Olive Oil Ice Cream

It may not sound like an appetizing ice cream flavor, but the much loved olive oil ice cream has plenty going for it. I’ll also go over WHY this flavor works, and how to make olive oil ice cream in a way that doesn’t feel…oily. If you are one of the many who didn’t even know olive oil was used in ice cream then you are in for a delightful treat!

Many people just see olive oil as something to cook with or to make salad dressings. But have you ever tried an olive oil that altered your entire perception of the ingredient? The first time I went to the island of Corfu in Greece I had the opportunity to try what many consider one of the best olive oils in the world. And from that singular trip I began to think of olive oil as something to savor rather than simply ‘use’.

Yet when we think of ice cream, the common flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry seem to pop first in the mind. But thankfully it seems we are in an ice cream renaissance with gourmet shops popping up all over the world introducing new, and sometimes wacky flavor combinations.

What Is The Best Olive Oil To Use For Olive Oil Ice Cream?

You’d probably like me to say that the best olive oil to use is the one you have on you. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. The best olive oil to use for olive oil ice cream is very likely the best quality, cold pressed, extra virgin, single origin monovarietal oil you can find. Why? Because these olive oils tend to have the best flavor – and that’s what you want when using them in ice cream.

I suggest using an olive oil that you enjoy the taste of by itself. I love using Greek olive oils of the lianelia varietal which are mainly grown in Corfu and other Ionian islands, but I do understand that is extremely niche. In this recipe I used an olive oil from Aristeon in Zakynthos that has been infused with bitter orange (more on this later).

What You’ll Need

As with all of my ice cream recipes on Scoops of Delight, you need an ice cream machine. The exact style and brand does not matter too much but you do want one that is decent quality. I personally use the Smeg ice cream maker. The only issue with it is that you need to already have a Smeg stand mixer – which can be quite pricey. While there are plenty of recipes for no-churn ice creams, I often find a properly churned ice cream magnitudes better.

Some other things you will need for this homemade ice cream recipe are:

• Mixing Bowls
• Whisk
• Steel Pans (I personally find steel the best for making ice cream, but you can use any as long as you are careful about the temperature.
• Rubber Spatula
• Sealable Container (The best thing to use to store homemade ice cream is plastic in my opinion. You want something that is more flat than tall as it provides more surface area to quickly freeze in a home freezer).
• Kitchen Scale (optional, but recommended as almost all of my recipes use metric as it is more precise than imperial for most home cooks).

How To Make The Best Olive Oil Ice Cream At Home

After choosing the best olive oil you can find, the rest of the steps are fairly straightforward. In fact, the actual ice cream making part of the recipe is your basic plain French custard. The one unique thing I do that I think sets my olive oil ice cream apart is either using or making an infused oil.

Olive Oil Ice Cream Ingredients

300 ml Heavy Cream

200 ml Milk (full fat)

150 grams Sugar

4 Egg Yolks

1/2 tsp Salt

60 ml Bitter Orange Infused Olive Oil

Bitter Orange Infused Olive Oil

500 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 Bitter Oranges

While it may seem sacrilegious to alter your specifically chosen premium olive oil, trust me when I say it works. Citrus and olive oil are a wonderful match, and this step couldn’t be easier. For this recipe I suggest using a bitter orange like a Seville orange, sour orange, or marmalade orange (they’re all the same species but have different names depending on location). You can also use a bergamot orange if you can get your hands on them which have an amazing floral note.

Peel the oranges with a veggie peeler so you just get the outer layer. Make sure to avoid the pith (white part) as it can impart an unpleasant flavor. Then simply drop them in the olive oil and let infuse for at least 24 hours.

To make the bitter orange infused olive oil, peel the oranges with a peeler and express the shavings into a jar of the olive oil. Then toss in the peel and let sit for 24 hours. DO NOT try to speed this step up by heating the oil. Heating olive oil will destroy much of the taste, and goes against the reason to use such a quality oil in the first place.

The first step in making delicious olive oil ice cream at home is to make the base. This step is so easy. Just whisk together the milk, sugar, egg yolks, and salt in a bowl.

Move that mix to a pan and place on medium heat. Whisk constantly until you get a thickened, glossy base. This is just a French custard that gets chilled and churned. This style of ice cream is my go-to for it’s rich taste and velvety texture no matter the added flavor.

Pour the French custard through a fine mesh sieve to guarantee there are no bits of cooked egg. If you stirred constantly in the previous step, you shouldn’t need to do this. But just to be sure I like to strain anyways.

Finally whisk in the heavy cream until fully homogenized. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill completely.

The next step is super simple. Just churn the ice cream according to your machine’s instructions. In the last minute or two of churning slowly trickle in the olive oil.

Place the freshly churned olive oil ice cream in a sealable plastic container. Press a sheet of plastic wrap so very little air touches the surface of the ice cream. Then pop the tub in the freezer.

You can honestly eat this delicious ice cream without any garnishes. However for the photo I decided to get a little crazy with it and you know what…it worked. Just drizzle over some of that delicious olive oil before serving and enjoy!

Why Olive Oil Ice Cream Works

Most ice cream ratios follow a fairly similar recipe. In fact, some of my most popular recipes like wild cherry or tonka bean ice cream use the exact same ratios even though one is fruit based and one is seed based. That ratio being 2:1. In this olive oil ice cream recipe I use a 1.5:1 ratio (300 ml heavy cream to 200 ml milk).

The reason for this is because olive oil is essentially a pure fat. And the more fat in an ice cream the harder it is to freeze and the faster it will melt. Just like one adds pectin to a sorbet to reduce the freezing temperature, you use fat to raise it. This is also part of the difference between ice cream and gelato, as the latter should be kept at a higher temperature as it can get too hard to scoop if you keep it at normal ice cream freezer temperatures.

Olive Oil Ice Cream

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