Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream with Berry-Balsamic Syrup

Once you've tasted home-made strawberry ice cream - made with valsamic vinegar, the best flavour enhancer for strawberries - you'll never go back to store-bought! Select sweet-smelling berries with a few white streaks as possible. As it contains only natural ingredients, this ice cream melts a little faster than commercial ones.

Serves 4-6 Prep time 20 mins + freezing time Cooking time 3 mins

500g ripe strawberries
175g sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
300ml whipping cream, well chilled

1 Rinse strawberries and pat dry. Halve and remove stems and white cores.
2 To make syrup, blend 75g of the strawberries with 80g of the sugar and the water until smooth. Simmer for 2-3 minutes over medium-low heat until syrupy, then cool. Stir in balsamic vinegar.
3 Blend remaining strawberries and sugar with lemon juice until coarsely pureed. Adjust taste with more sugar or lemon juice. Whip cream and fold into strawberry puree in 2 additions.
4 Drizzle syrup over the sides of small, well-chilled glasses, then fill with strawberry mix. Cover with foil and freeze at least 4 hours. When half-chilled, push in an ice-cream stick.


Extracted from HerWorld - June 2006