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Homemade ice cream (whether it's made with cream or egg yolk and cream) is always a show-piece. A classic egg custard ice cream consists of 500ml milk, 135g sugar, 6-8 egg yolks and 250ml cream churned in an ice cream maker until smooth as silk. Some experts choose to cook the cream with the milk, as a custard, while others prefer the lightness of it whipped and stirred in afterwards. Mixtures made with fresh, raw fruit pureé may be thickened with gelatin. These pureés should be thick and concentrated and keep in mind that fruits containing too much acid may curdle the egg custard. For this reason only the rind of orange and lemon should be used in a citrus ice cream, and fruits such as plums must be cooked before they are pureéd and added to the mixture.

The mixture should be churned until really smooth before frozen, otherwise lumps will form. Traditionally, sorbets and ice creams are made with ice cream machines, but using a food processor (or blender) and freezing the product in airtight plastic storage containers produces just as good results, without the fuss. If your ice cream has a grandular texture, it may be because you used too much water or alcohol or too little sugar and fat. Also bear in mind that taste is blunted by extreme cold, so you'll need to use concentrated flavours as well as plenty of sugar to keep it alive.

A sorbet is easy to make and basically consists of sugar or a sugar syrup (2/3 cup granulated sugar to 1/2 cup water for 1 cup sorbet) and flavouring, mixed then frozen. The general method for making a sorbet involves pureeing fruit pulp and combining it with the simple sugar syrup. This can be any kind of fresh fruit, especially overripe fruit. Try mangoes, strawberries, kiwis, peaches, payapya, pears, plums or sweet melon.

Place about 4 cups ripe fresh fruit, peeled, pitted and coursely chopped, with 1tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice in a food processor and proeces until smooth. Gradually add the sugar syrup and process to blen evenly. Taste for sweetness and if the sorbet needs more syupr pour in littly by little and process again. Transfer to a medium-sized metal bowl or cake pan, cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Allow to partially freeze, about four hours; ice will form around th edge, but the centre will be mushy. IUf the mixture freezes solid, let it partially thaw at room remperature before proceeding. Return the mixture to the food processor and reprocess until completely blended, smooth and fluffy, about one minute. Immediately scrape the mixture into a plastic freezer container with an airtight lid an refreeze for 4- 10 hours. Allow to soften at room tempreature for about 15 minutes before serving.

Remember, as a general rule of thumb, the less syrup used, the icier the texture. Sorbets are best served the day they're made as flavours tend to weaken and the texure becomes grainy after about 24 hours. The taste can be intensified by adding a liqueur or Kirsch, chopped herbs such as mint, or spices such as cinnamon. The texture can be lightened by adding whipped egg whites or broken up Italian merinques, halfway through churning.

Other Terms

Vanilla is in short supply because it's still the world's most popular ice-cream flavour.

Click for some 213 recipes for weird and wonderful ice cream dishes if you can't find what you want to make from our selection below.

10 things to do with ice cream

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Tip of the day

Tips for ices Water ices or ice creams made with fruit will have a longer freezer life if made with cooked fruit, but that wonderful just-picked flavour will be lost. Add lemon juice to fruit purees to set the colour and enhance the flavour. Ice cream can be molded into bombes by layering different flavours. Be sure to freeze each layer before you add the next.