International Ice-cream Day!

Happy International Ice-Cream Day! One of our favourite days of the year has finally arrived! To celebrate we’ve compiled some of the best ice-cream recipes out there. Perfect as a rainy-day activity, then save your delicious creations ready until the sun comes out.

Vegan Choc-Mint

INGREDIENTS

400ml Can Coconut Milk
400ml Can Coconut Cream
100g Sugar
60ml Golden Syrup or other syrup
1/4 tsp Peppermint Extract
1/4 tsp Green Food Colouring
100g Dark Chocolate Chips or Slab of Dark Chocolate cut into small chunks

METHOD
The day before you want to make ice-cream, place the freezer bowl of your ice-cream maker into the freezer to freeze completely.
Then place your coconut cream, coconut milk, sugar and syrup into a pot on the stove and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a gentle simmer, remove from the heat, and using an immersion blender, blend it in the pot for 30 seconds.
If you don’t have an immersion blender, then you can transfer the mixture to your blender jug and blend it there, but just make sure the lid is on properly, as the mixture will of course be very hot. Then transfer the mixture to a covered container and keep in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, remove the mixture from the refrigerator and stir in the green food colouring and the peppermint extract. Transfer to your ice-cream maker and churn as per the manufacturer’s instructions, it will usually be 20-40 minutes.
As soon as it reaches soft serve consistency, add the dark chocolate pieces to the ice-cream maker while it’s churning and allow it to mix in for around 1 minute. Then transfer the ice-cream to a freezer safe loaf pan and smooth it down. Place it into the freezer to set for a few hours (around 4-6 hours to set properly)
When you’re ready to serve scoop it with a hot scoop (dipped in hot water) for the easiest serving. Serve your  ice-cream in half a coconut for dinner party twist!

Gin & Tonic Lime Sorbet

INGREDIENTS
400 g caster sugar
400 ml tonic water
4 tbsp gin
zest and juice 1 lime, plus extra slices to freeze
zest 1 lemon, juice of half, plus extra slices to freeze
1 egg white

METHOD
Put the sugar in a pan with 400ml water and warm over a low heat until dissolved. Increase the heat and boil for 1 min. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Pour the tonic water into a bowl, add the sugar syrup, then chill in the fridge until cold.
Once the tonic mix is cold, add the gin, lime and lemon zests and juice, and pour into a container, then freeze until just frozen – this will take about 2 hrs.
Remove the just-frozen sorbet from the freezer and break up with a fork. Froth the egg white with a fork, then add both to a food processor and pulse to blitz together – do it quickly so it doesn’t start to melt. Pour the mix back into your container and freeze until solid. Freeze extra slices of lemons and limes on a tray until solid. Serve the sorbet scooped into glasses or small bowls topped with lemon and lime slices.

Classic Strawberry Ice-cream

INGREDIENTS
500 g strawberries
175 g caster sugar (plus 2 tablespoons)
500 ml full fat milk
500 millilitres double cream
1 vanilla pod
10 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice

METHOD
Hull and roughly chop the strawberries, put them into a bowl and sprinkle over the 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and leave them to steep and infuse with flavour.
Pour the milk and cream into a heavy-based saucepan, and add the vanilla pod, split down the middle lengthways. Bring the pan nearly to the boil and then take it off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and the 175g / ¾ cup sugar until thick and pale yellow. Take the vanilla pod out of the milk and cream and pour, whisking the while, the warm liquid over the yolks. Put the cleaned-out pan back on the heat with the cream, milk, egg and sugar mixture and stir the custard until it thickens, then take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl to cool.
Puree the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool fold in the lemon juice and strawberry puree.

At this point you can either freeze the ice cream in an ice-cream maker, or in a plastic tub in the freezer. If you do the latter you should whip it out every hour for 3 hours as it freezes and give it a good beating, either with an electric whisk, by hand or in the processer. That gets rid of any ice crystals that form and that make the ice cream crunchy rather than smooth.

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