Rind

2 and 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract 

2 Cups Half & Half

1/2 Cup Sugar

3/4 Cup Epsom (Rock) Salt

2  One-Gallon Size 

Ziploc Bags

Ice Cubes

Fill one of the gallon ziploc bags half full with ice cubes and add the epsom salt, seal the bag and set aside. Place the half & half, sugar, blood orange juice, blood orange rind and vanilla in the other ziploc bag. Seal the bag and shake it for about 30 seconds to mix up all of the ingredients. Place the sealed bag with the blood orange mixture inside of the bag with the salt and ice cubes. Seal the outer bag as well. 

Move and shake the bag constantly, turning it over from the front and sides, until the ice cream mixture hardens and becomes heavy, about 6 or 7 minutes. Remove the ice cream from the plastic bag and place it in a plastic bowl. Place the plastic bowl in the freezer for one hour, then empty the ice cream into a blender and blend on high until the ice cream is smooth. Place the ice cream back into the plastic bowl and place it in the freezer for another hour.

Scoop out ice cream and serve with a cold glass of milk. Makes about 5 servings.