Pani Anne’s Ice cream

Food and memories wrap themselves around each other in my world, especially at this time of year. One of the things I treasure most about my food journey, is recipes that have been shared with me, that not only become family favourites, but always remind me of the generous soul that shared it with me in the first place…

This Ice cream recipe came from a friend that my mother went to school with, back in Kenya, more than 60 years ago.. They both had their families at the same time, and both ended up here, in NZ in the 1970s, and are now both Grandma’s and still in touch…

Anne’s Coffee Ice cream was the stuff of legends…Still my Mum’s favourite ice cream flavour, and one I will add to the festive menu whenever she’s in town.

This is a no churn ice cream, and so really easy. Over time I’ve come to realise It’s really what posh chefs call a “Semi Fredo”… But we all just know it as “Pani Anne’s Ice cream”. Over the years I’ve put my own spin on it, and after the basic recipe I’ll give you a few of the variations I’ve come up with. But it really is only limited by your imagination! And you can be assured that there will be 4 or 5 versions gracing my dessert table over the coming festive season…..The basic recipe makes about a litre of icecream. I normally double or treble it, depending on how many people I’m expecting.Because the eggs aren’t cooked, it shouldn’t be kept for longer than 10 days inthe freezer…

Basic Ice cream Recipe

2 eggs separated

75gm sugar

1tsp vanilla.. (I’m a bit of a vanilla nut, and use a vanilla bean paste with all the seeds, but a vanilla extract will do just as well.  I wouldn’t recommend “artificial vanilla essence – because it’ll taste metallic)

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Beat the yolks, sugar and vanilla until thick, creamy and pale yellow.  Slowly add the cream and beat it until it resembles thickly whipped cream – don’t take it too far, or you’ll end up with sweet butter. Whip the egg whites until stiff and then using a metal spoon, fold carefully into the yolk mixture.  You want to keep as much air as possible. Put into a container and freeze straightaway.

It freezes quite hard, so take out of the freezer 15-20 mins before serving if you want it a bit softer.

You can either freeze in a box for scooping, or you can use a cake tin or jelly mould to turn out and serve and slice…..

Here’s a few flavours I’ve played around with over the years

Coffee

Heat and 1/4C of the cream in the microwave and dissolve 1-2Tbsp freeze dried coffee in it, leave to cool.  Add the cream when adding to the yolk mixture.  You can make it stronger or weaker to taste – but remember once things are frozen, they lose some of their flavour, so make it stronger than you think it should be.

Pineapple Lump

One of my kid’s favourites.  Freeze ½ a bag of pineapple lumps until really hard and whiz to a crumb like texture. Fold through the ice-cream after the egg whites.  The ice-cream goes pale yellow, with flecks of chocolate through it

Stracciatella

Not quite choc chip, more like choc flaked… Freeze 2 flake bars and roughly crumble through the ice cream after the egg white.

Lemon Meringue

One of my fave summer ice creams. You need ½ a jar of good lemon curd and 50gm (6-8) shop bought meringue nests/swirls. Juice of ½ a lemon. Add the lemon juice and ½ the curd to the yolk/cream mixture.  Crush the meringues, and reserving a hand full, fold the rest into the finished ice-cream.  Once you’ve poured the mixture into your freezing container, ripple the remainder of the curd through the ice-cream and shower the last bits of meringue over the top.

Turkish Delight

I’ve made this with just chopped up bits of Turkish delight stirred through, but found they froze to tooth breaking hardness, so now I make a thick syrup with them by dissolving them in hot water.  Leave to cool.  To the basic recipe add 1/2t of rose water and a drop or two of pink food colouring.  Once in the freezing container ripple through the Turkish delight syrup.

Dulce de Leche

This is really rich and incredibly Nyummy.  In the basic ice-cream recipe, I use ½ white and ½ brown sugar, and add half a jar/can of Dulce de leche to the yolk/cream mixture. This is the caramelized condensed milk that you can buy at most supermarkets. Once you have put the ice-cream into the freezing dish ripple through the rest of the Dulce de leche.

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Hokey Pokey

Make a batch ofyour favourite toffee recipe and set in a thin layer. Once set, break up and whizz about 1/3 of a Cups worth until small pieces, but not a powder – you want some definite toffee lumps in the ice cream. Stir through after the egg white.

Berry Ripple

And lastly, well for now, until I come up with more ideas, a berry ripple.  You can use fresh or frozen berries, use 2C of berries in a saucepan with ¾ C sugar. Heat gently until berries start oozing and the sugar dissolves.  Then boil until slightly thickened, but you want to retain some berry bits.  Cool, and then ripple through the ice-cream in the freezing container… 

My flavours are unashamedly Kiwi in nature, but you could add your countries flavours to your interpretations.. I hope you give it a go..

Enjoy!