5 Great Recipes from Nigella Lawson

All you do to make this is zest and juice some fruit, add icing sugar and cream, whisk and freeze. This requires no stirring or churning and it tastes unlike anything you could buy. So if you’ve got friends coming over for dinner, you can serve this for pudding without giving yourself anything approaching a hard time. I use my Kitchen Aid, but a cheap hand-held electric mixer would do fine; and frankly, a hand whisk wouldn’t kill you.

I first made this with Seville oranges, but since these are available only in January here, it would be unhelpfully restricting to suggest no substitutes out of season (though you could always freeze the oranges, either whole or just their zest and juice). I won’t lie to you and say that my suggested substitutes are quite as magnificent as the original – nothing can provide that biting, aromatic intensity that you get from Seville oranges, which have the taste of orange and the ravaging sourness of lemons – but ordinary eating oranges combined with lime juice provide a glorious tangy and fragrant hit of their own.

Serves 6

3 Seville oranges or 1 eating orange and 2 limes
175g icing sugar
large pot (584ml) double cream
wafers, to serve (optional)

1. If using Seville oranges, grate the zest of 2 of them. Squeeze the juice of all 3 and pour into a bowl with the zest and sugar. If you’re going for the sweet orange and lime option, grate the zest of the orange and one of the limes, juice them and add to the sugar as before. Stir to dissolve the sugar and add the double cream.
2. Whip everything until it holds soft peaks, and then turn into a shallow air-tight container (of approximately 2 litres) with a lid. Cover and freeze until firm (from 3 to 5 hours).
3. Remove to ripen for 15-20 minutes (or 30-40 in the fridge) before eating. Serve in a bowl, in cones, with wafers – however you like.