SMALL BITES

Shopping news and seasonal tips from food editor Sally Butters

Food editor Sally Butters on why bulgur is a summer salad essential and how to whip up decadent party treats from bought ice cream

I’m making: ICE CREAM DESSERTS

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. Well, maybe not quite: for me, it’s more like a grateful sigh. That’s because ice cream is a saviour when a party-worthy dessert with minimal effort is required. Start with some bought ice cream (you could make your own but the aim here is to wow without too much work), then turn it into a masterpiece with a bit of window dressing. Here are a few ideas, which can all be assembled and kept in your freezer until needed. Have fun with flavours and don’t hold back on decadent additions.

• Stir a few goodies into plain ice cream to make your own flavour, and freeze it in a fancy mould. My favourite is cassata: 2 litres of vanilla mixed with a packet of crumbled chocomint biscuits and 3 tablespoons each of red and green glacé cherries, rum and chopped walnuts.

• Make ice cream sandwiches with biscuits, brownie, gingerbread, waffles or doughnuts. Dip the edges in sprinkles or nuts if desired.

• Create an ice cream pie, using a biscuit base (like you would for cheesecake) or thin slab of cake (eg sponge or brownie) or meringue. Fill it with ice cream, or ice cream plus a top layer of sorbet or cream.

• Use the same principal to make a three-layered ice cream cake. Assemble it in a lined, spring-form cake tin. You could also add a collar of biscuits such as chocolate fingers or savoiardi.

• Catering for a crowd? A help-yourself ice cream sundae buffet is great. Nestle tubs of ice cream in bowls of ice and assemble containers filled with any number of things for guests to choose from, such as sauces, sprinkles, fruit, cream, nuts, choc chips and wafers. I like to add a stack of paper napkins and to label everything with tags (you can download these from a number of online sites) to create a coordinated spread.