Ice cream, parfait, sorbet, gelato, granita and sherbet – we love a frozen sweet treat whether it’s creamy, fruity, icy or smooth. Here are some of my favourite ice cream recipes and recipes for other frozen treats.
Ice Cream with Balsamic Vinegar Vinegar on ice cream? Really? Absolutely if it’s the thick black gold of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. Good vanilla ice cream with balsamic vinegar is a life-changing dessert. This sweet/sour elixir made from grape must is aged in a series of barrels of various woods (including cherry, chestnut and […]
Pomegranate Sorbet I love the Italian name for pomegranates – melograno meaning ‘many seeds’ – it’s so appropriate for this jewel-like fruit. I also love this deliciously simple pomegranate sorbetto, with its balanced sweet/sour flavour from the pomegranate juice, lemon and pomegranate molasses. It’s inspired by my friend Giovanni Pilu who also taught me that […]
My favourite dessert at MG Garage – in fact perhaps my favourite dessert of all time – was coffee granita with chocolate mousse. When Janni and I wrote Wild Weed Pie, we did a whole section on granitas saying: “‘squeeze, freeze, scratch and serve’ is almost the only recipe you need for granitas.” They really […]
This is a variation on a sherbet recipe I’ve made with all sorts of different fruits. I like the tang of grapefruit with the sweetness of passionfruit … a combination I came up with to try an unusual syrup. Fassionola is a sugar syrup flavoured with passionfruit and other tropical fruits, it was popular in […]
Deep-Fried Ice Cream Like most Anglo-Celtic Aussies growing up in the 1970s, Chinese was the first foreign food I ever tasted and, at the time, frying ice cream was about as exotic a thing as I could imagine. Thankfully Chinese food in Australia has come a long way since then, but humour me and try […]
I love the way good basic recipes can be rejigged to suit different occasions and Ingredients. I originally made a mango, lime and crème fraîche sorbet (more accurately called a sherbet, see FAQ below for details); then when I needed something to accompany a friend’s chocolate tart, I used the base recipe to create this […]
Mango, Lime & Crème Fraîche Sorbet This super easy mango crème fraîche sorbet is inspired by Katrina Kanetani’s plum sorbet in the cookbook Pier, and you could substitute plum or any other fresh fruit for the mango. The crème fraîche gives it a lovely smooth texture and rich flavour, more like ice cream than sorbet, […]
Ice Cream Christmas Pudding We all love a bit of tradition at Christmas time, but reinterpreting recipes created for a snowy winter wonderland to suit a sunny Aussie Christmas Day is the challenge. Here’s my easy solution, for the pudding course at least. Buy the best quality ice cream you can – or make your […]
Choux pastry seems daunting until you make it and realise just how easy it is. It can be used for a whole range of sweet and savoury recipes, but classic profiteroles with chocolate sauce is my favourite. Profiteroles can be filled with whipped cream or custard … but it’s hard to beat really good vanilla […]
Hot & Cold Cross Buns I created these spiced orange ice cream sandwiches a few years ago for Good Friday, using a cross template cut from cardboard to decorate the top. They’re great anytime though – decorated with other shapes, such as a heart for Valentine’s Day, or left plain. The flavouring for the ice […]
