Ben & Jerry's Style Strawberry Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's is slowly making an inception across Australia! I noticed the other day that it's now stocked at Caltex service stations, and also at the deli down the road from me!

As the rest of Australia falls in love with the creamy confectionery, i have my own secret weapon - home made ice cream! The reason i say my recipes at Ben & Jerry's style are the way the custards are made. Traditionally, an ice cream custard is make by bringing up egg yolks to a certain temperature and then mixing in the egg whites. With this style, not so! It's much easier. There is no preheating involved in this style of ice cream, and I'm yet to experience any shortfalls in taste or texture as a result.

This particular ice-cream celebrates the deliciousness of summer strawberries, sweet and slightly tart, cutting through the rich creaminess of the ice cream. 

Homemade Banana & Coconut Icecream with Crisp Toffee Coated Strawberries

A crackle, a crunch, as crystal of sweet toffee surrender to your mouth, before the sweet, slightly tart stickiness of strawberry envelopes the senses. Another bite, rich and creamy and undeniably tropical, recalling beachside cocktails serve in hollowed out coconuts: sound good? Read on. 

So my first experience with my latest impulse purchase, an icecream machine, was a bit of a disaster. I decided to jump right in and make a hazelnut gelato, and, being my first time making icecream i curdled the custard by overheating it. I was devastated! All that work squeezing milk from crushed hazelnuts, all that money spent on eggs and cream, all gone!!

Well i had to persevere, and since my visit to Thailand my mind has been all about tropical desserts. The icecream in the recipe is loosely adapted from yet another Luke Nguyen recipe however i'd tried to make it a bit richer and a bit more decadent.

Simple Strawberry Mousse

I'm not sure if this is exactly the same as mum used to make, but it sure tastes like it! The flavour of ripe strawberries really comes through in this mousse, so it's best made in summer when the strawberries are at their peak. You can use this mousse to make strawberry royale, a decidedly 70's dish that i'll endeavour to make shortly.