Honestly, when I said we don’t eat puddings I was almost telling the truth. I do have a weakness for ice cream and strangely creme brulee! Funnily enough the ‘little people’ seem to have inherited the same weakness for the cold stuff and hence we have been on a bit of an ice cream mission on days when it has been warm enough to eat it. London is littered with good, and some exceptional ice cream parlours – I think the Italians do it best and Gelupo, http://www.gelupo.com/gelateria.php, is well worth a trip to as is DriDri,  www.dridrigelato.com/. Both sell fabulously good Italian Ice Cream with innovative and      different flavours, though frankly the ‘Coronation Chicken’ flavour devised for the Diamond Jubilee at ‘Gelupo’ did not have me rushing to try it! So, if in town basically there is plenty to choose from – but where we are in the country we have no such luxury and I thought it was high time to try out one of my childhood favourites ‘Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream’, and see if the ‘little people’ would take to it as much as my siblings and I did growing up!

This has to be the easiest ice cream recipe ever invented. Firstly, there is no ice cream maker involved – so none of that having to remember to freeze the dreaded bowl, secondly, because it really is cheats ice cream – it is not custard based or egg based in any way – just simple double cream ! and thirdly, it does not need beating half way through freezing. All in all a very straight forward process and the end result tastes properly of strawberry, summer and homemade. If however you did have one of those fancy ice cream machines that you plug into the wall, I do think the end result would be more superior if it was churned.

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

500gms of fresh strawberries (hulled) – try and use British they are so, so, so good now

30gms of icing sugar

1/2 pint of double cream

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Puree the strawberries with the lemon juice and icing sugar.

2. Whip the cream till it just holds its shape.

3. Now fold in the puree with the cream and freeze.

Hoorah – ice cream made.

This ice cream really benefits from being pulled out of the freezer and left to rest 20 minutes before serving.

Footnotes:

Yesterday when I made it, I crumbled in a few old meringues, which basically makes ‘Eton Mess Ice Cream’! Really rather tasty.

Verdict from the ‘little people’ – the pink one loved it and the blue was undecided – but he later rejected a simple vanilla, he must be ill!

My verdict, I think it is pretty authentic and for ease of making and taste, extremely good.  I have to admit to being spoilt and in a previous life having the luxury of a plug-in ‘Gellateria’ all singing, dancing machine which unquestionably makes super-duper ice cream – through the very nature of churning while freezing – hence minimising ice crystals forming,  but I don’t have one now – maybe I should have one on my birthday wish list! (subtle hint to Mr.P, hope he reads this)

If you are a serious ice cream fan I would recommend a machine and the one I used a lot was the ‘Gaggia-RI9101-08-Gelatiera-Cream’. I am sure there are many more on the market but I have first hand experience of this one  – the only issue is storage – they do take up space.

Finally, a very good book on the subject and to get your mouth watering is: ‘Lola’s Ice Creams and Sundaes: Iced Delights for All Seasons – Morfudd Richards’ – a complete treasure and must have for fans.

Happy ice cream making and thank you Mummy for the recipe!