Recipes from Scotland

Today I give you two recipes for ice-creams, both rather old-fashioned but both delicious served with strawberries. The first is a brown bread ice-cream recipe, given to me by a great friend, Jean Lindsay. It is by far the best version of this Victorian ice-cream that I have encountered, and it needs no beating as it freezes. The second recipe is for a coffee-flavoured, custard-based ice-cream which does need a machine to churn and freeze it. It is yummy with strawberries, or with a warm butterscotch or dark chocolate sauce. Brown Bread Ice-cream Serves 6 • 3oz/85g wholemeal or granary breadcrumbs • 2oz/55g granulated sugar • 3 tablespoons water • 3/4 pint/425ml double cream, whipped with • 3oz/85g icing sugar, sieved • 1/2 teaspoon best quality vanilla extract Toast the breadcrumbs until they are evenly toasted - I do them in a sauté pan on medium high heat, shaking the pan until they are all toasted. This is a safer method than toasting them under a hot grill - it is too easy to burn the lot. Put the granulated sugar and water into a heavy saucepan over heat, and gently shake the pan until every granule of sugar has dissolved. Only then let the mixture boil fast, for two minutes. Stir the toasted crumbs into the hot syrup and mix until the syrup cools - this will form sugar crystals around the crumbs. Any that form too big a lump can be bashed with the end of a rolling pin once they are completely cold. When the sugar-encrusted crumbs are quite cooled, stir them into the icing sugar-sweetened whipped cream, with the vanilla extract. Pack the mixture into a solid polythene container, and freeze. Remove the container from the freezer and place in the fridge as you start your meal - this will make it easier to scoop from the container into a serving bowl. Serve as an accompaniment to the fresh strawberries. Coffee Ice-Cream Serves 6 • 11/2 pints/850ml double cream • 4oz/110g high roast coffee beans, bashed with the end of a rolling pin in a deep bowl (to prevent them flying all over the kitchen) - just break up the beans, don't pulverise them • 8 egg yolks • 6oz/170g soft brown sugar • a pinch, between thumb and first finger, of powdered cinnamon Put the cream and bashed coffee beans into a saucepan over heat. Let the cream heat until it is steaming, then draw the pan off and cool, allowing the bashed beans to infuse their flavour through the hot cream. In a bowl, beat together the yolks, sugar and pinch of cinnamon. Reheat the cream and coffee and pour this on to the yolk mixture, combining well. Strain this through a sieve back into the saucepan. Over a gentle heat and stirring all the time, cook the cream and yolks until the custard which forms coats the back of your wooden spoon sufficiently thickly that a path can be traced with your finger down the middle of the spoon, leaving a thick coating of custard on either side. This takes time - up to 20 minutes - but it is worth it. Do not be tempted to turn up the heat to speed up the process: the mixture could well curdle. Cool the thickened coffee custard, then freeze/churn in an ice-cream maker. Finally, scrape into a container to continue freezing in the freezer. This ice-cream is smooth and rich with a pale coffee colour and a delicious, light coffee flavour. It makes the perfect accompaniment for sliced strawberries.