Happy July 4th to any ‘mericans out there. What could be more Americanny than strawberry icecream? No idea. This recipe was necessary to combat a glut of strawberries we got ourselves. I very much mean got ourselves. We went fruit picking with a flock of children. Turns out there are competitive fruit pickers out there that queue up at the crack o’ dawn to swarm on the ripe berries. We were not going to be confused with such early birds when we arrived at 2.30pm following a leisurely lunch nearby.
Lack of fruit and fairly unsummery weather aside it was a lovely day out and I highly recommend accepting any fruit-picking invitations you may receive.
Husband says I can’t quit after one. Let’s see how that goes.
Anyway. This recipe is from the loose canon Mary Berry. I’ve not had a great run of luck with frozen desserts and I dare say this isn’t wildly successful either. Perhaps if I had actually followed the recipe properly things may have been different.
Strawberry puree;
Strawberries 250g
Caster sugar 50g
Ice cream;
Eggs (separated) 4
Caster sugar 100g
Cream 120ml
Quark 250ml
Vanilla essence 2 teaspoons
Get a large freezerproof container ready.
Make the strawberry puree first. Cut of the greenery from the strawberries and cut them into quarters. Put them and the caster sugar into saucepan, put the lid on and heat on medium till nice and soft.
Pour the strawberry goo through a sieve and leave to cool (hopefully you have about 150ml of puree by the end of it).
Separate the eggs.
Put the caster sugar in with the whites and whisk for about 6mins or so till stiff peaks form.
In another bowl beat the cream to stiff peaks also, then beat in the quark and vanilla and egg yolks for a further 2mins.
Hopefully your strawberry slush will have now cooled.
If it hasn’t then you’ll have to wait.
When it has cooled pour it into the creamy mix and beat for another few seconds till everything is nicely combined.
Now to the really ugly bit. Put a third of the egg white mix into the strawberry mix and fold. You don’t have to be too precious at his stage. You’re just trying to get the strawberry stuff and the egg whites closer to each other in consistency.
Add in the remaining egg white mix and (gently this time) fold everything altogether.
It’ll take a good few hours to freeze so go clean your kitchen cupboards.