Midsummer Plum Gelato with Cardamom and Lemon
A month or so into midsummer, we stuck our nose into a bucketful of freshly harvested plums and Inhaled deeply. Dark musky scents of heavily ripe fruit suggested an urgency, a readiness of wanting to be eaten. It had a slight tang to it, as if you were smelling the tart plum skin against the sugary sweet flesh. We brought several buckets home, hoping to fulfill the plums’ request, and ate many right out on the back patio, the plums not making it into the kitchen. Juice turned our 4 year old into a plum face, and we had to call it quits as our sticky fingers turned on the hose and cleaned up as best we could in the heat of the sun.
A day later, once we had recovered and the bottom layer of plums had started to soften with unfulfilled disappointment, we cleaned up the rest and took some time to think about what to do. There are certainly many ways to use fresh plums in tarts, pies, and galettes, and we made some for us and some for friends. But when the best fruit has been used and the rest still stares at you with expectation, thoughts turn to purees and jams and preserves. It’s always a lot of effort to break out the canning operation, and given a recent heat wave we started wondering about ice cream. What types of chilled plum desserts could we make with puree?
This recipe is inspired by a hopped apricot Gelato recipe from the Salt & Straw cookbook, a fun tome of ice creams, gelati, and sorbets that has some great inspiration for experimentation. We pureed and strained the remaining plums, created our gelato base, and decided on a flavor combination of cardamom seeds and lemon zest from a suggestion in the Flavor Bible. Perhaps you have a lemon tree out back if you live where we do, or perhaps you have a neighbor that does? And perhaps you may have used all your spring lemons, but thankfully we had a small handful of Meyers left on the tree, and so it seemed a good dignity to use them. Steeping the cardamom seeds for a while in the heavy cream brought out the best flavor; in a second attempt, a hurried steep in hot water didn’t do as well. Adding the lemon zest quickly to the mixture traps the lemon oils in the fat of the cream and creates a lovely, floral flavor. We chilled everything, fired up the ice cream maker, shoved it back in the freezer after it was blended, and of course had some on the spot as well. It was a delightful accolade to the essence of plum; as sweet and plumlike as the ripened flesh, hints of tart tannins from the skin, with soft smells of lemon and an exotic dance of cardamom on your tongue. What a tribute to midsummer! Never fear to experiment away with fruit, and don’t be constrained by feeling like you always have to make jam.
Ice creams and gelati take time to chill the mixes, blend in an ice cream maker, and then harden more in the freezer. Making this a day before eating is best, although we’ve previously rushed this at noon and had a very soft but still tasty gelato for dinner.
Gelato base
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
Stir the xanthan gum into the sugar. Heat gently the water, then whisk in the corn syrup and sugar mix. Being careful not to boil, heat and whisk frequently until the sugar is dissolved (perhaps 5 minutes). Pour into a pint-size mason jar and cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
Plum puree
a bucket of very ripe plums, not too firm, but not exceedingly mushy
probably a dozen plums or so for one recipe
Chop plums in half for pitting, over a giant bowl to collect all the juice that’s going to stream down your hands. If some plums are very firm, set them aside for eating, as they won’t have the sugars developed in the flesh yet. If plums are very mushy, there’s a chance they’ll have started fermenting, which isn’t bad for you but may create overripe flavors. Blend the plums and collected juices heartily in a drink blender. Strain through a coarse strainer by using a spatula to stir and scrape and push the thick puree out the bottom. Measure out two cups into a pint-size mason jar and refrigerate. Save the rest for more gelato or other puree uses.
Heavy cream mix
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cardamom seeds
Heat heavy cream gently without boiling. Add cardamom seeds and steep over very low heat for a while, say 15 minutes. If the cream starts to boil, you can just turn off the heat and let coast. Pour into a half-size mason jar and cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
Blending and freezing
zest of 2 lemons, preferably Meyer
light corn syrup to taste
Once the mixtures are very cold, strain the cardamom seeds out of the cream and add the lemon zest to the cream. Mix everything well somehow; we prefer pouring each container into half-gallon mason jar, closing the lid, and shaking. The mixture will be a bit goopy because of the xanthan gum. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it run until the slurry looks like a frozen smoothie and isn’t changing much any more. Scoop quickly into a freezer container and shove in the freezer. Freeze until you’re ready to eat it, which could be an hour for a melty smoothie, or at least 6 hours for a firm gelato.
