The Churning Bush

When I first started creating this recipe I really wanted to include apple chunks in the ice cream itself. I knew straight away that having chunks anywhere near the size of the sort of pieces I’d put in a crumble would just be infeasible, but I found in my first batch that even cutting them pretty fine and giving them plenty of sugar to stop them freezing hard just… doesn’t work. Maybe if I used some vodka, then I could stop them freezing unpleasantly hard, but of the recipes I looked at for similar concepts either fell into two categories: ignoring the textural issues that you get from freezing apples or Gelato Messina, which just says eat it the day you make it.

This then puts me in a predicament, the apple in apple crumble is playing a key textural role – the crux of the dessert is the contrast between the soft-cooked apple and the crunch of the crumble. The flavour of the dessert is heavily influenced by the spices, but if I was to both exclude the chopped apple and heavily spice the custard I’d really just be getting a spiced ice cream. I could add the apple as an addition upon serving, but then I’m just making an apple crumble and ice cream recipe.

So what I went with was an ice cream that was light on the spices, then mixed through pre-cooked crumble topping. Basically cookies and cream, but with crumble topping instead of biscuits and apple mixed into the custard. It’s really refreshing, and the contrast between the crunchy crumble mix-in and the light apple ice cream is quite pleasant. I’d like to experiment with a more cinnamon-y variant in the future, but for now I really like my little creation here.

Vegan Apple Crumble Ice Cream

Ingredients

Compote
200g	Apples (Typically 2 decent sized apples)
20g	Sucrose (White sugar)
20mls (approx)	Water
Crumble
50g	Brown Sugar
50g	Refined coconut oil
50g	Flour
50g	Oats
50g	Walnuts (optional)
Ice Cream
550 grams	3% Fat oat milk
Powders
120 grams	Sucrose (White sugar)
40 grams	Dextrose (D-glucose)
5 grams	Stabiliser, such as xanthan gum
Fats
80 grams	Refined coconut oil
20 grams	Neutral oil

Directions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160 °C / 320 °F
2. Peel and cut the apples into approximately 2cm wide chunks. Combine with the 20g of sucrose and 20mls of water, add to a pot and start simmering on a low heat for 20 minutes, or until soft and not too much liquid is left in the pot. Add more water if it all cooks off before the apple is soft.
3. Combine all the crumble ingredients in a bowl and massage together with your fingertips, then spread thin over a baking sheet. Bake for about 5-10 minutes, until golden brown but not burning. Will cook from the outside in, so give it a bit of a stir halfway through. Once cooked, take it out of the oven to cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge, You’ll need the crumble at fridge-temperature before you add it to the ice cream.
4. Combine all the powders in a bowl and whisk together until they are evenly distributed. Heat the milk and the fats in a double boiler over medium / medium high heat. While the milk heats, slowly incorporate the powders, whisking constantly.
5. When the milk-powder mixture hits about 80°C (175°F), take off the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes. Then, if the apple is cooked, incorporate it into the custard and stick blend until perfectly homogenous.
6. Place the ice cream mixture in the fridge once cool enough and leave it there until cooled to 4°C (40°F) or overnight. Sometimes I like to move the mixture to the freezer for the last half hour to get it as cool as possible and help with the churning process, but don’t leave it long enough in the freezer that it starts to solidify.
7. Pour the custard into your churner and leave it running until fully churned.  Being ‘fully churned’ is hard to judge without experience, but your ice cream should have increased somewhat in volume and look a bit denser than soft serve. The time needed will vary dramatically depending on your churner. Mix through 2/3^rds of the crumble as you take the churned ice cream out of your machine, layering them into the ice cream. Place the final 1/3^rd on top of the ice cream.
8. You can serve your ice cream as soft serve now if you like, or you can put it in the freezer to harden to your desired level. If it’s been in the freezer for more than 12 hours or so, you might need to give the ice cream a bit of time to soften at room temperature before you serve it.