No Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream

It’s not hard to think of a pudding that can be made in advance. But mostly the advantage is simply that all the effort is upfront and early. The thing about this recipe is that you do it in advance — it’s ice cream, so that stands to reason — but what you do in advance is negligible in terms of effort. You don’t make a custard, and you don’t have to keep whipping it out of the deep freeze to beat the crystals. No, you simply squeeze and stir.

On top of that cause for greater contentment, there is also the fact that this delicate pink ice cream tastes like fragrant, sherbety heaven.

2 pomegranates (plus seeds from a third for decoration, optional)
1 lime
175g icing sugar
500ml double cream

1. Juice the pomegranates and the lime and strain the juices into a bowl.

2. Add the icing sugar and whisk to dissolve.

3. Whisk in the double cream and keep whisking until soft peaks form in the pale pink cream.

4. Spoon and smooth the ice cream into the airtight container of your choice and freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

5. Scatter with some pomegranate seeds before you eat it.

Serves 8


Cherry Cheesecake

This recipe has overturned a lifetime’s prejudice — which is good, but unsettling. I had always been a committed believer that the only true cheesecake was the proper, baked cheesecake, but now I’m not so sure. This improper, unbaked cheesecake, feature of many a seventies’ dessert trolley, has entirely won me over. It’s light, it has tang, and it is rapturously good. The fact that it is speedily easy to make is more reason for general hilarity and joy.

Even in the spirit of retro-accuracy, please do not be tempted to open a jar of cherry pie filling over the cake. I use some French cherry concoction that seems to be pretty universally available and has no added sugar, but anything labelled "conserve" as opposed to "jam" should be safe.

And, if you feel like it, when cherries are in season, strew the top with a couple of handfuls of beautiful fruit.

125g digestive biscuits
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
75g soft butter
250ml double cream
300g cream cheese
1 x 284g jar St Dalfour Rhapsodie de
60g icing sugar
Fruit Black Cherry Spread
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until beginning to turn to crumbs, then add the butter and whiz again to make the mixture clump.

2. Press this mixture into a 20cm springform tin; press a little up the sides to form a slight ridge.

3. Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.

4. Lightly whip the double cream, and then fold it into the cream cheese mixture.

5. Spoon the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spatula. Put it in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

6. When you are ready to serve the cheesecake, unmould it and spread the black cherry over the top.

Serves 6-8


Amaretto Syllabub

This is an Anglo-Italian hybrid: the syllabub is entirely English, though the liqueur makes it Italian in the extreme. The crumbled amaretti biscuits give a trifle-like contrast of soaked sponge and soft cream. Utterly delicious, and the work of moments, this is something you can pull out any time you want to end a dinner party with aplomb.

80ml amaretto liqueur
250ml double cream
25g caster sugar
1 x 250g packet amaretti morbidi
1 x 15ml tablespoon lemon juice
(soft almond macaroons)

1. Pour the amaretto liqueur into a bowl with the sugar and lemon juice and whisk to mix.

2. Whisk in the double cream and whip this mixture until thickened but still soft and billowy.

3. Crumble 2 amaretti biscuits into each of 4 glasses (each with a capacity of about 150ml).

4. Divide the syllabub between the glasses, spooning it on top of the crumbled biscuits.

5. Crumble another biscuit or two, and sprinkle this golden rubble over the top of the syllabub in each glass. Serve the remaining amaretti biscuits alongside the syllabub.

Serves 4

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