The old fashioned of ice-creams.
Invented with the sole purpose of accompanying one ginger + porter cake.

Base custard: based on David Lebovitz’s vanilla ice-cream.
The rest: improvised.

ALERT: You’ll need to make the ice-cream custard base the day before you want to have the ice-cream ready, and the bowl/canister of your ice-cream maker needs to be fully frozen (which can take up to 24 hours) before you can turn the custard into ice-cream. The best solution: just store the ice-cream canister in the freezer when you’re not using it.

Gather:
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup caster sugar

1 cup whole milk (skim won’t work; unhomogenised Jersey milk is… incredible)
2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest of 1 large orange (grated)
1/2 tsp ground clove (or a little more if you’re feeling brave)

2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream
2 tbsp spiced rum (like Sailor Jerry or Kraken)

Then:

To make the custard base:

1. If it isn’t already there, put your ice-cream machine bowl in the freezer!
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla — stirring constantly — until it’s just about to boil.
3. Add the orange zest and clove, then turn off the heat and leave to cool while you…
4. Separate the egg yolks and put the yolks in a medium-sized bowl with the caster sugar. (Keep the whites for a meringue or something.)
5. Whisk the yolks and the sugar together, until well combined.
6. One serving-spoonful at a time, add the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks, whisking as you go. I can’t emphasis this enough: Don’t be too hasty. If you add too much of the hot liquid all at once, you’ll end up with sweet scrambled eggs. Yuck.
7. Once you’ve added all the milk to the yolks, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and over a medium to low heat, stir constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
8. Pour the custard into a large metal or glass mixing bowl, add the cream and rum, and stir til combined.
9. Cover in cling wrap and store in a cold fridge for several hours (overnight is best).

To churn the ice-cream:

1. Take the chilled custard out of the fridge and turn on the ice-cream machine.
2. Slowly pour the custard to the ice-cream machine and churn until it’s at soft-serve consistency — depending on your machine and how cold it was (and how hot it is in your kitchen) this could take anything from 15–40 minutes. (I wish I could be more specific!)
   (How we churn ice-cream in Sydney in Summer. It’s all about insulation.)
   …
3. Once you’ve stopped the churn, work quickly! Use a large serving spoon to transfer the ice-cream into one or two freezer-suitable containers (you’ll have about 1.5 litres).
4. Quickly put the finished product in the freezer and let it set for a few hours.
5. Serve with the ginger + porter cake and sink into a warm, hazy Christmassy stupor. Trust me, it’s all worth it.

Notes:

Don’t cut back on the egg yolks or use skim milk. If you use skim/low-fat ANYTHING in ice-cream, it will just turn out icy. And icy ice-cream is the saddest thing. Ice-cream needs sugar and/or fat and/or alcohol to keep it from freezing solid. This one has all three, so the texture is pretty amazing.