The sound of the Ice Cream Van is usually greeted with yelps of delight from children and sometimes moans of annoyance from the parents. When their arrival coincides with meal times we often keep a selection of ice cream from the supermarket in the freezer. Having your own that's home made and often far nicer could reduce the 'pester power' of the ice cream van.

Make Your Own !

It's quick, simple and not at all messy and if you involve the children they'll really enjoy it.

Involving a few low cost ingredients and no more than 10 minutes effort in the kitchen you'll have ice cream after six hours resting in the freezer.

The results are fantastic and you won't believe it until you try it.

Food processor or a mixing bowl with either an electric blender or hand whisk.

Enough food containers with lids to hold the ice cream.

Space in the Freezer!

For the base recipe you don't really need scales or measuring jugs since the ingredients come in small tubs and the mix ratio is 2 to 1 of:

• 2x Whipping Cream
• 1x Condensed Milk

Therefore buy 3 pots of 200ml Whipping Cream and one tin of 300ml Condensed milk to fill up to 6 sandwich sized containers.

All the ingredients and extras are available in our local Smiths SuperValu.

Pour the whipping cream into a bowl / food processor and whisk it until it starts to peak. You could use ready made whipping cream but unless doing the whisking by hand it's not worth the extra cost.

Add the condensed milk and blend it together briefly, stop when it peaks.

Pour into the food containers and place in freezer for 6 hours.

Adding a few drops of food colouring to each batch brings your creation to the next level.

A few drops of flavouring such as Vanilla Essence added to the mix makes a huge difference.

Adding a selection of broken cookies, maltesers, caramel or chocolate bits when you pour the ice cream mix into the containers starts to make things exciting for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Sprinkle coloured candy or grated chocolate on the top before you freeze and it uses far less of the expensive ingredients.

For those wanting a bit of 'zing' you can grate the rind of lemon, lime or orange into the mix before mixing or sprinkle on top before freezing.

Add a shot of spirit and you'll get Gin, Whisky, Baileys or even cocktail flavours. Neat alcohol doesn't freeze so mix it with a splash of water before adding it to the mix.

Remind your guests since they might be driving!

Large sea salt flakes (NOT fine or coarse table salt) sprinkled sparingly on top when serving, you'll discover for yourself what it does to plain or delicate flavours. Try it!

At the dinner table who's to know if you made it at home or from a tub?

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With so many nationalities in our Community there's lots more home style recipes to try.