Summer Recipe: No Churn Plum Ice Cream

July is National Ice Cream Month and there’s no better month of the year to sit in the sunshine and eat a cool refreshing ice cream. We have two plum trees in our garden and each year we have more plums than we can cope with. In years gone by I’ve made plum tarts and crumbles and big batches of plum jelly. This year I put some aside to make a batch of fruity and refreshing plum ice cream.

This plum ice cream recipe is quite simple to make and you can do it even if you don’t have an ice cream maker. Sadly as we began to churn our first batch of this lovely ice cream, our ice cream maker churned its last and ended up in the bin.

I’ve called this no churn plum ice cream, but you can churn it if you want, it’s often easier if you have an ice cream maker, but not the end of the world if you haven’t.

No Churn Plum Ice Cream

Ingredients:
400g of ripe plums
200g caster sugar
200mls double cream
200mls vanilla yoghurt

Method:

Take your plums and give them a wash and check them over for nasties and rotten bits, discard if you’re not happy with the fruit. Use good ripe, juicy plums. Heat the plums in a large saucepan with a good splash of water. Boil them until soft, then rub them through a sieve to get rid of the stones and skins.

Pour the plum purée back into a clean pan and warm gently, add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Taste the purée, add more sugar if you think it needs it. Some plums can be quite tart. Leave the mixture to cool.

If you have an ice cream maker, add the cream and vanilla yoghurt to the purée and combine. Following the instructions on your ice cream maker, add the plum ice cream mixture and churn until it’s ready. Them store it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.

If you’re not using an ice cream maker, perhaps because yours suddenly died; whip the cream before adding the vanilla yoghurt and the plum. Pour the ice cream mixture into a large tub with a secure lid and put it in the freezer. Remember to take it out of the freezer every 45 minutes or so and give it a good stir with a fork, this will stop ice crystals from forming.

Once your ice cream is frozen, it will be quite set, when you need a scoop or two, take it out of the freezer about 15 minutes before you need it, it’ll be easier to scoop!

I’ve topped the plum ice cream with pink sprinkles, but crushed amaretti biscuits are just fabulous on it. Go forth and make plum ice cream with some of your summer fruit glut, you won’t regret it!

If you enjoyed this recipe for plum ice cream, you might also enjoy these recipes:

Summer Recipe: No Churn Plum Ice Cream

Easy Recipe: Plum Jelly – preserving summer

With three established plum trees in our garden we suddenly get quite popular at this time of year; people popping round on the off chance they can take a bag home to turn into a duff or a crumble or a sponge. This year has been an exceptionally good year for our plum trees and we couldn’t give the fruit away fast enough so I made a batch of plum jelly.

We used to be keen picklers and preservers (before we became parents), so I decided to make a batch of plum jelly. It’s very simple, you don’t need mad skills to make it, all you need is time and patience.

Recipe: Plum Jelly - preserving summer

Ingredients:
4.5 lbs of ripe plums (any variety)
1 pint of water
1.5 lbs of preserving sugar

Method:

Halve the plums (you don’t need to remove the stones, I left most of them in, but if it popped out easily then I discarded it), and place into a very large pan. Pour in your water, put the lid on the pan and cook until the fruit has fallen apart, this should take about 10-15 minutes.
Set up your jelly bag, if you haven’t got one of these don’t worry, you can put a sieve over a large bowl, line the sieve with a clean piece of muslin, this will work just as well.
Once your plums are cooked, gradually ladle into the jelly bag or lined sieve and leave (preferably overnight) to drip. Don’t be tempted to squeeze the juice out as this may result in a cloudy jelly. You should get around 2 pints of juice from the plums.
Put your plum juice into your very large pan with the preserving sugar and stir until the sugar melts into the juice. Turn the heat up and bring it to a low rolling boil. It’s better to take this slow and steady, than rush it and push it too far. At this stage put your clean jars in the oven to sterilise them.
You should carefully taste the jelly at this stage to see if it needs any more sugar. This will vary depending on the ripeness of the fruit; remember you can always add but you can’t take away, so keep tasting. Personally I like a slightly tart jelly.
Keep an eye on your plum jelly, keep stirring and you should feel it start to thicken. Scoop any foamy scum off the top (this is just impurities from the fruit and the sugar, it’s not harmful at all) and discard.
Take a cold plate (if you put it in the fridge to chill, that’ll help) and put a dribble of the plum jelly on. Leave it to cool and if it sets to the consistency you want then your jelly is ready to be put in the jars; if not keep stirring and testing the jelly regularly.
When it’s ready, carefully remove your jars from the oven; (they will be incredibly hot) and pour in your plum jelly. We use a wide necked funnel for this; but filling a jug and pouring it into the jar works just as well. Work quickly and carefully and get the lids on your jars while everything is still hot.

Leave to cool and and then it’s ready for slathering on crumpets.

plum jelly

Personally I like to put my jars of jewel coloured jams and jellies away until the winter months. It’s lovely to open a jar of something homemade, special and evocative of summer; just when you need the sunshine memory the most. But then I’m sentimental like that.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like to try my No Churn Plum Ice Cream.

Easy Recipe: Plum Jelly - preserving summer

Planting Seeds – Gardening with kids

A little while ago I wrote that we’d ordered a shed load (literally) of gardening bits and pieces and that this year we were going to grow our own with the help of our own miniature Percy Thrower, Benjamin. We think gardening with kids is really important; it’s a great family activity and it helps them learn so much.

Last weekend when the sun shone we ventured outside to get cracking. He was helping to plant our courgette and pumpkin seeds. It’s a nice, simple job he can easily get involved with and the seeds are just the right size for little fingers to plant, and not too fiddly. He helped fill the little pots with compost, then we showed him how to poke and wiggle his finger in the soil to create a little hole for the seed. Then he dropped each individual seed in and covered it up; he then gave each one a good drink of water and we put the whole tray in our greenhouse and waited for them to grow.

As you can see from the photographs he really enjoyed helping Mummy and Daddy out in the garden. He’s been brilliantly helpful and watered his seeds, and now seedlings every night before bed.

Courgettes and pumpkins aren’t the only things growing in our garden, we’ve got tomatoes, potatoes, runner beans, swathes of herbs and some fruit. Alas it has been raining heavily for the last few days and so I can’t take a picture to show you how healthy everything is looking, so you’ll just have to wait for my next instalment of our grow your own adventure, or keep an eye on my instagram account where I’ll be posting some pictures when I get the chance.

I can’t wait to taste the fruits (and vegetables) of our labours.