My Ice cream maker is broken.
After two long hours of trying to revive it, it’s official. RIP Frank.
What made it even worse is that I was trying to churn Ice cream (obviously) when I realised it was dead. All I wanted was delicious fresh Ice cream. The machine was on, the paddle was turning but nothing was happening. Frustrating.
You prep these delicious strawberries; they’re sitting in the fridge, infusing with ginger, ready to be folded into that creamy smooth vanilla ice cream. Magic is ready to be made! But there is no magic, just some liquid custard base swishing around a luke-warm canister. That’s no fun.
After about half an hour of sulking on the sofa, watching Barefoot Contessa (secretly wishing I lived in The Hampton’s with a garden like that), it suddenly occurred to me.
We all used to eat Ice cream before makers were created. Duh!
So I got my whisking arm out and was prepared to make the most delicious handmade Ice Cream this blog had ever seen.
The secret to making Ice cream by hand is checking it every 20-30 minutes and giving it a good beating. This breaks the ice crystals. The smaller the ice crystal, the smoother the ice cream. Hell yeah that’s what we want people.
Hand making Ice cream is definitely a lazy day thing when you have absolutely nothing to do, and not something for the impatient. It’s for one of those days where you become obsessed with tricky hair braids from Pinterest and after 3 hours, you still can’t do that side French plait (and your arms feel like they might now fall off from the loss of blood from your hands.)
If any of you aren’t familiar with this predicament, please see this (can I just point out how ridiculously beautiful that model is, if it isn’t obvious already.) Try it out and you’ll totally get me.
Ok, actually onto the ice cream now. To be honest, I don’t really feel like I have to say much in this part of the post today. Putting roasted strawberries and ginger in a gloriously silky vanilla ice cream just makes sense.
It’s just delicious, ok?
Ingredients – Makes just under 1.5 lt ice cream
- 500g strawberries, hulled and quartered (weight taken before being hulled)
- 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- 1 piece of stem ginger
- 1 tbsp of stem ginger syrup
Vanilla Ice Cream base
- 280ml double cream
- 300ml milk
- 115g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod (or 2 capfuls of vanilla extract)
- 3 egg yolks
Method
A few hours before making your ice cream:
- Place the double cream, milk and half the sugar into a medium-sized pan. Split the vanilla pod in half and de-seed, adding both the seeds and the empty pod into the pan. Set this over medium heat. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. When the cream mix comes just to the boil, take the pan off of the heat and pour a small amount into the egg yolks. Whisk this quickly so that the hot cream doesn’t scramble the eggs. Continue to add in the liquid until all of it is whisked into the egg yolks.
- Pour the vanilla custard base back into the pan and fish out the vanilla pod. Place onto medium heat and continue to whisk until the mixture comes to 84 degrees C. Pour the mix out into a bowl. Cover the surface of the custard with cling film and place into the fridge for approx. 3 hours (or overnight) until cold.
Prepping your ginger roasted strawberries:
- Pre-heat your oven to 190C.
- Place your quartered strawberries onto a baking tray. If you have any very small strawberries, just half these. Drizzle over the tbsp of balsamic vinegar and then sprinkle on the sugar. Toss the strawberries into the sugar and vinegar until coated. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes until the strawberries are soft and roasted.
- Once out of the oven, place the strawberries (and any extra juices) into a bowl. Grate in the piece of stem ginger and stir in a tbsp of the ginger syrup which the stem ginger was sitting in. Mix together, cover with cling film and refrigerate until needed.
Churning the ice cream:
- Ice cream machines: Churn to manufacturers instructions, usually 30 minutes.
- Hand churning ice cream: Place the cold ice cream base into a freezer safe container and place in the freezer. After 30 minutes, check the ice cream and whisk in any ice cream that has set around the edges. Place back in the freezer. Continue to check the ice cream every 20-30 minutes, whisking vigorously to break up the ice crystals. When the ice cream gets to soft serve consistency, take your strawberries out of the fridge. Using a fork, mash-up the strawberries so that you only have small chunks of strawberry. (You can use a processor or hand blitzer to do this, just be careful to not puree all the strawberries.) Make sure that your strawberries aren’t too chunky as these will turn icy in the freezer. Leave to freeze until firm.
Serving the ice cream:
- Please leave the ice cream to warm up a bit before serving, it will be a lot creamier and easier to scoop. Leave outside of the freezer for 20-30 minutes before serving.
