Strawberry & Sweet Geranium Ice Cream

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS:

300ml double cream

300ml whole milk

8 sweet geranium leaves

6 egg yolks

175g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

400g fresh strawberries, hulled

1 tablespoon honey

Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD:

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan, and add the sweet geranium leaves to the pan. Place over a medium heat and slowly bring to the boil. Then remove from the heat and allow to cool a little and for the sweet geranium leaves to infuse, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the 5 egg yolks and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk together until light and fluffy.

Remove the milky cream from the heat, discard the sweet geranium leaves and gradually pour the liquid into the egg mixture whisking all of the time, then pour the mixture back into the pan.

Place the pan on a very low heat cook the custard gently stirring constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.

Drizzle the honey and lemon juice over the strawberries and purée the strawberries in a liquidiser, and stir the strawberry mixture into the cooled custard.

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker following manufacturers' instructions. Then tip the ice cream into a plastic freezer-proof container and freeze the ice cream for about 2 -3 hours to firm up. If you don't have an ice cream maker pour into a freezer-safe container. Freeze for an hour. Remove from the freezer and beat with a whisk or a fork to break down the ice crystals. Repeat this hourly freezing and beating process for three or four hours.

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