10 Ice Cream Recipes for Summer

July is just a couple of sleeps away and with it my birthday, a much needed summer holiday and the promise of sun on my skin. The weather – in London at least – has finally sorted itself out and this weekend just gone was spent flopping around in minimal clothing, barely turning on the oven and indulging in plenty of ice cream.

The simple lemon sorbet from my cookbook (pictured above, photograph by Helen Cathcart) features in Psychologies magazine this week, which got me thinking about all the other lovely ice cream recipes on this blog which deserve another outing. Below are current top 10 ice cream recipes for summer . . . what are you craving this week? Continue reading →

13Apr2015

Chocolate Coconut Sorbet Bars (aka Frozen Bounty Bars)

Back in March we spent a week in St. Lucia. As well as making it a blissful place to flop flat out and drink cocktails, the blazing sunshine gives the island the perfect climate to grow sweet bananas, pineapples, papaya and coconuts. Every day at the beach the same elderly man would walk past touting the ‘best water in the world’, and each time he cracked open a fresh coconut and inserted a straw I felt like we’d escaped into a Bounty advert (minus the dodgy ’80s hair and make up). Continue reading →

28Mar2012

Blood Orange Sgroppino

Beautiful, bright oranges bursting with blood red juice

What’s the first thing you look at when you land on a blog post? Do you start at the beginning, slowly savouring each sentence as the author intended, do you skim read the recipe before deciding whether to bother reading the rest of the article, or you more of a pictures person, enjoying and assessing each image as it unfolds?

When I’m writing a post, I always try to keep all three types of reader (though these are pretty broad categories, I’m sure you could break them down into many more) in mind. Words are what come easily to me, but I also make sure to check my recipes, instructions and ingredient lists carefully, and, although I’m still very much a novice in this department, try to take as pretty and as representative photos of my food as possible. Continue reading →

6Sep2011

Chocolate sorbet & Honey sesame brittle ice cream

Creamy chocolate sorbet & wholesome honey sesame ice cream

For me, cooking for others is all about the joy of shared experience. It’s family sitting round a big kitchen table and breaking bread, friends catching up over long boozy dinners, the look on people’s faces when you emerge from the kitchen – whether carrying an incredible confection or a simple supper – and the satisfaction of introducing your loved ones to favourite recipes or brand new flavours.

Cooking for others can also be tricky; there are different tastes to consider, different appetites to allow for, and in some cases, diet restrictions to bear in mind. Heading round my parents for dinner recently, I knew I wanted to make something using the ice cream maker they’d given me for my birthday, but was confronted by a few constraints. My Dad, as per your (larger than) average middle-aged man, is on a semi-permanent diet to keep his heart in healthy shape, and my Mum doesn’t have a hugely sweet tooth.

Luckily I’ve not yet inherited either of these troublesome traits, but I wanted to create an ice cream (or two) which they would both enjoy. After a few hours trawling through recipe books and tinkering with ingredients, these two flavours are the result. Continue reading →