Lemon Meringue Ice Cream from Northern Irish premium producer
Luxury ice cream maker Glastry Farm in Northern Ireland has added a lemon meringue flavour to its highly successful portfolio of ice cream and sorbets.
The new lemon meringue ice cream is available for retail in 500ml tubs and for foodservice in five litre catering packs.
Based on a family farm at Kircubbin in county Down, Glastry Farm has won a string of UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann Irish National Food awards for premium products using milk from the farm's grass-fed Holstein-Friesian herd.
The company supplies products to top hotels and restaurants as well high-end retailers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Will Taylor, managing director of Glastry Farm, says: "We've been working on the lemon meringue ice cream for many months. The first version of this product was created as a project of a Food Technology student at Loughry College Innovation Centre in Cookstown, county Tyrone.
"The idea of a 'Citrus Crunch' flavour was introduced, incorporating lemon flavoured ice cream and homemade meringue pieces. The flavours delightfully complemented each other. There was, however, a scientific issue of the meringue dissolving into the ice cream when the product was frozen. The overall flavour was a resounding success with our focus group.
"With such brilliant feedback about the taste and creamy texture of the product we knew we were onto a winner with the flavour contrast. And so took on the task of enhancing the product and sourcing coated meringue pieces that would not dissolve in the ice cream, and would withstand the freezing element along with leaving a crunchy effect that adds texture to our signature smooth and creamy base ice cream," he adds.
To enhance the flavour even further, Glastry tasked Alice McIlhagger of Brambleberry Jams in Lisburn, county Antrim, who already makes delicious award winning salted caramel sauce used in the company's chocolate flavours, to make a zesty Sicilian lemon and lime curd.
"Homemade with only the finest ingredients, the curd is drizzled throughout the lemon ice cream and meringue pieces, lifting the ice cream to another level and providing a real burst of citrus flavour," explains Mr Taylor, a lifelong farmer and former president of the Ulster Farmers' Union.
"We then decided to invite our foodservice and catering customers, the mainstay of our business, to sample the new ice cream.
"Feedback from head chefs in hotels and restaurants was excellent. They suggested that we should brand it as lemon meringue because it is a deconstructed version of that retro dessert Lemon Meringue Pie. The only thing we left out was the pastry," he continues.
