Beat the heat with home-made ice cream!

I prefer to make my own ice-cream these days.  I know exactly what it contains and I can tailor the ingredients to a particular occasion.  For instance, I recently served organic chestnut ice-cream to friends, with dark chocolate almond crisp topping and belgian wafers.  It was a big hit and caused me to make another batch … this time, organic chocolate ice-cream.  It didn’t sit around long enough for a photo(!) but here is my adaptation of a recipe that came with a Donvier ice-cream maker many years ago.  Of course, you can substitute, but remember that as with all recipes, the taste and texture of the final product directly relates to the quality of the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks (organic, free range)
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 1.5 cups milk (Avalon, whole organic milk)
• 2 cups whipping cream (Avalon, organic)
• 1/3 cup high-quality Fair-Trade, organic cocoa powder (Green & Black’s)
• Seeds from 1 Madagascar vanilla pod (or 1 tspn organic vanilla essence)

Method

Makes one quart.

Beat milk and egg yolks together.  Blend in the sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.  Remove from heat, sieve the cocoa powder into the mixture and beat until blended.  Cool.  Add cream and vanilla. Mix well and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, either follow instructions for your ice-cream maker or pour ingredients into a shallow tray, freeze for two hours and stir, freeze for another two hours, stir again, then leave to harden.  Once you have made your ice-cream, transfer it to a sealable glass or pyrex container.  If you use glass, you will avoid the transfer of plastic smell, taste and by-products to your creation.  Final step:  savour every delicious mouthful with or without a topping.  I served it with a thin slice of olive oil cake …