I’m on a roll with ice cream at the moment. Particularly these egg-free mixtures as they are so quick to knock up. Mix it all up, chill it down and then later throw it in the ice cream maker. 25 minutes later it’s done…and delicious! I made this last night to accompany a craving for Gran’s chocolate self-saucing pudding. In my opinion, the pudding must be served with vanilla ice cream! Again, this recipe is from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. I will eventually get around to putting up my favourite custard-based vanilla ice cream which is a Phillipa Sibly recipe.

Makes about 1 litre.

Ingredients
500ml cream (35% fat)
250ml milk (full fat)
150g sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method
In a saucepan, heat 250ml cream, sugar, salt and vanilla bean (split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds out into mixture, as well as adding the bean). Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove from the heat and stir through the remaining ingredients, mixing until smooth.
Chill the mixture in the fridge and once completely chilled churn in your ice cream machine according to manufacturer instructions. If you can manage not to eat the lot then and there store in the freezer!

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Given the recent hard work devoted to Croissants& I thought I would treat myself to a new ice cream maker. After all, there have to be good rewards for hard work! My old ice cream maker was ok but would tire before the ice cream was properly churned and frozen, despite having an inbuilt refrigerator. This time I opted for a model where you have to pre-freeze the bowl – this is slightly annoying given our freezer space is usually at a premium and you have to semi-plan to make ice cream. However, if you’ve got the room I don’t see why you couldn’t leave the bowl in the freezer whenever it’s not in use.

So, what was going to be the first flavour put to the test in my new machine? A super easy chocolate recipe which I have adapted from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. This ice cream is so super simple as it doesn’t require making a custard. Simply heat the cream, add the ingredients, mix, chill and churn. I managed to get this done the day after we got home from hospital with our beautiful little daughter Lucy, it’s that simple! Plus it’s great for anyone with an egg allergy.
Makes approximately 1 litre

Ingredients
405ml cream (35% fat)
50g Dutch-process cocoa powder
200g sugar
pinch of salt
170g dark chocolate, chopped (I use 55% cocoa solids)
405ml full-fat milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Whisk together cream, cocoa powder, sugar & salt in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and whisk through the chopped chocolate. Once the chocolate has completely melted stir through the milk and vanilla extract. As dark chocolate doesn’t melt as easily as other chocolates with a higher fat content you may need to process it in a food processor to get a super smooth consistency.. Sometimes I need to do this, others I don’t.

All you need to do now is chill the mixture in the fridge. Once completely chilled churn in your ice cream maker, according to manufacturer instructions.

If you’re feeling adventurous you can add whatever mix-ins you fancy to the ice cream. Add these in the last 5 minutes of churning. On this occasion I added some milk and white chocolate chunks as well as some chopped roasted almonds.
Want to try a custard based ice cream? Check out my peppermint chic-chip ice cream.

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