Coffee Ice Cream

Summer is unthinkable without ice cream, which became part of Lithuania’s cuisine in the 18th century. They say that one of the most famous ice cream lovers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was Duchess Aleksandra Ogińska, the wife of Michał Kazimierz Ogiński. She even served ice cream to King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław August Poniatowski.

The ice cream was made in a wooden tub with a metal container that was cooled with ice mixed with salt to keep it cold longer. The work required a lot of strength – the cream, milk, sugar and additives had to be churned by hand for a long time until the ice cream solidified.

The ice cream flavours that Lithuanians enjoyed back then may even seem a bit exotic today – from traditional sour cherries, currants, strawberries, raspberries and sea buckthorn, to orange blossoms, hepatica, roses, pistachios, saffron, coffee and cloves. They even used to make ice cream cakes.

This information was shared by Rimvydas Laužikas.

You will need:

• 700 ml heavy cream
• 1 cup strong coffee
• 5 eggs
• 250 g sugar

Method:

1. Make the coffee, pour it into the heavy cream and stir.
2. Beat the sugar with the eggs.
3. Mix the sugar and eggs with the cream and coffee. Stir over low heat until thickened.
4. Strain through a sieve to remove lumps, then freeze.
5. Put into an ice cream maker and continue according to the instructions. Or you can make it the old-fashioned way by churning it with an ice cream paddle, constantly pulling it away from the walls of the bowl and not allowing ice crystals to form.