I’ve you’ve got some strawberries that aren’t as sweet as you would’ve liked, or they are quite unsightly due to the bites taken out of them by slugs, this recipe is for you! This recipe does not require an ice cream maker because it contains a lot of fat and the cream is whipped before freezing. The whipping and fat content ensure that the ice cream keeps a pleasant texture after freezing, rather than form crystals and turn into a hard brick.

When I made this I didn’t actually measure anything and I suggest you go by taste as well.

Take two large handfuls of strawberries – if they’re a little unripe / ugly / soggy / otherwise imperfect, it doesn’t matter.

Wash and clean them and- now there are two options -

Put them in a pan or container, add sugar to taste (mine were quite bland and watery so I added about a cup of sugar)

If you’ve got time on your hands and other things to get on with, just let the strawberries sit mixed with the sugar in the fridge until they’re properly marinated (a few hours). If you’re in a hurry, then cook your sugary strawberries in the pan until they have softened. This should not take very long. Keep the heat fairly low until the strawberries have let out a bit of juice, otherwise you might burn the sugar.When they’re soft, mash them with a fork. or simply cook long enough so they’ve turned to strawberry sauce.

Likewise, if you’ve let the strawberries marinate in the fridge, puree them. If you prefer whole bits in your ice cream, reserve some when they’re still solid enough and chop them up. I personally am not a fan of finding rock hard huge strawberries in my ice cream but you may do who knows!

When the strawberries are done, take some cream (this needs to be double cream, whipping cream, anything that can be whipped fluffy so single cream won’t work for example) and whip it to form soft peaks – Don’t overdo the whipping or you may end up with butter! Carefully fold in your strawberry puree, taste it, add some icing sugar if it’s not quite sweet enough. Put it in a plastic box and freeze until set. I held back some of the strawberry mixture until after I’d put the creamy mixture into the box to make strawberry swirls in it but that’s your own wish.

In a few hours it should be simple yet sinful strawberry ice cream!