No taste brings to mind an English hedgerow more than sloes, and I am delighted to be finally sharing my recipe for sloe ice cream.  Although it is cold outside, I find it hard to resist ice cream even in winter.  This ice cream was the result of an experiment, brought about by a challenge from Monica to create some non boozy concoctions using sloes.
It is super easy to make, simply make my super easy equal quantities of each of three ingredients sloe syrup, make custard, mix and churn in the ice cream machine.
It is such a pretty colour and delicate flavour – reminiscent of blackcurrant or berries, but with a tannic note and an entirely different note of berry to it. With the addition of the syrup to the custard this is lighter than standard ice cream – more akin to a gelato.
I made a 6 egg yolk custard – it nicely uses up a 300ml pot of double cream – but you can scale this up and down according to how many eggs you wish to use.  I freeze egg whites singly in silicon fairy cake cases – once frozen pack into plastic boxes and defrost for eringue and macarons. If you have a Vitamix you can whizz up the custard in that in a matter of minutes.
Recipe: Sloe Ice Cream - Harvesting the Blackthorn
Ingredients
- 300 ml double cream
- 150 ml milk
- 6 egg yolks (free range please)
- ½ cup / 110g your choice of sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla essence – optional
- 250 -300 ml Sloe Syrup
Instructions
- Place the cream and milk into a pan and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Meanwhile using an electric whisk mix the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until they are pale and the sugar has dissolved.
- Slowly pour the hot cream and milk over the egg and sugar mixture, whisking as you do.
- Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and gently cook, stirring all the time and taking care to scrape the sides and bottom of the pan, until the mixture is glossy and has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Allow to cool, then churn in an ice cream machine with the syrup until thick. Pack into a plastic tub and freeze for a few hours to firm it up.
Many thanks to Monica for sharing her local sloe knowledge with me.
Katie Bryson
Just gorgeous – love the colour and the photo is a stunner :-) I have some sloes in the freezer still waiting to be used, so I really must pull my finger out and have a go at your syrup so I can make this ice cream!
Helen
Make it Katie!
Deena Kakaya
Helen I love the look of it, such a lovely colour. I love the idea of this ice cream and I can not wait to try it. Brilliant.x
Helen
I hope you have some sloes left?
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry
Yumm. I love sloes and pretty much eat the straight off the tree (much to OH’s suprise). Fab to know I can make ice cream with them.
Helen
Straight off the tree? Goodness. So so tannic.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
Fantastic colour – I can’t believe I’ve not tried sloes but I liked the syrup you did with them too.
Helen
You must try sloes Sarah! Sadly it will be next year now!
Jan Bennett
Loving this – the colour is amazing as are the photos.
Helen
Thank you Jan. I love photographing autumn leaves!
Jacqueline Meldrum
Mmmmm, lovely and such a great colour. Nice idea for an ice cream Helen.
Helen
I was delighted with it. Such a good colour!
Kavey
Ooh, make it into ice cream cake or ice cream sandwiches or baked alaska and join #BSFIC! ;-)
Looks marvellous!
Helen
I’ve eaten it all Kavey! I can think of something though!