Homemade ice-cream. Yum!

I tried two ice-creams recently. The first one, a cookies and cream ice-cream was a request from the children, it is their current favourite.  The other one was trying to reproduce a Maggie Beer ice-cream, a salted caramel chocolate ice-cream.

Also, let me tell you about the 5 min cheat ice-cream we can all make at home at the last minute and which works a treat!

One tip upfront: make sure your ice cream mix is very cold before churning, this will result in a smoother ice cream and will then be more enjoyable.  I use an ice-cream machine to churn the ice-cream. I find this method much more reliable!

Cookies and cream ice-cream

This is my kids current favourite.  Adults also love it.  This ice-cream is so simple, it is just a matter of mixing cream, milk, vanilla and sugar and it is ready to be churned! The cookies pieces are added afterwards, between churning and freezing.  Try it, it is worth it! Recipe HERE.

Salted caramel chocolate ice cream

This requires a bit more steps than the above but remains simple to make.  I like mine quite strong in chocolate. In the recipe HERE, I point out to a few adaptations to tastes.  I love the result: a rich complex chocolate ice-cream.

You can use the custard base of this recipe for a “plain” chocolate ice cream (don’t forget to add the cream to the custard base).

The 5 minutes berries ice-cream

It is more a sorbet than an ice cream. I have not tried adding some cream, it would be interesting to try. You will need a 500 g bag of frozen berries: mixed or raspberries or strawberries or what may be in your freezer. You will also need some sugar cane syrup or some icing sugar. And a blender. In the blender place the frozen berries and start blending.  If using sugar cane syrup, add until the right texture is reached. If using icing sugar, place three tablespoons of sieved icing sugar with the fruits and blend, adding a little water at the time to help with the consistency (also check if you need to add more sugar).  The liquid volume will be somewhere between 1/2 cup and 1 cup and will depend on the berries.

Serve immediately or place in the freezer for a little time if making an hour ahead or so.