The babysitter has cancelled on us which means a night out with friends has been hastily rearranged as a night in with friends, at ours. The weather is warm and balmy so a last minute barbecue is the order of the day.  A hunk of lamb has been purchased, a salad is being thrown together, and all we need now is a quick and easy pudding suitable for a relaxed summer’s evening with friends.

You can’t step into a green-grocers or supermarket without being hit by the sweet aroma of plump juicy almost overripe strawberries at the moment, and this ice cream recipe is a fabulous way to use them up even if they are slightly past their best.

 

I found the base recipe on the BBC Good Food site, and have pimped it up by adding zesty lime and wicked chunks of dark chocolate – you could experiment with your own additions.

I’ve also in the past served it with homemade strawberry shortbreads dipped in white chocolate and cointreau-soaked strawberries , or you could crumble butter biscuits over the top, or dip a few strawberries into chocolate to accompany, the choices are endless and delicious.

Pimped-Up Simple Strawberry Ice cream

500g strawberries

200g caster sugar

500g creme fraiche

Zest and juice of 2 small limes

100g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

 Take the tops off the strawberries, and put them into a food processor with the sugar and lime juice. Pulse a few times briefly, leaving some chunks of strawberries.

Pour the creme fraiche into a bowl, add the lime zest, and then stir in the strawberry mixture.

Pour the mix into an ice cream maker* and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Towards the end of churning, when the ice cream is still not quite firm enough to go into the freezer, add the chocolate chunks and churn for a few more minutes before transferring to a tub and putting in the freezer.

 

Bring out of the freezer 15 minutes before serving to soften a little.

 

* If you don’t have an ice cream maker you could also use the home churn method of putting the mix into a tub and transferring straight to the freezer for 1-2 hours, then whisking out the ice crystals, freezing for another hour, whisking again, then freezing firm.