There are a lot of blackberry bushes at the back of my house. I’ve been eyeing up some early ripeners every time I get in and out of the car and this evening the children and I just couldn’t resist picking the first crop of big juicy berries. They were huge! I’ve wanted to make a blackberry ice cream for ages so set to as soon as we got back indoors. I used my preferred basic ice cream recipe. It’s a very straightforward formula – cold cream, cold milk, sugar, flavouring (vanilla, chocolate etc), churned in an ice cream maker (I use a Gaggia).  It makes a light and smooth ice (like an Italian gelato) which pairs exceptionally well with fruit. Actually it pairs well with anything, as it’s quite a basic background (I was going to say bland, but actually it’s not).  The chocolate version is dense and rich and moreish and the chocolate chip and salted caramel is one of my friend’s favourite ice creams (and Mr Arabella Cooks’ too). I’ll post that recipe in the near future, but for now, here is my magnificent, intense berry tang of a blackberry gelato. It’s lush.

Recipe

• 500g blackberries
• Caster sugar
• Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur. You can do without it if you don’t have any or don’t want to splash out on a bottle. I do use it all the time though so find it pays for itself, really. Makes a nice cocktail too)
• Lemon juice (a good squeeze)
• 200ml double cream
• 200ml full fat milk
• 130g caster sugar

Method:

1.  Make a blackberry coulis: tip the blackberries into a pan (any will do – saute, saucepan or frying pan) with a good glug of cassis, a hard squeeze of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of water and about 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. Cook on a medium heat till it bubbles a bit then simmer it gently until the berries break down and the sauce thickens a bit. About 4 or 5 minutes.
2. Sieve the coulis into a jug, to remove the pips. Press down hard to get all the lovely sauce from the fruit and don’t forget to scrape the underside of the sieve. Leave to cool.

3. Make sure your ice cream maker is either cooled down if it has an internal cooling unit, or your bowl is chilled from the freezer if it doesn’t. (You can make this very easily without an ice cream maker if you don’t have one – just mix a can of condensed milk with 600ml of double cream and a bit of vanilla essence and whisk until it’s very, very thick. Mix the coulis into the cream, then put it into a loaf tin lined with clingflim and freeze. It won’t be quite as good as a churned version but thoroughly delicious all the same).

4. Mix together the milk, cream and sugar in a separate jug or bowl, then pour it slowly into the cooled coulis.

5) Pour the delicious mixture into your ice cream maker and churn until thick. Then transfer to a tub and freeze until you can no longer resist eating large spoonfuls whilst standing at the freezer with the door open (yes I do). Yumbles.!