Gooseberries are my all-time favourite Summer fruit and it is all I can muster to not pick these tangy, hairy berries straight from the bushes in our garden too quickly! At the start of the fruiting season, they are very tart indeed - but as the Summer progresses, they sweeten on the vine to the point where they tastes like sweets (at least to me they do!).
We grow green Invictus gooseberries in our garden but for this recipe, I bought some red Hinomaki gooseberries from my local fruit farm here in Somerset. They are even sweeter, but still have the unmistakable gooseberry tang that makes them so special.
This recipe makes about ½ litre – it is super easy (even if you do not have an ice cream machine) and not too sweet so you still get the true tangy flavour of gooseberries.
I also add some of my homemade elderflower cordial to this ice cream - of course, any shop bought cordial would be just as good.
500g red gooseberries (use green if not available)
50g caster sugar
80ml elderflower cordial
300ml organic double cream
Top and tail the gooseberries and put them in a saucepan with the caster sugar and elderflower cordial. Bring to the boil then simmer gently until the fruit is soft and cooked through (should take about ten minutes).
Transfer the gooseberries to a blender and puree. Pass through a sieve to remove the pips and pour into a bowl. Next, stir in the organic cream and mix well. Be careful – it won’t take much stirring to make it really thick - over do it and it will curdle.
Once you are happy with the consistency, transfer to an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Serve immediately and enjoy!
PS: I get a lot of use out of my ice cream machine – using it for all sorts of sorbets and ice creams so I highly recommend buying one if you can - but if you don’t have a machine you can still make this recipe - it just takes a little longer.
To make by hand, rather than transfering to a machine, transfer the fruit/cream mix into a tub and freeze for 2 hours. Remove from the freezer and mash with a fork to breakup the frosty crystals, then return to the freezer for a further 2 hours. Repeat one last time and return it to the freezer. Your ice cream is then ready when you are!
