Vivid! Blackberry Ice Cream

 

 

I so loved the colour of this ice cream when I served it. Let's be honest, ice cream can be a bit beige, even if it is the most gorgeous tasting thing, and I loved the fact that this ice cream screamed anything but; lively, bright, vivid!

 

Now I have made room in my freezer for my ice cream churn, I am experimenting with ice cream and seeing if I can come up with something pretty lovely, after discovering that you can make pretty nice, refreshing ice cream without making a custard, such as using condensed milk and cream here. I decided to use yoghurt as a kind of lighter, refreshing alternative, despite loving the unctuous creamy ice cream.

 

So, I bought some 2% fat yoghurt (hoping that it wouldn't be so grainy after churning and God, I need some fat!) Fage Total and unearthed some frozen blackberries from the freezer that have been in there for too long actually. I cooked the blackberries down with sugar, a splosh of blackberry liqueur from my 'When I go to France, I buy interesting liqueurs in Carrefour before boarding the ferry' stash and some salt and then passed it through a sieve and then boiled the juice so it became perceptibly thicker and syrupy. Added to the yoghurt, the juice swirls and goes from something dark and intense to something richly purple. And delish!

 

Blackberry Ice Cream

 

Makes about a litre of ice cream, ish.

 

Ingredients:

 

500g blackberries (Mine were frozen, and I let them defrost a little to generate some juice)

50g sugar added gradually, but be prepared to add more depending on the tartness of the blackberries

A pinch of salt to taste

A splosh of blackberry liqueur (optional)

A 500g tub of 2% Greek yoghurt

 

Method:

 

 

 

Put the blackberries into a pan with a splosh of water and some of the sugar. Cook over a gentle heat allowing the blackberries to break down and the sugar dissolve. Taste the juice and add some more of the sugar so that eventually you taste, well, sweetened blackberry.

 

Once the sugar has dissolved, pass the blackberry mixture through a fine sieve to separate the juice from the seeds. Discard the residue in the sieve and place the sieved juice back into a pan. Add a little liqueur if you like.

 

 

 

 Boil the juice rapidly until it becomes syrupy. When it has thickened perceptibly, carefully taste the syrup again. Add a little salt to bring out the blackberry flavour. You want something strongly flavoured as the flavour will diminish when added to the yoghurt and when it is frozen.

 

 

 

Set up your ice cream maker and pour in the yoghurt. Then add the juice and churn. I churned for about half an hour, forty minutes.

 

Put the half frozen mixture into a suitable tub and put in the freezer to continue the freezing process.

 

 

Vivid!

 

Move over Ben and Jerry, here comes Lola and Finn('s mum)! Banana and Coconut and Morello Cherry Ice Cream

 

 

Actually, Ben and Jerry are quite safe as I haven't thought of suitably witty names to name my ice creams just yet, but I have really enjoyed making ice cream over the last couple of weeks when the Brits have had their summer (same time next year folks!!) and when people have said to me "You should open a cake shop!" and I have shaken my head because the thoughts of baking as a job makes me ill, but the thoughts of having an ice cream shop with alsorts of amazing flavours actually does kind of appeal. The only things I can see going wrong are my complete lack of business acumen and the fact I wouldn't be able to resist the odd cornet here or there...or everywhere.

 

Phill bought me an ice cream maker yonks ago and it has been used on occasion. I recall a pretty successful Bailey's ice cream which I may have to revisit in the near future, a chocolate ice cream and a raspberry ice cream amidst lots and lots and lots of vanilla ice cream. I have to say though, it might have just been vanilla, but it was pretty good, with pleasing speckles of vanilla and an instant luxurious cooling melt once it was in your mouth. A fine eating experience.

 

Anyway, to move this on, I happened upon a recipe in Allysa Tovey's Magnolia at Home which was for a banana and toasted pecan ice cream which was made, not with a custard base, but with a base of double cream and condensed milk. Now, custard can be a nervy business and it is something which needs to be nurtured and doted upon whilst it transforms from pale, thin, cream and yolk to unctuous  custard. I am also impatient and waiting for what feels like an age for the custard to cool down before it can be churned. Here, there is no waiting game, just take from the fridge, mix and add flavourings. And churn. and freeze.

 

I didn't have any pecans so I subbed sweetened shredded coconut and it worked well. It gave a pleasing texture to the ice cream and banana and coconut definitely go together. It's official! My second ice cream was a throwback to the time when I discovered cherry ice cream and my whole ice cream world was revolutionised. No longer would I be excited by a Cornetto, a double scoop of cherry ice cream on a hot day in Anglesey was where it was at. I don't know whether what I created was as good as the first one I ever tasted, for there were many other variables at work that day, but the result was pretty pleasant and with the addition of a chocolate flake, Mr Whippy stylee, was actually really lovely.

 

Anyway, who would have thought that ice cream would make me so chatty? Here are the recipes:

 

Banana and Coconut Ice Cream adapted from 'Magnolia at Home' by Allysa Tovey.

 

My adaptions in red

 

Makes 1 quart (whatever that is - let's say about a litre!)

 

American recipe and therefore measured in cups

 

Ingredients:

 

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about two medium bananas for me)

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (that is a 397g tin)

3/4 cup double cream

1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut

a pinch of salt to taste

1 cupmashed very ripe bananas

 

1 cupcoarsely chopped toasted pecans (see Note)

Method:

 

Put condensed milk in fridge.

 

 

Mash the bananas.

 

 

Pour the cream and the condensed milk into your ice cream machine

 

 

Add the banana mixtured and the coconut

 

Begin to churn, but just before putting the lid on, taste the mixture and add a little salt to bring out the flavours of banana and coconut.

 

 

Churn according to the instructions of your particular ice cream maker. I allowed mine to churn for quite a bit really, 45 minutes maybe.

 

Pour the half frozen mixture into a suitable tub and place in the freezer until frozen.

 

 

 

Morello Cherry Ice Cream

 

Makes about a litre

 

Ingredients:

 

A 454g jar of pitted Morello cherries in their liquor

a splash of kirsch (optional)

a little salt to taste

300ml double cream

1 tin of sweetened condensed milk.

 

Method:

 

 

 

Pour the cherries into a sieve over a bowl. You want the cherries drained and to reserve the liquor.

 

 

 

Put the liquor into a saucepan. Add a splosh of kirsch and reduce the liquid by about half/two thirds. You are looking for something that tastes quite intense and is a little syrupy. When reduced, take off the heat and leave to cool.

 

 

 

Combine the cream and the condensed milk in a bowl. Add the cherries (see note below) and mix. Taste. It will probably taste of condensed milk still. Add the cherry liquid, little by little, tasting after each addition. You might want to add a little salt to bring out the cherry flavour. You're looking for something that tastes reasonably intense as the flavour diminishes when the mixture is frozen.

 

 

 

Once you are happy with the mixture, pour into the ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions.

 

Pour the semi frozen mixture into a suitable tub. Place in the freezer until frozen.

 

 

 

Note: cherries. I never thought about the freezing of whole cherries and it might not be to your taste, in which case chop the cherries up before adding them to the cream and milk. Actually though, I really enjoyed the slightly sour, cold, fresh fruity taste slowly warming against the sweet creamy ice cream.

 

 

 

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream - Almond ice cream

How lovely it is to be blogging this recipe, sat outside, with a beer, not a cloud in the sky. It's the weather I crave the most because it is definitively Summer; no in between, no half measures; no warm rain. And it has been like this for days and days really. This could be our Summer, and I hope it's around for weeks and weeks and weeksuntil at least September, when I suppose I will have to accept that rain and cloud and all that non descriptive stuff is the ying to a good Summer's yang.

So, ice cream. I grew up with Walls. Yes, it's a shame. When I first made some ice cream it was a revelation, and though there isn't much reason to whip up a batch to temper the searing heat on a Summer's Day round here, I do every now and then like to make some to go with a pudding if we are having people around but it's not he same as making it and eating it outside on a hot day.

If custard makes you nervous, then this recipe is so easy and does not involve the temperamental nature of egg yolks. It's basically almond infused cream, churned in an ice cream maker ideally and eaten on its own. It freezes quite hard but melts quite quickly, the sign of good and proper ice cream. The original recipe is from my favourite Spanish cookbook at the moment, Modern Spanish Cooking, by Sam and Eddie Hart and the only changes I have made is to replace the water with cream, and add a little salt to the mixture. It is simply joyous to eat. I hope you have the weather we're having here at the moment to give you excuse to make some.

Almond Ice Cream, adapted from 'Modern Spanish Cooking' by Sam and Eddie Hart

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad, and several of Lola and Finn's friends

Ingredients:

200g blanched almonds (I splashed out on Marcona ones!)

600ml milk

150g sugar

200ml cream

pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c and spread out the nuts on a baking tray. Toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes, turning once or twice.

Put the milk, cream, sugar, almonds and a pinch of salt into a saucepan and put onto the heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil and and then take off the heat and allow it to cool completely. 

Take the cooled mixture and blitz it in a blender, or you could sieve the mixture into a bowl then blitz the almonds in a mini chopper. Either way, you need to sieve the almonds out of the milk and blitz some of the almonds, in preparation for adding some of them to the ice cream mixture.

Take the almondy milk and pour it into the churn of an ice cream maker. Add about 50g of the blitzed almond mixture. Churn until the milk has started to thicken and congeal perceptibly. It took about 45 minutes in my machine.

Once churned, transfer the semi frozen mixture to a suitable container and put in the freezer. Leave for at least eight hours, and preferably overnight.

To serve. Take the ice cream out a couple of minutes before you wish to serve it so you can scoop it properly. Serving suggestion: Outside. Definitely outside!