A little while back I mentioned our plans to buy a bigger flat which, unfortunately, have now fallen through. Rather than getting stuck on what just wasn’t meant to be, we’ve decided to stay where we are, do some renovations and make the place as perfect as possible for the next few years. With two comfortable bedrooms and a good sized garden you can guess what the the focus of our attentions is going to be: the kitchen.
Writing a cookbook using a kitchen just about big enough to swing a cat in is one thing. Storing the results is quite another. A quick survey of our kitchen would reveal flour and sugar spilling out of every cupboard, tins of treats stacked on every work surface and – despite all the gifts I’ve made to friends, colleagues, neighbours, even people passing in the street – a freezer full of food wrapped, dated and stored from moments when even my sweet teeth couldn’t cope with the sheer quantity of food I was making.
This ice cream was made when I discovered some leftover honeycomb lurking in a tin on top of the fridge. Stirred into a churned vanilla custard then frozen, the honeycomb softens into a sweet, caramel-like sauce, the high sugar content making this ice cream scoopable straight from the freezer. It’s less a recipe than a suggestion of flavours to try: a happy accident with the added bonus of being a brilliant way to use up leftovers.
More on the new kitchen soon. In the meantime, here’s hoping a post about ice cream brings some sunshine to your week.
- 1 x batch (about 750ml) vanilla ice cream custard, chilled
- 80 - 100g Real homemade honeycomb, crumbled
- Churn the ice cream custard in a machine according to your manufacturer's instructions. Once churned, layer in a freezable container with chunks of homemade honeycomb, stirring gently to combine.
- Freeze for a minimum of four hours, but best eaten 24 - 48 hours after making when the honeycomb will have softened into the ice cream.
I’m sorry your plans to move fell through, but hurrah for a new kitchen!!! I’m sure you will have lots of fun planning the new design. My kitchen is quite similar to yours, no much room to swing a cat in and is constantly overflowing with ingredients and the end results of my cooking adventures. I’d kill for a new kitchen, but meanwhile I’ll satisfy myself with this ice cream 😀
Hurrah indeed, I’m so excited to start planning and to get a bigger space to work in 🙂
Love honeycomb in any form. I wonder if adding some Greek Yoghurt to the mixture would make an even better home made version of the Ben and Jerry’s overly sickly variety?
I cleared the top of our fridge this morning in preparation for some building work and I only wish I’d found something as delicious as honeycomb lurking up there! Such a great idea for an cold + sweet treat.
Oh, I love honeycomb ice cream! Ice cream is definitely on my list to master this year, but the weather just hasn’t really inspired me so far – fingers crossed that the sun starts shining more regularly because I really want to try this (and I’ve got thoughts on a limoncello ice cream sorbet thing that needs to happen).
Good luck with your renovations – a new kitchen is truly a gorgeous thing!
Limoncello sorbet sounds amazing – would love to give that a go.
What is it about cats that get folks wanting to swing them? The advice on pruning my daughter’s peach tree is ‘branches separated so you can throw a cat through them’ (for better air circulation).
I’ve got dogs, and for the most part they stay on the ground (slight exceptions for cuddling Wee Oliver Picklepants when he’s feeling poorly).
This ice cream looks delicious!
Good luck with your plans, I know the feeling! I live in a shard house and it’s a nightmare running my blog! This ice cream looks delicious, I adore making my own honeycomb!
I wish we lived close to each other and could swap leftovers. I’d gladly help you with any extra ice cream:-)
Ooh, I wish we did too!
Sticky, sweet, cheeky and fun. I need some!
Exciting news about your kitchen! We too have decided to stay put and update the property…lots of dust x
This looks fantastic! And I’m a bit obsessed with honey in my cooking as of late. So, I can’t wait to give this a whirl. Hooray for ice cream season! 🙂
Hooray indeed! Although every season is ice cream season in our household 🙂
My kitchen was tiny as well with no cupboard space, it got a little crazy there for a while trying to run a cake business and blog from there. Now I have renovated one of the spare rooms into “the cake room” so life has become so much easier now.
The ice cream looks delicious – Good luck with the new kitchen!
A ‘cake room’ sounds like a brilliant idea to me!
This looks AMAZING!!!!!! I am also in need of a bigger kitchen, so I can get a freezer big enough to store my ice cream maker!
Thanks-this looks wonderful and I can’t wait to try it.
Sorry to hear about your plans falling through. I’m trying to buy a house at the moment and it’s fallen through twice which is incredibly frustrating and depressing. An ice cream, particularly honeycomb ice cream will definitely cheer me up! Great news about the new kitchen though, can’t wait to hear more about it 🙂
Ice cream makes everything better 🙂
yummmmm this honeycomb ice-cream looks so good.
even though it’s winter, that won’t stop me from craving some cold sweet treats 🙂
thanks for the recipe!
Bec {daisy and the fox}
http://www.daisyandthefox.wordpress.com
Sorry to hear that plans have fallen through, looking on the bright side, you won’t have to live through the trauma of moving ! Your post reminded me of the honeycomb ice cream that i bought the other day from M&S, nothing like the real thing, but hey…I must admit the marginal satisfaction decreased dramatically with each spoon, which I bet wouldn’t happen with yours ! cx
That’s a very good point. Just the trauma of kitchen renovations instead 😉 x
I love honeycomb ice cream, looks delicious!
LOL, i love how you compare the size of your kitchen to the space allowed for swinging a cat. ahahaha!
Bummer about the new place, but renovations are fun, too 🙂 I’m in the midst of thinking of moving, too. I love our neighborhood, but sometimes I feel like we just need a bigger space. It’s harder with little kids….!
This ice cream looks delicious! What a simple twist on vanilla ice cream! Never made honeycomb before but definitely will give it a shot 🙂 Perfect summer treat.
Man, that looks good and just the thing on a sunny day like today. I’ve often wondered what happens to all the food that serious food bloggers/recipe testers make….!
OH MY GOD!!! That ice cream is so unique. It’s certainly not something I’ve ever thought of, but now I need to find honeycomb!!!!! Beautiful
Oh, my! You know that I’m an ice cream lover, and I’m so intrigued by the way the honeycomb candy softens to a brilliant swirl in those scoops. I might just have to make myself a batch of honeycomb sometime soon!
It’s wonderful and all that sugar makes it beautifully scoopable too, such a good find!
Sorry your move fell through but hopefully your renovations will more than make up for it. I love honeycomb ice cream — the first time I made it I used the cream and condensed milk no-churn base which is now a firm favourite — indeed I made another ice cream using the base a few hours ago. It seems naturally soft scoop, perhaps because so much air is whipped in before freezing, and there is a very subtle caramel undertone from the condensed milk too. YUM!
Thanks Kavey. It’s all the sugar in the honeycomb that keeps it so wonderfully soft – the sugars stop the ice cream base freezing as hard 🙂
Why on earth I haven’t yet made homemade honeycomb is beyond me. This sounds sensational Kate!
In terms of honey I prefer the Carpathians Raw Honey , the price reflects the quality of their service.