You get four kinds of people when it comes to custard. 1) Those with deep pockets and patience who make the real deal from cream and a small fortune in eggs. 2) Those who put in some sort of effort and whip up the powdered version. 3) Those who take the easy way out and buy the ready-made, long-life one. And then you get the fourth kind… 4) Those who not only buy the long-life one, but cut open the container once it’s empty and secretly lick it in the kitchen in the hopes of getting the last little bit. I’m this kind.
My love affair with long-life custard goes way back. As some of you may know by now, darling mum was not the world’s keenest cook. She considered opening a tin of peaches and pouring some long-life custard onto it the height of culinary sophistication. Ten year old me wholeheartedly agreed. So I wasn’t half pleased when Parmalat sent over a carton of their limited edition vanilla and caramel flavoured custard for me to try. Smooth and velvety with loads of vanilla and just a touch of caramel, I liked it – a lot. Of course you don’t visit Melkkos & Merlot to find out how to pour custard onto tinned peaches, so I decided to do something with it.
Many ice cream recipes start with a basic real-egg custard. So I figured why not use the Parmalat instead? I added sweetened whipped cream to it and – for contrasting texture and an extra caramel punch – I folded in some crumbled Nuttikrust biscuits. Scoop this ice cream treat into pretty sugar cones and I guarantee your kids will think you’re a rock star.
All you need is…
1L Parmalat vanilla and caramel-flavoured custard
250ml fresh cream
1 tbs castor sugar
packet of Nuttikrust biscuits (can be replaced with any other crisp caramel biscuit, ginger nuts or chocolate digestives)
Pour the custard into a big bowl and whisk briefly to lighten it. Whip the cream with the castor sugar until firm. Gently fold the whipped cream into the custard. Crumble the cookies (not too finely, you want biggish chunks) and fold into the custard.
Pour ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. If you do not have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a freezer-proof bowl. If you go this route, you will need to stir it a few times while freezing to prevent ice crystals from forming. Give it stir every 20-30 minutes and do this 4-5 times. After that you can pretty much leave it to set. This does freeze very solidly so, depending on ambient temperature, you will need to remove it from the freezer 5-10 minutes before you want to scoop it. To make it even easier to have perfectly formed ice cream balls, simply dip your ice cream scoop into hot water before you scoop.
In the mood to make old-fashioned Ideal Milk ice cream? Get the recipe here!
serves
10
prep
5 min
freeze
4 hrs
In Afrikaans please
Hi Mal, all recipe posts are also available in Afrikaans. There is a link at the bottom of each recipe for the Afrikaans version, simply click on it and you’ll go straight there. :)