Recipe Roundup | Ice Creams with Dried Fruits and Nuts

Ice cream isn’t the most obvious thing to be making when it’s cold and dark outside and there’s a thick blanket of snow on the ground for much of the month. But a few committed ice cream lovers joined me anyway and shared their recipes using dried fruit or nuts.

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I dithered over what to make. My original plan was to puree some delicious Iranian dates and use them as a ripple in a toffee ice cream. But after I used them all up in my apple, date and ginger chutney, I turned to walnuts instead. Sometimes, making things up entirely from scratch can be a disaster, but this time, it worked a treat. The Coffee, Rum & Walnut Brittle Ice Cream is one of the best I’ve ever made. Even if you don’t make the ice cream, I recommend you make the walnut brittle which is incredible quick and easy!

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Alicia the Foodycat found herself with lots of Fererro Rocher chocolates leftover from Christmas. This never happens in my house, as they somehow disappear all too quickly! She took inspiration from their chocolate and hazelnut combination and made a Nutella Frozen Yoghurt. She lined a bowl with halved Fererro Rochers before filling the inside of the ice cream bombe with her froyo mixture. Although the flavours were good, she concluded that the ratio of chocolates to froyo was a little high and would create a gala-pie like sliced loaf next time.

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It’s not the first time I’ve described The Little Loaf as the Queen of Ice Cream and it probably won’t be the last. Her Banana Ice Cream with Cocoa Nib Freckles & Toasted Maple Walnuts sounds absolutely fantastic! Her recipe includes instructions on making the maple walnuts and then incorporating them into a rich banana ice cream made with cream cheese, double cream, sugar, honey and vanilla, to name just some of the ingredients. The walnuts and cocoa nibs are layered with the churned ice cream before freezing again.

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Deb from Supper and Scribbles doesn’t adhere to the panicked rush to diet and exercise that so many turn to in January, after a gluttonous December. Instead, she finds that it’s a month where she needs the warmth that good comfort food and sweet treats can provide. As it’s also her birthday month, austerity is definitely out of place. Hence her decadent and delicious-sounding Peanut butter Ice Cream with Hot Chocolate Sauce and Salted Peanut Brittle! Like me, she made her own brittle, but unlike me, she also made her peanut butter ice cream from scratch, not to mention her chocolate sauce. Bravo!

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I was visiting Helly from Fuss Free Flavours when she made this quick and delicious treat and we played with her new photography props to take the photo above. A local market sells big bags of bananas for £1 so she buys in bulk, peeling and freezing several for later use in smoothies, baking projects or this Food Processor Banana Ice Cream. Often known as cheats ice cream, it’s simply a case of blending frozen banana until smooth and creamy, and eating quickly before it has time to defrost. Helly added caramel jam for flavour, and sprinkled dehydrated strawberries and flaked almonds over the top.

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See? Ice cream is not just for summer!

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