I scream for Ice Cream!

Left-over Blueberry Crumble Icecream. Photo credit: SimoneySunday

Ice cream should be a food group all by itself. I absolutely love it, but I do not love the fuss and expense of an ice cream maker. Too many kitchens have too many unused gadgets and, according to friends who do have and use their ice-cream makers, they have to put so many ingredients in, and it takes time.

Personally, I love this recipe for ice-cream using just two base ingredients and whatever you choose for the flavouring. All you need is a bowl and a hand-held blender (or infinite patience with an old-fashioned whisk).

This ice-cream takes 10 minutes maximum to make with a blender and freezes within eight hours - perfect for an evening meal or to prepare several days before a big dinner with friends and family.

How To: 
Simply buy 500g of whipping cream and 1 300g tin of condensed milk (get the normal one as the light version crystallises too much and takes longer to set).

Whip the cream in a cool bowl (I put mine in the fridge for a few mins beforehand so it is not room temperature). Once the cream is thickly whipped into stiff peaks, fold in the condensed milk. Stir it together (do not worry if the mixture starts to look a little runny). Then add your chosen flavouring.

Fold your flavour into the cream - do not completely mix it in but allow for veins and chunks and swirls of flavour throughout. Then freeze and forget about it for eight hours.

To serve, just let it stand at room temperature for about five minutes, scoop and enjoy. My problem is I am too impatient to let it stand for 5 minutes, so I whack it about with a knife, hence the slightly square-ish image in the above photo.

My favourite flavours so far are:

• Honey and honeycomb pieces (see my hack on how to liquefy honey that is crystallising in your cupboard)
• Left-over blueberry crumble (as pictured)
• Strawberries and cream.

For the strawberry flavour, I simply washed and de-greened the tops off some strawberries I had frozen a few weeks earlier, defrosted them slightly in the microwave for two minutes and then blitzed into a sorbet with the blender.

However you can make what you want: chocolate, cookies 'n' cream, raspberry swirl, apple and cinnamon - the list could be endless!