Late Summer Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

The funny thing about living with five housemates, is that when you boil the kettle to make a cup of tea, and you shout out (politely) to ask who wants a cup, everyone says yes. Three cups Roobios, one with skim milk, one with whole and one without. One Earl Grey – sans milk, and one English Breakfast with Light White. And the kettle only fills four cups. It’s hard! Well it was hard for James, who was making the tea in the first place. But it’s nice, having all these friends around all the time. It's especially nice when you need a few hungry tongues fit for taste testing. 

I brought home a kilo of late-summer strawberries from the King's Cross Organic Market last weekend (which is so close to our house and so cheap that I'm going to be there every Saturday) and pinched my mum's ice cream machine to whip up a batch. I wanted to celebrate the last week of this dismal summer and say cheers to the fruit that have stuck it out, even with the lack of sunny days. 

A million years ago, when we used to picnic at Nielson Park beach on the evening that school broke up, a family that always joined us introduced me to something great to do with strawberries. They packed a little tub of sour cream, and a small box of brown sugar and the berries were dipped in one after the other. I loved the tartness of the sour cream and the caramel in the sugar, and when I was researching strawberry ice cream recipes and came across David Lebovitz's recipe for a sour-cream based mix, I had to try it. The result is a bit like frozen yogurt with a swing of tang which is lovely, really. The berries glow a perfectly clichéd baby girl pink.

Cya summer. Thanks for being completely average this year. I hope to see you next year with your game face on and your sunny socks pulled up high. Leave the rain for Britain to slosh around in.

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 litre

450g hulled strawberries - sliced
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbs vodka
1 cup sour cream
1 cup thickened cream

Make sure your ice cream machine's churning cylinder has been in the freezer overnight.

Mix together the sliced strawberries, sugar and vodka and let macerate in a bowl at room temperature, covered in cling wrap, for around an hour, stirring occasionally. This step allows all the juice to seep out of the fruit, helping with the pink colour.

Pulse the strawberries, sour cream and thickened cream together in a food processor until blended but still a little chunky. Place mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for an hour until completely chilled. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the instructions (which is usually for about 20 minutes).