Freezing temperatures equal ice cream

 It is flipping freezing outside for the 4th day running but something has to be done with the excess cream in the fridge and throwing it out offends my mean streak so ice cream it is.  My go to recipe in these circumstances is quick, easy and non churn.  It also uses up the fruit from the garden that is generally abundant and packing the freezer out.   It lacks the sophistication of a churned ice cream but that doesn’t seem to stop it from being eaten in this household though it does need some thawing between freezer and eating.

300ml (a standard carton) of double cream

397g (standard can) of condensed milk  

400g-500g fruit cooked, puréed/sieved if necessary (see notes below re sugar, quantity and options) 

Steps:

(A) whisk cream to soft peaks ie as you would for a trifle topping

(B) whisk in condensed milk

(C) add cooked fruit.  This can be either be whisked or stirred in, your choice (see notes below)

(D) pour/spoon into containers and label

(E) to serve it will need to be taken out of the freezer to soften a little for about 10 mins (this is not soft scoop)

Notes:

This recipe can be directly sized up and is dependent only on the size of your bowl and the power of your whisk.  It easily doubles which is what I did this morning using 900g of cooked and purreed strawberries from the freezer.

The amount of fruit you use is, to some extent, personal choice, however, be aware you are adding juice into the ice cream and that may make it icy.  This is particularly the case with gooseberries and you might want to limit the fruit content to 400g in that case.  

Some fruit you will want to add sugar too while it is cooking again this is personal taste but remember you are getting some sweetness from the condensed milk.  Blackcurrants and again gooseberries (esp green gooseberries) will definitely need some sweetening though I like to add elderflower cordial to my gooseberries which, again ups the ice potential.

With raspberry and blackcurrant ice cream I usually go for a smooth, well mixed ice cream of even colour.  Both raspberry and blackcurrant purées will need sieving if you are to avoid picking seeds out of your teeth.  With strawberries, gooseberries (particularly red dessert gooseberries) and pear I often use a rougher purée so you get a few lumps of fruit in the finished ice cream.  This does introduce icy fruit crystals into your ice cream so, again, it’s personal preference.

Due to the ‘hard freeze’ nature of this ice cream I tend to use quite small containers which avoids, or at least minimises, any potential issues of it being slightly thawed and then put back in the freezer.

My usual flavours (dictated largely by what comes into the kitchen from the garden) are:

Banana (always ripe/over ripe  - so much easier than making banana bread and more likely to be eaten around here).  They do not need cooking, just mashing.  I usually don’t get hung up on weight here, 2 works well but if you have 3 that have gone over, especially if they are small then that’s fine.  I also like to add some chocolate chips (50g -100g) and a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste (a teaspoon of vanilla extract will do but don’t bother with vanilla essence). 

Strawberry.    Cook them slowly.  They do not need any water or sugar.  You will get enough sweetness from the condensed milk.  

Raspberry.      Again cook slowly and they should not need any or no more than a splash of water adding especially if they have come out of the freezer.  You may, however, prefer to add some sugar while cooking but don’t overdo it as you will have some sweetness from the condensed milk.  Sieve them to get rid of as any seeds as possible.  Because you are sieving them I would usually up the volume of fruit here to 450g - 500g.

Blackcurrant.  As for raspberry but you will definitely need sugar.  They are a very strong flavour, however, so even though they will need sieving you probably will not want to go over 450g of fruit.

Pear.  Cook with a splash of water and purée down to your preferred smooth/chunkinesss.  Sugar should not be needed.

Gooseberries.   400g of fruit is likely to be plenty given their strong flavour.  They will need sugar, more for green than red gooseberries.  I often use elderflower cordial as, at least, part of that added sugar though, as above, they are likely to produce quite a lot of juice so you will need to be a little careful as to the  additional liquid being added but it my help to get the cooking started with no additional water.

Vanilla.   Skip the fruit and just mix in a couple of teaspoons of Vanilla bean paste to the cream and condensed milk mix.  Works just fine with a hot espresso poured over, affogato at the end of a meal.

Rum and Raisin.  We usually keep a jar of rum soaked raisins to go with vanilla ice cream should the idea appeal.  This truncates the occasion and should I lack any fruit or just feel that we need to use some of the jar’s contents I throw into the cream/condensed milk mix whatever looks about right.

If your freezer is anything like mine then labels would be good by which I mean essential.  Banana, pear or vanilla ice cream could be mistaken for cheese sauce (or vice versa) and a high fruit blackcurrant ice cream is not so far off the colour of beetroot soup.