I have tried lots of different combinations of ice cream to make ice cream cakes but this one was almost perfect. Five layers – the first a biscuit base with a difference because it was a vanilla ice cream with a lot of crumbed chocolate biscuit stirred through.

I make either egg custard based ice cream or Philadelphia style ice cream depending on whether our geese are laying or we have an abundance of eggs.

During September and October we get 2 goose eggs each day so I make ice cream a couple of times each week and usually make a large ice cream cake or an assortment of ice cream flavours for Christmas desert.

It is now 2019 and I have completely changed the way I make ice cream. I was never happy with the taste and texture of my ice cream. It had the best quality ingredients but there was sometimes an oily mouth feel and was rock hard. It was not as amazing as it should have been.

So here is the new regime and it is so much easier that I have completely deleted the old method for french style ice cream. This makes about 1 litre. 

FRENCH STYLE QUICK ICE-CREAM

Any ice cream can be made French style. This ice cream lasts longer and is creamier, the ultimate ice cream, as our tasters say “to die for”

Things to get together

• a bowl or large jug and a sieve set over it
• a saucepan
• a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• an instant read thermometer
• rubber spatula

Ingredients

• 300 ml cream
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 goose egg yolks (or 5 chicken yolks)
• 400ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch salt
• 1 shot of alcohol of choice
• optional add-ins
• optional flavours

Method

1. Put the milk and cream into a jug, stir to mix.
2. Put half of the milk and cream into a saucepan. Add the vanilla to the remaining mix in the jug, stir well and place the jug in the freezer or fridge.
3. Put the yolks, salt, sugar and vanilla in the stand mixer. Stir with a rubber spatula until combined. Then whisk until the sugar is dissolved and the mix has changed to a creamy white. It may be necessary to scrape the sides and base with the spatula a couple of times.
4. Heat the milk/cream mix in the saucepan, on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until small bubbles are forming on the edges and it is just simmering. Rg
5. Put the ice cold mixture beside the pan, with a sieve over it and have a spatula ready for stirring
6. Pour the warm milk slowly into the egg mixture, with the beater running slowly, to temper it, then add the mix back into the saucepan, on a medium/low heat, stirring continually until the temperature reaches 80ºC.
7. Immediately add the hot mix through the sieve, to the milk/cream in the bowl, stirring to bring the temperature down quickly.
8. Put the mix into the freezer to chill quickly or into the fridge over-night before churning, or if using a refrigerated churn, place the mix straight into the churn.
9. Add a shot of alcohol to the churn. Choose something that complements the flavour. The alcohol helps to stop the ice cream setting too hard.
10. Add any flavours and add-ins.
11. Churn until set.
12. Put the churn tub into the freezer for an hour to continue setting.
13. After an hour or so, before it sets hard, remove and transfer the ice cream to a 1 litre container. Now is the time for add-ins, layers, splodge or swirls.

EASY ICE-CREAM – SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

I have an ice-cream machine with a built in refrigerator. This makes making ice-cream making so easy so I have come up with a very easy recipe.

It makes a litre at a time and I can make a batch from start to finish within an hour as long as the ingredients are well chilled.

Ingredients

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 750 ml milk (total can be made of cream and milk to taste)
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Put all the ingredients into a high speed blender. Add any flavourings and put into the ice cream machine and process until set – approximately 40 minutes.

VANILLA PHILADELPHIA STYLE ICE CREAM

Ingredients

• 500 ml whole milk
• 400 ml thickened cream
• 1 cup white sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Warm the milk slightly and mix in the sugar and whisk until all of the sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the rest of the milk and cream or put half the ingredients into a high speed blender and whisk until the sugar has dissolved and whisk in the rest of the cream and sugar.

If it is warm chill in the fridge or freezer until really cool then churn.

ICE CREAM CAKE

This is the recipe for what I think is the best one we have made. The base and the pre-made chocolate wafers on the top make it so easy and it looks great.

THE BISCUIT BASE

Ingredients

• 1 ½ packs Arnotts Chocolate Ripple biscuits
• 600 ml thickened cream
• 500 ml milk
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup white sugar

Make up the vanilla ice cream below

Method

Smash up the biscuits – between two sheets of silicon paper using a rolling pin – and add to vanilla ice cream

 

DARK CHOCOLATE SORBET

This is so tasty and doesn’t taste at all like a sorbet, just a luscious, chocolatey smooth indulgence. Use it between layers and as a topping on the ice-cream cake.

Ingredients

Makes about 6 cups

• 4 cups water
• 2 cups white sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 cups sifted cocoa
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Heat the water, sugar and salt until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Gradually whisk the cocoa powder into the syrup until smooth.

Add the vanilla and stir to combine.

• or put the whole lot in to a high speed mixer for 90 seconds – it can go straight into my ice cream machine

Put in the freezer 2 to 3 hours (hit with a stick mixer if ice starts to form) or refrigerate overnight.

Churn until until it is soft and creamy, about 15 to 20 minutes.

MINT COOKIES AND CREAM LAYER

Ingredients

• 1½ cup whole milk
• 500 ml thickened cream
• 1 cup white sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh mint leaves (torn up and packed into a cup)
• 8-10 broken up chocolate cream biscuits, leave the chunks biggish – Oreos or Arnotts Chocolate Cream biscuits
• a few drops of mint essence (to increase “mintiness” if necessary)
• a few drops of green food colouring if it doesn’t go green enough (just to give a very pale green reminiscent of mint – if we see the green then we will expect the mint flavour)

Method

Whisk together the 1 cup of the milk, half the cream, sugar, salt and vanilla. Bring the mixture just to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and add the mint leaves, let steep for 20 to 30 minutes, strain and discard the mint leaves. For a more intense mint flavour blend the milk/ mint mixture using an immersion blender, steep for 20 to 30 minutes. After steeping and straining, add the rest of the cream and milk.

Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.

Churn until thickened, about 20 minutes. When the ice cream is almost fully churned, gradually add the crushed cookies through the top of the ice cream maker, let mix until fully combined.

Toasted Marshmallow, Gingernut cookies, Chocolate ripple ice cream

Ingredients for Ice Cream

• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 500 ml thickened cream
• 1 ½ cups milk
• Pinch salt

Warm the milk slightly and mix in the sugar and whisk until all of the sugar has dissolved. Whisk in the rest of the milk and cream.

• or just put the lot in a high speed blender for 90 secs

Chill in the fridge or freezer until really cool then churn.

Ingredients for chocolate ripple

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Golden syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 tbs Dutch processed cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the sugar, golden syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a until it boils stirring constantly then let it simmer for 1 minute, still stirring. Add the vanilla and place in a bowl to chill until needed.

Ingredients for mix in

• Pack Arnotts Gingernut biscuits crumbled
• 4 cups small marshmallows or larger ones cut into bits

When the ice cream is churning spread the marshmallows on a baking sheet lined with foil or a silicone mat. Use a blowtorch to brown them turning them over to brown all sides.

Freeze the bucket that the ice cream will be stored in. When the ice-cream has churned put a dollop of fudge and a sprinkle of broken biscuits and marshmallows then add a bit of ice cream, continue dollops and swirls of each until all used up. From time to time give most recently added components a gently swirl but don’t stir. Leave it to have some surprises of gooey fudge, plain ice cream or marshmallows. This is not meant to be a homogeneous mix.

 

ADD-INS

These are all added to the standard approx 1.5 litre mix. The end volume will be different depending on whether they are solid add-ins or flavours.

Coffee (this is a pre-made affagato) – 3 tbs good quality instant coffee granules,

2 tbs dark chocolate grated (or coffee flavoured chocolate sprinkles,

3 tbs kahlua.

Add 2 tbs coffee and kahlua to the churn as the mix begins to set, adding the chocolate and last tbs coffee to right at the end.

 

 

 

AFFOGATO ICE CREAM

This is a great substitute for for affogato – instead of a shot of coffee with vanilla ice cream I make a very strong coffee ice-cream and serve it with a shot of whatever alcohol takes my fancy on the day.

This takes a couple of days for the coffee beans to infuse into the cream so start in advance.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups thickened cream
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 tsp ground coffee
• 1 cup whole coffee beans

Heat the milk and sweetened condensed milk to near boiling and add the coffee beans. Allow to steep for at least an hour. Cool in the fridge

Strain off the coffee beans when the flavour is strong enough.

Add the cream and process in the ice-cream machine.

 

 

MOCHA ICE-CREAM

This is another very easy and very tasty ice cream. It’s sort of a sorbet because it doesn’t have much milk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 cups coffee – I used a couple of shots, a couple of coffee bags and a cup of strong instant coffee
• 1 cup of sugar to taste (it needs a bit of additional sweetener, particularly if you used ordinary cocoa rather than dutch processed)
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Put everything into a high speed food processor for 90 seconds.

Freeze in the ice-cream machine.

 

PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM

This one tastes a bit like a “Picnic” chocolate bar. It is really good served between a couple of chocolate chip biscuits.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup thickened cream
• pinch salt

Put all the ingredients in the high speed food processor until well mixed.

Freeze in ice-cream machine