Strawberry basil ice cream

You know how many ice cream recipes have so far been published on this site?

Zero.

That is not because we don’t like ice cream. We do. A lot. But we don’t have a freezer and that is a fairly essential piece of equipment when it comes to making ice cream.

Therefore making ice cream includes a few extra steps for us:

  1.  Make friends with someone who has a freezer (preferably within a short distance of our home)

  2.  Find out whether they have free space in their freezer

  3.  Find out whether they are willing to to let this space be occupied by our ice cream

  4. Proceed according to the recipe

Fortunately, the neighbors living across the street are very nice and willing to make space in their freezer and therefore I bring you: “Strawberry basil ice cream” (apparently more people think that strawberries & basil are a great combo). This ice cream is not only very good (“fantastically good” according to my son), but has the added bonus of being extremely easy to make. There is no nerve racking process of making custard (won’t it split?), you just puree the ingredients together and freeze them – that’s it. Unlike in many other recipes, strawberries really are the main ingredient here – not yolks or cream, which means it is considerably lighter, fruitier and generally fresher tasting. Tasting like summer.

Strawberry and basil ice cream

Adapted from Sarah Raven’s Fresh from the Garden: Food to Share with Family and Friends

600 g (1 pound 5 oz) strawberries + a couple more for serving
small bunch of fresh basil
juice of one lemon
300 ml (1 ¼ cup) cream
150 g (¾ cup) caster sugar

Hull the strawberries and purée them together with tha basil and lemon juice. This is obviously easiest in a food processor, but an immersion blender will do. Add cream and sugar and mix well. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker (if you have one) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a shallow container and place in the freezer. Take out every 30 minutes and stir vigorously with a fork to break the ice crystals.

15 minutes before you want to serve the ice cream send the kids over to the neighbours to get the ice cream (wait, that only applies to us) and let soften in a fridge (we do have a fridge). Slice the remaining strawberries, not cutting completely through and open them to make a fan. Use to decorate each serving. (I also used a few currants mainly because they are pretty and I had them at hand).

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