Blackberry ice cream

I make this every year at the cottage. The girls helped today, dyeing themselves purple in the process. Iris’s hands are still stained three hours later despite scrubbing. The quantities below make two 1200ml tubs (the size of the white ones with coloured lids at the cottage). The ice cream machine can only do one at a time so you need to do one batch, then wash, dry and return the machine to the freezer overnight, then do the second batch the next morning (or obviously halve the quantities).

800g blackberries
200ml cold water
400g caster sugar
Juice of 4 lemons
6 tablespoons creme de mures or kirsch
600ml (1 pint) double cream, whipped to ribbons – but do this in two batches when you’re ready to churn the ice cream

Puree the blackberries with the water in the magimix for about a minute. Sieve this into a large bowl (the big plastic jigs at the cottage are best), pushing it all through until only the pippy mush is left in the sieve. Add the sugar, lemon juice and creme de mures to the pulpy juice in the large bowl. Divide this mixture into two (around 750/800ml each) and put one of these into the fridge until you can make the second batch. Fold in 300ml of the whipped cream, pour into the ice cream maker and churn the mixture for about 15 minutes until it’s half-frozen. Scrape this into a container and freeze immediately. Do the second batch in the same way.

The recipe for this (from Michel Roux in an old Master Chef cook book) is originally for raspberry ice cream. I did that once too and it was also good, but not as unusual as the blackberry one and there are so many at the cottage in August it seems like a good way of using them.

Cherry clafoutis

500g ripe cherries, stoned
170g caster sugar
4tbsp kirsch (optional)
10g butter, melted
4 medium eggs
6 drops vanilla essence (optional)
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
20g plain flour
100ml milk
150ml whipping cream
70g unsalted butterMarinate cherries with 2tbsp caster sugar and the kirsch for two hours. Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Brush the inside of a round cast-iron or china baking dish (5cm deep x 20cm) with melted butter. Add 3tbsp caster sugar and shake dish to coat the inside. In a bowl whisk the eggs, remaining caster sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until creamy. Add flour and two pinches sea salt and whisk until smooth, then slowly incorporate milk and cream. In a small saucepan, heat the butter until it reaches a blonde hazelnut colour and whisk it into the mixture. Mix the batter with the cherries and their juices and pour into the baking disk. Dot with butter and bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. The calfoutis is cooked when the blade of a knife comes out clean. To serve, sprinkle caster sugar over. Apricots, pears or apples can be used instead of cherries.

Puddings I’ve done that have been successful

Blackberry ice cream Autumn
Cranberry and blueberry Eton mess winter
Strawberry pavlova summer
Calvados syllabub
plum and pecan crumble autumn/winter
Apricot and walnut crumble
Plum clafoutis
Lemon cheesecake (Marie Claire flavours)
Rhubarb ice cream
Strawberry ice cream
Bread and butter pudding made with croissants or chocolate croissants
Petits pots au chocolat (Eat Up)
Layered blueberries, crème fraiche and crushed mascarpone biscuits with lemon rind
Gooseberry and elderflower ice cream
Raspberries with ricotta and lemon sugar (River Café Easy)
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