Recipe: No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

I am really into making my own ice cream at the moment. It’s such a simple thing to do, but it’s so rich and delicious, my whole family can’t get enough of it. Recently I made an Irish coffee flavoured ice cream, which was amazing. But this week, with a punnet of fresh raspberries calling me from the fridge, I decided to whip up a batch of no churn raspberry ripple ice cream.

The recipe is a really simple one and takes very little time to throw together. It’s great to get the kids involved with too, my son really loves whipping the cream for me.

Recipe: No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

Ingredients:

500ml double cream
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
150g fresh raspberries
100g icing sugar, sifted

Recipe: No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

 

How to make raspberry ripple ice cream:

Before you start making the ice cream, make your raspberry ripple. Pop your fresh raspberries in a microwavable dish and cook for around 90 seconds, or until they’ve collapsed and are soft and pulpy. Push the raspberries through a sieve, so you’re removing the raspberry seeds. Pour the raspberry juice into your sifted icing sugar and mix well. Leave them to cool fully. You can speed this up by popping it in the fridge for a little while.

To make the ice cream, whip the cream in a bowl until it forms stiff peaks, this will take a few minutes with an electric whisk, if you’re doing it by hand, it might take a little while. Once you have achieved stiff peaks, gently fold in the condensed milk and vanilla extract until it is well combined. Whip the mixture for 30 seconds to make sure it’s mixed properly.

Pour about half the ice cream into a loaf tin, then spoon over around half of the cooled raspberry puree and swirl through with a skewer or a knife. Top with the rest of the ice cream mixture and repeat the swirling process with the rest of the raspberry puree. If you like, drizzle a little more of the raspberry puree artistically over the top. Pop it in the freezer for 6 hours, or overnight if you can.

Recipe: No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

To serve, remove it from the freezer about ten minutes before you want to serve it. It should scoop pretty well once it’s been at room temperature for a short while. If you’ve got any raspberry puree left over, that’s great drizzled over the top too!

This raspberry ripple ice cream is so lovely. It’s a real blast from the past from my childhood and an ice cream which I know I’ll be making again and again!

Recipe: No Churn Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

I’m not sure there are much better ways to finish a meal than with a nice Irish coffee. That warming whiskey laced coffee drink is just caffeinated perfection. We were given a bottle of whiskey for Christmas, but we’re not the whiskey drinking house we once were, so it’s sat looking forlorn for weeks now. It was time it got used, so this week I whipped up a batch of deliciously creamy Irish Coffee Ice Cream. It’s a no-churn recipe, it takes all of five minutes to throw together and it is so simple. What’s not to like?

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

This Irish Coffee ice cream is so deliciously rich and creamy, a little goes a long way! If you’re tempted to slosh a bit more whiskey in, you do this at your peril, as adding too much alcohol could prevent it from freezing. Better to stick to 3 tablespoons in the ice cream and drizzle a bit of extra whiskey over the top of your scoop if you think it needs a bit more kick.

Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients:

500ml double cream
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk
3 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee dissolved into 1 tablespoon of hot water, left to cool
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of whiskey, whatever you have to hand

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

How to make Irish Coffee Ice Cream:

Before you start making the ice cream, make your coffee solution. You need a tablespoon of boiling water and three heaped teaspoons of instant coffee. Mix them together and leave them to cool fully. You can speed this up by popping it in the fridge for a little while.

To make the ice cream, whip the cream in a bowl until it forms stiff peaks, this will take a few minutes with an electric whisk, if you’re doing it by hand, it might take a little while. Once you have achieved stiff peaks, gently fold in the condensed milk, vanilla extract, coffee and whiskey until it is well combined. Whip the mixture for 30 seconds to make sure it’s mixed properly.

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Pour into a loaf tin, smooth the top and pop it in the freezer for 6 hours, or overnight if you can.

To serve, remove it from the freezer about ten minutes before you want to serve it. It should scoop pretty well once it’s been at room temperature for a short while.

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Serve it however you like. I like to serve it in a pretty glass, or as an affogato style pudding, with a shot of espresso and a shot of whiskey poured over the top. Just the right kind of dessert for St Patrick’s Day, or any day really. Why limit ourselves?

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

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Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

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.

Summer Recipe: No Churn Plum Ice Cream

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!

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Summer Recipe: No Churn Plum Ice Cream

Recipe: Easy Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Christmas pudding is one of those real love/hate things. Personally I love it, but my brother can’t stand it. In an attempt to find a compromise I’ve been experimenting with making Christmas Pudding Ice Cream.

I’m not sure why some people don’t like Christmas Pudding, maybe it’s too rich after a really too rich meal. Maybe it’s too old fashioned tasting, maybe the fruit is a bit of a challenge, I don’t know. I’ve tried to make a less stodgy alternative, a bit lighter on the fruit and without so much of the heavy puddingness of the traditional pudding, but still with some of the festive flavour.

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

I’ve come up with this, an incredibly easy but rich vanilla ice cream topped with Courvoisier soaked festive fruits. It’s utterly delicious, you can whip it up the night before, or made up to a month ahead of the big day. It is delicious, incredibly simple and uses only four ingredients. I think we’ve found a winner!

Easy Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 pint of double cream (whipped)
Tin of condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 jar of Opies Christmas Fruits with Courvoisier

Method

1. Whip your cream until it forms peaks, then beat through the vanilla extract.
2. Pour your condensed milk into a separate bowl, gently fold your cream into the condensed milk.
3. Chop up, approximately half the jar of Opies Christmas Fruits with Courvoisier and gently stir through, making sure not to include the Courvoisier syrup.
4. Line individual ramekins with clingfilm and fill with the ice cream mixture. Or, pour the mixture into a tub and freeze for 6-8 hours minimum.

To serve, turn out the ramekins, remove the clingfilm and drizzle over some more fruit and some of the lovely Courvoisier syrup from the jar.

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

I used a jar of Opies Christmas Fruits with Courvoisier which is just perfect for this recipe and would be great in so many different things. I suspect it would be excellent in a baked apple or simply spooned onto some thick yoghurt. It’s a bit boozy, so it’s really not for breakfast (except for on high days and holidays), but absolutely fantastic to keep in the cupboard for a festive emergency, or to make some of this delicious Christmas Pudding Ice Cream with.

Are you a Christmas Pudding lover or loather?

Easy Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Review: Weight Watchers Mini Ice Cream Pots

With summer on its way, the lovely cosy comfort foods we’ve been indulging in over the winter months are starting to give way to lighter, fresher foods. When it comes to pudding I’ve waved slightly tearful goodbye to apple crumble and custard (for now) and I’ve opened my freezer to frozen desserts. If the boys want ice cream, then ice cream they shall have! We were asked to try these Weight Watchers Mini Ice Cream Pots, so we gave them a rigorous testing.

Weight Watchers Mini Ice Cream Pots

These Weight Watchers Mini Ice Cream Pots come in two flavours, chocolate with honeycomb and toffee fudge. They are 52.5g each with the chocolate and honeycomb flavour containing 86 calories and the toffee fudge flavour 72 calories. If you’re following Weight Watchers each pot counts as 2 ProPoints. They are also suitable for vegetarians.

The little pots are just the right size if you fancy a sweet treat. The boys enjoyed them and they were the perfect amount for my 5 year old who gave me a very chocolatey smile when he’d finished.

I’m not really able to eat ice cream these days due to my lactose intolerance, but I tried a few spoons of both flavours. I liked them both, the toffee fudge was quite sweet for my own taste, but hubs polished his off approvingly. The chocolate was my favourite, not too rich, but indulgent enough to hit the spot. I liked the little crunchy pieces of honeycomb which added some welcome texture.

These mini pots ideal if you are watching your weight but can’t go without the occasional sweet treat. I know they have quite an extensive range of other desserts to choose from including several other frozen desserts, yoghurt, chocolate mousse and puddings. Something for everyone.

The Weight Watchers Mini Ice Cream Pots cost around £2.50 for four little pots and are available from a wide range of retailers. We bought ours from Sainsbury’s but I believe they are also available in other large supermarkets. A nice low-calorie ice cream treat for summer!

Note: We were sent these Weight Watchers ice creams in exchange for a review. All images and opinions are our own.

Recipe: No Churn Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream

When it comes to peanut butter, you either love it or hate it. I am firmly on the love side, whilst hubs is staunchly hate, which only means one thing…. more for me! The summer holidays so far have been a bit meh, and I’ve been having to come up with new and exciting indoor things to do. One boring morning we decided to whip up a batch of Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream, the small boy loves helping out in the kitchen almost as much as he likes eating the results.

I found two new and deliciously different flavours or Oreo cookie in my local shop; the Golden Oreo which is a lovely crunchy vanilla flavoured cookie and the limited edition Peanut Butter Oreo. They were both crying out to be whizzed up in a milkshake, but I thought it was time to ring the changes and try some no churn Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream.

peanut butter oreo ice cream

Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream

Ingredients

1/2 jar smooth peanut butter (I used reduced fat)
2 tablespoons hot water
1 tin of condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 pint of double cream (whipped)
1 packet of Peanut Butter Oreos

Method

1. Put your peanut butter in a large bowl and add two tablespoons of hot water, stir thoroughly as this will help to loosen the peanut butter making it easier to work with. Once mixed, add your tin of condensed milk and vanilla extract to the peanut butter and combine.
2. In a separate bowl whip your cream until it forms peaks, gently fold your cream into the peanut butter mixture.
3. Chop up, or bash up a packet of Peanut Butter Oreo cookies and gently stir into your mixture, making sure the pieces are well distributed.
4. Pour into a tub and freeze for 6-8 hours. We also made peanut butter oreo ice cream popsicles with some of our mixture which worked very well.

You could also make this with normal Oreos if you can’t get hold of the peanut butter Oreo cookies.

peanut butter oreo ice cream

This is such a great recipe to make with kids, it’s incredibly simple and because there are no eggs, no cooking, no fuss; it’s quick and easy to put together – the hardest part is waiting for it to freeze!

peanut butter oreo ice cream

The recipe made a lot of ice cream – nearly two pints of it, so it was ideal for making into popsicles and also for spooning into a tub. It is very rich, so a little goes a long way. Don’t forget to take your tub out of the freezer about 10 minutes before serving too so it softens a little.

It is so simple and utterly delicious, if you love peanut butter then you’ll love this recipe! If you try it let me know what you think.

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Recipe: No Churn Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream