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I know the idea of fennel pollen ice cream might sound a bit odd, but the warm aniseed like flavours go so wonderfully with the creaminess of the ricotta ice cream base.

The delicious ice cream sat on top of a feather light almond flour sponge and covered in a silky toasted meringue. This baked Alaska is my spin on a retro classic.

I love using fennel pollen in recipes as its packed with flavour. The little yellow flowers the appear during the summer months are a culinary gem.

We often go out to pick the wild fennel pollen that grows along the cliff near my house. I let it sit in water for a few days in a small vase over some newspaper then i gently rub the pollen off.

The flavour is a little more intense than the fennel seeds which appear on the plants a few weeks later.

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Aniseed like scents fill the air when you come across a patch of the fennel growing wild, the spicy yet floral smell makes it easy to sniff out these flowers from afar.

To decorate the baked Alaska i added a few of the fennel pollen sprigs.

When i was in Provence Gillian bell made some fennel sorbet and candied fennel slices that was incredible so that’s my next fennel experiment.

Fennel pollen

Fennel pollen is often thought of as luxury – after the pollen is collected the tiny heads of wild fennel flowers are picked off and dried making a powder like spice.

It has a sweeter and more intense flavour than fennel seeds, meaning that a little goes a long way. The smallest pinch of wild fennel pollen can transform a dish with heavenly, honey-aniseed flavours.

It can be a very expensive spice to buy, so i love to make the most of the season and collect some my self. Like saffron it is quite labour intensive so it means that its almost worth its weight in gold.

I used 1 tsp to flavour my ice cream but i tasted it and decided to add some ground fennel seeds too so that i could make the flavour a little more notable.

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Print Recipe

Ingredients

Fennel blossom Ice cream

• 5 egg yolks
• 250 ml double cream
• 300 ml whole milk
• 250 grams ricotta
• 150 ml runny honey
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp Fennel pollen (plus more to your taste) (alternatively use ground fennel seeds)
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel seeds
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

almond sponge

• 4 eggs separated
• 150 grams caster sugar (plus 2 tbsp)
• 150 grams ground almonds
• 1 -1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Instructions

Make the ice cream

• In a sauce pan whisk together the egg yolks with the honey and sugar, then mix in the milk, cream and ricotta. add the fennel pollen and ground fennel seeds and vanilla.stir constantly over a medium heat until it thickens and becomes like custard.Pour through a sieve to remove any bits of fennel seeds . Place a layer of plastic wrap over the custard and let cool, chill over night in the fridge. or use the pre chill function on an ice cream machine. Pour into ice cream machine to churn, then pour into a small bowl or mould lined with cling film and freeze.

Make the sponge

• Preheat the oven to 160c and grease and line a small cake tin that is the same size as the bowl you used for your ice cream (because the tin i used was quite small i had enough mixture for two). separate the eggs, Add the egg whites in to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk attachment and start mixing at a medium speed. once it starts to thicken add the sugar a little at a time reserving 3 tbsp. Turn up the speed and beat for a few minutes until stiff peaks form and you have a meringue like mixture. In another bowl, mix the yolks, the 3 tbsp sugar, salt, vanilla and the almonds, take a 1/4 of the meringue mixture and mix into it to loosed it, then add the yolk mixture to the meringue a 1/3 at a time and gently fold in. pour into cake tin, (i had enough to fill two tins so i saved the extra sponge for something else.) bake for 25/30 minutes let cool.

Make the meringue

• Add the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and start whipping, once the mixture is bubbly and pale add the sugar a little at a time then turn up to high speed and whip for 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.place ice cream on top of cake , then spread over the meringue so there are no gaps.now blow touch it or bake in a preheated oven at 180c for 5 minutes. serve immediately.

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I love to use floral flavours so this isn’t the first flower infused baked Alaska i have made, find my recipe for my chamomile honey and lemon baked Alaska here.