Sarah Mellersh’s Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
Even by their standards, Scottish raspberries have been superb this year. If you are pondering the relevance of this thought in an ice cream recipe, allow me to enlighten you. I often serve this with rasps and coulis and balsamic, and truly wonderful it is too. I wrote about that combo three years ago. You can find the article and how to make a coulis here.
In fact the raspberries have been so fabulous this year that it almost seems a shame to cook them. We have a tiny blackcurrant bush which yields an even tinier crop. That in turn yielded a little tub of coulis which went very well. I like mine to be fairly sharp, a nice contrast to the sweet ice cream.
The crème fraîche adds a tang to this, but, as you'll see, there's an awful lot of sugar involved. Thanks once again to Sarah for permission to use her recipes. Her original one would give you enough to start your own gelateria (about a litre). I've halved the quantities, but you can scale up or down as you please.
Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
Ingredients
240ml crème fraîche; 240ml buttermilk; 45ml fresh lemon juice; 138g caster sugar.
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Mix all the ingredients in a blender until very smooth. Transfer to an ice cream maker and churn until frozen. (Mine takes 30 - 40 minutes.) Store in the freezer until you're ready to serve. Tsimples.
Some people will tell you that you can make ice cream without a machine. Others will tell you not to bother. Here's one technique I found online. I've never tried it, so can't vouch for it.
Mix up your favorite ice cream base, then freeze it flat in a large sealable freezer bag. After freezing, you’ll have a sheet of frozen ice cream base that you can break or cut into chunks to fit inside your food processor. Then you pulse the frozen base in a food processor before freezing again.
I’ve never bought butter milk. Is that easy to find?
Very. Go to your local supermarket and you’ll find it in the cabinet beside cream, sour cream, etc. And once you’ve used it to make this easiest of ice creams, try the easiest of breads, Irish soda bread. Do a search in Tom Cooks! and you’ll find the recipe.
I can testify to the efficacy of this recipe.
Firstly there’s the complex dance of the various ingredients, maintaining balance at all times. Then there is the harmonious counterpoint of balsamic and the sharpness of the fresh raspberries. I think it is best summed up, in culinary writing terms, by either one of two phrases: “is there any more?” or “yummmm”.
Sounds delish, Tom! Have you ever given your ice cream mixture time to mellow before putting it in the ice cream maker? I always cover and refrigerate it until well chilled, at least 8 hours or up to a day or two (I aim for 24 hours). Not sure it’s as strictly necessary as some experts claim, but it does seem to churn faster and increase the volume of the finished ice cream a bit. Love that photo!
Never tried that, Jean. We live and learn. I myself am very fond of a delightful repast. Cheers to both of you.