Nigel Slater Ice Creams and Sorbets

collected until 2/11/2014
Table of Contents
Ice creams.......................................................................................................... 3
Vanilla ice cream ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Classic vanilla ice cream ............................................................................................................................... 3
Frost bites (rich vanilla ice cream recipe follows) .......................................................................... 4
Rich vanilla ice cream ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce .................................................................................. 7
Vanilla ice cream cake with strawberry sauce ................................................................................. 8
Peanut cookies, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate .......................................................................... 8
Salted caramel and panettone sundae...............................................................................................10
Chocolate and coffee ice creams ......................................................................................................... 11
Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream........................................................................................11
Espresso ice cream ........................................................................................................................................13
Almost instant chocolate ice cream ......................................................................................................14
White chocolate and pistachio ice cream..........................................................................................14
Espresso delivery (article) ..........................................................................................................................16
Affogate al caffe ................................................................................................................................................17
Berry ice creams ........................................................................................................................................... 19
Strawberry ice cream.....................................................................................................................................19
Strawberry cream meringue cake ..........................................................................................................20
Strawberry and raspberry sundae .........................................................................................................21
Strawberries and lemon cream ice .......................................................................................................22
Raspberry vanilla ice-cream cake  ......................................................................................................23
Blackcurrant ripple...........................................................................................................................................24
Blackcurrant and vanilla sundae.............................................................................................................25
Stone fruit ice creams ................................................................................................................................ 26
Apricot and lemon sundae..........................................................................................................................26
Damson ice cream  ......................................................................................................................................27
Peach and cherry ice-cream cake .........................................................................................................28
Mango frozen yogurt ......................................................................................................................................29
Sundae best (article, Peach melba recipe follows) .....................................................................30
A classic peach melba ..................................................................................................................................31
Peach Melba .......................................................................................................................................................32
Citrus ice creams .......................................................................................................................................... 33
Orange and lemon ice cream ...................................................................................................................33
Lemon ice cream tart with gingernut crust .......................................................................................34
Apple and pear ice creams...................................................................................................................... 34
Poached pear and cream cheese sundae........................................................................................34
Roast apples with apple custard ice cream .....................................................................................36
Yogurt ice creams ........................................................................................................................................ 37
Lemon sheep's-milk frozen yogurt ........................................................................................................37
Frozen yogurt with warm blackcurrant sauce .................................................................................38
Whipping yarns (article) ...............................................................................................................................38
Mint yogurt ice cream ....................................................................................................................................40
Some other good ice creams ................................................................................................................. 41
Rosewater and cardamom ice cream..................................................................................................41
Banana ice cream with warm cranberry sauce .............................................................................42
Golden bread and hazelnut ice ...............................................................................................................43
Articles about ice creams ......................................................................................................................... 44
Sex on a plate (article) ..................................................................................................................................44
Pulp fiction (article) .........................................................................................................................................46
1
Sorbets ............................................................................................................. 48
Berry sorbets .................................................................................................................................................. 48
Strawberry sorbet.............................................................................................................................................48
Nigel Slater's strawberry and elderflower sorbet and warm strawberry and
gooseberry jam recipes (article) .............................................................................................................49
Strawberry and elderflower sorbet ........................................................................................................50
Raspberry sorbet ..............................................................................................................................................51
Strawberry ice ....................................................................................................................................................52
Blackcurrant frozen yogurt with crumble ...........................................................................................53
Nigel Slater’s ice-cream and granita recipes (article) ......................................................................54
Watermelon granita with herb sugar ....................................................................................................55
Stone fruit sorbets ........................................................................................................................................ 56
Mango sorbet and vanilla ice cream ....................................................................................................56
Lychee sorbet .....................................................................................................................................................57
A sorbet of roasted plums ...........................................................................................................................58
Citrus sorbets ................................................................................................................................................. 59
White grapefruit sorbet .................................................................................................................................59
Elderflower and grapefruit sorbet ...........................................................................................................59
Seriously lemony sorbet ..............................................................................................................................60
Orange yoghurt water ice............................................................................................................................61
Some other good sorbets ......................................................................................................................... 62
Passion fruit yoghurt sorbet .......................................................................................................................62
Thriller in the chiller (article) ......................................................................................................................62
Pear and lemon sorbet .................................................................................................................................63
Melon sorbet .......................................................................................................................................................64
Pomegranate sorbet.......................................................................................................................................65
Coffee granita .....................................................................................................................................................66
2
Ice creams
Vanilla ice cream
Classic vanilla ice cream
Deepest summer goes hand in hand with ice cream, but as the product gets
fancier, with more bits and bobs added to it by commercial manufacturers, the
pure pleasure of an old-fashioned vanilla ice becomes all the more precious.
One lick and you are six years old again
The Observer, Sunday 4 July 2010
"For a twist on this classic recipe you could swirl in a few spoonfuls of
blackcurrant or raspberry purée for a contemporary version of old-fashioned
raspberry ripple." Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer
The recipe
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Serves 6
600ml milk 
1 fat vanilla pod 
6 egg yolks 
150g caster sugar
Pour 600ml milk into a saucepan. Slice a fat vanilla pod in half lengthways
and scrape the sticky black vanilla seeds into the pan with the point of a knife.
Drop the scraped pod in, too, then bring the mixture almost to the boil. Turn
off the heat just before it boils. Leave for 30 minutes or so, for the vanilla to
flavour the milk.
Beat 6 egg yolks and 150g caster sugar till light and fluffy. Fish out the vanilla
pod but not the seeds from the milk, then pour it through a sieve into the egg
yolks and sugar, stirring till you get a thin custard. Pour it into a clean
saucepan.
Put the custard over a moderate heat and, stirring almost continuously with a
wooden spoon, bring it slowly towards the boil. Once the custard is thick
enough to thinly coat the back of a wooden spoon, remove it from the heat,
pour it into a cold basin and leave it to cool. Once it is cool, refrigerate it for a
good half-hour before pouring into an ice cream machine and churning until
almost frozen.
The trick
The custard must not reach boiling point, but should start to thicken before it
gets there. If you overheat the custard it will curdle (I guarantee), so make
certain that the spoon gets right into the corners of the pan. Your most helpful
utensil will be a sink of cold water. If there is even the remotest sign of
curdling, quickly dunk the pan into a sink of cold water to cool the sauce down
and whisk like you mean it.
The twist
Made with half milk and half cream, the result will taste more like the ices of
your childhood. When you transfer the ice cream to a freezer box, swirl in a
few spoonfuls of blackcurrant or raspberry purée for a contemporary version
of old-fashioned raspberry ripple.
Frost bites (rich vanilla ice cream recipe follows)
It's our favourite heat beater, yet few bother to make it. Nigel Slater whips up
the perfect ice cream
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Oh to find the perfect ice cream. An ice to equal those of our childhood,
neither too creamy nor too sweet, a careful balance of cream, sugar and
vanilla, and served at just the right temperature. Perhaps it should be melting
a little around the edges, an invitation to lick before it drips, cool and milky,
down our hand.
The perfect ice cream is almost certain to be one we ate not this week or even
this year, but 10 or 20 years ago, and yet of which we can remember every
last detail. It just may be that the cream was richer or the ingredients more
pure, but it is far more likely that our ideal ice is simply laced with the rose-
tinted seasoning of nostalgia.
That ice cream, the one by which we judge all others, may have come in a
dented silver dish in a seaside cafe or come swirling out of a machine in one
of Mr Whippy's smoke-belching vans. It almost certainly was devoid of any of
the shortcake, cookie-dough, choc-chip chunks of today's ritzy, cluttered
offerings. Our perfect ice will surely be soft, creamy, pale and pure, flavoured
with nothing but vanilla and eaten under a bright blue sky.
I say creamy, but the ices I remember most fondly were less rich than those
nowadays, perhaps made with more milk than cream. They weren't so
monotonously smooth either, having a slight graininess that would today be
frowned upon, seized upon by the ice cream police as a fault in production.
My own perfect vanilla ice came in a roll of paper that could be peeled away
and licked - but with that I show my age a little more than I would like to.
I am willing to bet that most of the ices we think of with such affection had
never been near a real vanilla pod. Maybe here lies the clue to perfection.
Maybe they were so good partly because the flavouring was almost
undetectable. Vanilla, like saffron, cinnamon and caraway, is something you
want in the background rather than in your face, like strawberry or chocolate.
So, strangely, our ultimate vanilla ice cream seems to contain too much of
neither cream nor vanilla.
Texture is as crucial here as it is in, say, cheese or fruit. Too soft and you
have no time to linger and enjoy; too hard and you are left frustrated, both at
the deadness of flavour and your inability to get more than a tiny shard of it on
your spoon.
My kitchen equipment is kept to the barest minimum - I have no time for

gadgets - yet I have to admit to long ago investing in an ice cream maker. I
use it all summer, every summer. You can make a good enough cornet, wafer
or sundae without the benefit of a space-hogging machine, but the result will
always be more solid and less creamy. The slow, churning motion as the
custard freezes is essential if you are to get a really fine texture. But then we
are talking about perfection here, and a hand-frozen ice is pretty delicious,
too.
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To some it will seem silly to go to the trouble of making their own, of doing
battle with curdling custard and waiting patiently while the capricious mixture
freezes. There are, I am the first to admit, so many good brands about. Yet of
all the things I make at home, ice cream (as indeed cake) is one of the things I
get the biggest buzz from. And for that first lick or two at least, it beats even
the clearest memories of those ice creams of long ago.
The cream
I have made ices with milk and found them to be my favourite of all. But their
milkiness is not to everyone's taste. Whipping cream works as well as double,
giving a slightly less rich finish. Get it if you can. Alter the ratio of cream to
milk to suit your taste, but make sure both are spanking fresh.
Vanilla
Vanilla pods seem expensive until you see how far their little black seeds go.
The flavour is much more subtle than any of the vanilla extracts and will give a
superior flavour that is more than worth the expense.
Making the custard
Keeping a careful watch on the heat of the custard is the only sure way to
stop it curdling. It should never be too hot to put your finger in. I put a deep
layer of cold water in the sink so I can quickly dunk the pan if it overheats.
Should it show any sign of splitting (little grains, dots or lumps) then dunk the
pan in the water and whisk like crazy. Dropping in an ice cube works, too.
Storage
You may want to keep the end product for a week or two (though I honestly
cannot think why). The most suitable storage seems to be a plastic box. A
tight lid is essential if your precious efforts aren't to pick up every other flavour
in the deep freeze, including that of the fish fingers.
Rich vanilla ice cream
Serves 6
500ml milk 
500ml double or whipping cream 
a vanilla pod 
6 egg yolks 
150g caster sugar
Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Slice the vanilla pod in half
lengthways and scrape the sticky seeds into the pan with the point of a knife.
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Drop the scraped pods in, too, then bring the mixture almost to the boil. Turn
off the heat just before it boils. Leave for 30 minutes or so, for the vanilla to
flavour the milk.
Beat the yolks and sugar till light and fluffy (they should be almost white). Fish
the vanilla pods, but not the seeds, from the milk then pour it through a sieve
into the egg yolk and sugar, stirring till you get a thin custard. Pour it into a
clean saucepan.
Now the tricky bit. Put the custard over a moderate heat and, stirring almost
continuously with a wooden spoon, bring it slowly towards the boil. The
custard must not reach boiling point, but should start to thicken before it gets
there. If you overheat the custard it will curdle (I guarantee) so I make certain
that the spoon gets right into the corners of the pan. If there is even the
remotest sign of curdling, then quickly dunk the pan in the sink of cold water
mentioned above and beat quickly to get the temperature down.
Once the custard is thick enough to thinly coat the back of a wooden spoon,
then remove it from the heat, pour it into a cold basin and leave it to cool.
Once it's cool, refrigerate it for a good half hour before pouring into an ice
cream machine and churning till almost frozen.
Hand-churned ice cream
For those without an ice cream machine, the ice is easy to make by hand.
Pour the cooled custard into a plastic container and put into the deep freeze
for an hour - small ice crystals will appear around the edge. Fold these into
the middle with a whisk then return to the freezer for another hour. Again,
whisk the frozen edges into the middle then refreeze. This may seem long-
winded, but it is the nearest you can get to churning the ice as it freezes.
Whisk once more then leave to freeze till almost hard - a matter of a further
two hours.
Vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce
Make your own ice cream if you wish, but I don't think this is the time to be
precious. Hopefully, none of us will have the time anyway.
Serves 2
4 balls of very best vanilla ice cream  
250g fine plain chocolate  
2 tsps strong black coffee (espresso is ideal)  
300ml whipping cream  
a knob of butter about the size of a walnut
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Break the chocolate into small pieces so that it melts easily. Put it into a
heavy-bottomed saucepan with the coffee and the cream. Heat slowly, stirring
from time to time, until the chocolate has melted. It is essential that the heat is
kept low.
Once the chocolate is softened, stir until smooth, then stir in the butter and
pour into a warm jug. Serve warm with ice cream.
Vanilla ice cream cake with strawberry sauce
You could, of course, make your own sponge cake for this simple ice cream
dessert. But then, if you are going to that much trouble you might as well
make your own ice cream, too. Most major food shops sell really buttery plain
sponge cakes. If they are made with ground almonds, all the better.
Serves 6
plain sponge cake - 275g
vanilla ice cream - 1 litre
strawberries - 200g
caster sugar - 2 tbs
You will need a loaf tin, approximately 22cm x 12 cm, lined with clingfilm or
greaseproof paper.
Slice the sponge thinly and use it to line the bottom and sides of the loaf tin.
Leave enough to put a layer on top later. Patch it where you must, but try to
keep the splices as large as possible.
Let the ice cream soften slightly in its tub, but it mustn't melt. Spoon the ice
cream into the loaf tin, pushing it right into the corners. Smooth the top then
cover with the remaining slices of sponge cake. Cover tightly with cling film
then freeze for a good hour. (It can stay frozen for several days if tightly
wrapped.)
Bring the cake out of the freezer a good 20 minutes before you need it to let
the sponge soften. To make the sauce, blitz the strawberries and sugar in a
food processor until they are a runny purée. Serve the cake in thick slices,
with the sauce in a small jug.
Peanut cookies, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate
8
Peanut cookies, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate. Photograph: Jonathan

Lovekin for Observer Food Monthly
The idea of something soft with something crisp is timeless, from cream-filled
brandy snaps to tubs of cookies'n'cream ice-cream. It is why those crisp, pale
langues de chat biscuits are so welcome with summer fruit fools and why an
ice-cream cornet is a thing of perfection. Here are five recipes that take
something soft and creamy – ice-cream, a fruit fool, a mascarpone cream –
and serve them with a light and crisp biscuit.
Enough for 12 
butter 120g 
muscovado sugar 120g 
egg yolk 1 
porridge oats 120g 
peanut butter 2 heaped tbsp (smooth or crunchy) 
salted roasted peanuts 160g 
dark chocolate 100g 
vanilla ice-cream 1 ltr
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Beat the butter and sugar together until
soft, pale and creamy. Add the egg yolk, then stir in the porridge oats and
peanut butter. Roughly crush half the peanuts and stir in.
Press the dough gently into a baking sheet or Swiss roll tin, approximately
20cm x 30cm. Scatter over the remaining peanuts then bake for 15-20
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minutes till pale and lightly firm to the touch. Remove and leave to cool. Melt
the chocolate in a small basin set over a pan of simmering water. Place the
ice-cream in bowls, trickle over some of the melted chocolate then serve with
the peanut biscuits, broken into pieces.
Salted caramel and panettone sundae
Salted caramel and panettone sundae.. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for

Observer Food Monthly
Sticky, salty and sweet. An indulgence of the first order.
Serves 2 
For the sauce 
light muscovado 50g 
double cream 125ml 
vanilla extract a few drops 
sea salt flakes ½ to 1 tsp 
For the toast 
panettone 150g 
vanilla ice-cream 2-4 balls
Make the caramel sauce: Put the sugar and cream in a small saucepan, add
the vanilla extract and sea salt, and bring to the boil, then turn off and remove
from the heat.
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Cut the panettone into slices, then toast till lightly golden on both sides. Dip
the panettone into the caramel sauce, then divide between two plates. Place a
ball of ice-cream, or two if you wish, on each piece of toast, trickle over any
caramel sauce that hasn't been soaked up by the panettone and serve.
Chocolate and coffee ice creams
Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream
This dessert is a happy marriage of bitter shards of chocolate and leftover

orange preserve: a wonderfully textured soft-scoop ice cream tinged with a
citrus tang
The Observer, Sunday 2 December 2012
11
Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
What started as an experiment ended up as beautiful, custard-coloured, soft-

scoop ice-cream of which I am almost absurdly proud. It turns out that adding
marmalade also stops the ice-cream from setting like a brick. The flavours are
stunning. If only cooking was always like this.
Serves 6
single or whipping cream 500ml 
egg yolks 4 
golden caster sugar 2 tbsp 
marmalade 400g 
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dark chocolate 100g roughly chopped
Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a
heatproof bowl till thick, then pour in the hot cream and stir.
Rinse the saucepan and return the custard to it, stirring the mixture over a low
heat till it starts to thicken slightly. It won't become really thick.
Cool the custard quickly – I do this by plunging the pan into a shallow sink of
cold water – stirring constantly, then chill thoroughly.
Stir the marmalade into the chilled custard. Now you can either make the ice
cream by hand or use an ice-cream machine. If making it in a machine, pour
in the custard and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. When
the ice cream is almost thick enough to transfer to the freezer, fold in the
chopped chocolate, churning briefly to mix. Scoop into a plastic, lidded box
and freeze till you are ready to eat it.
If you are making it by hand, pour the custard and the chopped chocolate into
a freezer box and place it in the freezer, removing it and giving it a quick beat
with a whisk every hour until it has set.
Espresso ice cream
Simple ingredients and a careful eye on the freezer will get you homemade
ice cream, without the machine.
Ingredients
1 litre/1¾ pints ready-made custard
200ml/7fl oz leftover coffee
Preparation method
 Pour the custard and the coffee into a tray that will fit into the freezer.
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Stir together well.

 Place the tray in the freezer and freeze for at least three hours, making
sure that you churn the mixture with a fork every hour, to stop large ice
crystals forming.
 Serve when the ice cream has set.
Almost instant chocolate ice cream
I use bought custard from the chiller cabinet at the supermarket for this.
Check the ingredients carefully though, some brands are better than others.
Serves 4-6
fine quality dark chocolate - 200g
a small espresso - about 50ml
fresh custard - 400g
whipping cream - 250ml
Put the chocolate, broken into pieces, and the coffee in a heatproof basin set
over a small pan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl
doesn't touch the water.
Once the chocolate has melted, stir gently once or twice and turn off the heat.
Pour the custard into a jug, then stir in the cream and chocolate. Scoop the
mixture into an ice-cream machine and churn until frozen.
No ice-cream machine? Then pour the mixture into a plastic box and place in
the freezer, removing it and beating the mixture with a hand whisk every
couple of hours until it's almost frozen. (You will need to do this two or three
times.)
If you leave it in the freezer overnight, then place it in the fridge for an hour or
so before serving to allow it to soften.
White chocolate and pistachio ice cream
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Sweet treat: white chocolate and pistachio ice cream. Photograph: Jonathan
Lovekin for the Observer.
Serves 6 
full-cream milk 500ml  
vanilla extract 
egg yolks 4 
caster sugar 4 tbsp 
white chocolate 200g 
pistachios 100g, shelled and finely chopped
Pour the milk and cream into a nonstick saucepan, add a few drops of vanilla
extract and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat. Put the egg yolks and the sugar
into a bowl and whisk until thick and creamy, then pour the hot vanilla cream
over the egg yolks and sugar, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Rinse the pan, then pour in the custard mixture and place over a moderate
heat. Stir almost constantly, but do not boil. When the mixture will coat the
back of your wooden spoon, remove from the heat. If the custard shows any
sign of curdling, plunge the saucepan into cold water and whisk furiously until
all the steam has gone and the graininess disappeared.
In a pan over hot water, melt the white chocolate, then pour the custard into
the chocolate and stir. Leave to chill, then pour into an ice-cream machine
and churn until almost set. Add the chopped pistachios just as the ice cream
is approaching readiness, then scoop the mixture into a cold freezer box and
leave to freeze.
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Espresso delivery (article)
It kick starts his day and flavours his cakes and sweets... no wonder Nigel
Slater's hooked on coffee
The Observer, Sunday 23 March 2003
Life is full of foodie rituals. I am not talking about the weigh-in at the truffle fair
in Verona or the annual tomato street fight in Bunol, Valencia, but those small,
private rituals that make our working day richer. Mine start early, shortly after
waking, 15 or maybe 20 minutes each morning that I value above all others.
Precious, private minutes, on which nothing and no one may intrude save, I
suppose, the postman with a parcel. These are minutes reserved for the first
espresso and the newspaper.
Making espresso is a habit that, by paying close attention to the most minute
detail, I have inadvertently turned into a ritual: the warming of the tiny white
Italian cup; the 'tamping' of the finely ground coffee so that it sits tightly
packed; the almost ceremonial unwrapping of the sugar cube. The bit that is
most special of all is watching the stream of coffee pouring oh-so-slowly into
the cup, watching the frothy, cinnamon-coloured crema appearing on top and
knowing exactly the moment at which to stop. Then there's the real geek stuff
such as counting the last drops after switching the machine off (six) or putting
the sugar in first so it dissolves without stirring. All of which I am sure will be
used in evidence against me one day. I wouldn't even begin to tell you how I
make my afternoon pot of green tea.
At 7.30 in the morning, all that registers is the addictive smell of coffee and
newsprint. It is a complex smell, one with the faintest notes of almond and
chocolate, and fruity, too, a smell of which I need a regular fix.
Yet I don't drink that much coffee. Two diminutive cups first thing, then maybe
one during the morning and another after lunch. Not a drop passes my lips
after that. I drank my first espresso, actually so small and piercingly strong it
was more likely a ristretto, in Milan. Appropriate enough, but a mistake - I
really wanted one of the deep, frothy coffees everyone else was drinking, but
was too embarrassed to ask the waiter to change it.
I don't grind my own beans. What is the point when the Italians have got the
grind and the packaging down to a fine art? What matters is the smell, the
flavour and the crema. But what has any of this to do with cooking?
Espresso is strong enough to use as a flavouring, just as you would a

distillation of violet, rose or orange petals, or perhaps an eau de vie or liqueur.
You can scent a cake with it, a tray of biscuits or an ice cream. You can make
a coffee custard for pouring over a thin slice of chocolate cake or flavouring
an icing. The best éclairs I have ever eaten were those whose chocolate had
been replaced with a thin frosting of coffee icing.
The recipes, and there are many of them, that list instant coffee powder as an
16
ingredient are often better made with espresso. Made with a small, very
strong espresso, the flavour is deeper and more interesting. Coffee this strong
has a welcome effect on chocolate, too, somehow making a chocolate cake,
mousse or sauce taste more of itself. There is also the possibility of using the
coffee as itself, as in the classic affogate al caffe, where vanilla ice cream is
surrounded by hot steaming coffee - a ritual I could get into all too easily.
Affogate al caffe
This recipe has much going for it. Apart from the dramatic, almost shocking
contrast between the burning-hot coffee and the frozen vanilla ice, there is
also its not-to- be-overlooked convenience.
Serves 4
8 neat balls of very good quality vanilla ice cream 
4 small cups of hot, freshly made espresso coffee 
small almond biscuits to serve
The ice cream needs to be really cold for this - soft ice cream will just dissolve
in the coffee.
Put 2 balls of ice cream in each of 4 cups. Make the coffees then pour them
over the ice cream and eat immediately before the ice cream melts. Serve
with little almond biscuits on the side.
Banana ice creams
Banana and cardamom frozen yogurt with rose and almond brittle
17
Go nuts: Nigel Slater’s rose and almond brittle graces a bowl of his banana and
cardamom frozen yogurt. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/Observer
Serves 4
for the syrup:
caster sugar 100g
water 150ml
for the ice:

cardamom 10 pods, crushed
yogurt 450g, full-fat
bananas 400g (peeled weight)
lemon juice of half
Put the sugar in a saucepan, pour in the water then bring to the
boil. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat. Chill
the syrup, either by letting it cool then refrigerating it, or you
could speed up the process by immersing the saucepan in a sink
of cold water and stirring the syrup until cool. It should be
chilled before you start the ice-cream machine.
Crack open the cardamom pods and extract the black seeds.
Crush the seeds to a coarse powder and add to the yogurt.
Process the bananas to a thick purée, add the lemon juice, then
18
stir in the chilled sugar syrup.
Pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine and churn

according to the instructions. Transfer to a freezer box and place
in the deep freeze. You can also make this without a machine,
though the texture will be less creamy.
Rose and almond brittle

For best results, when making caramel it is essential not to stir
the sugar and water mixture too much.
sugar 50g
water 240ml
almonds 40g, flaked
crystallised rose petals 1 tbsp
Put the sugar in a shallow, nonstick pan over a moderate heat

then add the water. Bring to the boil and leave to bubble,
watching constantly, until the caramel turns a pale honey colour.
Add the flaked almonds and shake the pan or gently stir to mix.
Chop the crystallised rose petals, add them to the pan, mix in,
then tip in a shallow layer on to a lightly oiled baking sheet and
leave to cool and harden. Snap the brittle into pieces and serve
with the frozen yogurt.
Berry ice creams
Strawberry ice cream
I came across the idea of adding balsamic vinegar to strawberry ice cream
while browsing one of Anna del Conte's delightful books. I tried it and was
immediately convinced. This is the best strawberry ice cream I've ever made.
Thank you Anna.
Serves 6
500g strawberries 
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125g caster sugar 
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar  
200ml whipping cream
Rinse the berries in a colander then remove their stalks. Put the berries and
sugar into a food processor and blitz till smooth and bright scarlet. Introduce
the balsamic vinegar and keep blending till there are no lumps.
Whip the cream in a cold bowl until it forms soft peaks. Stop beating when the
cream will just hold a gentle peak. Stir the puree into the cream then pour into
a freezer box and cover. Freeze for two hours until the ice cream is starting to
freeze around the edges. Beat the ice cream with a whisk to mix the frozen bit
into the liquid centre then return quickly to the freezer. Continue freezing,
whisking every two hours or so until the mixture is thick and slushy. Leave for
a further couple of hours to harden.
Of course, you can make it in a machine. Pour the mixture into the bowl of
your ice-cream machine and follow the manufacturer's instructions.
Strawberry cream meringue cake
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Strawberry cream meringue cake. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
SERVES 6-8 
lemon curd 200g 
strawberries 250g 
ripe apricots 6 
meringues 200g
You will also need  a cake tin 20cm x 10cm x 8cm high
Whip the cream to soft folds with a balloon whisk, then tenderly fold in the
lemon curd, leaving streaks of curd visible through the cream. Avoid the
temptation to over mix. Halve the strawberries. Halve, stone and quarter the
apricots. Crush the meringues into small pieces with your hands then very
gently fold the meringues, fruits and cream together.
Line the cake tin with clingfilm, leaving enough overhanging to fold over after
filling. Spoon the meringue mixture into the tin, pushing the filling well down
into the corners. Fold the clingfilm over the top and press down lightly to
remove any air pockets. Freeze for at least 4 hours, but preferably not
overnight. Slice thickly.
Strawberry and raspberry sundae
For a large group of people, pile this all on to a huge platter in the centre of
21
the table and just let everyone tuck in.
Serves 2-3  
strawberries 300g 
balsamic vinegar 1 tsp 
vanilla ice cream 500ml   
For the sauce: 
raspberries 200g 
sparkling mineral water 3 or 4 tbsp 
lemon balm or lemon verbena 3 or 4 leaves   
For the cream: 
vanilla seeds a pinch or two   
Hull and halve the strawberries and put them in a bowl. Pour over the
balsamic vinegar and set aside for half an hour.
To make the sauce, put the raspberries in a food processor and blitz to a
smooth purée. I leave the seeds in, but sieve them out if you prefer. If you are
using the lemon balm or verbena, add it now, together with the mineral water.
Blitz briefly, then set aside. It may need a last-minute stir before you use it.
Pour the cream into a chilled bowl and whisk it briefly until it thickens enough
to hold its own shape. It shouldn't be stiff enough to stand in peaks. Gently
fold in a pinch or two of vanilla seeds.
To assemble, alternate macerated strawberries, vanilla cream, scoops of ice

cream and trickles of raspberry purée.
Strawberries and lemon cream ice
While I would never cook a strawberry, I am happy enough to mash them in a

fool or to turn them into ice cream. Keeping the ingredients to the minimum -
berries, sugar and cream - you get an ice with a flavour that is particularly
clear and bright.
Serves 6
22
500g strawberries
white caster sugar
juice of lemon
200ml whipping cream
Rinse and hull the strawberries, then tip them into a food processor with the
sugar and blitz until smooth and bright scarlet. Mix in the lemon juice.
Whip the cream so it forms soft peaks - it really mustn't be stiff, just firm
enough to fall slowly from the whisk. Stir the purée in to the cream - gently,
slowly, so as not to overbeat the cream - then pour the mixture into a freezer
box and freeze for two hours. Whisk the ice cream with a balloon whisk or
electric hand mixer, then return quickly to the freezer.
Continue freezing, whisking every two hours or so, until the ice cream is thick
and slushy, then leave it to harden. The whole process will take 6-8 hours,
depending on your freezer.
If you have an ice-cream machine, by all means use it - you will get a
smoother, less solid result.
Raspberry vanilla ice-cream cake 
You could, of course, make your own sponge cake for this simple ice-cream
dessert. But then, if you are going to that much trouble, you might as well
make your own ice cream, too. Some major food shops sell really buttery
plain sponge cakes, and if they have ground almonds in, then all the better, or
you could use a brioche loaf or a plain panettone instead. It is essential to
bring the cake out of the freezer a good half-hour before you intend to eat. I
know this seems like a long time, but, trust me, it takes that long to soften
enough to cut. 
Enough for 8
300g plain sponge cake 
1 litre vanilla ice cream 
450g raspberries 
2 tbsp icing sugar
You will need a cake tin, approximately 22cm square, lined with cling
23
film or greaseproof paper.
Slice the sponge thinly and use half of it to line the bottom of the tin. Leave
enough to put a layer on top later. Patch it where you must, but try to keep the
slices as large as possible.
Let the ice cream soften slightly in its tub, but it must not melt. Scatter half of
the raspberries over the cake, then spoon the ice cream on top, pushing it
right into the corners. Smooth the top, then cover with the remaining
raspberries. Cover with the reserved slices of sponge cake. Press down firmly
in order to compress the fruit and ice cream.
Cover tightly with cling film, then freeze for a good hour (it can stay frozen for
several days if tightly wrapped). Bring the cake out of the freezer a good 30
minutes before you need it, to let the sponge soften.
Remove the cake from the tin and dust with the icing sugar before slicing with
a large, heavy knife.
Blackcurrant ripple
Blackcurrant ripple. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
An easy ice-cream terrine requiring no ice-cream machine.
Serves 6 
For the fruit 
24
blackcurrants 250g 
sugar 2 tbsp 
water 2 tbsp
For the ice cream 
eggs 3 
caster sugar 80g 
vanilla extract a few drops 
You will also need  a loaf tin approximately 22cm x 12cm lined with
clingfilm
Remove the blackcurrants from their stalks, drop into a small saucepan and
add the sugar and water. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and continue
cooking until the fruit has started to burst and the sugar has dissolved.
Remove from the heat and cool.
To make the ice cream, separate the eggs, put the yolks in the bowl of a food
mixer with the sugar and whisk till thick and creamy. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Whisk the double cream until thick but not stiff. It should still be able to slide a
little in the bowl. Fold the cream gently into the egg and sugar. Transfer to the
lined tin.
Lightly crush the blackcurrants with a fork, then, holding back the juice, spoon
the currants into the tin and gently swirl them through the mixture. Take care
not to overmix. Fold clingfilm over the top and freeze for 6 hours before
turning out and slicing.
Blackcurrant and vanilla sundae
A sundae should be served chilled, yet the addition of warm sauce, be it

chocolate fudge with coffee ice or a hot marmalade sauce with vanilla ice
cream, is seriously delicious. At the height of summer, a bubbling mixture of
scarlet fruits can be very enticing over freezer-hard ice cream. I suggest
raspberry and red currant or one made from blackcurrants and a little sugar.
The contrast of the hot and sharp and cold and sweet is extraordinary.
Serves 4
8 scoops of vanilla ice cream
25
for the sauce:
250g blackcurrants
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
Top and tail the blackcurrants. Tedious, I know, but necessary, as the sauce
will not be sieved. Put the fruit in a stainless-steel pan together with the water
and sugar. Bring to the boil then turn down the heat. Leave to cook at a slow
pace until the fruits have started to burst and exude a rich, purple juice. Pour
into a jug and keep warm.
Place the scoops of ice cream into the chilled glasses. Serve the sauce
separately.
There are many varieties of sugar you can use to frame the rim of a glass.
Beat an egg white till slightly frothy with a fork, then brush it around the rim.
Press it into a plate of sugar and leave for few minutes to dry before adding
your sundae ingredients. I have been using Steenbergs rose sugar, which
seems appropriate at this time of year.
Stone fruit ice creams
Apricot and lemon sundae
Apricots can disappoint, yet even the most flavourless and impenetrable can
be worth eating with the application of a little sugar and heat. Once they're
plump with sugar syrup, their flavour will shine out and remind you why you
bought them.
Serves 2
6 apricots
80g sugar
500ml water
a tsp rosewater
for the sundae:
4 scoops lemon sorbet
a tbsp of pistachio nuts
26
crystallised violets
Put the apricots in a pan with the sugar and water and bring to the boil.
Immediately turn the heat down to a slow simmer and leave the fruit for 10-15
minutes till thoroughly tender. They should, I think, be on the point of collapse.
Set aside to cool.
Refrigerate the apricots - they're much more refreshing when very cold. Chop
the pistachios finely. Divide the apricots between two glasses, removing the
stones as you go. Flavour the chilled syrup from the apricots with a little
rosewater, tasting as you go, then pour over the fruit. Adding less than half a
teaspoon will give a gentle note of summer; adding too much will make it taste
like soap.
Put the scoops of sorbet in with the fruit, then add some of the chopped
pistachios and, if you like, the sugared flowers.
Damson ice cream 
Serves 4
50g damsons 
4 tbsp water 
4 egg yolks 
250ml double cream 
250ml natural yogurt
Rinse the damsons, then bring to the boil with the water in a stainless-steel
pan. It won't seem like enough water, but trust me. Turn down the heat so the
damsons simmer gently for 10 minutes until the skins have burst and you
have a quantity of deep-purple juice. Push the fruit through a fine sieve with a
wooden spoon, pushing till you have nothing left but stones. Leave the puree
to cool.
Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar till pale and creamy. Warm the cream in
a medium-sized saucepan then pour it over the egg and sugar, stirring. Rinse
the pan, then return the custard to it, putting it over a gentle heat and stirring
gently till you have custard the thickness of double cream. It is essential that
the mixture doesn't get too hot.
I prefer to stir continuously with a wooden spoon, right into the corners of the
pan, until it is just thick enough, then I immediately transfer it into a cool bowl
set in a sink of shallow cold water. The sudden cooling helps to stop the
27
custard curdling, as does a good whisking. Let the custard cool.
Mix the damson puree, custard and yogurt. Pour into the bowl of an ice-cream
machine and churn till almost frozen. Remove to a plastic freezer box and
freeze till needed.
If you don't have a machine you can still make the ice cream, just place in the
freezer, remove every hour, and give it a good whisk, bringing the frozen
outer edges into the middle. The result will be good, but less light and creamy
than that made in a machine. It needs four hours to freeze.
Peach and cherry ice-cream cake
Peach and cherry ice-cream cake. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
You could make your own ice-cream for this, but that would be to lose the
point of the recipe. A quick, cassata-style cake that anyone can make.
Serves 6 
soft amaretti 200g 
vanilla ice-cream 500g 
fresh cherries 200g 
ripe peaches 2
Crush the soft amaretti to coarse crumbs in a food processor and scatter half
over the base of a square 20cm springform cake tin. Leave the ice-cream out
of the freezer for 20 minutes or so to soften. It is important it does not melt.
28
Halve and stone the cherries, halve, stone and cut the peaches into thick
segments then roughly chop. Stir the fruit into the softened ice-cream, pile into
the cake tin, smooth flat then scatter over the remaining crumbs. Cover with
kitchen film, then freeze for about 4 hours till almost solid. Slice and serve.
Mango frozen yogurt
A bright tasting, unsweetened sorbet.
Serves 6
350ml thick Greek-style yogurt
a banana
750g thoroughly ripe mango flesh
Tip the yogurt into the jug of a blender or food processor. Peel the banana,
break it into chunks and add it to the yogurt. Add the super-ripe mango flesh.
Whizz briefly - just enough to give it a smooth, thick, creamy consistency.
Pour the mixture into the drum of your ice cream machine and churn as per
the manufacturer's instructions. No machine? Then freeze for a good 4 hours,
stirring the mixture from time to time.
29
Sundae best (article, Peach melba recipe follows)
Nigel Slater's summer in a glass
The Observer, Sunday 3 August 2008
Ice cream sundaes ... a bit saucy. Photograph: David Fischer/Getty Images
An ice cream sundae is the saucy postcard of summer eating. It is politically

incorrect, of dubious taste and almost a thing of the past, and just as a saucy
postcard is guaranteed to wind up those who take life just that little bit too
seriously, a dish of ice cream, scarlet fruit, sweet sauce and wafers is almost
bound to offend the food snob. Me, I just love pushing a long-handled spoon
through the layers of ripe fruit and ice-cold dairy produce and coming up with
a mouthful of summer.
The sundae is a gorgeous concoction of fruit and ice cream that can be as
elegant or over the top as we want it to be. The peach melba, probably the
most famous sundae of all, is a sound marriage of poached peaches, vanilla
ice and raspberry sauce. What's not to like? This buxom dessert tends to
have hundreds and thousands sprinkled on it, and even the indignity of a
paper parasol - but it hasn't always been so. The peach melba was invented
in the early 1890s by Auguste Escoffier, the Savoy's chef, in honour of the
Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba.
We made one the other day, with peaches in a light syrup, crushed
raspberries and home-made vanilla ice cream, and we lapped up every last
drop. Perhaps it was because we hadn't had a proper one before, or perhaps
30
it was just the joy of eating something that felt like we were doing something
we shouldn't.
A sundae should not be anything but a bit over the top. Soft fruit, especially
raspberries and red currants, vanilla and strawberry ice, whipped cream and
cherries all get a look-in. Often in the same glass. Frankly, if your sundae
doesn't resemble a fat woman in a chintz dress then it probably isn't worth
eating. I tend to match the fruit to the ice cream. So, pistachio ice cream or
lemon water-ice with stone fruit such as poached plums and apricots, and
vanilla ice cream with soft fruit such as raspberries and blackberries.
I am a devotee of the simple ice and soft-fruit kind of dessert, but then a
chocolate sundae can, just once a year, be a wonderful thing. I am one who
cannot take too much chocolate ice cream. I tend to get 'chocolated out' after
a few spoonfuls. But once you mix it with suitable fruit - raspberries or
cherries, for instance - and contrasting cream, then you are in for a huge and
greedy treat.
Choose any dish you wish. I feel a strange fondness for the classic thick-
moulded glasses redolent of Fifties seaside resorts. They are as cheap as
chips in catering shops. Without them your beautiful work will not quite qualify
as a sundae. As to parasols, wafers, cherries and sugar sprinkles, I'm afraid
it's up to you and how much you want to wind up the food snobs.
A classic peach melba
Oh joy of joys, such greedy bliss!
Serves 4
for the peaches:
4 large peaches, halved and stoned
90g sugar
500ml water
a vanilla pod
8 scoops vanilla ice cream
whipped cream to serve (optional)
for the raspberry sauce:
150g raspberries
1 heaped tbsp icing sugar
31
a little lemon juice
To make the syrup, put the sugar, water and vanilla pod in a saucepan and
bring to the boil, turn the heat down to a light simmer then add the halved and
stoned peaches. (If the stones refuse to budge, then leave them in until the
peaches are ready, and they will come out more easily.) Let the peaches
simmer till tender to the point of a knife. Switch off the heat and let them cool.
Put the raspberries in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Stir in the icing
sugar. If there are any lumps then whizz once more, or push the berries
through a sieve then stir in the sugar. Sharpen to taste with lemon juice.
Divide the scoops of ice cream among four dishes. Add the peaches and a
spoonful of their cooking liquor, then spoon over the raspberry sauce. Add
whipped cream if you wish.
Peach Melba
People scoff at peach Melbas. And well they might, there is something deeply
tacky about such things. But a peach Melba can be a thing of joy. But there
are rules: 
1 The peach must be ripe. It must never have seen a tin 
2 The peach should be poached lightly in vanilla-scented syrup 
3 The sauce should be made from puréed raspberries or blackberries. There

is no reason why they shouldn't have been frozen at some point 
4 The ice cream should be vanilla, not Neapolitan, and should be of the very
best quality. None of your 'soft scoop Cornish'  
5 It should really be called pêches Melba
For 4 
4 ripe peaches 
2 tbsps caster sugar 
1 vanilla pod 
225g raspberries or blackberries 
very good vanilla ice cream
Place the whole peaches in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them.
Throw in the sugar and the vanilla pod. Bring to the boil and poach them in
simmering water for 8-10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. The peaches
32
are ready when their skins peel off easily. Be careful not to damage the fruit.
Cut each one in half and ease out the stone. Place the peach halves in a cool
place.
Get four glass bowls as cold as you can. Whizz the berries in the food
processor until they are puréed (you can sieve them to remove the pips if you
wish). If you want a sweeter result now is the time to get the icing sugar out.
Place a large, solid ball of ice cream in each chilled dish. Place two halves of
peach each side of the ice cream, then drizzle over some of the berry purée.
Citrus ice creams
Orange and lemon ice cream
An ice that manages to be refreshing and rich at the same time. I find this
creamy ice even better when I match it with another, sharper ice as well.
Rather than make too much work for myself, I tend to marry it with a good
quality commercial sorbet such as orange or mango. You could, of course,
use a home-made sorbet, but I find making one ice at a time is enough. It is
worth noting that you need only the oranges' zest, and not their juice.
Serves 6
a lemon
oranges - 2
caster sugar - 150g
whipping cream- 500ml
Grate the zest of the lemon and the oranges finely and tip into the bowl of a
food processor. Add the sugar then blitz for a minute or two until you can
barely see the orange and lemon zest. Tip into a stainless steel or glass bowl
and mix to a loose slush with the lemon juice. Pour in the cream and stir
gently, then cover tightly with clingfilm and refrigerate for a good hour. Stir,
then pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream machine and churn till frozen.
If you don't have a machine then you can do it by hand, though the texture will
not be the same. Pour the chilled mixture into a plastic freezer box and leave
in the deep freeze until the edges have frozen. This can take up to four hours
depending on your freezer. Beat the frozen edges into the centre of the
mixture with a small whisk, then return to the freezer. Leave for a further hour,
then repeat, beating the frozen edges into the middle. Leave to freeze again.
If the ice cream has frozen solid, leave to soften a little in the fridge before
serving.
33
Lemon ice cream tart with gingernut crust
Enough for 8
butter - 120g
ginger biscuits - 400g
white wine - 150ml
brandy or Marsala - 2 tbs
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
grated zest of 1 orange
caster sugar - 4 tbs
double cream - 500ml
You will need a loose-bottomed tart tin with a diameter of about 21cm.
Line the base of the tin with a single piece of greaseproof paper. Melt the
butter in a small pan. Crush the biscuits in a food processor or bash them in a
plastic bag. You want them to be a coarse powder. Stir the biscuits into the
butter. Line the base of the tin with the buttered crumbs, pushing some as far
up the sides as you can. It doesn't matter if the edges are rough. Put the
crumb-lined tin in the freezer.
Pour the wine into the bowl of a food mixer. Add the brandy or Marsala and
the grated zest of the lemons and the orange. Squeeze the lemons and add
the juice (reserve the orange juice for another occasion).
Add the sugar and cream to the wine and zest mixture, then beat slowly until
thick. The consistency needs to be soft and thick, so that it lies in soft folds
rather than standing in stiff peaks. Scrape the mixture into the crumb-lined tin
and freeze for at least four hours.
Remove the tart from the freezer 15 to 20 minutes before you intend to serve
it. I find it easier to remove the cake from the tin while it is still frozen, running
a palette knife around the edge first.
Apple and pear ice creams
Poached pear and cream cheese sundae
34
Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer
For 4-6 sundaes: 
water 500ml 
caster sugar 100g 
vanilla pod 1 
orange peel a curl or two  
cloves 4 
pears 6 
lemon 1
For the cream cheese: 
full-fat cream cheese 200g 
icing sugar 2 tbsp 
double cream 3 tbsp 
vanilla extract 1 capful 
ginger biscuits 200g, soft and crumbly 
dark chocolate 50g
Put the water and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the vanilla
pod, orange peel and cloves, then simmer over a low heat. Peel the pears
35
and rub them with lemon to stop any discolouration. Cut them in half, then
remove the cores and seeds. Place the pears in the syrup, squeeze in the
remaining lemon juice and leave to cook for 20 minutes or so until tender.
Leave the pears to cool in the syrup.
Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl, add the icing sugar and beat lightly,
folding in the cream and vanilla as you go. Crush the biscuits lightly and fold
into the cheesecake cream. Take care not to over-mix. Halve or quarter the
pears depending on size, and divide them between 6 dishes. Add dollops of
cream cheese and grate over the chocolate.
Roast apples with apple custard ice cream
Serves 4 (with some extra ice cream)
for the ice cream:
1kg sharp apples  
200g golden caster sugar 
400ml cream  4 egg yolks 
for the baked apples: 
4 large dessert apples 
a little butter
To make the ice cream, peel the apples, core them and cut them into thick
slices. Put them in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with half the sugar and let
them stew slowly over a moderate to low heat. (They need no water, but keep
an eye on them so they don't burn.) Once a little juice has formed in the
bottom of the pan, cover with a lid and leave to simmer gently for 20 minutes
or so, stirring from time to time, till the apples are fluffy. Mash with a fork and
leave to cool.
To make the custard, bring the cream to the boil. Beat the eggs and remaining
sugar till thick, then pour in the hot cream and stir. Rinse the saucepan and
return the custard to it, stirring the mixture over a low heat till it starts to
thicken slightly. It won't go really thick.
Cool the custard quickly - I do this by plunging the pan into a shallow sink of
cold water - stirring constantly. Chill thoroughly, then mix with the cold
mashed apple.
Pour into your ice-cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's
instructions. It will seem quite a thick mixture, but don't worry - it will be fine.
Scoop into a freezer box and freeze till you are ready.
36
To make the apples, set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Remove the apples'
cores with an apple corer. Score the fruit round their tummies with a sharp
knife. Put the butter in a small roasting tin or baking dish in which the apples
will fit snugly. Drop a knob of butter into each hollow then roast for 40-50
minutes, till they are puffed up and golden. Serve with the ice cream.
Yogurt ice creams
Lemon sheep's-milk frozen yogurt
With its clean, citrus tang and a colour to match the palest spring primrose,
this ice should go down well with those who want something light and sharp
with which to finish their Christmas lunch. Unwaxed lemons are not an option
here - you will be using the zest as well as the juice and so the purity of the
skin is important. A wafer of some sort would be a nice, old-fashioned touch,
although a single square of paper-thin, dark chocolate works curiously well,
too.
Serves 4-6
125g sugar    
150ml still mineral water    
450g sheep's-milk yogurt    
200ml milk    
3 large, juicy lemons, unwaxed, preferably organic
Put the sugar and the water in a small pan and bring to the boil, then lower
the heat and simmer gently for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved.
Leave to cool, then chill thoroughly in the fridge.
In a mixing bowl, gently beat together the yogurt and milk with a fork or small
whisk. Don't worry at this stage about any little lumps, as they will disappear
once the sorbet is being churned.
Grate the lemons on a fine grater, taking care not to include any of the bitter
white pith that lies beneath the yellow zest. Then squeeze the fruit and add
the zest to the juice.
Gently whisk the chilled sugar syrup into the yogurt and milk, then stir in the
lemon juice and zest. Pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine and churn
until it is almost frozen. Transfer to a suitable container and freeze until
needed.
37
If you don't have an ice-cream machine, then pour the liquid mixture into a
plastic freezer box and freeze until ice crystals appear around the edge - this
should take a couple of hours, maybe longer. Whisk the mixture with a balloon
whisk or electric hand mixer, then return it to the freezer. Continue freezing,
whisking every couple of hours until almost solid. You may need to leave this
ice to freeze overnight.
Frozen yogurt with warm blackcurrant sauce
Cold sorbet, hot sauce.
Serves 4
For the frozen yogurt:
450g plain, smooth yogurt
2 bananas
2 tbsp lemon juice
For the blackcurrant sauce:
300g blackcurrants
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
Put the yogurt into the jug of a blender, then break the bananas into short
lengths, add the lemon juice and blitz. Pour into an ice-cream maker and
churn till almost frozen. Remove to a chilled plastic box and put into the deep
freeze.
Pull the blackcurrants from their stalks.
Put them into a saucepan with the sugar and water and bring to the boil. As
soon as the berries start to burst and the juice turns a dramatic purple,
remove from the heat and set aside. Leave to cool slightly.
Serve the sorbet in scoops, spooning the sauce over at the table.
Whipping yarns (article)
Whether you curl off the top with a flick of the tongue, or dive in headfirst with
a greedy spoon, Nigel Slater's ice cream is the scoop of the summer. Share
your favourite ice cream memories and recipes on our food blog
38
So, when exactly is your perfect ice cream moment? Is it when that first
restrained spoonful touches your upper lip, still smarting with salt from the
sea? Is it tucking in, slowly, steadily, knowing that there is plenty left? Or is it
perhaps dipping your finger into the tiny puddle that collects in the bottom of
the dish at the very end?
And what is that first diminutive spoonful all about anyway? Perhaps we are
just teasing ourselves, knowing that an entire ice cream lies in wait. Holding
back at the beginning is all part of the blissful, indulgent pleasure of eating an
ice cream. (Unless you are eating it with someone else.) There is much to be
said for taking it slowly at first, spoonful by small spoonful. I start with a single,
investigative lick, like a schoolboy who is not sure if he is going to like
something. Of course there will always be those who go at it as if they have a
train to catch, but they will regret it when theirs is all gone and we are still
enjoying it.
For those who make their own ices, there are further pleasures. If you start
with a proper custard - you don't have to, it's just a thought - then you have all
the pleasures of making that; the gentle stirring, the slight unease of watching
a pot of egg yolk, sugar and cream that could curdle in a heartbeat; the
satisfaction when it doesn't. Then there is the crushing of the fruit, the slow
churning and watching the mixture thicken in calm contemplation.
If you are making yours without an ice-cream machine, then you will have to
learn to live with your impatience. If you can't be bothered even occasionally
to turn the mixture as it freezes, carefully folding the ice crystals on the
outside edges toward the middle, you will end up with an ice that sets in a
solid lump. And when it has finally frozen, you need to wait again while it
comes to the right temperature. (It is one of the laws of making ices without a
machine that the finished product is either too liquid or hard as rock.) I am not
convinced patience and ice cream can work in tandem. Perfectionists regard
ice crystals as a weakness. I regard them as a treat. The occasional crystal is
a smack of nostalgia as important to eating ice cream as a Flake used to be in
your cornet.
You would be wrong to assume that ice cream has stood still. The most
fragrant I have eaten recently was basil; the most refreshing an orange,
grapefruit and Moroccan mint water ice, the most indulgent a Manjari
chocolate one with raspberry sauce - surely a candidate for hedonistic dessert
of the year, though strangely unsuited to a hot summer's day.
The future of ice cream looks exciting enough, with ever more fanciful
flavours, yet I still think you have a long way to go to beat a properly made
vanilla or a fresh fruit water ice. This summer has been the year of the gentle
green ice cream, with mint and basil making an appearance at home. My only
gripe is the vast quantity of leaves it takes to get a good herbal hit. I put 40 in
my final mint version. The smell in the kitchen of making a mint ice cream is
39
instantly cooling on a hot summer's day.
The only things I cannot tolerate are chunks of shortbread, caramel, cookie
dough and the other sugary detritus that American firms chuck in their ice
creams. In our house, the flavours might be unusual but I wouldn't join the
throng that believes an ice is improved by the addition of crumbs from the
biscuit tin.
After playing around with strawberry ice, adding pepper or balsamic vinegar to
deepen the flavour, I have settled on a simpler approach, one of letting the
berries sit for a while with sugar before they go in with the cream. The effect
seems to be to concentrate their flavour without any other ingredient intruding.
It's a method I warmly recommend.
And what is my perfect ice cream moment? I think it is probably passing

someone an ice cream I have made myself, something I have had my own
hand in, and watching them take that first, investigative lick
Mint yogurt ice cream
Few ices are as refreshing as this one. The clean flavour is of fresh mint, so
don't expect the usual creamy flavour you get in mint ice cream - this is
brighter and sharper. A good ice for serving with fruit, particularly pineapple
and strawberries.
Serves 4-6
1 lemon, unwaxed  
40 large mint leaves  
110g granulated sugar  
400ml natural yogurt  
200ml double or whipping cream
Remove three strips of peel from the lemon, about 3cm in length. Put them,
the mint leaves and sugar, into a food processor and blend for a few seconds,
until the lemon is finely chopped and you can barely see it.
Pour the yogurt, cream and the juice of the lemon in with the sugar and mix
briefly, just to blend the ingredients. Then pour into the bowl of an ice-cream
machine and churn till almost frozen. Scrape the ice cream into a plastic
container, cover and freeze till needed.
If you have no machine, then scoop the mixture out of the bowl and into a
shallow plastic container. Put in the freezer for an hour. Remove from the
freezer and fold the ice crystals from round the edge into the middle, then
40
return to the freezer for another hour, then repeat. Carry on, stirring once an
hour until the ice cream is almost frozen.
If you want to eat the ice cream the next day, cover it with a lid, taking it out of
the freezer 20-25 minutes before you need it.
Some other good ice creams
Rosewater and cardamom ice cream
This ice cream is not to everyone's liking, but those who appreciate the
heavenly scent of rosewater will adore it. The secret is to make a sugar syrup
to sweeten the cream, but instead of using water, we substitute rosewater.
The addition of gum mastic, a resin from a tree native to Greece and Turkey,
makes this ice cream even more exotic.
Serves 8
2 tbsp whole green cardamoms  
600ml milk  
600ml double cream  
1 cinnamon stick  
160g caster sugar  
230ml rosewater  
3 crystals gum mastic, crushed with 1 tsp caster sugar (optional)  
1 x 400ml tin evaporated milk  
dried rose petals (optional)
Lightly crush the cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle, and pick out as
much of the green pod as you can, leaving behind the small black seeds.
Pound the seeds to a fine powder.
Pour the milk and cream into a large saucepan, and add the ground
cardamom and the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil and then simmer over a
medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced by about a
quarter and has turned a rich creamy colour similar to evaporated milk
(around 20 minutes).
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan dissolve the sugar in the rosewater over a
41
low heat and simmer until a thin syrup is formed. Remove from the heat and
allow to cool.
When the milk and cream are ready, remove from the heat, strain out the
cinnamon and discard. Stir in the crushed gum mastic (if using), and cool for
10-15 minutes. Add the evaporated milk and combine with the rosewater
syrup. Churn in an ice-cream machine (or freeze by hand). We serve this ice
cream with a few dried rose petals on top (buy these from Iranian shops), but
they are more for aesthetics than flavour.
Banana ice cream with warm cranberry sauce
Banana ice cream with warm cranberry sauce. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
Serves 4 
ripe bananas 3 medium-sized 
natural yoghurt 300g 
For the cranberry sauce 
caster sugar 250g 
water 250ml 
cranberries 250g 
To make the ice cream, peel the bananas, chop into chunks and drop into a
blender. Pour in the yoghurt and blitz until smooth. Pour the mixture into either
the bowl of an ice-cream machine and churn till frozen or into a plastic
container and put it in the freezer. If you do the latter, give it a good beat
42
every hour, bringing the frozen edges in with the more liquid centre.
To make the sauce, put the sugar into a small pan with the water and bring to
the boil. Add the cranberries, then, when the syrup returns to the boil, simmer
gently for 10-15 minutes. It is ready when the fruit has popped and its juices
have stained the syrup a glorious ruby red. Skim away any froth with a spoon
or kitchen paper (lay the paper on the top and pull away gently). Cool the
sauce cool a little before serving.
Take the ice cream from the freezer a good 20 minutes before serving. Divide
between four bowls (it can serve six at a push) then spoon over the sauce.
Golden bread and hazelnut ice
Golden bread and hazelnut ice. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin
Serves 4
soft, fresh breadcrumbs – 60g 
light muscovado sugar – 80g 
golden caster sugar – 80g 
skinned hazelnuts – 100g 
double cream – 250ml 
pouring yoghurt – 250ml
43
Spread the crumbs out on a baking sheet. Scatter over the sugars. Blitz the
hazelnuts to coarse gravel in a food processor or chop by hand. Mix
everything thoroughly, then spread out in a shallow layer over the baking
sheet. Place under a hot grill and leave until the sugar, nuts and crumbs are
deep golden. You will need to keep your eye on the job, as the sugar can burn
very easily. Leave to cool then break up into small pieces.
Add the sugared crumbs to the cream and yoghurt, pour into an ice-cream
machine and churn till frozen. Put into a freezer box and store in the deep
freeze till needed. If you have no ice-cream machine, freeze the mixture once
you have mixed the cream and crumbs, stirring every hour or so till frozen.
Articles about ice creams
Sex on a plate (article)
Oysters, avocados, chilli and even porridge are aphrodisiacs, but remember,
it's not what you eat, it's the way that you eat it
The Observer, Sunday 10 February 2002
We have certain expectations of Valentine's Day. The least of which is getting

supper. While some cooks prefer the hands-off approach of being wined and
dined in a restaurant, some of us relish the prospect of making a meal for
someone we love. And whether cunning, mischievous or just downright
hopeful, there are few of us who won't be tempted to slip in an aphrodisiac or
two.
I like to believe in the power of certain foods to evoke lust. But really, it's not
what you eat that is sexy, it's the way you eat it. While some must ply their
partners with oysters and asparagus to guarantee attention, others need do
nothing more than slowly lick a stray crumb from their lower lip. Sure, the way
Ally McBeal sips her travelling cappuccino with her bee-stung lips is bordering
on the X rated, but if her altogether cooler pal Ling Woo was to do it, we may
well be into the realms of pay per view. Bluntly, you have either got it or you
haven't.
Those who fall into the latter may be grateful for help from the larder or the
vegetable rack this coming Thursday. The list of aphrodisiac foods is longer
than you might think, but they fit loosely into one of three categories. Those
that contain natural stimulants such as the phenylalanine in chocolate, those
that are sensuous in the mouth such as oysters and ripe figs, and those to
which legend is attached. While chillies and ginger firmly get my vote, others
swear by broad beans and brazil nuts. I have heard applause too for
avocados (phenylalanine again) and porridge (oats are thought to raise
testosterone levels). Yet studies by Dr Alan Hirch at the Smell & Taste
44
Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago have shown that nothing

gets a guy up like the smell of freshly baked pumpkin pie.
Cardamom does it for some - and with good reason. The little black seeds
contain not only two androgens (the hormones that increase sexual desire in
men) but cineole, a compound known to stimulate the central nervous system.
Ginger, a close relative, is the food world's Viagra. I only found this out
recently, long after I took to putting a slice in my early-morning hot water and
lemon. True, I had been feeling a warm glow, but hadn't made the connection.
Fortunately scientists now have. Forget sirloin - you really can't go wrong with
chillies and ginger.
If you are looking for a small gift to go with that bunch of flowers, then you
couldn't do better than with a copy of Venus in the Kitchen , Norman
Douglas's little pink book of aphrodisiac recipes. Written in the early 50s, it
has just been republished (£9.99, Bloomsbury).
Venus in the Kitchen is an eccentric, charming and frivolous book. The

recipes make amusing reading if not always a good supper. There is the
expected involvement of oysters and anchovies and, more worryingly, snails.
The latter being boiled with broth and mushrooms or coated in breadcrumbs.
Other entries are bizarre: a young crane simmered with honey, lovage and
cumin; suckling pig with eels; leopard's marrow cooked in goat's milk; and a
dish called Celery à la Popoff, which presumably isn't a starter.
Body parts are rampant. There's sheep's ears and sparrows' brains, frogs'
legs and goose kidneys, and as you might expect, there are lots of testicles.
These are cooked to a recipe by Bartolomeo Scappi, who was the private
cook to Pope Pius V. Quite why His Holiness was need of an aphrodisiac is
something on which it is probably best not to dwell. The truly perplexing 'brain
of fried beep' promised in the index is, sadly, nothing more than a typo for
calves' brains, but the recipe for Marmalade of Carnations should be useful
for anyone who didn't like their flowers.
Truth told, I suspect few of us actually want aphrodisiacs even if they did
exist. I sometimes wonder what the opposite might be and where one can get
it. I suppose a heavy pudding might put out the fire. If you do fancy a pud,
then I would go for something you can share from the same bowl. Soppily
romantic, I know, but who cares? Pavlova with its layers of meringue, cream
and passion fruit would be a pleasure beyond compare, though for my money
I'd rather have a bowl of vanilla ice cream drizzled with warm chocolate
sauce. That way we have the option of eating it at the table, or perhaps taking
it upstairs with us. Then at least one of us will be able to say, 'The dessert's
on me.'
45
Pulp fiction (article)
Juicy, fragrant, sweet and sensual... There are few foods as sexy as a honey-
ripe mango. Nigel Slater rolls up his sleeves for an unbeatably messy feast
The Observer, Sunday 1 June 2008
Some wait open-mouthed for the asparagus season, others count the days
until the first new potato, and while both of those appeal to me, there is no
sight I long for more than that of a pile of slim cardboard boxes bearing the
legend Alphonse Mangoes. The tubby golden ones arrive here from India in
late May, at much the same time as the equally luscious and elegant variety
(usually the Nam Doc Mai) from Thailand, whose stone is as thin as a blade.
Hot on their heels are the heavenly honey mangoes from Pakistan. Sublime
as the hundreds of other varieties of mango can be, these three are my desert
island fruits, the food I want on my lips as I pass from this world, my final feast
before I go to the gallows.
I have been contemplating one particular fruit for some days now. Bought
from a local Indian shop whose meat counter you would probably rather not
know about, the fruit came in a box with several others, like golden eggs in a
nest. It is now a week since I unwrapped the fruit and sat it among the wobbly
ceramic bowls on the kitchen shelf. Each day its colour changes just a degree
or two, at first a pale, creamy buff gradually turning to pallid lemon yellow with
green freckles, then a deep pleasing salmon until this morning, when its skin
glowed in sunset colours of deepest apricot, amber and rose. At its stalk, a
single bead of honey-coloured nectar shone in the morning light.
Like pears, mangoes ripen slowly, but they generously hold on to their window
of perfection longer, sometimes for a week or more (a pear can shoot its bolt
in a day or less), giving you more of a chance to catch them at their best. In
the cool shade of a domestic fridge they will ripen if left long enough, but like
avocados they are more successful when brought to bliss point at room
46
temperature then chilled in the fridge. It is up to us whether we eat our fruit

chilled from the fridge or warm from the sun, and it's a hard decision. The
flavour is much richer when the fruit is slightly warm, but then it is infinitely
more refreshing when straight from the fridge - decisions just too big for a lazy
summer's day.
But what is ripe anyway? Is it the point at which the room fills with the scent of
honey, or when a thin line of juice issues from the stalk? I am not sure colour
alone is a sound reference. We need to introduce the power of touch. Having
witnessed the horror of a woman squeezing a mango in a London food hall
like she was wringing out a dishcloth, then chucking it back in the basket like
an old potato, I worry about even bringing the subject up. I blame not only her
clumsy, thoughtless ways, but the store for thinking that mangoes should be
displayed in a deep wicker basket. The shop obviously doesn't understand the
treasure it has on board.
I have just submitted to my mango's charms. I could lust not one second
longer. It was 7.20 on a Sunday morning, the sun already warming the
vegetable beds in the garden. I took my fruit outside with a tiny knife and no
plate. I peeled it tenderly, then nipped and shaved where I had missed.
Slippery as a bar of soap it was. I was licking my palms even before I had
taken a bite. But actually I didn't bite it, deciding instead to take off slice after
slice with the knife and eat them straight from the blade. The juice ran down
my arm to my elbow and then dripped tantalisingly on to my bare toes.
The best place to buy such fruit is from a Pakistani, Indian or Thai food store,
and the cheapest way is by the box. What is £3 a piece in London's West End
can be found by the boxful for six quid slightly off the beaten track. Once you
are paying less than £1 each, fools, tarts and ices suddenly become an
option.
It is true that once you stir cream into a purée of tropical fruit you lose
something of the fruit's vivid richness. But what you get is a gentle softness
and delicate hit of mango, a dessert both fragile and sensual. I have recently
tinkered with the classic recipe to produce something more of the fruit itself.
There are a few other ingredients that tease out this shy fruit's sexiness. A
piercing shot of lime juice, orange zest and juice, raspberries, the merest
whisper of ginger (especially the stem variety in syrup), yogurt and, if you
must, a dribble of vodka.
Yes, the most luscious mangoes I have eaten have been in India and
Thailand, seasoned though they were with sun and sand. Yet I'm not sure
they truthfully tasted any better than those on my table right now. (Palm trees,
like fields of lavender, have a way of making you think life is so much better
elsewhere when in truth it rarely is.)
The skin on a mango always needs removing, but the flesh will purée easily
enough in a blender or food processor. If your flesh is bordering on the over-
ripe, you can easily mash it with a fork. Once it is pulped, the colour will go
47
brown only too quickly, so a squirt of lime juice will help to keep the sun
shining a bit longer.
It breaks my heart that we cannot grow these sensual fruits here. No apple,
raspberry or pear, no blackcurrant warm from the sun or blackberry bubbling
from the oven can come close to the erotic pleasure of a sun-ripened mango.
Sorbets
Berry sorbets
Strawberry sorbet
A vivid scarlet sorbet of the purest flavour. Make it now while the berries are
cheap and sweet.
Serves 4-6
120ml water  
250g strawberries  
the juice of half a lemon
Put the sugar in a saucepan with the water and bring to the boil. You can
remove it from the heat as soon as the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Rinse and hull the strawberries, then whizz them in a blender or food
processor till smooth. Add the lemon juice, then stir the strawberry purée into
the cold sugar syrup. Now either pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine
and churn till frozen or pour into a freezer box and place in the freezer. Leave
for a good couple of hours then remove and beat the freezing edges into the
middle with a whisk. Refreeze for a further 2 hours, then beat once more,
again bringing in the ice crystals from the outside into the middle. Return to
the freezer till firm.
48
Nigel Slater's strawberry and elderflower sorbet and warm strawberry

and gooseberry jam recipes (article)
Fruit growers are waking up again to the joys of smaller, sweeter berries. The
result is some of the best strawberries in years – perfect for a sorbet,
smoothie or glistening jam
The Observer, Sunday 13 June 2010
Berry treasure: Nigel’s delicious strawberry and elderflower sorbet.

Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer
The early summer sunshine has worked wonders for this year's strawberry
harvest. I brought a punnet home this week that were among the most
sublime I have ever eaten: rich, sweet and intense, blowing away in one bite
the old saw that things "don't taste like they used to". Both locally and
organically grown, they ticked a few green boxes for me, too.
What pleased me almost as much as their exquisite flavour was that these
berries were on the small side. It is a fact that a lot of our soft fruits have been
getting bigger over the past few years. Who it is that is actually asking for
berries the size of apricots I really don't know. I don't want a blueberry the size
of a Frisbee or a raspberry so big you could wear it on the end of your finger,
like a thimble. Pumped-up berries have none of the charm and intrigue of a
tiny, jewel-like fruit and, in my experience, are often lacking in the flavour
department, too.
Annoyingly, this week's delightfully misshapen, characterful strawberries

preferred to remain anonymous, refusing to declare their variety, or any
information other than their local provenance. I get through a lot of berries. A
couple of good handfuls go into the early morning smoothie, then as often as
49
not turn up again in some form or another after lunch. Tiny fruits make an
expensive but healthy treat too – a box of blueberries is often what I absent-
mindedly pick at while glued toGardeners' World.
That seven o'clock morning smoothie is usually a whizz-up of thick, blindingly

white goat's yogurt and sweet almond milk, but at its heart is always some
sort of berry. The colour varies from a lurid purple (blackcurrants) to the calm,
pale green of a summer afternoon in Midsomer Norton (stewed gooseberries),
and every shade of pink – from cupcake icing to the mother-in-law's wedding
outfit. Much will depend on the ratio of fruit to yogurt. A rhubarb smoothie can
come in any colour from marshmallow to liquidised frog. All offer a delicious
wake-up call.
Whether I am making a smoothie, a fool or an ice, my goal is always to

capture the true flavour of the berry. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to get
through that annoying muffling effect the dairy produce can so often have on
your fruit. Even the most tasty little Florence or Julia strawberry will have to
fight a hard battle if it is not to get lost once it is churned with sugar and cream
into a pink summer ice. A shot of lemon juice will bring out the flavour, as will
a little grated orange zest. Curiously, a few raspberries will boost the
strawberries' intensity (they often carry more acidity, which acts like a squirt of
lemon). Berries that are warm will sing louder than those straight from the
fridge, so I tend to take them out the night before I intend to use them; waiting
till they are ever so slightly over-ripe helps, too. The black pepper trick is
much more difficult to perfect than you might think: one pinch of ground spice
too many and you have turned your smoothie into a liquid curry. I tend not to
take that route at all.
A few drops of balsamic vinegar will breathe life into even the least promising
piece of red fruit, and can often make a good strawberry into a great one. Just
cut the fruit in half, toss with a light sprinkling of sugar (a teaspoon per 200g
will do), add a few drops of bog-standard balsamic and leave in a warm place
for an hour. The flavour will be just as if they had been sitting in the sun for an
extra day. 
Strawberry and elderflower sorbet
Strawberries, fresh garden mint and frothy white elderflowers are the very
essence of early summer and work nicely as a threesome. The flowers can be
turned into a refreshing cordial with water, lemons, sugar and a suitable
acidulator. I find the widely available cordial from the hands of artisan
producers invaluable and something I keep in the fridge all summer long for
cold, non-alcoholic drinks with slices of lime and ice cubes. Serves 4-6.
For the sorbet 
50
120ml water 
juice of half a lemon    
For the syrup 
75ml elderflower cordial 
15 small mint leaves    
To make the sorbet, put the sugar in a saucepan with the water and bring to
the boil. You can remove it from the heat as soon as the sugar has dissolved
and set aside to cool.
Rinse and hull the strawberries then whiz them in a blender or food processor
till smooth. Add the lemon juice, then stir the strawberry purée into the cold
sugar syrup. Now either pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and
churn till frozen, or pour into a freezer box and place in the freezer.
Leave for a good couple of hours then remove, and beat the freezing edges
into the middle with a whisk. Refreeze for a further two hours then beat once
more, again bringing in the ice crystals from the outside into the middle.
Return to the freezer till firm.
Make the syrup by cutting the strawberries in half and putting them in a bowl
with the elderflower cordial. Chop the mint leaves finely and stir them into the
cordial and berries. Cover, refrigerate and leave for a good 30 minutes for the
flavours to marry.
To serve, place scoops of the sorbet into small bowls, then spoon over the
berries and their mint and elderflower syrup.
Cook's notes
Strawberries account for 80% of the soft fruit grown in the UK (a shame when
you consider the rarity of gems like the loganberry). And, of that figure, the
vast majority are the Elsanta variety, a hybrid created in 1975, notable for its
high yields and shipping quality rather than its taste. To find fragrant, vibrant
berries, go to farmers' markets or pick-your-own farms, which are not so
preoccupied with shelf life.
Raspberry sorbet
Stonking great raspberry notes here, made all the richer with a touch of crème
de cassis.
51
Serves 4 to 6
500g raspberries 
95g caster sugar 
95ml water 
6 tablespoons crème de cassis  
a little lemon juice
Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.
This will probably be before the water boils. Avoid the temptation to stir. Leave
the syrup to cool, then refrigerate until thoroughly cold.
Mix the berries, cold syrup and crème de cassis. Blend until smooth in a food
processor or blender, then push through a sieve with a rubber spatula to
remove the seeds. (I often don't remove them because I like the crunchiness
they lend to the soft sorbet.) You could either freeze the mixture by hand,
stirring the frozen edges into the liquid centre every hour or so until almost
frozen, or you could freeze it in an ice-cream maker. The latter will give a
softer, more velvety texture.
Strawberry ice
The simplest and best. No other flavouring is needed for this straightforward
ice cream, and one of the few that is worth making without an ice-cream
machine. The ripeness of the berries is essential. I always marinate the
berries in sugar for an hour or so before I make the ice, even though I have
never heard of anyone else doing so. I believe it makes the flavour all the
more intense.
Serves about 4
450g strawberries  
300ml double cream
Rinse the berries quickly under cold running water, then remove their leaves.
Cut each berry into three or four thick slices and then put them into a bowl,
sprinkle with the sugar and set aside for an hour.
Lightly whip the cream. You want it thick enough to lie in folds rather than stiff
enough to stand in peaks. Put the strawberries, sugar and any juice from the
dish into the food processor and whizz till smooth, then stir gently into the
cream. How thoroughly you blend the two is up to you. I like to leave a few
52
swirls of unmixed cream in the mixture.
Level the top, cover with a lid, greaseproof paper or clingfilm, and freeze for 3
or 4 hours. It is worth checking and stirring the ice as it freezes, bringing the
outside edges into the middle. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before
serving to bring it up to temperature.
Blackcurrant frozen yogurt with crumble
Chilled out: blackcurrant frozen yogurt with crumble. Photograph: Jonathan

Lovekin
Serves 6-8
blackcurrants 250g 
water 3 tbsp 
natural yogurt (unsweetened, unflavoured) 350ml 
double cream 250ml
for the crumble: 
53
plain flour 70g 
butter 50g 
caster or demerara sugar 40g
Remove the currants from their stems, drop them into a pan with the caster
sugar and water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes or so,
until the sugar has dissolved and the berries have begun to burst. The syrup
should be a deep, rich purple. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to
cool. You can speed this up by tipping the berries and syrup into a bowl and
dunking it in a sink of cold water.
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. To make the crumble, tip the flour into a
bowl, cube the butter then rub it into the flour until it resembles coarse
breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Lightly sprinkle the mixture with cold water
and shake the bowl in your hands till you have a mixture of coarse crumbs
and small pebbles of dough. Tip the crumble on to a baking sheet in a shallow
layer and bake for 15-20 minutes or so, till the crumble is golden brown.
Remove and set aside.
When the blackcurrants are cool mix them with the yogurt. In a cold bowl,
lightly whip the cream until it just starts to thicken – it must not be thick
enough to stand in peaks. Fold the cream into the yogurt and blackcurrant
mixture, then pour into the bowl of the ice cream machine and churn till almost
frozen.
Scrape the frozen yogurt from the churn and transfer to a freezer box and
freeze till needed. It will get harder the longer it is frozen. To serve, place
scoops of ice cream in small bowls, then break up the crumble and scatter
some of it over each one.
Nigel Slater’s ice-cream and granita recipes (article)
Sparkling granita full of flavour and purple ice cream with a toothsome tang of
blackcurrant bring the best of the summer fruits to the table
I have been making ices. A sparkling scarlet water ice flecked with emerald-
green basil and mint sugar, and a blackcurrant frozen yogurt with a scattering
of warm, buttery crumble. The water ice was a granita – a twinkling mound of
frozen granules rather than a smooth sorbet. No machine required, just the
patience to take the mixture from the freezer every hour and carefully bring
the frozen crystals from the edges into the liquid centre, until you have a
grainy, shimmering pile of ice crystals. I prefer this slow method, which entails
this extra bit of vigilance.
54
A quicker way is simply to freeze the purée and sugar into a block then scrape
the surface with a fork. It works, but your ice will lack the larger, deeper-
coloured grains achieved by the slow method and will be more like crushed
ice. Close, but no cigar.
The second was a creamy ice, machine churned, rich without being
particularly sweet. Blackcurrants give an intense flavour to a sorbet or ice
cream. This time I added an organic sheep’s yogurt and a small amount of
double cream, whipped to a thick, sliding consistency. The result was a
glamorous purple ice cream, sweet, but with enough bite to keep the fruit’s
fans like me happy.
Given the choice I will always use a machine for making ice creams. Believe
me when I say that because the mixture is constantly churned as it freezes,
the texture is lighter and creamier than you can achieve by hand.
For those without a machine or the patience to stir the mixture regularly, you
can make a perfectly serviceable summer ice with just strawberries, cream
and sugar. Slice 450g of berries into a bowl and cover them with 100g sugar.
Leave for an hour then whizz them to a purée in a food processor. Lightly beat
300ml of double cream till it is thick enough to lie in folds, then fold in the
strawberry purée. Do this lightly for a delightful ripple effect. Freeze for three
or four hours.
Somehow, by machine, by hand or simply by chucking crushed fruit and

cream in the freezer we will, we must, have ice cream.
Watermelon granita with herb sugar
Twice as ice: watermelon granita with herb sugar. Photograph: Jonathan

Lovekin for the Observer
Serves 6-8
For the sugar syrup: 
55
water 4 tbsp 
watermelon 1.5kg
For the basil mint sugar: 
caster sugar 50g 
basil leaves 7g 
mint leaves 7g
Make the sugar syrup by bringing the caster sugar and water to the boil in a
small saucepan. Lower the heat and simmer till the sugar is completely
dissolved, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. You can speed the
process up by lowering the saucepan into a sink of cold water.
Remove the rind from the watermelon and discard. You will end up with about
1kg of flesh. Roughly chop the melon, then process to a thick slush in a
blender or food processor.
Stir the sugar syrup into the crushed watermelon, then pour into a stainless
steel or rigid plastic freezer box and freeze for an hour. Using a fork, gently
bring the frozen edges of the granita, the crystals of frozen mixture that lie
around the edges, into the middle, then return to the freezer. Do not let the
granita freeze into one vast ice cube. Instead, encourage the crystallisation by
regular, gentle mixing.
Continue gently stirring the frozen crystals into the scarlet liquid, every hour,
until the granita is entirely, but lightly frozen into millions of tiny crystals. It
should take about 4 hours.
To make the herb sugar, pour the caster sugar into the bowl of a food
processor, then add the basil and mint leaves. Process the herbs and sugar
for a few seconds till you have a fine, brilliant green sugar.
To serve, pile mounds of the granita in small bowls then scatter over a little of
the mint and basil sugar.
Stone fruit sorbets
Mango sorbet and vanilla ice cream
Good though mango sorbet is, it gets even better when you serve it with a
good vanilla ice cream. I am happy enough to buy the vanilla ice cream but
prefer to make the mango sorbet myself. Believe me, the combination is
56
joyous.
Serves 4
2 large or 3 medium very ripe mangoes  
the juice of 2 limes  
1 egg white
To serve:
a tub of vanilla ice cream
Put the sugar in a small stainless-steel pan, pour in 250ml of water and bring
towards the boil. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat
and leave to cool. Chill thoroughly.
Peel the mangoes, then slice the flesh over a bowl to prevent any of the juices
escaping. Whiz the flesh and the lime juice to a smooth purée in a blender.
Mix the mango and chilled syrup together then pour into an ice-cream
machine. Let the sorbet churn until it is starting to freeze, then whisk the egg
white till thick and firm and fold into the churning sorbet. This will lighten the
sorbet. Quickly remove from the machine and transfer into a freezer box.
Freeze till firm. Alternatively, pour into a freezer box and freeze, removing
every few hours to whisk the ice crystals forming around the edge into the
middle. It will take a good 4 to 6 hours to make it this way.
Mango sorbet freezes quite hard. Give it 20 minutes plus in the fridge to
soften. Serve one ball of mango sorbet and one of vanilla ice cream to each
guest.
Lychee sorbet
If using canned lychees, you will need a 400g can and its syrup. It will be
good, but less delicate than if you peel your own fruit.
Serves 4
lychees 500g 
sugar, granulated or caster 100g 
water 400ml 
lime juice 2 tbsp 
57
to serve:  lychees 250g   
Peel the lychees and put them in a pan. Tip in the sugar and water and bring
to the boil. As soon as the liquid is boiling and the sugar has dissolved, turn
off the heat and leave to cool. Pop the stones out of the fruit. Discard the
stones and return the flesh to the syrup. Add the lime juice to the lychee flesh
and syrup. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator then blitz in a blender or food
processor until smooth.
Pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine. Peel some reserved lychees.
Scoop the soft-frozen sorbet into elegant glasses, add the fresh lychees and
serve.
A sorbet of roasted plums
A well-flavoured plum ice that is easy to make with or without an ice-cream

maker.
Serves 6
For the syrup: 
water 150ml 
caster sugar 150g
For the plums: 
dark, ripe plums 500g  
lemon juice of 1
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Bring the sugar and water to the boil in a
small saucepan, switch off the heat and leave to cool, then chill thoroughly.
Wipe the plums, remove their stalks and put in a baking dish with the sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes until they are soft and the skins have burst. Remove from
the oven, leave to cool and remove the stones.
Mash the plums and their skins with a fork. I prefer a lumpy mash to add
texture, but remove the skins if you prefer. Stir 200ml of the sugar syrup into
the plums, then add the lemon juice. Pour into an ice-cream maker and churn
until almost frozen or freeze by hand by pouring the mixture into a plastic
freezer box, then leave to freeze for 4 hours stirring it every hour to introduce
a little air. Serve with the hot plums below.
58
Citrus sorbets
White grapefruit sorbet
I made this sorbet throughout the summer using pink grapefruit. It is the most
refreshing ice I have ever eaten. Made with white, slightly sharper grapefruit, I
think I like it even more: it has a bit more bite to it.
Serves 4-6
250g golden caster sugar 
250ml water 
3 white grapefruit 
1 lemon
Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once the sugar
has dissolved, remove from the heat.
Unless the grapefruit are organically grown, you will have to give them a really
good wash. Remove the zest with a lemon zester. Try not to scrape off any
bitter white pith as well. Put the zest into the sugar syrup and simmer for
about 10 minutes, until the zest is soft. Set aside to cool. Squeeze the
grapefruit and the lemon, and mix the juice with the cold grapefruit syrup.
Now, either pour the syrup into an ice-cream machine and follow the
manufacturer's instructions, or pour it into a shallow dish and freeze in the
freezer or in the ice-cream compartment at the top of the fridge. After 2 hours
in the freezer, it will need a good beating, preferably with a small electric
whisk, bringing the frozen edges into the middle. You will need to repeat this
an hour later. It should be frozen in about 5 or 6 hours, depending on your
freezer.
Elderflower and grapefruit sorbet
For a simple elderflower sorbet, I suggest you omit the grapefruit juice and
double the amount of water. Try it with pink and ruby grapefruit, too, or really
juicy oranges. When making a lemon version, it is worth remembering the
citric acid in most elderflower cordials and adjusting the amount of juice you
need by tasting. Add more water if it gets too sharp.
Serves 6
250ml elderflower cordial
59
the juice of 2 grapefruits
250ml still mineral water
Mix the elderflower cordial with the grapefruit juice and the water. Pour into
the barrel of an ice-cream machine and churn until almost frozen. Transfer to
a deep freeze. You can also make it without an ice-cream machine. Pour the
mixture of water, juice and cordial into a shallow freezer box and deep-freeze
for 2 hours, or until heavy ice crystals start to form around the edge of the
mixture. Stir the ice crystals into the middle, then return to the freezer. Stir at
hourly intervals until it is frozen.
Seriously lemony sorbet
I also use the stunningly scented bergamot lemons for this. Difficult to find, but
worth a go if you spot them.
sugar 100g 
water 200ml 
lemon juice 400ml
Seriously lemony sorbet. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer
Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and warm over a moderate to high
heat until the sugar has dissolved. There is no need to boil this down to thick
syrup, just make sure there is no undissolved sugar in it. Leave to cool then
chill in the fridge. To bring the temperature down quickly, put the saucepan in
a sink full of cold water and leave until cool, then chill as usual. You won't
need all of this mixture, but it is best to make this amount so you can sweeten
60
your sorbet to taste.
Pour the lemon juice into 100ml of the sugar syrup. It will be seriously sharp
and refreshing. If you can't handle this, then add more sugar syrup to taste.
Either pour the mixture into an ice-cream maker or freeze by hand. If you are
taking the latter option, pour the mixture into a freezer box and freeze for 3 or
4 hours until ice crystals are forming around the edge. Beat them into the
liquid centre until you have a sort of lemon slush, then freeze again for a
couple of hours and, once again, beat the mixture and freeze again. This
beating will help the structure of the sorbet and stop it freezing into a solid
block, though the texture will be far from that of sorbet made in a machine.
Once it is frozen, leave it to soften slightly before serving. I like mine in rough,
snowy lumps rather than neat scoops.
Orange yoghurt water ice
The late-season Valencias are fine for this deeply refreshing ice. It
complements any summer fruit, but especially lusciously ripe peaches and
apricots. Perhaps the prettiest way to serve it is with the pale orange water ice
surrounded by handfuls of dark red cherries from Kent still attached to their
stalks.
Serves 4-6 
water - 350ml
caster sugar - 225g
very finely grated zest of 2 large unwaxed oranges 
the juice of 4 more medium oranges
the juice of 2 lemons
thick natural yoghurt, preferably sheep's - 480g
Bring the water and sugar to the boil in a stainless-steel saucepan. The sugar
only has to dissolve, so remove it from the heat as soon as you can no longer
see the grains of sugar when you (gently) stir it. Mix in the grated orange zest
and set aside to cool.
Mix the orange and lemon juice. In a large mixing bowl stir a little of the juice
into the yoghurt to loosen it, then add the rest of the juice and mix thoroughly.
I use a whisk for this. If lumps of yoghurt persist no matter, they will break
down with the repeated whiskings later.
Pour the mixture into a freezer box and place in the freezer. Remove after two
hours and whisk the mixture firmly with a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer,
61
bringing the frozen edges into the middle. Now return it to the freezer for a
further two hours, then repeat the whisking and freeze again.
When it is well on the way to freezing, after about a further two hours - beat
the mixture one last time then freeze again. Once frozen, remove from the
freezer about half an hour before serving.
If you are using an ice-cream machine, get the mixture really cold. Pour half of
it into the drum of the machine. Let it churn till almost frozen. Remove quickly
and place in the deep freeze.
Some other good sorbets
Passion fruit yoghurt sorbet
Serves 6
95g granulated or caster sugar
12 passion fruit
juice of 2 oranges
200ml Greek yoghurt
Put the sugar in a saucepan with 100ml of water, and heat gently until the
sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool, then chill thoroughly.
Cut the passion fruit in half, then squeeze out the seeds and pulp into a sieve
placed over a jug or bowl, scooping any stubborn bits out of the skins with a
teaspoon. Rub the pulp through the sieve so that only the seeds are left.
Discard the seeds, and add the pulp and juice to the cooled syrup, along with
the orange juice.
Pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine and churn until almost frozen,
then add the yoghurt. Churn again until it combines, then transfer to the
freezer. If you are freezing without a machine, then stir the yoghurt into the
syrup and tip into a freezer box with a lid. Freeze, removing every 2 hours to
whisk the ice crystals from the edges into the middle of the mixture. You can
expect it to take at least 4 or 5 hours to freeze.
Thriller in the chiller (article)
Beat the heat with a throat-tingling fruit sorbet. Nigel Slater takes it ice and
62
easy
My deepfreeze sits forlornly behind a kitchen cupboard, an unwanted bequest

from the previous owners of the house. It has always felt like a lodger I don't
quite have the heart to evict. Until recently, the short white box stood
symbolically empty when it suddenly became home to several trays of ice
cubes, a bunch of lime leaves in a plastic bag, a tinfoil tray of pumpkin curry
and a packet of French butter. Now the ice cubes taste of lime leaves (which
is fine, especially in a G & T) and the butter smells of curry (which isn't). If it
wasn't for my little ice-cream habit, I wouldn't give it house-room.
But what a habit. I have queued for chocolate sorbet at Bertillon on the Iles de
la Cité in Paris; licked semi-freddo at Gelateria Vivoli on the Via Isole in
Florence and harangued Häagan-Dazs to bring back its orange and vanilla
swirl. I have eaten mango kulfi in Kerala's cardamom hills and pistachio ice in
Athens, got my tongue around a Mister Whippy from a smoke-belching van in
Wolverhampton and spooned elegant rose-petal sorbet from a plate at
Locanda Locatelli in London. I don't honestly eat ice cream every day, but I
could.
What appeals right now - what with the sun so high in the summer sky - is not
ice cream but a water ice, that refreshing frozen delight made from sugar
syrup churned with fresh fruit juice. You could pile it into a cornet, but I prefer
mine with a bowl of the strawberries, cherries or raspberries that are scattered
around the market at the moment. You could make a strawberry sorbet or,
with patience, a cherry one, but there are other flavours that compliment the
fruits better, such as lemon, pear or orange.
I make pure fruit water ices with oranges, puréed strawberries or pineapple
juice and a simple sugar syrup made by bringing sugar and water to the boil
then allowing it to cool thoroughly. Made by hand in the freezer, they tend to
be a little more grainy than those I make in the ice-cream machine, but they
still hit the spot.
What appeals is not just the instant hit of cold fruit ice on the tongue, but the
way it hurts as it slides down the throat. Like swallowing soup that is too hot,
you're not entirely sure whether you are experiencing pleasure or pain. Or
perhaps it's both. Either way, I think I'd better keep the deep freeze.
Pear and lemon sorbet
The few English-grown Conference pears still around from last autumn are
really cheap and perfect for sorbet. Even now they have more flavour than the
imported South African Packhams. This is a truly elegant water ice and
exquisite with apricots that have been poached in a little light sugar syrup.
63
Serves 4-6
500ml water  
6 pears  
a lemon
Bring the water and caster sugar to the boil in a stainless-steel saucepan.
Peel the pears, cut them in half and scoop out the pips and tough core with a
teaspoon. Rub each piece of pear with a cut half of the lemon.
Slide the pears and the lemon halves into the hot syrup and let them cook at a
low simmer until the pears are truly tender. They should take the point of a
sharp knife without you applying any pressure. Switch off the heat and leave
them in the syrup until completely cool.
Put the pears and their cooking syrup - but not the lemons - into a blender and
blitz till smooth and white. Now either pour into an electric ice-cream maker
and churn till almost frozen, or pour the mixture into a shallow plastic freezer
box and place in the deep freeze.
Leave the sorbet for a couple of hours until ice crystals are forming around the
edge. Stir them into the centre with a whisk, then return to the freezer for
another couple of hours. Remove, whisk again, continually bringing the frozen
edges into the middle, then freeze once more. Just as the sorbet is almost
frozen, give it one final beating with the whisk and leave it to freeze. Once
frozen, it is a good idea to take it out of the freezer and put it into the fridge 20
minutes or so before serving.
Melon sorbet
I know what you're thinking: any excuse for an ice-cream recipe. But this
really is worth making for its elegance and delicate flavour and colour.
Serves 4-6
125g unrefined caster sugar  
125ml water  
2 small, ripe Ogen or Charentais melons  
juice of a lemon
Put the sugar and water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Avoid any
temptation to stir it. Remove the syrup from the heat as soon as the sugar has
64
dissolved, even if the water is nowhere near boiling. Let it cool, then
refrigerate.
Cut the melons in half and, losing as little of the juice as possible, scoop out
and discard the seeds. Scoop the melon flesh into a blender jug, add the
lemon juice, then blitz to a smooth purée. Stir in the sugar syrup.
If you have an electric ice-cream machine, pour the melon mixture into it and
let it churn away as normal. If you prefer to do it by hand - in which case you
won't get such a smooth finish - then scoop the mixture into a plastic
container, cover with a lid and put in the freezer. Check after an hour or so
that the mixture is freezing around the edges. Bring the frozen edges into the
middle with a whisk, then return to the freezer for a further hour, then do the
same again. Continue like this until the sorbet is almost frozen. How long it
takes will depend entirely on your freezer, but you can expect it to take at
least 4 hours.
When almost frozen, serve the sorbet in chilled bowls.
Pomegranate sorbet
It is essential to use unsweetened pomegranate juice here. That means either

using fresh fruit and squeezing it yourself, or checking the labels of your juice
carefully. Pom brand is the one that I use.
900ml pomegranate juice 
120g caster sugar
Stir the sugar into the pomegranate juice till dissolved. If it isn't disappearing,
then warm the mixture slightly till it does. Don't let it boil, though, as this will
affect the flavour and colour.
Pour the mixture into the bowl of an ice-cream machine and churn till it is
almost frozen. Remove and transfer to a plastic freezer box.
No machine? Then you are probably better off making a granita instead. Pour
the mixture into a shallow plastic freezer tray and freeze it for about an hour.
Stir with a fork, bringing the ice crystals that have formed around the edges
into the middle. Return to the freezer. Leave for a further hour or so, then
repeat. Do this till the mixture is almost frozen solid. It will freeze quite hard,
but when shattered with a fork or knife will break into a quite crystalline ice.
If it is frozen solid, allow a good 20 minutes to come to room temperature,

then break up with a fork into deep pink snow.
65
Coffee granita
It sounds odd, the idea of a sorbet topped with whipped cream, but in this
case the dairy addition is essential to form some sort of balance The soft,
smooth-tasting cream is a perfect contrast to the crystalline texture and keep-
you-up-all-night quality of the granita. The partnership works well, as in the
other great Italian coffee and cream dessert affogato al caffe, where
blisteringly hot espresso is poured over freezer-hard vanilla ice cream. I give
myself quite a bit of time to make this classically Roman end to a meal as it
takes a while to freeze by hand. Should you take the option of using an ice-
cream maker, then you will end up with a smooth coffee sorbet, which will be
delicious but will lack the essential granular texture of true granita.
Serves 4
still mineral water - 300ml
sugar - 150g
espresso coffee - 350ml, hot
softly whipped cream to serve
Bring the water to the boil then add the sugar and stir until dissolved. You
have produced a light sugar syrup. Pour in the coffee and leave to cool, then
chill thoroughly in the fridge.
Place a metal or plastic box in the freezer. When it is very cold, pour in the
coffee syrup and leave in the freezer for a good hour. Remove and stir the ice
crystals that have formed around the edge into the liquid middle and return to
the freezer. Leave for a further 45 minutes to an hour then repeat, folding the
frozen edges into the centre. Continue this, every hour or so until you have a
box of frozen, coffee-coloured ice crystals.
Whip the cream until it lies in soft folds.
Divide the granita between four chilled glasses (the ice melts quickly, so don't
skip the step of getting your glasses thoroughly cold) then spoon on the
whipped cream.
66

Nigel Slater Ice Creams and Sorbets

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Vanilla ice cream

Classic vanilla ice cream

The Observer, Sunday 4 July 2010

1 fat vanilla pod

150g caster sugar

Frost bites (rich vanilla ice cream recipe follows)

The Observer, Sunday 20 July 2003

My kitchen equipment is kept to the barest minimum - I have no time for

Making the custard

Rich vanilla ice cream

500ml double or whipping cream

150g caster sugar

Hand-churned ice cream

Vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce

4 balls of very best vanilla ice cream

250g fine plain chocolate

2 tsps strong black coffee (espresso is ideal)

300ml whipping cream

a knob of butter about the size of a walnut

Vanilla ice cream cake with strawberry sauce

plain sponge cake - 275g

vanilla ice cream - 1 litre

caster sugar - 2 tbs

Peanut cookies, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate

Peanut cookies, vanilla ice-cream and chocolate. Photograph: Jonathan

Enough for 12

muscovado sugar 120g

porridge oats 120g

peanut butter 2 heaped tbsp (smooth or crunchy)

salted roasted peanuts 160g

dark chocolate 100g

vanilla ice-cream 1 ltr

Salted caramel and panettone sundae

Salted caramel and panettone sundae.. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for

Sticky, salty and sweet. An indulgence of the first order.

For the sauce

light muscovado 50g

double cream 125ml

vanilla extract a few drops

sea salt flakes ½ to 1 tsp

For the toast

vanilla ice-cream 2-4 balls

Chocolate and coffee ice creams

Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream

This dessert is a happy marriage of bitter shards of chocolate and leftover

The Observer, Sunday 2 December 2012

Marmalade and chocolate chip ice-cream. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin

What started as an experiment ended up as beautiful, custard-coloured, soft-

single or whipping cream 500ml

golden caster sugar 2 tbsp

dark chocolate 100g roughly chopped

Espresso ice cream

Stir together well.

Almost instant chocolate ice cream

fine quality dark chocolate - 200g

a small espresso - about 50ml

fresh custard - 400g

whipping cream - 250ml

White chocolate and pistachio ice cream

full-cream milk 500ml

double cream 500ml

caster sugar 4 tbsp

1 fat vanilla pod 

500ml double or whipping cream 

4 balls of very best vanilla ice cream  

250g fine plain chocolate  

2 tsps strong black coffee (espresso is ideal)  

300ml whipping cream  

Enough for 12 

muscovado sugar 120g 

porridge oats 120g 

peanut butter 2 heaped tbsp (smooth or crunchy) 

salted roasted peanuts 160g 

dark chocolate 100g 

For the sauce 

light muscovado 50g 

double cream 125ml 

vanilla extract a few drops 

sea salt flakes ½ to 1 tsp 

For the toast 

single or whipping cream 500ml 

golden caster sugar 2 tbsp 

full-cream milk 500ml  

double cream 500ml 

caster sugar 4 tbsp 

white chocolate 200g 

8 neat balls of very good quality vanilla ice cream 

4 small cups of hot, freshly made espresso coffee 

125g caster sugar 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar  

double cream 300ml 

lemon curd 200g 

balsamic vinegar 1 tsp 

vanilla ice cream 500ml   

For the sauce: 

sparkling mineral water 3 or 4 tbsp 

lemon balm or lemon verbena 3 or 4 leaves   

For the cream: 

double cream 150ml 

vanilla seeds a pinch or two   

Raspberry vanilla ice-cream cake 

300g plain sponge cake 

1 litre vanilla ice cream 

For the fruit 

For the ice cream 

caster sugar 80g 

vanilla extract a few drops 

double cream 300ml 

Damson ice cream 

200g caster sugar 

250ml double cream 

soft amaretti 200g 

vanilla ice-cream 500g 

fresh cherries 200g 