Strawberry ice cream

Good morning, good morning! :o)
I am so happy, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I've put my wellies in the cellar woohoo!
Little Lady has a garden party at her nursery today and we have been SOoo keeping our fingers crossed for good weather. Oh the excitement this morning getting ready for this event, it has been wonderful. She's gone all dressed up in a glam princess dress with under-skirt netting and gold trim and jewels and ribbons in her hair, oh my heart was bursting with motherly pride, she looked adorable and we must have been stopped in the street about 8 times by complete strangers telling her how pretty she looked. Her smile was ear to ear.

So anyhow....on with homely stuff :: last week I decided to make ice cream for the first time. I've been wanting to try this for ages but was under the assumption you needed some fancy ice cream making gadget to do it. But my informative other-half told me last week that this is not so :: gadgetry is not in fact needed and one can do it perfectly well oneself if one can be bothered to do so.  So all I needed was the time and a recipe.
Folks, there are many, many recipes out in cyberspace for ice cream. I was looking for the simplest strawberry ice cream recipe, and this is the best I could find. There are five ingredients ::

600g strawberries
130g caster sugar
2tsp lemon juice
300ml double cream
100ml milk

Keep about a dozen or so strawberries to one side and put the rest into a food processor with the sugar and lemon juice. Whizz until smooth, transfer to a bowl.

Put the dozen strawberries into the processor and pulse until mangled but not pureed. Add these to the  bowl with the smooth stuff.
Marvel at the colour. Dip fingers in and mmmmmmmmmm. Allow Little People to dip fingers mmmmmmmm.

Put the cream into the processor and whizz until thickened but not stiff.
Pour the cream and milk in with the strawberries and mix thouroughly (I started out with my spatula but ended up using a whisk for thouroughness).
Marvel at the change in colour, from strawberry red to ice cream pink. Little Lady approves of the pinkness. By now I am fighting off  Little Fingers which are dipping, licking, dipping, licking at the speed of light.

Now the bowl goes into the freezer and this is where you have you take the place of the gadget. You become a human de-crystalizing machine, which involves whisking up the mixture every hour or so. Four times in total. So make sure you have four hours ahead of you in which to perform. Its not difficult, but you do have to remember to do it or else you will end up with a solid lump of frozen strawberryness.
After the last whisk, transfer to a tub with a lid and freeze until solid.

The Little People could not wait for this to be ready, it was absolute torture for them (and me). But oh my goodness, this was so worth the wait. So so so worth it. I cannot begin to describe the flavour to you, the sweetness, the fruitiness, the full on summery-ness of it.

I beg you to try it, you will love it I know you will, and your children will worship you.
Last night Little Man had a friend round to play after school and he asked me if they could have ice cream. I overheard him boasting to his friend that My Mum Made This ALL BY HERSELF with REAL strawberries. I suddenly came over all Domestic-Goddess-like. Yes, my domestic halo was gleaming, budge over Nigella.

Comments

[Anna]

Hmm, you really are not encouraging my diet in any way shape or form, missy! Looks fabulous, I will definitely add it to my ever increasing recipe pile...beautiful photos!x

[ginny]

oohh that's fantastic. i'm sure this would delight my girls so we may have to go strawberry picking.
Wellies still out here in the south of england today... it's a really wet soggy day but i am now dreaming of summer strawberries and ice cream thanks to you.
x

[Alva Horton]

you are too funny! nigella doesn't have anything on you!
I must try this recipe and pass along to the other domestic godesses in my life.
Enjoy the weather!

[simone]

It is so cold and wet in the South East today that I would prefer to eat the ice cream with a hot fruit pie! The photos are stunning and I love the salmon pink colour of the ice cream. This will have to be on my to do list.

[Andrea]

Hi
I am Julia's friend from Vintage Heaven, sorry you can't make our sale but just to let you know that I am reducing my Greengate stock by 20% on the night, I also have some gorgeous quilts that I will be discounting by £50! I don't have a website but can let you know what I have if you are interested. I hope you don't mind me contacting you via your blog. Best wishes
Andrea

[kathy]

Hi Lucy, Thank you for making my day so summery. I absolutely adore your blog. Unfortunately in Devon it is very, very wet, torrential rain...yuck! Love the icecream recipe...will try and make that one. Kathy

[driftwood]

looks delicious!

[Alice]

Lucky you with nice weather. It's been horrible down here today. The ice-cream looks yummy. I've made a "non-gadget" ice-cream before ages ago (WW recipe I think) and it was delicious but I lost the recipe and never bothered to look for it again. Now, I have yours... hurrah! lol.

[Maddy]

Nigella indeed, it looks and sounds wonderful. It just can't be that easy ... can it?

[jessica daisy]

looks wonderful, thank you for the recipe, I must try it out with my little one!
Jess

[Gill]

You know what I loved the most, the spatula with the red hearts on it, that is just so cute.

I remember making icecream many years ago by hand and have also lost the recipe, so thank you for posting the recipe.

Gill from Canada

[Julie Alvarez]

I will have to try this recipe, looks so yummy!
I love your bowls, indeed. All of your kitchenware...

[bunny]

Mmm.... looks delish!! Thanks for the recipe!! Would love to try it someday :)