The recipe box
Recipes
Proper quantities and proper steps, written for an ordinary kitchen. Start with a base recipe, then use it as the launch pad for everything else.
Start here
The three to learn first
One custard base to master, one that needs no machine at all, and one that shows what roasting does for fruit.
Vanilla bean custard base
The egg-yolk base that every other custard flavour is built on. Get this right and the rest is decoration.
No-churn vanilla
The one to make tonight. No machine, no eggs, no cooking, and children can do most of it.
Roasted strawberry
No eggs and no custard to cook. Roasting the fruit first is the whole trick.
The rest of the collection
Everything else
Classics, house specials and the dairy-free pair. Every one is built on a base from the first three.
Double chocolate
Cocoa and real chocolate together, and not an egg yolk in sight. The Double Bass Chocolate from the Flavor Library.
Cold-steeped coffee
Steeped, not brewed. The gentlest way to get real coffee flavour into a custard.
Mint chip, no green dye
Steeped fresh mint and a shower of chocolate flecks. Nothing green about it except the taste.
Salted caramel
A proper dark caramel base with flaky salt. The Salted Caramel Solo, written out.
Brown butter pecan
Browned butter in the base, toasted pecans through it. The Brown Butter Encore.
Blueberry ripple
Blues Berry Jam from the Flavor Library: a thick blueberry ripple through clean vanilla.
Honeycomb
Honey ice cream loaded with shards of crunchy homemade honeycomb. The Honeycomb Hit.
Raspberry and lime sorbet
Dairy-free, four ingredients, and sharp enough to wake the table up after dinner.
Coconut milk chocolate
Vegan, no eggs, no dairy, and every bit as rich as the chocolate one made with cream.
Technique
Guides
The why behind the recipes: working without a machine, why a batch turns icy, what sugar, fat and air are really doing, and when to add the crunchy bits.
How to make ice cream without a machine
Four ways to freeze a batch with no ice cream maker, and which one suits the evening you are having.
Custard or Philadelphia: choosing a base
Eggs or no eggs? What each base does to flavour, texture and how long a batch keeps.
Why ice cream turns icy, and how to stop it
The commonest disappointment in home ice cream, its six causes, and the fix for each.
Got a flavour we have missed?
Tell us what you would like written up and it may well appear here. The Flavor Library holds more ideas than there are recipes, and the Treats page has the sauces to go with them.