I spent a most wonderful child-free weekend in town. I don’t go into town very often, let alone for an overnight trip, but this weekend past I made an exception. On the Sunday I was planning on attending a poetry book launch of a friend of mine who blogs over at Nordic Blackbird, and another friend had phoned me up, desperate, earlier in the week: would I bake and decorate her son’s birthday cake please. As she’s a non-baker I happily obliged, now that I’m finished with my Open University studies and have more free time; after all, what are friends for?
So, I went into town on the Saturday afternoon with a wicked chocolate cake ready to be decorated and plans to browse the shops and pick up some canning jars. The glut of gorgeous fresh vegetables in my veg box has inspired me to try my knack at preserving. Jams, chutneys, you name it, I want to give it a go, but I have no proper canning bottles. Alas, neither did any of the shops in town!
I popped into the supermarket looking for pectin and canning jars. Pectin they had; canning jars they didn’t. However, they do have quite an array of budget supermarket own brand bottled goods, such as apple sauce and lemon curd. You can buy lemon curd for 22 pence a jar, and it comes in a 400 ml bottle! Perfect! I picked up half a dozen assorted bottles to wash and sterilize for use in preserve making later in the week.
Late Sunday afternoon when I returned home I opened the fridge to find 600 ml of double cream on its best before date. It was needing eaten up that day or it was going to get poured down the drain. I detest food waste and my first thought was to make and ice a cake, but that would mean the whole cake would need to get eaten that day. No, no that wasn’t going to happen. My hips and thighs were disapproving.
Then I remembered the 22 pence jar of lemon curd I wanted emptied. What about lemon cheesecake ice cream made with sweetened condensed milk? Sorted!
This ice cream is far too nice. It’s rich, so thankfully smaller portions will do, but the combination of sweet condensed milk ice cream with soft ribbons of tart lemon curd and crushed digestive biscuits…. oh my! Be warned, this ice cream is not for those counting their calories. It’s a bit…. indulgent!
- 1 x 397 gram tin sweetened condensed milk
- 200 grams cream cheese, softened
- 600 ml double cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 300 grams lemon curd, whipped until runny
- digestive biscuits, to serve
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 8-10
Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
virginia hernandez says
can you use this method but pour it over a cake in a spring form pan then freeze it. Or better yet ice pop molds for popsicles.
Elizabeth says
Absolutely! I have used this method to make a three tier ice cream cake before. 🙂 I find silcone cake tins work well because it’s easier to remove the ice cream then in one solid piece.
Virginia Hernandez says
Thanks so much. I will definitely try that.
Ursula Hunt says
This looks really delicious, I love lemon flavoured sweets
Natally says
Dusting down my ice cream maker!
Sam Williams says
This sounds delicious!
Choclette says
Indulgent but worth it Elizabeth, it sounds wonderful. And congratulations on finishing your studies, it must be fun to have a bit more time now. Good luck with the results.
When it comes to jam making, do try not to use pectin if you can manage without. It gives the jam a slightly gummy texture and cloudy appearance and is generally frowned upon by the real jam queens. Not that I am by any means an expert.
Elizabeth S says
Thanks Choclette 🙂 The ice cream was far too nice; I ate a bit more than I probably should have! Duly noted: re jam suggestions. I really don’t like the idea of spoiling perfectly good fruit by adding silly quantities of sugar either, so I’m at a loss as to what to do. More investigation/experimentation is needed!
Laura Denman says
Ooo, this looks glorious! And congratulations for finishing your studies =)
Elizabeth S says
Thank you Laura! 🙂
Nazima FranglaisKitchen says
yum! this is a superdelicious idea. Sounds lke you had a busy and productive child free weekend!
Elizabeth S says
Thank you! yes, it was a wonderful weekend 🙂