I have discovered a new and terrifying delicious foodstuff. It is Poison Food* par excellence, temptation in a tin. Nestle now sell caramelised condensed milk, which in turn can be turned into ice cream. I got the recipe out of Caroline and Robin Weir's Definitive Guide to Ice Creams, Sorbets and Gelati, where it is called Dulche de Leche ice cream, and described as a successor to the 1980s dinner party pudding made from boiled condensed milk spread in a pastry case and sprinkled with nuts.
I don't remember eating that in the 1980s, but there again we didn't get asked to many dinner parties. But caramel or butterscotch flavoured ice cream sounded very tempting. Also it is an easy recipe, not requiring you to make any sort of custard, and I was too busy with the garden to want to spend ages in the kitchen. On that basis the maple syrup ice cream requiring you to spread your custard across six separate ramekins and cook them in a bain marie, and the strawberry gelato requiring you to spend half an hour stirring your custard in a double boiler, both sounded more trouble than I wanted to go at that precise moment.
In the old days you had to boil your tin of condensed milk for three hours. If you let the saucepan boil dry during cooking then there was the exciting possibility that the tin might explode. The Weirs suggest boiling two at a time, and saving one for later, once you are going to the trouble of boiling one at all. Boiling things more or less indefinitely is not an issue with the Aga, but buying a tin of ready-made sounded easier. After that it is terribly easy. You dissolve the condensed milk in some more (full fat) milk, and add some more sugar, chill the mixture, add some whipping cream, and freeze it. The condensed milk does not dissolve particularly easily, and I kept finding little globules in the bottom of the saucepan each time I thought it must have amalgamated by now. Cooling took so long I shoved the whole mixture in the fridge and finished the process in the morning. But it was very easy.
I am still thrilled with the ice cream machine. It took me over a year to buy it, as first of all I researched myself to a standstill, and then the cat broke his leg and the money earmarked for the machine went towards the truly enormous vet's bill. Having an ice cream maker with an integral freezer is an extravagance, no doubt of it. Various people have told me how they make wonderful ice cream using machines with those bowls you pre-freeze, or stirring it by hand several times during freezing instead of churning it automatically. I'm sure they do. We all have different extravagances.
A friend recently showed me her new coffee machine, which grinds the beans, makes the coffee, and has a spout for frothing the milk. It was a very clever machine, if you like coffee that much, and would be totally wasted on us as we almost never drink it at home. I will happily drink coffee in a social setting, to prolong a meal, or instead of booze if I'm driving. I enjoy a cappucino and muffin in lieu of lunch as a treat when I'm gallery visiting. But I'm not that fussed about coffee, whereas I adore ice cream. A machine stirring the mixture constantly while it freezes is going to produce a silkier texture than my breaking up the ice crystals a couple of times with a fork during freezing. And I don't want to have to decide to make it twelve hours in advance so that I can put the bowl in to freeze, nor do I want to have to find space in the freezer for the bowl. I watched my friend lovingly wiping her coffee machine, as she explained to me all the pieces you could remove to wash them, and thought I really couldn't be bothered if it was me, I rather have a cup of tea, but I don't grudge the time spent spraying the ice cream machine with Milton steriliser and then wiping it down.
The Dulche de Leche ice cream is utterly delicious, and stays just soft enough to be easy to spoon out of the container even after several hours in the freezer. Next time is the turn of the Systems Administrator, so who knows what flavour we'll have. Last year the SA was heavily into comparative trials of vanillas, and has expressed an interest in fruit sorbet.
*All those highly refined carbohydrate, fat and sugar laden things which you know you shouldn't eat but are awfully nice. Including jam doughnuts, cake especially with a buttercream filling or an inch thick layer of marzipan and icing, white farmhouse bread, and cheese footballs.
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