This dessert is a happy marriage of bitter shards of chocolate and leftover orange preserve: a wonderfully textured soft-scoop ice cream tinged with a citrus tang.
What started as an experiment ended up as beautiful, custard-coloured, soft-scoop ice-cream of which I am almost absurdly proud. It turns out that adding marmalade also stops the ice-cream from setting like a brick. The flavours are stunning. If only cooking was always like this.
Serves 6
single or whipping cream 500ml
egg yolks 4
golden caster sugar 2 tbsp
marmalade 400g
dark chocolate 100g roughly chopped
Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl till thick, then pour in the hot cream and stir.
Rinse the saucepan and return the custard to it, stirring the mixture over a low heat till it starts to thicken slightly. It won't become really thick.
Cool the custard quickly - I do this by plunging the pan into a shallow sink of cold water - stirring constantly, then chill thoroughly.
Stir the marmalade into the chilled custard. Now you can either make the ice cream by hand or use an ice-cream machine. If making it in a machine, pour in the custard and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the ice cream is almost thick enough to transfer to the freezer, fold in the chopped chocolate, churning briefly to mix. Scoop into a plastic, lidded box and freeze till you are ready to eat it.
If you are making it by hand, pour the custard and the chopped chocolate into a freezer box and place it in the freezer, removing it and giving it a quick beat with a whisk every hour until it has set.
• Nigel's new book, Kitchen Diaries II, is published by Fourth Estate at £30. To order a copy for £19.99 (including free UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
