It is BAKING today and in homage to the heat, I thought I would have a go at making some ice cream. I have those three tins of condensed milk that a friend gave me, so I thought I might be able to make something nice with one of those. A bit of Googling later, this was the result.

Two different flavours of home made ice cream

I thought I’d use half the tin for each of two different flavours. A bit of rhubarb from the garden and a chocolate one.

They still aren’t fully frozen at lunchtime, but we had a little from the edge of the containers. Oh my goodness, it is so good. Especially the chocolate! I can only have a taste because of the caffeine, but I SO enjoyed that taste.

You don’t need to make an egg custard and you don’t need an ice cream maker. There isn’t a trace of an ice crystal crunch either. If you leave it to get fully frozen, take it out half an hour before you want to eat it and let it soften a little in the fridge first. Or, my husband gives it a little blast in the microwave, because he’s too impatient to wait!

Before you freeze it, have a portion as a mousse, super thick and unctuous

What other flavours of home made ice cream?

This was so successful, lots of other flavours occur.

• I’ve got several packets of cheap dried apricots in the cupboard, make a paste with some of those and that would be fab.
• You could dissolve some coffee powder in the yogurt and make a coffee ice cream. This is the favourite of a friend of mine, and is quite hard to find
• Or how about a few fresh raspberries or strawberries.
• Or some fresh figs if you have a tree.
• Or damson purée from foraged fruit.
• Or blackberry purée from autumn fruits stashed in the freezer. I would sieve out the pips first
• Toast some sweetened breadcrumbs and stir into a mix flavoured with vanilla.
• Make a peach or mandarin purée using the value tinned fruit, drained.
• You could use any of the flavours to make a ripple type one by stirring the flavouring through the condensed milk / yogurt / cream mixture.
• Soak some mixed dried fruit overnight in strong tea or some kind of booze for a tutti frutti.
• Add a little splash of liquer, so a Baileys version, or rum and raisin, or raspberry and whiskey for a Scottish themed flavour.
• A good dollop of black treacle and a big handful of walnuts crunched up into small pieces is a fantastic home made ice cream
• Pomegranate molasses gives a lovely sharp option, i really liked that one
• Stir through some cooked, pureed orange peel for a glorious orange flavour ice cream

Oh and I’m sure there are many other flavours too. I wasn’t sure how much cream I’d need, so I got two 300ml pots, another two flavours won’t be long in coming

If you’ve made some ice cream and used half the tin of condensed milk, Zoe Morrison at Eco Thrifty Living has pulled together 11 different ways to use it up, including this wonderful looking fudge

Home made ice cream without the condensed milk

I had a conversation with a chef and one of the things she said was that she used to make ice cream in the hotel where she worked using just cream and a jar of good strawberry jam.

So I tried a batch with half whipped double cream (300ml) , half full fat Greek yogurt (300ml) and half a jar of some fancy pants marmalade bought at a farmers market and never used. The best before date was 2008!!!!

Usual method, whip the cream, stir in the yogurt, add enough marmalade so that it tastes right. Result was stunningly gorgeous. The sugar from the marmalade was the perfect amount, but if the jam you used wasn’t, just add some granulated sugar until it’s sweet enough.

I had some plum and apple jam in the cupboard from 2013, that was delicious. It was surprisingly sharp and would need a smooth and creamy one to go with it

Using jam along with condensed milk, makes the mix too sweet, so this is perfect to use up jam, lemon curd etc. Well worth trying with the value stuff too to keep the price down