2018's Annual No-Machine Ice-Cream Experiments: We're Here Again!

 Once again it's time to experiment with ice-cream creations as July, which is International Ice Cream Month, rolls around.

This year's trials have been broad and involved a lot more research and experimentation that in previous years, because nowadays as the Internet grows and information is more widely and readily available, research is easy to conduct from the comfort of your own living room.

The biggest research resource these days is YouTube, where you can find a video on nearly anything you can imagine and there are hundreds of thousands of aspiring cooking-show hosts who have taken the brave step of setting up a camera in their kitchen for the whole world to see.

Unfortunately, pointing a camera at what you're doing is as good as useless if you don't thoroughly and adequately explain what you're doing, and this is something I've discovered on my educational travels around YouTube.

Here are a few things I tried from online videos, and what the results were like for me. Spoilers: only one of them worked, and I already knew it worked.

Homemade Salt and Ice Churn

I found this video by an Italian man and it was very convincing and I gave it a try, but when I actually did I found that there was a lot of missing information:

In the video, the presenter:

Makes a simple vanilla custard in the traditional way with cream, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla

Chills the custard to be frozen later.

Prepares a bowl full of ice and salt in a rough proportion of 1 part salt to 4 parts ice

Places a metal bowl on top of the ice and adds in the custard

Mixes the custard with a wooden spatula as it freezes from the coldness of the ice

Now, making ice-cream with ice and salt is nothing new—kids have been doing this for as long as I can remember, including when I was a kid myself—but there are several things missing from this video:

1. How long does the whole churning process take?
2. Does it have to be fine salt, or will any salt do?
3. Does the ice and salt mixture need refreshing at any point in the process?
4. Can this ice-cream be stored in the freezer in a tub, or must it be eaten immediately?

When I tried this myself, these are all problems I encountered and my ice-cream never actually froze and all the ice melted before anything happened. I used coarse salt, and maybe that was an issue, but it was all very disappointing.

Food Processor Trick

Another trick I see frequently online is using a food processor to make ice-cream in a similar way to an ice-cream churn. Most people have a food processor, and this means you don't need to buy another kitchen gadget when you already have one that'll do.

In this video, the presenter:

Takes an ice-cream base and freezes it into a thin sheet in a freezer bag

Breaks up the frozen sheet

Blitzes the frozen pieces into a smooth soft serve ice-cream

Pours it into a tin to freeze for 2 hours before eating

This one works quite well, however the ice-cream freezes into a solid lump the longer it stays in the freezer: not enough air is incorporated to keep it fluffy over long storage times. Also, I found that pouring the ice-cream base directly into the food processor bowl, popping that into the freezer, and taking it out and blitzing it every 30 minutes in the same way an old fashioned make-at-home ice-cream would be made worked a whole lot better. It was still a big frozen lump after 5 hours, though.

Semifreddo, not Ice-Cream

This one has no video, but I remember seeing Nigella Lawson do this kind of thing on one of her programmes once. In this recipe, you mix eggs and sugar into a fluffy sabayon before folding with softly whipped cream and freezing into a loaf. This loaf is then sliced up and served with fresh fruit and sauce.

I tried this and it was quite tasty, but definitely not ice-cream: it's mouthfeel was more like a frozen mousse, and as it thawed and melted it produced a thick bubbly mixture all over the plate. Like the food processor ice-cream, it too freezes completely solid if left for too long.

Cream and Condensed Milk Old Favourite

This method is the one I have used on here for about 4 years at this point, and it still works fabulously. My only tiny issue is that if you over whip the cream the resulting butter-fat can leave an oily film on the roof of your mouth that makes for quite an unpleasant mouthfeel. In comparison to the other methods, however, that's only a tiny gripe.

It has the richness of a luxury ice-cream, like Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry's, so if you're looking for something a little lighter like a French ice-cream or a gelato this really isn't the recipe to use. That's why I was experimenting with the other methods to see if I could make something a little lighter and a method that could be used to make sorbet too.

In conclusion, I really think if you want to make traditional ice-cream, you need a churn, or you've simply got to accept that no-churn ice-cream will be fiddly, time consuming, and hard to store longterm. Happy ice-creaming!

Variation on a Theme: Malted Chocolate Ice-Cream with Caramel Swirl (Egg and Wheat Free)

As I'm sure you can imagine, this ice-cream was inspired by a very popular kind of chocolate bar made of malted chocolate nougat, topped with a layer of caramel, and enrobed in chocolate; you guessed it, a Mars bar.

Let me explain how I came to conceive of this ice-cream in my mind:

Over the course of my life I have come to learn that there are a few kinds of food products that are specifically enjoyed by English people, and it only dawned on my recently - being made more aware of my immigrant nature through talking to a Polish friend - that in Irish supermarkets you have the "English immigrant" foods. Examples of these products are crumpets, Marmite, Ovaltine, iced fingers and steak and kidney pies in tins, and I remember trying to explain to my peers why I was so excited when Cherry Coca Cola was eventually made available in Ireland. Now, generally speaking I consider myself and Irish person, but sometimes I get the little reminder that I also half belong to another race of people.

Within the last six months, however, one of these English interest products has vanished from Irish shelves: white Ovaltine. Ovaltine is a malted hot chocolate drink that is sold in powder form, which is mixed with hot milk and drunk as a bedtime drink. Due to my allergy to chocolate, I developed a taste for the white version, which is basically malt powder without the chocolate added. This version has sadly been discontinued here. Horlicks is similar, but nowhere near as nice, and also contains wheat. So, I went on the search for something that could replace my beloved white Ovaltine.

The other day I went to the local health food shop to get my usual spelt pasta and flour, and I spotted on the shelf a jar of pure barley malt extract, and my mind went BINGO! I had found the replacement for white Ovaltine. Barley malt extract is in syrup form, however, not powder. Since then, I've kind of been baking it into everything (including some really delicious malt granola that tastes just like Shreddies), and decided to make a flavour of ice-cream inspired by a malted milkshake, like the ones you can get in American style diners.

First I thought of making malted strawberry ice-cream, which would also be awesome, but I didn't have any strawberry jam. Instead, my mind wandered down the road of malted chocolate things, and finally it arrived at the doorstep of the Mars bar.

So, Mars bar: this is my ice-cream tribute to you!

I do understand that barley malt is unsuitable for coeliacs, but for those of you who can eat it, I recommend you give this a go.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)


INGREDIMENTS

For the ice-cream

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) cocoa powder (see notes below)
• 4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) barley malt extract
• You could also replace the cocoa and malt extract with 4 tablespoons (60 millilitres) of original Ovaltine
• Pinch of salt

For the caramel swirl

• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) condensed milk
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) soft light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) cream

HOW-TO

• To make the caramel sauce, melt all the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
• Once the caramel sauce has cooled, make the ice-cream following the instructions here, but adding the malt extract (if using) to the condensed milk and cocoa mixture.
• Pour a third of the ice-cream mixture into the freezing container, then drizzle over half the caramel sauce. Pour another third of the ice-cream mixture over it, then drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over that layer. Finish with the final third of the ice-cream mixture.
• Using a knife, gently swirl all the layers together by zigzagging the knife through the container once. Decorate the top with sprinkles, if you like, then freeze for a minimum of 6 hours of overnight.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Wheat-Free Chocolardiac Arrest Cake

Stracciatella Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Here's the second half of my ice-cream adventures, started last week.

The few weeks ago Lidl was flogging off a load of vanilla pods because they didn't sell well. As such I was picking up double packs of vanilla pods for €1.75 each, as opposed to the usual €6-per-pod craic that Tesco and Dunnes subscribe to. Vanilla pods are very useful for making really natural tasting custard, ice-cream, homemade vanilla essence and spiced rum.

However, immediately after buying them I began packing to move house and baking was not high on my list of priorities. As such I forgot about them, until I unpacked last week.

I decided to make myself some nice proper vanilla ice-cream using vanilla pods instead of essence, and it was fantastic. In its raw form the flavour isn't very strong, but as it freezes overnight the flavour intensifies and in the morning I had SUPER VANILLA ice-cream. It was very tasty, 'was' being the operative word in the sentence.

I now have a load of vanilla sugar brewing away in the press, using the leftover pods when I scraped the seeds out, which is great way of using up the pods instead of throwing them out.

Expect a lot of vanilla themed recipes over the coming weeks.

But back to this recipe. Stracciatella is basically chocolate chip vanilla ice-cream in Italy, and it made by drizzling melted chocolate into the churn while it it running. On contact with the ice-cream, the chocolate freezes and shatters in the blades of the churn, leading to ice-cream that is packed full of tiny chocolate shards. In the absence of an ice-cream churn, I turn to what I refer to as StraCHEATella (smirk), where I basically smash a Flake bar and use the crumbled goodness to simulate the chips.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Flake bar

HOW-TO

• On a chopping board, split the vanilla pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds with the blunt side of the knife.
• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk and stir in the salt and vanilla pod seeds (or the vanilla essence). Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

This would ice-cream is very tasty when used in making an affogato, an Italian dessert where a single scoop of (traditionally) vanilla ice-cream is put into a cappucino mug, a double shot of espresso is poured over, and the whole lot is dusted with a little cocoa powder.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Fruit and Nut Flapjacks

Coffee Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Training and gallavanting, and back in business!!

I have returned to life from my little escape (as explained in my last post), I thought I'd return to making some ice-cream. It seems only right because the weather has been in excess of 18 degrees everyday for about a week and looks like it's not changing for a while! At the same time as I made this coffee ice-cream, I also made some really nice stracciatella ice-cream, which will be following this post.

This is a really, really simple dessert that only needs about 10 minutes of active preparation and an overnight sleep in the freezer. Minimal effort ice-cream, the best thing evar.

However, there is one very important thing to remember with this ice-cream: you must use coffee powder, not granules. The coffee powder is added directly to the mix and is not dissolved in water first, therefore the granules would just remain in big clumps and not mix into the ice-cream fully. That would be less than pleasant.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) instant coffee powder
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk and stir in the coffee powder and salt. Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Raspberry Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

A lesser known flavour outside of Germany: raspberry ice-cream (Eis Himbeer)

My next experimentation was with using jam instead of condensed milk to make a fruity flavour. I tried this before with my strawberry cheesecake ice-cream, but through further experimentation I have now realised I could've been waaaaay more generous with the jam. I was fearful of invoking a crystallised texture if I swapped too much of the condensed milk for jam, but once I realised that condensed milk and jam contain the same amount of sugar per 100 millilitres, I realised that they pretty much will serve the same function.

This ice-cream has a nice punchy raspberry flavour without compromising on texture.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres, ¼ US cup) condensed milk
• 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres, ½ US cup) raspberry jam
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk. Add the jam and salt and mix well. 
• Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like a mousse, basically.
• Pour into a one-pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

NOTES:

• For even more tang, you can replace 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres) of whipping cream with cream cheese. It makes it even denser, too.

Raspberry desserts don't tend to be as baby pink as their strawberry counterparts, their tone is more muted and purple-ish. If you want proper pinkness, you can add a few drops of food colouring.

Lemon Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

For my next trick: lemon ice-cream!

I've always been a big fan of creamy lemon desserts, there's something very satisfying about a rich, decadent creaminess being counteracted by a zest lemony tang. I also very much like creamy orange desserts too, like orange yoghurt, but I couldn't find orange curd (I could always make it myself, but that's another recipe for another time).

The consistency of this was nice and dense and thick, and truly rich. It's not to be consumed in large doses, or a sore tummy may follow.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS

• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres, ¼ US cup) cream cheese
• 2 fluid ounces (55 millilitres, ¼ US cup) condensed milk
• 4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres, ½ US cup) lemon curd
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk. Add the cream cheese, lemon curd and salt and mix well. 
• Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like a mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

I quite like the delicate yellow colour that it is naturally, but if you want it to be more obviously yellow lemon you could add a few drops of yellow food dye.

Caramel Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

I decided this week I would try my hand at a few different ice-cream flavours, just to see how much abuse the tried and trusted condensed milk and cream formula could actually take. I made three batches of ice-cream, each with a different flavour, using the same basic formula but substituting things and seeing what would happen. Each batch was quite a success!

The first recipe I'm sharing with you is the caramel one I made. This ice-cream was a tad soft, but I know that next time I make it to reduce the amount of syrup; I have amended the recipe and shared it with you here.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products


INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) condensed milk
• 4 teaspoons (20 millilitres) soft dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk. Add the sugar, golden syrup, vanilla essence and salt and mix well. 
• Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like a mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

NOTE

• You could also use maple syrup and mix in some chopped pecans for a nice American style maple pecan ice cream.

In the photos, it's quite a pale brown colour because I used light brown sugar. But, for a more caramelly, fudgy flavour, use dark brown; trust me.

No-Churn, No-Cook, Practically No-Effort Chocolate Ice-Cream (That's as good as Ben & Jerry's)

Yes, I promised it to some Facebookers and so I shall deliver a recipe for no-churn, no-machine, no-pulling-out-of-the-freezer-every-two-hours-to-mix, no-custard, no-cook, little-effort chocolate ice-cream that is soft and rich with no ice crystals!

I thought seeing as Valentine's day is around the corner it's time to begin the chocolate recipe fest! Also, this recipe will be updated with a video once I have edited it, so stay tuned!

This ice-cream is rich, chocolatey, and completely customisable, made mainly from two ingredients with anything else you want to add for frills. The great thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are cheap enough, it only uses one mixing bowl, and you just bung it in the freezer for 4 to 6 hours without having to do anything to it while it freezes.

Ice-cream that tastes as nice as the leading luxury brand for cheap, minimum effort and hardly any washing up. Every woman's dream I would have thought, except having to wait around for it to freeze. But you could always make it before you head to work so it'll be ready for your return...




FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Gluten
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs
☑ Nuts

CONTAINS
☒ Dairy
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Cocoa (yes, I thought I'd contain it because I was allergic to cocoa for a time)


INGREDIMENTS

• 8 fluid ounces (225 millilitres, 1 US cup) whipping cream, 35%-40% fat content
• 6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) cocoa powder (see notes below)
• Pinch of salt
• Optional a
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) espresso powder

HOW-TO

• In a large mixing bowl, pour the condensed milk. Add the cocoa powder and salt and mix well. 
• If you like, you can also add the cinnamon and espresso powder for added taste interest. You can leave it out if you prefer.
• Pour in the cream, while stirring, then stir until it is all combined.
• Using an electric hand mixer, whisk until it is light and a soft-peak consistency. You want to to look and feel like chocolate mousse, basically.
• Pour into a 2 pint (560 millilitre, 2½ US cup) pudding mould with a lid (or you can use a loaf tin and cover with cling film) and smooth out the surface. Cover and freeze for 4 to 6 hours.
• Allow to temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Serve as a sundae with syrups, sprinkles and other nice things, on its own, or with cake.

NOTES

• You can adjust the amount of cocoa powder to your liking, but always have at least 3 tablespoons and no more than 7 tablespoons (105 millilitres, two-fifths US cup)
• If cocoa powder is too rich and dark for you, you could use drinking chocolate powder, or a combination.
• Before freezing, you can gently fold in sweets or sprinkles. You could also gently marble in some syrup.

The idea of making ice-cream by mixing whipping cream and condensed milk together is quite common. Every single brand of condensed milk with have a version of the recipe on their website, Nigella Lawson uses this technique to make coffee ice-cream and pomegranate ice-cream, and every food blogger ever has had their own twist on it. But I like to think that I've found the best ratio of milk to cream for the softest, least icy and most luxurious ice-cream ever. Don't quote me on that, mind.

This makes about 1½ pints (850 millilitres, 3½ US cups) of ice-cream, which is enough to feed about 6 people with a sensible scoop or two, 4 people with a generous scoop or three, or one woman recently bereaved of her romantic partner/suffering with her time of the month... so gentlemen if you want to keep her quiet when she's in pain just make her a batch of this. She will love you forever, if that's what you want of course.

The ingredients to make this amount of ice-cream is roughly €3. So, to put it in understandable terms, a tub of Ben and Jerry's costs around €6.50: for half of the price, you can make almost twice as much yourself... which in the long run makes it quarter of the price. You know it makes sense!

No-Churn No-Cook Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream (Egg- and Wheat Free)

Yeah, I just said that; and I know that tittle has a lot in it...

And boom, there is the gratuitously super sexy sunlit shot of my final creation. After years of searching, I eventually found the perfect recipe for this decadent treat... and yes it does taste as sexy as it looks; look!

I'm getting way too excited about this. Apologies... but not really!

So, with this knew found knowledge, I decided to recreate a favourite of my teen years. Luxury American ice-cream makers Ben and Jerry used to sell a variety of ice-cream here in Ireland called Peace of Cake, which is a fabulous pun, which was basically strawberry cheesecake flavoured ice-cream with a swirl of biscuit base crumb running through it; and it was heavenly.

Obviously, having difficulty with wheat, I stopped being able to eat it. Which doesn't really matter after all because they don't sell it here any more anyway!

Of course, this doesn't actually have a biscuity swirl through it, the biscuit crumbs are more dispersed through the cream, but I'm sure I will find a way of making a swirling stripe of buttery biscuitness one day.

So, without further ado!

INGREDIMENTS:

Makes 14 fluid ounces (400 millilitres)

For biscuit crumbs:

• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cold butter or block margarine, cubed
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) caster sugar or coarse brown sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) spelt flour or gluten-free flour blend
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil

For ice-cream:

• 3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) whipping cream (35 - 40% fat)
• 1 fluid ounce (30 millilitres) Greek yogurt
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tablespoons strawberry jam
• Optional: A few drops of red food colouring

HOW-TO:

First off, make the biscuit crumbs

• Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.6, or moderately hot).
• In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt. Rub in the cubed butter until it forms crumbs.
• Mix in the cinnamon, and then pour out on an un-greased un-lined baking tray.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, tossing the crumbs with a fork every 3 minutes to keep them separate. You want a nice mixture of small and large crumbs.
• Once the crumbs are all evenly golden brown, remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature on the tray.

Now, prepare the ice-cream

• In a medium bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk and jam until well combined.
• In another medium bowl, whip together the cream and yoghurt or cheese with a balloon whisk until holds stiff peaks. I prefer to whip by hand to I can have more control over how stiff the peaks are.
• Using a spatula or a large metal spoon, take a spoonful of the cream and fold gently into the strawberry condensed milk mixture using a cutting motion. This will make it lighter so it doesn't knock all the air out of the rest of the cream.
• Add the rest of the cream and fold in completely.
• If the ice-cream isn't pink enough for your liking, add a few drops of red food colouring until it reaches the right colour.

Final assembly:

• In a bowl, moisten the biscuit crumbs with the sunflower oil.
• Spoon about a quarter  of the ice-cream mixture into your freezing container and then sprinkle a third of the moistened crumbs over the top. Repeat finishing with the last layer of ice-cream mixture.
• Using a long knife, swirl the ice-cream to slightly mix the crumbs and cream together.
• Cover with cling film, making sure the cling film touches the surface of the cream. If the container has a lid, pop that on as well.
• Freeze for a minimum of 6 hours, but overnight is best.

And there you have it! The most deliciousest of egg-free, wheat- or gluten-free, no-cook, no-custard, no-churn ice cream! Temper for about 5 to 10 minutes before scooping into bowls, or better, wheat free ice-cream cones.

My Research into Machine Free Ice Cream Continues...

So, instead of allowing my  funk to get between me and my first love, I've been researching culinary delights to make when I'm feeling better.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I was searching in vain for the perfect no-machine homemade ice-cream. While the hurling was on I thought I'd try a few methods and recipes that I'd found, but none of them worked. I tried the whole rock-salt and ice insulation method but that didn't work, I tried the freeze and beat every two hours method but that didn't work either. I think the most recent lurid creation is still languishing in the freezer...

I thought I would turn to my favourite research tool to further my discoveries, and rediscovered a recipe that I'd found a long time ago. Back when I was in college I found this recipe for ice cream that used whipping cream and condensed milk, and needed no mixing during churning. However, using the method in this video, it came out separated and icy.

Needless to say, I never thought to try it again.


It took a few years for me to get around to trying homemade ice cream again. I once again tried several different methods and recipes, none of which worked. However, in the few years I wasn't trying, there were a few people who ad uploaded more successful attempts at the condensed milk and cream technique.

 







These two used the same ingredients as the first video, but in slightly different quantities and with a slightly different method. Having made this discovery (especially the first video: that stuff looks sinful!), I think I might give it another try...

I'm one for giving second chances!