Clotted Cream Ice Cream

In the absence of any further progress on my 'curing room', you'll have to make do with another ice cream recipe! Mum and Dad have just returned from St Ives and brought with them the normal bag of goodies for their loving and devoted son; well I am, particularly when plied with Rodda's clotted cream!

Now the obvious thing to do would be to write about a clotted cream tea. But, given that I use Delia's scone recipe and Mum's strawberry jam, it wouldn't leave me with a lot of original content. So, I thought I'd give you my take on clotted cream ice cream. Given the quantity of cream it's not an everyday recipe, but it's a real treat for high-days and holidays - which in this house means just about anytime! As it is a 'special recipe' I've done the job properly and made a 'proper' custard base for the ice cream. If you want you can just whisk the egg with the sugar until frothy and light, add the other ingredients, whisk it further, then churn it. It won't be as good though.

You may want to double this recipe - I was restricted by the amount of cream that I had.

For a better presentation than this leave the ice cream to thaw in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before serving.

Ingredients

1 whole egg and 1 yolk
70g caster sugar
125ml double cream
113g tub clotted cream
125ml semi-skimmed milk
1 vanilla pod

Method

Put the double cream, milk and vanilla pod in a pan on a low heat.

When the cream and milk is nearly boiling whisk the egg, egg yolk and sugar in a bowl and gradually add the near boiling milk mixture, stirring all the time.

Return the mixture to the saucepan over a low heat and stir/whisk continuously, making sure you stir over the whole of the bottom of the saucepan, until the mixture thickens slightly – it will leave a trail if you run your finger across the back of a spoon that has been dipped in it. Be careful - you want custard, not scrambled eggs! Keep stirring as you remove the pan from the heat and pour it into a bowl. Place the bowl somewhere where the air will get all around it, say on a pastry cooling rack, and stir occasionally until cool. Remove the vanilla pod and pass the custard through a sieve.

If this part worries you, you can always make the custard by putting the mixture in a bowl over simmering water and making it that way - it can take ages though, so it's best to master the method above - if you get the odd lump, don't forget that a sieve is your best friend when making any type of sauce.

Whisk the clotted cream into the custard mixture and then churn it in an ice-cream maker for about 40 minutes. Transfer it to a bowl and put it in the freezer until needed.

I notice that clotted cream is now stocked by the major supermarkets so this is likely to become a regular feature in our house - bang goes the diet!

Now to cover my backside:
Warning: If you are young, pregnant, old, infirm etc you may want to use pasturised eggs in this recipe as it contains eggs that may not have been nuked to within an inch of their lives and are therefore deemed unsafe by some members of the food police!