Gooseberry icecream

We have finally found another recipe involving gooseberries that we all like. Hurrah! (Especially given that the gooseberry bush on the allotment is crawling with big fat berries this year).

If you didn't freeze this, it'd make a nice gooseberry fool (although you may want to tone down the sugar).

You'll need:

500g gooseberries, topped and tailed
150g caster sugar
a tablespoon of water
250ml greek yoghurt
250ml double cream

Sling the gooseberries in a non-stick saucepan with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil (really carefully so the sugar doesn't catch), and then simmer for 10 minutes or so until the gooseberries are pulpy.

Strain through a sieve - you'll have a beautiful green puree. In the meantime, whip the yoghurt and double cream together until it holds in soft peaks. Stir through the gooseberry puree, and then tip everything into an ice cream maker, or into a plastic box to go into the freezer.

If you're using an ice cream maker like mine, the tricky bit is remembering to put the bowl in the freezer the day before you need it so it's suitably cold. If you're using the good old-fashioned plastic box method, you'll need to take it out of the freezer every hour or two to give the ice cream a good whisk as it solidifies.

It's delicious with fresh raspberries or strawberries sprinkled on the top. You quite liked yours with hundreds and thousands (the colours aren't what they used to be though).

Blackberry ripple ice cream

We've now got four tubs of ice cream in the freezer, which may be overkill. This one's mine and your Dad's favourite - made with some huge, squishy blackberries from the allotment.

You'll need:

350g blackberries
50ml apple juice
200g sweetened condensed milk (don't laugh...)
300ml double cream
50g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

First of all, you need to make a blackberry syrup. Stick your blackberries in a large saucepan, together with 50ml apple juice. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sugar, and stir until it's dissolved. Bring to the boil again, and simmer for another 5 minutes, so the blackberry mush turns syrupy.

Pour the blackberries in a blender (or use one of those handheld things - even easier to shove in the dishwasher afterwards), and whizz round for a minute or so. Pour the resulting blackberry puree through a sieve, to get rid of the seeds, and then leave to cool.

While you're waiting for things to cool down, whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks. Add the vanilla and condensed milk (if it's good enough for Pooh...), and fold through. Pour into a freezerproof container - and then comes the fun bit - drizzle over the blackberry sauce for a ripple effect. Fold it loosely into the cream mixture, and then stick the whole lot in the freezer. You don't need to stir it, but leave the ice cream for at least 3-4 hours before you eat it, preferably in a sugar cone with a dark chocolate lining...

Strawberry ice cream

After eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and tea we threw in the towel and made something that would keep for a while.

You'll need:

a large punnet of strawberries, washed and hulled
a 300ml carton of double or whipping cream
100g caster sugar

If you're using an ice cream machine like ours, don't forget to put the bowl in the freezer the night before...

Sling the strawberries and sugar in a liquidiser/blender. Whizz round until you have a lovely smooth strawberry puree. Tip in the cream, and mix the two together.

Decant into your ice cream maker, and follow the instructions. Ours is a bit rubbish and threatens to overheat after about 45 minutes of churning, so I tend to decant it into a tub and stick in the freezer for a final burst until it's properly set and frozen.

This time I had so much mixture that I also made one batch solely in the freezer - just remember to come back every hour or two and give it a good stir to get rid of any ice crystals.

Strawberry ice cream lollies

You were responsible for most of this (apart from whipping the cream) - and had great fun tasting the mixture at different stages...

It made enough to fill 6 small ice lolly moulds, and 4 silicon cupcake moulds (for the grownups).

You'll need:

30g white caster sugar
250ml whipping cream
130g strawberry jam (whisked, so there's no large lumps)
50g fresh strawberries, hulled
a few pistachio nuts, crushed

Chop your strawberries into small chunks, and then roll in the caster sugar. Whip the cream until it's fairly stiff, and then fold in the strawberry jam. Chuck in the strawberries, and carefully fold into the mix.

Stuff the creamy mixture into the ice lolly moulds (we did this with a couple of teaspoons, but you'd probably get even better results if you used a piping bag). If you want to make some ice cream cupcakes, line some small silicon cupcake moulds with cling film, fill with the creamy mixture, and then wrap the cling film over the top.

Stick everything in the freezer - it'll probably take 3-4 hours to freeze properly. Slide the lollies out by running a little hot water over them, or warming the mould in your hands. The cupcakes are dead easy - just unwrap the cling film, and place on a plate.

You could also use raspberries/raspberry jam, or glace cherries/berry jam for a real sugar hit. The lollies are gorgeous dipped in crushed pistachio nuts, or chocolate vermicelli...

Coconut and banana ice cream

Guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of the most chicken pox-ridden small child.

You'll need:

a banana
2/3 of a tin of coconut cream/milk (here's the recipe that used the other third)
about 80g sugar

You'll also need the foresight to put the bowl for the ice cream maker in the freezer the day before...

Stick all the ingredients in a blender. Blitz until they're well mixed. Pour into your freezing cold bowl and churn for however long it takes (it's about an hour in our very aged ice cream maker - and inevitably it still needs a brief spell in the freezer after that).

You could also make this in container in the freezer - you'll need to remember to take it out occasionally and mix.

Banana ice cream

We made banana ice cream this afternoon. It was going to be strawberry, but when I walked down to the supermarket last night there were none to be seen.

The original recipe came from Nigel Slater's Real Food - but I had to adjust the quantities because our freecycle ice cream maker is tiny.

Don't forget, you have to stick the bowl in the freezer for a few hours, or overnight.

150ml cream (I used double cream, but whipping would probably be even better)
2 ripe-ish bananas
60g caster sugar
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Chop up the bananas, and stick in the blender, together with the lemon juice and sugar. Remember to put the lid on. Whizz round for a bit (your favourite part). Pour in the cream. Whizz round a bit more.

Decant into the bowl from the ice cream maker. Fiddle about for ages with the lid/paddle combination. Leave to churn for 45 minutes (or until the motor threatens to blow up). It'll probably be still quite soft - stick it in a tub in the freezer to finish it off.

We had chocolate/toffee sauce on top today - there were going to be hundreds and thousands but then I realised the best before date was October 2003...