Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Well, it's summer fruits time! (I appreciate that I'm starting a lot of posts with a comment on the time of year followed by an exclamation mark, sorry...)We've had a glut of strawberries here (though given the definition is 'an excessively abundant supply of something', I suppose I should reword that: because you can't have too many strawberries. We have a lot, I'll just say) so what better way to use them up than in desserts? This is just one way to get through those strawberries... I was determined to find more ice cream recipes that didn't need an ice cream maker, and it seems the magic ingredient is condensed milk. It's so versatile.

Ice cream with a tiny proportion of our strawberry crop

Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 22 

Ingredients  
450g of strawberries (chopped and hulled weight)
1 tbsp of clear runny honey
600ml of double cream (or you could do some cream, some vanilla ice cream like we did: 400ml of    cream and 200 of ice cream)
One 397g can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (or, if you used the ice cream, omit this)

Method

1. Roughly chop your strawberries. Blend to a thick puree and add the honey. Reserve a small bowl of the puree and set aside.
   
   
   
2. Add a 1/4 of the can of condensed milk to the rest and stir.
3. In a seperate, large bowl, whisk the cream/ice cream until it forms soft peaks (not so thick it can't be mixed).
   
4. Stir in the rest of the condensed milk.
   
5. Add the strawberry puree mixture and mix in.
   
6. Pour the ice cream into a large, 2kg loaf tin. 
   
7. Swirl over the reserved puree and mix lightly to form a swirled pattern on top.
   
8. Freeze for at least 12 hours before serving.
   

Even the scoops are pretty! Serve with chopped fresh strawberries.