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.

I also did exercise again last week. I was tricked. The pilates I had been doing was one teacher to two (fairly incompetent) students meandering along at a truly geological pace in a glorious studio with panoramic views across to Dalkey Island. I skipped along to the new class assuming the same kind of set up. But no. I was met with a ball of energy in a dimly lit youth club. He laid out all these weird, exercise things; weights, skipping ropes, things I didn’t know what they were. Then in bounced about ten lycra-clad gym buunies. Some were even wearing gym gloves. Literally no idea why, Ball of energy turned on some young person music very loud and then all hell broke loose. Limbs flailing. 45mins. I was sweating like a mad yoke and almost passed out, saved only by my pride insisting my blood keep flowing up.

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).

To the icecreamy part.

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.

Decant to the empty, freezerproof container and pop it in the freezer.

It’ll take a good few hours to freeze so go clean your kitchen cupboards.