Strawberry and Rosewater ice cream

Last Christmas my lovely husband gave me the most wonderful present. A new KitchenAid to replace the basic model that I had. With a 6.9 litre bowl, it truly has transformed my cooking, enabling me to produce larger quantities of bread, cakes and all manner of savoury things.

With the KitchenAid came an offer of a free ice-cream attachment. Now I had been looking at this for some time and had always decided that it would be one of those things that would sit in the cupboard gathering dust because, to be honest, I had always made ice-cream using the more labour intensive method of freezing, re-whisking and the associated repeating of the process to avoid a granular finished product.

Well all I can say is that it has transformed my life. Ice-cream has changed from becoming something I would make under sufferance when my husband and family requested, to something that I now whip up without even thinking. The only snag, is that the bowl is too large to live in my freezer on a permanent basis, so I do need to put it in the night before, but apart from that the fact that I can whip up a sweet treat within 30 minutes for soft scoop consistency (a little longer in the freezer for a more firmer set) I can also avoid all the additives that the commercial versions have.

Well as part of my experimentation with new flavours and textures, last weekend I decided to make a strawberry ice-cream, with the additional of rosewater to add a Middle Eastern influence for my brother-in-law who was visiting from Iran. I left some of the strawberries aside to add in at the end, but if you prefer you can blitz the entire lot. I just like the contract of the ice-cream with tiny pieces of what becomes strawberry sorbet. Well the taste testing is complete with wider family and friends involved, so I feel it is only fair to share the results. The quantities below make enough to fill a one litre container.

I might look like I have overdone it with the rosewater, but once frozen the intensity diminishes and you are left with a subtle aftertaste.

I quantity of basic ice-cream custard (see previous post for pannetone ice-cream)
400 gram pack of strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped with 8-10 set aside
4 teaspoons of rosewater

Make the custard in advance, cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool thoroughly.

Puree the strawberries, setting the aside the ones to mix into the ice-cream later. Sieve to get rid of any seeds.

Add the puree to the custard mix, stirring to ensure that both mixtures are combined. Add the rosewater. Place into the ice-cream maker and churn until just reaching the soft scoop stage, then transfer to a container and store until in the freezer until needed. If using the chopped strawberries, chop into small pieces and fold in just before placing in the container. Allow to "ripen" in fridge for 25 minutes before serving.