Not strictly a cake, but tastes absolutely unreal and so easy to make I thought I'd share it here.
The thing that has always put me off making ice cream is either the need to have an ice cream maker (don't have) or the patience to stir it every 20 mins or whatever it is to stop ice crystals forming (don't have either). The great thing about this recipe is that once it's mixed, you just put the ice cream in the freezer and forget about it till you want to eat it. This was my first go at making ice-cream, and I was stunned by both taste and simplicity. It got chosen over custard to go with blackberry and apple pie - which is totally unheard of, custard is usually king!
The recipe is in two parts: the basic ice-cream, which you can flavour any way you desire; and then the blackberry syrup. You could swap the blackberry syrup for chocolate, strawberry, raspberry, or pretty much anything within reason (it probably wouldn't taste so great with caterpillars, but you never know...).
Blackberry no-stir Ice Cream Recipe (serves 4ish)
Ingredients
For the blackberry syrup:
9oz (250g) blackberries
1oz (25g) castor sugar
1.5 tbsp (20ml ish) water
For the basic no-stir ice-cream:
10 fl oz (300ml) double cream (single would probably work ok too)
2.5oz (70g) castor sugar
2 egg yolks
2 drops vanilla flavouring
Method
Part 1: Blackberry Syrup
Make this first to give it time to cool before adding it to the basic no-stir ice-cream.
Put all the syrup ingredients into a saucepan, and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat, and simmer for 8-10 minutes (until the blackberries have broken down).
Strain through a fine mesh sieve.
Return to the pan, and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes until you have a thick syrup (the exact timing for simmering here is a bit guessed as I had a bumped knee to attend to in the middle of this stage).
Leave to cool completely (speed up by putting in a china or metal dish, and if you feel like being daring - or have no patience - risk killing your fridge by putting it inside)
Part 2: Basic No-Stir Ice-Cream
Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Stay with it and watch like a hawk - it may do a milk on you and boil over fast.
Reduce the heat and add the sugar.
Stir well to dissolve the sugar, then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly (otherwise you may scramble the egg yolk - but don't worry, it was quite hot when I added it and no scramblage occurred).
Whisk the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with a fork.
Pour the cream and sugar onto the egg yolks, stirring constantly.
Add the vanilla flavouring.
Pour the mixture into a freezer proof container of some sort.
Part 3: Joining it all Together
Pour the blackberry syrup into the cream mixture, and give it a bit of a stir, so it goes nice and rippley.
The blackberry syrup will sink to the bottom, leaving a lovely cream colour on top with a few pinky purple splots, then when you dish it up there's a solid layer of blackberry loveliness at the bottom.
Yum, oh yum.
Seal the container nice and tight, and put in the freezer to set - about 5-6 hours.
Notes and tips:
- Usually when making ice-cream you have to keep stirring it - because the milk causes it to crystallise. This recipe doesn't use milk, hence no need for stirring.
- If you can get vanilla pods then by all means use them instead of vanilla flavouring - I find pods a tad pricey, so used flavouring instead - having said that, this ice-cream is so creamy you could probably get away with no vanilla at all.
- I've said serves 4-ish - we got 2 adult portions one night (3 good dessert spoonfuls); 2 side portions to go with blackberry and apple pie the next night; plus 1 small portion for "pudding after lunch mummy" and 1 small portion for mummy. So probably 4ish servings altogether.
I used 2 recipes as bases for this recipe - because neither did what I wanted on their own. I also changed around the quantities - the original vanilla ice cream recipe called for 500ml cream and 3 eggs - I only had a 300ml pot of cream (the largest I could get in Sainsburys) and 2 eggs. It worked fine.
Original Recipes:
vanilla ice cream by Lee Cox on the BBC food website
blackberry syrup was loosely based on the ripple sauce recipe by Valentine Warner, also BBC Food website
Hope you enjoy it!
