Homemade Ice Cream and Steamed Sponge Puddings

Two of the things that I cook which seem to excite people the most are also - conveniently - two of the easiest to make.

Proper homemade vanilla ice cream with a custard base is, oh, roughly a billion times better than anything you can buy in a tub, even the really fancy stuff, and you don't need a top-of-the-line ice cream maker to create it.  I use a simple Cuisinart churn, which retails for around $100, and it produces brilliant ice cream.  You can spend several hundred dollars on a more high-tech one, the main advantage of which is that you don't need to freeze the bowl overnight first.  You can even - as shown by Heston Blumenthal on the Martha Stewart Show, and forever burned into my memory as a 'must try' - make voluptuously smooth ice cream using just your regular KitchenAid / standing mixed and a tub of dry ice.  Check it out HERE.

All you need to do is make vanilla custard, chill it in the fridge overnight (pop the churn bowl in the freezer overnight too) then churn it for 20 minutes in the morning, then just pop into the freezer in a container for at least a few hours to finish freezing.  It will happily keep for at least a month, though I can't imagine it lasting that long!

To make enough for around 1.5 litres of ice cream, here is the recipe:

Vanilla Ice Cream

500ml full cream milk

500ml thickened cream

10 egg yolks

250g caster sugar (vanilla-infused if you have it)

2 vanilla beans, split in half lengthways

In your widest, heavy-based saucepan, add the vanilla beans to the cream and milk.  Heat slowly until just about to boil, but not quite.  Leave to sit for about 20 minutes.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy / they form thick ribbons.  In a KitchenAid this is at least a few minutes, I'd say.

Add the cream-and-milk mixture, now cooled a little, to the eggs, beating while you add, and throw out the vanilla beans (scrape the seeds into the mixture first).

Wash and dry the saucepan, then return the mixture to it, and cook over low/medium heat, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes or so, or until slightly thickened (you get better at judging this with practice - you want to be able to run your finger down the back of the wooden spoon and leave a clear stripe).

NOTE - if you are nervous about this part (overcooking can cause it to split, that is, the eggs start to cook and you get little flecks of scrambled egg in the mixture), I recommend filling the kitchen sink with cold water and ice, and if the custard looks like it might split, dunk the saucepan into the sink and beat it like mad.  You can then strain it through a sieve to remove any curdled bits.  Nigella Lawson recommends, just once, cooking custard deliberately to the point of curdling, just so you can see when that happens.  This is actually helpful, if you ever feel like fiddling in the kitchen.

Once the custard is cooked, pour it into a large jug, cover the surface with cling film (to avoid a skin forming) and chill overnight or for several hours in the fridge.

Once chilled, simply churn according to the directions on your ice cream maker (for mine, 20 minutes) and store in the freezer in an air-tight container.

Bowl of chilled vanilla custard:

Here is the churn I use:

After the 20 minutes of churning, the ice cream is sort of semi-set:

And here is the finished product after some time in the freezer:

Vanilla ice cream is the perfect filling for homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches!  Bake a tray of chocolate chip cookies, and serve them straight from the oven, on a plate, with a large bowl of ice cream and several spoons.  Let everyone make their own ice cream sandwiches with the hot, malleable cookies and plenty of ice cream.  It's a surefire way to reduce even the rowdiest table of guests to complete and total silence!  HERE is my favourite recipe for chocolate chip cookies - an absolute winner from the Milk and Cookies Bakery in NYC.

My favourite late-night snack:

Homemade vanilla ice cream is also divine on its own, or served with rich chocolate fudge sauce, or topped with roasted almond praline powder, or with some fresh berries.  Even with some store-bought, rich biscuits, this would be a completely adequate dessert for guests!  But it really goes well with a traditional Steamed Sponge Pudding.  Although this sort of old-fashioned pudding is laughably easy, few people seem to make it anymore.  Such a shame - it's too delicious for words.  I most often make a golden syrup version, which I will describe below, but you can easily make a jam version (substitute the golden syrup and lemon juice with good jam instead) or a chocolate version, or a ginger version.  I will post recipes for the chocolate and ginger versions one day soon.

Steamed Golden Syrup Sponge Pudding
From Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess
Serves 6-8


175g very soft butter
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
zest of an unwaxed lemon, and the juice of half
3 tablespoons or so of milk
250g golden syrup
juice of the other half lemon

Put the butter, flour, sugar, eggs, lemon and milk in a food processor or blender and whiz together until well combined. Add a little more milk if needed - you are after a thick but pourable texture.

Butter a pudding basin (between 1.5 - 2 litre size) and put the golden syrup and other lemon juice into the bottom.

Pour the batter over the top, and seal the basin.


You can use a plastic pudding basin with a lid - too easy - or you can just use a regular ceramic pudding basin and cover it with baking paper and foil, pleated to allow for swelling, and tied firmly with string (you can find more thorough instructions HERE about half way down if you've not steamed a pudding like this before, or a video of the process HERE but really it's very simple).

Once the pudding is ready for steaming, place the basin in a large saucepan, on a trivet, steamer rack or upturned saucer, with enough boiling water to come 2/3 way up the sides.

Put the lid on the saucepan, and gently boil the pudding for around 2 hours, although longer won't hurt it, topping up with boiling water as needed (probably a few times during the cooking).

Remove the basin from the boiling water and leave to rest for a few minutes before turning out onto a dish (with a bit of a rim or lip to it, as there will be some sauce).


NOTE - the pudding can be refrigerated and microwaved happily, by the slice.  So even if there are just two or three of you, go ahead and make it, and enjoy the leftovers the next day!

Here is how the mixture looks before cooking - a fairly thick cake batter, with bits of the syrup and juice spilling up around the edges:

Here is the pudding when it has finished steaming - beautifully risen, fluffy and spongy:

A slice of beautifully light, syrup-sodden steamed pudding with a scoop of ice cream:

Tabitha trying her pudding - 'Do I like this? Hmmm...'

'Why yes, yes I do!'

If you can't even be bothered to make a steamed golden syrup pudding (or want to eat one in less than a few hours!), there is an even easier one HERE.  Still a serving of cakey, warm, syrupy goodness...