Meringue Gelato Cake

Ingredients

For the for the meringue gelato cake
300 ml double cream
30 gram(s) dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
1 tablespoon(s) coffee liqueur (and/or rum)
1 packet(s) meringue nests (approx. 100g in total)
250 gram(s) raspberries (to serve, optional)
1 450g/1lb loaf tin (18 x 12 x 8.5cm or similar capacity)
For the for the chocolate sauce
250 ml double cream
125 gram(s) dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
2 tablespoon(s) coffee liqueur (and/or rum)



Method

For the Meringue Gelato Cake:
Line your loaf tin with clingfilm, making sure you have enough overhang to cover the top later.
Whip the cream until thick but still soft.
Chop the chocolate very finely so that you have a pile of dark splinters, and fold them into the cream, along with the liqueur.
Now, using brute force, crumble the meringue nests and fold these in, too.
Pack this mixture into the prepared loaf tin, pressing it down with a spatula as you go, and bring the clingfilm up and over to seal the top, then get out more clingfilm to wrap around the whole tin. Freeze until solid, which should take around 8 hours, or overnight.
To serve, unwrap the outer layer of plastic wrap, then unpeel the top and use these bits of long overhanging wrap to lift out the ice-cream brick. Unwrap and unmould it onto a board and cut the frozen meringue cake into slabs to serve. I like to zig-zag a little chocolate sauce over each slice, and sprinkle a few raspberries alongside on each plate.

For the Chocolate Sauce:
Pour the cream into a saucepan and add the tiny bits of chocolate.
Put over a gentle heat and whisk as the chocolate melts, taking the pan off the heat once the chocolate is almost all melted. If the mixture gets too hot, the chocolate will seize, whereas it will happily continue melting in the warm cream off the heat.
Add the liqueur, still off the heat, and whisk again to amalgamate the sauce completely. Pour into a jug, whisking every now and again until it cools to just subtly warm.

Blackberry Ice-cream

A summer delight and a childhood reminder

Ingredients:

• 450g / 1lb blackberries (freshly picked are best but nit always available)
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 50g / 2oz caster sugar
• 1 x 400ml can evaporated milk
• 150 ml double cream, whipped
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Place the blackberries, honey and sugar in a medium pan over a low heat of 10-15 minutes until the berries are soft and mushy.  Transfer to blender a whizz until smooth.  Pass through a sieve to remove the pips and allow to cool.

Meanwhile whip the evaporated milk until it starts to thicken  Fold in the cream, lemon juice and the blackberry puree.

Transfer to a container suitable for the freezer and pop into the freezer for 45 minutes, or when it starts to freeze around the edges.  Remove and give it a good beating to break up any ice crystals.  Repeat this freezing / beating several times to ensure a smooth result.

Kick back and enjoy.

Rasberry & Lime Ice-cream

A real summer favourite, or if its not summer where you are now, then just a real favourite.

Ingredients:-

• 250g raspberries (fresh of course if you can get them but from frozen will do too)
• 100g sugar
• 50ml lime juice
• 50ml cream
• 500ml Greek yoghurt

Directions:-
Heat the fruit and add the sugar. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Gently mash the fruit with a potato masher and add the lime juice. Allow to cool then add the cream and Greek yoghurt.

Stir well and transfer to a plastic container and into the freezer. Remove from the freezer and mix well every few hours until the ice-cream is set. To enjoy the ice-cream at its best remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for ~30 minutes before lashing into it!

Fresh Lemon and Lime Sorbet

A taste of Sorrento from your own kitchen.

Easy to make, refreshing and looks great as a "palate cleanser" between courses. Great for dinner parties.


Ingredients:

• 2 Limes
• 1 litre of cold water (1.75 pints)
• 100g /4oz caster sugar
• 350ml / 12fl lemon juice

Directions:

Grate the zest from the limes and set aside.  Squeeze the juice from the limes and add to the water in a pan over medium heat.  Add the sugar and the zest and simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, mix well.  Allow to cool.

When it is cold, pour the sorbet mixture into a shallow freezerproof container and freeze until ice crystals start to form around the edges.  Stir vigoursly with a fork.  Repeat every 20 minutes or so over a few hours until the mixture is set and no liquid remains.

Soften slightly before serving in scoops.

Yummy Toffee Sauce

Great with Ice-Cream (or on it's own if you're all out of ice-cream)

This is a quick and easy way to make a delicious toffee sauce, just Yummy as Michael says!


Ingredients:

• 50g Brown Sugar
• 50g Irish Butter
• 125ml Milk (or cream if you really need the calories)
• 3 tbs Golden Syrup

Directions:
Melt the butter and sugar over a high heat with the sugar until fully dissolved. Whisk in the golden syrup and milk (or cream) over a moderate heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat and allow to cool sufficiently to thicken a little. Pour over ice-cream and enjoy.

Above sufficient to make a very generous sauce for 6 bowls of ice-cream.

Lavender Ice-Cream

To make this unusual lavender ice cream dessert, store bought culinary dried lavender or freshly picked lavender can be used. Using an ice cream machine does make the process easier, but there is no reason not to make fabulous homemade ice cream in the freezer compartment.

3 Ingredient Lavender Ice Cream Recipe
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 6ozs honey
• 1 tablespoon fresh lavender flowers or 1 level teaspoon dried culinary lavender
• ¾ pint double cream

Directions:

• Place the honey into a heavy bottomed saucepan, over a low heat.
• Crush the lavender flowers with a spoon, and add them to the honey.
• Stir in the cream and mix gently.
• If you have an ice cream machine, transfer the mixture and follow the manufacturer’s usual directions until frozen.
• If you don’t have an ice cream machine, whisk the mixture until it becomes thick. Put it in a shallow container suitable for freezing, cover, and place in the freezer. After half an hour, take it out. It should have started freezing from the outside edges, but not be fully frozen in the middle. Whisk to break down the ice crystals and make it smooth. Put it back in the freezer and repeat after another half an hour. You may need to do this a total of three or four times until the ice- cream is frozen through and smooth, with lavender speckles.

Ice Cream Serving Tips:
Move the ice cream from the freezer to the fridge about half an hour before serving, and it will be the perfect texture.
Serve small quantities of lavender ice cream in a shallow wineglass or dish, with plain shortbread,and garnish with a fresh sprig of lavender, for a dessert with a difference!
To Store the Lavender Ice Cream
Put lavender ice cream into a suitable container with about half an inch spare at the top to allow the mixture to expand.
Lay a sheet of clingfilm against the surface of the ice cream and close with an airtight lid. Store it in the coldest part of the freezer.
Note: Using Home Grown Lavender
It’s best to pick the flowers in the morning after the dew has dried. The lavender flowers will be at their best and the scent will be wonderful. You can use any of the varieties, but English Lavender is particularly good because of its sweeter scent.

Champagne Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sparkling wine or champagne
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon of lemon and or grapefruit zest
• 1 1/2 cups fresh grapefruit juice
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  

Method

1 Put champagne, sugar, corn syrup, and zest into a saucepan. Bring to a vigorous boil so that the sugar completely dissolves, remove from heat.

2 Strain into a stainless steel bowl (will help cool down faster), add the grapefruit juice and lemon juice. Chill completely. To do this, either place bowl in a larger bowl half-filled with ice water, and stir until champagne solution is completely cold, refreshing the ice in the outer bowl if necessary. Or you can cover with plastic wrap and chill in your refrigerator over night. I put the bowl in the ice compartment of our freezer for a couple hours, because it fits, chills quickly, and is far enough away from the other food in the freezer.

3 Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the ice cream maker directions. Transfer mixture to a storage container and freezer in your freezer until firm, at least 6 hours.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2/3 cup to 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want the result, and how sweet your strawberries are to begin with)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups full fat yogurt (if use low or non fat, then add 2 Tbsp cream)

Method

1 Place the strawberries, lemon juice, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Use a potato masher to mash up the strawberries as the mixture is heating. As soon as all of the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

2 Stir in the milk and yogurt, until completely incorporated. Place the mixture in the refrigerator, and chill for at least an hour, preferably several hours, until completely cold, before proceeding.

3 Process the mixture in your ice cream maker 20 to 25 minutes; if you don't have an Ice-cream maker then put the mix in a tub in your freezer but remove it every 10-15 minutes and stir vigorously with a fork - this stops ice crystals forming. It will take longer to freeze this way but the results are just as tasty.

Not sure this instruction is necessary - Eat immediately or keep in freezer until served.

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Frozen blueberries work great for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (about 1 1lb)
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup to 1 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet your blueberries are, and how sweet you want the result to be)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups full fat plain yogurt (if using low or non-fat yogurt, add 2 Tbsp cream)
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Method

1 Place the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until all of the sugar has dissolved. While the mixture is heating, use a potato masher to mash up the blueberries. When all of the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

If you want a smooth result, you can process the cooled mixture in a food processor, or skip, in which case you'll have pieces of blueberries which can add flavorful texture to the frozen yogurt.

2 Stir in the yogurt and milk until completely combined. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours (or overnight) until completely cold.

3 Process the blueberry yogurt mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions (usually about 25 minutes). If you don't have an ice0cream maker, put the mixture into a plastic tub and place in the freezer, remove every 10-15 minutes and stir vigorously with a fork. It'll take a little longer but taste just as good.

Serve immediately (it will be soft) or let it firm up a bit by freezing it for several hours. Makes about 1 quart but won't last long!

Brown bread ice-cream

Surely a candidate for the healthiest ice cream ever? A novel way of including wholegrain into your kid’s diet.

Serves 4- Suitable for vegetarians

Ingredients

• 110g wholemeal breadcrumbs
  
• 110 dark brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 290ml of double cream
  
• 150ml of single cream
  
• 2 drops of vanilla essence
  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6
   
2. Leave the breadcrumbs to dry out in the oven for around 15 minutes or so
   
3. Mix the sugar in with the breadcrumbs and bring back to the oven for another 15 minutes
   
4. Remove from the oven, allow the mix to cool
   
5. Crush the sweetened crumbs together with the back of a spoon
   
6. Separate the egg yolks from the whites
   
7. Beat the yolks and mix in with the cream and the crumb mix
   
8. Whisk the egg whites until they are slightly stiff
   
9. Add to the mix and freeze in an airtight plastic container.

Lemon Semi-Fredo

Not ice cream nor sorbet... it's Semi-Fredo

Ideally served in slices so you'll need a loaf tin for this one... ice cream from a baking tin!



Ingredients:
6 Egg yolks
150g Castor sugar
150ml Lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
375ml Cream, lightly whipped

Directions:
Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Keep whisking and as the mixture heats up it swell in volume. Keep going until it is approximately double in size and light and fluffy. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool giving the odd whisk every now and again.

When the mixture is fully cold, fold in the whipped cream.

Line the loaf tin with cling film (saran wrap for you Americans out there) so that you can lift the semi-fredo out when set. Freeze until solid, a few hours or so should do it.

Slice and serve.

PS. I use the "spare" egg whites from this recipe to make meringues... they go great together.

Ice-cream varieties

Follow the basic rasberry ice-cream and replace the rasberries with:-

• Strawberries
• Bananna
• In fact whatever takes your fancy....

Enjoy

Rasberry Ice-cream

No hassle, no nonsense ice-cream

This is a very quick and easy method to make delicious ice-cream. No need for a fancy list of ingedients or complicated instructions... gone too is the need for an ice-cream maker!



Ingredients:
125g Rasberries
250ml Greek yoghurt
250ml Cream
100g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essense

Directions:
Mash the rasberries in a bowl, don't dream of throwing away the juice. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Transfer to a plastic container and freeze. After a few hours, remove from the freezer and mix again; repeat a few times until the ice-cream is ready. Don't leave it too long in the freezer (ie serve and eat just as soon as it's ready, say 12 hours) as it will get icy.