STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM
 NIGELLA
Photograph by Petrina Tinslay
INGREDIENTS

500g strawberries
175g caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
500ml full-fat milk
500ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
10 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Serving Size : Serves 10–12.
METHOD

1.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.
2.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.
3.In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and the 175g 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.
4.Purée the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool fold in the lemon juice and strawberry purée.
5.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.
ADDITIONAL INFO

Before you begin making the custard fill the sink half full with cold water. If you think the custard looks like splitting at any stage, plunge the pan into the cold water and whisk like mad.

REVIEWS

There's a certain indulgence about this ice cream, and I suspect it is the use of so many egg yolks! Every bit worth it though. Gorgeous and really, it's perfect.

Coby

I love this ice cream, it's so much better than any expensive shop bought stuff!

Nickki
Back