As I’ve mentioned on a previous #icecreamwednesday, I was recently given a Gaggia ice cream machine to review for a few weeks over summer. One of the things I love about the machine is not needing to freeze a bowl or disk 24-48 hours in advance. I can make ice cream whenever I want as the machine takes only a few minutes to get cold enough, once plugged in and switched on.
I have made custard from scratch (using fresh milk and eggs), and used it as a base for home made ice cream. It’s certainly satisfying and delicious. And I’ve also used fresh, ready made custard from Waitrose’s chiller cabinet, flecked with real vanilla seeds and almost as good as home made.
But I like the idea of store cupboard ice creams that one can make on a whim.
So I decided to experiment and see what I could come up with.
Although purists may turn their nose up at the idea, long life custard makes a decent ice cream with a smooth, silky texture.
And who can resist condensed milk? Mine most commonly goes into coffee (Vietnamese style), which is what inspired the recipe below, but it can also be used as a base for other ice cream flavours. I’ve seen recipes for rich vanilla ice cream based on condensed milk.
Cream mixed with pureed fruit is also a winner; I know fresh cream isn’t a store cupboard ingredient, but we often have some leftover fresh cream in the fridge, after using part of a tub in a savoury recipe. I’ve also tried out a long life cream – sterilised cream does have a certain flavour of its own, so you’ll need to try it to see whether it works for you.
Next time you go shopping, pop some of the ingredients below into your shopping basket and keep them in your cupboard for when you feel that #icecreamwednesday urge!
The recipes below give the amounts I used but are pretty flexible so just use them as a guideline.
Aim for a pre-churned mixture that tastes a touch too sweet, as the sweetness is muted a little once frozen.
Recipes
- Store Cupboard Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream Sorbet
- Store Cupboard Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream
- Store Cupboard Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream
- Store Cupboard Peaches & Cream Ice Cream
- Store Cupboard Apple Cinnamon Ice Cream
Store Cupboard Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream Sorbet
Because of the high water content, the texture is half way between an ice cream and a sorbet which I think is very refreshing.
If you want a creamier texture, substitute the 300 ml of coffee for 50-100 ml of strong espresso and skip the milk. Obviously, this will make a smaller amount of ice cream.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
300 ml strongly brewed coffee
300 grams condensed milk
125 ml full fat milk
Note: I realise fresh milk isn’t a store cupboard ingredient, but figure it’s something most of us have in the fridge most of the time!
- Mix coffee, condensed milk, milk and vanilla.
- Leave to cool.
- Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.
Store Cupboard Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream
Yellow mint ice cream seems a bit strange at first, but ignore the colour and you’ll see it works just fine. Alternatively, add a couple of drops of green food colouring, if you prefer.
Serves 2
Ingredients
250 ml full-fat long-life custard
Approx. 1 teaspoon peppermint essence (give or take half a teaspoon)
Generous handful or two of chocolate chips
I used enormous (milk) Chocolate by Trish chocolate chips. They tasted great but were much too large for this purpose and jammed the blades of the ice cream machine, as they froze to the bottom of the bowl. I would recommend using much smaller chocolate chips or drops instead.
- Combine the ingredients and freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.
Store Cupboard Chocolate Liqueur Ice Cream
Serves 2
Ingredients
250 ml full-fat long-life custard
50 ml chocolate cream liqueur (I used the new Thorntons liqueur but you could use any liqueur you like)
Note: I also added mini marshmallows but would not do so again; I didn’t like their pillowy texture within the cold ice cream.
Note: If you don’t have chocolate liqueur, use a blend of chocolate syrup (such as Monin) and a cream liqueur such as Kahlua or Amarula.
Combine the ingredients and freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.
Store Cupboard Peaches & Cream Ice Cream
Sweet, velvety tinned peaches are perfect in ice cream, though you can use whatever tinned fruit you fancy.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
Approx. 250-300 ml long life double /extra thick cream (I used a 283 gram tin)
Approx. 400 grams tinned fruit in syrup
Lemon juice to taste, if needs extra sharpness (0ptional)
A generous splash of Amaretto liqueur (optional)
Note: You can substitute fresh cream for the long life cream if you prefer.
- Reserve about a quarter of the fruit and put the rest of the tin, including the syrup, into a blender or processor with the cream. Blend to a puree.
- Add lemon juice to taste, to balance the sweetness with a little acidity or splash in a little Amaretto liqueur.
- Chop the reserved fruit into small chunks, to give texture to the finished ice cream.
-
Mix the chopped fruit into the pureed fruit and cream and freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.
Store Cupboard Apple Cinnamon Ice Cream
Make/ buy a fairly sweet compote, as it will taste less sweet once mixed with the cream.
You can make a compote from any fruit you have lying around, especially if it’s a little bruised and needs to be used up.
Ingredients
Approx. 250 grams apple compote (for home-made, slowly cook peeled and diced apples with sugar)
250 ml double cream
Small pinch powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)
Note: If you make the apple compote yourself, cool it down thoroughly before making the ice cream.
- Stir the apple compote into the cream.
- Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.
Other ideas
Stem ginger – chopped stem ginger plus syrup from the jar, stirred into custard. Optional: a dash of ginger wine.
Fudge ice cream – crumble tablet or chop soft fudge into small pieces and churn into vanilla custard.
My Christmas Pudding Ice Cream – ready made custard, brandy and leftover Christmas pudding. Could also be made using rich fruit cake.
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!12 Comments to "Ice Cream Wednesday: Store Cupboard Ice Cream Recipes"
I'm all over that Vietnamese coffee ice cream!
divine… I love this idea… i've just made a gooseberry crumble ice cream which i'll pots on Friday but it was made with a custard base which worked out perfectly… poor you to have HAD to make so many and try so many… how do you cope? xx
Would this work for sugar-free ready made custard? I don't have a machine at the moment but if I could make sugar-free ice cream, I'd definitely add it to my shopping list.
I was given the Ben and Jerry's icecream book YEARS ago and all the recipes in it are non custard, which makes for a much easier and totally different ice cream…
They're mainly cream and uncooked egg based – I can totally recommend it 🙂
I'm always seeing recipes that use condensed milk but the only brand I ever see is Nestle which I refuse to buy.
If anyone knows any where I can get some non-Nestle condensed milk I'd be really grateful! Although not having an ice cream maker may also make this slightly difficult for me 😉
Lovely post. All these recipes sound yummy.
My mum used to make really gorgeous vanilla ice cream with condensed milk.
A reply to Becca
check out the Wikipedia entry on condensed milk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_milk
contains list of brands
plus a method to make your own condensed milk with evaporated milk plus sugar
Su-Lin, I loved the ice-cream sorbet texture of mine, not what I'd necessarily aimed at, but worked ever so well. Hope you like!
Dom, I'm selfless like that! 😉
Edafe, I would imagine so, but I've not tried it myself. But I can't see why not…
MissW, yeah I've often done fresh fruit and fresh cream ice creams and they're lovely too!
Becca, yes there are other brands, and as minibreakmummy says, you can make your own.
Minibreakmummy, thanks! I did see recipes for a condensed milk vanilla but so fancied Vietnamese coffee, so used my tin for that.
Love the sound of the vietnemese coffee ice cream/sorbet. Although I'm not normally a coffee flavoured stuff fan it sounds ace!
I loce coffee in all desserts/ice cream, so this sounds delicious. Great ideas here.
Fabulous ideas – will try some of those this week-end!
We love to just throw in the icecream maker some greek yogurt, a spoonful of mascarpone and pureed fruit (apricot is a favourite). Oh and dash of cointreau for an adult version…
Chloe, there's something amazing about how condensed milk and coffee go together!
Nic, hope you enjoy it!
Chocoralie, frozen yoghurts, yes I've made those too but not for ages, thanks for reminder, excellent idea!