BLACKBERRY SWIRL ICE CREAM

PREPARATION 25 MINUTES PLUS COOLING AND FREEZING / COOKING 15 MINUTES

With this ice cream, glucose syrup has to be added to the base recipe, due to the high fruit content.

450ml milk 450ml cream

9 egg yolks 200g caster sugar 250g glucose syrup

FOR THE BLACKBERRY PURÉE 1kg fresh or frozen blackberries 125g caster sugar 200g glucose syrup

Place the milk and cream in a large saucepan and heat gently to simmering point. Put the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until the sugar is incorporated. When the milk mixture is hot, gently pour onto the egg mix and whisk together. Pour back into the saucepan and reheat, stirring all the time until it starts to thicken (if you have a thermometer, then 86°C is what you need). Take off the heat and add the glucose syrup to the hot ice cream base mix and stir until the glucose syrup has dissolved and is thoroughly mixed in. Cool completely.

To make the blackberry purée, place the fruit in a stainlesssteel saucepan and gently heat to reduce the liquid content, until the fruit is down to 550g (it’s important to do this as a high water content in ice cream can create an icy finish, and it also concentrates the flavour more). Add the sugar and glucose syrup to the fruit and heat until all is dissolved. Set aside until completely cool. When cool, pass the blackberry purée through a nylon sieve to separate the pips from the pulp. Discard the pips.

Add half the blackberry purée to the ice cream and stir. Put in the ice-cream churner and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to churn until firm. Take out of the machine and put into a freezer-proof container. Swirl the remaining purée through the mixture creating a ripple effect. Place in the freezer until needed. It can be taken out 5 minutes before serving to soften slightly.