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No-churn ice cream recipes

August 7, 2023 1 Comment Filed Under: Desserts and sweets, Food, Italian food, London, Midsummer, Recipes, Vegetarian

lemon sorbet in lemons pic-Kerstin Rodgers - 1
pomegranate granita pic-Kerstin Rodgers - 3

Southern Italy is known for ice cream. Last year I visited Calabria, the toe of Italy, where the gelato was sublime. I felt it my culinary duty to eat at least three ice creams a day. My favourite flavour is yoghurt, but I also like perfumed citrus such as Bergamot.

In Sicily they eat granita, which is like a sorbet but with larger ice granules. A sophisticated slushie. It’s perfectly acceptable to eat granita for breakfast. You see business men in immaculate suits eating brioche stuffed with granita. In the searing heat of summer, it’s just the ticket – light and refreshing.

What is the difference between gelato and ice cream? Gelato is made with more milk and fewer egg yolks, or even no egg at all. Ice cream is basically a frozen custard. Gelato is served at a warmer temperature than ice cream.

I have a familial history in ice cream. Clerkenwell and Islington were the nexus of Italian immigration from 1870 to around 1930, and there is still an annual Italian festival in Clerkenwell. Some of my Italian family went to America but most stayed in the UK. My great-great-grandfather, newly immigrated from Italy at the end of the 19th century, sold ice cream on the streets of Islington while working at at the Carlo Gatti Kings Cross ice store. Gatti was famous for making an affordable dessert for the working classes. When his wife, my nonna, died, she left the family some ‘penny lick’ glasses, thick ‘shot’ glasses which cost a penny a lick.

This column gives you ice cream recipes for which you don’t need an ice cream maker. Possibly my favourite ice cream is the soft serve ’99’, so-called because the King of Italy used to have 99 elite guards, so everything elite became known as a 99. The recipe below is a facsimile of what you get from an ice cream van, serve in a cornet or a cup or on a waffle.

I’ve also provided a childhood favourite, lemon sorbet stuffed into a whole frozen lemon. This was a popular dessert choice in old-fashioned Italian trattorias, and stands the test of time.

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5 from 1 vote

Pomegranate Granita

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine Italy, Sicily
Keyword Granita
Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 1 l pomegranate juice
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • Slug pomegranate molasses (optional)
  • handful pomegranate seeds to garnish

Instructions

  • Simmer the juice and sugar together until the sugar is melted. Add if you wish, a slug of pomegranate molasses. Leave to cool.
  • Pour into a shallow wide container and put in the freezer for an hour.
  • After an hour, use a fork to break up the crystals. Replace in the freezer.
  • Repeat this 2 or 3 times more. At the end, use the fork to create large icy crystals.
  • Serve, decorating with some pomegranate seeds

Print
5 from 1 vote

Soft serve ice cream

This recipe is as near as dammit to ice cream van ice cream.
Course Dessert, Ice cream, Snack
Cuisine British
Keyword Soft Serve Icecream
Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 600 ml double cream
  • 1 400g tin condensed milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste

Instructions

  • Whisk the double cream until thick then add the condensed milk and vanilla. Whisk all the ingredients together until thick.
  • Take a piping bag and put a large star piping nozzle (around 18mm) in the bottom point of the bag. (Don't cut yet). Fill the bag with the mixture and put it in the freezer.
  • Remove from the freezer after 4 hours. Cut off the end of the bag so you can pipe.
  • Pipe into a cornet or cup.

Print
5 from 1 vote

Lemon sorbet, served trattoria style

Choose large Italian Amalfi type lemons (which I've seen sold in Waitrose) if you can get hold of them. Kids love this. They should be made ahead of being served and kept in the freezer. You can also make it with oranges.
Course Dessert, Ice cream
Cuisine Italian
Keyword italian gelato, Lemon gelato
Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 4 large lemons or oranges
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 1 zest of unwaxed lemon or orange
  • 1 egg white, whisked until stiff

Instructions

  • Cut off the end of the lemon or orange, to make a 'hat' and trim the bottom so that it will stand up on a flat surface. Scoop out the flesh with a sharp knife or serrated grapefruit spoon and strain so that you have juice. Put the fruit shells in the freezer.
  • Using a small saucepan containing 150ml of water, add the sugar and the zest. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the strained lemon/orange juice. Let it cool then freeze in a plastic container.
  • Once frozen, remove from the container and blend it with the egg white. Freeze again until firm.
  • Scoop the sorbet into the empty shells, packing it in well and letting it bulge out the top. Add the 'hat' then freeze again until you serve.

 

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Comments

  1. Margo

    August 7, 2023 at 1:59 pm

    5 stars
    If a shop claims ices are homemade yet has a lot of different flavours then most unlikely it is organic or home made.

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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