While classic French ice cream has a crème Anglaise egg custard base (see video below), quick and easy Philadelphia ice cream is egg-free. Sometimes called American ice cream or New York ice cream, Philly-style ice cream is simply flavoured cream churned into a frozen treat. Some people claim Philadelphia-style ice cream is lighter than custard-based ice cream, but I think it’s just different. When done right, both are creamy and delicious, but there’s no doubt Philadelphia ice cream is quicker. I often make it when I have syrup leftover from poaching fruit like quinces or pears. Especially with quinces, the syrup can absorb a lot of fruit flavour and it seems a shame to throw it out once the fruit’s been eaten. Without the eggs to stabilize and enrich it, Philadelphia-style ice cream risks being a bit icy and thin-tasting. That’s where my favourite ice cream making trick comes in, adding invert sugar to help prevent the mixture crystalizing as it freezes. I often use glucose syrup, but heating sucrose (common sugar) creates an invert sugar too, so the syrup that fruit has been poached in is an invert sugar. Philadelphia-style ice cream’s connection with the city of the same name is tenuous. Some say it’s merely an attempt at reflected glory, as the former American capital was once known for high quality foods. Others say desserts of cream, sugar and eggs beaten over ice until they had the consistency of soft-serve, were served at early presidential dinners there. If you don’t have any fruit poaching syrup use a flavoured syrup such as Crawley’s. Regardless of the flavouring, serve your Philadelphia ice cream with a glass of luscious dessert wine like De Iuliis late-picked semillon from the Hunter Valley, and add a little splash of it over the ice cream too!
Serves 4
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