Love-Struck Pear Ice-Cream

Whether you're after something to be enamoured with yourself, or you want a new dessert recipe to stir loving feelings in the heart of someone special, try our Love-Struck Pear Ice-Cream.

Ingredients

The puree

700g ripe pears thinly sliced
200ml pear juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

The custard base

4 egg yolks
250ml milk
250ml double cream
100g sugar or caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (sliced down the middle)

Method

The ice-cream custard base

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring the pan slowly up to the boil.
2. Put in the vanilla pod into it and leave it for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until thick.
4. Take the vanilla pod out of the milk and scrape out the seeds into the milk.
5. Pour the milk into the egg yolk and sugar mix whilst stirring.
6. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens - BUT DO NOT BOIL OR IT WILL CURDLE.
7. The way to tell when your custard is ready to come off the heat is to dip a spoon in and see whether a film forms over the back.
8. Leave to cool.

The pear puree

1. Place the pears, juice and lemon juice into a solid bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil
2. Allow to cool a little then move the mixture into a food processor and whizz until perfectly smooth before pouring out into a bowl to finish cooling.

Making the ice cream

# Once the custard and the puree are completely cooled, stir the cream and the pear puree into the custard and transfer the whole mixture into a wide bowl.
# Put into your freezer for 30-40 minutes.
# Take the bowl out and check the state of the mixture - it should have started freezing from the outside edges in but not be fully frozen in the centre of the bowl.
# Place the bowl onto a work surface and beat the mixture well, breaking up any ice crystals and making it smooth again.
# Put the bowl back into your freezer and wait another 30-40 minutes.
# Repeat the checking and beating process twice more.
# Finally, put the bowl back into the freezer for the final time and check every 30 minutes or so until your ice cream is frozen and ready to eat.

Time From Cupboard-To-Table

3-4 hours

Notes & Variations

You could just as easily make this a banana experience, or apricot, or even apple (has anyone ever made apple ice cream?).